The Mills & Boon Stars Collection. Cathy Williams

behind earnest spectacles.

      ‘Matt...meet Leo,’ Grace said quietly.

      ‘Oh, right...er...’ The hapless Matt managed to smile at Grace and then deal Leo a very different look of angry disapproval. ‘Of course, you’ll want to talk. Take him to the living room. I’ll take charge of whatever you’re cooking.’

      ‘Thanks, Matt,’ Grace said comfortably, pressing open a door off the hall and waving a guiding hand in Leo’s direction.

      Leo’s talent had always been reading other people and he clearly saw Matt’s suppressed hostility and Grace’s complete unawareness of it and probably of its most likely source.

      ‘What’s Matt to you?’ Leo asked the instant Grace closed the door.

      ‘A good friend...and thank goodness for him. At such short notice the university couldn’t find me decent accommodation anywhere but a hostel, so I was grateful for Matt’s invite,’ Grace proffered truthfully. ‘Matt and I are on the same course.’

      ‘Why did your family throw you out?’ Leo enquired baldly, stationing himself by the window of the small room, which was cluttered with books, many of them lying half-open.

      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.’

      Even greater tension filled Leo, stiffening the muscles in his broad shoulders, his clean-cut strong jawline hardening at her stubborn reminder of facts he considered to be more destructive than helpful. ‘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. ‘I’ll continue with my studies, hopefully have the baby during the Easter term break and give it up for adoption.’

      ‘Adoption?’ Leo was thoroughly disconcerted and stunned by her solution, that being a possibility he hadn’t even considered. ‘You’re planning to have our child adopted?’

      Grace pleated her slender fingers together to conceal the fact that her hands were trembling while she battled to tamp down her distress. ‘I know it won’t be an easy decision to make when the time comes, Leo. I don’t want to give my child up but I was brought up by a single parent until I was nine years old and my mother really did struggle to meet the demands of that role.’

      ‘But—’ Leo clamped his lips shut on an instinctive protest while he fought to master emotions he had never felt before. Of course her reference to adoption had taken him very much by surprise. Even so, the very thought of never knowing his own child and not even having the right to see him or her genuinely appalled Leo. Even his own instinctive rejection of her proposition was a revelation that shocked him. ‘I don’t think I could approve that option.’

      ‘As far as I know you don’t legally have any say in the matter,’ Grace retorted in an apologetic rather than challenging tone. ‘Only married fathers have those kinds 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 while you may not want our child, I do and I am prepared to raise that child, should that become necessary.’

      It was Grace’s turn to be thrown off balance and she paled. ‘When it comes to my preferences, it’s not a matter of my wanting or not wanting the baby...it’s much more a matter of what I can offer my child and how best I could meet my child’s needs. And the truth is that as a student with no home of my own or current earning power, I’ve got very little to offer.’

      ‘While I on the other hand have a great deal to offer and could help you in any way necessary,’ Leo cut in succinctly. ‘And in the short term I think it would be best if you came to live in my London apartment.’

      ‘Your apartment?’ Grace echoed in disbelief. ‘Why on earth would I move into your apartment?’

      ‘Because that’s my baby you’re carrying and I intend to be fully involved in giving you whatever support you need until our child is born,’ Leo declared without hesitation.

      ‘I’m perfectly comfortable here with Matt.’ Grace groaned, her brow tightening with stress because Leo was saying things and offering options she had not anticipated and she had already spent several days anxiously worrying over her alternatives before coming to the conclusion that adoption was the most sensible answer to all her concerns. Now Leo was demanding a share of that responsibility and complicating the situation with his own ideas.

      ‘Staying here with Matt is unwise,’ Leo murmured drily.

      ‘In what way? He’s a very good friend.’

      ‘But that’s not all he wants to be,’ Leo incised. ‘Matt is in love with you.’

      Grace was aghast. ‘That’s complete nonsense!’

      ‘A friend would be relieved when the father of your child arrived to take an interest in your predicament. But a would-be lover feels threatened and annoyed and that’s what he is,’ Leo spelled out impatiently. ‘You’re not stupid, Grace. Your very good friend wants you living here with him because he’s in love with you.’

      ‘That’s completely untrue.’ Strikingly taken aback by his contention, Grace turned away in an uncoordinated half-circle. She was picturing Matt, his behaviour and his caring ways while wondering if it was possible that she could have been so blind that she had not noticed the depth of his feelings for her. ‘What would you know about it anyway?’

      ‘I only know what I saw in his face once he realised who I was,’ Leo said grimly. ‘You’re really not doing him any favours staying on here...unless of course you’re planning on returning his feelings?’

      ‘Er...that would be a no,’ Grace muttered guiltily while recognising the terrible unwelcome truth in Leo’s arguments. If it was true that Matt wanted more than friendship from her, it was equally true that there was no prospect of her offering it. The intensity of her attraction to Leo had concluded for ever any prospect of her trying to make more of her relationship with Matt. From the instant Leo had taught her of her own capacity to feel so much more mentally and physically than she had ever dreamt she could feel, her former conviction that she and Matt would make a great couple had died.

      ‘Then move into my apartment where you will not be under pressure,’ Leo advised softly.

      Grace wanted to slap Leo for cutting through all her possible protests by employing the one credible argument calculated to make her think again. Matt spent a lot of time with her. Matt was always there for her, eternally helping her and discussing her worries, but she was doing Matt a disservice by living with him if he was hoping for more than friendship from her. In that scenario the sooner she got out of Matt’s home and put some distance between them, the better, she reasoned guiltily.

      ‘When?’

      ‘I see no point in wasting time. Why not now? You can’t have that much stuff to pack. You’ve only been here a couple of days,’ he pointed out smoothly, reining back any hint of satisfaction in his demeanour.

      Matt was threatening to get involved in a situation that