“Leave me alone,” she muttered.
But he was right behind her then, his stride longer, faster, his determination to get her to stop making her no match for him. His hand curled around her wrist, so she whirled around to face him and yanked her arm free. “Don’t touch me.”
His eyes lanced hers, his features taut. “I’m sorry you heard that.”
“I’m not,” she responded fiercely. “At least now I know how you really feel.”
“Are you surprised?” he demanded after a beat. “Don’t you feel the same way?”
Something in the middle of her chest twisted sharply, so she felt a gash of pain. “No, actually. I don’t. Whatever else that night was, it was a step towards independence for me. You were something I chose for myself, and you were…something I enjoyed. And as for our baby, there is nothing on earth that would make me wish this hadn’t happened.” She wrapped her arms over her chest as if she could physically protect their baby from his words, from the hurt that she’d endured.
He closed his eyes against her statement, his features taut. “Then you’re a better person than I am.”
She sucked in another sharp breath. “Why the hell didn’t you just let me go? You brought me here, you made a huge fuss over wanting to raise this baby together?—,”
“I do want that.”
“Well, maybe I don’t,” she spat. “Not after hearing you—and whoever those people were—talking about me, and our child, like that.”
“They don’t know you.”
“But you do.”
“And I told them I believe you.”
“Oh, how gallant of you,” she threw at him. “You told them you believe me but that you’re still waiting for proof. That’s hardly a staunch defense.”
His impatience was obvious in the lines of his body. “What do you want from me, Elodie? I don’t know you. I don’t know a damned thing about you. And given the differences in our situation, it’s natural that my family would think?—,”
“Don’t say it,” she interrupted quickly, lifting her hands to her lips and pressing them there. “I can’t believe I came here. I can’t believe I thought I could let you help me, that I would just spend a month here, when all the while, you and they clearly have me pegged as some kind of gold digger.”
He flinched at that, but he didn’t move. “It’s not an unreasonable concern to hold.”
“I told you, I don’t want anything from you.”
“And I believe you.”
“But you didn’t say that to them.”
“I told them you were different.”
She angled her face away, her breath hurting, her whole body feeling weak all over.
“Listen, there was no way to tell my family that wouldn’t result in them being shocked and jumping to conclusions.”
“I don’t care about your family. You’re the one who made it seem as though we would be a team, raising our child together, and then you basically threw me to the wolves.”
“I did no such thing,” he responded with obvious disbelief.
“You said you regret what happened with us. That you wish it had never happened. That’s what they’re going to hear and think when they see me.”
“What would you have preferred? That I pretended we were in a relationship? That I had feelings for you? With respect, Elodie, that’s not true, and my family knows me better than to believe it.”
Tears sparkled in her eyes, but they were bitterly angry tears, borne of disbelief at the way he was treating her.
“I want to go home.”
He crossed his arms over his chest, staring down at her. “No.”
