An Innocent, a Seduction, a Secret

‘Happy with yourself, are you?’ Sebastio’s voice was like the lash of a whip it was so cold.

Edie whirled around, her smile fading. She’d never seen Sebastio look so angry. But it was a contained, cold anger. He was holding something in his hand.

The test. With that one word: Embarazada.

It was the Spanish word for pregnant. She’d looked it up before she’d done the test.

‘Sebastio... I just found out... I didn’t have any idea.’

‘You told me that you couldn’t get pregnant. You told me something had happened to you.’

Edie felt sick at the bitterly accusing tone in his voice. She had. And she couldn’t keep the truth from him now.

‘Something did happen to me. I wasn’t lying... The chances were so slim...’ She trailed off. Evidently not slim enough.

Sebastio was shaking his head. ‘I have been such an idiot. Blinded by lust. I should never have believed you. I should have listened to my gut when it told me your act of innocence was just that. But I will admit that faking your virginity was a master move.’

Edie’s mouth opened in shock. ‘I was a virgin.’

But Sebastio was hardly listening to her. ‘The way you stopped and told me... Of course all I could think about was how much I wanted you. And then you came to me, remember? You asked me to make love to you. Begged me.’

Edie’s face flamed with shame. She had asked him. She had gone to him with every atom of her courage and asked him to take her innocence. And now he was twisting it.

‘It wasn’t like that,’ she whispered.

‘We are not staying here. Be ready to leave in half an hour.’

Sebastio had turned and was striding away, back up the path, before Edie could move.

She went after him. ‘Sebastio, wait.’

He stopped. His tall body rigid with rejection. He turned around. ‘Yes? More lies?’

Edie refused to let him intimidate her. ‘What about the baby?’

He flicked a cold glance to her belly and then back up to her face. ‘First of all I will have it confirmed by a doctor that you are in fact pregnant, and then, assuming that it’s mine until such time as we can disprove that, I will make all the necessary arrangements.’

Edie just heard ‘necessary arrangements’ and went icy.

She put a hand on her belly. ‘I am not getting rid of this baby.’

Sebastio’s mouth curled. ‘That is not what I meant. If there is a baby and it is mine, then it will be afforded my full protection.’

If. It.

The words landed like barbs all over Edie’s skin. Sebastio had turned and was walking away again. She was rooted to the spot. A block of ice. He was suggesting it mightn’t even be his. The thought made a semi-hysterical giggle bubble up inside Edie. But she was too shocked to let it out.

She forced her legs to move and followed Sebastio back into the house.

r /> Within the space of an hour, her world had come tumbling down and it was so much worse than she’d thought it might be.

* * *

Sebastio had retreated to a place of icy numb control during the journey back to Buenos Aires. He’d been acutely aware of Edie beside him, but he hadn’t been able to look at her. The sense of betrayal he’d felt when he’d picked up that plastic stick and realised what he was looking at was huge and it still reverberated inside him.

He’d spent his first Christmas in four years with another person. He’d brought her to Argentina. He’d walked out of an important meeting because it had seemed more important to spend time with her. He’d brought her to the island—his sanctuary.

What had she done to him? Who had he become? Not someone he recognised.