A Hard Man to Love (2 page)

“It’s my baby, too.” He spoke quietly, but his thinned lips showed his aggravation.

“And when did you come to that conclusion?”

He didn’t answer right away. “Once I had time to think, about you, about us.”

Us
. Her short nails curled into her palm, shutting down the pain of her lost dreams. She’d learned the hard way the kind of pain loving a man like Derrick could cause.

“I realized you’re not the kind of person who would try to pass off another man’s baby as mine.”

“Lucky me, more than two weeks after you insulted me, you came to the realization that I told the truth. What took you so long?”

A sorrowful look entered his eyes. Within seconds, it disappeared. “I had to bury my father.”

Eva’s fingers flew to her mouth. “Phineas?” His father was the only member of his family she’d ever met. She’d met him once when she visited Derrick in Atlanta. He’d told her how Phineas had adopted him and raised him as his own after he married his mother, a woman thirty years younger than him. “I’m sorry.” The mumbled words seemed inadequate, especially when she wanted to reach out and put her arms around him in a comforting gesture.

He would never accept it anyway. In fact, the day after he’d told her the whole sordid story about Phineas, his mother, and his biological father, she tried to broach the subject again. He’d shut her down swiftly, letting her know the topic was off-limits, erecting the invisible walls again.

“That’s why I’m here,” Derrick continued.

Confused, Eva stared at him. “I don’t understand.”

“The past couple of weeks have been crazy since his death, but I finally feel like I’m getting my head above water. One lesson his passing has taught me is that life’s too short. I don’t want my child out there in the world, not knowing how much I want them.”

“Derrick, I would never keep the two of you apart,” Eva said in an earnest voice. “I told you as soon as I knew I was pregnant.”

Eva had thought she couldn’t have children, and coupled with irregular periods since puberty, she didn’t even suspect she was pregnant for the first three months. Only after she went to the doctor, complaining about tiredness and nausea, did she learn she was having a baby.

“Good, I’m glad to hear it. So you shouldn’t have any problem with my suggestion.” He stepped closer, eyes filled with purpose. Eva inhaled sharply, overwhelmed by his commanding presence. “I want my child to be with me at all times. I want us to get married right away.”

She gaped at him, thinking her hearing must be going bad. If she didn’t know better, she’d say he just asked her to marry him, but that would be ludicrous. A chuckle of disbelief broke past her lips, and she clamped her hand over her mouth when his face hardened.

“Did I say something funny?”

“I’m sorry, I could have sworn you asked me to marry you—sort of.”

“I did.” His solemn expression swiped the smile from her face.

“You—you can’t be serious. People don’t get married nowadays because they’re having a baby.”

“In case you didn’t notice, I’m not ‘people.’ No kid of mine is going to grow up without knowing me.”

“I agree, but I don’t see why we have to get married to ensure it.”

“Because I’m not satisfied with occasional visits. I want my son or daughter in my house, and I want to see them every day—not when it’s convenient for you.”

Eva stepped back, putting her hands up in a defensive motion against him. “Wait a minute. You’re serious about this?”

“I’ve had plenty of time to think, and it could work.”

“No, it can’t!” She swallowed to calm her frayed nerves. She sounded hysterical, while he remained as cool as a tall glass of iced tea. Before she would have welcomed a proposal—such that it was—but a wedding because of her pregnancy was the last option she’d ever considered.

Lowering her voice, she said, “We don’t have to get married. Besides, we don’t even—” She stopped, finding it difficult to say the words, but managing to muddle through. “We don’t love each other. We were already broken up when I told you I was pregnant. I don’t want to marry you, and you don’t want to marry me. Having a baby is not a good enough reason.” She took a deep breath and gradually released it. “We need to come to another arrangement.”

“All right,” he said, which only unsettled her nerves even more. She had a feeling she wouldn’t like his next words. “Then would you be willing to let me have the baby after it’s born?”

Her eyes widened, and she recoiled from him. “You really are insane, aren’t you?”

“What’s so insane about a man wanting his child?”

