Facing Up To Fatherhood

She actually smiled at him, an icy smile which set his teeth on edge. ‘You are Dominic Hunter, the head of Hunter & Associates, aren’t you?’

‘You know damned well I am.’

‘Then I’ve got the right man. But if you insist on a DNA test, I won’t object.’

‘A DNA test!’ he exploded. ‘I’m not having any damned DNA test!’

‘Oh, yes, you are, Dominic.’

Dominic spun round to find his mother eyeing him with one of those stern looks which spelt her complete unwillingness to be persuaded otherwise. He knew because he’d seen that look many times during his lifetime. He groaned, then sighed his resignation to the inevitable. If he didn’t succumb to a DNA test his life was going to be hell!

Still, once he’d calmed down a little, Dominic realised it was probably a good idea to have the test done. What better way to back his denial of paternity than with irretrievable scientific proof?

‘Very well,’ he agreed, with a return to composure, and both women looked surprised, even the dark-eyed brunette.

Who in hell was she? he began wondering. And what was she to Sarah? Her sister, perhaps?

He stared at her, thinking she looked nothing like Sarah at all. ‘So tell me, Miss Know-it-all, why didn’t Sarah come and see me in person about this baby of hers? Why send someone else in her place? Don’t tell me it’s because she’s afraid of me because I won’t believe that.’

Dominic was taken aback when those coal-black eyes, which till now had held such cynicism and contempt for him, suddenly shimmered with tears. When his mother walked over and put a comforting arm around the girl’s shoulders, the penny dropped.

Sarah was dead.

That beautiful, sweet, lovely girl was dead.

His heart squeezed tight, and he wondered how she’d died. In childbirth, perhaps? But surely that kind of thing didn’t happen these days.

‘Sarah was killed in a road accident a couple of weeks ago,’ his mother explained before he could ask, her own eyes reproachful towards him. ‘She stepped out in front of a bus and was critically injured. Witnesses said she seemed to be daydreaming. Sarah didn’t have any close relatives so she made Tina Bonnie’s legal guardian. They were best friends. Tina’s come here today to see if we’ll help raise the child.’

‘That’s all very sad,’ Dominic said. ‘And I’d be glad to give Tina some money, if that will help out. But, Mum, I am not Sarah’s baby’s father.’

His mother nodded. ‘I appreciate you probably believe that, son. It explains your otherwise appalling behaviour. But Tina says Sarah told her you were the father for certain. She also said Sarah came to you and told you about her pregnancy when she was just a few weeks along. You denied you were the father back then, but gave her some money for a termination.’

‘But that’s just not true!’ Dominic denied, truly shocked. ‘If Sarah told you this, then she lied,’ he directed forcibly at the brunette, who seemed to have swiftly recovered from the threat of tears to look at him coldly once more, her mouth pursed with scorn. ‘I swear to you, I knew nothing of Sarah’s pregnancy. Neither did she come and see me about it.’

The brunette’s already disapproving lips curled over in even more derision. ‘Sarah didn’t tell lies.’

‘Oh, for pity’s sake, everyone tells lies!’ he snapped.

‘Do they indeed?’

Her sarcasm stung, as did her ongoing scepticism. She didn’t believe a word he’d said. Dominic wasn’t used to having his credibility doubted, and he didn’t like it one bit.

He glared into those hard black eyes of hers, but they held his easily, and scornfully. Suddenly, he was overwhelmed by the most amazingly strong feeling, a mad compulsion to make her believe him, to take her in his arms and kiss that contemptuous mouth of hers till she melted against him, till she was all soft and compliant, till she was incapable of disbelieving, or denying him anything.

His head whirled with the dark intensity of his desires, his hands actually twitching with the urge to grab her right then and there. If his mother hadn’t been standing guard he might actually have done so.

The realisation stunned him. For he wasn’t that kind of man. Not normally.

Shaken at such an uncharacteristic loss of control, he curled his wayward fingers into fists and jammed them into his trouser pockets, only to discover to his horror that he was partially aroused.

He could not believe it. Never in his life had a woman got under his skin like this. He was torn between a black fury and an even blacker frustration. The more he tried to will his flesh into subsidence, the harder it became. Finally, he whipped his hands out of his pockets and did up the buttons on his suit jacket, at the same time drawing himself up tall in an outer display of dignity.

The irony of his actions was not lost on him, but be damned if he was going to risk being humiliated in front of this female.

‘You actually believe all this rubbish?’ he demanded of his mother, looking for distraction in argument.

‘Tina showed me a photograph of Sarah,’ she replied coolly. ‘She’s one of the most beautiful girls I’ve ever seen.’

‘Meaning I wouldn’t have been able to resist 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!’

CHAPTER FIVE

TINA’S eyes narrowed to dark slits at this last insult. Right, she thought savagely. This was war!

