Brilliant dark eyes clashed with hers head-on. ‘Not when you’re carrying my baby.’
The speed with which he voiced that direct challenge for supremacy shook Lindy, who had contrived to forget just how interfering and bossy Atreus could be. She breathed in deep to hang onto her temper, telling herself that it was good that he should take an interest in her health. ‘I wouldn’t do anything stupid.’
‘You might. You don’t like accepting help,’ Atreus pointed out with infuriating accuracy. ‘So recruit an assistant and I’ll cover the expense until you’re fully fit again.’
Lindy could not breathe in deeply enough to douse the fire of temper he had ignited inside her. ‘I appreciate your anxiety, but how I live and how I choose to manage my business is my concern.’
‘But you are my concern,’ Atreus purred, like a prowling jungle cat.
‘Since when?’ Lindy challenged.
His dark golden gaze narrowed. ‘Since you conceived. If you had told me the day you found that out, we would still be together.’
Lindy veiled her gaze. ‘So you say—but then we can all be wise after the event. Five months ago you made it very clear than an unplanned pregnancy would destroy our relationship.’
‘After my experiences with women in that field it was second nature for me to talk in that vein. It’s what I do now that it’s happened that speaks best for me,’ Atreus informed her with firm conviction. ‘And I’m here today to ask you to be my wife.’
In the act of pouring lemonade into a glass, Lindy switched her attention to him, her violet-blue eyes wide with disbelief. Frozen as she was by shock, she went on pouring the lemonade until the glass overflowed onto the tray beneath. The deluge only stopped when Atreus strode forward and lifted the jug from her paralysed grasp.
‘I don’t believe you just said that,’ Lindy admitted unevenly.
‘You’re expecting my child. What could be more natural?’
Lindy dealt him a transfixed appraisal. ‘I can’t think of anything more unnatural! We broke up because you spelt out the fact that you would never consider marrying someone like me. What about Krista?’
His strong jaw line hardened. ‘That’s over and done with.’
‘But you were planning to marry her!’ Lindy protested.
‘Was I?’ Atreus treated her to an impassive look that revealed nothing.
‘You took her home to meet your family, which for you was quite a statement,’ Lindy pronounced, her pride still smarting over the reality that even after eighteen months she had never met a single member of the reclusive Dionides family.
Determined to prevent her from muddying the water with pointless references to Krista, Atreus lifted and dropped a wide shoulder. ‘There’s little point in discussing what might have been now.’
Sensitive as she was on the issue of Krista Perris, Lindy turned her head away sharply, as if he had slapped her.
‘I want to talk about us.’
Lindy almost laughed out loud. ‘There is no us. The fact I’m pregnant doesn’t wipe out the last few months, or the reasons we split up.’
Atreus breathed in deep. The silence was laden with tension.
‘And I’m not interested in playing a role in a shotgun marriage. I suppose I should say thank you for asking,’ Lindy replied in a doubtful tone, ‘but you thought I was totally unsuitable as a wife when we broke up, and you weren’t shy about telling me that. I don’t see what’s changed.’
Atreus could no longer restrain his ire. ‘Look in the mirror. Our baby needs both of us—and in my family we get married when a woman is pregnant.’
‘Whatever turns you on.’ Lindy grimaced, and closed both hands round her glass of lemonade. ‘But I’m afraid it’s not something that I could agree to, and I think I’m doing both of us a favour in being the sensible one.’
Atreus regarded her with fulminating eyes. ‘What’s sensible about it? You will be denying my child my name.’
‘That doesn’t have to be an issue. If necessary, names can be changed by deed poll,’ Lindy informed him.
‘Only if we’re married can I be a proper father to our child!’ Atreus lanced back at her, far from mollified by her prosaic assurance that names could be legally changed outside the bonds of matrimony.
‘I think we’re both adult enough to know that that’s not true. I will be happy for you to take an interest in our child, but we don’t need to get our lives tangled up on any other level,’ Lindy stated, tilting her chin. ‘Let’s be honest, Atreus. You moved on from me pretty quickly, and neither one of us wants to go back.’