Prognosis Baby Daddy - Amy Andrews Page 0,11

all over, she was heading straight back to a workplace with some backbone. But for now, for the sake of her baby, she needed to suffer the whims of the wealthy.

‘If you didn’t want me to come you shouldn’t have offered me a job.’ Katya knew from long experience that the best defence was offence. ‘But, then, you weren’t really serious, were you? We both knew it was just a throw-away line the morning after.’

Her accusation hit Ben square in the solar plexus. His guilt from that morning came flooding back. She was right. He had handled the whole thing very badly. He had known it back then but his apology had been stalled by her scathing reaction to his job offer.

She was standing with her back to him, her hands gripping the railing. She reminded him of how she’d been that morning. Erect. Distant. He wanted to touch her but couldn’t bear to see her shrink from his touch like she had that day also. ‘About that morning...’

Katya gripped the railing harder and held her breath. She had spent months trying to forget the incident, she didn’t want to rehash it now, especially not when their child was already a constant reminder.

‘Benedetto!’

Both Ben and Katya startled at the unexpected interruption and turned to see Gabriella, one of the nurses she had met earlier, come bustling in, a child wearing a blue theatre cap on her hip.

Gabriella smiled at Katya. ‘Lupi has been asking for you.’

Ben smiled at the little girl, her bilateral cleft lip making it impossible for her to smile back, but he could see the happiness shining in her eyes. ‘Has she, now?’ he growled and reached out to take the child from Gabriella.

‘Well, now, little Lupi,’ he said kissing her jet-black hair, ‘you found me.’

Katya watched as the girl bounced up and down excitedly in Ben’s arms. Katya guessed the child to be about three but she was obviously malnourished so she could well be older. But there was no mistaking the look of adoration in the girl’s eyes.

Katya swallowed as Ben grinned down at her and Lupi snuggled her head into his chest. Where did Lupi fit in at the Lucia Clinic? Someone had been remiss in their care for her if her lip was only being repaired now. It didn’t seem like something someone with money, with choices, would do.

‘Katya, this is Lupi,’ Ben said. ‘Lupi, this is Katya. She’s going to help me with your operation today. We’re going to give you your smile back.’

The little girl looked at her with solemn brown eyes and it took Katya a few moments to remember her manners. She smiled at the little girl. ‘Hello, Lupi.’

‘She doesn’t understand English,’ said Ben, rocking absently. ‘Or Italian for that matter.’

‘You’re operating on her?’

Ben nodded. ‘Lupi’s is one of four operations I’m doing in Theatre One today for the Lucia Trust.’

Katya was still confused. ‘The Lucia Trust?’

‘A charitable organisation I founded on my return home. We perform operations on people, children mainly, with disfiguring conditions who don’t have access to proper surgical intervention because of their circumstances.’

Katya found what he was saying hard to take in. But as the full implications sank in, she felt increasingly foolish. The things she had thought! The things she had said! And he hadn’t corrected her. Just let her go on thinking the worst.

He chuckled. ‘What’s the matter, Katya? You’re looking a little uneasy.’

His laugh was sexy as hell and it scraped along her nerves. He was rubbing his chin back and forth against Lupi’s hair in time with his rocking. He looked very male and her nipples peaked despite her annoyance at him.

‘You could have said something,’ she said, her voice low, the note of accusation easy to detect.

He laughed again. ‘And spoil your condemnation of me? Your problem, sweet Katya -’ He tapped her nose. ‘Is that you are a reverse snob. You think everyone who has money isn’t worthy. Is frivolous. You judge me because I’m wealthy and dismiss me as a rich playboy.’

A denial rose in her throat and died a quick death. It was true, she had. She did. But he had done nothing to dissuade her of her opinion. If anything he had nurtured it.

He leaned in close to her and said in a slow deep voice, ‘Don’t dismiss me, Katya.’

The words were like a caress and she swallowed hard. There was just something about his mouth, the way he stared at her from under half-closed lids,