„I happen to find it very comfortable.‟

„A sitting room with a bed shoved up one end, a bathroom that can only accommodate an anorexic and a kitchen…‟ he strolled into the kitchen, cast the same disapproving eye around

„…a kitchen just about big enough to house a table and two chairs, provided mobility isn‟t high on the list of priorities. It won‟t do.‟

Mattie felt tears spring up into her eyes and she turned away quickly, but not quickly enough.

His arms around her were like a sanctuary and a haven and she turned around into him, feeling his warmth settle over her like a blanket.

„It‟s not just you now.‟ His words sank into her hair. „You‟re having my baby and I won‟t let you tackle this pregnancy alone, in a dump like this, never mind when the baby‟s born.‟

„You won‟t let me?‟ Mattie pushed herself out of the treacherous embrace and walked towards the window, to turn round and face him. „I didn‟t come to see you so that you could…could manipulate me…again!‟

„I don‟t give a damn what you call it, Mattie, but hear me now and hear me very carefully…‟ His voice was low and travelled from his mouth to her ears like an arrow, a deadly, speeding arrow. „You will not bring any child of mine up in a place like this. You will not labour up flights of stairs when you‟re pregnant, risking a miscarriage. You might not care for me laying down the law, but that‟s exactly what I intend to do.‟

Mattie‟s mouth was hanging open. „B-but why?‟ she stammered. „It‟s not as though…as though this is some kind of love match.‟ She winced as she said that, hating the cold way it sounded, as though what she had felt for him, and still felt, could be dismissed in a few well-chosen words. „You misunderstood my intentions in telling you about the pregnancy! I know you never wanted fatherhood.‟ Good heavens. She knew he could barely bring himself to utter the word relationship without adding a string of other qualifications!

„And however strong your sense of duty is, I don‟t intend to fall victim to it.‟ Brave words that cost her dear.

Dominic strode over to where she was perched on the window ledge, but instead of doing his usual, trapping her so that the sheer force of his personality could engulf her, he leaned against the window and looked down outside so that she was privy to his averted profile.

„This isn‟t about you, though, is it?‟ He turned to look at her then. „And it isn‟t about whether I wanted to become a daddy or not. The reality is that you‟re pregnant with my baby and I intend to take care of the situation.‟

„This is not a situation,‟ Mattie told him, but a small, treacherous side of her longed to be taken care of. It was the same small, treacherous side that had told her she could handle a man like Dominic. Wisdom would be to avoid that small, treacherous side like the plague.

„Event. Occurrence. Happening. Call it whatever you want to, but whatever you decide to call it you‟re not running away from me this time.‟

Mattie stared at him. Her breathing slowed. Even her heartbeat seemed to have slowed.

„We‟re going to get married.‟

CHAPTER NINE

MATTIE being Mattie, she laughed, walked towards the tired old single bed that she had converted into a sofa of sorts with the addition of three cushions and a colourful throw. She plonked herself down, leaned against the cushions and stretched out her legs.

„Married? What a ridiculous suggestion. We aren‟t living in the Dark Ages. In case the twenty-first century has passed you by, Dominic, women get pregnant these days and bring the baby up very competently and very single-handedly.‟ She took one of the cushions and pressed it to her stomach, drawing her legs up so that she was peering at him over her knees.

„Good for them.‟ Dominic shrugged indifferently. „Fortunately their lives don‟t concern me.‟ He had known what her reaction would be and he was more than prepared to listen to all her objections. But they weren‟t going to do any good. She would marry him and the thought felt good, right somehow. Fate had given him his hand to play and he intended to play it very well indeed. „Yours, on the other hand, does.‟

Mattie squeezed the cushion to her. Marriage. No emotion, no mention of love. Just another business proposition, just like the one she had been idiotic enough to accept the first time round.

This man could make her burst out laughing, could make her think, could make her body sing with pleasure, could make her fall hopelessly in love with him. He could do all that and still keep that vital part of himself shut away, and now he was proposing marriage. Well, thoroughly modern she might be, but she wasn‟t so modern that she was going to tie herself up in a loveless union. That spelt days and years of misery, hungering silently for the impossible, becoming the anchor round his ankles that he quietly endured for the sake of his child.

She kind of wished that he would come a bit closer to her instead of just standing there, watching her.

„Look, Dominic…‟ Mattie‟s voice took on a coaxing, reasonable tone. „We both know why we got involved with one another and we both know what the stipulations were. No talk of commitment, never mind marriage.‟ She wished desperately that she had seen what she could see now. That he had wanted her physically and that he was a man capable of extracting emotion from any situation. Without emotion all things were possible. Even marriage to a woman he fancied, liked even, but did not love.

What had possessed her to imagine that she had access to the same kind of inner coldness that he had? When she had spent years tied up with Frankie because she felt sorry for him? She had no doubt that he could remain married to her forever. To her or to anyone, for that matter, because he would never be victim to the agonising of his feelings. He doubtless envisaged a union wherein he might just carry on sleeping with her till he got bored, then he would simply conduct his private life discreetly outside the marital home. His child would be the one to keep him rooted.

„That was then and this is now.‟

„I just can‟t get married to you. I could never marry anyone unless there was love. Why do you think I never married Frankie? Well, you know. I told you once. I might have stayed with him, might have thought I loved him, and I did in a way, but deep down I knew that I could never marry him because the love wasn‟t there, not the kind of love that makes a marriage work.‟

Dominic gave a short, derisive bark of laughter. „And what sort of love is that, Mattie?

The sort with pink icing on the top?‟

„You‟re so cynical!‟ Mattie flared back. „It‟s the kind of love that keeps my parents together! And yours as well!‟

Dominic shrugged. „They belong to a different generation,‟ he dismissed. „Divorce these days is endemic. Married one day, divorced the next.‟ He stuck his hands casually in the pockets of his trousers and continued to look at her thoughtfully. „Now here are my thoughts on the matter. We were two people who were attracted to one another, had a relationship, and now you‟re pregnant with my baby. Yes, on one level I can‟t deny that everything in my life is about to change. On the other hand, I‟m thirty-four years old. Leave it much longer and I might still be capable of fathering a child, but, as they say, would lack the energy to pick it up. I also don‟t walk away from my responsibilities.‟