by Kate Walker
Katrina frowned. She put the cot down on the end of the table before turning back to Alex. ‘That’s the second time you’ve said that. Of course I had the baby. Why are you so surprised?’
He blinked and the dazed look slowly cleared. ‘When you disappeared the way you did, I presumed you’d decided to abort the child.’
‘What…what did you say?’ she asked in a voice that was little more than a whisper.
Alex shrugged. ‘It was the only reason I could think of to explain why you packed up and left the way you did.’
‘You have to be kidding?’ Katrina burst out incredulously. She’d never lost her temper as many times as she had during this meeting. But she’d spent months stewing over the way Alex had treated her, and he was doing the same thing again now: pushing all of the right buttons to send her anger into overdrive. ‘I can think of a dozen reasons, and not one of them would be that.’
‘Then why?’
‘You didn’t think I might have needed a friend right about then?’ When he stared at her blankly, she gritted her teeth. ‘I was twenty-two, Alex. Pregnant and alone. The man I loved had just accused me of trying to foist another man’s child on to him. What did you think I was going to do—carry on as if everything was normal?’
His mouth curled. ‘You’re not going to try that old chestnut, are you?’
She blinked at him. ‘What old chestnut?’
He waved a hand. ‘Love. You just said that you love me. This is the first I’ve heard of it.’
Her heart resounded in her chest with the same boom as rolling thunder. ‘I said loved, Alex. Past tense. And I didn’t tell you how I felt because it was clear you didn’t love me. Or want my love.’ She laughed harshly, mocking her feelings and the dream that one day he would love her in return. ‘Don’t worry. I realise now that it was all an illusion. The man I thought I loved didn’t really exist. He was obviously just a figment of my imagination, because he would never have treated me the way you have.’
‘And how have I treated you?’ Alex demanded in a cool voice.
She wrung her hands together again. She’d been determined to keep calm during this meeting but her anxiety and distress were getting the better of her. ‘For one, he would never have accused me of aborting our child without telling him!’
‘I’m sorry,’ Alex said stiffly. ‘It sounded like the most logical explanation.’
‘Well, it wasn’t. I needed to be with someone who genuinely cared about me. Someone who would give me emotional support instead of blaming me for the situation, like you did.’
He frowned. ‘So you went to stay with a friend?’
She nodded. ‘Just for a couple of weeks. Until I found somewhere else to live.’ She gave him the kind of look that could curdle milk. ‘I had no intention of staying in an apartment being paid for by you. So much for your claim that I’m a gold-digger!’
His remark had been totally uncalled for. She hadn’t been happy about him renting an apartment for her in the first place. It was only when Alex had explained that its location meant they could see more of each other that she’d given in.
Alex stared at her through narrowed eyes. ‘What friend?’
She angled her chin upwards. ‘I don’t think that’s any of your business, do you?’
His mouth hardened. ‘Just tell me one thing.’
‘And what’s that?’
‘Was it a man?’
‘No, it wasn’t a man. What makes you ask that?’
He shrugged. ‘It makes sense.’
Katrina frowned. ‘It might make sense to you, but it doesn’t to me.’
His piercing blue eyes bored into hers. ‘I would have thought it made perfect sense for you to stay with the father of your child for the duration of your pregnancy.’
She gasped and pressed a hand to her chest, where her heart was frantically beating. ‘What did you say?’
Alex threw a cold glance at the cot. ‘Whoever fathered that child, it wasn’t me,’ he said in a voice that rasped like sandpaper down her spine.
Katrina’s stomach churned, her heart kicked, and it was all she could do to remain standing upright.
She was so angry and hurt that she wanted nothing more than to spin on her heel, stalk out the door and never see Alex again.
If it wasn’t for Samantha, she would have done exactly that. But her daughter’s needs had to come first—and she needed both of her parents.
‘She is yours,’ she finally gritted out.
‘No. She’s not. I always made sure we were protected.’
‘Not always.’
‘OK. So I forgot—once,’ Alex dismissed.
She sucked in a lungful of much-needed air and glared at him. ‘That’s all it takes. Besides, all forms of contraception have a failure rate, including condoms. And, since I didn’t sleep with anybody else, it’s physically impossible for anyone else to be the father.’
Alex frowned. Katrina could tell by the way he was looking at her that the cogs of his mind were grinding as he assessed what she’d just said. Finally, face hardening, he said, ‘I don’t believe you. The child is not mine. And I will expect you to sign something attesting to that fact.’
Katrina folded her arms defiantly. ‘I’m not signing anything.’
‘Oh yes, you are. The document will list a number of conditions: one, you will never approach me regarding the child again. Two, you will never ask me for money. And three, you will never publicly try to claim I am the father of your child.’
Katrina was so stunned all she could do was stare and keep on staring.
‘When the document is ready, you will sign it,’ Alex continued in the same harsh voice.
Katrina surged to her feet, limbs shaking, hands clenched into fists. She’d never felt so insulted in her life—unless she counted his earlier accusation about secretly aborting their child!
Angry—furious, more like it—Katrina stared him in the eye and resisted the urge to smack him across his handsome face.
