Mrs. Egan, oblivious, nodded them away calling to Alex with the promise of ice cream after he was in his pajamas.
Sabrina followed Vlad into his office, her legs like overcooked spaghetti and her heart paining her like someone had punched a fist through her chest.
She watched as Vlad paced behind the desk in his office and came out from it seconds later only to stride over to the window at the far corner of the room for all the world like a caged lion. Finally, he leaned against his desk and ran his hand through his close-cropped hair. He crossed his arms over his chest, his lean body in his city suit spectacular as usual, although he was less than his usually pristine self with his tie askew and his top button undone.
****
He looked at her, absorbing the picture she made: hair pulled smoothly back in a braid, black leggings and buttoned down man-tailored shirt.
The ever-rounder, ever fuller bosom should have been a dead giveaway if only he had been in any way ready for the prospect. He knew her breasts were bigger. He had marveled at them as much as he had noticed her recent ability to nap at the drop of a hat.
Pregnant? Pregnant? But he had been so careful, using protection every, single, time. As he always had with every woman he had ever been with. Hadn’t he?
Sabrina seemed poised for flight, eyes bright green coins in her pale face, her back flat against the door, her arms behind her as she leaned against it as if she might otherwise slide to the floor in a puddle.
Seeing her like that, he remembered it all. The one time he hadn’t protected them. Sabrina, standing in this very room, the night of the VGI Foundation Gala, in the sexy green satin gown and his complete loss of control against the door she was currently holding up. Oh, yes. Now he remembered.
That was the night he had seen the reality of his response to her, and then afterward, acknowledging his unprecedented loss of control with her, only with her, had devised a way to stay sane by limiting his contact with her. She was like no other woman he had ever been with. And realizing that, he stayed away from her for the weeks leading up to the wedding.
But it didn’t matter. On the yacht, even amongst the crew and Alex, he was hard pressed to maintain the rules he devised to protect himself. She bewitched him with her body and now he was about to pay for the one time he had so completely lost it that he’d forgotten to use protection.
****
“I just found out myself a couple of days ago, I did the dip stick test. I was feeling out of sorts.” Sabrina was rambling and she turned her head away from his hard profile wishing he would say something, anything. She squashed the impulse to say sorry. She was as shocked as he obviously was, but she was not sorry.
She would love this baby just as she had loved Alex.
Vlad took her hand and pulled Sabrina into the chair near his desk. She sank heavily into it and he stared at her profile. After what seemed like an age he said, “You should get your rest, Sabrina.” And then, “I’m sorry.”
With those words, Sabrina’s eyes filled, and she tried to dash the tears off her cheeks but they kept coming. She got up and stumbled from his office and back to her bedroom.
Sorry. Sorry?
Sabrina was cut to her core by the words.
Vlad was sorry he had gotten her pregnant. While she had definitely been totally floored at the news, she expected some sort of more supportive response. Now that she was pregnant, what good did sorry do?
Oh, c’mon, Sabrina. What were you really expecting from a man as closed off as Vlad? He was dynamite in the bedroom, but if he had any finer feelings for her he had never expressed them. Aside from the stretches of time where he deemed it expedient to spend time together for public relations reasons, he was absent from her life.
Is that what she could expect from him now that she was carrying his child?
The tears kept coming and her head was pounding.
Sabrina lay back on her bed and tried to rest knowing that sleep would not come easily.
She finally fell into a doze near dawn and awakened at seven thirty still fully clothed from the previous evening. Alex had to be at preschool by nine o’clock.
Her cell pinged a text. This time, instead of forcing her into a humiliating question and answer session with Mrs. Field, at least Vlad had texted her and let her know.—I have an important conference in San Diego. We’ll talk when I get back on Thursday.—he texted.
She hurled the cellphone and it hit the wall with a crack. Talk Thursday? Her head pounded like someone had taken a hatchet to it, and her vision was literally red. Thursday was days away. She breathed deep because she needed to start to keep her cool for the baby’s sake.
So she took a quick shower and had a bite of toast. She tried to keep her movements slow so as to keep the food down. She slipped into leggings and a loose tee. When she felt better, she would have to acquire some actual maternity clothing. And see a doctor. But not today.
She made a face at herself in the mirror and applied some makeup to try to hide the havoc the last twenty- four hours had played on her face. She brushed her hair to something close to its usual luster and took Alex to school. On the way back, she asked Sergei to stop at a bookstore and she bought one of each of the pregnancy- related books on display.
She knew an awful lot about being a mother thanks to Alex, but very little about being pregnant. Vlad might be absent, but she had to face up to the prospect of caring for the new life growing inside her.
Sabrina opened one of the books in what she called the sunroom. Every room in the penthouse had a spectacular city view, but this room had a southern exposure as well as the most unimpeded view of Manhattan harbor and it was her favorite.
She had just settled back to read when the door opened and Pieter stepped into the room, closely followed by Mrs. Field.
Sabrina got to her feet.
“What are you doing here?” Her voice was a thin thread of sound.