Sizzling Nights with Dr. Off-Limits

* * *

Lucas stared into Emily’s tear-streaked, puffy face.

She’d been pregnant.

His baby had been growing inside her.

He’d told her he didn’t want her to have his baby.

She’d already been pregnant.

Understanding of so much from the past hit him. Understanding of her silent sobs at the funeral.

She’d been pregnant, but there was no baby.

His insides crumbled. “What happened to our baby?”

Emily’s face paled to a ghostly white. Her mouth dropped open, but she didn’t speak. Her face contorted in pain and guilt hit him that he asked, yet he had to know.

“I’m sorry.” He felt as if that was all he said where Emily was concerned. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

He was sorry.

So very sorry.

“I didn’t know you were pregnant, Emily.”

“I know.” Her voice was a broken sob and she reached for the taxi’s door handle, no doubt preparing to jump out the moment the taxi stopped outside her upcoming apartment building.

Lucas reached in his pocket, pulled out a twenty and tossed it up to the driver through the window as he followed Emily out of the car.

She went inside the building and he followed her, unable to leave, but not sure he had any right to be there.

Yes, he did have a right.

She’d been pregnant with his baby. He deserved to know more, to know the details of what had happened to their child.

Without a word, they rode up the elevator together, then she unlocked her apartment door and he followed her inside.

She tossed her over-the-shoulder handbag onto her sofa, then turned to face him. Tears streaked down her face still, gutting him. How many tears had he caused her to shed?

“Tell me what happened.”

She shook her head. “It was a long time ago. I never should have said anything. You don’t need to know.”

For the first time a spark of anger hit him. She’d been pregnant with his baby and hadn’t told him. Now she was telling him he didn’t need to know about their child because it had been a long time ago?

“I’m not leaving until you tell me.” His voice broke as he spoke. How did he convey that he felt grief over the loss of a child he hadn’t even known about until minutes before? That he felt grief that she’d dealt with that loss by herself when he should have been there. “You should have told me years ago.”

“Why?”

“Because I deserved to know.” Had he really? He wasn’t sure. But he should have known. He should have been able to look at her, his wife, and have known his baby was growing inside of her.

“How did it happen?”

Her eyes narrowed defensively. “I didn’t get pregnant on purpose, if that’s what you’re asking. I know that’s what your parents would have thought if they’d known, but we always used protection. Always.”

She’d talked about having a baby so often, hadn’t he worried that was what she’d do? Hadn’t he quit coming home for fear that she’d purposely get pregnant? Instead, she’d already been pregnant and had wanted him to show some sign that he might be happy about the news. He never had, and she hadn’t told him that it was already a done deal.