To Make a Marriage by Carole Mortimer Page B

child was concerned, would incur…? Did it include standing united with Adam in an effort not to alienate the baby’s grandfather from the man who had been his best friend for the last twenty years? Did it include marrying Adam to avoid all that?
    She still didn’t have the answer to that!
    She spoke again, sounding resigned. ‘You don’t want to marry me, Adam—’
    â€˜I don’t think what I want—or, indeed, what you want, either!—is of particular importance at this moment,’ he shot back, releasing her abruptly to walk determinedly to the other end of the terrace.
    Andie swallowed hard, his words having put a chill into her heart. ‘It isn’t…?’
    â€˜No,’ he told her firmly, a nerve pulsing in the tightness of his jaw. ‘We have to think of the baby—’
    â€˜And you think I haven’t been?’ she cut in angrily, a flush to her cheeks now. ‘How dare you?’ she accused resentfully. ‘Why else would I have given up a job that I love doing, if it weren’t because it’s safer for the baby if I don’t work? Why else would I—?’
    â€˜Andie, I wasn’t implying—’
    â€˜Yes, you were, damn you!’ There was something to be said for the emotion of anger. It precluded any others—such as love!—from surfacing. ‘And you have no right! You—’
    â€˜Andie, I didn’t come here to fight with you,’ Adam interrupted, eyes glittering silver as he glared across the terrace at her.
    â€˜Then why did you come?’ Her head went back challengingly.
    He gave a heavy sigh. ‘I’ve already told you—I came here to ask you, to plead with you if necessary,’ he added hardly, ‘to consider marrying me.’
    How it pained him to have to say it! What sort of marriage would it be, could it be, when it wasn’t what either of them really wanted?
    Her chin rose proudly. ‘I’ve considered it, Adam, and—’
    â€˜Consider it again!’ he advised harshly. ‘And this time think of it from another angle but your own!’ he continued scathingly, hands clenched at his sides now—as if he might strangle her if he didn’t…?
    She had been considering every angle since the moment she had decided, a month ago, that she loved this baby above everything else; her child’s wants and needs were of paramount importance to her now. But she wasn’t sure that having parents who didn’t love each other was the best thing for her baby…
    She gave Adam a narrow-eyed look. ‘How can you be absolutely positive this baby is yours, Adam?’
    His mouth twisted mockingly. ‘I’m sure, Andie.’
    â€˜I don’t see how—’
    â€˜I doubt that experience with me was enough to send you out on a life of bed-hopping conquests,’ Adam declared. ‘And if it wasn’t—! You were a virgin that night, Andie,’ he stated flatly. ‘Or did you think my life was so debauched I wouldn’t recognise a virgin if I met one?’
    Andie swallowed hard, turning away, heated colour in her cheeks now. He hadn’t said anything at the time—she had thought—
    She had spent the last few years of her life living and working amongst a casual permissiveness that simply hadn’t appealed to her. Maybe that was because she’d already been in love with Adam, and no other man would do for her; she simply didn’t know. But he was right; she had been a virgin that night three months ago…
    â€˜You’re right.’ She sighed defeatedly, not wanting to continue discussing the subject of her virginity—or lack of it now! ‘It is your child.’
    â€˜I never doubted it,’ he bit out forcefully.
    â€˜What sort of marriage are you offering me, Adam?’ she asked levelly, giving no indication that what he said in the next few minutes could be the deciding