The Venetian One-Night Baby Page 5

  Holly came in behind her and handed her some paper towels from the dispenser on the wall. ‘Is that a dodgy curry or too much champagne?’

  Sabrina looked up from the toilet bowl. ‘Ack. Don’t mention food.’

  Holly bent down beside her and placed a hand on Sabrina’s shoulder. ‘How long have you been feeling unwell?’

  ‘Just today...’ Sabrina swallowed against another tide of excessive saliva. ‘I must have a stomach bug...or something...’

  ‘Would the “or something” have anything to do with your weekend in Venice with Max, which you, obstinately and totally out of character, refuse to discuss?’

  Sabrina’s scalp prickled like army ants on a military parade. Max had used a condom. He’d used three over the course of the night. She was taking the lowest dose of the Pill to regulate her cycle because the others she’d tried had messed with her mood. ‘I can’t possibly be pregnant...’

  Holly helped her to her feet. ‘Are you saying you didn’t sleep with him?’

  Sabrina pulled her hair back from her face and sighed. ‘Okay, so I did sleep with him. But you have to promise you won’t tell anyone. Not even Zack.’

  ‘Honey, I can trust Zack to keep it quiet.’ Holly stroked Sabrina’s arm. ‘Did Max use a condom?’

  Sabrina nodded. ‘Three.’

  Holly’s eyes bulged. ‘At a time?’

  ‘No, we made love three times.’ She closed the toilet seat and pressed the flush button. ‘We made a promise not to talk about it. To anyone. Ever.’

  ‘But why?’

  Sabrina turned to wash her hands and face at the basin. ‘We both agreed it was the best thing considering how our families go on and on about us getting together. We had a one-night stand to get it out of our system. End of story. Neither of us wants be involved with the other.’

  ‘Or so you say.’ Holly’s tone was so sceptical she could have moonlighted as a detective.

  Sabrina made a business of drying her face and hands. ‘It’s true. We would be hopeless as a couple. We fight all the time.’

  Holly leaned against the door jamb, arms folded. ‘Clearly not all the time if you had sex three times. Unless it was combative sex?’

  Sabrina glanced at her friend in the reflection of the mirror. ‘No...it wasn’t combative sex. It was...amazing sex.’ She had to stop speaking as the tiny frisson of remembered delight trickled over her flesh.

  ‘Have you seen Max since that weekend?’

  ‘No. We agreed to keep our distance as if nothing happened.’ Sabrina sighed. ‘He even checked out early from the hotel after our night together. He wasn’t there when I woke up. He sent me a text from the airport to say he’d covered the bill for the suite and that’s the last time I heard from him.’ It had hurt to find the suite empty the next morning. Hurt badly. So much for her following the Fling Handbook guidelines. She’d foolishly expected a good morning kiss or two...or more.

  ‘If you’re not suffering from a stomach bug, then you’ll have to see him sooner or later,’ Holly said.

  Sabrina put her hand on her abdomen, her heart beginning to pound with an echo of dread. She couldn’t possibly be pregnant... Could she? What on earth would she say to Max? Max, who had already made it known he didn’t want children. How could she announce he was the father of her child?

  But wait, women had pregnancy scares all the time. Her cycle was crazy in any case. She had always planned to have kids, but not yet. She was still building up her business. Still trying to prove to her family her career choice was as viable, rewarding and fulfilling as theirs.

  She’d had it all planned: get her business well established, hopefully one day fall in love with a man who would treat her the way she had always longed to be treated. Not that she had actively gone looking for the love of her life. She had been too worried about a repeat of her embarrassing falling-in-love episode during her teens. But getting married and having babies was what she wanted. One day. How could she have got it so messed up by falling pregnant? Now? While being on the Pill and using condoms? She was still living in a poky little bedsit, for God’s sake.

  Sabrina moved past Holly to get out of the bathroom. ‘I can’t tell him until I know for sure. I need to get a test kit. I have to do it today because there’s a Midhurst and Firbank family gathering tomorrow night and I can’t do a no-show. It’s Max’s mother’s birthday. She’d be hurt if I didn’t go.’

