‘No, there will be no qualification of that statement,’ Jai interposed levelly. ‘Now, please pack so that we can leave this place behind us.’
Willow leapt upright and reached down for Hari.
‘I will look after him while you pack,’ Jai spelt out as he too stood up, towering over her in her flat heels with Hari still clasped in his arms.
‘You could walk away with him while I’m upstairs,’ Willow pointed out shakily, not an ounce of colour in her taut face as she looked up at him fearfully.
‘I give you my word of honour that I will not do that. You are his mother and my son needs his mother,’ Jai murmured soft and low, the hardness of his expression softening a little. ‘Although I grew up without mine, it would never be my choice to put my son in the same position.’
Willow backed off a step, still uncertain of what she should do. ‘If I pack, where are you taking us to? A hotel?’
‘Of course not. To my home here in London,’ Jai proffered as Hari tugged cheerfully at his hair. ‘I have already had rooms prepared for your arrival.’
‘You took a lot for granted,’ Willow remarked helplessly.
‘In this situation, I can afford to do so,’ Jai told her without remorse.
And with that ringing indictment of her ability to raise their child alone, Willow headed upstairs. There wasn’t much for her to pack. She gathered up Hari’s bottles and solid food and put them into the baby bag Shelley had bought her. She settled the bin bags filled with their clothing and Hari’s toys into the battered stroller, donned her duffle coat and wheeled the stroller to the top of the stairs before stooping to lift it and battle to carry it downstairs. Halfway down the second flight one of Jai’s bodyguards met her and lifted it out of her arms.
‘Is that the lot?’ Jai asked, turning from the reception desk, Hari tucked comfortably under one arm.
‘Yes. I left stuff with Shelley.’
‘There’s a form for you to fill in. I put in the forwarding address,’ Jai advanced.
Willow was surprised that there was only one form because before she had even moved into the hostel, she’d had to fill out a thirty-page document. She signed her name at the foot, briefly scanning the address Jai had filled in, raising a brow at the exclusivity of the area. Mayfair, no less. Five minutes later, she was climbing into a limousine for the first time in her life, breathless at the unknown ahead of her.
Jai strapped Hari into the car seat awaiting him.
‘When did you learn to be so comfortable around babies?’ Willow asked tautly.
‘There are many children in my extended family. High days and holidays, they visit,’ Jai told her. ‘I was a lonely only child. Hari will never suffer from a lack of company.’
On her smoothly upholstered leather seat, Willow tensed, registering that Jai was already talking about her son visiting India. She supposed that was natural, and an expectation he would obviously have. Even so the prospect of her baby boy being so far away from her totally unnerved her, and she couldn’t help feeling overwhelmed, most especially when Jai had already threatened her with legal action.
‘Now for the question that taxes my patience the most,’ Jai breathed, his nostrils flaring with annoyance, his light eyes throwing a laser-bright challenge. ‘Why would you move into a homeless shelter rather than ask me for help?’
Willow froze. ‘There’s nothing wrong with living in a homeless shelter. They’re there for when people are desperate.’
‘But you weren’t desperate, not really. You could’ve turned to me at any time. And don’t try to misinterpret my question. I probably know a great deal more than you about the individuals who use such shelters. Some are those who have fallen on hard times through no fault of their own, others have mental health issues or are drug addicts or ex-cons. None of those elements make a homeless shelter safe or acceptable for a child,’ Jai completed harshly.
‘Nonetheless there are quite a few children living in them!’ Willow shot back at him stubbornly.
‘Why didn’t you contact me?’ Jai demanded, out of all patience with her reluctance to answer his original question. He had been denied all knowledge of his son for more than six months and that enraged him, but he was grimly aware that this was not the right time to reveal his deep anger, particularly not if he wanted her to tell him the truth.
Willow swallowed convulsively. ‘I didn’t think you’d want to know. It was my problem. He’s my child.’ She hesitated. ‘When I was pregnant, I was afraid that you would want me to have a termination and I didn’t want to be put in that position. I didn’t want to feel guilty for wanting to have my own child. It was easier to get on with it on my own and I managed fine while I was pregnant and still able to work.’
‘I would never have asked you to have a termination. Hari is my child too,’ Jai retorted crisply. ‘I would have ensured that you had somewhere decent to live and I would have supported you.’
Willow sighed. ‘Well, it’s too late now to be arguing about it.’
Jai’s eyes flashed at that assurance and he struggled to repress his anger, because her misplaced pride and lack of faith in him had ensured that his son had endured living conditions that were far less than his due.
‘So, how did you manage to conceive when you told me it would be safe for us to have sex?’ he asked next, battening down his volatile responses to concentrate on the basic facts.
Willow could feel her whole face heating up and she glanced across at Jai with noticeable reluctance. Safe to have sex? That was what he had meant that night? She shook her head slowly as clarity spilled through her brain and she squirmed in retrospect over her own stupidity. ‘I misunderstood. When you asked if it was safe, I assumed that you were asking if we would be interrupted…if I was expecting anyone,’ she admitted stiffly, her cheeks only burning more fierily at the look of incredulity that flared in his ice-blue eyes. ‘I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking about contraception. That danger honestly didn’t cross my mind.’
And the whole mystery of how she had become pregnant was clarified there and then, Jai conceded in a kind of wonderment. She had misunderstood him, and he had been too hot for her to reflect on the risk that he had never taken with any other woman. They had had unprotected sex several times because the young woman he had slept with had still had the mentality of a guilty, self-conscious teenager, determined to hide her sex life from the critical grown-ups. He supposed then that he had got exactly what he deserved for not considering questioning the level of her sexual experience.
Or was he being very naive in accepting that explanation? Was it, indeed, possible that Willow had wanted to become pregnant by a rich man? A rich man and a baby by him could secure a woman’s comfort for a comfortable twenty years. In one calculating move, such a pregnancy would have solved all Willow’s financial problems. And not contacting him and keeping him out of the picture until the child was safely born could well have been part of the same gold-digging scheme to set him up and profit from her fertility in the future.
Jai frowned, ice-blue eyes, enhanced by velvety black lashes, turning glacier cool as he surveyed her. She looked tired and tense and hadn’t made any effort to do herself up for his benefit, but then, why would she bother when she was now the mother of his son and already in an unassailable position in his life?
At the same time, he had made the first move that night after the funeral, at least, he thought he had. In truth, all he recalled was the heady taste of her lips, not how he had arrived at that point. The pulse at his groin kicked up a storm at that recollection, reminding him that he was still hungry for her. His jaw clenched. He would soon find out if she was mercenary and, really, it didn’t matter a damn, did it? After all, whatever she was, whoever she turned out to be, he had to marry her for his son’s sake…