Seduce (28 page)

“Do you still have the paperwork somewhere?”

“No…. I never saw the paperwork.” 
Fuck, no.
  “Viv told me the results, I never saw them….”

His eyes widened.  “You
, my brother, are a fuckin’ idiot.  How could you take that bitch’s word without seeing evidence?”

He was right.  Could I have totally screwed my relationship up with Lily, because
I’d believed what Viv said? I sat back and contemplated what we had just discussed.  Could Lucien be right?  Viv lied about a lot of things, but I’d never have expected her to lie about something like that.

When
I’d started thinking straight, I realized I was a jerk.  A very insensitive jerk at that.  Lily had my heart like no one else ever had.  I trusted her and if I’d been thinking straight when she’d made the announcement, I hoped I would have reacted differently.

There was no way on this earth Lily would have had an affair, which could only mean that I was the father.
I felt my eyes well with tears. All these years I’d thought I would never be able to father a child and I had.  I’d destroyed Lily when I told her to leave.  I was a bastard.  I also needed to make this right.

“Michael, you need to have another test.  I’ll arrange it
tomorrow,” Lucien said.  I’d actually forgotten he was still in the room with me.

“No.”

“What do you mean no.  There’s a heartbroken woman, who you love in my hotel room.  She needs to know why the hell you reacted the way you did and you need to know the truth, so yes, I will make you an appointment and you will keep it.”

“I do know the truth,” I replied.  He raised an eyebrow in question.  “There is no way Lily would have ever been unfaithful to me.  When she blurted out that she was pregnant, that was the only word I heard and thought it couldn’t be mine.  I saw red and spoke first, instead of thinking first.  I love her
, Lucien, so damn much it terrifies the life out of me.  The fact is, I know Viv lied to me.  I know in here that I’m the father of the child Lily is carrying,” I hit my chest where my heart was, “a test will only tell me the same thing, and I need Lily to believe me without the test.  I need her to know that I really do trust her.  That I believe her without a piece of paper telling me the truth.  Do you understand where I’m coming from?”

He was standing, smiling at me
.  “Yeah, I do.  It’s about damn time.  You need to come to the hotel in the morning with me and tell her.  She needs to hear it from you.”

“I know.  Let’s go.”  I s
tarted to walk out of the room.

“Not yet.”  He
looked uncomfortable.  “Lily wanted me to ask you to go and talk to her in the morning to explain why you reacted the way you did.  She just wants tonight alone.”

“Lucien, I need to talk to her now.”

“I promised her, Michael. Please don’t make me break it.”

I was stunned.  How could he expect me to wait until morning to talk to her?  “I don’t like this.”

“I know you don’t.  You broke her heart, Michael.  Leave her to sleep, she could do with the rest and then I’ll have you there first thing in the morning.”

“I guess.”  I ran my hands through my hair as I
walked back to the cabinet which held the whiskey and retrieved the ring I’d left there earlier when I’d poured a much-needed drink.

“I went sh
opping at the jewelers this morning.  I bought her an engagement ring.”  I opened the small black box and showed Lucien.  He whistled.

“That’s Lily.  She’ll love it, once you’ve spent
a long time groveling on your knees.”

“I hope she
loves it and I’ll spend the rest of my life groveling, if that’s what it takes.”

~~
LILY ~~

I opened my eyes and
remembered everything that had happened the night before.  I started crying again.

“Lily, please stop
crying.  You’re breaking my heart.”

I cried even harder.

“Now, now honey.  Come here. Let me hold you.”

I turned over
and found myself wrapped in Pippa’s arms as she patted my back.

After about ten minutes
, I started to calm down and moved away from her so I could sit up.  On unsteady legs, I made my way to the bathroom.

“I’m just going to have a quick shower.  I won’t be long.”

With the door shut, I stripped out of my clothes and climbed into the shower.  I did need a shower, but in part, it was an excuse.  I didn’t know what to say to Michael’s mom.  I desperately wanted to know why he’d reacted the way he had.  I knew he had big problems about trust, but all I wanted was to be back at home with his arms wrapped around me, telling me that everything was going to be all right.

I washed my hair with Lucien’s shampoo and then washed my body.  I smoothed my hand over my stomach that sheltered our child.

Determined not to cry again, I turned the shower off and climbed out.  I took as long as I could to dry and, finding Lucien’s robe behind the door, I quickly put it on and wrapped the towel around my hair.

I walked out of the ba
throom and realized I hadn’t brought any clothes with me.  I looked at the bed and found a pair of leggings and a t-shirt which I presumed Pippa had brought me.

I dressed q
uickly and walked out into the lounge area to find Pippa sitting at the table by the window eating breakfast.

“Do you feel better?” she asked.

I tried not to cry again.  “A bit.”  I walked over to the table and took a seat opposite her.

“I wasn’t sure wha
t you like to eat, so I ordered a few things.”  She stood up.  “Let me pour you a coffee.”  My stomach rebelled.

“I think
I’ll stick to the orange juice, but thank you.”

She looked at me funny and took her seat again while I slowly sipped the juice.  My stomach growled
, which made Pippa laugh.

“What would you like to eat, Lily?”

“I’ll just have the fruit for now, please.”

She passed me a bowl with strawberries, melon, grapes and orange
slices in it, which managed to slide down my throat rather well considering the huge lump stuck there.

“Lily,” she said in a questioning voice, “Michael can be an idiot at times.  I don’t know what’s happened between the two of you, but I want you to know that in his thirty-six years, he’s never been in love before, until now.  He was hurt badly with what Viv did to him.  Has he talked about her?”

I nodded.

“She was a wicked woman who he married thinking with his dick instead of his head and heart.”

