The locked door rattled. ‘Layla? Are you in there?’ It was her aunt’s voice, sharp and demanding.Lifting the bag, Layla unlocked the door and prepared to step past the older woman.Instead, Madison White laid her hand on Layla’s arm to prevent her from walking away. "Are you pregnant?" she demanded thinly.Layla was startled by the question when she had not shared her concern with anyone. She stiffened, her brows lifting in a startled arc. "Why are you asking me that?"‘Oh, that could be my fault.’ Emily sighed with mock sympathy, pausing at the top of the stairs. I was behind you in the checkout at the supermarket, and I couldn’t help noticing the test...’Layla lost colour. "Yes, I’m pregnant," she admitted stonily.Her aunt, always a volatile woman, immediately lost her temper. By the time she had finished shouting, threatening, and verbally abusing her niece for her morals, Layla knew where she stood and that she could no longer remain in her aunt and uncle’s home. Layla knew tha

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

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

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

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