‘No, but you wanted me gone—out of sight, out of mind. I saw that in you,’ Lindy condemned quietly. ‘I didn’t feel that I could afford to depend on you.’
Atreus almost groaned aloud. She saw all that was worst in him and concentrated on that. He knew he was not perfect. He knew he was not a saint. But he would never have walked away had he known that she needed him, and he was insulted that she could have thought otherwise. Suddenly he felt confined in the small room. He had a deep craving for the energising light and burn of a hotter sun on his body, for the timeless beat of the Aegean waves on the shore on his private island of Thrazos, where he could be himself.
‘You weren’t fair to me,’ he told her boldly. ‘You didn’t give me a chance.’
‘Well, it doesn’t matter now. Life has moved on for both of us.’ Lindy forced a determined smile onto her strained face. ‘Look, all this has been a shock to you. Why don’t you leave so that you can work out how you feel about the situation? Then we can talk.’
‘Some things I already know. If your baby is mine, I cannot possibly consider marrying another woman.’ Pale and taut beneath his bronzed complexion, Atreus settled glittering dark, steady eyes on Lindy’s startled expression. ‘What sort of a man do you think I am? I could not turn my back on you or my child. In those circumstances both of you would have first claim on my loyalty and support.’
Rocked by his confirmation of the fact that he had been thinking of marrying Krista Perris, Lindy folded her arms in a defensive movement. ‘I don’t want any sort of a claim on you. I don’t want to mess up anyone else’s life—yours or your girlfriend’s.’
His lean strong face had a stern aspect. ‘There’s nothing you can do. Things are already messed up and we can’t change that, but we can do what has to be done for the child’s sake.’
‘My life is fine just the way it is at the minute,’ Lindy protested. ‘I have a business, a healthy income, and somewhere secure to live. I don’t need anything else. I don’t need your loyalty or your support—it’s too late for all that.’
‘It’s not too late for the baby.’
‘You don’t even want the baby!’ Lindy hurled at him in bewilderment. ‘For goodness’ sake, you’ve already admitted that you’re on the brink of asking another woman to marry you!’
Atreus gave her a grim look. ‘But I want my baby to have everything I didn’t have. A normal home, loving parents, a solid knowledge of who he or she is, and security. If I marry another woman the child won’t have those essentials, and I owe my own flesh and blood more than that.’
Oxygen feathered in Lindy’s dry throat as she finally appreciated that he no longer doubted her. ‘So you accept that I’m telling the truth and that this is your baby?’
His rare charismatic smile momentarily lightened the hard set of his wide sensual mouth. ‘When did you ever lie to me?’
It was a small confirmation of the trust they had once shared, and it almost brought tears to her eyes. It was a relief that he did not still doubt her claim that he had fathered her child. She twisted her head away and dropped it to stare at her linked hands. It was news to her that Atreus had not benefited from a secure home with loving parents. He never mentioned his childhood, but she was aware that both his father and mother had been dead for a good number of years.
‘So you really want to play a role in this child’s life?’ Lindy prompted uncertainly.
His lean strong face clenched. ‘I want more than that. But we can discuss that some other time, when you look less tired.’
Lindy did not appreciate his assurance that she looked tired. Unfortunately emotional stress and tension always exhausted her, and although the nausea she had suffered no longer bothered her, she was still waiting to enjoy the reputed ‘glow’ of pregnancy. ‘I don’t want us to be enemies.’
‘You don’t need to worry about that. This pregnancy may be an unforeseen development,’ Atreus drawled softly, ‘but, as you’ll discover, I can roll with the punches.’
‘Not perhaps the most tactful euphemism you could have used to reassure me,’ Lindy quipped wryly, looking up at him and noting how the sunshine gleamed over his black hair, warming his bronzed skin and accentuating the stunning gold of his eyes. For a split second, before she got her control back in place, she craved his touch with every fibre of her being.
‘I’m in shock,’ Atreus confided ruefully. ‘I’ll get over it, though. This baby will change everything.’