Chapter 17 #2
‘I told you, it’s about Juliano,’ he said gravely. ‘He knows something is up. He’s worried about you.’
She sighed. ‘He is pretty intuitive.’
Alessandro nodded. His son had been through a lot already – too much – and that had made him into a true empath.
‘I was thinking today,’ she said, tentatively, ‘we should float the idea of me moving out at the end of the week so it’s not sprung on him. We can tell him the unit’s finished earlier than expected.’
It wasn’t the answer Alessandro wanted. She’d made such a difference in their lives it was hard to believe she’d been in it for such a brief time.
Like Mary freaking Poppins. Juliano, who’d already been through a major loss, was going to miss her.
Hell, he was going to miss her. These past three nights without her in his bed had been so damn empty.
Lonely.
‘Fine,’ he agreed. ‘Perhaps in the meantime you could act like we haven’t been quarantined for Ebola?’
She glanced at him sharply. ‘I beg your pardon?’
‘You haven’t exactly been your usual touchy-feely, happy-go-lucky self,’ Alessandro pointed out. He missed that the most. The little smiles she’d give him, the brush of her hand on his arm or his back as she went by, the quick automatic ruffle of Juliano’s hair.
She wrapped her arms around her middle and glared at him. ‘Gee, sorry about that. I don’t know what on earth could have come over me.’
Alessandro watched a spark of anger glitter in her eyes and her cheeks redden further. ‘I never meant to hurt you, Nathalie.’
‘Yeah, well, you did, Alessandro,’ she snapped. ‘So, you’ll have to forgive me if I can’t just shake that off and act like nothing happened.’
Her bitterness was tangible and Alessandro felt lower than snake’s belly. The last thing he’d wanted to do was hurt another woman. Especially one who had come to mean so much in such a short space of time.
But, damn it, he’d never promised her anything.
Certainly not love or any kind of happy ever after.
Same with Camilla. She’d known the deal when they’d married.
But she’d never tired of turning the screws ever tighter.
The weight of his guilt was like a boulder on his chest and sometimes he felt like he could barely breathe.
Alessandro was so sick of carrying around all that extra weight. He’d let Camilla pile it on him, but standing in front of Nathalie he was suddenly utterly over being the guilty party. ‘I never asked you to fall in love with me,’ he snapped.
Nat had been feeling progressively worse over the last half an hour.
Her head was throbbing, her body felt like one giant bruise and, as she’d climbed up stairs that had felt like scaling Mount Kilimanjaro, waves of cold chills had washed over her limbs.
The steaming hot shower had helped with that situation but it was time to face facts – she had the flu.
Probably the swamp flu. As if a broken heart wasn’t enough…
It had been years since she’d had flu and she’d forgotten how awful the symptoms were but they were coming back to her in all their vicious glory. She felt so wretched that all she wanted to do was burst into tears, but there was no way she was letting that comment slide.
It hurt to talk, it hurt to think, but she was riled now.
‘No, you didn’t,’ she yelled causing her head to throb even more and her throat to strain but Nat didn’t care. ‘You just wanted me in your bed. And what a bonus you got in me, huh?’
‘I think you know I feel more deeply than that,’ he said tightly. ‘How many times have I shown you these last weeks?’
Nat wasn’t sure if it was the fever she was brewing or his simplistic statement that caused her hysterical laugh.
‘Sex?’ Her eyebrows practically hit her hairline as her voice rose an octave to almost a squeak.
Blood surged through her neck veins and pounded around her head, flushing her cheeks further.
Her head felt like it was about to blow off her shoulders.
He had to be joking!
‘Sex isn’t love, Alessandro. No matter how many times you do it.’
He stiffened and roared, ‘Inferno! I only meant—’
‘Stop it, stop it, stop it!’
Nat startled at the unexpected interruption, seeing Juliano, Flo in tow, hurling himself between them, tears streaming down his face.
‘Juliano!’ Alessandro muttered, crouching down and hugging his distressed little boy.
