CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SIX
Eden had known Harris was rich, but there was something about a private jet that made that fact screamingly obvious, and now she was more uncertain than ever that she was doing the right thing. Although it was a little late to worry about that, given that she was currently midway between New York and the Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy.
She still wasn’t entirely sure why she’d agreed to come with him other than she had simply run out of fight in the moment, and there was no obvious alternative. Getting him to leave would have been like trying to move a mountain.
She had been suddenly, brutally tired of it all. Not just the unreasonableness of his demands but the simple, ground-shaking shock of finding out that she was pregnant, because the last time that happened, she had already been losing the baby she hadn’t even realised she was carrying.
The memory of those excruciating, agonising hours in the hospital made her fingers dig into the leather armrest. Through all of it she had been on her own.
Only she hadn’t been alone earlier. And maybe that was the real reason she had agreed to go with Harris.
She glanced across the cabin to where he was working on his laptop. After she had reluctantly agreed to his plan, he hadn’t left her apartment as she’d asked. Instead, he’d stood outside her bedroom like some watchdog while she’d jerkily packed a bag in silence. Then he had part guided, part escorted her downstairs to his car, which had sped them through the city to some private airfield and his waiting jet.
And that was that.
Maybe if she closed her eyes for a moment, everything would stop spinning long enough for her to be able to plan her next move.
‘There’s a bed.’
Her eyelashes snapped up like a roller blind. Harris was standing next to her, his grey gaze narrowed critically on her face as if she were a piece of modern art he wanted to understand.
‘I hope you’re not suggesting we use it.’ It was a pointless, provocative thing to say but she had wanted to knock him off balance. Only now she felt off balance because she was thinking about the last time they’d shared a bed.
He ignored that, but a muscle twitched in his jaw, so he was likely thinking the same as her, which was something. ‘You look exhausted. Instead of trying to sleep in your seat, you might like to lie down.’
She stared up at him warily. ‘And where are you going to sleep?’
‘I have some projects to sign off, so I’ll be working for a couple of hours, and then I’ll just sleep in my seat. But I’m not pregnant.’
His fingers pressed against the edge of her seat. ‘Just go and lie down, Eden.’ He turned his head and one of the stewards appeared to accompany her to the other end of the cabin.
The bedroom was quiet, and the bed was surprisingly comfortable.
Stifling a yawn, she lay down, tucking her hand under the pillow.
‘Oh, could you leave them open please?’ she said as the steward started to draw the curtains.
‘Of course, Ms Fennell. Is there anything else I can get you?’
‘No, thank you.’
The night sky was different up here. There seemed to be fewer stars, but she wasn’t looking for stars. She was looking for a single, bright white pinprick of light, and she was still looking when her eyelids closed five minutes later.
Tilting his head slightly to the left, Harris let his gaze track a yacht that was cutting a crisp white line through the brilliant blue sea. If that angle also allowed him to take in Eden’s downturned face it was a coincidence, he told himself firmly.
They were eating a late breakfast out on the villa’s deck. They had arrived in darkness and to lashing rain that was the tail end of a hurricane that was now heading to the mainland.
But this morning the sun was a brilliant Meyer lemon yellow, and the faded-denim-blue sky was cloudless. Better still, the forecast was for unseasonably placid weather so he would be able to make good on his promise to Eden of rest and relaxation beneath the Caribbean sun.
Although, truthfully, he didn’t give a damn about the weather. All that mattered was that she was here. Not so much a prisoner as a hostage. As soon as he knew whether she was carrying his baby, she could leave. It wasn’t exactly a chore, spending a week in the Caribbean. Most women would be delighted.
Eden was not.
He glanced over to where she was now staring pointedly out at the ocean. She was angry with him. But what gave her the right to be angry?
She wasn’t the one who’d been left in the dark, because when exactly had she been planning on telling him she was pregnant? He had wanted to ask her that question multiple times already and he would if it turned out the baby was his.
And if it was?
He had asked himself that question multiple times too, and the answer changed each time. Except in one way. He would be a major part of his son or daughter’s life. He would make sure of that, but he was getting ahead of himself. There was no point in spooking Eden by giving her advance warning of what he had in mind.
The last thing he needed was for her to disappear into the night as Jessie had, even though he fully understood why she had gone. Not turning up for the scan had sent her a clear message, or it must have seemed like that to Jessie, anyway. The truth was nothing had been clear. He had been floundering and scared and there had been nobody to ask what to do. He had felt so alone and ashamed and somehow responsible for having no one to go to. How could he be a father when he hadn’t managed to be the son anyone wanted?
Pushing back against the tangled mess of emotions that thought provoked, he moved his plate to one side.
‘Did you sleep well?’
Her eyes flashed to him then, the green of her irises vivid in the sunlight. ‘Yes, it was very comfortable.’ She hesitated. ‘It’s a very beautiful house.’
‘I think so.’ He had no reason to feel as pleased as he did by her somewhat reluctant approval. Maybe it was because she had offered it up uninvited, unlike the news about her pregnancy. ‘I knew the previous owner and I asked him to let me know if he was in the market to sell and he called me two years ago.’
