Baby for the Billionaire - By Maxine Sullivan Page 0,149
ease the tension that was building day by day between them.
It all came to a head when Victoria arrived home late one night to find Dylan already asleep—and a glowering Connor waiting for her in the living room, every light blazing.
She came to a halt and set her laptop bag down on one of the leather couches.
Standing there, his legs apart, in a beautifully tailored black business suit and pale-blue shirt sans tie, with his shoes still an impossibly glossy black at the end of a day, he looked formidable. Unreachable. It was impossible to tell whether he felt anything for her at all. Except the anger and annoyance that the harsh overhead lighting revealed so clearly.
“Dylan needs a mother.”
Startled by his words, she continued to stare at him.
What did he mean? Anxiety—never far away where Dylan was concerned—pooled in her stomach. Dylan already had a mother.
But she’d never told him.…
Had she been too reticent? Was the omission intended to protect Suzy’s memory going to cost her dearly?
“Nothing to say?”
The glare he directed at her held anger and frustration and something that was dark and dangerous.
“I had to stay later than—”
“I have a business. I work long hours—but I still have time for Dylan. This is the third time you’re late this week—and it’s only Wednesday. And last week you were late almost every night, too.”
He’d been counting. But instead of making her feel like she was winning this battle of wills between them, a wretched anguish speared her. He didn’t think her fit to be a mother.
Her shoulders sagged. Served her right, she supposed. Tonight had been a genuine emergency—the rest of the time she’d been avoiding Connor. She’d been stopping for dinner on the way home so that she didn’t have to eat with him and endure the awful estrangement between them, arriving home in time for Dylan’s bath and bedtime story. She’d desperately missed out on the extra time with Dylan. But what choice did she have?
Right now she couldn’t bear to be anywhere near Connor.
It simply hurt too much.
She was trapped between her need to be with Dylan and her desperation to avoid Connor—and protect her breaking heart.
The memory of their night together … of what they might have had … was eating her alive.
Connor was speaking again, the words sharp and cold as hailstones. She pulled herself out of her misery.
“Victoria, if you can’t be available for Dylan, if you can’t be relied on to be here for the child, then its better you move out.”
“What?”
Shock caused the blood to drain from her face. She collapsed onto the nearest of the two long, black leather couches, suddenly chilled and weak. “What are you talking about?”
“I think you know.”
Divorce. He was talking about divorce. “But you promised.”
“What?”
“That you wouldn’t end it between us.” Victoria placed her fingers against her temples, hunching over where she sat as she struggled to gather her thoughts.
She heard his footfalls across the carpet as he moved closer. Those perfectly shiny shoes came into her line of vision. “Things have changed, Victoria.”
Dana and Paul had gotten married.
Connor had realized that this fake marriage was never going to be enough for him.
And now he wanted out.
She spoke at his shoes. “You can’t do thi—”
“You’ve hardly been home for Dylan over the past ten days.” The words were as harsh as a whip. “You spent last Sunday and most of this past weekend at work.”
To avoid him. Because she’d been unable to bear the tension, the antagonism between them. She looked up, her gaze unconsciously pleading with him. “I’ll make sure—”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Victoria. I have to end this. For Dylan’s sake.”
His words cut deep into her heart.
If she’d thought the pain unbearable before, she now bled pure grief. This was what she’d feared all along. Marriage to Connor was supposed to have roadblocked this outcome.
The first burst of angry determination fired up. No. She wasn’t going to let Connor shove her out of Dylan’s life because he hadn’t gotten the woman he’d really wanted.
She put out of her mind those glorious hours when they’d managed to live together only too well … that magical wedding night that had changed everything between them … that had made it impossible for her to live under the same roof when she knew Connor still loved Dana.
It was unbearable that Dana’s wedding had triggered that night of ecstatic passion and incredible emotion. It was worse that he was going to end their arrangement because