Layla groaned at that knee-jerk reaction. Don’t be silly, Lucas. Strangers don’t get married.’Lucas lifted his dark head high and surveyed her with glittering golden eyes that were mesmeric in their intensity. ‘I don’t care how we go about it, but while you may not want our child, I do and I am prepared to raise that child, should that become necessary.’It was Layla’s turn to be thrown off balance, and she paled. When it comes to my preferences, it’s not a matter of my wanting or not wanting the baby...it’s much more a matter of what I can offer my child and how best I can meet my child’s needs. And the truth is that as a student with no home of my own or current earning power, I’ve got very little to offer.’"While I, on the other hand, have a great deal to offer and could help you in any way necessary," Lucas cut in succinctly. And in the short term, I think it would be best if you came to live in my apartment.’"Your apartment?" Layla echoed in disbelief. "Why on earth would I mo
"I want confirmation of your pregnancy and reassurance that you are in good health," he admitted quietly.Layla breathed in deeply, suppressing her frustration. She reasoned ruefully that he had a right to that official endorsement.Lucas’ friend was in private practice, and her pregnancy test was processed at supersonic speed before the suave, smoothly-spoken doctor gave her a brief physical check-up and the usual advice offered to pregnant women.Having satisfied Lucas’ request, Layla was quiet when she slid back into his limousine and started thinking about her baby. Possibly she had been a little too quick to consider the avenue of adoption, a solution that would enable her to continue her life after the birth as though she had never been pregnant.Obviously, the idea of reclaiming normality had appeal, but what sort of normality would it be when she had to live for ever after with the awareness that she had given up her baby? A cold chill clenched Layla’s spine at the prospect of
Layla didn’t like it either and was taken aback that they could be so similar in outlook. Her fingers lifted involuntarily and laced through the blue-black hair falling across his brow. Rain lashed the window across the room and a smouldering silence fell indoors. Her heart was racing, and against her breast she could feel the quickened thump of his.Dense black lashes lifted on his stunning eyes and she forgot to breathe, registering that somewhere along the way, and without ever pausing to think it through, she had begun developing feelings for Lucas Jack that went way beyond what she had once envisaged.For a split second, fear grabbed her, fear of being hurt, humiliated, and rejected, but she pushed the reactions away and buried them deep. Just for a few hours, she promised herself, she would live only for the moment in a little safe pool of non-judgemental peace, because soon enough she would be forced to deal with the consequences of her accidental pregnancy.Lucas smoothed a st
On another level, she was conscious of Lucas leaving the bed, doubtless to dispose of the contraception he had employed. She waited for him to return and then heard the shower running, slowly and unhappily realizing that there would be no cosy togetherness in the aftermath of intimacy.That surprised her, for Lucas was very prone to affectionate touching and not standoffish in any way. Was he afraid of giving her the wrong message? apprehensive that a little cuddle might make her assume that he felt more for her than he actually did.Layla shifted uneasily in bed, her brain now clear of the overwhelming pleasure that had left her mindless. She was painfully aware that she was developing feelings for Lucas Jack, far beyond the boundaries of those she had first envisaged.Considering how insanely attractive Lucas was, she thought her reaction to him was fairly normal and, naturally, there was something even more attractive about his insatiable desire for her ordinary self, never mind th
Around seven that same morning, Layla emerged from the shower, wrapped a fleecy towel around her nakedness, and wondered ruefully where her cases were. Their frantic charge to the bedroom the night before had left no time for such niceties as unpacking.Her face burned and she glanced in one of the many mirrors, angry and ashamed of herself because she was still acting out of character and letting her life go off the rails. One mistake did not need to lead to another, so why had she slept with Lucas again last night?Her waking up in bed alone in the silent apartment with her brain awash with unfamiliar thoughts of self-loathing had unnerved her. She had decided miserably that Lucas was bad for her.She crept out to the hall where her luggage still awaited her, and she was about to lift a case when she heard a sound from another room and stiffened uncertainly.‘Layla...is that you?’It was too late to retreat with any dignity, but the discovery that Lucas was still in the apartment an
Lucas shocked himself by wanting to shout back at her. He wanted her to do what he told her to do, which was, after all, what ninety-nine per cent of the people in his life invariably did. Consequently, he very rarely, if ever, raised his voice.He was proud of his self-control, but then he had always avoided emotional scenes, swiftly ditching women who specialized in them. Of course, he had been raised by the ultimate of scene-throwers: his mother, whom he recalled staging dramatic walkouts, outrageous suicide threats, and sobbing herself into hysterics.You have to have peace and quiet to continue your studies and decide what to do next. I’m trying not to interfere with that. If you weren’t pregnant, you wouldn’t be in this situation now. I only want what’s best for you and the baby.’And the easiest thing for you to give is money,’ Layla completed with reluctant comprehension, her troubled green eyes scanning the opulence of the furnishings and a view of the City of California that
Like an accident victim, Layla was frozen in place, her face as pale as milk, her eyes wide with consternation, and haunted by too many powerful reactions to enumerate. Layla was experiencing a wide range of emotions, including anger, mortification, guilt, and pain on multiple levels. Lucas had lied to her. Lucas had pretended to be single and unattached, and an engaged man on the brink of his wedding was anything but unattached. He had been engaged for three years. That was not a recent or casual commitment."If Lucas had told me he was engaged, this wouldn’t have happened because I would never have been with him in the first place," Layla framed with desperate dignity. I’m genuinely sorry that anything I have done has upset you and that this situation is affecting you as well, but there is no way I would accept money from you.’I’ve known Lucas all his life. He had a horrendous childhood and, because of that, he will never turn his back on his own child, "Beverly informed her griml
‘Beverly told me she’d come to see you.’ His beautiful, shapely lips compressed, a muscle pulling tight at the corner of his unsmiling mouth. "She shouldn’t have done that."Oh, I don’t know,’ Layla fielded in a tremulous drive that mortified her, frankly bemused by a relationship that crossed the expected boundaries. It was inconceivable to her that Beverly would’ve told Lucas she had been to see Layla. ‘Considering the way you’ve behaved, I thought she was remarkably restrained in what she had to say.’My relationship with Beverly is not as straightforward as you probably assume it is. Nor does what it entailed matter now because I broke off our engagement earlier today.’ Lucas studied her with screened intensity, expecting an immediate lessening of the tension in the atmosphere.Layla refused to react in any way because that announcement did not lessen her sense of betrayal in the slightest. She condemned him quietly and simply."Let’s move this out of the hall and talk like grown-