She glanced down at her attire—worn jeans, loose t-shirt, scuffed sneakers, and a purse that was more like a leather gym bag. Once the baby was born, it would double as a diaper bag. Forcing her attention back to David, she asked, “And you? How have you been?”
“Busy,” was his one word answer. His tone sounded bored, but there was something in his expression that told her there was more he wanted to say.
Before she could do something stupid like ask him what the hell he was thinking, a nurse appeared.
“Diana?” the petite woman called, smiling as Diana shot to her feet, nervous.
Beside her, David rose as well.
The nurse’s gaze took him in; gray suit, lavender tie, fashionably disheveled black hair, and a face forged from flesh and iron by gods.
“Father?” the nurse asked, and every nerve in Diana’s body paused, refusing to send signals for her to breathe or move or think. She waited for David’s response.
His gaze flicked to her, his lips pinched, but he replied, “Yes.”
Diana didn’t know if the world tilted or if her body fell through a wormhole because everything seemed to start spinning at once.
He said “yes.” That meant he was accepting the fact that she hadn’t been lying, that she was carrying his baby. The relief and excitement she expected to feel at his admission didn’t come, though. Something was holding it back.
Yeah, that look of disappointment on his face. Catching his expression, she noticed a dullness to his eyes that she hadn’t seen before. Sucking in a breath, she willed herself to follow the nurse back into a small exam room off a short corridor.
The nurse, Cindy, went over the medical information Diana had supplied at the check-in counter, then told them the doctor would be in shortly.
Once she left, closing the door behind her, Diana sat on the exam table, the paper crinkling beneath her, and then she turned to David.
“You believe me?” she asked, her voice a raw whisper.
He stood there, his arms crossed over his impressive chest, and stared at her.
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think there was a chance that I am the father.”
A chance? “So, you still aren’t certain. You still don’t believe me?” Yeah, there went that tiny bead of happiness she’d carried with her from the waiting room.
Heaving a sigh, David rubbed the back of his neck, as though this was all a bother to him.
“Look. I visited with my urologist. He says that it is possible for me to sire a child.”
“So what’s with the doubts?” she snapped.
He sneered at her, the dullness gone from his eyes. “How am I supposed to know if that baby is mine or if it belongs to another of the lovers you picked up in that bar?”
It was as if an invisible hand plunged into her chest and ripped out her heart and lungs. Tears stung her eyes.
No! Don’t let him see you cry!
Biting back a shriek of anger, Diana hissed, “I was a virgin, you fucking asshole!”
He reeled back, his eyes going wide.
“What?” he barked.
She leaned forward, sticking a finger into his chest. “I. Was. A. Virgin. You were my first. I hadn’t had a man before you and I haven’t had a man since you. You are it, dude. So whatever the fuck you seem to think of me needs to die right the fuck now.” By the time she was done, her whole body was shaking.
Once again, David rubbed the back of his neck, harder this time, his face pale, his steely eyes wide. Disbelief etched lines into the sides of his face.
“Before you tell me that’s impossible, let me stop you right there. I had never had sex because I’d never wanted to have sex; none of the men I dated ever made me…” She dropped her gaze from his face. “None of them ever made me feel the way you did. I wanted you, and I was willing to risk my job for just a moment of knowing what it felt like for you to touch me.”
She heard him swallow but she didn’t look up.
“I gave myself to you that night, and the other times since, not because I had some angle, but because I just couldn’t help myself.”
Chapter 18
God, where was all of that coming from? Why was she telling him all of that? He didn’t deserve to know any of it. He’d hit her, quit her, then accused her of ugly, hideous things.
But you can’t stop wanting him. No. She couldn’t. It was a disease. One that would more than likely lead to the slow, terminal death of her heart and soul.
Dragging a steel pipe into her spine, she finally glanced up into David’s face.
There was a fire there, a boiling cauldron of wariness, uncertainty, and apprehension.
Well, she was sure as shit wary, uncertain, and apprehensive, too!
Before she could snap at him, a soft knock sounded against the door right before it opened, allowing in a tall, thin man with a full head of white hair, laughing brown eyes, and a large tablet clutched in his arm.
“Hello. I’m Dr. Monroe,” he announced reaching out to offer his hand to Diana. “Miss Bluth.” She nodded then watched as the doctor turned to offer David his hand as well. To her surprise, David took the doctor’s hand, shaking it heartily.
“Doctor,” David said.
“You must be the father,” Dr. Monroe inquired without asking.
David nodded once. “I am. I’m David Brenner.”
The doctor—obviously, a reader of the news—arched both white brows.
“Ah,” was his response as he lowered himself onto a rolling stool.
“Now, Miss Bluth, when was the first day of your last period?”
Blushing, she told him, refusing to glance in David’s direction.
The doctor hmmed in response, plugging the numbers into the software on his tablet.
“And you indicated that you would like to forego the pelvic
