stranger she had to offer polite thanks to, Dominick fumed once left on his own.
Was that what he was going to become to her in future? Would she marry Carlton once their own divorce was final, and so be lost to him for ever?
Could he really just stand by and let that happen?
Did he have a choice?
Yes, of course he had a choice. Kenzie had loved him once, maybe it wasn’t too late for her to feel that way again.
Unlike five and a half months ago, he wasn’t going to give her up without a fight…!
‘WHAT are you doing here, Dominick?’ Kenzie stared at him in amazement the next morning when she answered the doorbell of the apartment she rented while working in New York, and found him standing outside in the hallway. ‘More to the point,’ she added with a frown, ‘how did you know where I was staying?’
Dominick looked less than his sartorially elegant self this morning, she thought, taking in his appearance. His dark hair was brushed back carelessly, his face was unshaven, and the shirt and jeans he wore looked as if he might have slept in them. If he had slept at all; the dark shadows beneath his eyes cast doubts upon that assumption.
He shrugged his broad shoulders. ‘I asked Caroline—’
‘And she just told you my New York address, did she?’ Kenzie snapped sarcastically.
He smiled slightly. ‘Along with a few words of abuse, yes!’
That wasn’t too difficult to imagine considering the ridiculous accusation Caroline had made to Kenzie in the powder room the evening before about Dominick still being enthralled with her!
‘What do you want, Dominick?’ she queried guardedly, aware that Jerome was due to arrive any minute—probably to finish the argument they had begun once all the other guests had gone the evening before.
Dominick hadn’t come back downstairs to the party the previous evening, and Kenzie could only conclude that was because he had had no wish to see her again after learning of her pregnancy.
Considering her own state of bemusement, Kenzie had just felt thankful that she didn’t have to face him again, making sure she ate some food before renewing her role as the Carlton Cosmetics face, cheerfully brushing off the other guests’ curiosity about her earlier collapse with the explanation that she ‘must be getting a cold’. It was a lame excuse, but it was the best she had been able to come up with at the time!
Although Jerome had had plenty to say about it once all the guests had left…
Her mouth tightened as she remembered the argument that had ensued.
‘Dominick?’ she prompted sharply.
He shrugged, not really sure what he was doing here, except that he had wanted to see how Kenzie was this morning. After she had spoken to Carlton last night…‘I had a breakfast meeting, so I thought I would call to see how you are…?’
‘I’m fine,’ Kenzie answered warily, still eyeing his appearance with knit brows.
Dominick’s mouth twisted wryly as he easily guessed the reason for that, but he hadn’t been too concerned with impressing the person he had met for breakfast, hence his casual appearance.
He grimaced. ‘I was also curious to know how Carlton took your news—Kenzie? You haven’t told him yet, have you?’ he realized slowly as she suddenly avoided meeting his gaze.
She sighed. ‘Not yet, no,’ she confirmed quietly. ‘It wasn’t exactly the right time last night,’ she defended.
Dominick continued to stare at her. ‘And what would you consider the right time to inform a man he’s going to be a father?’ He winced inwardly, thinking how just saying the words out loud felt as if he were beating himself with a stick!
Maybe if he kept saying it he would finally come to believe it was true!
He had spent a sleepless night pacing up and down his hotel suite trying to decide what to do next. One thing he was certain of was that he had to do something, and he knew that he couldn’t just walk away from Kenzie without telling her how he felt. He owed her that much, at least.
She looked beautiful this morning, with her face bare of make-up, and her long hair pulled back in a pony-tail, wearing a bright pink tee shirt and faded figure-hugging jeans.
‘Can I come in?’ he prompted at her lack of reply. ‘I could use a cup of coffee.’
Kenzie didn’t want to invite him in; she didn’t see the point of doing that. They had nothing left to say to each other.
Besides, Jerome was due to arrive at any moment, and the last thing she needed was for the two men to meet at her apartment. She was as unsure of Dominick’s mood this morning as she had been last night, but one thing she was certain of was if the two men met Dominick was sure to challenge the other man over Kenzie’s pregnancy.
And Jerome knew he couldn’t be the father of her baby!
‘There isn’t any point in your coming in, Dominick,’ she told him firmly, making no effort to relax her grip on the door as she kept him standing outside her apartment. ‘I’m—going out later, anyway,’ she added dismissively, not lying about that. She was flying back to England later on today…
‘To talk to Carlton?’ he probed.
She sighed her impatience. ‘Again, that isn’t any of your business, Dominick—’
‘I’m making it my business,’ he told her determinedly, easily pushing his way past her, into the apartment. ‘You may not like it, Kenzie, but the fact is, you’re still my wife, and—’
‘If that’s all that’s bothering you, then sign the damn divorce papers and let’s finish this once and for all!’ she came back angrily, aware of the minutes ticking away.
If Dominick did challenge the other man over her pregnancy, then there was no way it wouldn’t come out that Jerome couldn’t possibly be the father of her baby!
Leaving only Dominick as a possible candidate…the man who had made it only too plain last night that he considered any child, his or anyone else’s, as a ‘responsibility’.
‘And so leaving you free to marry Carlton!’ Dominick snarled.
‘This conversation is becoming extremely tiresome, Dominick.’ She sighed impatiently.
‘Don’t you think he’ll ask you?’ Dominick felt goaded into challenging.
‘Perhaps it doesn’t really matter whether he asks me or not!’
Kenzie snapped back.
‘And what the hell does that mean?’ Dominick frowned darkly.
She shrugged. ‘I’m rich, I’m independent, and having a baby on my own at this stage in
