He stared her down. “I’m the father of our baby. If you think I’m going to let you out of my sight now, then you don’t know me at all.”
“You don’t know me either—” she cried. His possessive tone made it difficult for her to keep her head on straight.
“That’s the problem. Luc. We didn’t spend more than five days together. We’re practically strangers, yet we created a child while your wife was still in the hospital. We can’t do this! I can’t do it.”
“What can’t you do?” he demanded.
“I have a job in New York. If I stay here any longer, people will talk. Your mother will find out I was here on the night of Paulette’s funeral. What would her family say if they knew you’d come to this hotel straight from their house?”
“I don’t give a damn what anyone thinks. None of it will matter anyway when they find out we’re married.”
“Married? But we’re not!”
“We’re going to be.”
Her face paled. “Surely you’re joking.”
Luc shook his head. “I’ve never been more serious in my life.
“Tomorrow I’ll fly to New York with you. We’ll get married civilly and take care of what needs to be done before coming home to live.”
She stood there reeling in disbelief. “I couldn’t possibly marry you. Everyone would go into shock. Your mother and Paulette’s family would despise me.”
“When they remember that Paulette divorced me three years ago. they’ll get over it. Even if they don’t—” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “We’re going to be parents in a little less than seven months, so this isn’t about us anymore, Rachel. A new life is growing inside you. It puts everything that’s gone on before in the past where it belongs.
“This baby is our future. Our child deserves everything we have to give. That includes my name and my constant companionship.”
Rebecca’s words kept swirling in Rachel’s head. Tell him the truth… The rest will take care of itself.
“No child of ours is going to be torn apart because I live on one continent and you on another.
“Look what that kind of arrangement did to you and your sister.”
Rachel had no comeback for his logic. He’d managed to touch on that core of pain where he knew she’d been the most vulnerable.
One dark brow dipped ominously. “History’s not going to repeat itself where our child is concerned. There’ll be no divorce. We’ll stay married, Rachel.”
She knew those weren’t empty words. Luc was an all-or-nothing man. It was the way he was made. That was one of the reasons she loved him so much.
But he didn’t love her. To commit herself to him under these circumstances meant she’d be missing out on the one thing she’d hoped to find in life.
“Luc—I agree our child shouldn’t have to travel back and forth on visitation, so I’m willing to move to Alsace after the baby’s born.
“Ever since I flew here on my first trip, I made up my mind that one day I’d buy a little house in one of the villages. At the time I was thinking years down the road…but my pregnancy has changed the timetable. If I found a property somewhere in the province, then you could see the baby all the time without it disrupting your work”
His expression darkened like the thunderhead in the storm that had propelled her into his arms.
“Forget it, Rachel. If you’re that worried about what people will think, then we’ll live in New York.”
Panic set in. “Don’t be ridiculous. You’re a vintner.”
“I’ll open a distributorship to expand Chartier wines on the North American continent. All that really matters is that we give our child a stable home life with a mother and father under one roof.”
“It’s not all that matters,” she retorted, because he refused to consider any other alternative. “We both know your mother’s not going to welcome me.”
“Then it’s her loss.” He reached for her hand and clung to it.
“I’m aching to be a father who takes turns getting up in the night to tend to our son or daughter.