The Bachelor's Baby. Liz Fielding

stared at her. Was she serious? ‘That’s what you want?’ She didn’t answer him and he suddenly realised what was going on. She wanted a baby with a daddy rich enough to ensure that it lacked for nothing. She didn’t want the trouble of a man about the house. ‘I’ll be hearing from your lawyers, is that it?’ he asked, keeping his own voice flat and expressionless.

      ‘Lawyers?’ She shook her head, as if he was slow-witted or something. ‘I don’t want your money, Jake. I have money. I run a successful business…’

      Yeah, sure. He wasn’t that slow. ‘You can’t run a business with a baby on your hip.’

      ‘Watch me.’ Then she made the slightest of gestures, apparently dismissing him and his concerns. ‘Or not. As you please. You said you don’t do commitment, Jake. I heard you, and you can believe me when I promise that you’re not committed to me or my baby. Financially or emotionally.’ There was a crispness in her voice that suggested she was losing patience. ‘And you needn’t worry about what Mike and Willow will think. I’ll speak to them. They know me; they’ll understand.’

      ‘Will they? I’m damned if I do.’

      ‘No? Well, I’m sorry, Jake, I’m afraid I can’t put it any plainer.’

      And she crossed to the door, opened it as if she was setting free some small frightened creature that she was pushing out into the world for its own good.

      Standing on the threshold, his thoughts in a turmoil, he realised that he didn’t want to go. He just didn’t know how to stay. And if he did stay it would give Amaryllis Jones entirely the wrong idea about his determination not to get caught up in the emotional rollercoaster she had boarded.

      Bad idea.

      Instead he headed for the gate while he still remembered how, determined not to look back once he’d got there. If she was bluffing, well, he was calling her.

      The door clicked shut before he’d gone half a dozen steps and he swung round, taken by surprise.

      Dammit, she meant it! She really meant it!

      Well, that was just fine. So did he. Now they both knew where they stood.