The Sabbides Secret Baby

‘You can fling out that old accusation of me not wanting a child, Phoebe,’ he murmured against her ear, lightly biting on the small lobe, and he heard the audible intake of her breath as he added, ‘And of wanting you to have a termination. You can keep telling yourself you still believe such a crazy idea, but the only person you are fooling is yourself.’

‘Says you,’ she murmured—but it was a weak defence, and Jed saw the flush of arousal in her cheeks. God! She was so beautiful, so sensual, and so damn stubborn. And he was as hard as a rock and almost groaned.

It irritated the hell out of him that from the moment he saw her he wanted her, with a consuming hunger that defied all logic, and an absence of years had made no difference. It annoyed him too that he who had always prided himself on his ability to control every aspect of his life struggled to control his passion with Phoebe.

Reigning in his raging libido, he eased her slightly away from him before he lost it completely and took her where they stood.

‘I am not arguing with you any more, Phoebe, and nor am I taking you to bed to ease the ache you quite clearly have.’ Dropping his hand from her waist, he moved back and surveyed her from beneath heavy-lidded eyes. ‘I have wasted enough time in the past few weeks tracking you down. I can’t force you to come with me, but I will be back on Tuesday, about noon, to pick you both up, and you will spend at least the rest of the week in Greece.’

‘You expect me to agree just like that?’ Phoebe demanded. He had only to take her in his arms and every sensible thought flew out of her brain, but now, no longer overwhelmed by the warmth of his body, his soft caresses, his comment about wasting time tracking her down had cooled her ardor and she finally found her voice. ‘Well, dream on—because I won’t.’

A slow smile formed on his lips. ‘Stubbornness is an unbecoming trait in a beautiful woman.’ His dark eyes, glittering with blatant sensuality, captured hers. ‘Think it over, hmm?’

‘I don’t need to think,’ she spat, her anger rising to eclipse any vestige of sensual awareness. ‘I don’t want to.’ She saw the narrowing of his eyes and added, ‘Well, not yet.’ Her common sense was telling her she could not afford to antagonise Jed completely. ‘Custody arrangements take time to be arranged legally to suit all parties. You can’t just order people around.’

‘As you please,’ Jed drawled, low and lethal. ‘Then I will see you in court.’

The colour drained from her face. ‘Court? You want to go to court?’

‘As you seem incapable of coming to a private agreement, I don’t see any other solution.’ Her blue eyes widened fearfully as with one finger Jed pushed up her chin, and she stared up at his hard face. ‘The decision is yours. You have a day to decide.’

His dark head dipped, and before she registered what he intended his mouth had covered hers in a hard, possessive kiss that in a second had her lips parting helplessly beneath his. With a will of their own her slender arms slid up around his broad shoulders, her fingers digging into the wool of his sweater, and she swayed into the heat of his great body, the heavy thudding of her heart deafening her to everything but the exquisite taste and touch of Jed.

Suddenly he broke the kiss and, straightening up, took her hands from his shoulders and pushed her gently away from him.

‘I’d better leave now.’

In an oddly tender gesture he lifted a finger and tucked a few stray tendrils of hair behind her ear. For a moment she was completely disorientated, still under the magical spell of his kiss—until her eyes focused on his face and saw the mocking amusement in his smile.

‘Otherwise I might be tempted to stay again.’ His finger fell from her face. ‘You want me—you can’t help yourself, Phoebe—but the next time I ma

ke love to you will be after Ben’s future is successfully decided, not before.’ He turned to go and then glanced back. ‘By the way, I forgot to use protection the other night—so I trust you are better at taking the contraceptive pill than you were in the past.’ His dark eyes met hers ‘It won’t be a problem, I hope?’

‘Of course not,’ she responded, and he simply nodded his head and left.

But his exit line had been a killer…

How long Phoebe stood looking vacantly into space, her heart pounding in her chest, she had no idea. Finally she staggered into the living room and flopped down on the sofa, her mind spinning.

She had not taken the contraceptive pill since she and Jed had split up—but no way was she admitting the fact. Frantically she did the calculations and sighed. It was a week before her period—not too bad.

Plus, last time they had been in Paris and they’d had sex dozens of times. Once on the sofa didn’t pack the same punch. She hit the sofa, as though the furniture was at fault.

If it was anyone’s fault it was Jed’s. He never forgot protection. At the beginning of their affair he had been meticulous in his use of condoms until he was certain the birth control pill had had time to take full effect. In fact she would not put it past the man to have deliberately ‘forgotten’ to use protection the other night.

She was being unrealistic, she knew. If she was pregnant—and it was a huge if—she had no one to blame but herself. As well as history she actually taught the sex education classes at school…how ironic was that?

To be fair to Jed, it was natural for him to expect her to be on the pill, given her age and past experience…Especially as she had told him she saw sex as a pleasure between consenting rather than committed adults now, and had let him believe she was more than a friend to Julian…

Wearily she pulled the band from her hair. She could feel the beginnings of a headache coming on and, closing her eyes, she ran her hands through her hair. Actually, she was pretty near tearing it out in frustration at her own stupidity.

She opened her eyes and rose to her feet. There was no point sitting here fearing the worst. She might as well go to bed…

But would being pregnant be the worst thing in the world? she mused lying in bed half an hour later, praying for the oblivion of sleep. Ben would be delighted to have a brother or sister—being an only child herself, she knew it could be lonely. Under normal circumstances, secure in a loving marriage, she would have liked two or three children. But her circumstances were not normal, and never could be with Jed Sabbides…

Her weakness for Jed’s body did not cloud her mind to the sort of man he really was. He didn’t do love—he had told her so quite emphatically on one unforgettable occasion. He might possibly feel love for a child—she could not deny he was great with Ben—but heaven help any woman he married, because without love she was pretty certain he wouldn’t do fidelity either…

Getting Ben his breakfast the next morning, she mentioned to him the possibility of going to Greece for a holiday some time and he was all for it. But Phoebe was still not convinced, still undecided…