‘A whirlwind romance.’
Inwardly he recoiled, every cell of his body rejecting the idea, but outwardly he barely moved a muscle. ‘Something like that,’ he replied evenly.
‘She used to work for you.’
‘She did.’
‘But she resigned recently.’
‘Yes.’
‘And you’re okay with that?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘Has she got another position lined up?’
Theo felt a flicker of annoyance. He could hear the scepticism in Daniel’s voice and he didn’t like it one little bit. ‘Not yet.’
‘Pre-nup?’
‘No.’
‘Is that wise?’
It was irrelevant. Kate wasn’t after his money. She wasn’t after anything. Which was exactly how he wanted it. ‘It’s no one’s business but mine.’
‘Nevertheless—’
‘Daniel.’
The older man looked at him shrewdly. ‘Interesting. Well. Good. Glad to hear it. Very glad indeed,’ he said, nodding and smiling as if he, Theo, had passed some sort of test. ‘It may sound trite,’ he added with a fond glance in the direction of his wife and sentimentality in his tone, ‘but when you know, you know. I knew the second I laid eyes on Elaine that she was the one for me. We were married within eight weeks and I haven’t regretted it for a second.’
It was a good thing Daniel didn’t appear to expect a response to that because Theo didn’t have one. What he did suddenly have was a churning gut, clammy skin and a thundering pulse, because whatever Daniel might be insinuating, Kate wasn’t the one for him. She couldn’t be. No one ever would be. She was a temporary fiancée, that was all. They barely knew each other. On Monday, with the deal in the bag, they’d go their separate ways. The all-consuming desire and the worrying sense of impending chaos would finally be gone and he couldn’t be more looking forward to it.
‘Have you set a date?’ said Daniel, briefly yanking Theo out of the dark maelstrom of his thoughts.
‘Not yet,’ he said. Not ever.
‘The pregnancy must be an added complication.’
The pregnancy wasn’t anything except a means to an end. ‘In some respects.’
‘You’re a lucky man.’
No, he wasn’t. He wasn’t lucky at all. Nor could he seem to get a grip. Because now not only did he feel as if he were about to pass out, but an image had slammed into his head, the image of a small child with his dark hair and Kate’s blue eyes. No matter how hard he tried to wipe it out, the picture wouldn’t budge, and suddenly his entire body prickled as if being stabbed with a hundred daggers.
Daniel continued to talk, but about what Theo had no idea. His host’s words and his surroundings faded. His vision blurred. All he could see were the images that were whipping around his head, pushing aside everything else, making it pound and his heart race.
Why couldn’t he block them out? he wondered, holding himself still through sheer force of will while inside he felt as if he were falling apart. He’d done so successfully so far. He’d hardly noticed the way Kate kept touching and stroking her abdomen. He’d got more than used to the ring blinking at him and tormenting him by making him wish for things he had no right to wish for and could never have. So what was different about tonight?
The pressure. That was what it had to be. Immense and crushing, it was bearing down on him like a thousand-ton weight and exposing hairline cracks in his armour. This weekend was the most important of his life. He couldn’t afford any mistakes. Nor could he afford weakness. Ever. He had to plaster over those cracks and bury that weakness. Now. For good.
‘Are you all right, Theo?’ he heard Daniel ask as, with superhuman effort, he cleared his head of the images, the sense of suffocation and chaos, and refocused his attention.
‘Couldn’t be better,’ he replied smoothly, savagely dismissing the fear that it was a lie.
‘Then let’s go through to dinner, shall we?’