Raf had plannedto stay in London another month or two, but instead, he flew out two days later. He had homes all over the world, business interests to keep him occupied. He chose Sydney as his destination, aware that he was selecting a location based purely on it being as far as he could possibly get from the temptation that was Elodie.
Hell, he didn’t even know her last name, and thank God for that. Since Marcia, he’d had one inviolable rule: one night only. He didn’t go back for seconds. He didn’t let himself, no matter how satisfying the sex. He didn’t open himself up to the possibility of getting to know a woman, of letting her get under his skin. Trust was a poison, and he’d felt its sting before. He never would again.
CHAPTER 3
Eight weeks later
EVER SINCE AARON HAD ended their engagement, Elodie had felt as though she’d climbed onto some kind of carnival ride that was careening wildly out of control. Her neatly ordered life had burst apart at the seams, and day by day, she barely recognized herself. Working in a bar, living in London in a place that was not hers, hiding away from all her family and friends rather than face their sympathy and pity… but it was nothing, absolutely nothing, compared to the shock of staring at the pregnancy test and seeing two bright blue lines.
“Oh my God,” she whispered, sinking down onto the closed toilet lid and letting out a half-sob, half-choked sound. How the hell could she be pregnant? They’d used a condom. And she was on the pill! It wasn’t possible. It wasn’t.
But several hours, and two pregnancy tests, later, there was no denying the fact that Elodie was pregnant with Raf-filthy-rich’s baby. She didn’t even know his last name. Her stomach twisted at that. Or maybe it was twisting for another reason,she thought, moving through the small apartment and into the kitchen, staring at the fruit bowl and feeling that same sense of nausea creep in. For two weeks, she’d struggled to eat anything. For two weeks, she’d felt exhausted, starving, then sick, so she’d thought she was fighting off a virus or something. But when she’d seen the date on the calendar and realized that her cycle was conspicuously absent, she’d had to face the music.
And it was playing glaringly loudly now.
A thousand permutations went through her mind in the space of five short minutes. For the second time in six months, her whole life was thrown into complete disarray. The business course she was supposed to start after the summer seemed impossible to contemplate now. And even if she could get through it while pregnant, how would she juggle that, work, and having to pay rent? Her cousin would be back soon, and the nest egg Elodie had been saving to cover her own security deposit now surely had to be earmarked for other, more urgent considerations. Like prenatal vitamins and strollers and all the things a baby must surely need.
She pressed a hand over her stomach and sobbed properly now. Not out of sadness, so much as shock. This wasn’t how it was meant to go. Or rather, it wasexactlyhow it was meant to go, right down to the timeline. But Aaron was supposed to be the father, and she was supposed to have been married to him. Not knocked up in London to some guy she didn’t even have a phone number for.
At least she had his address. She’d called an Uber to collect her in the early hours of that morning, so it was saved in her phone—she saw it every time she opened the app. So, what? She’d do this face to face? Go see him and tell him she was pregnant? Or, maybe she didn’t need to tell him at all. He’d been adamant that this was a one-night thing. Getting pregnant was clearly unplanned, clearly undesired for both of them.
And if she didn’t tell him, then what? She could go home, move back in with her parents, and lean on them while she—but, no. She dismissed the thought almost immediately. There was no way she could do that. Not unless there was no alternative. Everyone back home already thought her life was a mess; she couldn’t prove them right.
She sucked in a deep breath, trying to think rationally and calmly when everything was spinning absolutely out of control.
She had to tell Raf. It might throw the cat among the pigeons of his life as badly as it had hers, but it was still the right thing to do. And Elodie’s guiding principle, for as long as she could remember, was that if you did the right thing, you didn’t live with regrets.
But wasn’t there an argument that in keeping the baby secret, she was also doing the right thing? He wouldn’t welcome this news. He would probably run a mile from her, regardless.
That was his choice to make, though. Elodie couldn’t conceal a baby from its father, just as she couldn’t conceal from her baby who the father was. This was not a choice. She had to tell him. And how he reacted was his prerogative. If he decided to have nothing to do with her, or their child, then fine. Legally, she supposed, there were some financial considerations. He could help her, easily, with the financial side of things, she realized. Though she was loathe to suggest it, if he was simply able to help buy the bare necessities, and cover some expenses in the first few months, until the baby was old enough to go into a crèche. She could find a share house, perhaps with another single mother, and they could help care for one another’s babies.
Tears slid down her cheeks and a sense of anger grew inside of her. She already loved this little baby—her baby—but this was all the exact opposite of how it was supposed to happen. She was supposed to have Aaron by her side. It was supposed to be joyous and wonderful, instead of this confusing maelstrom ofworry and uncertainty. She’d always known and accepted that Aaron would likely end up the stay-at-home parent, while she went back to work after six weeks or so. Her income was the steadier of the two.
Slowly, resolve began to firm inside Elodie, as she dashed away her tears. She’d run away to London, but she could run home again. She’d move home with her parents, and make it clear it was temporary. She’d get her old job back, or one just like it. She would find a way to make this work—and to hell with anyone who thought she was a failure.
And with that scaffolding in place, knowing that regardless of how Raf reacted, it wouldn’t matter, she felt somehow, instantly, better about the prospect of telling him.
It wasa feeling that lasted about an hour. By the time she’d stepped out of the tube at Bond Street and walked the few hundred metres to his impressive mansion—even more so by daylight—her stomach was a bundle of knots. With a hand that wasn’t quite steady, she lifted it and rang the doorbell, then began to wait, her insides twisting with a mix of doubt and anxiety.
It didn’t help matters when the door opened a moment later and Raf stood there in a pair of low-slung denim jeans and a loose black t-shirt, with a very beautiful, very elegant brunette at his side. The woman’s eyes widened in surprise at the sight of Elodie, then something else crossed her face. Sympathy? Pity?
Elodie hardened her heart against both.
“I’ll see you tonight, okay?” The woman said, turning back to Raf and putting a hand on his chest. In response, a muscle jerked in his jaw.
Elodie wondered if this woman had seen his tattoo, and knew how Raf felt about trust. But there was something so casuallyintimate in the way he nodded then leaned in and kissed her cheek, so Elodie felt a burst of colour on the periphery of her vision.
“Excuse me,” the woman murmured, a soft smile on her lips. No hint of jealousy. No hint of concern. Whatever her place in Raf’s life, she wasn’t remotely bothered by the appearance of some other woman on his doorstep.
Elodie couldn’t help but watch as the beautiful brunette sashayed down the front steps and into a waiting car. When she glanced back at Raf, though, she found his eyes on her in a way that was as disconcerting as it was terrifying. The chemistry that had sparked between them that night seemed to burst through the air anew, even when it was the last thing she wanted to be aware of. He’d literally just had another woman in his home, probably his bed. How could she be aware of him on a physical level? That was absolutely not what she’d come here for.
“What are you doing here?” he asked. No preamble, and no welcome.
Her heart slammed in her chest, but she didn’t doubt her decision to come to him. It was the right thing to do; their child deserved it. “We need to talk.”
His eyes narrowed but he stepped deeper into his home, gesturing for her to come in.
As she passed, she caught a hint of his cologne, just as she had in the car that night, and it was mingled with something else she recognized. Whisky. A shiver ran along her spine and her insides twisted with remembered pleasures. With the taste of his kiss, the feel of his body weight on hers.
