For Duty's Sake by Lucy Monroe

the men in my family are so good at fathering female offspring.” They hadn’t done so in five generations that he knew of, not in his direct lineage anyway.
    She turned an interesting shade of green and started taking more rapid shallow breaths.
    â€œAre you well?” What the hell was he asking? She was pregnant. Of course she was not well.
    â€œMorning sickness,” she gasped between breaths.
    â€œIt is nowhere near morning.”
    â€œThe baby doesn’t seem to care.”
    â€œThis is not acceptable.”
    She cringed, her expression filling with too many emotions to name. “You don’t want the baby?”
    â€œOf course, I want this child. How could you ask such a thing?”
    â€œWell, you’re acting like it’s the end of the world, or something.”
    â€œAre you that naive?”
    â€œI am not naive. Not anymore.”
    â€œI disagree. You have not considered the complications this pregnancy will cause. It will be all over the press. After a lifetime of protecting my privacy and behaving with circumspection, I will make a bigger tabloid splash than your father and my brother combined.”
    â€œYou don’t want me to have this child? You think I should terminate my pregnancy?”
    â€œHave you lost your mind?” How had she gone from what he had said to something so reprehensible? “Do not ever suggest such a thing to me again.”
    â€œI wasn’t suggesting it. I’m not the one having a temperamental fit.”
    The accusation snapped the last thread of his control.
    â€œDid you do this on purpose?” he leaned forward and asked, memories of Elsa’s betrayals freshly branded inhis brain. “Was this your way of getting back at me for my relationship with Elsa?”
    â€œNow, who’s making insane accusations?”
    â€œWomen scorned have been known to do worse.”
    â€œYou never scorned me, you arrogant ass!” Then she swallowed convulsively and scrabbled for the button that would open the sunroof.
    He reached up and pressed it when she seemed unable to make the stretch. “When you were eighteen, and I refused your kiss.”
    â€œThat was five years ago.”
    â€œRevenge is a dish best served cold.”
    She took several deep breaths before saying, “I can’t believe this.”
    â€œJoin my world.”
    â€œOh, get over yourself.”
    Fresh air came in through the opening in the roof and Angele leaned back in her seat, seemingly breathing easier. Good.
    He mentally ran through a list of things needed doing. Consulting an eminent obstetrician was top of the list. “You are not taking this seriously, what this pregnancy means.”
    â€œOh, I’m taking it seriously all right. I know exactly what it means.”
    â€œOh?” She certainly had not shown proper understanding so far.
    â€œYes.” She shot daggers with her usually doe-soft eyes. “It means I’m agreeing to a marriage I don’t want.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œWhy what?” she asked, sounding genuinely confused.
    â€œWhy agree to the marriage?”
    â€œBecause I’m not a stone-cold bitch.”
    â€œI never said you were.”
    â€œMy mother told me something a few years ago. It was after I found out about my father’s infidelities. I apologized to her for having to live in the States where I could know relative anonymity, instead of her home country of Brazil where she was better known. She’d done it to protect me.”
    â€œI am aware.”
    â€œWell, she told me I had nothing to apologize for, that from the moment a baby is conceived, his or her needs must come first.”
    â€œYou are willing to marry me for the sake of our child.”
    â€œUnder certain conditions, yes.”
    The limo pulled to a stop.
    She looked at him with that same sick expression she’d had before opening the sunroof. “We’re not at the restaurant.