Back In Her Husband's Bed (Bedded By Blackmail)

by MELANIE MILBURNE

  ‘I’m not here for help,’ she said. ‘I’m here to let you know, that’s all.’

  ‘I will not consent to being a part-time parent!’

  ‘You seem to have no compunction in assigning that task to thousands of other parents out there when you represent their bitter other halves.’

  ‘That’s different,’ he insisted.

  ‘How so?’

  ‘You know it is,’ he argued. ‘I’m a lawyer, for God’s sake. Do you think I’m going to allow myself to be screwed by another member of my profession?’

  ‘I won’t cause you any trouble.’

  ‘If that was supposed to reassure me let me tell you it hasn’t. You’re nothing but trouble from the tip of your pretty little nose to your very dainty feet.’

  ‘I’m sorry…’ She felt a bubble of emotion clog her throat and fought it back down as best she could.

  ‘Damn it!’ he swore again.

  She choked down another escaping sob with difficulty. ‘I should never have agreed to have that drink with you…’ She bent her head to avoid his angry glare and added brokenly, ‘I just wanted you to know…’

  He frowned as he looked at the calendar on his desk. ‘You certainly haven’t rushed the announcement.’ He mentally calculated the weeks back to the conference. ‘How many weeks are you now? Sixteen?’

  She nodded.

  His eyes shifted to her abdomen. ‘Are you showing?’ His voice sounded distinctly husky but she imagined it was the aftermath of his shock.

  ‘I can’t do up my top button on my skirt,’ she answered miserably.

  He let out another harsh breath. ‘How the hell am I going to tell my family?’

  Carli gaped at him. ‘Is that all you can think about?’ She got to her feet in agitation. ‘Don’t you realise what this means for me?’

  He returned her glare with a look of blank bewilderment.

  ‘I’m pregnant, for God’s sake!’ she said. ‘I didn’t ask to be or plan to be, but somehow through some trick of nature I find myself in this condition. What has your family got to do with it? What about my career?’

  ‘You’ll have to give it up temporarily.’

  Her eyes flared with anger. ‘And do what? Go down on bended knee in gratitude for your provision? I’d rather die!’

  ‘You can’t possibly work for the whole length of your pregnancy,’ he said.

  ‘Excuse me?’ She hit him with her flashing, defiant eyes. ‘Did I hear you correctly?’

  His jaw tightened. ‘You heard me.’

  ‘I will not give up my job for you or anybody!’

  ‘You can hardly work through labour.’

  ‘I’ll take a few days off.’

  ‘What if the baby gets sick?’

  She bit her lip and tried to think of a solution. ‘I’ll employ a nanny.’

  He tilted one dark brow sceptically. ‘On your wage?’

  ‘All right,’ she said crisply, folding her arms across her chest. ‘You pay for the nanny.’

  ‘I’m not paying for a nanny.’

  ‘Why ever not? It’s your child!’

  ‘I was brought up by a nanny and swore I would never allow any child of mine to suffer the same.’

  Carli’s mouth fell open. He’d never told her that before. She’d always imagined his childhood had been a picnic of happy, sunny days with an adoring host of female relatives to remind him of the light he cast over them from each and every one of his bodily orifices.

  ‘I didn’t know you’d had a nanny.’

  ‘I don’t wish to discuss it.’ The line of his mouth was set in an intractable line.

  ‘What else should you tell me that you’ve so far neglected?’ she asked.

  ‘Nothing.’ His expression instantly closed over.

  ‘I can’t work without help,’ she said after another pause. ‘Why don’t you give up your job and be a house husband?’

  ‘You must be joking.’

  ‘No, I wasn’t joking.’

  ‘I was afraid you weren’t.’

  ‘What’s wrong, Xavier? Don’t you like the feel of the boot on the other foot?’

  ‘I can’t give up my practice. You know I can’t.’

  ‘And yet you expect…no—demand me to give up mine?’

  She had him in a tight corner and Xavier was not all that sure how to get out of it. He was used to pressure. He thrived on it, but somehow this was different.

