Page 33 of The Heir Affair

‘Stop. That is not what I meant, and you know it,’ he interrupted her again as frustration swirled, turning the pure blue of his eyes into a stormy grey. ‘I don’t care about your clothes, but I do care about you. You must not continue to fight me on this. There is no shame in letting me support you,’ headded as his gaze dropped to where her pregnancy bump was visible over the tabletop. ‘And I could not live with myself if anything happened to you or the child while I have the means to keep you safe.’

She blinked back the swell of tears—and emotion—at his outburst, as one phrase echoed in her head.

I do care about you.

She clutched her hands in her lap and stared down at them—forced to acknowledge what she’d already guessed. That his need to support her—and their baby—wasn’t actually about her. It was rooted in that little boy who had been deserted by the man who should have protected him—however much Xander might want to deny it.

‘I just, I don’t want to lose my independence, that’s all,’ she said, suddenly feeling small and foolish for finding it so hard to get past that feeling of needing too much from people who would never give it to her…

Her fear wasn’t about Xander, it was about her dad, and those years spent living with the family who mattered to him the way she never would. But why did it have to be about Xander too? When she’d already realised the foolish feelings she’d had for him in April had been an illusion?

How insecure was she that she was linking his need to protect his child to all her own insecurities? And how exactly did she think she was going to support herself waitressing when she was having a billionaire’s baby? Because she wasn’t convinced now her panic had ever been about the money. Had it always been the fear of relying on Xander emotionally, when he had never even offered her that?

She let out a hefty breath and lifted her head. Perhaps she just needed to have more faith in her ability to remain emotionally independent? Surely it wouldn’t be that hard, now she knew who he really was?

‘But I get where you’re coming from too,’ she conceded. ‘I don’t want to put our baby at risk either.’ She shrugged. ‘Not that I think working as a waitress is dangerous when I’m healthy and strong, and…’

‘Poppy…’ he admonished.

She trailed off, because he had that indomitable look on his face that told her he wasn’t going to budge on this. And in a weird way she found that reassuring.

She just needed to ensure she didn’t kid herself again that he cared abouther, per se. Then it didn’t have to be a bad thing that he wanted to support his baby. Right?

‘I want to be reasonable, but this…’ he said slowly. ‘ThisI cannot be reasonable about. Not when you are havingmybaby. And what about the child? It will be my heir—this will make it extremely vulnerable. The kidnap threat alone will have to be managed. You must understand that I must protect you too, as its mother, for the child to be safe.’

Kidnap threat?

She balked, shocked into silence by the serious expression on his face.

Had she been impossibly naïve and immature? Not to have even considered the full impact of having a man as wealthy as Xander Caras as the father of her child?

‘Okay, I guess… Maybe we do need time and space to talk about how this is going to work,’ she said wearily, aware for the first time of how much her life was likely to change. She sighed. ‘There’s definitely more at stake here than I thought.’

He smiled, but his gaze remained shuttered, his expression strained. Reaching across the table, he scooped an errant tear off her cheek.

‘Do not cry, Poppy. It will not be so bad. Believe me, it is much better to be too rich, than too poor. I know.’

‘Yes, I suppose so,’ she murmured, although she wasn’t so sure.

One thing her mum had never had to worry about, when her father had walked out on her for another woman, was whether her child would be kidnapped.

But even so, she felt ashamed now at her naiveté. And her sense of entitlement.

After all, she’d judged him and his motivations, and made assumptions about his past, to justify her own hurt feelings. Assumptions that she now knew were totally false. She’d held his extreme wealth against him, even despised him for it, believing he was a man who had been born into privilege. But, from the little he’d divulged about his past, she now knew that was not the case.

If he tried to use his money to control her, she could fight him on that. But thinking she could go back to being a free spirit, or a free agent even, wasn’t going to fly. Not if she was going to do what was best for her baby.

She let out a shuddering breath.

Theirbaby.

She pressed unsteady palms to her rounded belly—and rubbed the place where she’d felt the baby move that morning.

It was past time she stopped thinking only of herself. The truth was, however determined she was to maintain her independence, she also hadn’t really put a whole lot of thought into the practical considerations of what her life would look like once the baby was born. She’d just assumed she could wing it, as her mum had, and as she had ever since she’d left university and embarked on a nomadic existence of temporary jobs and insecure accommodation. She’d enjoyed not knowing where she was going and what she would be doing next. It had felt like an adventure… Not being beholden to anyone, not being tied down.Perhaps because whenever hard times had hit when she was a kid, her mum had turned it into an adventure.

They’d always been the two musketeers. And when her mum had gone, and she’d been stuck in her dad’s home, she’d convinced herself she could still be the one musketeer. Her ability to be upbeat and positive even at the lowest points in her life had been her greatest strength. Even after she’d found herself pregnant and alone, she’d been so excited at the thought of becoming a mum.

But had her greatest strength also been a weakness?