‘That is not going to happen.’
Without saying another word, she scooped up the carry cot and stormed out of the boardroom.
CHAPTER TWO
ALEX frowned as he watched Katrina march out of the room. ‘Katrina! Come back in here.’
Alex narrowed his eyes as he waited, in no doubt that she’d reappear at any moment. He’d always found her…Well, the truth was he’d always found her rather biddable. She’d always fallen in with his plans, even when he’d known she wasn’t entirely happy with them. She’d always said yes, even if it had meant changing her schedule to fit in with his.
Put simply, like every other woman who’d shared his bed, she had never once said no to him.
Any minute now, she would reappear. He would reiterate his intentions. She would leave…and it would all be over.
The thought should have pleased him. But somehow it didn’t.
The thought of never seeing Katrina again, never tasting her again, left him feeling oddly unsettled, although he couldn’t imagine why.
Forcing the thought aside, Alex scowled.
Realising that Katrina should have reappeared by now, he sprang towards the door.
A quick scan of Justine’s private office showed no sign of either Katrina or the carry cot. He strode to Justine’s desk. She was on the phone and acknowledged him with a slight smile and a raised eyebrow.
Too impatient to wait, Alex snatched the receiver out of her hand and dropped it unceremoniously into the cradle.
Justine gaped up at him. ‘What did you do that for?’
Alex could understand her surprise. In the three years she’d worked for him, he’d never done such a thing. ‘Where’s Katrina?’
‘She left.’
‘What do you mean she left?’ Alex roared, his insides contracting on a wave of frustration.
Justine blinked up at him. ‘Well, she came out and said goodbye, and then she left.’
The words hit Alex in the centre of his
back as he left the room and began sprinting down the corridor towards the lift. By the time it offloaded him in the vast foyer on the ground floor, there was no sign of her.
He raced to the exit and lost precious seconds waiting for the glass doors to slide open. Like the lift, they appeared to be moving in slow motion.
Out on the pavement, Alex looked left and right, then scanned the other side of the road.
There was no sign of Katrina.
Alex swore, astounded Katrina had run out on him for a second time. People just didn’t do that to him.
Alex returned inside, stopping beside the security guard standing inside the doorway. His name tag read David Greenway.
‘David, did you see an attractive woman come through here a few minutes ago? She has caramel-blonde hair and green eyes. She was wearing a black leather jacket. You couldn’t miss her.’
David Greenway’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed. ‘I’m sorry, sir. We get a lot of people through here.’
Alex clamped his teeth so tightly together he thought they might shatter. He was about to turn away when he thought of something. ‘She was carrying a baby in a cot.’
‘Ah.’ The security guard nodded eagerly. ‘Yes, I remember her now.’
‘Did you see which way she went?’
David nodded. ‘She flagged down a taxi virtually right outside the door.’
‘Damn.’ Alex stared down at the tips of his shiny black shoes and then up again. ‘Did you see what company?’
‘As it happens, I did. It was Lime Taxis.’
‘Well done, David. Well done,’ Alex said, patting him on the shoulder and hurrying away.
Back in his office Alex pressed the speed-dial button for the Royce Agency, the private-detective firm he’d engaged on numerous occasions to do background checks on prospective employees and upgrade the security in his homes and offices.
He’d also engaged the agency to find Katrina. It was the first time the outfit had failed him, which was why they had continued to search for her free of charge.
He was put through to Royce, the owner, straight away.
Briefly and concisely, Alex outlined what had happened.
‘Lime Taxis, you said?’ Royce confirmed. ‘The information is going to cost you.’
‘I don’t care how much it costs,’ Alex grated. ‘Find her.’
He’d spent seven months kicking his heels, wondering where Katrina was and what she was doing.
His interest hadn’t been in the least personal, of course. The minute he’d discovered she was trying to foist another man’s child on him, he’d known their relationship was over. But he had felt it wise to keep an eye on her so that the situation didn’t explode in his face.
But Katrina had hidden herself well. He had no intention of letting the same thing happen again; he wanted the experts on the job while her trail was still hot.
‘OK,’ Royce said. ‘I’ll call you back as soon as I have the information.’
‘Make it fast.’
Alex paced his office like an animal trapped in a much-too-small cage. When his mobile phone rang, Alex almost broke the thing in his eagerness to answer. ‘Royce?’
Royce got straight to the point. ‘The taxi dropped her off at an apartment in Waverton. Here’s the address.’
Alex scribbled the information down on his notepad. Before ending the call, he said, ‘I want you to send someone over to the apartment to watch Katrina. They are not to let her out of their sight. I want to know where she goes and who she sees. And I want a report on who she’s staying with. Got it?’
Alex didn’t wait for a reply. Despite the fact Royce and his people had failed to find Katrina, they were still good operatives. The best, in fact. He had no doubt his request was already spinning into action.
Ripping the page from his notepad, Alex shoved it in his pocket and left the office.
‘I’m going to be out for the rest of the day,’ he said, striding past Justine’s desk without pause.