  ‘You could say you’ve got a stomach bug.’

  Sabrina gave her a side-eye. ‘My parents and brothers will be there and once they hear I’ve got a stomach bug, one or all of them will be on my doorstep with their doctor’s bag.’ She clutched two handfuls of her hair with her hands. ‘Argh. Why am I such a disaster? This wasn’t meant to happen. Not no-o-o-w.’ To her shame, her last word came as a childish wail.

  ‘Oh, sweetie, you’re not a disaster. Falling pregnant to a guy you love is not a catastrophe. Not in this day and age in any case.’

  Sabrina dropped her hands from her head and glared at her friend. ‘Who said I was in love with Max? Why do you keep going on about it?’

  Holly placed her hands on her hips in an I know you better than you do yourself pose. ‘Hello? You haven’t slept with anyone for ten years, and then you spend a night in bed with a man you’ve known since you were in nappies? You wouldn’t have slept with him if you didn’t feel something for him.’

  Sabrina rolled her lips together and turned away to smooth the fabric out on the worktable. ‘Okay, so maybe I don’t hate him as much as I used to, but I’m not in love with him. I wouldn’t be so...so...stupid.’ Would she? She had promised herself she would never find herself in that situation again. Fancying herself in love with someone who might reject her in the end like her teenage boyfriend had. Falling in love with Max would be asking for the sort of trouble she could do without. More trouble, that was, because finding herself pregnant to him was surely trouble enough.

  Holly touched Sabrina on the arm. ‘Do you want me to stay with you while you do the test?’

  Sabrina gulped back a sob. ‘Oh...would you?’

  Holly smiled. ‘That’s what best friends are for—through thick and thin, and sick and sin, right?’

  * * *

  If it hadn’t been his mother’s birthday Max would have found some excuse to not show up. Not that he didn’t want to see Sabrina. He did, which was The Problem. Wanting to see her, wanting to touch her, wanting to kiss her, wanting, wanting, wanting to make love to her again. He had told himself one night and one night only and here he was six weeks later still replaying every minute of that stolen night of seriously hot sex. Sex so amazing he could still feel aftershocks when he so much as pictured her lying in his arms. Sex so planet-dislodging he hadn’t bothered hooking up with anyone else and wondered in his darkest moments if he ever would.

  He couldn’t imagine touching another woman after making love with Sabrina. How could he kiss another mouth as sweet and responsive as hers? How could he slide his hands down a body so lush and ripe and feminine if it didn’t belong to Sabrina?

  Max arrived at his parents’ gracious home in Hampton Court, and after greeting his mother and father took up his usual place at the back of the crowded room to do his people-watching thing. He searched the sea of faces to see if Sabrina was among them, more than a little shocked at how disappointed he was not to find her. But then a thought shot like a stray dart into his brain. What if she brought someone with her? Another man? A new date? A man she was now sleeping with and doing all the sexy red-hot things she had done with him?

  Max took a tumbler of spirits off the tray of a passing waiter and downed it in one swallow. He had to get a hold of himself. He was thirty-four years old, not some hormone-driven teenager suffering his first crush. So what if Sabrina slept with someone else? What business was it of his? They’d made an agreement of one night to get the lust bu
g out of the way.

  No repeats.

  No replays.

  No sequel.

  No happy-ever-after.

  Max turned to put his empty glass down on a table next to him and saw Sabrina greeting his mother on the other side of the room. The way his parents adored her was understandable given they hadn’t had any children after the loss of Daniel. Sabrina, as their only godchild, had been lavished with love and attention. Max knew their affection for her had helped them to heal as much as was possible after the tragic loss of an infant. Not that his parents hadn’t adored him too. They had been fabulous parents trying to do their best after such sad circumstances, which, in an ill-advised but no less understandable way, had fed their little fantasy of him and Sabrina one day getting together and playing happy families.

  But it was a step too far.

  Way, way too far.

