Facing Up To Fatherhood. Miranda Lee

her, is that it?’

      ‘Most men couldn’t, Mr Hunter,’ the object of his torment piped up. ‘Especially when Sarah imagined herself in love with them. She confessed to me she was in love with you last October, not long before Bonnie must have been conceived. When Sarah was in love with a man, there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for them.’

      Not like you, Dominic thought as he glared at her scorn-filled face. You would never be any man’s slave.

      Which only made him want her all the more.

      The discovery of where this over-the-top and stunningly uncontrollable desire was coming from was little comfort to Dominic. His flesh remained stubbornly resistant to reasoning.

      Okay, so he’d always liked a sexual challenge in a woman, but this was ridiculous. This woman despised him. It was extremely perverse to desire someone who was making it blatantly obvious he would be the last man on earth she’d go to bed with.

      ‘I repeat,’ he stated forcibly. ‘I only slept with Sarah the once. And I used protection. It was the last night of her employ as my secretary. Her boyfriend had just gone off with some other woman and Sarah was very upset.’

      ‘So you comforted her,’ Tina said, the most blistering sarcasm in her tone.

      His eyes clashed with her coldly cynical gaze, and again, something happened within him. Something deep and dark and even more dangerous. For this time he could not even control his thoughts.

      One day, madam, he vowed hotly, I’ll make you look at me differently to that. One day you’ll give me fire, not ice. One day!

      The moment of mental madness was over as quickly as it had come. But it still rattled Dominic, for it betrayed a lack of control previously unknown to his character.

      He really had to get a grip on this situation.

      And his body.

      Or was it his mind playing havoc with him?

      No, no, not his mind. This woman.

      ‘Something like that,’ he grated out.

      ‘Condoms have been known to fail, you know,’ she challenged tartly.

      ‘Not the ones I buy.’

      Her eyebrows lifted. Wickedly mocking, taunting eyebrows. ‘I know of no such infallible brand.’

      Neither did Dominic. But he was not going to give an inch where this woman was concerned.

      ‘When and where can I take this test?’ he asked, determined to have done with this appalling scenario as quickly as possible.

      ‘I’ve rung the doctor,’ his mother informed him. ‘He said if you and Bonnie come in first thing on Monday morning, he’ll take the required blood tests and have them sent off straight away. But, given it’s not an urgent criminal case, the results might take anything up to a couple of weeks.’

      ‘Surely they can do it quicker than that!’

      ‘You can ask, I suppose. But I doubt it will make any difference. Apparently there’s a bit of a backlog, due to increased demand for DNA tests, and they only give priority to real emergencies. Police work and such. Meanwhile, I’ve asked Tina and Bonnie to stay here with us. She’s been working and living in Melbourne this past year and doesn’t have anywhere decent to stay in Sydney other than the little bedsit Sarah was renting.’

      ‘I don’t think that’s a very good idea, Mum,’ Dominic said firmly, gratified that he didn’t sound as panic-stricken as he felt at this development.

      ‘Why not?’

      ‘For one thing, you’ll grow attached to that baby in two weeks. How do you think you’re going to feel when you find out she’s not your granddaughter?’

      She gave him a disturbingly smug look, as though she had some secret knowledge he wasn’t privy to. ‘I’ll cope, if and when that happens. What other objections do you have?’

      ‘I don’t like to be pedantic, but you really know nothing about this woman, here, except what she’s told you. For all you know, that baby in there could be anyone!’

      Actually, this thought hadn’t occurred to him before, but now that it had, he ran with it.

      ‘And so could she!’ he said, jabbing a finger towards the brunette. ‘To invite a stranger into our home without checking her story with independent sources is not only naive, but downright stupid!’