Chapter One Hundred and Sixty Eight

He watched her flounder, so many emotions flitting across her face, it was impossible to decipher what she was thinking. Dimitri decided it didn’t matter.

The only important end to this conversation was to give the child she was carrying—his child—the kind of security every child deserved to have.

"Look!" she finally pleaded. "I did something stupid…I should have been careful and I wasn't…"

"We’re all guilty of rash acts from time to time, Kelly. And the relationship was my idea" he said sympathetically.

"I’m responsible for the consequences, not you, Dimitri" she shot back at him.

"That’s beside the point. Whether planned or not, I’m the father of this child," he stated simply.

"It doesn’t mean you have to marry me." Kelly said. Wild pride in her eyes. She couldn't even believe that he was making this suggestion. She had expected him to freak out, maybe even get mad at her for not being careful. But him saying this was the last thing she had imagined he would say.