“Nothing, but—”

“Let me guess, a father’s not as important as a mother, right?”

“I never said that. I know how you feel because I never knew my father, either.” A common thread between the two of them, but whereas she’d seen it as a pain they could share, he never wanted to discuss it. “But a child needs its mother.”

“
And
its father.”

His implacable expression worried her, and she tried to mollify him. “And you’ll have all the access you want.”

“I don’t want
access
.”

“Well, if you think I’m going to hand my daughter over to you after she’s born, you are sadly mistaken.”

He froze, staring at her. “Daughter? You know for sure it’s a girl?”

Eva paused and nodded. “Yes. This week I found out I’m having a girl.” She’d chosen to get a 3-D ultrasound done to determine the gender of the baby.

His gaze lowered to her stomach. “A girl.”

He seemed stunned, as if hearing the sex of the baby really brought home the fact that a life was growing inside her. He ran his hand down the back of his head, across the black silk of his hair—hair she’d lovingly caressed with her own fingertips. She could almost feel the texture of it.

Eva’s voice gentled. “Derrick, I know why you’re saying these things, but you never have to worry about me cutting you out of your daughter’s life. She’ll know you love her. The relationship you didn’t have with your biological father has no bearing on your relationship with our daughter.”

He lifted his cool gaze to her face. “How much?” He pulled out his phone.

She frowned. “How much what?”

“How much will it take for you to give her up once she’s born? I can be very generous. I have my accountant on speed dial, and with one phone call, I can have any dollar amount you request transferred into the account you choose within minutes.”

He couldn’t be serious. “Wait,
what
?” Eva shook her head in confusion. “Did I hear you correctly? Did you just offer to
buy
my baby?”

Chapter Two

He didn’t seem a bit perturbed, as if she’d overreacted—as if he’d offered to purchase a cup of coffee instead of a human being.

“I wouldn’t use those words.”

“What words would you use?”

“I’m offering you another option, freeing you from the responsibility—”

“
Are
you out of your mind
? You think you can pay me off and I’ll walk away? My baby is not for sale.”

“Calm down.”

She tried, but couldn’t. Her head felt as if a five-piece band, made up entirely of percussionists, pounded out a constant beat inside her skull.

“What kind of woman do you think I am? You can’t seriously think I would agree to something like that.”

“Everything has a price, Eva.”

His matter-of-fact tone pushed her toward hysteria again. “Not me, and not my child. You don’t have enough money to make me hand her over to someone like you!”

His face hardened at the insult, the ensuing silence only disturbed by the sound of a few cars passing by. A small family with laughing children descended from an SUV to have breakfast at the restaurant across the street.

“Do you really want to do this?” he asked quietly. Too quietly.

Alarm bells sounded in her head at the determined set of his jaw. When she’d called him to tell him about her pregnancy, she had never considered he would want his child so much he would do anything to get her.

“Do you really want to battle with me? Because I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get what I want.”

Her heart raced at an alarming speed. This calmer Derrick frightened her more than the one who had withstood her hysterical outbursts moments before.

“I didn’t want to do this,” he continued. “But you’ve left me no choice.” He reached inside his jacket and removed an envelope, thrusting it in her face.

Eva took it. Apprehension caused goose pimples to spring up on her arms despite the morning’s warmth. “What is this?”

“Open it.”

Filled with nervous tension, she tore open the unmarked envelope. It contained a letter, typed on ornate tan stationery with the name of a well-known law firm in embossed letters across the top. Her fingers tightened on the paper as she scanned the contents.

“If you don’t change your answer, you’ll receive a certified copy in the mail within the next day or two,” Derrick said. “I brought along a copy in case I needed it, and clearly I do.”

The gist of the letter expressed the attorneys’ intention to file for sole custody of the unborn child on behalf of their client, Derrick Hoffman, as soon as the baby was born.

Eva frowned, shaking her head emphatically. She suddenly felt ill. “No, no. You won’t get away with this.”

“Try me.”

“Courts don’t separate babies from their mothers.”

