here, we’ll head back to Amalfi and we’ll go to the hospital. You may need rehydration.’
Katya couldn’t believe how this was escalating out of control. She could see it becoming an international incident before her eyes. ‘Ben, for God’s sake, put the phone down. I’m pregnant, that’s all.’
She hadn’t meant to blurt it out like that. She had her speech all prepared. Had lain awake all last night, perfecting it. And, in a matter of seconds, she’d blown it out of the water. She watched his face as her words sank in.
‘What did you say?’ he asked, as he slowly replaced the receiver.
Katya sighed. She felt too wretched now to give him the whole spiel. She swung her legs around and sat up gingerly. At least with the boat now stopped, her stomach seemed to be more settled. ‘I’m having your baby,’ she said, her voice stronger now.
Ben stared at her, not even really seeing her as her words slowly filtered through. Baby? Was she insane? ‘But...how?’
Katya could see she’d really thrown him. She’d never seen him look pale — ever. But he did now. And he was clutching the phone like he was going to fall over if he let go. She understood his question was rhetorical so she didn’t bother answering it. She just sat and watched him, waiting for it to sink in further.
‘Are you sure?’ he asked.
Katya nodded patiently. It was a fair enough question. She’d spent a good week in total disbelief. ‘I’ve taken three tests and been throwing up every day for two months.’
Ben blinked. This couldn’t be happening. Him? A father? He didn’t know how to be a father. He just couldn’t get his head around it. ‘Are you sure it’s mine?’
Thinking about it, they hadn’t used any protection. It had been such a spontaneous act and he’d been so shaken that it hadn’t even occurred to him. He’d just needed to be close to her, to hold her, to blot out the awful events and years of stupid, futile anger.
The question slammed into Katya with the force of a hurricane even though it was delivered with no malice or accusation. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled.
No way did he get to question the paternity.
‘I’m one hundred per cent sure.’ She rose, her hands curling into fists by her side. ‘I was a virgin that night, Ben.’
Ben took the second body blow just as hard. His thoughts reeled. ‘You were?’
Christ. Why hadn’t he known? Had he been that caught up in his own grief and regret that he hadn’t been paying attention to her cues?
‘Da,’ she said shortly.
‘But...but I didn’t...I couldn’t...You seemed...’
Ben’s brain was too discombobulated by all this information to be absorbing very much right now. He walked to the lounge chair opposite Katya’s and sank into the plush leather. ‘How do you get to twenty-seven and still be a virgin?’
Katya snorted. Growing up in her house, it had been easy. She’d lived with a woman who used sex as a commodity. Sure, deep down Katya really believed that Olgah had truly just wanted to be loved, but Katya had seen too many men come and go and leave her mother broken-hearted to trust any man.
She had picked up the pieces once too often. Held her mother, stroked her prematurely grey hair, while she had sobbed her heart out. As a child her mother’s ups and downs had been frightening.
Bewildering.
As an adult, her mother’s example had taught Katya that weaknesses destroyed you. Consequently, she’d never let her guard down enough to have a relationship let alone sexual intimacy.
Ben had been a complete one-off for her. A totally out-of-character thing for her to do. But he’d been so shaken, so devastated that she hadn’t even questioned her actions. She’d just known that night, on some intuitive female level she hadn’t really understood, that Ben had needed comfort and she’d known exactly how to provide it.
But the next morning, she had felt no better than her mother.
‘Upbringing,’ Katya said dismissively as she sat, wanting to rehash that night as little as possible. ‘Anyway, that’s not the point. The point is I’m pregnant. I’m sorry, I didn’t plan to tell you this way.’
Ben shook his head to clear it. She was right. The point was, he was going to be a father. The thought was no less horrifying than it had been minutes ago. But something was clearer. ‘That’s why you’re here.’ He glanced at her. ‘You came to tell me you