The Secret Baby Bargain

‘I’ve told your family of our plans.’

‘Our plans?’ She sent him an arctic look. ‘Don’t you mean your plans, meticulously engineered so that I have no way of extricating myself?’

‘You know, Ashleigh, I don’t quite see what all this fuss you’re making is about. You were desperate for marriage all those years ago and now I’m offering it you want to throw it back in my face. What is it with you?’

‘You’re not marrying me for the right reasons.’

‘What do you expect me to do?’ he threw back. ‘I come back to Australia to tie up my father’s estate and suddenly find I have a nearly four-year-old son to a woman who is hellbent on marrying a man she doesn’t even feel a gram of attraction for.’

She blew out a breath of outrage, her hands fisting by her sides as she glared at him. ‘What gives you the right to make those sorts of observations? You know nothing of my feelings for Howard.’

‘Are you telling me you’re in love with Howard Caule?’

‘What difference would it make if I told you yes or no? You’re still going to force me to marry you.’

‘If he was truly in love with you he wouldn’t have exchanged you for a houseful of useless antiques,’ he said.

‘He did not exchange me for the stupid consignment! He cares about me so, unlike you, he put his personal feelings aside so I could be free. It’s called self-sacrifice, in case you aren’t familiar with the term.’

Jake gave another one of his snorts of cynicism. ‘It’s called being a prick. If he was man enough he would have been round here by now knocking my teeth out.’

‘But then Howard is not a violent man with no selfcontrol,’ she said with a pointed look.

She saw the flare of anger in his dark eyes and the sudden stiffening of his body.

‘I have never laid a rough hand on you and you damn well know it,’ he ground out.

‘Yet,’ she goaded him recklessly.

His mouth tightened into a harsh line of contempt. ‘I see what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to push me into being the sort of man my father was. But you can’t do it, Ashleigh. I am not going to do it. You can goad me all you like, throw whatever names and insults my way you want, but nothing will make me sink to that level. Nothing.’

‘Er…’ Ellie popped her head around the door, champagne bottle in hand, juggling two glasses in the other. ‘Anyone for a drink?’

Jake gave Ashleigh one last blistering look and, excusing himself, informed Ellie he was going upstairs to put his son to bed.

Ashleigh stood rooted to the spot, her legs refusing to move.

‘Trouble in paradise?’ Ellie came to her, holding out a glass of champagne.

Ashleigh stared at the rising bubbles in the glass she took off her sister and, taking a deep breath, tipped back her head and downed the contents.

‘Way to go, Ash!’ Ellie grinned. ‘God, he’s gorgeous when he’s angry. How in the world do you resist him?’

How indeed? Ashleigh thought. That was the whole damn trouble. She couldn’t resist him. Her pathetic show of lastminute spirit was all an act. She had no intention of refusing to marry him, but her pride insisted she make him think otherwise.

‘I’m going to have a shower,’ she said, handing her sister her empty glass.

‘Will I tell Jake to join you?’ Ellie asked impishly.

‘You can tell him to go to hell,’ she muttered as she pushed past.

‘Isn’t that where you’ve been all these years?’ Ellie said.

Ashleigh didn’t answer. She didn’t need to. Her baby sister knew her far too well.

* * *

Ashleigh took her time showering, trying to prolong the moment when she would join the rest of the family downstairs, champagne glasses in hand, wide smiles of congratulations on their lips.

She decided against dressing for the occasion and slipped into a pink sundress she’d had for years, not even caring that it was too tight around her bust. She dragged a brush through her still wet hair and, ignoring her make-up kit and perfume, left her room.

She was just about to go in and kiss Lachlan goodnight when she heard the murmur of voices in his room, Lachlan’s higher pitched childish insertions once or twice, and the deep burr of Jake’s as he finished the story he was reading. She stopped outside the open door, despising herself for eavesdropping but unable to stop herself.

‘I love stories about dogs,’ Lachlan was saying. ‘I’ve always wanted a puppy but Granny has al…al…’

‘Allergies?’ Jake offered helpfully.

‘Yes, I think that’s what it’s called. She sneezes all the time and has to have a puffer thing.’