‘I am not marrying you!’ Luccy repeated furiously.
Sin gave a humourless smile. ‘I think you’ll find that’s exactly what you’re going to do.’
‘No—’
‘It isn’t something that’s up for negotiation, Luccy,’ he cut in grimly. ‘Marriage is my price,’ he declared.
‘Are you deaf? I’ve just told you that I don’t want to marry you!’ she all but shrieked in frustration.
He shrugged. ‘Maybe that was something you should have thought about before you became pregnant.’
Luccy gasped. ‘You don’t think I became pregnant on purpose?’
‘I’ll admit it had to have been more luck than judgement.’ Sin shrugged. ‘You just got very lucky.’
He couldn’t seriously believe that Luccy had planned this pregnancy?
But he did. Luccy could see by the utter ruthlessness of his expression that that was exactly what Sin thought.
She was barely used to the idea of being pregnant herself, so to have Sin now accuse her of having planned it that way was incredible!
‘People don’t get married nowadays just because the woman is pregnant!’ she protested.
Sin looked down at her coldly. ‘I do.’
‘So did my sister,’ Luccy reminded him. ‘That’s the reason that eight unhappy years and two children later she’s in the middle of a messy divorce!’
And Luccy didn’t want that for herself or her child. She couldn’t believe that Sin really wanted to be married to a woman he didn’t love, either…
She gave a heavy sigh. ‘Sin, I’m twenty-eight years old, and quite capable of bringing this child up on my own. I certainly don’t intend marrying any man—even a Sinclair!—just because I happen to be expecting his baby.’
‘Luccy, you may as well get used to the idea that there is no question of your bringing this baby up on your own.’
‘Why isn’t there?’
His mouth twisted. ‘I’ve already explained the reasons why. Repeatedly, remember?’ he drawled. ‘There is an alternative, of course. One I’m sure you must have considered…’
Luccy frowned, not knowing what he meant. Then…‘I have not, and I will not, consider having an abortion!’ she told him forcefully.
‘I’m glad to hear it,’ Sin rasped, ‘but that wasn’t the alternative I was referring to. Are you willing to hand the baby over to me after it’s born? In exchange for a cash settlement, of course?’ His top lip curled back with distaste.
Luccy recoiled as if he had struck her, even more taken aback by this suggestion than she had been by his earlier one. Sin wanted to take the baby away from her…? Wanted to give her money in exchange for handing her baby over to him after it was born?
Until that moment Luccy hadn’t been sure herself how she felt about her pregnancy—she had still been in a state of shock from learning she was pregnant at all!
Mostly she had ignored it, deciding it was something she could deal with later, when it became more of a reality.
But Sin’s suggestion that he take the baby from her after it was born suddenly made it very real to her. She was expecting a baby. Her baby. Admittedly it was Sin’s baby too, but even so—!
‘No way,’ she told him fiercely even as her hands moved protectively over her stomach where her baby nestled safe and warm. ‘Absolutely no way!’ She glared at him.
Sin, having half prepared himself to hear Luccy say she would accept his offer, now felt the relief wash over him at the fierceness of her refusal.
Maybe there was hope for the two of them yet…
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘IT’S settled, then.’ Sin nodded decisively. ‘We’re getting married.’
‘The fact that you have made a decision does not make it settled, Sin!’ Luccy told him exasperatedly. ‘You have just insulted me in the worst possible way, seem to think that I deliberately planned this pregnancy for mercenary reasons, and now you calmly assume we’re getting married!’ She gave a determined shake of her head. ‘I don’t think so, Sin.’
He gave a rueful shrug. ‘Do you have any other suggestions—viable ones,’ he added harshly as Luccy would have spoken.
‘My having the baby and continuing to live and work in London is a viable suggestion.’
‘Not to me.’
Luccy felt as if she were going round and round in ever-decreasing circles—with no way out of the labyrinth! ‘People—even pregnant ones—who take a big step like marrying each other should be in love when they do.’