He was vaguely thinking about locking the door and carrying her to the long boardroom-table when Katrina began pushing against his chest again.
‘Stop it, Alex!’ she gasped, dragging her mouth out from under his. She was breathing so fast she could barely get the words out. ‘Stop it! I don’t want this.’
Alex lifted his head and stared down at her.
Her eyes were wide, the golden-brown specks gleaming, her mouth moist and kiss-swollen. A hectic flush had coloured her cheekbones, and scented heat was radiating off her skin.
She looked the way she’d always looked when they made love, and the familiarity of it sent a wave of satisfaction through him.
‘Yes, you do.’ He smudged his thumb across her lower lip. ‘Do you think I didn’t notice the way your eyes ate me up when you burst in here? And just now you were with me kiss for kiss. You’re hungry for me—go on, admit it.’
Alex wasn’t quite sure why it was so important that she admit she still wanted him, but it was. Important enough that a clamouring sense of urgency to hear her say the words was rising up inside of him.
Katrina tore herself out of his arms and stalked across the room, putting the length of the boardroom table between them. ‘That…that kiss was a mistake,’ Katrina said, wringing her hands together in front of her as if wringing a tea towel she was trying to extract water from. ‘It shouldn’t have happened.’
Alex opened his mouth to challenge the truth of that statement but just as quickly closed it again.
Katrina was right.
It was over between them.
It had to be.
Why was he thinking any differently?
Because he wasn’t thinking with the head, he admitted grudgingly.
He dragged in a breath. ‘I couldn’t agree more,’ he replied coolly.
She blinked at him. ‘You…you agree?’
He nodded. ‘Of course. I kissed you merely because I was trying to prove a point.’
Her mouth compressed into a straight line. ‘And what point is that?’
‘You claimed you wouldn’t take me even if I was served up to you on a platter,’ he drawled softly, refusing to admit the comment had dented his ego. ‘That kiss just proved you’d take me any way you can get me. Only I’m not buying.’
‘Why you arrogant, egotistical playboy!’ she spluttered, green eyes flashing fire at him. ‘Might I remind you that I was the one who stopped just now, not you?’
Alex was once again surprised by her outburst. Katrina had lost her temper twice since she’d arrived, something he couldn’t recollect her doing even once in the almost-twelve months he’d known her.
‘I’m not going to debate that with you. Now, you obviously came here for a reason. Maybe it’s time we stopped talking about the past and got to the point of this meeting. Because, frankly, I don’t understand what you’re doing here.’
A mixture of emotions flashed across her face so fast he couldn’t register what each one was. Her breath hissed out of her mouth. Without another word, she spun on her heel and stalked towards the door.
Alex frowned. ‘Come back here, Katrina. This meeting isn’t over. It’s not over until I say it’s over.’
She threw him a scathing look over her shoulder and wrenched open the door, disappearing through it before he had a chance to stop her.
Alex lunged after her, then slowed when he heard the murmur of voices. He frowned. It sounded as if Katrina was talking to his PA, Justine.
He was at the door when he almost collided with Katrina, who was coming back into the room.
She was carrying something.
Alex looked down automatically.
He stiffened. The air locked tight in his lungs, his heart knocking against his breast bone as if it was trying to shatter it. His body moved from stiff to rigid in the blink of an eye, as if he’d just been spray-painted with quick-drying cement.
Staring up out of what he now realised was a carry cot was a tiny, gurgling baby.
He looked up. ‘What the—?’ Alex dragged in a ragged breath, his eyes narrowed on her face. ‘I—You—’ He snapped his mouth closed, dragged in another breath and then accused harshly, ‘You had the baby!’
Katrina frowned. ‘Of course I had the baby.’ She looked down and her mouth softened. ‘Meet your daughter. Her name is Samantha.’
Katrina had never seen Alex speechless before, but that was certainly what he was now. His sensual mouth was working but so far no sound had emerged. At least, nothing intelligible. His blue eyes were fixed with piercing intensity on their tiny daughter, as if he’d never seen a baby before.
‘Well, aren’t you going to say something?’ she asked anxiously, her hands shaking so much she thought she might drop the cot and its precious contents.
Alex lifted his head slowly, his gaze refocussing on her. ‘I didn’t know you’d had the baby,’ he said, sounding dazed.
Katrina frowned. She put the cot down on the end of the table before turning back to Alex. ‘That’s the second time you’ve said that. Of course I had the baby. Why are you so surprised?’
He blinked and the dazed look slowly cleared. ‘When you disappeared the way you did, I presumed you’d decided to abort the child.’
‘What…what did you say?’ she asked in a voice that was little more than a whisper.
Alex shrugged. ‘It was the only reason I could think of to explain why you packed up and left the way you did.’
‘You have to be kidding?’ Katrina burst out incredulously. She’d never lost her temper as many times as she had during this meeting. But she’d spent months stewing over the way Alex had treated her, and he was doing the same thing again now: pushing all of the right buttons to send her anger into overdrive. ‘I can think of a dozen reasons, and not one of them would be that.’
‘Then why?’
‘You didn’t think I might have needed a friend right about then?’ When he stared at her blankly, she gritted her teeth. ‘I was twenty-two, Alex. Pregnant and alone. The man I loved had just accused me of trying to foist another man’s child on to him. What did you think I was going to do—carry on as if everything was normal?’
His mouth curled. ‘You’re not going to try that old chestnut, are you?’
She blinked at him. ‘What old chestnut?’
He waved a hand. ‘Love. You just said that you love me. This is the first I’ve heard of it.’
Her heart resounded in her chest with the same boom as rolling thunder. ‘I said loved, Alex. Past tense. And I didn’t tell you how I felt because it was clear you didn’t love me. Or want my love.’ She laughed harshly, mocking her feelings and the dream that one day he would love her in return. ‘Don’t worry. I realise now that it was all an illusion. The man I thought I loved didn’t really exist. He was obviously just a figment of my imagination, because he would never have treated me the way you have.’
‘And how have I treated you?’ Alex demanded in a cool voice.
She wrung her hands together again. She’d been determined to keep calm during this meeting but her anxiety and distress were getting the better of her. ‘For one, he would never have accused me of aborting our child without telling him!’
‘I’m sorry,’ Alex said stiffly. ‘It sounded like the most logical