One Night to Risk It All

She looked at him, their eyes clashing. He was so beautiful. A man built to tempt even the most righteous of women. And she’d never been all that righteous. She’d only been pretending.

This man was the father of her baby.

Her stomach lurched, the thought butting up hard against her compromised defenses. Oh, good Lord, the baby...

She shivered, a dry sob in her throat. But still there were no tears.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I don’t know...I...I was thinking about the baby.”

He froze behind her, then his hand drifted from her breast down to her stomach. “How are you feeling about it?”

Scared. “Okay. I mean...it’s a lot to deal with.”

“Naturally. And what are your plans?” he asked. “If you don’t marry me, what do you think we’ll do?”

“I don’t want to talk about this right now.” She felt scrubbed raw, and she didn’t think she could even handle thinking about the pregnancy in terms of it producing an actual baby at the end, much less how Alex and her relationship with him would squeeze in around that.

“Then when, Rachel? You’re pregnant with my child. You continue to end up in my bed. Marriage is—”

“Is that what this is about?”

“What?”

“You...putting the moves on me. Is it just so I’ll agree to this...marriage thing?”

“This marriage thing,” he said, moving away from her and getting off of the bed, “is the best chance our child has at a normal life.”

“Oh! So we’re normal? What in all the world makes you think that?”

“I didn’t say we were, but a normal family structure is the best chance this child has.”

“And you want to prove something to Ajax?”

“This has nothing to do with Ajax! When I went to that wedding, I went for you. You could have been marrying my very best friend and I would have come to take you. Because you’re mine. It’s that simple.”

“I’m yours? Why?”

“Because,” he said, his words tight. “Because you’re having my baby.”

“You didn’t know I was.”

“And because I want you.”

“To be who you want. To do what you want.”

His lips curled. “I asked what you wanted. And you told me. Oh, baby, did you tell me.”

“Shut up, Alex,” she said, turning away from him, those words starting to become familiar.

“Because you still want to pretend that you’re a cyborg?”

“Because I can’t deal with all of this right now!” she said, exploding. “With the baby. And with you...and...and my family... I can’t.” She got out of bed and started hunting for her clothes.