I laughed, stunned that she would say ‘dick’.

“Viv never touched his heart and no one else has.  I’m guessing it’s something Michael’s done that made you run to Lucien, but please be patient with him while he works everything out.”

“I’m pregnant,” I blurted out.

She was stunned.  “You are?”

“Yes, the doctor thinks I conceived about three weeks ago.”  The tears started rolling down my face again.  “I told Michael and within seconds he was ordering me out of his house.  Why would he do that?  I think Lucien knows, but he said he had to talk to Michael first.  Do you know why?”

Pippa
had tears on her face.  “Are you sure that’s how far along you are?”

I looked at her funny.  First Lucien asked me this question
, and now their mother.  Why?  I was starting to get pissed.

“Yes
, I’m sure, or rather the doctor was sure after giving me a sonogram.”  I stood up and started pacing.  “David had a vasectomy four years ago, plus I haven’t slept with him since I met Michael.  The only person I’ve slept with is Michael.  Now why did both you and Lucien ask me that question?  Please tell me, Pippa.”

She shook her head.  “You need to talk to Michael.”

Then it hit me.  I knew why.  “He thinks he can’t have children.  I’m right, aren’t I?”

Pippa
just nodded.

“Why though?  Why would he think that? 
And surly me telling him that I’m pregnant would have made him jump for joy rather than kick me….”

I didn’t finish as a thought struck me.  Did he think I’d been unfaithful to him?

I felt the color drain out of me as I sat back down rather abruptly.  I felt sick to my stomach.  How the hell could he think that? 

Pippa
just looked at me with an odd expression on her face.  “He thinks I’ve been unfaithful to him, doesn’t he?”

“
Maybe,” she whispered.

“How could he think
that?  I love him.  I’ve only ever slept with two men in my life, David and then Michael.”

I stood up and stormed to the bedroom to find my purse.  If Michael thought I’d been unfaithful to him
, he was going to get a piece of my mind.  I started to cry heavily and lay on the bed with my face buried into a pillow.

“Lily,”
Pippa whispered.  I felt her climb on the bed with me and then she pulled me into her arms.

“How could he think that?  I’ve never looked at another guy until Michael came along,” I sniffled, “he
’s all I want.  I never gave David my heart, but I gave it to Michael.  I can’t believe….”

I couldn’t talk anymore because of my tears.

~~
MICHAEL ~~

On the way to the hotel
, I prayed for the first time in a long time, that Lily would accept my apology and explanation.  I was the world’s biggest idiot for acting the way I had.  Yes, I’d been burned in the past, but I knew Lily and I knew she wouldn’t do anything like I’d first imagined.

When she
’d blurted out that she was pregnant, it had been such a shock, I couldn’t even think straight.  I’d reacted thinking the worst possible thing and then it took Lucien asking questions last night for my head to get screwed on right.

I had the engagement ring in my pocket and was prepared to beg if I had to.  All I knew was that losing her wasn’t an option.

Lucien kept looking at me through the corner of his eye. It started to give me a complex.  I knew I didn’t look my best.  Unable to sleep last night, I’d sat in the ‘cave’ with the television on, watching what, I couldn’t tell you, and thought about Lily.  I’d thought back over the past twenty-five days and how fulfilled my life had been.

“Michael, I think you should have shaved before leaving this morning,” Lucien stated.

“All I want to do is be with Lily.  If I’d shaved it would have taken even longer to leave…. I need to see her.  Hold her.  Tell her what a bloody idiot I am and hope to god she forgives me, because I really don’t know what I’ll do if she refuses. 
Shit,
you don’t think she’ll refuse to listen to me, accept my apology, do you?”

Lucien parked the car then turned to look at me.  “I don’t think
she’ll give up on you, but if she plays tough after what you said to her, then all I can say is that you deserve it.  Come on, let’s go.”

We both climbed out of the car
and made our way into the hotel.  We got a few stares in the lobby, but I didn’t care.  Lucien shoved me into the elevator and that’s when I caught sight of myself.

“
Fuck.”
  I ran my hands through my hair and tried to straighten it a bit.  There was no hope for my shirt, which was very badly wrinkled.  The jeans weren’t too bad.  You could always rely on denim.

Outside the room I was terrified.  Whatever I said inside that room would make or break my relationship
with Lily, if I hadn’t already done so.

I raised my hand to knock
, when Lucien used his key card to open the door.  “I told mom I’d let myself in when I got back.  She might be in the bedroom with Lily.”

He pushed the door open, but there was no Lily in the room.  Lucien pointed to a door to the left of the room.  “The bedroom’s through there.”  I stood there, not able to move.  Lucien sighed.  “Michae
l, mom probably knows I’m back.  Get in there and talk to Lily.”

With a shove from my brother, I walked
to the bedroom door and knocked before I could turn tail.

The door opened slightly and my mom stepped out.

“She cried herself to sleep.  What’s really going on, Michael?”  She took my face between her hands and kissed my cheek before hugging me really tight.  Then she let me go and just stared at me.  “I don’t believe there’s been anyone else since she met you.  She’s too heartbroken.”

I wiped a stray tear away.  “There hasn’t been.  I know that and I should have known that when she told me about the baby.  I just heard the word pregnant and didn’t think.  I love her mom, so damn much.” 
Christ
, I was so close to breaking down.  Could I be anymore pathetic?

Mom ope
ned the bedroom door for me and in I walked, stopping to watch Lily sleep on the bed.  She was beautiful, but I could see the dark circles under her eyes that I’d caused.  All I wanted to do was climb onto the bed with her and hold her so I could tell her how much I loved her, how sorry I was.