  Carli was having a baby.

  His baby.

  ‘Come on, Carli, let’s be serious here. I earn ten times your wage. Why would I give that up? It would be financial suicide.’

  ‘Let me tell you at this point that a huge number of women out there in those suburbs you’ve referred to so disdainfully in the past have to face exactly this sort of choice. They have no other income and must rely on their own earning power to survive to provide for their children.’

  ‘Pregnancy is more or less a choice these days.’

  ‘I didn’t choose it!’ she said.

  There was a small silence.

  ‘Didn’t you?’

  Her mouth fell open in shock. ‘You think I did it deliberately?’

  ‘A lot of women do,’ he put in. ‘It ensures an income for a few years, if not from the welfare system then from the man nominated as father. But as you know there are ways now of establishing just who is the father.’

  She got to her feet in fury. ‘I can’t believe I’m hearing this!’ She strode towards the door but as she reached for the door knob it seemed to melt and slip away from her. She gave it another attempt but her hands seemed to be grasping at space and she slipped in a slow folding heap to the floor…

  She woke to find Xavier staring down at her with a look of such concern on his face she was tempted to think the last five years hadn’t passed and they were still together.

  ‘What happened?’ She struggled to get up but he held her down with a flat hand against her shoulder.

  ‘You blacked out.’

  She blinked her eyes a couple of times to restore clarity to her blurred vision.

  ‘I’ve called for an ambulance.’

  ‘That’s totally unnecessary. I’m not sick.’

  ‘You don’t look all that well to me.’

  ‘I’m under considerable stress at the moment,’ she said. ‘No woman looks good with the weight of the world dragging her down.’

  ‘You don’t have to take on the weight of the world all by yourself,’ he said. ‘I’ve already offered to help you.’

  ‘I can just imagine how. You won’t mind how much it costs as long as it causes the least disturbance to your routine.’

  ‘I have some commitments but I’m sure I can make myself available if you need me.’

  ‘You’re five years too late, buddy,’ she bit out resentfully.

  ‘Better too late than not at all.’

  She wished she could argue with that but there was the sound of a trolley rattling in the hallway outside, announcing the arrival of the ambulance team.

  ‘I don’t want to go to hospital.’

  ‘I want you checked out,’ he said implacably. ‘I want to reassure myself that all we’re dealing with here is pregnancy.’

  ‘Isn’t pregnancy enough?’ she asked.

  He gave her a level look. ‘It could be a whole lot worse, you know.’

  ‘Just tell me how it could be a whole lot worse,’ she asked as the trolley was wheeled into the room. ‘What could possibly be worse than this?’

  ‘You could be having twins,’ he said.

  She rolled her eyes and faced her nemesis in the ambulance officer who had her in his sights.

  ‘OK, let’s get this over with.’ She held up her hands as if under arrest.

  ‘Is she all right, man?’ the guy asked Xavier with a frown.

  Xavier twirled his finger beside his temple to indicate a state of insanity. ‘She’s totally nuts.’

  Carli opened her mouth to deny it but a cloak of blackness
beckoned once more and she gave in to it with gratefulness. She didn’t have the energy to deal with Xavier in this state. All she wanted to do was sleep…

  Carli woke to the sound of voices murmuring softly at the end of her hospital bed.

  ‘Is she going to be all right?’ Xavier’s voice sounded distinctly strained.

  A female voice answered him reassuringly, ‘With a little rest and a better diet she should be fine. Her blood count showed she’s a bit anaemic but the iron tablets I’ve prescribed for her should soon fix that.’

  ‘How long does she have to stay in hospital?’ Xavier asked.

  ‘She can go home in the morning.’

  ‘I’ll be here first thing,’ he said and Carli heard the female doctor leave the room.

  ‘I know you’re not asleep,’ Xavier said, turning back to the small, stiff figure in the bed.

  She sat up and brushed the hair out of her face, scowling at him darkly. ‘Why are you still here?’

  ‘Why do you think I’m here?’ He frowned at her. ‘You’ve fainted twice in my company in the space of minutes. I don’t want your death on my hands—the pregnancy is bad enough.’

