He pointed at her middle. His contempt was a knife to her heart, and despair threatened to encase her. She shoved it away.
“I don’t have time to justify his actions or mine.” She teared up as she said it though, doubting he would ever see her side. He hated her. She could taste it on the air. “I have to go to the hospital.”
She glanced at her phone on the floor, face down and possibly cracked, definitely a million miles away when she could hardly breathe let alone touch her toes.
“Kiara is my birth coach. Will you get her for me? She’s not answering my texts.”
“The mother of Val’s baby is your birth coach?”
His derisive tone got her back up. She might not have much moral high ground to stand on, but she would die on this particular mound.
“Don’t disparage either of them. Aurelia is an innocent child and Kiara is the best friend I’ve ever had.” Her only friend, really. Better than a sister because they’d chosen each other. “Hate Niko and Val if you want to, but don’t you dare attack my friend and her child.”
Javiero’s hand smacked on to the marble that surrounded the sink, making her jump. He leaned into her space, looming like a terrifying raptor as he thrust his marred face up close to hers.
“Look me in the eye, Scarlett.” His breath was dragon fire against her cheek. “Is that my baby?”
His eyes had always been so fascinating to her, sea green with flecks of blue. Shifting and moody. So beautiful.
Now there was only one. She’d been in agony since she’d learned the extent of his injuries, desperate to go to him. If he hadn’t survived…
She pushed back desolation and bit her trembling lips, huskily saying, “It’s yours.”
He snorted with skepticism and shoved to straighten away from her, his retreat so full of contempt it felt as though he took a layer of her skin with him.
“I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, but the DNA test had better prove that baby is mine. And if that is my child, there is no way it will start its life defiled by that misbegotten half brother of mine. I’ll take you to the hospital. Let’s go.”
Copyright © 2020 by Dani Collins
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BEAUTY AND HER ONE-NIGHT BABY
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ISBN-13: 978-1-488-05873-8
A Marriage to Remember
First published in 1997. This edition published in 2020.
Copyright © 1997 by Carole Mortimer
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A Marriage to Remember Page 17