‘Why did your family throw you out?’ Leo enquired directly.

      Grace gave him a wry glance. ‘I think you already know why.’

      ‘But that news should have come from you directly to me,’ Leo told her grimly. ‘I had a right to know first!’

      ‘And perhaps you would’ve done were we in a relationship,’ Grace countered quietly. ‘But since we’re not, the situation is rather different.’

      ‘If you’re pregnant, we definitely have a relationship,’ he contradicted.

      Grace wrinkled her nose. ‘Well, I am having your baby,’ she conceded reluctantly. ‘But we don’t have to have any kind of a relationship!’

      ‘And how do you work that out?’ Leo gritted, becoming steadily more annoyed by her dismissive attitude.

      ‘I can manage fine on my own. I’m very independent,’ Grace informed him. ‘And as far as I know you don’t legally have any say in the matter,’ Grace went on, in an apologetic rather than challenging tone. ‘Only married fathers have those kind of rights.’

      ‘Then I’ll marry you.’

      Grace groaned at that knee-jerk reaction. ‘Don’t be silly, Leo. Strangers don’t get married.’

      Leo lifted his dark head high and surveyed her with glittering golden eyes that were mesmeric in their intensity. ‘I don’t care how we go about it, but I want our child and I am prepared to do anything to make it happen.’