Prognosis Baby Daddy - Amy Andrews Page 0,28

and stretched out before her and she turned back lest her now settled stomach decided to change its mind.

‘No.’

She’d decided long ago, after witnessing her mother’s emotional destruction every time a relationship ended, that she’d be far better off without a man. She’d learned the hard way that true commitment and love were elusive and rare and she’d sworn to never settle for less.

Never marry for less.

Certainly not someone who felt it was his duty and responsibility. All or nothing. It had to be all or nothing. And she wouldn’t compromise, not even for the baby.

Ben wasn’t surprised. But he wasn’t deterred either. ‘Yes.’

Katya shook her head emphatically. He looked so sexy, pinning her to the deck with his brown-eyed stare. She shivered. She was pregnant and had just thrown up her entire stomach contents but when he looked at her, her toes curled. ‘No.’

The more she resisted, the more determined he became. ‘So, let me see,’ he said quietly, observing her hand-on-tummy stance, ‘you expect to have our baby then leave it with me with no legally binding contract? Nothing to say that the baby is mine? Do you want our baby to have my name, Katya?’

Katya let his words sink in. For all her planning, she hadn’t got that far. Did she? Did she want their baby to have its father’s name or hers? What was the point of Ben raising the baby, of her baby growing up in Italy with its father with all the financial security she could dream of, if the child had her name?

Whether she liked it or not, she was carrying a Medici in her belly. Wasn’t it this baby’s birthright to claim its father’s name?

‘We don’t have to marry to give this baby your name.’

‘No, but it makes everything a hell of a lot easier. It legitimises this baby’s birth better than any other legal process. Both in the eyes of the people and the law. I don’t want there to ever be any questions about this baby’s paternity. It has rights to my title and the Medici fortune. Everything has to be above board and a marriage is the simplest, easiest way to achieve this.’

Ben finished, congratulating himself on such clear thinking. He wasn’t actually sure of the legalities concerning illegitimate children and the line of succession but, considering how rattled he was, he was surprised he’d been so comprehensive. Suddenly, though, every word he spoke was important.

Part of him, the one percent that wasn’t horrified, the one percent traditionalist, was already completely committed to this baby. Katya Petrova was pregnant with his child.

His child. The Medici heir.

And whether it was the male in him or the Italian in him, that meant something. When he had been young and foolish and in love with Bianca he had imagined himself with many children. Had anticipated it, eagerly. Then life had happened and his dream had been destroyed but now, whether he liked it or not, his dream was becoming a belated reality. And he had to face his responsibilities.

Katya blinked. She knew the words he had spoken were the truth. She wanted her child to be legitimate too. She didn’t want there to ever be any doubt or whispers. She thought about the whispers she had grown up with. The neighbours who had disapproved of her mother’s lifestyle. Five children with no fathers.

The gossip. The judgmental stares.

Marrying Ben would tidy up any nasty loose ends. But a marriage would be harder to walk away from. And she couldn’t stay. For the sake of her baby, she had to be far, far away.

He had to know that her being involved with this baby was not going to happen. She raised her head and looked him straight in the eye. ‘A marriage would mean a divorce. I can’t stay after I’ve had the baby.’

Ben saw the finality in her blue gaze. For some reason she truly believed that this baby would be better off without her. ‘Why, Katya? Would being married to me be that awful?’

Oh, God! Awful? On the contrary. She shut her eyes briefly and thought about waking up to his beautiful face every morning. Having his lazy smile and slumberous gaze the first thing she saw every day. It was a delicious thought. A seductive thought.

‘I can’t be a mother.’

‘Because you’re mothered out.’

Somehow Ben didn’t think that was it. There had to be more than that. As prickly as she could be, abandoning a child just didn’t ring true.

Katya heard the