He insisted on taking her to the food hall at Harrods, determined to find out whether she had any cravings, until she reluctantly ended up laughing at his suggestions. But still, he made sure to buy endless delicacies. He was convinced that she had been foolishly starving herself because her supplies of food at the flat had been so pathetic.

And none of his concern was feigned. After the initial shock of her revelation, Dominic was surprised at how easy he found it to accommodate the thought of a child in his life. A child and a wife. Because she would be his, even though he knew that trying to force her hand as he had done to start with would serve no purpose whatsoever.

Had he forgotten just how spirited she was? She could be as stubborn as a mule and his mistake had been to think that she would docilely listen to his reasoning and do his bidding.

Simply because he was so desperate for her to do so.

Surely he would be able to show her that life with him would not be the ordeal she anticipated? For someone whose life had been grounded in harsh reality, who had battled against all odds to achieve what she had achieved, she seemed to nurture sweetly romantic visions of love and marriage. And the vision didn‟t include him. Not yet.

He would have suggested going to see his country house the following day but they would have needed more than just a mere day there and there was no way he could spend longer, as he was going to be out of the country for the better part of the following week.

Mattie felt relieved and disappointed at this. Relieved that she would have some time to herself to decide just exactly how she was going to deal with the problem. Disappointed because, like it or not, she had lapped up his solicitous attention for two solid days.

He had been the epitome of the perfect father-to-be and to his credit he had not uttered a single word of recrimination about the sorry mess she had landed him in.

She wondered whether, by extension, she was supposed to see his performance as proof positive that he could be as agreeable a husband as he had been potential daddy.

If so he was mistaken, because every woman deserved love and love was the one word patently missing from their conversations.

„I trust I‟ll return on Thursday to find you here…‟ Dominic said with what she detected as warning in his voice as he was about to leave for work on the Monday morning.

„Well, I certainly won‟t be able to return to my flat, considering you collared the landlord, terrified the poor man by implying you would have inspectors on his back if he didn‟t do something about the state of the building and then told him that he‟d seen the last of me.‟

Standing by the door, dressed for work herself, Mattie fought a tremendous urge to reach towards him and kiss those lips that had made a point of keeping away from her all weekend.

Maybe he was already tired of her, physically. Maybe the thought of her pregnancy had put him off her body. But no. He must have read her mind because he leant forward and placed his mouth on hers, a gentle kiss that was soon ignited into a burning, hungry flame.

Mattie found herself weakly clinging to the lapels of his jacket, pulling him towards her so that she could feel his probing tongue invade every inch of her.

She was shaking like a leaf when they finally drew apart. Trembling as though this were the first time they had touched. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, her body remembered his and wanted him back.

She turned away and Dominic was very tempted to pursue her before she had time to retreat, but he was playing a waiting game now, waiting for her to come to him.

Hell, how he wanted to touch her. Her breasts had become fuller now that she was pregnant and he could see them pushing against the grey wool jumper she was wearing.

Having her under his own roof for the past two nights, knowing that she was sleeping in a bed only metres away from where he was, had tested him almost to the point beyond endurance.

Every time he had closed his eyes his head had filled with images of her and how she had squirmed sensuously in his arms, opened herself up for him, played her own games with his aching, responsive body.

Well, on Thursday he would be back and enough of all her procrastinations. He had been patient long enough and he knew that, for all her talk, she still wanted him as much as he wanted her. That single kiss had told him as much. Yes, she saw him as manipulative and her fierce independence reacted against that and yes, she had made it clear that, whatever she felt for him, love was not part of the equation, but she was carrying his child and he would marry her. By nature he was not a man capable of seeing his goal and then not doing something about attaining it. He had given her two days of space, during which time he had done his utmost to neutralise his responses to her on the premise that if she didn‟t fear him she would begin to see the logic of his arguments and would come to him willingly. Or as willingly as possible, given how she felt about him.

It hadn‟t worked. He could carry on pandering to her, allowing her to sleep in the guest room as if impervious to the glaring irony that, in the solitude of her single bed, she was pregnant by the man who was sleeping in the room next door. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Dominic wondered how long the charade would continue. Giving her ample time to get used to handling the situation with him there in a frankly supporting role.

And then would the day come when she just packed her bags and left so that she could continue what he had allowed but in the privacy of her own place? No. The answer was simple.

Marriage, a shared bed, a life with him; all else could be sorted once those things were in place.

He left the apartment in a more contented frame of mind than he had felt for weeks.

Mattie, closing the door behind him, was far from contented. Every instinct in her rose up in fury at the way he smoothly, effortlessly and without much thought laid down his laws and expected complete obedience. So why did his obnoxious and ridiculous demand that they be married still dangle in front of her eyes with a niggling attraction?

She had said all the right things, laughed at his suggestion, pointed out how Victorian his thinking was, refused point blank to be coerced into a marriage that would be nothing short of a sham, but she couldn‟t carry on living with him here because if she did he would end up steamrollering over her objections. Love would make a fool of her yet again.

For the first time since she had joined the team, Mattie found that she was distracted at work. She volunteered to do some of the most intensely laborious work, just so that she could bury her head in ledgers and give her mind free rein to go where it wanted.

Was it too late to run away? she wondered. ‟Course, she couldn‟t; Dominic would find her and his rage would know no bounds. In any case, he was her baby‟s father and she could never run away from that moral obligation to her unborn child.