She’d put up with his looking at her as though he wanted to strangle her with his bare hands. She’d endured his huffing and puffing in pretend outrage. She’d even listened to his heated denials and unimaginative lies without actually laughing.

But this attack on her character and honesty was beyond the pale. First he’d called Sarah a liar, and now…now he was accusing her of the same. Worse! He was virtually calling her a shyster! She might have twisted the truth a little here today, but only because the truth was…well…complicated. Nothing changed the fact that this man was Bonnie’s father. And now he was trying to worm his way out of accepting his responsibilities a second time!

‘I had hoped to avoid bringing lawyers into this,’ Tina flung at him in clipped tones, black eyes blazing. ‘I’d hoped we could come to some amicable arrangement where Bonnie was concerned. But I see that was optimistic of me. I’m sorry, Mrs Hunter,’ she said, turning to Bonnie’s grandmother. ‘I would have dearly liked to stay here with you. I can see you’re not of your son’s ilk. You’re a good woman. But this is not going to work.’

‘Oh, yes it will,’ Mrs Hunter refuted strongly, and Tina blinked her astonishment. ‘This is my house and I will have you here to stay if I want to. If you don’t like it, Dominic, then you can be the one to go. Perhaps it’s time you found a place of your own, anyway. The mortgages have long been paid off. And just think. If you lived on your own, you wouldn’t have to worry about my matchmaking.’

Mortgages? Matchmaking?

Tina’s eyebrows lifted. It seemed life in the Hunter household wasn’t always smooth sailing.

‘Fine,’ the man himself snapped, and was actually whirling away when common sense returned to Tina. This was not what she wanted. Not at all!

‘No, wait!’ she said swiftly, and he stopped in mid-turn. ‘Mrs Hunter, please,’ she said pleadingly. ‘I…I don’t want to cause any trouble between you and your son.’

And she didn’t. There was no advantage in it for her. Or for Bonnie. As much as she might like to tear strips off the man, it wasn’t going to get her anywhere.

As for threatening to get a lawyer…she really didn’t want to take that road, either. Court cases took time. And money.

Money she couldn’t spare. Sarah’s superannuation pay-out on her death had been a tidy little sum, but Tina had put that away in a special savings account for Bonnie’s education. Her own savings were negligible. Acting wasn’t the most steady or reliable of professions. Besides, she’d only been out of AIDA a year.

Common sense told Tina that conciliation was the way to go, not confrontation. She already had his mother on her side. Time to play a more clever and subtle hand.

It would almost kill her to back down, or make compromising noises, but if Bonnie would eventually benefit, then she would do it.

Steeling herself, she harnessed her acting ability once more.

‘Your son does have a point, Mrs Hunter,’ Tina said with a convincing display of concession. ‘I could be anyone. I do have my driver’s licence and other ID with me, but I suppose that’s not really enough. I dare say con-artists have such things all at the ready. Still, I can give you several phone numbers you can call to check out my identity. Friends. Employers. The legal aid lawyer who handled Sarah’s will. I’m quite happy for you to have me checked out, Mr Hunter.’

She forced herself not to scowl at the man.

‘As for Bonnie, I can certainly prove who she is. I brought her birth certificate with me. I also have the keys to Sarah’s place, where there’s a copy of her will and other personal papers which should help prove what I’ve told you and your mother today. I could get them and show them to you, if you like.’

He didn’t exactly jump at her offer. In fact, he still looked decidedly reluctant. And remained grimly silent.

Tina sighed. So much for her humiliating herself. So much for compromise.

‘Fair’s fair, Dominic,’ his mother intervened. ‘Tina can’t do much more than that, can she? Look, why don’t you drive her over to Sarah’s place tonight after dinner? That way you could start satisfying your doubts straight away and bring back anything Tina might need for herself and Bonnie at the same time.’

Tina saw the muscles along Dominic’s strong jawline tighten appreciably. Clearly he didn’t want to drive her anywhere. He didn’t want to have anything to do with her.

Or with Bonnie.

Well, that was just too bad, she thought savagely.

Tina tried not to look as livid as she felt, but something must have shown in her face for his whole body seemed to stiffen, not just his jaw muscles.

It was probably her eyes. People often told her that her eyes gave her away every time. She’d tried to learn to control them, tried to make them project whatever emotion she wanted rather than what she was feeling at the time. An actress should be able to do that. But when she was this angry, when she disliked someone this much, she invariably failed.

‘I’m not going to have any say in all this, am I?’ the object of her intense dislike directed towards his mother, a black frustration in every word. ‘Just don’t blame me if things don’t work out the way you hope they will.’ He sucked in a deep breath which expanded his already large chest, then let it out slowly. ‘I take it Joanna won’t be coming for dinner tonight?’

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