Chapter Fourty Five

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.

"Do you have a problem with being my wife?" Dimitri asked her.

No answer.

Anguished uncertainty in her eyes. The sex between them had been good... Too good, Dimitri argued to himself. They were good together....Happy whenever they were together. She couldn’t deny that. Why then did the idea of being married sound so crazy to her. He knew she was also thinking about her father and the company. But all that didn't matter to him now.

"I’m here, Kelly." he pressed. "I know that you are worried but I'm here. You can’t send me away. I’m not going away. Why not accept—"

"But my dad.... The company" she broke in vehemently. "He's going to be so upset... We shouldn't have done this in the first place"

"We can come up with some kind of solution for the company.... It doesn't have to be such a big deal"

"Oh suddenly now it's not... You once said nothing was going to stop you from getting what you want. I remember vividly, Dimitri"

"Let's not beat around the bush, Kelly" he said stiffly. "Darcy Enterprises is going down, and you need help. I know you have made no progress with getting that contract, am I right?" He cocked a challenging eyebrow at her. "Can we be honest about that?"

She felt herself burning again.

"You need not be concerned about the company, Dimitri. I’ll be doing that. I just need you to stop your plans to buy it and let me handle it. You are the one who is putting so much pressure on us" she stated with grim determination.

"I don’t doubt you’re capable of running the company, Kelly, given enough resources, which you don't have, let's be honest about that. That’s where I come in."

The lack of resources…there was no denying that, though there’d been no mismanagement. Her father had taken out the first big loan from the bank to finance the business, before things started getting bad. Then to keep the company running, keep paying wages, he took more loans…and then prices dropped. The mortgage now was so big, Kelly didn’t know how they would fix things. For some reason, they didn't get contract they had set their minds to, and time was running out. Dimitri was right. She had to tell herself the truth. They weren't getting the contract and she and her father were running out of options. A rescue package had to be accepted from Dimitri if she was to keep Darcy Enterprises.

"We need an injection of funds," she admitted flatly.

He nodded. "I will wipe out the mortgage, get the bank off your back."

Just like that! Kelly instantly bridled at how easy it was for him while she had sweated over every money being spent in the company. "No, you won’t!" The denial exploded from a deep well of pride.

He frowned. "No? Again? Is that the only word you know or are you just out to piss me off? I have the funds, Kelly."

"I don’t want to owe you that much." She glared defiantly at him. "If you pay off forty-nine percent of it, I can get another loan from the bank which could see me through…"

"Why put yourself through that worry when you don’t have to?" he argued, waving an impatient dismissal of her counterproposal.

"Because I won’t take your charity," she shot back at him.

"Charity?" He glared down at her from his formidable height, a big man, emanating a power that wanted to blast her point of view to smithereens. He raised a clenched fist, shaking it as he spoke with more passion than she’d ever heard from him.

"Damn it, Kelly. Fine. You can pay me back when you can. If you must. But you know you need me. The bank will be on your back soon."

"Even if I let you do that, I’ll have to borrow again to keep going," she pointed out, mocking his ignorance of what had to be done.

"No. I’ll set up an account for you to draw from," came the swift reply. He was all primed to fix everything with his money.

Her jaw set stubbornly. "I won’t accept that." she said.

"You don’t know how long this will last. Why won't you just let me help you?"

"I will manage it my way." she retorted.

Frustration boiled through Dimitri. She was just going to stress herself over this and there was no need for it. Funny how there was a time when he was planning to buy and sell off the company, now he was doing the opposite... Trying to save it. All because Kelly had come into his life, and because now she was having his baby. But she wouldn't listen to him. Wouldn't trust him. He wanted to pick her up and shake some sense into her, but there was steel in the brown eyes so fiercely defying him —and he knew he had to find another way of convincing her to use the money he could provide.

He straightened up, turned away, walked over to the window and stared out.

"Would you prefer me to buy you out, Kelly?" he tossed at her with little hope.

"No" came the firm and predictable reply.

He shrugged. "I thought, since you dislike having to deal with me so much…"

Her jaw clenched. "My father wouldn’t want that" she grated out.