Page 35 of The Tycoon's Shock Heir

He sank down into a chair. His hands were in his hair, on his face, He stood up, staggered around. She stood staring at the space he’d been in, her own face a complete mask, showing nothing.

He strode over to her. ‘How can you be? Didn’t we...? Weren’t you...? When did you find out? Oh, God...’

He paced again—to the bathroom. He opened the door and turned on the tap, let cold water gather in his hands and splashed it on his face. He stared at himself in the mirror.

Pregnant? He was going to be a father. No, no, no.

A father? This wasn’t the face of a father!

He wasn’t cut out for that. He wasn’t even cut out for his own path in life—he hadn’t led the bank back to glory yet—never mind starting a family. He could never be a father—not now, like this.

He walked back out. She was still there, standing exactly as he’d left her.

Her shoulders were straight, a delicate blend of bone and muscle and satin skin. Her slim arms were folded at her waist. Her wrists lay crossed over her tiny stomach. Her chin was high and proud. This woman he had spent one single night with was now bound to him for life. The path of his life had just taken another unforeseen fork.

Dear God—what had he done?

He thought of the château, the guests, the Arturos waiting. He thought of his mother’s face, his father’s smile, the mess he’d made of his life, of his one chance to get the bank back to where it should be.

And he thought of this woman—this beautiful creature standing before him, creating a life with him.

What the hell had he been thinking? Why couldn’t he have been more careful?

Augusto. He had to get downstairs, manage this, calm everything down and then salvage the situation. He had to steer the ship away from the rocks.

‘Who have you told?’ he asked. ‘Does anyone else know? I need to know what I’m dealing with here. When will it hit the press?’

He reached for her, felt the perfection of her limbs, the warmth of her skin and the silken twist of her hair against him. But instantly she pulled away.

‘The press?’ she said, her voice strained and shrill. ‘Is that all you can think about?’

‘Of course not. But they’re here. They’ll have a field-day if this gets out.’

‘It’s going to get out sooner or later. And if you don’t stand by your responsibilities—that’s when you’ll need to worry.’

‘I’ll stand by my...responsibilities. There’s absolutely no question of that.’

But he had other responsibilities right now. He had to get back to the Arturos. He had to calm this down, give himself some thinking time and then come back to it.

‘You’re right—you will. I didn’t do this by myself. I need guarantees that you’re not going to disappear and leave me to bring this baby up alone.’

Panic laced her every syllable and as he stared at the fear in her eyes he realised she had been dealing with this for weeks, while he was still running to catch up with the news. But the fact that she’d come here to tell him in person, choosing a moment when she knew he was under the spotlight, worried him. He had to keep this under control or he would lose his mind, and everything else with it, right in front of the world’s press.

‘Hang on. One step at a time. I’m still getting my head around it. I’ve got the deal of the century on hold down there and you think you can drop a bombshell like this and it’s all OK?’

‘OK? I don’t think any of this is OK. I was just getting back to work—this is a complete disaster for me. I can’t train... I can’t perform. I’ll miss the winter season and then what happens after that? What do I do?’

She threw up her hands and looked around wildly.

Matteo spoke again. ‘We need to sit down calmly and talk it through. But there’s plenty of time for that...’

‘I never wanted children. I never even wanted to sleep with you. And now I have to have a child with you. This is the worst possible thing that could have happened to me.’

‘Ruby, I’m sorry,’ he said, choosing his words as carefully as his pounding heart would allow. ‘But that’s not how it was. You absolutely did want to sleep with me. You can’t pull that excuse now and turn this into something that I made you do, as if this is all my fault.’

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