The Accidental Countess (The Aristocrat Diaries 3)

He glanced between me and the strip. “You’re going to have to explain this to me.”

“I haven’t taken a pill for five days. Pretty much as soon as I really started to believe I could actually be pregnant. I stopped it just in case, which means there are four days unaccounted for.”

He blinked at me for a moment. “You think you missed four days?”

“Over the wedding,” I replied, my voice soft. “Between that and moving, I guess it slipped my mind and I didn’t notice.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?” I turned around and looked at him. “Matthew, this is my fault.”

“Am I supposed to be angry at you?”

“No, and I know you won’t be, but I just… I was so sure I hadn’t missed one, that’s all.” I looked at the strip that was still lying there on the bed.

He grabbed it and tossed it in the rubbish bin by the door. “Stop staring at it. It’s not going to change what happened. We’d still be here right now.”

“Actually, if I hadn’t missed them…”

“It might still have happened.” He looked at me pointedly. “Not to sound like an inspirational Instagram page that makes you want to stab yourself in the eye, but everything happens for a reason, Eva. Maybe this would always happen. Maybe it was just time for this baby to come and nothing could have stopped that.”

I stared at him for a moment, pouting. “I’m going to throw those words back in your face when the baby is here.”

“I will gladly take it.”

“And I hope it’s a boy so it pees on you every single day.”

“I would be thrilled to be peed on.”

“More words I plan to throw back in your face.”

“By a baby, Evangeline.”

I shuddered. “Shut your dirty mouth. If I’m not in trouble, I don’t want to be called Evangeline.”

He grinned and dropped his towel. “Can I make it up to you?”

I dragged my gaze down his body to his half-hard cock. “No. I’m tired.”

Laughing, he walked over to the chest of drawers and pulled out a pair of boxers. “Do you want some toast?”

I lay back on the bed and looked over at him. “Yes, please. Now we’re getting somewhere.”

“Did you eat dinner?”

“Did I eat dinner? Did I eat dinner, Matthew? Your mother cooked the largest lasagne I have ever seen in my life. Even Christopher took a hunk of it home. There are still leftovers in the fridge. She spent an hour feeding me. I’m a little scared of her.”

“You’re best friends with Nan and scared of Mum. I feel like today is backwards a little bit.”

“You and me both, darling, you and me both,” I grumbled. “But she did register me with her doctor and book my appointment, so I played along.”

He smiled. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

I took the time he was gone to get into some pyjamas and climb under the covers. I didn’t usually advocate eating in bed as I firmly believed that crumbs were from the devil, but I was going to take full advantage of my situation to break that little rule.

“Don’t shout,” Matthew said, poking his head through the door.

I gasped. “We ran out of bread?”

“No. I have your toast.”

“Thank God. What’s the problem, then?”

He swallowed and stepped inside, holding a lap tray with a plate that smelt suspiciously like lasagne.

“No, please,” I whispered. “Not more lasagne.”

He pressed his lips together into a tight smile, but I could see in his eyes that he was trying not to laugh. “She saw me making you toast and insisted on heating some up.”

“I don’t think you understand, Matthew. If I eat that, you’re going to wake up next to a slab of lasagne tomorrow because I’ll have turned into it.”

He chuckled and kicked the door closed behind him. “Don’t worry. I’ll eat it. You have your toast. I haven’t had dinner yet so it works.” He set the tray on the bed. “And I would very much prefer to wake up next to you as you are now instead of a sheet of pasta.”

I grabbed a slice of toast, tore a bite from it, and smiled.

I had to say that I agreed.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

EVA

“How did your appointment go?” Eleanor asked, looking up from the book she was reading when we walked into the kitchen.

“It went really well,” I replied, smiling. “She thinks I’m around six weeks, so she booked us in with the midwife in two weeks’ time for blood tests and stuff like that.” I put my bag on the island and walked to the fridge for some orange juice. “She said I appear to be healthy otherwise.”

She beamed. Literally. Her smile was so bright, it was practically a homing beacon for otherworldly life. “That’s wonderful news.”

Matthew side-eyed me. “You almost fainted when she told you about the blood tests.”

I paused, hugging the carton to my body. “I don’t like needles and I don’t like the sight of my own blood. It was a perfectly rational response.”