“If you want to take the chance, go right ahead. But here’s something you should know. My father left everything to me. That means I have almost unlimited funds to fight you as long and as hard as I need to. How difficult do you think it would be for my attorneys to prove I’m the better option for our daughter, hmm?” He held up his thumb to start counting. “One, you haven’t had a full-time job since January. Two, at the job you have now, you only earn minimum wage, and you work part-time. Three, you don’t have insurance, so your access to adequate health care is questionable. Four—”

“Enough!” Eva crushed the paper in her hand. She stared down at the sidewalk, fighting back the tears of helplessness. Her heart felt swollen and heavy in her chest. He couldn’t be this cruel. What had she ever seen in him? “Please don’t do this.”

“I gave you two other options,” he said. “If you marry me, you’ll live a comfortable lifestyle, and we can raise our daughter together. If marriage to me is so unappealing, I’m willing to take on the responsibility of being a single parent. You can give her to me willingly, and I’ll compensate you for it.”

She wrapped protective arms around her midsection. “I only have to choose, huh? Door A or door B. Or I’m stuck with door C.”

“It doesn’t have to be this way.” An odd note in his voice caused her to lift her head, but his face didn’t show the same emotion she knew openly displayed on hers.

“What about love, Derrick? Does that even matter to you?”

“Why do you think I’m doing this? You expect me to walk away from my own flesh and blood?”

“I thought we could come to a workable agreement. We need a middle ground. Our relationship is finished, but the only other real option you’ve given me is to pack up my life and come live with you.”

His eyes glittered down at her. “Our relationship may have ended, but I wasn’t done with you.”

The quietly spoken words rocked her. Her heart stuttered in her chest. “Is that what this is about?” she asked in a soft voice. “You’re angry because I ended the relationship?”

She’d stopped seeing him as an act of self-preservation. Whenever the phone rang, she ran for it, her heart beating fast in the hope it was him saying he was on his way to see her. What was she supposed to do, with her feelings for him growing stronger and stronger, knowing when they weren’t together, other women slept in his bed? Knowing some other woman’s lips trailed kisses across his golden skin? If she could flip a switch and stop caring about him, life would be easier.

She’d already grown disgusted with herself at the way she’d gladly accepted the open relationship he tossed at her. She couldn’t continue to see him when she knew she wanted more than he could give her. If there had been any doubt before, his actions today left no room for doubt that her feelings for him were completely one-sided.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said scathingly. “I wouldn’t give up my freedom to get back at you, and if I only wanted sex, I could get it anytime of the day or night I want. But what I want is my child, with me, at all times.”

The callously spoken words crushed her. Of course she knew he could have any woman anytime he wanted. He was wealthy, good-looking, and charming when he wanted to be. What woman could resist such a combination?

She lifted her chin, refusing to be bullied. “Then I guess we’re deadlocked.”

The muscle in his left cheek flexed as he tried to rein in his temper. “You’re making a mistake.”

Tears stung her eyes, and she didn’t care if he saw them. “
You’re
making a mistake. Please leave. I don’t want to see you.”

“Don’t be foolish and make an emotional decision. Think about what I’m offering you.”

“Get out of here, Derrick, and don’t come back.”

Unfazed, he continued to talk in the same calm voice. “I’m staying in the beach villa I always rented for us when I came here. I don’t leave until noon tomorrow. You know how to get in touch with me. If you give me your answer by noon, it’ll be like this conversation never took place.”

“I already gave you my answer.”

His emotionless eyes stared down into hers. “I’ll excuse your behavior because I realize your hormones are all messed up and you’re not thinking straight—”

“Excuse my behavior?” She laughed, her tone shrill. “Don’t do me any favors!”

“My offer is only good until tomorrow, so you need to spend the rest of the day thinking long and hard about this decision and everything you’re giving up. If you marry me, you’ll live a very comfortable life.”

“Are you deaf? I don’t want to marry you, Derrick. I couldn’t care less about your money or your lifestyle. They mean nothing to me. I don’t care enough about any of it to want to put up with marriage to
you
.”