Lynne Graham's Brides of L'Amour Bundle

‘What did you expect? Approval? I refuse to believe that this pregnancy is an accidental development.’ Scornful golden eyes settled on her. ‘After all, conceiving my child ensures that you will live in luxury for the rest of your life.’

‘You’re not being fair to me. If you don’t have any faith at all in me, how can I ever hope to prove that you’ve got me wrong?’ Hilary slung at him in growing distress.

‘But I haven’t got you wrong—’

‘Only today you were telling me that you accepted that I was never a gold-digger—’

‘Before the latest revelation persuaded me otherwise—’

‘How could I possibly have known that I would fall pregnant after one week with you?’ she argued passionately. ‘This is not how I would have chosen to have my first child. Why would I want to curse my baby with a reluctant father who hates me?’

‘I’m not reluctant and I don’t hate you—’

Hilary threw up her hands in frustration. ‘All your anger stems back to the fact that when you had amnesia I kept you in the dark about our marriage—’

‘You lied to me over and over again—’

‘I didn’t think I was doing any harm…so I got a bit carried away, so I was living my dream—’

‘Now you’re finally telling me the truth,’ Roel sliced in with derisive satisfaction. ‘You were so seduced by my lifestyle you didn’t care how low you had to sink to enjoy the benefits—’

Hilary vented a bitter little laugh. ‘For your information my dream was a fairytale marriage with a guy who treated me like an equal…yeah, how pathetic of me to put you into a scenario like that! The guy who wouldn’t even give me a date when I was begging for it! But then it was my fantasy and not yours, so I—’

‘Santo cielo! You made me live your stupid fantasy,’ Roel grated with raw accusation.

Hilary lifted her head high and her eyes shone bright as jewels. ‘Oddly enough, you seemed perfectly happy living in my fantasy…’

Roel went as rigid as if she had hit him. She paled, defiance leaking from her. The silence simmered like poison on the boil. Black fury glittered in his ferocious gaze.

‘Let’s concentrate on the baby,’ Roel said glacially.

With difficulty Hilary focused her weary mind back to the all-important task of dissuading Roel from his conviction that she had set out to become pregnant. ‘Please listen to me. When I slept with you, I didn’t consider consequences. I’ve never had to worry about birth control before. I was heedless and foolish but nothing worse.’ She sent him a look of appeal. ‘You didn’t think either.’

His lean, strong face clenched in disagreement. ‘That first night, I checked the cabinet by the bed for condoms,’ he revealed drily. ‘I have always visited my lovers in their homes to retain my privacy. But you were my wife. Understandably the absence of contraception in my bedroom encouraged me to assume that you were taking care of that requirement.’

‘The idea of precautions didn’t cross your mind after that?’

Roel elevated a sardonic ebony brow. ‘Contraception was scarcely in the forefront of my concerns. I had amnesia and a wife who was a total stranger.’

‘As I recall…you found that angle more of a turn-on than a problem,’ Hilary dared to remind him, desperate to break through his polished shield of self-command and penetrate his reserve.

‘I chose to trust you. That was a mistake and, like all my mistakes, I expect to pay for it,’ Roel spelt out with brutal cool. ‘But you have to live with me knowing you for exactly what you are. A little schemer who got into my bed to turn a substantial profit!’

‘If you don’t get out…’ Hilary framed unsteadily, rage and self-loathing and pain combining into a combustible flame of wretchedness inside her, ‘I’m going to scream at you like a fishwife and physically attack you!’

Treating her to a sizzling appraisal, Roel scooped her up into his arms before she could even guess his intention. ‘Stop dramatising yourself—’

‘Put me down!’ she launched at him furiously.

‘No. It’s late. You look exhausted and you should be asleep—’

‘I’ll go to bed when I—’

‘Why do you think I came back tonight?’ Roel demanded with an icy clarity that made her stop struggling and go limp in his arms.

‘I don’t know…’

‘You’re my wife and you’re carrying my child. I hope that, no matter how angry I am, I know better than to risk your health.’