Alex looked at her stricken face and turned to the nurse. ‘Can you leave us, please?’

She vanished immediately, closing the door behind her.

‘Right.’ Alex sat on the bed, his handsome face inscrutable as ever. ‘Time for you and I to have a chat.’

‘Yes.’ She pinned a smile on her face, knowing what was coming. He wanted an apology. ‘I just don’t know how to apologise for what I said to you—all the things I accused you of. There’s nothing I can say, except that I was so wrong about you.’

‘Only about Daisy’s paternity,’ Alex said flatly, all traces of humour totally absent. ‘You were pretty much right about everything else. I am a selfish, thoughtless bastard.’

Jenny stared at him, startled.

She’d expected him to be condemning her, not himself.

‘That’s not true and you know it,’ she said softly. ‘You’re incredibly generous.’

He gave a wry smile. ‘I think you’ve painted a rather glossy picture of me, sweetheart.’

Looking at the slightly tousled dark hair, the rough jaw and the devilish blue eyes, Jenny failed to see how any picture of Alex Westerling could ever come near to doing him justice, let alone be too glossy.

‘Did you read the fax?’

She was still reeling with shock at the discovery of Daisy’s true paternity and Alex’s mouth tightened.

‘Yes.’ He gave a short laugh. ‘What are you going to do?’

Jenny shook her head and turned to look at Daisy who was sleeping contentedly. ‘I’ve decided not to do anything.’

Alex’s mouth tightened. ‘He owes you some sort of support.’

She turned back to him, her smile sad. ‘He’s married with three children, Alex. The only support he’d be able to give us is financial and I don’t need that. What I really want for Daisy is a loving father. A good man in her life. Every little girl should have that.’

Alex sucked in a breath. ‘So you’re going to let him off?’

‘It isn’t an easy decision, but I’m thinking of his family rather than him,’ Jenny said softly. ‘How can I approach him, knowing that it could ruin his marriage and have dreadful consequences for his children? I’m pretty sure that what he and Chloe shared was just a one-night thing—a mistake for both of them.’

Alex took her hands in his. ‘You’re so damned forgiving.’ He stroked a thumb over the palm of her hand, seeming strangely hesitant for once in his life.

‘Well, after last night I’m not quite so naïve about sex,’ Jenny confessed, a rueful smile touching her soft mouth. ‘I can see how people might be swept away by the excitement. Common sense can go out of the window, even for a one-night stand.’

How could she condemn Chloe when she herself had followed the intensity of her emotions the night before?

‘A one-night stand?’ Alex’s tone was hoarse. ‘Is that what you think last night was for us?’

She blushed slightly and tried to tug her hand away from his, but he held it firmly. ‘Alex, I know what sort of man you are. I know about your three-month rule.’