The Baby Favour. Andrea Laurence

of her moving on. “Don’t be silly,” he said. “I’m trying to be serious here. I don’t want you to give up on your dream of having your own family, Scarlet. Not because of me. You can still have it. Sure, it won’t drop in your lap tomorrow, but you can have it.”

      “Maybe. Someday. But I sure as hell can’t move on with you here. It’s so hard to have you here and not think about everything else. About us. About Evan. About what a mess our lives have become...”

      “Do you think it’s any easier on me? Christ, Scarlet. The last three days have been torture.”

      Scarlet flinched. “This is what you wanted. How has it been torture?”

      He ran his fingers through his sleep-tousled hair and then rubbed his palm over his face. “Do you know how hard it is for me to be around you and not want you? I am crazy with wanting you. You’re my wife.”

      “I was your wife,” she said in a cold, accusatory tone she’d never used during their marriage. “You left me.”

      “I left you because I can’t have you, Scarlet. Not and let you have what you need to be happy.”

      She narrowed her gaze at him and took a step closer. “How do you know what I need, Mason? You always do this. You’ve always treated me like I’m a part of the company that you have to manage. You’re always making decisions for me, thinking you know what’s best, instead of asking me what I want or listening to me when I tell you things.”

      Mason hesitated in his reply. He knew it probably seemed that way. He did listen. He just didn’t believe her. No matter how many times she said she was okay not having children, he knew it was a lie. She was settling. Because of him. And he wasn’t about to let her do that for something so important. Even when he didn’t like what he had to do, he’d do it because it was in her best interests.

      “You bought this house without asking me.”

      “I bought your dream house on Malibu. You don’t like it?”