  Sabrina finally stepped out of his mother’s bone-crushing hug and met his gaze. Her eyes widened and then flicked away, her cheeks going an intense shade of pink. She turned and hurriedly made her way through the knot of guests and disappeared through the door that led out to the gallery-wide corridor.

  Max followed her, weaving his way through the crowd just in time to see Sabrina scuttling into the library further down the corridor, like a terrified mouse trying to escape a notoriously cruel cat. In spite of the background noise of the party, the sound of the key turning in the lock was like a rifle shot. Or a slap on the face.

  Okay, so he had left her in Venice without saying goodbye in person but surely that didn’t warrant this type of reaction?

  Max knocked on the library door. ‘Sabrina? Let me in.’

  He could hear the sound of her breathing on the other side of the door—hectic and panicked as if she really was trying to avoid someone menacing. But after a moment the key turned in the lock and the door creaked open.

  ‘Are you alone?’ Sabrina’s voice sounded as creaky as the door, her eyes wide and bluer than he had ever seen them. And, he realised with a jolt, reddened as if she’d been recently crying. A lot.

  ‘Yes, but what’s going on?’ He stepped into the room before she could stop him and closed the door behind him.

  Sabrina took a few steps back and hugged her arms around her middle, her eyes skittering away from his. ‘I have something to tell you...’

  Here we go. Max had been here so many times before. The I want more than a one-night stand speech. But this time he was okay with it. More than okay. He could think of nothing he wanted more than to have a longer fling with her. Longer than one night, that was. A week or two, a month or three. Long enough to scratch the itch but not long enough for her to get silly ideas about it being for ever. ‘It’s okay, Sabrina. You don’t have to look so scared. I’ve been thinking along the same lines.’

  Her smooth brow crinkled into a frown. ‘The same...lines?’

  Max gave a soft laugh, his blood already pumping at the thought of taking her in his arms. Maybe even here in the quiet of the library while the guests were partying in the ballroom. What could be sexier than a clandestine affair? ‘We’d have to keep it a secret, of course. But a month or two would be fun.’ He took a step towards her but she backed away as if he was carrying the Black Plague.

  ‘No.’ She held up her hands like stop signs, her expression couldn’t have looked more horrified than if he’d drawn a gun.

  No? Max hadn’t heard that word from a woman for a long time. Weird, but hearing it from Sabrina was unusually disappointing. ‘Okay. That’s fine. We’ll stick to the original agreement.’

  She gave an audible swallow and her arms went back around her middle. ‘Max...’ She slowly lifted her gaze back to his, hers still wide as Christmas baubles. ‘I don’t know how to tell you this...’

  His gut suddenly seized and he tried to control his breathing. So she’d found someone else. No wonder his offer of a temporary fling had been turned down. She was sleeping with someone else. Someone else was kissing that beautiful mouth, someone else was holding her gorgeous body in their arms.

  ‘It’s okay, Sabrina.’ How had he got his voice to sound so level? So damn normal when his insides were churning with jealousy? Yes, jealousy—that thing he never felt. Ever. Not for anyone. The big green-eyed monster was having a pity party in his gut and there was nothing he could do about it.

  One of Sabrina’s hands crept to press against her stomach. She licked her lips and opened her mouth to speak but couldn’t seem to get her voice to work.

  Max called on every bit of willpower he possessed to stop himself from reaching for her and showing her why a temporary fling with him was much a better idea than her getting involved permanently with someone else. A hard sell to a fairytale girl, but still. His hands stayed resolutely by his sides, but his fingers were clenching and unclenching like his jaw. ‘Who is it?’ There. He’d asked the question his pride had forbidden him to ask.

  Sabrina’s brow creased into another puzzled frown. ‘I... You think there’s someone...else?’

  Max shrugged as if it meant nothing to him what she did and whom she did it with. But on the inside he was slamming his fist into the wall in frustration. Bam. Bam. Bam. The imaginary punches were in time with the thud, thud, thud of his heart. ‘That’s what this is about, isn’t it?’

  ‘Have you found someone else?’ Her voice was faint and hesitant as if it was struggling to get past a stricture in her throat.

