Page 15 of Hidden Heir, Italian Wife

She poured herself a glass of water, making herself sip while trying to form a rational thought. All she could think about was her complete abandonment with him. She couldn’t let him undermine her willpower like that again.

“Bree.”

She choked and nearly dropped the glass. Water splashed against her sleeve and she had to wipe her chin as she spun around.

A fresh rush of hot-cold attraction-dread washed through her. Her physical response was monumental and her emotions zigzagged all over the map.

I can’t. I want. Look at him. Run.

He raked his attention down her office attire—a simple jacket and wool trousers with a light knit top. The touch of his gaze was as tangible as his hands had been that day, as though he remembered every place he’d touched as vividly as she did.

When he came back to meeting her unblinking stare, there was a fierce light in his eyes. A demand for answers.

“Where’s Eve?” She looked past him, wondering if he could hear her heart since it was pounding hard enough to deafen her.

“Powder room. She told me you have a daughter.”

Oh, God.

She wanted to close her eyes, but she was transfixed like a deer in headlights, watching his eyes narrow. Feeling the truth bearing down on her.

Say something.

Her throat was too tight. She could hardly breathe. All of her went cold. She suspected she was ashen as a ghost.

“Mine?” he asked under his breath.

She couldn’t lie. Her voice was as faint as her vision.

“Yes.”

CHAPTER FOUR

“Why thehelldidn’t you call me?”

Bree’s eyes widened in alarm, making Jax realize his voice had come out like a gunshot. The floor was mostly empty since it was lunch hour, but the silence across the bullpen turned expectant.

A gut-chilling sense of deception and betrayal hit like nausea. He had left his number. He had tried to do the right thing.

She had cut him out anyway. Pushed him out of his daughter’s life.Why?

He had spent the past two hours telling himself he was jumping to asinine conclusions, but now he barely kept control of himself. All he could do was step back and point to the boardroom where he’d first seen her.

Bree swallowed and ducked her head, leading the way.

“Jax.” Nico’s voice resounded with warning from the elevators.

He ignored him and closed the door, pressing his hand on it to ensure no one would interrupt them.

“How?”he demanded.

“The condom broke,” she reminded, body language tense with distress.

“You said you were on the pill. You said you would take the other kind.”

“I did! But I bought a take-away meal on the way to the train station and started throwing up as soon as I was aboard. My friend actually had to take me to the hospital in Zurich because I was so dehydrated. We barely made it to London in time for our flight. By the time I got to Virginia, I was a wreck. I crawled into bed to sleep off the jet lag and didn’t even think about the pills until I came up for air. By then it had been almost a week. I thought I’d wait for my period then restart them but…” She swallowed.

“I left you my number,” he reminded her grimly.

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