'That if that was so it was some form of immaculate conception,' William said pleasantly, apparently not in the least put out by the morning's happenings. 'Victoria, the guy was turning inside out—one minute wanting to rip me limb from limb, the next demanding my assurance that I intended to look after you and the baby and face up to my responsibilities. What's going on?'
'I'm so sorry—really I am.' She should have told William yesterday on the telephone what Zac suspected; she shouldn't have decided to wait until she met him for lunch, Victoria thought desperately. The whole situation was turning into a black farce.
'Did you tell him I was the father?' The perplexed note was back in William's voice and she really couldn't blame him.
'No, no, of course not,' Victoria said hastily. 'But when I told Zac I was pregnant it was after we'd just had lunch and he assumed, after seeing us together and my having told you first…'
'And you didn't disabuse him of the idea.' Victoria thought she detected a smidgen of condemnation in William's voice, and this was confirmed when he said, 'Blue-eyes, I'd give my eye teeth for it to be true—we both know that—but this is your husband's baby and you can't pretend otherwise. It's his own flesh and blood, and it's as much his as yours—'
'It isn't.' She wanted to cry, but she had done enough weeping in the last five months to last her a lifetime and she wasn't going to start again. 'He gave up all right to it when he chose to keep Gina in his life. Let them have babies if they want—' the thought was excruciating '—but this one is mine.'
'You are going to have to work this out with him, you know that, don't you?' William said very gently. 'All I can say is that I'm here for you, Blue-eyes, whenever you need me, but I wouldn't lay claim to another man's kid by default.'
'So Zac knows,' Victoria murmured numbly. 'He…he believed you, then? He accepted you weren't the father?'
'Yes, he believed me. I think it was something in my total gob-smacked inertia that convinced him,' William said drily.
Brilliant. Utterly, utterly brilliant. The baby gave the biggest kick so far as though in answer to her desperate thoughts. What was she going to do? He'd be so mad…
'I'm sorry you've been dragged into all this, William,' Victoria said slowly. 'I honestly never intended it that way. I'd made up my mind to come clean with him that day, but he was so…'
'I know.' William paused before adding, 'Do you want me to come round? I've a feeling you'll be seeing him sooner rather than later.'
'No.' It was quick and definite. 'No, I'll have to see him and explain, and then just let everything settle.'
'Hmm!' William's dry, cynical exclamation expressed what Victoria already knew at heart—Zac Harding was not a man to let anything settle. 'Call me if you need me. Is lunch still on?'
'Perhaps…perhaps it'd be better in a week or two. I'll ring you.' All this furore wasn't fair on William, especially knowing how he felt about her. She'd used him enough already, albeit unintentionally, and he had his own life to live without worrying about her. 'Goodbye for now, and…thanks for being such a good friend.'
'Bye, Blue-eyes.' There was a moment's hesitation, and then he said, 'For what it's worth, I think the guy still loves you,' and then the phone went dead.
That doesn't help, William. Victoria stared at the receiver for a full minute before replacing it gently. If Zac did still have any feeling for her beyond physical attraction—and even that would die a quick death if he saw her undressed now, she thought miserably—it wasn't the sort of love that you could build a marriage—her sort of marriage—on. Baby or no baby, she would tell him exactly that when she saw him next.
The opportunity came quicker than Victoria expected, within the next five minutes in fact She was just lifting her hand to open the front door prior to leaving for work when a sharp knock outside made her jump back, her hand going to her throat. Zac. It had to be Zac. Only his knock could denote such angry authority.
'Good morning.' His voice was deep and smooth and controlled, but nevertheless his anger fairly crackled into the space between them as she opened the door and then gestured for him to come inside without returning the salutation. She had the feeling the morning was going to be anything but good. Victoria had backed into the hall and now fairly scuttled into the sitting room as Zac closed the door. His light grey suit jacket was unbuttoned, the pale amber shirt beneath devoid of an accompanying tie, which was unusual for Zac, but she suspected from the ruffled state of his hair that he had been running his hands through it, and probably the tie had been discarded at the same time. He was clearly in the grip of a consuming emotion, and Victoria had the nasty idea it was undiluted fury—and all directed at her.
His big, lean, broad-shouldered handsomeness had an aggressive quality to it at the best of times, but now, here in the tiny feminine flat, it was overwhelmingly intimidating, his powerful masculinity lethal. And she felt scared to death.
He went straight into the attack. 'I can see from the look on your face that you've already spoken to Howard,' he grated angrily, 'so you know I went round there today. Yes?'
'Yes.' Oh, don't be so weak and subservient, she told herself bitterly. All this is not your fault It was Zac who had jumped to conclusions. But, like William said, you let him, didn't you? the voice of conscience accused probingly. It suited you for him to relinquish all rights to his child…
'Do you know the sort of hell you've put me through?' Zac growled, taking a step or two towards her and then stopping abruptly when she reacted by going white. 'And don't look like that, damn it,' he snarled furiously. 'I'm not going to hurt you. What sort of a man do you think I am?'
A furiously angry one. 'Zac, I can explain all this—'
'You told me the child was Howard's,' he ground out tightly.
'No, no, I never did.' She was gabbling, her words coming out in a frantic rush, but she had never been so frightened in her life. 'It was you who said that. You never gave me a chance—'
'He said he's never slept with you, not once,' Zac said accusingly. 'Now I want to hear it from your lips. Is that true?'
Now he was asking her to apologise for not sleeping with someone else? Victoria asked herself wretchedly. Impossible relationship…
'Well?' the word came with the force of a bullet.
'Yes, it's true,' Victoria admitted shakily. 'But I never said—'