Prognosis Baby Daddy - Amy Andrews Page 0,63
friends. Even though it would be very hard to pretend there wasn’t more.
Hard? It would be impossible.
He’d almost told her just then. How long did he think he could hold out? Could he go along loving her from afar forever?
Did he want to?
It would kill him, slowly but surely. He knew how it was to hold her, to make love to her. How could he see her every day, want her every day and still stay sane?
That’s why he’d left Italy over the Bianca fiasco. Having to face his brother and his ex every day would have been too hard. And his feelings for his long-ago ex were nothing compared to the depth of his feelings for Katya. She had showed him so much in the time he had known her.
He had matured and his ability to love had matured, too.
And she had given him the gift of a child and he loved them both dearly. Was he going to let what had happened a decade ago ruin his happiness now? He had let Bianca go, had run. But he was older now, and wiser, and Katya had taught him the meaning of true love.
Surely he had to fight for her as well, not just their child?
A woman laughed and Ben looked around. There were a lot of glamorous bejewelled women there that night. But Katya outshone them all. And he’d just let her walk out the door.
His thoughts crystallized for the first time in two weeks. The last time he’d had his heart broken, what had he done? He’d run away. Felt sorry for himself. Played the victim.
Well, not this time.
Mario’s death had been the catalyst for a lot of change over the last few months. But when he thought about it, it had been Katya’s gift that fateful night that had impacted his life most. Her recognition of his distress and her unquestioning generosity had shaken and humbled him.
He’d fallen in love with her that night.
And not the love of a young man obsessed with perfection and finding the right woman to show off to his brother and the rest of the world. But that of a man with a damaged spirit who had found his soul mate.
So, she didn’t love him. And that hurt.
But it was time to fight for her. To declare his intention of wooing her, of winning her over.
And in the end, if he failed, then he could hold his head up high and know that he had given it his all. When Bianca had thrown his love back, he’d fled.
But Katya wasn’t Bianca. Katya wasn’t some young man’s fancy. She was the woman for him. The only woman for him.
A lot had changed in a few short months. And if Bianca and Mario had been alive today, he would have thanked them for their betrayal for it had led him to the woman of his heart.
Throwing back the rest of the contents of his glass, Ben paid his bill and left.
It was time to stop running away.
Katya was lying in bed, crying, when the banging on her door started. She was in her pyjamas, staring unseeingly at the television.
She knew it was him. ‘Go away,’ she croaked.
‘Damn it, Katya, open the door.’
‘Go away, Ben. You got what you want. Leave me alone.’
‘Katya! I have something to say and then I’ll leave, I promise. But so help me, I’ll stay here all night if I need to. You have to come out of there eventually.’
Another stream of hot tears spilled down Katya’s face. She believed him. Sighing, she rose to her feet, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue and blowing her nose. Undoing the deadbolt and the chain latch she flung the door open.
He looked like hell. His tie was gone, his collar unbuttoned, his shirt half hanging out. ‘Can’t this wait?’
‘No. I need to talk to you now.’
‘Fine.’ Katya folded her arms.
When it became obvious she wasn’t inviting him in he said, ‘I’m not doing this in the corridor.’
‘Afraid you’ll catch a disease?’ she snapped, and turned on her heel, leaving him to find his own way in as she got back into bed and pulled the covers up to her chin.
Ben felt the familiar surge of frustration well up inside as he shut the door and crossed to the bed. Sometimes she was so maddening he wanted to pull her across his knees and smack her bottom. ‘You’ve been crying.’
‘Don’t flatter yourself,’ she said, pointing to the television. ‘It’s a sad