She fought against the temptation to put off this awkward conversation for another day. When she was feeling a little stronger. After she had absorbed all the ramifications of her situation for herself and rustled up some kind of plan. At which point she would be able to present him with a fait accompli, all-corners-covered type of situation...
‘There’s something you need to know...and I’m afraid it’s going to put a completely different spin on what we...er...have...’
Sergio stilled. Normally so adept at reading situations, he discovered that his breathing had slowed down and his brain was not operating to its usual heightened state of efficiency.
Something was wrong. What? She still fancied the hell out of him. Even sitting there, barely meeting his eyes and wringing her hands, he could sense the mutual attraction pouring between them like a wave of electricity, undiminished.
Was she about to announce that she had done something at the wedding? While he had been busy discovering all sorts of things about her, thanks to her parents and her sister? She had seemed to know nearly every one of the guests there, including all the young men, who were obviously mutual friends of the bride and her cousins.
Jealousy rammed into him with such force that he drew his breath in sharply. Graphic images of her sneaking off with some guy behind his back competed in his head to make him feel physically sick.
Jealousy? Since when had he ever been jealous when it came to any woman?
‘I’m losing patience with this long-winded non-explanation,’ he said tightly, reining in unfamiliar emotions with difficulty. ‘If you have something to say, then why don’t you stop going round the houses and just say it?’
‘I’m pregnant.’
It was the last thing he had expected to hear and so it took him a few seconds to digest the revelation.
Then he laughed mirthlessly.
‘You have got to be kidding.’
‘Do I look like someone performing a comic routine, Sergio? I’m pregnant. I only found out yesterday. I did the test. In fact I did two tests. There’s no mistake. I’m having a baby. I’m having your baby.’
He vaulted upright, stared at her and raked his fingers through his hair. ‘You can’t be.’
He stood in front of her, feet apart, challenging her to defy that simple statement of truth.
But in his heart he recognised the ring of sincerity and fought against it.
Pregnant? How the hell had that happened? He was going to be a father? Even when he had loosely contemplated the idea of eventually settling down with a suitable woman his thoughts had not stretched into the realms of fatherhood.
His eyes flew to her stomach and just as quickly looked away.
‘Don’t tell me that I can’t be,’ Susie snapped.
She glared at him. Did he think she was lying? No, of course not! He was desperately clinging to denial because the alternative was so hideous that he couldn’t bring himself to give it credence. He was a man who liked to control every aspect of his life, and just like that he’d lost it.
She’d gone into this with her eyes wide open, never realising that she would be playing with fire. This was what it felt like to end up loving someone who didn’t actually love you back. A sick, empty feeling, as if you were spinning in a black abyss, not knowing how to get out.
But there was no point getting all worked up in the face of his reaction.
‘I’ve worked out that it happened that first time,’ she said, gathering herself. ‘Yes, we were careful all the other times—but there you go. I don’t see the point of wasting time trying to blame one another...’
‘Who said that I was apportioning blame?’
‘I wish you’d sit down, Sergio. You’re not making this any easier for me. I...I’m having to take all this in myself...’
‘You knew the entire time we were at the wedding?’
She nodded.
‘And you said nothing to me?’
‘I hardly expected you to turn up unannounced, Sergio! Besides, this isn’t the sort of conversation to be had over some bubbly and canapés.’
‘You were taken aback when I showed up...’
His brain cranked slowly back into gear. He sat down, and hunkered forward, forearms resting lightly on his thighs.