Nat was speechless. How long had he been watching them? The poor darling had probably never witnessed a man and a woman arguing. The thought distressed her at the same time as a rush of light-headedness hit, and she groped for something nearby to steady herself.
She swayed a little and vaguely heard Alessandro say, ‘Nathalie?’ as her vision started to blacken at the edges.
‘Alessandro?’ she whispered as she stumbled forward.
Thankfully he reacted quickly, standing in time to catch her as Nat slumped against him pleased for the support. ‘Nathalie? You’re burning up.’
Nat could vaguely hear him. ‘Hot,’ she muttered.
He swept her up into his arms, her head lolling on to his chest and she sighed at the bliss of not having to keep upright. ‘Nathalie?’ he repeated.
‘Papa?’
Juliano’s voice was laced with concern and Nat tried to open her eyes and tell him she’d be fine but they were so heavy and all she managed to murmur was something unintelligible.
Alessandro’s voice was deeper, reverberating through his chest and right into her ear and it was so very assuring. ‘It’s okay, matey. I got her.’
He did and it felt good. ‘Is she sick, Papa?’
‘I think she may have flu.’
‘Swamp flu?’
‘I’d say so.’ He moved then, his voice, somewhere over top of her, saying, ‘Quickly Juliano, clear that stuff off her bed.’
But Juliano apparently had other ideas. ‘No.’ His voice may have been little but it was strong and firm. It cut through the floating sensation inside Nat’s head. ‘When I was sick you let me sleep in your bed. And Nat said there’s no better place when you’re sick than Papa’s bed.’
A sluggish form of protest worked its way through the feverish quagmire of her brain. No. Absolutely no. She’d be infectious. Plus, there was another reason.
Oh yes… she was still mad as hell at him.
But Nat didn’t get a chance to voice it before Alessandro answered. ‘Good thinking, Juliano,’ and they were off.
Each step of his jarred through her aching joints and she wished it would stop, then suddenly it did, as she was placed on to a soft mattress, her aches easing a little as her head lay on a cloud-like pillow and a cool sheet was pulled up to cover her.
Sheets that smelled like Alessandro. That smelled like her and Alessandro. And the familiarity was like a warm hug.
Dimly she heard, ‘Keep Nat company while I get her some medicine.’ And then an exaggeratedly hushed voice loudly whispering, ‘Go to sleep,’ as little fingers brushed her forehead.
And there was purring. Purring? Must be Flo.
Whatever it was, it was nice and Nat drifted off until she heard, ‘She’s still sleeping, Papa.’ And then, ‘I imagine she’ll be sleepy for a couple of days,’ before a hand was shaking her shoulder. ‘Nathalie, wake up. I have some tablets for you.’
Nat frowned, the thought of opening her eyes just too damn much right now but the shake came again, firmer this time and she prised her lids open.
The room was dim and her surroundings were a little fuzzy but she forced herself to half sit, displacing Flo, who’d been draped across her chest. Alessandro was sitting on the side of the mattress.
Juliano sat beside her, his legs outstretched, his back against the headboard.
‘I shouldn’t be in here,’ she protested. ‘I don’t want you to catch it.’ And for other reasons she knew existed but couldn’t quite bring herself to care about at this moment.
‘The best place when you’re sick is Papa’s bed,’ Juliano repeated gravely like a mini-me version of his father, who smiled indulgently.
‘Juliano and I had both had the flu in March this year, which will probably be more than sufficient immunity, so we should be fine. Anyway, it’s too late now. If we’re going to get it, it’s already incubating.’
He offered her three pills. ‘The antiviral we got given just in case and some cold and flu tabs.’ A glass of water came next and he watched as she swallowed them. ‘The results from your nose swab today should be in tomorrow so we’ll know for sure whether it’s swamp flu.’
Nat nodded wearily as she sank back into the pillows, her eyes already shut at the effort of just sitting and drinking. He was saying something else about leaving the water on the bedside table but Nat barely heard him as she drifted towards a dark abyss.