‘I know, I’m sorry, I was desperate. I know how you feel about fatherless kids and, well...you’d married me once before for the sake of a baby.’
‘How long did you plan on keeping this charade up for? Would you really have let me marry you?’
‘Would you have married me?’
He stared at her for long moments. ‘I don’t know, Tab. Maybe.’
‘I wouldn’t have let you marry me.’
Well, thank heaven for small mercies. ‘So you were just going to...manipulate me for a little while longer?’
‘Oh, God, it sounds so callous, I know. I love him, Marcus. I just wasn’t thinking straight. I’m so, so sorry. I had no right to involve you.’
‘Damn right you didn’t.’ Marcus paced around the room. ‘Hell, Tab, have you any idea what you’ve done?’
‘Maddy.’ She nodded. ‘I’ve ruined it for you, haven’t I?’
‘I don’t know.’ Marcus ran a hand through his hair. ‘But you sure as hell have muddied the waters.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Tabitha apologised again. ‘She seems nice.’
‘She is. She’s the best thing that’s happened to me in years.’
‘And then I went and messed it up. Ugh. It’s unforgivable of me.’
‘You know you just could have asked me to talk to Tony or something. Since when have I ever knocked you back?’
‘I know. I just felt so foolish, being in the same tight spot all over again. Maybe it was hormones? It seemed like a really good plan at the time. I just hadn’t factored in Maddy or your feelings for her.’ The tears started again. ‘What can I do to fix it?’
Marcus stopped pacing, alarmed. ‘Oh, God, Tab. You’ve done more than enough! Just go back to Melbourne and stay the hell out of it.’
‘Okay, okay.’ She held her hands up in surrender and there was silence in the room while Marcus paced. ‘Madeline’s the one, isn’t she?’
He stopped pacing. ‘Yes, she is.’
‘Well, what are you waiting for? Tell her your ex-wife is a manipulative, conniving bitch. Tell her I’m unbalanced. Tell her I’m sorry. Tell her whatever it takes but just get her back.’
Marcus didn’t need to be told twice.
Marcus knocked gently on Madeline’s office door and opened it cautiously. He knew she was alone because a worried Veronica had told him so. ‘Something’s wrong, Marcus,’ she’d said, eyeing him suspiciously.
He’d patted her hand. ‘Yeah. I know.’
‘Have you two had your first tiff?’
Now, there was an understatement. ‘Something like that.’
Veronica had stood, leaned across the desk pulled him down by the scruff of his shirt until they’d been eye to eye. ‘You hurt her and I’ll kill you.’
And he’d believed her.
Madeline looked up at the knock to see Marcus standing in her doorway. She’d been having a good cry and knew she must look a mess. She sat up straight, pulled a tissue out of the box on her desk and blew her nose.
Marcus swallowed at the distant look she shot him feeling completely lost. His arms ached to hold her but he was losing her. ‘Please, Maddy. Tell me what to say to make it better. I don’t know what to say.’
‘Well, that makes two of us.’
‘The baby’s not mine, Maddy.’
‘No, but you wanted it to be. You wanted that baby — I saw it in your face.’
A denial rose to his lips but he thought better of it. Seeing the baby on the screen had definitely tripped his paternal switch. For a second, blocking out all the convoluted mess of the last twelve hours, he had wanted the baby.
But he’d wanted it to be theirs. His and Maddy’s.
‘You’re right,’ he admitted. ‘I had a revelation when I saw that baby on the screen that really pulled me up. I realised that after years of not wanting to be a father that I did want to be one. That I did want a baby. I’ve never felt that way. Never. And it’s because of you. Loving you makes me want things I’ve never wanted before. I wanted it to be our baby on that ultrasound screen. Yours and mine.’
Madeline swallowed hard. His voice was husky with passion. The plea in his voice unmistakable. She let herself think about his child inside her for a moment. A part of him. A family of her own.
It had been so long since she’d been part of a family.
He sounded genuine and despite the dictates of her sensible brain, her heart was flowering, his earlier declaration of love and his admission that he wanted to have babies with her like welcome rain nourishing fragile petals. She felt the bloom swelling in her chest and she wanted to have the chance to nurture it.
But at the same time, her brain urged retreat. How could she put her heart out there again? She’d taken a risk with him and his heat and his passion had warmed her all the way through and it had been fantastic - while it had lasted. But the ending had been awful and she just couldn’t trust him with her heart again.
How could she knowingly get involved with someone still so heavily caught up with his ex-wife? Sex with the ex might be a hip thing to do these days but she couldn’t live like that. How could she trust that he wouldn’t succumb again?
‘And what happens when Tabitha turns up our doorstep one day and you end up in bed together?’
Marcus blinked. Did she really think he would cheat on her? Anger flashed hot and quick through his veins. ‘What?’
‘Well, you’ve obviously had problems in the past, realising you’re divorced,’ she pointed out, trying to stay calm.
‘Let’s get this straight,’ Marcus said, beginning to realise the damage that had been done to Madeline’s trust. ‘What happened between Tab and I was incredibly stupid but I’m not going to apologise for it. I’m sorrier than you can know that you got caught up in the consequences but we were both single and free to sleep with whoever we wanted, including each other. And in the ten years since our