‘But you have appointments all afternoon,’ Justine called after him.
‘Cancel them,’ Alex flung over his shoulder. ‘I have more important things to attend to!’
Katrina was scrubbing the stove top when the doorbell rang. There was something therapeutic about making the white enamel gleam. She always cleaned when she was upset or had some serious thinking to do. And right at this moment she could tick the box against both of those things.
The doorbell pealed again.
‘Coming,’ she called, dropping her cloth then pulling off her green rubber-gloves and flinging them down on the edge of the kitchen sink.
Hurrying to the door, she pulled it open.
She was quite unprepared to find Alex standing on the doorstep.
For one stunned second all she could do was gape up at him like a stranded fish. Then she dragged in a breath, regathered her wits and tried to slam the door in his face.
She was too late.
An expensive black leather shoe wedged itself between the door and the jamb. Then a strong, longfingered hand curled around the edge of the door and began pushing it open.
Katrina leant against it with all her weight, but it was useless. She was no match for Alex’s size and strength. It was like an ant trying to push over an elephant.
Recognising that she was wasting her time, Katrina stepped away from the door so fast that Alex practically fell into the apartment.
After staring at her long and hard, he looked around.
‘You live here?’
The slight emphasis he’d given the last word managed to convey exactly what he thought of the apartment. Her hackles, which were already sticking up like the needles on a porcupine after their earlier meeting, bristled some more.
Katrina followed his gaze. She had to admit the carpet needed replacing. It was threadbare in places and stained in others. The walls were also long overdue for a coat of paint.
Peter had apologized for the condition of the unit, but he’d over-extended himself when he’d bought it and was struggling to meet the mortgage repayments.
Katrina had jokingly said it was OK because it didn’t show up her furniture. It would be generous to call her stuff ‘second hand’. She was probably its third or fourth owner, each piece displaying a series of dents and scratches from each of its previous lives.
But so what?
If he looked hard enough, Alex would notice what was really important. And that was that she kept the place immaculately clean and tidy.
She tossed her head, angled her chin into the air and said coolly, ‘Yes, this is where I live. Sorry if it’s not up to your high standards, but we can’t all be as rich as you. What are you doing here, Alex? How did you find me?’
‘I’m here because you ran out on me before we finished our conversation,’ he said through clenched teeth. ‘As to finding you, that was easy. You were seen getting into a Lime Taxi. Discovering where it had dropped you didn’t take long.’
‘That’s an invasion of privacy. They had no right to tell you where I’d gone.’
‘Tell that to someone who cares.’ Alex slammed the door behind him and moved determinedly towards her.
Katrina, who had managed to stand her ground at the bank earlier in the day, backed away from him.
His eyes were a glittering, angry blue, his jaw squared with the same emotion. He also looked impossibly, wickedly handsome, and the closer he moved into her personal space the more she was aware of him.
Her heart and her pulse rate both picked up rhythm.
Her back came up against the wall that divided the small living area from the even tinier kitchen. She pressed against it, as if she could somehow go through the painted brick to the other side.
Alex planted a hand against the wall on either side of her head, effectively trapping her.
His heat and his smell were all around her.
Anxiety and awareness coursed through her, making her tremble.
�
�That’s the second time you’ve run out on me. And the last. Understand?’ Alex said in a dangerously soft voice, his breath wafting across her face.
‘I didn’t run out on you,’ she said, angling her chin into the air. ‘I walked.’
He growled something completely incomprehensible under his breath. ‘Don’t split hairs. Why did you leave?’
She snatched in a breath. ‘I left because I didn’t like what you were saying.’
‘So why didn’t you just tell me that?’
‘I did. I said I wasn’t going to sign your stupid document. And I’m not,’ she added for good measure. ‘I haven’t changed my mind.’
He bared his teeth in the parody of a smile. ‘You will if you know what’s good for you.’
The threat stirred her anger to life. She welcomed the emotion because it banished her awareness of him.
‘No, I won’t.’ She dug the point of her index finger into the centre of his chest. ‘Because Sam is your daughter.’
He froze, face twisting. ‘Stop saying that. It’s not true!’
Her anger evaporated as if it had never existed. Her heart stilled then took off at a gallop. A shiver made its way down and then up her spine, setting her teeth on edge.
For the first time, she appreciated just how much Alex didn’t want it to be true.
She frowned. Surely this was more than just the normal reaction of a playboy who didn’t want to be tied down? She could practically feel the anxiety seeping out of his pores into the air surrounding them.
Something else was going on here, although she didn’t have a clue what it was.
‘Yes, Alex. It is.’
‘It’s not. It can’t be.’ Alex couldn’t hide the desperation in his voice. It was clear he was in some form of denial, which meant he was in for a rude awakening.
‘I’m afraid it is.’ She paused for a moment before playing the ace she’d hoped wouldn’t be required. ‘And I can prove it.’
He raised a dark eyebrow. ‘And just how do you plan on doing that?’
‘A DNA test will prove Sam’s paternity.’
Alex was such a logical, facts-and-figures kind of guy. He would have no choice but to believe scientific evidence.