  Carli blinked back sudden tears at his terse words. She knew the pregnancy had been a terrible shock to him but did he have to keep reminding her of how distasteful it was for him to be in this situation?

  Xavier looked at her intently, his heart squeezing painfully when he saw the way her small chin wobbled as a track of tears made its way down her smooth cheek.

  ‘Oh, God.’ He came over and, sitting on the edge of her bed, gathered her against him. ‘I didn’t mean it like that.’ He spoke into the fragrant cloud of her hair.

  ‘How else did you mean it?’ She pushed him away with a choked sob. ‘You hate the fact that I’m carrying your child, I know you do.’

  ‘I don’t hate the idea at all, it’s just the timing of it is a little bit strange.’

  ‘Five years too late you mean?’ she asked bitterly. ‘You were quite happy to build up your stud back then; we argued about little else.’

  ‘We’re divorced, Carli, surely—’

  ‘And we’re staying divorced so don’t get any ideas of playing happy families with me to get access to your child.’

  He held her defiant look for a lengthy moment. ‘My offer of marriage was a spur-of-the-moment knee-jerk reaction and I’m retracting it here and now,’ he said. ‘There will be no remarriage.’

  The wind went right out of Carli’s sails, leaving her emotionally stranded.

  What was wrong with her?

  She didn’t want him back.

  Did she?

  ‘However, I do think you should come and live with me for the rest of the pregnancy,’ he said into the tight silence. ‘So I can keep an eye on you.’

  ‘I can’t possibly live with you!’

  ‘You can’t possibly live alone; you heard what the doctor just said.’

  ‘I’ll be fine in a couple of days so you don’t need to play at nursemaid. I couldn’t think of anything worse than being under your constant surveillance. I’d go completely mad.’

  His jaw tightened at her intransigence. ‘Don’t make it necessary for me to resort to other means to make you do as you’re told.’

  She balled her hands into fists as she glared at him. ‘You’d have to carry me kicking and screaming back into that house with you.’

  ‘I’ve had it redecorated, so it shouldn’t be so repugnant to you any more.’

  ‘I suppose you had to redecorate it to exorcise my presence.’ She gave him a churlish look.

  Xavier privately marvelled at how close to the truth she actually was. It had taken months before the scent of her perfume had left his house, and yet even now he sometimes thought he could still pick up a faint trace of it in the air when he was in the house alone.

  ‘You can have your own room,’ he offered.

  ‘Thank you very much,’ she drawled sarcastically. ‘But it won’t be necessary.’

  ‘So you’ll agree to share mine?’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Come on, Carli, let’s not argue about this. There are much bigger battles we can tussle over.’

  ‘I don’t want to be a part of your life.’

  ‘You damn well are a part of my life and will be for the next eighteen years, so the sooner you get used to it the better.’ His voice rose in frustration. ‘You’re not doing either of us any good by being so stubborn. Haven’t you stopped once to think about the baby’s needs?’

  She found it hard to hold his flinty look. ‘I think about it all the time.’

  ‘You’ve not been looking after yourself,’ he said. ‘You’re still too thin and pale. How can you expect to nourish a growing infant on the rabbit food you insist on eating?’

  ‘Is there anything else you’d like to criticise about me besides my stubbornness, my figure and my diet?’

  ‘No, everything else is just perfect.’

  She searched his face for signs of mockery but instead he gave her a twisted smile.

  ‘I’m not handling this very well, am I?’ he asked. ‘You never really fell for the steamroller approach before so I don’t imagine you will now, but I really want to do the right thing for our child.’

  He had her at her most vulnerable point and she was sure he knew it.

  ‘I want what’s best as well,’ she said.

  ‘Then you’ll think about it?’

  ‘I’ve thought about it and the answer’s still no.’

  ‘You’re one stubborn woman.’ He got to his feet and looked down at her. ‘But maybe I’ll be able to think of a way to make you see things my way.’

  ‘I wouldn’t waste your time,’ she warned. ‘There’s nothing you could say that would make me come back to live with you permanently. Nothing.’

