He hadn’t really thought the pregnancy was a mistake, but as he sat across from an obstetrician at an impossible-to-get-into fertility clinic, and had the pregnancy confirmed, he felt the bottom fall out of his world—and not for the first time.
“The results of the NIPP won’t be available for another day or so.”
He vaguely recalled the NIPP being flagged as the test that would determine paternity. “Can that be sped up?”
“That turnaround is hugely accelerated,” the doctor said with a hint of a smile. “The usual wait time is more like a week.”
“You’re just going to have to cool your jets until then,” Elodie muttered from his left, so Raf glanced at her for the first time since they’d walked into this office together. And something familiar and unwelcome churned through his gut. Desire. Want. Need. An awareness of her he really wished he didn’t feel, especially now. The same awareness he’d been feeling for eight long weeks. She had grabbed a hold of him in a way he loathed and despised, in a way that had made him want to weaken and go to see her again. But Raf refused to do second nights, he refused to weaken. Even if not doing so was physically painful.
“I can call you with the results then, to save you from coming in person, Mr Santoro. I know how busy you are.”
He was still looking right at Elodie, so saw the way her spine straightened and eyes widened a little, the tell-tale fluttering of her fingers as she lifted them to her temple and pressed them there. He stood abruptly, not sure how she was going to react but preferring it to be away from an audience.
“Thank you.”
“My assistant can organize a forward schedule of appointments,” the doctor said, following Raf’s lead and standing.
Raf put a hand under Elodie’s elbow, guiding her upwards even when he suspected she wanted to continue sitting there, staring catatonically at the wall opposite.
“I’ll be in touch, if that’s necessary.” He was already working out the best way to proceed, going on the basis this was more than likely his child. True, he didn’t have categorical proof yet, but Elodie’s inexperience had been abundantly clear that night. He doubted she’d bounced from his bed to someone else’s.
Elodie’s head whirled around, her eyes clashing with his, a thousand emotions swarming in their depths.
“Thank you for seeing us on such short notice, doctor.” The tone of his voice was clear:not here.
“My pleasure, sir. If you have a moment, at any point, to talk about our expansion plans, and the funding requirements?—,”
“Now is not the time,” Raf cut the doctor off. Then, with a quick exhalation, “I will have my assistant email you with our foundation’s details. Thank you.”
When they stepped into the tiled corridor, Elodie started to say something but Raf cut her short. “Wait, please, until we are in the privacy of my car.”
She yanked her elbow out of his grip but stayed silent, walking mutinously beside him into his waiting vehicle, slidinginto the back seat and pushing over as far as she could go on the spacious leather seat.
“What exactly did you mean ‘if that’s necessary’?”
It took him a moment to recognize she was referring to the comment he’d delivered to the doctor, in response to offering future management of this pregnancy.
“If you think, for one second, that you can bully me into not having this baby, Rafaello?—,”
He stared at her, the sentence hardly making sense at first, and then, when he saw it from a very literal perspective, ringing through him with clarity. “That was not my meaning.”
“Because that is one hundred per cent not your decision. And to so calmly suggest?—,”
“I was not suggesting that,” he growled, reaching across her for her seatbelt, ignoring the way she flinched as his hand grazed her shoulder, ignoring how much he hated that. “I am suggesting that London might not be the best place to go through your pregnancy, to have this baby. We clearly need to think this through.”
Her eyes narrowed, her skin pale. He sat back in his seat, mainly because if he stayed where he was any longer, he thought he might actually kiss her just to stop her from panic spiralling. He was pretty sure just one kiss would drive the combative air from her body and leave her panting for him, just as she had that one delicious night…
“You’re a Santoro,” she said, accusation in her tone.
“So?” He understood her surprise, but instead of acknowledging it, his voice came out harshly dismissive. As though it didn’t matter, when of course it did. His wealth had the power to open doors, and shut them, too. Their baby was being born into one of the wealthiest dynasties in the world—that changed things, on many levels. Not least because they would always and forever live with the risk of being atarget for kidnapping and extortion, which meant while Elodie was pregnant, she would face those same risks. It changedeverything.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It didn’t seem to matter.”
She sat back in the seat, staring straight ahead as the car eased out into traffic and began to make its way back to his place.
“How can you even say that?” she asked, after a beat of silence so long he presumed she had let it drop. “You’re aSantoro,” she repeated, like he hadn’t heard of his last name. “You are—you are—,” She floundered.
