Prognosis Baby Daddy - Amy Andrews Page 0,31

baby but from a marriage, too.

‘Why,’ she asked, ‘why do you want to complicate your life by marrying me?’

‘Oh, and you think a child won’t complicate it?’

She gave him a frustrated stare. ‘Don’t you think marrying for a child is wrong?’

He shrugged. ‘Plenty of couples do it.’

‘And plenty of them fail,’ she pointed out. ‘Don’t you want to marry for higher ideals? Like love?’

He snorted. ‘Love? What’s that? I don’t believe in it. All love does is make you blind to things you should see and makes you see things that aren’t there.’

Katya blinked. And she thought she was cynical? Could she marry a man who didn’t believe in love? Even for a few short months? She may have grown up in the gritty reality of life but somewhere beneath her tough exterior there was still a tiny part of her, a remnant of a romantic eight-year-old, who still dreamt of a Prince Charming on a white charger. Who demanded it.

‘And what do we tell people when I leave the marriage after the baby’s born? If we marry, we give everyone involved a false promise. Can you lie to everyone about that? Can you lie to your mother?’

Ben hesitated. Could he? Could he look his mother in the eye? ‘Married or not, they’re going to have an expectation that our relationship is going to last longer than a few months,’ he said. ‘I’m a Medici, they’ll have expectations.’

Katya shrugged her slim shoulders. ‘Let them.’

‘People around here will expect us to marry.’

‘I can’t, Ben. I won’t. I’ll do whatever else you ask. I’ll sign anything you want to grant you legal recognition as the father of the baby. You can get a paternity test. I’ll stay here till it’s born. Hell, I’ll live with you, if that helps. But I will not marry you.’

Ben heard the finality in her voice. And he believed her. She looked grim and solemn and resolute. ‘You’re making a mistake,’ he said grimly.

She shook her head emphatically. ‘No, Ben, I’m not. This is probably the only thing I’m doing right. You see, I have no control over being pregnant. Over this situation. Not now. And if this hadn’t have happened, we’d probably never have seen each other again. But I do have control over this. Over who I marry. My faith in marriage is fairly non-existent, I’m afraid. But I do know that I can’t settle for less than one hundred per cent love and commitment. I’ve seen firsthand how that can destroy someone.’

‘I can promise you, you will have one hundred and ten per cent commitment from me, Katya.’

Katya laughed harshly. ‘What, until I leave?’

He nodded. ‘For as long as you stay.’

And then what? Back to the swimwear models? ‘Can you promise me love?’

Ben blinked and felt his heart pounding in his chest. An image of Bianca and Mario locked together in a passionate kiss swam before him.

Love? What the hell was love?

‘Maybe...over time...’

Great. So she’d be just like her mother. Waiting around, wasting her life in futile relationships, hanging on for those three magic words?

‘Relax, Ben, it’s OK. You don’t love me. I don’t love you. We’re just two people who were irresponsible and are facing the consequences. But that only gives you the right to this baby. It doesn’t give you the right to me.’

Katya raised her head and held it up proudly. The traditionalist in him might be forcing him to be noble but the eight-year-old girl in her, the one who’d had all her dreams crushed into the dirt, was stubbornly shaking her head, refusing to give away her last childhood fantasy.

Ben took a moment to digest her words. She really was serious about leaving the child for him to raise. He could see the determined jut of her chin. This was obviously a deal breaker for her. He quickly weighed up his options. If he insisted, forced her hand, would she leave taking his baby with her? Go through with her plans to have it adopted?

Or could he pull back and try and convince her in the time between now and the baby’s birth that their child needed a mother as well as a father? Gently, slowly, surely work away at her, get to know her and help her to see that she could be a mother to the baby? Even if they never married, surely Katya staying was the best scenario possible?

He had about six months...

Nodding, Ben conceded. ‘OK, fine. We’ll play it your way.’

Katya watched his face, searching