  ‘I wasn’t thinking along the lines of permanently,’ he said, sweeping the air out of her emotional sails again. ‘Just till the baby is born, after that we’ll reassess.’

  She bit her lip, sure she was going to cry again and betray herself completely.

  ‘You and I both know few marriages make the distance,’ he went on as he reached for his jacket and keys on the visitor’s chair. ‘Ours certainly didn’t but at least this time there’ll be no messy, bitter divorce at the end.’ He shrugged himself into his jacket and added, ‘Just think of the money we’ll save on legal fees.’

  ‘Your family would be appalled to think of you getting involved with me again,’ she pointed out, ‘even as a platonic house guest.’

  ‘I think under the current circumstances it’s going to be difficult to convince anyone that there’s nothing going on between us.’

  ‘There is nothing going on!’ she insisted vehemently.

  ‘Are you absolutely sure about that?’

  ‘Of course I’m sure,’ she said determinedly. ‘I might be pregnant to you but I am not having a relationship with you of any sort.’

  ‘Not even as a friend?’

  She gave him an arctic look. ‘You are not high on my popularity list right now and I don’t see that changing any time in the future.’

  His mouth tightened a fraction. ‘We can hardly co-parent a child without conducting some sort of relationship.’

  ‘I want as little contact with you as possible.’

  ‘Well, then,’ he said as he reached for the door. ‘You’re going to have quite a fight on your hands, young lady. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.’

  She tilted her chin and met his challenging glare. ‘You’re not going to win this, Xavier. I won’t allow you to.’

  He gave her an imperious smile, his eyes glinting with confidence. ‘Want to lay a bet on that, Carli?’

  She opened her mouth but before she could deliver her cutting response he had already gone, the door swinging shut behind him.

  She flopped back on the pillows, her breath going out on a whoosh of sound.

  ‘All right, Mr High and Mighty Xavier Knightly,’ she address
ed the ceiling above her head with steely determination, ‘if it’s a fight you want, then a fight is exactly what you’re going to get.’

  CHAPTER TWO

  WHEN Xavier arrived at the hospital the next day to arrange to take Carli home he was shocked and more than a little annoyed to hear his ex-wife had already left.

  ‘Where is she?’ He frowned down at the ward clerk.

  ‘I have no idea, Mr Knightly.’ The clerk gave him an assessing look. ‘Maybe she doesn’t want you to know.’

  He let out one short, sharp curse which sent the woman’s eyebrows even higher.

  ‘She expressly told us not to give you her address.’

  ‘Did she, now?’

  ‘She did.’ The clerk folded her arms and gave him a you-don’t-scare-me look. ‘And as you no doubt know all our patients’ files are strictly confidential. Unless you are a direct relative you are not entitled to any information to do with Ms Gresham.’

  ‘Thank you for your help,’ he tossed at her sarcastically as he swung for the door.

  ‘My pleasure, Mr Knightly.’

  ‘Yeah, right.’

  He strode out to his car and while he drove phoned his secretary. ‘Elaine, get me Carli’s address. Do whatever you have to do to find it.’

  ‘Don’t you have it?’

  ‘Of course not!’ he ground out. ‘She’s my ex-wife. The last thing I wanted after our divorce was her bloody address!’

  ‘Why do you want it now?’

  ‘Because I have to find her and—’ He stalled and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. ‘Will you stop with all the invasive questions and get me her address otherwise your superannuation package is going to be trimmed considerably?’

  His secretary laughed. ‘I’ll call you back in five minutes.’

  ‘Make it three or you’re fired.’

  She called him back in two and a half.

  ‘Carli has an apartment at Epping.’ She gave him the address and added, ‘But I think you should calm down before you go and see her.’

  ‘Thanks for the advice but you know where you can stick it.’

  ‘Only trying to help.’

  ‘Go and type some letters—isn’t that what I pay you to do?’ He snapped off the connection but he was sure he’d caught the tail end of another laugh all the same. ‘Women,’ he muttered savagely and gunned the engine once more.