‘I want our baby to grow up with two parents, Luccy,’ he told her emotionally. ‘The same way that I did. The same way that you did.’
‘And once this baby has grown up, where would that leave the two of us?’
‘As grandparents, possibly?’
He really was serious about her marrying him!
It was tempting, oh-so-tempting, to accept his offer of marriage and to hell with what happened later. To lay down the mantle of responsibility and let Sin take charge.
But even for the sake of the baby she carried Luccy knew that without that magic ingredient of a shared love—something Sin would never, ever feel for her!—they didn’t stand a chance of making a marriage between them succeed.
Sin had watched the flickering emotions on Luccy’s expressive face, had seen that brief flare of doubt quickly followed by one of firm resolve. ‘Let’s just forget about the whole idea of marriage for the moment and concentrate on getting to know each other, instead,’ he suggested. ‘I doubt it’s good for you, or the baby, if you continue to upset yourself in this way.’
‘You aren’t going to be one of those overprotective prospective fathers who attempts to wrap the pregnant woman in cotton wool until after the birth, are you?’ she challenged. ‘Because if you are I think I should tell you right now that I’m pregnant, not ill. I also intend to continue working until the moment they wheel me into the delivery-room!’ Her eyes sparkled like twin sapphires as she glared at him rebelliously.
‘Sinclair wives don’t work,’ Sin told her arrogantly. ‘And especially not when they’re pregnant,’ he added firmly.
‘This one will!’
Sin knew that there would have to be a lot of adjusting, by both of them, over the next seven months and beyond, but he was determined not to be goaded into arguing with Luccy before they had even begun.
He took a deep breath. ‘If you insist, I’ll just come along and carry your equipment for you.’
Luccy eyed him frustratedly. ‘Sin, I don’t think you’re taking what I have to say seriously.’
‘Sure I am,’ he said briskly. ‘Is your luggage downstairs in your room?’
‘How did you know—? How long have you known it was this hotel I’ve been staying at?’
Sin’s smile was wicked. ‘I made it my business to know once I realised you couldn’t be relied upon to keep our luncheon appointment. Reception had strict instructions to let me know if you tried to book out.’
Luccy should have known. He was a Sinclair, after all. Besides, he owned the damned hotel!
‘Your luggage, Luccy?’ he prompted.
‘Yes, of course it’s in my room, ready for when I book out,’ she said. ‘But—where are we going?’ she demanded as he opened the door out into the corridor before waiting for her to precede him out of the suite.
‘First to get your luggage, and then home,’ he informed her.
‘Home?’ she echoed sharply, her eyes widening. ‘Your home?’
‘Well, of course my home,’ Sin said.
‘But—I thought—’
‘Yes?’
She shook her head. ‘I thought you lived here…’
‘In a hotel?’ Sin raised dark brows. ‘Hardly.’
Luccy still hung back. ‘You don’t live with your grandfather, do you?’
Luccy had been apprehensive and, yes, a little scared, when only she knew of her pregnancy, as she’d wondered how she was going to continue working once the baby was born, amongst other things. But having Sin just step in and take over in this way was even more frustrating. She certainly didn’t intend going to stay with his grandfather!
Sin shot her a mocking glance. ‘I’m thirty-five, Luccy, not five! I’ve had my own home for fifteen years or so,’ he added dryly.
Luccy continued to protest at Sin’s high-handedness even as she followed him down to her room, scowling at him as he stood to one side to allow her to unlock the door.
‘This is unbelievable,’ she complained, having no choice but to continue following him as he strode off to the lift with her two bags. One of them only had her clothes in, but the other one contained her camera and other equipment, expensive equipment she wasn’t willing to let out of her sight. ‘You can’t just kidnap someone against their will!’ she muttered even as she stepped into the lift beside him.
Sin glanced at her. ‘I’m not kidnapping you, Luccy—I’m kidnapping your camera!’ he teased.
Her eyes narrowed in warning. ‘I could always call the police.’
‘And tell them what, precisely? That I’ve stolen your camera? Yeah, they’re really going to believe that!’ Sin gave her an evil grin.
Of course the police wouldn’t believe her if she said Sin had stolen her camera and equipment; Sin was rich enough to buy himself a thousand—a million!—cameras like hers. She doubted the accusation of kidnapping would be believed, either…
This really was incredible.
Unbelievable.
And, Luccy realised belatedly, completely inevitable the moment Sin had known that she was pregnant with his baby…
‘I know we have some tea bags somewhere,’ Sin muttered with his head in one of the kitchen cupboards.
The meticulously clean and tidy kitchen cupboards. In fact, the whole house was so neat and tidy that Luccy felt she should have taken her shoes off before she entered.
She had been more than a little surprised when, instead of driving to some luxurious penthouse apartment in Manhattan, Sin had driven his foreign sports car out of New York completely and into the suburbs to this rambling single-storey ranch-style house surrounded by its own acres of forest and parkland set behind a high wall and huge iron security gates.
The inside of the house was even more surprising, the hallway alone big enough to be one of the rooms in her own London flat.
There were pale cream marble floors and comfortable brocade furniture throughout the whole of the house as Luccy followed Sin through to the kitchen. The paintings on the walls were obviously originals—even the Monet—and the huge kitchen itself was like something out of a glossy magazine, with its green and cream tiled floor, cream units, an array of copper pans suspended along one wall, and a huge picture window at one end that looked out over the forest and rolling parkland.
Luccy stood hesitantly in the doorway. ‘Do you live here alone?’ It was a very large house for one man.
Ideal for a family, of course, and an ideal setting in which to bring up a child…
Sin straightened to look at her knowingly. ‘There’s no other woman in residence, if that’s what you’re asking,’ he drawled. ‘Nor has there ever been,’ he added as she didn’t look convinced.
‘Is it always this neat and tidy?’ Luccy grimaced as she stepped tentatively onto the cream and green tiled floor.
Sin took the tea bags from the cupboard then looked about the kitchen. He rarely came in here as it happened, but he could see now that the copper pots shone along one wall, with not a single item left out on the green marble work surfaces to spoil its neat symmetry, the cream wood units gleaming spotlessly.
He turned back to her with a frown. ‘You don’t like neat and tidy?’
‘Well… yes, of course I like neat and tidy,’ she protested. ‘It’s just that I’m notoriously the opposite.’
Ah, she was looking for reasons