“We are taking a private plane. All the better for us to discuss our issues.”
“Why do I feel like I’m in the presence of the big bad wolf?”
“Because of my big...teeth?”
She made a face. “Maybe it’s your ego, did you ever think of that?”
“It could be that,” he said, obviously completely unbothered by her insults.
“I don’t like you,” she said. For some reason, with him, the honesty flowed.
“I know, but you still want me, and that really bothers you.”
Her hackles rose, because, dammit, it was true. “Not half as much as having your baby bothers me.”
“Then why are you coming with me?”
She shook her head and stopped walking. “Because...because as angry as I am at you, this isn’t all your fault. Not really. I blew up my future. I put a bomb in the middle of it and now it’s so wrecked there’s no putting it back together. If I stay, I expose my family to more scandal than if I go quietly.”
“And how it affects your family is what really matters to you?”
“It matters. My mother was the most lovely, gracious woman around. No one ever found fault with her. My father is so...decent and my sister gets hell from the press for no reason other than they wanted a punching bag and they picked her. I can’t make things worse for them.”
“What about you?”
“Fine. Me, too. I don’t want cameras in my face, and lots of questions asked. And...Alex, you’re the father of this baby, whether I like you or not. And I feel like you deserve a chance. Not marriage, mind you, but a chance.”
“So what is it you want?” he asked.
“To know you, would be a good start.”
“I take it you don’t mean in the biblical sense.”
“I already do, and it got me nowhere but pregnant and out of a wedding, so let’s just hope that the other kind of getting to know you goes better.”
“If you expect me to sit around and talk about my feelings, you’re out of luck. If, however you would like to get to know me more closely in the biblical sense...”
“I’m thinking of two words here, Alex, and they are brought to you by the letters F and U.”
“I had the impression you were a docile little thing, based on media reports. And also that you weren’t very smart.”
Heat streaked across her cheekbones. “I suppose you did, but then that’s the way the media likes to show me, I guess.” Partly by her design. “Simple and accommodating.”
“And you aren’t.”
“Not on the inside,” she muttered.
But she’d learned to be. After all the parties had started catching up with her. After Colin and his sleazy seduction that had concluded with her agreeing to some drunken, pornographic photos and a brief video.
One she’d had to confess the existence of to her father. If there was anything more horrifying on the face of the planet she couldn’t think of it. Hard evidence of just how stupid she was being. And as her father had pointed out, she was lucky that the worst of it was the photos. Going off alone, drunk with a man who was essentially a stranger could have ended much worse.