Claiming His Nine-Month Consequence

“I’m sorry,” he said in a low voice. His hand moved from her cheek to her shoulder. “I know how much you loved her.”

For a moment, Ruby accepted his comfort. Then she pulled away. She couldn’t let him know. Couldn’t let him see how he affected her even now. As their eyes locked in the shadowy kitchen, her heart was pounding. Her body, already flooded with adrenaline and pregnancy hormones, had revved from zero to one hundred faster than his sports car outside.

“It was even harder on Ivy,” she whispered. “She is so young…”

Then she remembered, and her voice choked off.

“Has she been taking good care of you?”

A lump rose in her throat. “Ivy just moved out. She was furious to discover I was pregnant. And even more angry that I didn’t ask you for money when I called.” She gave a bitter laugh. “She said I’d not only stolen her dream, I’d messed it all up.”

Ares looked down at her. “Did you?”

“Did I what?”

“Did you steal her dream?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did you get pregnant on purpose?”

She sucked in her breath. “Of course not!”

Ares’s dark eyes traced her face, then he shook his head. “If it were any other woman, I might wonder. But not you.” His lips lifted cynically on the edges. “You obviously are not thrilled about it.”

Her hands gently covered the soft swell of her belly beneath her pajamas. “I already love this baby. But…”

“But you hate that I’m the father.”

She looked down. “I don’t…hate you…exactly.”

“You don’t?” he said softly.

Ruby lifted her chin. “But I hate your selfishness. Your cold arrogance. I hate that you offered to pay me to abandon my dying mother. So I could travel the world like your sex toy.”

His jaw tightened. “That’s not how I saw it.”

“If you wanted to see me again after our night together, you should have asked me on a date. Not offered to write me a check, then when I was upset, calmly explained that my mother’s death would actually be a good thing.”

“I was trying to comfort you.”

“Comfort!” she gasped.

“Yes,” he said shortly. “My own life was far better after my parents died.”

Ruby’s jaw dropped. She saw from his expression that he was serious. “That’s a horrible thing to say.”

His dark eyes were cold. “It’s a horrible thing to be true.” He came closer in the darkened kitchen, his powerful body encroaching on her personal space. “You will pack your bags.”

“Pack? For where?”

“New York.”

“I’m not going to New York!”

“Since I cannot trust you to take care of yourself, or even to take my money, you will be under my care for the rest of your pregnancy.” He was so close. Her senses were screaming, “Danger” even as her nerve endings hummed with longing and need. He continued flatly, “You have no other choice.”

Ruby stiffened. “You made sure of that, didn’t you? When you quit all my jobs behind my back!”

“For your own good.”

“My good?”

“Why are you fighting me, Ruby?” he said impatiently. “Do you really think it would be better to struggle through your pregnancy in exhaustion and unpaid bills? You think that’s how I want my child to be raised?”

“I’ve seen what happens when a rich man gets bored with his promises,” she whispered. She shook her head. “In a few days or weeks you’ll change your mind and toss me back on the street. I’ll have no money, no job! I’ll be even worse off than I am now!”

His dark eyes glittered. “Do not insult me. I will always provide for you both.”

“I’m not going to New York. You and I barely know each other. And what we do know, we don’t like!”

His cruel, sensual lips curved. Drawing close, until their bodies were an inch apart in the darkened kitchen, he looked down at her. He said softly, “There are a few things we liked well enough.”

A shiver went through her, creating little cascades of need across her body. As his dark eyes held hers, all she could remember was the explosive night that had created a child against all odds. The breathless hush of heat, of naked passion in the flickering light of the fire on that cold winter’s night.