Caleb nodded. He’d known this didn’t involve him but only a fool wouldn’t ask—and only a fool would be hurt by the vehemence of her answer.
What would she say if he told her that it seemed he did have feelings, after all?
Still, the “no” was what mattered.
And it was what he’d expected.
He’d only made love to her one time—had sex with her one time, he thought, coldly correcting himself. And she’d assured him she was on the pill.
“Then I have only one last thing to tell you.” Caleb paused. “My client will agree not to contact you again.”
She blinked. “But you said—”
“With one proviso. He wants proof of paternity.”
Sage threw up her hands. “Are you as deaf as he is? This baby isn’t David’s.”
“Let’s say it’s for his own peace of mind.”
“Can’t you ever speak the truth, Mr. Wilde? He wants the test because he thinks I’m lying.”
“Either way, take the test and you can put all this behind you.”
“So this—this was all subterfuge.”
“If the child isn’t your dead lover’s, you have nothing to fear.”
Sage took a steadying breath.
“When does he want the test done?”
Caleb took a long white envelope from the inside pocket of his dark gray suit jacket and handed it to her.
“Tomorrow morning. Ten o’clock.”
Her smile was bitter. “Are you always so damned sure life is going to go exactly your way?”
“Always,” he said, but it was a lie. Life had not gone his way at all. If it had, he wouldn’t be filled with anger and hate for a woman he had so recently wanted more than he’d ever wanted a woman in his life.
“What do I have to do?”
“It’s all there. Details of the procedure, the location of the ob-gyn’s office, her credentials. She’s Chief of Obstetrics at Manhattan Hospital. Unless you’d prefer your own doctor …?”
Sage’s “own doctor” was a pleasant nurse-practitioner she’d seen once at a Planned Parenthood clinic. She doubted if they even did paternity tests, plus that word, procedure, had a very clinical ring to it.
“I’ll read through this material. If I find a problem with any of it, I’ll let you know.”
“The lab that will analyze the results has been provided with samples of David Caldwell’s DNA.” Caleb’s lips thinned. “If there are samples from other men you wish to provide …”
Sage pinned Caleb with a look.
“You are,” she said, “the most horrible man I’ve ever had the misfortune to meet.”
At that, she opened the door to the suite and stomped out.
CHAPTER SIX
SAGE spent an hour reading the material Caleb had given her … and the rest of the night trying not to think about what was going to happen in the morning.