The Baby Secret

There was a long, long pause, and then Victoria nodded again as she said, 'I think I would be all right in the flat by myself but if you want me to stay here I will. But just until the baby is born, Zac.' She raised violet-blue eyes to his. 'And then it's back to how things were before the accident.'

Over his dead body. Zac held her gaze, his own straight and clear. 'Of course,' he said silkily.

'And I really think we need to get something in writing,' Victoria said uneasily. 'It needn't be heavy, I don't mean that, but it will make things so much simpler in the long run.'

'You think so?' Zac smiled, a crocodile sort of smile. 'Then your experience of lawyers is different to mine,' he said quietly. 'We can come to some sort of understanding ourselves without involving the vultures. I'll agree to an agreement being drawn up by a third party, something detailing the necessary technicalities, but that's all, Tory. I mean it.'

She stared at him uncertainly. She didn't have a clue where he was coming from, she thought anxiously, but she didn't like it anyway. This smacked of an expensive, beautifully packaged gift that when unwrapped revealed an empty box. But she couldn't fight him now; he was altogether too… too Zac.

'And incidentally…' He allowed a tense pause, the black gaze becoming lethal. 'You aren't going to shut me out of my child's life…or yours.'

CHAPTER TEN

The conversation with Zac had opened up a Pandora's box of issues in her life, Victoria found over the next few weeks, and they were ones which she had mentally brushed under the carpet since childhood without ever really being aware of their existence.

She grappled with them one by one, often trying to push them back insi

de that box in her head when it got too darn painful, but the lid was well and truly off and she had to acknowledge this was truth time, crucifying as it was.

William had said much the same thing when—as luck would have it—he had called to see her a couple of days after she was on her feet again. She had left a message explaining her changed circumstances on his answering machine the day after Zac had brought her home, along with her new telephone number and a request that he phone her when he could.

Victoria had been in the bath that morning when the phone had rung first thing, and she had nearly fallen off her seat later at breakfast when Zac had said with elaborate casualness, 'Oh, by the way, Howard phoned earlier to see how you were. He's calling by for a cup of coffee later. I didn't think you'd mind.'

'William's coming here?' Victoria stared at the dark face of her husband in amazement. 'To the house?' she added weakly.

'Is anything wrong with that?' Zac asked smoothly.

'No, no, of course not; it's just that…' Victoria didn't know how to say it. 'You don't mind?' she finished tentatively.

'Should I?' The black glittering eyes were piercingly intent.

'Well, you know what I mean.' She wriggled uncomfortably and then stopped abruptly when she realised what she was doing. 'You had the idea at one time we were more than just friends.'

'Victoria, if I thought there was the slightest possibility of anything like that Howard wouldn't get within a mile of you,' Zac said pleasantly, so pleasantly that the portent of his words didn't register for a few seconds. 'However, I am content that as far as you are concerned, at least, the friendship is a platonic one.' He raised dark, sardonic eyebrows at her confusion.

'And you don't mind that William…?' She suddenly realised she had been about to say something stupid and let her voice trail away, conscious of a deep red colour creeping up her neck and into her face. Why couldn't she think before she spoke?

'Loves you?' Zac finished evenly, always one to call a spade a spade. He settled back in his chair, narrowing his eyes as his gaze washed over her hot face. 'What do you think, Victoria?' he asked softly. 'Do you think I mind?'

'I don't know.' She didn't know how to handle this conversation either, and it annoyed her. It annoyed her very much.

'William is a rare thing in this world of ours,' Zac said thoughtfully, shifting slightly in his seat so that the powerful muscles in his shoulders bunched under the pale ivory shirt he was wearing and caused her breath to catch in her throat. 'He's an honourable man, or perhaps you didn't know that?'

'Of course I knew,' Victoria snapped testily, irked at the insinuation Zac knew William better than she did. 'I'm just surprised you recognised it,' she added waspily.

'I never let prejudice get in the way of discernment,' Zac said evenly. 'You should know that by now.'

'And your discernment picked up William's honourable qualities immediately, I suppose,' Victoria said irritably. She didn't know if she liked Zac allowing William to visit her, which was quite ridiculous, not to mention perverse.

'More or less.' He tilted his head, inspecting her angry face. 'Of course it was better after I'd met him for a drink and we got down to basics,' he added silkily, his eyes watchful.

'You've gone out for a drink with William?' she asked sharply, her blue eyes flashing to his face. Now she didn't like that.

'Uh-huh.' He seemed pleased at her reaction if his lazy—and fascinatingly sexy—smile was anything to go by.

'Why?' she asked brusquely. 'Why on earth would you do that?'

'Because you are my wife, Victoria, and that's my child under your heart.'