“When is he due?”

“In about nine more weeks. My doctor says early to mid-January, but that’s just an estimation.”

Eric swung his gaze back up to hers, stunned. “That’s in two months.” He quickly did the math and he narrowed his eyes at her. “You were about six weeks pregnant when you left here?”

She shifted uncomfortably. “Yes, but I didn’t know about the baby until I was five weeks along, when I missed my period.”

“And you still left, knowing. Why the hell didn’t you tell me then?” He realized he had shouted the question and tried to reign in his anger. But the more he thought about her deception, the more his fury began to build.

“I wanted to, Eric. I did. But things had started getting hectic with the wedding and your campaign. I rarely ever saw you, and trying to get some time alone with you was almost impossible.”

“Don’t turn this around on me, Quinn. This was important and you should have told me, no matter what was going on. You didn’t make that baby alone, so you don’t get to make all the decisions when it comes to him.”

Her glare was fierce. “Why not? You left me to make the decisions on everything else when it came to planning our future. Why would I think this would be any different?”

“Because he’s mine too, and you don’t get to keep him from me.”

“I wasn’t trying to, but you were just never around.” She laughed bitterly then brought her fingers to her temple. “I’m starting to wonder how we made this baby in the first place.”

He tensed at her clipped words, but couldn’t deny that he wondered the same thing. They had been together for seven years and had always been careful. To avoid situations like this. Yet, now he was facing impending fatherhood, with a woman he wasn’t married to, in a town whose ideals leaned favorably toward traditional family values.

If this became public, he surely lose favor with many of his constituents and he was too close to taking the seat from Powers to let that happen.

“It no longer matters how we feel about each other, Quinn. The bottom-line is that we’re going to have a baby out of wedlock and I can’t let that happen. Not while I’m still in the running for the mayor’s seat.”

Her brows pulled together. “I didn’t come here to disrupt your life or hurt your career, Eric. I came here for quite the opposite, in fact. If you want to still be in the baby’s life, I won’t stop you. I’ll return to Atlanta and after the runoff, we can discuss visitation and such.”

Again, she made the whole matter sound so…cold and he had to reign in his temper.

“You’re not getting it, Quinn,” he said evenly, staring directly at her so she understood he meant every word of what he was about to say. “Any child of mine is going to be living with me, under the same roof as me. He’s also going to be legitimate and carry the Benson name.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re not taking my son away from me, Eric.”

“I won’t have to, because you’re going to be my wife.”