The #1 Bestsellers Collection 2011(137)
The door across the room opened.
“You okay?” Connor asked, his lips a grim line, and expectation shining in his eyes she couldn’t quite identify.
The strangled sound that dragged itself from her throat could have passed for a laugh any other day of the week but failed miserably right now. “Okay? No. I’m not okay. I couldn’t be worse.” She couldn’t hold back the bitterness from her words, nor did she want to. She wanted to run from the room, from Connor. From the truth.
Connor’s face hardened, his eyes darkening to blackest granite. “Come through. We need to talk about your care.”
“Care? What’s that got to do with you?”
“Everything,” he challenged, his voice no more than a growl.
Connor held the door open wider, and Holly swept through, driven by helpless anger. How dare he think he could discuss her care with a stranger? She’d had enough of that in her lifetime—of other people making all her decisions. She wasn’t a child any longer, she was an adult. A strong and capable woman, with responsibilities. A woman who didn’t need anyone else.
The doctor sat at her desk, eyeing Holly carefully, as if weighing her words before speaking.
Biting the inside of her lip, Holly sat on the chair Connor indicated, sweeping her legs away to one side when he sat in the seat beside her.
“According to Carmen you need supplements to rebuild your strength, and you need more rest, too. Whatever you’ve been doing to drive yourself to this state, it has to stop.”
“Stop? You can’t dictate to me.”
“Watch me.”
“You have no right. This is my body. My choice. I don’t want to bring another unwanted child into this world.” Holly felt Connor’s body go rigid beside her.
Carmen looked up, a startled look on her face and a hint of censure in her eyes.
His tone was unmistakably feral. “If you think this baby is unwanted, you’re wrong. Completely and utterly wrong.” Connor rose to his feet. “I’m sorry, Carmen, but Holly and I have some matters to discuss—privately.”
“Sure, I understand.” Carmen gave him a worried smile before looking at Holly. “Don’t rush into any decisions. Obviously the news has come as a bit of a shock—for you both. Connor, I think you have all you need from me today.”
“Thanks, Carmen. Yes. I’ll call the specialist in the morning.”
“Specialist? I can’t afford a specialist.” Holly wanted to scream—anything to make them pay attention to her. Didn’t her opinion matter at all? Her entire childhood people had talked around her as if she didn’t exist and, when they couldn’t ignore her, as if she didn’t matter. She’d fought hard for control of her life—she wasn’t about to give that up now.
Connor’s strong hand caught at her elbow, urging her from her seat and propelling her towards the door. In his car, Holly sat glowering mutinously out the front window. Instead of starting up the engine, Connor gripped the leather-wrapped steering wheel and turned to her. But for the whitening of his knuckles she would probably never have realised how angry he was. Now tension undulated from his body in waves.
“I’m going to make this perfectly clear right here and right now. You’re not handling this by yourself, understood?”
Holly faced him, the burning determination in his eyes making her mouth dry and the words she’d been about to utter in denial fade into obscurity.
“Holly?” He ground out her name as if holding himself in check.
She wasn’t going to win this war. Not today. She gave a curt nod. “All right. I understand you.”
“Good.” Without another word, Connor twisted the key in the ignition and fired the BMW to throbbing life.
She didn’t pay a lot of attention to the route he’d chosen to take her back to her house, until she had to flip the sun visor down to block the late-afternoon sun now shining in her face. If they were heading to her place, the sun would be at their backs, not blinding them as it was now.
“This isn’t the way to my place. Why aren’t you taking me home?” She demanded.
“I am.” Connor’s hands tightened on the steering wheel.
“This isn’t the way to my house,” she persisted.
“No.”
“Then where are you taking me?”
“To mine.”
“To the apartment?”
“No, to the island.”
“What?”
“You heard me.” Connor turned the wheel of the car, and they swooped down the ramp leading to the basement car park of the Knight Enterprises Tower.
“Why?”
“Holly, be reasonable. You don’t even have enough food in your house to eat a decent meal, let alone enough money in your account to go out and buy one.”