God, he’d been a fool. She’d used him two years ago, making him think she was a woman to be trusted. How could he still want a woman like her? Sure, she was very beautiful, even with those small lines of tiredness under her eyes and a weariness to her shoulders that could not be manufactured. But she would milk his sympathy for all its worth.
He was one step ahead of her this time.
He’d been duped once by her charm. He wouldn’t let that happen again.
After Clive delivered the crib and Peggy brought up a tray with a plate of daintily cut sandwiches and a pot of coffee with two cups, Gemma thanked them and settled Nathan down for a nap. In the sitting room and alone at last, she gratefully poured herself a coffee and sat on the couch, not realizing until then how desperate she was to ease the dryness in her mouth. The sandwiches she left untouched. She couldn’t eat a thing right now.
As she wrapped her cold hands around the china cup, it was hard to believe how things had spiraled so out of control within a few hours. God, why had she chosen to get involved with Tate Chandler in the first place? Why couldn’t she have settled for a simple man? Damn him for being a man of substance in more ways than one. Moneyed or poor, he’d fight to have his son. Of course, that left her with no options at all.
Just then, there was a soft rap on the bedroom door. She hurried to answer it, knowing Tate was being quiet for Nathan’s sake. His manner reminded her of how a lover might sneak into her room. But that was crazy thinking. Tate had never snuck into her room or her apartment. He hadn’t needed to.#p#分页标题#e#
Tate’s eyes flickered to his son in the crib then back to her as he stepped inside the door. “Everything okay?”
He meant his son.
“Yes. Coffee?” Not waiting for an answer, she led the way to the sitting room, quietly closing the connecting door. All at once, she was aware of Tate behind her, following her, feeling his eyes on her as he stood and watched her pour.
She handed the cup to him, then gestured to the other chair, giving the impression that this was her territory. At least it made her feel she had the upper hand in here.
That impression didn’t last long.
Not with Tate.
He didn’t sit. He drained the coffee from the small cup, then went to the window and stood looking out, his back totally immovable and unbending. “By the way, you won’t be getting your car.”
She’d been about to put down her cup, but her hand stopped midair. “What do you mean?”
He slowly turned around. “They couldn’t even start it, let alone drive it out of the hospital grounds. I’ve told Clive to get rid of it.”
The coffee cup wobbled and she almost dropped it onto the saucer. “What!” she exclaimed, keeping her voice low so as not to wake her son. “You had no right to do that.”
“You’re not driving my son around in that thing.”
She ignored the fact that he didn’t care that she drove around in it. “My car is only five years old. Admittedly, sometimes it can be temperamental in starting, but apart from that it works fine.” It had been a good buy at a time when she’d needed to be very careful with money. She still needed to be careful with money. “Anyway, I need my car to get to work.”
An arrogant brow lifted. “You work?”
“Yes, that’s how we mere mortals pay our bills,” she snapped sarcastically.
“If you’d told me about Nathan in the first place, you wouldn’t need to worry about the bills.”
“And then I’d have bigger problems, wouldn’t I?”
“You’ve got them now.”
“Damn you, Tate.”
There was a moment of stony silence.
“Why didn’t you tell me about Nathan?” he demanded, his voice tight with strain.
“I had my reasons.”
“You took it upon yourself to keep my son from me. Those reasons had better be bloody good.”
There was no way she’d let him see how heartbroken she still was by everything that had happened between them or he’d use it against her. “You already thought the worst of me. I had nothing else to lose by keeping him to myself.”
His eyes narrowed. “So this is about you not wanting to share him with me?”
It wasn’t that. She would have been glad to share with him, only she wasn’t convinced Tate would want to share with her. “At least I only had to please myself,” she said offhandedly.
His mouth tightened. “He needed both of us, Gemma. He still needs both of us.”
“We did all right without you.”
Anger flashed in his eyes. “Really?”