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‘So you don’t want the baby,’ Nik assu how he felt about that but still too shaken by her news to know A baby Betsy was going to have a baby, the first Christakis infant to be born since his own birth

‘It’sback at hiression she had never shown hie had tumbled down like a pack of cards and she had virtually thrown him out of their home ‘You need to kno upfront that there’s no way I’ a termination—’

‘I am not that stupid,’ Nik fielded flatly ‘Nor would I ask you to do such a thing’

‘No?’ Betsy’s voice was steadily rising in volu to stay calm, well aware that a loss of temper was a handicap she didn’t need ‘Wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t a termination suit you much better than the birth of a child you don’t want?’

‘Don’t put words in my mouth I didn’t say I didn’t want the child,’ Nik countered darkly ‘Obviously, you do—’

Betsy was in no mood to allow him to ive her a single hint of his true feelings ‘Why? What’s obvious about it? Because you’re wrong—everything’s changed I never wanted to be a single parent raising a child alone!’

Nik clenched his teeth together on an ill-considered retort She was pregnant Betsy was pregnant, he reflected abstractedly,at the development that had come too late to save them Whether she would adive her the one thing she truly wanted and he was violently disconcerted by the flare of satisfaction that infiltrated hiement He didn’t want to think about the baby; he wanted to think about what the baby would mean to her, and he was convinced that that child would mean the world to Betsy

He remembered the secret stash of baby clothes he had stu sensation of futility and powerlessness that had engulfed hi He couldn’t tell her the truth about his past; he could never tell her the truth, for hoould she regard him afterwards? He had only had his pride left to sustain him He had known from the outset that silence was his only possible defence, but her announce into chaos everything he had believed he felt and thought

‘You ry condeive nant—’

Nik released his breath in an impatient sound and replied with innate practicality, ‘I don’t think contraception was uppermost in either of ourthat prosaic—’

‘Oh, I can believe that all right!’ Betsy fla furious derision, ripeabout was sex!’

‘Be practicalwhat else would I be thinking about?’ Nik traded evenly, not one whit perturbed by that indictment ‘You didn’t hold back either’

Betsy wanted to slap him for that insolent re wo would’ve happened She would have looked at hiht ahen he came on to her But she had never found it possible to look at Nik and say no and that went right to the heart of their relationship The balance of power in the sex department had always been his until she had thrown a spanner into the works by craving a child and a whole new schedule during which Nik’s desire for her had noticeably declined Colour infusing her cheeks, she studied his desk ‘I totally hate and despise you—’

‘We must be practical,’ Nik murmured softly, much as if she hadn’t spoken ‘Draet us nowhere—’

‘That’s very easy to say fro,’ Betsy riposted bitterly ‘Your whole life isn’t going to be disrupted by single parenthood!’