BEST FRIEND’S BROTHER

Sasha curved a hand around her stomach, trying to be generous, to remember he was shocked, that she’d had time to adjust to this news and he was being presented with it all now. “Really?” She arched her brow. “But it is,”

He swore and moved towards a bar in the corner, pulling out two bottles of mineral water. He stalked towards her and held one out and she took it without thinking, her fingers curving over the top, but she didn’t drink it. She watched him take several gulps of the liquid before he dropped the bottle.

“I can’t…. I can’t be a father. I’m not ready to be one. I didn’t plan to be one right now,”

Kaleb was madder than hell. It was so obvious: she had put him squarely in the frame as the father. No woman had enraged and inflamed him as comprehensively as Sasha. He had tried to put her out of his mind, but his body would not let him, a galling admission to make, but not one he intended to act on. His dark eyes raked assessingly over her. The tiny white shorts she wore hugged her hips like a second skin, and her stomach still appeared flat, but perhaps her breasts were a little fuller… No! He didn’t want to go there. Yes, he did. But he had no intention of being conned into fatherhood by a dark eyed little witch, however desirable, his hard eyes sweeping back up to her lovely face.

“Why didn’t you do something about it?” he queried with biting cynicism, “I mean, there are pills one could take to prevent this. I know that, so why didn’t you take it?”

“I forgot,” she flared back at him. She could see the anger in every tense line of his body, and hear it in every word he spoke. The Kaleb she thought she knew, was not this furious stranger towering over her.

“You forgot?” he thundered. “I don’t understand. Don’t you women keep track of your… Ovulation and stuff like that? How do I even know that you are telling the truth about being pregnant or if it’s really mine. I want proof!”

Sasha heaved in a shuddering breath. She was slow to anger, but this arrogant man standing before her had succeeded in doing just that. He’d not only insulted her, but then he had the colossal nerve to suggest she was lying about being pregnant. Fury made her leap up from the sofa and stand glaring at him. “Call yourself a man?” she derided, her eyes flashing flames. “You sleep with me for a night and then ignore me for weeks because I didn’t let things go your way. And then when I tell you there are consequences for our actions, you are full of self-righteous rage. Terrified I might cost you what, Kaleb? Money? Your freedom? Or your relationship with Claire?” she said with enough scorn to make him clench his fists at his sides to control his anger.

“Demanding proof I’m pregnant.” Shaking with rage, she shoved him in the chest with the flat of her hand, and his mouth tightened to a thin line, but he let her. “What do you suggest, huh?” she demanded hysterically. “I slash my belly open to show you? Is that it, is that what you really want-a convenient termination? Is that cheap enough for you?”

Kaleb’s cool façade cracked wide open and he paled like a man in shock. “No. Sasha, no.” His strong hands reached out to grasp her shaking shoulders and he pulled her to him, his face only inches from her own. “Don’t say that, Sasha, don’t even think about it.”

His black eyes, wide with horror, were fixed on hers, his fingers biting into her flesh. Shocked out of her near hysterics by the force of his reaction, she snapped, “Don’t worry, I have every intention of keeping my child. And let go of me, you’re hurting me.”

Kaleb drew in a deep, audible breath. “I didn’t realize.” His hands gentled on her shoulders, but he did not let her go.

Which was just as well because Sasha felt weak. “What a disaster,” she murmured. Her hormones were all over the place, and the emotional turmoil of the past few weeks was finally getting to her. And discovering the father of her child didn’t want anything to do with the baby didn’t help. The only positive was Kaleb had made it very clear he didn’t want her to terminate the pregnancy.

“It does not have to be a disaster,” Kaleb said. “We will figure something out, as long as it doesn’t involve us getting married, or anything crazy like that. We already have enough to worry about”Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

Her head jerked up. “Married-? If that was a proposal it lacked something in the offering,” she said bluntly. “You can relax, Kaleb. I am having this baby, with or without you and, I can assure you, living as I do, I am in an ideal position to bring up my own child. I don’t need to be married to you to do anything and for your information, I don’t want to be married to you! I see no thrill in it so why should I want it?”

She was being perverse, she knew. If Kaleb ever decided that he wanted them to get married, he would be offering her everything she had ever dreamed of, and weeks ago, she would have jumped at the chance, but now she was no longer so sure. A lot had changed in weeks and nothing seemed like it used to be. Plus she had never heard him so angry or so insulting.

Her words hurt. Kaleb stiffened, his hands dropping from her shoulders, and suddenly he was back to his cool, arrogant best, all trace of emotion gone, more like the Kaleb she knew so well. “Don’t be ridiculous. You cannot blame me for what I said. You heard me before, I’m barely ready for this and marriage would only be another burden. We can barely stay in a room together without fighting or arguing, so I think we can agree that I was right.”

He was right, she knew. The baby had come unexpectedly and she had to understand his shock because she’d gone through it also. So why was she so mad at his comment about marriage? Because she wanted it all:

She wanted Kaleb to love her. She wanted him to want her, as she wanted him. Was she being unreasonable?