  ‘Not yet.’

  She closed her eyes in a tight squint as if his answer had pained her. She opened her eyes again and took a deep breath. ‘In a way, this is about someone else...’ She laced her fingers together in front of her stomach, then released them and did it again like a nervous tic. ‘Someone neither of us has met...yet...’

  Max wanted to wring his own hands. He wanted to turn back time and go back to Venice and do things differently. He had to get control of himself. He couldn’t allow his jealousy over a man who may or may not exist to mess with his head. He took a calming breath, released it slowly. They would both eventually find someone else. He would have to get used to seeing her with a husband one day. A man who would give her the family she wanted. The commitment and the love she wanted. And Max would move from woman to woman just as he had been doing for the last six years. ‘So, you’re saying you’re not actually seeing someone else right at this moment?’

  ‘No.’ Her face screwed up in distaste. ‘How could you think I would want to after what we shared?’

  ‘It was just sex, Sabrina.’ He kept his tone neutral even though his male ego was doing fist pumps. Damn good sex. Amazing sex. Awesome sex he wanted to repeat. Then a victory chant sounded in his head. There isn’t anyone else. There isn’t anyone else. The big green monster slunk away and relief flooded Max’s system.

  ‘Yeah, well, if only it had been just sex...’ Something about her tone and her posture made the hairs of the back of his neck stand up. Her hand kept creeping over the flat plane of her belly, her throat rising and falling over a swallow that sounded more like a gulp.

  Max was finding it hard to make sense of what she was saying. And why was she looking so flustered? ‘I’m not sure where this conversation is heading, but how about you say what you want to say, okay? I promise I won’t interrupt. Just spit it out, for God’s sake.’

  Her eyes came back to his and she straightened her spine as if girding herself for a firing squad. ‘Max... I’m pregnant.’

  CHAPTER FIVE

  MAX STEPPED BACK as if she had stabbed him. His gut even clenched as if a dagger had gone through to his backbone. Pregnant? The word was like a poison spreading through his blood, leaving a trail of catastrophic destruction in its wake. His heart stopped and started in a sickening boom-skip-boom-skip-boom-skip rhythm, his lungs almost collapsing as he fought to take a breath. His skin went hot, then cold, and his scalp prickled and tightened as if every hair
was shrinking away in dread.

  ‘You’re...pregnant?’ His voice cracked like an egg thrown on concrete, his mind splintering into a thousand panicked thoughts. A baby. They had made a baby. Somehow, in spite of all the protection he had used, they had made a baby. ‘Are you sure?’

  She pressed her lips together and nodded, her chin wobbling. ‘I’ve done a test. Actually, I’ve done five. They were all positive.’

  Max scraped a hand through his hair so roughly he nearly scalped himself. ‘Oh, God...’ He turned away, a part of him vainly hoping that when he turned back he wouldn’t find himself in the library of his parents’ mansion with Sabrina telling him he was to be a father. It was like a bad dream. A nightmare.

  His. Personal. Nightmare.

  ‘Thanks for not asking if it’s yours.’ Sabrina’s soft voice broke through his tortured reverie.

  He swung back to face her; suddenly conscious of how appallingly he was taking her announcement. But nothing could have prepared him for this moment. He had never in his wildest imaginings ever thought he would be standing in front of a woman—any woman—bearing this bombshell news. Pregnant. A baby. His baby. ‘I’m sorry, but it’s such a shock.’ Understatement. His heart was pounding so hard he wouldn’t have been out of place on a critical care cardiac ward. Sweat was pouring down between his shoulder blades. Something was scrabbling and scratching like there was a frantic animal trapped in his guts.

  He stepped towards her and held out his hands but she stepped back again. His hands fell back by his sides. ‘So...what have you decided to do?’

  Her small neat chin came up and her cornflower-blue eyes hardened with determination. ‘I’m not having a termination. Please don’t ask me to.’

  Max flinched. ‘Do you really think I’m the sort of man to do something like that? I’m firmly of the opinion that it’s solely a woman’s choice whether she continues with a pregnancy or not.’