‘Yes, I do. And this time we’re going into this with clear minds and a finite purpose. And you mistake me by thinking this is something you can argue away.’
‘And you do likewise by thinking this is something you can force on me. My answer is no.’
‘There won’t be any force involved. You’ll stay here, take the night to sleep on it. Come morning, you will give me an answer. And I prefer that answer to be yes.’
‘Or what?’
‘Or nothing. And by nothing I mean we will both walk away empty-handed. You will not be returning to England to get yourself impregnated by some faceless sperm donor. I suggested that your place be given away to another needful applicant as of this morning.’
She gasped. ‘What?’
‘You’re not deaf. On top of that, I have personally put in place a facility for an additional fifty women to receive similar funding. The charity is beyond thrilled. They won’t take your name off the list without your express confirmation, but I dare say you’re no longer at the top of their list. Not once I informed them that you’d be giving the traditional way another try with me.’
The ground shook beneath her feet. ‘You...you can’t do that!’
He nodded to the discarded file. ‘You underestimate how much I want this, Suki. You’re still on the waiting list with the charity, but if you truly wish to get pregnant any time soon, I’m your only option.’
‘That’s...that’s blackmail.’
‘You’ll be good enough not to fling disparaging labels around, cara. What you did was far worse.’
The urge to scream again rose. She barely managed to keep it together to raise her hands in a placatory gesture when she wanted to find the nearest letter opener and stick it in his black heart. ‘Ramon. Please hear me out. What I did...my decision... I didn’t think I had a choice...’ Her voice broke. Swallowing, she shook her head. ‘I didn’t have a choice...’ she repeated.
Ramon’s face paled, his features slackening for a brutal, painful moment, before it clenched back into a tight, furious mask. The eyes that stared back at her were almost black with volcanic rage. ‘You had a choice. Me. But you were too selfish to bring me into the equation. You made the decision on your own.’
‘My God, you accuse me of so many things, but what about you?’
His brows clamped tight. ‘What about me?’
‘You told me you were no longer engaged, and yet weeks later I found out it was a lie!’
His jaw flexed for a second. ‘And that is the reason you called my brother when you should’ve called me? That is why you handed him the responsibility when it should’ve been mine to bear?’
Her breath shuddered out. ‘I didn’t hand anyone the responsibility. I didn’t call Luis. My mother did.’
He stilled, straight eyebrows clenched tighter in a dark frown. ‘Your mother?’
She nodded, her head barely able to perform the movement. ‘She was home from hospital but weak from her chemo. She knew what was going on and she felt bad that she couldn’t help me. I told her I didn’t need help but she...she wouldn’t listen. She thought she was letting me down. She knew Luis and I were close friends but she assumed our relationship had grown into something more. Anyway, she assumed he was the father and called him. Apparently, she had a long go at him for shirking his responsibilities. Luis didn’t say a word to refute the claim. He just...turned up at my house the next day and refused to leave.’
‘And let me guess. That was when you swore him to secrecy to keep me from my own child?’ His voice bled fire and ice.
‘I was going to tell you. I didn’t think you would appreciate hearing it from him. And I thought I had time. But then things just...unravelled.’
He breathed in a harsh breath. ‘You say that and yet you found time to call on Luis a second time to hold your hand through the procedure.’
It staggered her how much detail he knew. And how things looked from his side of the fence. ‘I didn’t ask him to come, Ramon. But he wasn’t prepared to take no for an answer.’
He gave an arid laugh. ‘You found it so easy to give in to him, the same way you found it easy to make up excuses not to contact me.’
‘How dare you—?’
His hand slammed on the desk, making her jump. ‘I dare because I am without my child, and you’re to blame!’
Pain shook her from scalp to toes. ‘You preach
at me from your lofty pedestal about doing the right thing. Did you stop to think that after lying to me about Svetlana that I’d want nothing to do with you? Or are you going to tell me that those pictures in the papers of the two of you taken in the weeks after we were together were your doppelgängers?’
His jaw worked for a long moment before he exhaled. ‘What happened between you and I was a one-night thing. If memory serves it was what you wanted, what we both wanted.’