A shadow crossed his face. "Isn't that tantamount to an abortion?"
"Not exactly. Maybe, I don't know."
His countenance darkened. "I don't care for that idea, Natalie."
She let out the breath she'd been holding. "Me, either."
"So, we'll wait and see. After you get your period, you'll see a doctor and get on contraceptives?"
Natalie studied him as he carefully disengaged and began straightening his clothing. She couldn't help but notice he didn't say either the word pregnant or baby. He avoided both of those words, and she felt her stomach fall a little. But still, she agreed with him on the birth control issue. "Okay."
He held his hand out to her and led her to his private restroom where she cleaned herself up. She walked out and met him once again in his office. "So, I'll see you later."
"I'll walk you down."
"Okay."
She lifted her bag off the floor where it had fallen earlier when he'd picked her up. He held her hand and led her to the elevator and down to the actual bank itself. She noticed a few female tellers surreptitiously watching them, even as they continued to work.
Marco was about to lean down--she felt a kiss coming--when he was halted by a man who neither one of them were pleased to see. Mathew Kennedy strolled from a side office and spoke in a jovial mood that was exceedingly unpleasant. The man just didn't get it. He just didn't get that Marco detested him. It was certainly apparent for Natalie to see.
"Where have you two been hiding out?" He asked the question of Marco, but Natalie felt a sensation much like bugs crawling on her skin as the man looked her over.
"Haven't been hiding out, Kennedy." As he said the words, Marco moved to stand in front of her, taking her out of the other man's line of vision, but continued to hold her hand in a tight grip behind his back. His motive must have been plain for anyone to see, but Kennedy just wasn't that smart.
"No? Well, when you two get bored at home, y'all need to come and join the land of the living. You've been missing some damn good parties, my man."
Natalie felt Marco's breath seize up in his lungs and his shoulders stiffen with tension and pure rage. From her vantage point behind him, she could literally see the hairs on the back of his neck stand out, and she knew she had two choices. She could either let him do something really stupid in his own bank, like pounce on the man, or she could interrupt and draw his attention away from the vermin standing in front of them.
She didn't hesitate to try to mitigate the situation. She popped her head around Marco's arm and forced her tone to be pleasant, "It's nice to see you, Mr. Kennedy, but Marco promised to walk me to my car, didn't you, babe?" She glanced at Marco and then back around to the other man, her eyes flashing. She knew she sounded vain and spoiled, but she didn't really give a flying flip. The other man was an ass and she liked his eyes on her even less than Marco did. Well, maybe not. "Marco likes to take care of me that way, you know?" She flashed her eyes at Marco in pure adoration. "He likes to protect me from, well, from everything. It was nice to see you."
With that, Natalie began to walk away, clutching Marco's hand to her. She had only one second where she thought her idiotic behavior might not have worked, but then Marco gave the other man an abbreviated look that meant they would meet another day and another time, and then he followed her from the bank.
When they reached her car, she saw Mathew Kennedy turn and leave the bank in the opposite direction from where they stood. She breathed a sigh of relief, and pressed the remote to unlock her car doors. Marco reached the door before she did, and opened it for her. She slid in and looked up at him. He stood with his arms and the car door making a cage around her and was staring down at her as if he'd never seen her before.
She looked steadily back at him, waiting.
His gaze narrowed on her as he ran his eyes up and down her body before landing back on her face. "Babe?" He drawled the one word in a firm, humorous question, making the one syllable stretch into three.
Her eyes twinkled and she smiled up at him. "It worked, didn't it?"
He puffed out a laugh and shook his head. "You be careful. Got your damn phone this time?"
"Yes."
"You sure?"
"Yes, babe," she teased.
He rolled his eyes heavenward and shut the door carefully.
Chapter Ten
Eight months later
Natalie took refuge in the upstairs powder room of the mansion in River Oaks and held her tube of lip gloss with hands that shook. She desperately tried to control the trembling in her fingers so she could reapply the color to her lips.
As she looked at herself in the mirror, she knew her inner turmoil was well hidden behind a façade of soft silky hair, a sleek designer dress, and perfect make-up that lacked only the gloss she sought to repair.
The door began to open with not even a tiny sound of warning and her eyes flew to the knob that she had sworn she'd locked. Her breath lodged in her throat as Marco slipped inside, secured the door that she had failed to lock only minutes before, and came to stand behind her in the tiny room.
He pressed his chest against her back, propelling her forward a few inches until she was crowded against the vanity. Her nerves shifted restlessly, and the impact of his body against hers made her lipstick fall from her fingers and land in the sink in front of her.
Her eyes tangled with his in the mirror. The look on his face jolted her heart and her pulse skittered and began pounding in her chest.
He towered over her, and the muscles beneath his designer suit were corded and strained. His eyes were furious, and he held his lips tightly closed over teeth she knew were gritted in anger.
She struggled to control her features, to keep all expression from her face. She would be damned if she let him see how badly she was hurting. She refused to take responsibility for the scene that had just taken place; she was innocent of all wrong-doing.
She began to open her mouth to tell him so.
Before she could get one word out, his hand snaked out and covered her mouth and suppressed her words in a grip so ruthless that it made her nostrils flare and her eyes widen in barely controlled panic.
He lowered his mouth to her ear and held her eyes with his while he hissed out his fury. "I told you not to wear this dress." He held her silent and immobilized with one steely arm while his other hand reached in front of her and encapsulated her breast. He captured her nipple between his finger and thumb and held it tightly, just short of pain, in a display of ownership and control.