Page 15 of My One-Night Heir
CHAPTER FIVE
Talia
NO.
My involuntary emotional outburst hangs in the air and I can’t bite it back no matter how much I want to. I’ve long given up thinking he might appear at any moment and for a split second I hope I’m dreaming. But I’m not. He’s here. And he’s looking...
Furious. Fine.
Dain Anzelotti towers over me and, despite my terror, all I can do is soak in the sight. A year ago I thought he was handsome. I was wrong. He’s jaw-dropping. He’s not in a suit today but instead wearing that casual billionaire winter uniform—leather boots, well-cut jeans, form-hugging merino sweater, tailored jacket. The layers don’t hide his lithe, muscular frame. The denim grazes his quads. The jacket emphasises his broad shoulders. But his blue gaze nails me to the bench.
I’m stunned into silence, into stillness. Yet as the seconds tick a tendril deep inside me stirs to life. I thought it dead, not dormant. The shocking lust that once led me to lose control completely. He says nothing but I feel utterly disadvantaged as he stares at me from above. I don’t breathe as he, oh, so deliberately lowers his gaze to intently study his tiny son tucked against me. I fight the overwhelming urge to run. I know it would be futile.
I don’t know Dain well. We were together for only a couple of hours. But I can tell he’s leashed. But the emotion burgeoning within me is what’s really scary. I lost all control with this man and it upended my life completely. I can’t allow that to happen again.
‘Who’s this?’ His voice is raspy.
I don’t answer. I can’t. Is he playing with me?
‘Don’t try to tell me he isn’t yours,’ he adds harshly. ‘I can’t imagine you’d breastfeed a friend’s baby in the park.’
‘You were watching?’ I gape. ‘How long have you been following me?’
‘Twenty-four minutes. Since you walked out of that café.’
I’m stunned again. He followed me here. He stood and watched me feed Lukas. I feel exposed—it’s such a personal thing. Ordinarily it would be natural for the father of my baby to watch me nurture our baby but Dain rescinded his right to that intimacy months ago. It’s too late now. It has to be. I lift my chin and emotion betters my brain. ‘What do you want?’
His blue eyes flash fire. ‘What’s the baby’s name?’
Oh, please. ‘I already told you in the messages I sent you months ago,’ I spit my fury at him. ‘Again in the photo taken when he was born.’
Dain stands very still. ‘What messages?’
I glare up at him, refusing to believe that flare in his eyes. ‘The emails.’
‘Never got any.’
‘Don’t believe you.’ But I’m quaking inside because I know, I know I didn’t try hard enough. ‘I sent them to every permutation of your email I could think of. I even sent them to the help desk listed on your company website.’
There were four actual messages sent to multiple addresses. All increasing in urgency. But I stopped sending them. I tried but then I quit after Lukas’s birth. I gave Dain the shortest of chances. Because he never bothered to reply. I knew he wouldn’t. He told me he wasn’t a commitment kind of guy and I saw for myself that he wasn’t and I decided I didn’t need to chase harder. He wasn’t interested. I don’t want that for my child. I want to protect him. And myself. Because I know rejection. I know just how much it hurts.
Suddenly Dain’s on his haunches in front of me and his tone is colder than the frosty air swirling around us. ‘What’s the baby’s name?’
I stare into his blue eyes and am helpless to do anything but answer. ‘Lukas.’
His indrawn breath is sharp. ‘Spelt how?’
Yeah. Smart question. But I guess it proves that I did go on his company website. I did try to make contact a few times at least. Because Lukas was his grandfather’s name. My throat tightens. ‘You already know—’
‘Humour me,’ he says, too silkily. ‘I think it’s the least you can do.’
‘Lukas. With a K not a C.’
Another sharp breath. ‘And does little Lukas have a middle name?’
Hearing him say Lukas’s name does something to me. I’m suddenly shaking inside—such a sentimental fool. I wanted my son to have a connection to his father even when his father didn’t even want to know him. ‘His full name is Lukas Dain Parrish.’
Dain’s gaze slices through me. ‘Parrish?’