Tempted by the Billionaire(23)
“I’m not talking about people, in an abstract way. I’m talking about you and me. About us. And the baby isn’t the only reason I want to marry you, Willow.”
She held her breath, while hope, so long forgotten, began to flare inside her. “Oh?”
“No. Of course it isn’t.” He swallowed, feeling an enormous pressure to find the right tone. Not so serious that he’d scare her away. Not so flippant that she’d think he was joking. “We have fun together. We sure as hell have great sex. This makes sense.”
The disappointment that chased hope away was extreme. “I’m sorry,” she said with a heart-wrenching sob. “It’s just not what I want.”
“Damn it, Willow,” he muttered, sinking down to his haunches so that his face was inches from hers. “Stop thinking about yourself and think of our baby.”
Her eyes were charged with the depth of her sentiments. “I am thinking of our baby. I’m not bringing a child up in an unhappy marriage.”
“Why do you think we’d be unhappy?”
Because loving him and not being loved back would make her miserable. And she’d be completely useless at hiding that fact. “I just know I would be.” She closed her eyes, mentally and physically erecting a barrier between them. “Besides, we can raise a baby without being married. We don’t even have to be in the same state.”
“Like hell,” he swore, spinning away from her and crossing the sparsely furnished lounge. He lifted the lid off a crystal decanter and poured a hefty measure of bourbon into a tumbler. He cradled it in his hands without drinking it. “You’re moving here, Willow, and that’s all there is to it.”
She laughed, but she was vibrating with shock. “I beg your pardon?”
“You. You’re moving to New York. I want you here, in my apartment, where I can look after you.”
“But I don’t need to be looked after,” she hissed, her heart racing at the very thought of living under the same roof as him. “And I’m not alone. I’ve got Anna and Isaac.” That wasn’t strictly true. Anna hadn’t spoken to her since discovering for herself the news that Willow was pregnant. And she suspected Isaac would be equally blindsided when he learned who the father was.
“Let me be clear, Willow.” He threw the spirit back in one motion, then slammed the glass onto the table. Willow jumped a little. This Matt was completely foreign to her. He looked powerful, determined, and intimidating. Not by one muscle did he betray any sense of the relaxed, flirtatious man she’d fallen in love with. “You’re moving here, Willow.”
“Or what?” She demanded.
He clenched his lips together and took a deep breath. It was supposed to be calming, but it didn’t work. In that moment, he was as far from calm as he’d ever been. “I don’t want to threaten you. In fact, it’s the last thing I want. But you know me better than just about anyone. You know what I’ve been through. You know what family means to me. I left you to honor the memory of a father I lost ten years ago. What do you think I’d do to protect my child?”
“To protect your child? From me?”
“Damn right. If I have to stop you from being so goddamned selfish, I will.”
Willow stood on legs that were not steady. “How dare you?”
“You don’t want to marry me, so you’re going to deny our child the chance to have me in its life?”
“I didn’t say that,” she mumbled.
“But you’re going to stay on the other side of the country. Ike and Anna will be more involved in this child’s life than I will be, if you have your way.”
“You can move to California,” she pointed out, but her tone was weak.
“And you can move to New York.” He tried to be reasonable, but the importance of what they were discussing made his pulse burn like lava in his body. “I’m not going to be an absent father. I’m not going to see my child for the occasional weekend.”
“Then move to Haymarket Bay.”
His heart turned over at her simple solution, but it wasn’t enough.
“And you’ll marry me if I do?”
“No!” She stormed across the room and scooped up her handbag. “Absolutely not. Marriage is off the table. I wish you’d stop bringing it up.”
He followed her, his gait panther-like as he pursued her towards the door. “Don’t even think about walking out on me.”
“What choice do I have when you’re being so unreasonable?” She demanded fiercely, spinning around to confront him. “A week ago, you left me as though I meant nothing to you, and now you actually expect me to marry you? How desperate do you think I am? Seriously, do you think I have no self-respect?”
“I didn’t know you were pregnant a week ago,” he pointed out with a frustratingly calm sense of logic.
“Exactly! And you left me heart-broken and miserable. You didn’t call. You didn’t email. You disappeared. You don’t care about me at all, Matt, so being married to you would be a kind of torture. Because it would be fake.”
He stared at her as though she’d started speaking Martian.
“And another thing,” she shouted, her tone shrill and uneven now. “Aren’t you still technically married? Don’t you think one pissed off wife is enough for now?”
She saw him blanch as though she’d hit him, and felt a thud of pleasure. It was childish, but hurting him felt good. “I hate you,” she volleyed back to him, for good measure. “And I wish anyone but you was the father of my baby.”
She slammed the door shut behind her and lurched almost drunkenly towards the lifts. His was the only apartment on the level, and the metallic door pinged open almost instantly.
“Willow!” He called, only a step behind her. “Come back here.”
“No,” she snapped belligerently, and tears sprang to her eyes. He watched her go with a sinking feeling that he’d completely messed everything up. As the elevator doors began to slam shut, he snaked his hand between them.
“I left you heartbroken?” He demanded, staring into her dark brown eyes with unmasked curiosity.
Willow’s mouth gaped, and her cheeks burned. She felt exposed, and foolish. “It’s just an expression.”
Matt narrowed his eyes as he studied her intently. “Willow…” He expelled a breath, and ran his hands through his hair. “Why did you come here?”
She frowned. “What?”
“Why did you come here to tell me about the baby?”
Her frown deepened. “As opposed to…”
“As opposed to calling me.”
Willow’s stomach rolled, and she lowered her gaze. Looking at him was impossible. “I thought this kind of news should be delivered in person, that’s all.” That, and she’d had a gut-aching need to see him again.
He nodded. “And how did you expect me to react?”
She closed her eyes for the briefest of moments. “I don’t know. Not with a ridiculous marriage proposal.”
He nodded, and Willow had the sense that he was collating information. That he was building a file on her which would help him to handle her better. But she didn’t want to be handled. She wanted to be loved. By him. Only him.
“Where are you staying?”
“The Four Seasons.”
“Not anymore.” He put a hand in the small of her back, and gently propelled her out of the lift. When her spine stiffened, he tilted her a lopsided smile. “Relax. I have guest rooms.” Once back inside the privacy of his apartment, he unhooked her handbag and let it drop to the floor. “Think of what we’ve shared. Stay with me while we work out what to do.”
It was more than he’d offered a moment ago. Then, it had been marriage or nothing. At least there was a glimmer of hope that he was prepared to be reasonable.
Prepared to be reasonable? What was she, some Victorian pauper, desperate for kindness from the Lord of the Manor? She stared at him with a newfound fierceness. “I will stay here, in a guest room, because it’s in the best interest of our baby to work out a mature way to deal with this. But I want you to understand where I’m at.”
He clamped his mouth shut to resist the urge to smile. “Yes?”
“I have parents who love me. Dear friends who live next door to me. And a great career that gives me all the financial security I need. You cannot blackmail me into moving to New York. You can’t threaten me. If you’re not in the picture, this baby will still have a mom who loves it, and a rich, fulfilling life. I don’t need you, Matt. Don’t mistake the fact that I felt morally obliged to inform you of my pregnancy for anything else.”
Willow had needed to defend herself, but she hadn’t intended to sound so callous. The look of pain on Matt’s face scored deep marks in her heart; marks she knew she could never fully heal over. He covered his feelings quickly, but she’d seen it. She was on the brink of apologising, when he nodded. “I understand. This is no longer about what we shared. It’s just about the best interests of the baby. Let me show you to a guest room.” His voice was cold. Empty. Emotionless. Foreign to her.