‘Why this house in particular?’ She had momentarily forgotten her anger and he wanted to keep her talking. Keep her looking at him like that as if she were genuinely interested in his answer, even though he knew it was just a hangover from their working relationship.
Relationship. The word jangled inside his head, and he was back to wondering about what would happen if he was the baby’s father.
It would be different this time because he was different. When Jesse had told him she was pregnant, her assumption that he would marry her had made him feel as though he were drowning. She had been pretty and confident, and he had desired her in the moment, but he hadn’t loved her, and she hadn’t loved him. Just like his mom and dad hadn’t loved each other. That mirroring of his parents’ unhappiness had loomed large. So large that he hadn’t been able to see past it.
By the time he’d realised what he’d done, she was gone, and his daughter was growing up with another man as her father. Picturing Jasmine’s small, soft, trusting face, he felt his stomach knot. He had lost one child. He wasn’t going to lose another.
He felt Eden’s gaze on his face and, turning, he shrugged. ‘Location, really. Saint Barthélemy is a beautiful island.’ A true paradise on earth.
That wasn’t the only reason.
Here in the Caribbean, the sky had the thinnest atmosphere, which meant the stars and planets were brighter and clearer. Explaining why that was important to him would reveal more than he was willing to share with anyone, but particularly the woman who might be pregnant with his child.
‘And the villa is right at the tip of the island so the beach can’t be accessed by anyone not staying at the villa. It’s just you and me, and the staff, of course. I’ll show you around. That way you’ll know where everything is.’
‘That’s very kind of you but I’m sure I can get my bearings on my own. In fact, I might do that now.’
He waited until she was almost out of sight and then he got to his feet. He caught up with her easily, his longer legs making up the distance of her shorter strides. She turned, annoyed.
‘I’m not going anywhere except the beach. So, unless there’s some portal I can step through to get to London, you don’t have to follow me around.’
‘I was bringing you this.’ He held out a sunhat and a tube of sunscreen. ‘It’s too hot for you to go bare-headed, and you need to protect your skin. Or I can do it for you,’ he added as she stared at him in silence.
She snatched the hat and the suncream from his hand.
‘I can do it myself.’
‘Pity,’ he said softly.
Her eyes fluttered up to his, looking startled.
‘Why did you lie about where you were going?’ he asked.
‘I didn’t. I am going to the beach.’ She frowned, two lines creasing her forehead above her nose, and he felt a sudden almost unbearable urge to reach out and press his thumb into the grooves, then cup her cheek and pull her closer.
‘I don’t mean now. When I came to the apartment. I thought you said you were going to San Antonio so why did you say just now you’d go to London if you could?’
Her face stilled as if she’d just admitted to having a fake passport at border control, but then she recovered. ‘London is further away from you.’
He sighed. ‘This is going to be a long week if you keep on fighting me at every opportunity.’
‘I didn’t fight you. I gave in,’ she said flatly. ‘But if my being here bothers you that much, I’ll happily leave.’
His jaw tightened. Not happening , he thought. Not until he knew for sure, and then—
He swore silently as his thoughts came full circle and he was back at the unanswerable question. Ignoring both it and her last remark, he took a step closer, holding her captive with his eyes, wishing he could do the same with his hands. Wishing he could touch her, hold her, press her close—
‘Don’t swim in the sea if you’re on your own. You can paddle but if you want to swim, use the pool,’ he said softly. ‘Don’t even think about climbing on the rocks. Put the hat on and use the sunscreen.’
‘Don’t you think that’s a lot of rules for a twenty-five-year-old woman?’
‘It’s only four. For now.’
He turned and stalked away. ‘Just don’t break any of them, Eden,’ he called over his shoulder. But only because he didn’t trust himself not to stalk right back and kiss that disdainful curl of her mouth if he turned to look at her.
Eden.
She hated it when he called her that. But only because she loved how her name sounded in his mouth. He said it the way it was meant to sound, two soft vowels around a hard consonant. Hard and soft. Him and her.
As Harris’s tall, muscular body disappeared from view, she turned and walked determinedly in the opposite direction.
Except there was no him and her. There was one night of amazing sex and a baby that was currently the size of a pomegranate seed.
Oh, wow—
Her footsteps faltered.
She was in paradise or at least the earthly version. Turning slowly on the spot, she let her gaze drift slowly over a perfect coalescence of the palest pink sand, brilliant blue sea and swaying green palm trees.
Without even realising she had done so, she had slipped off her sandals and scrunched up her toes in the warm, powder-soft sand, and some of the tension she had been carrying in her bones since walking into the club and seeing Harris waiting to interview her faded a little.
Actually, she had been tense before that. More than tense. She had been rigid with misery and self-loathing and envy.
It was the week before she’d met Harris in that bar. She’d been getting ready to go out when Liam had got back in touch, and she had been shaking so much it looked as if the mirror were breaking apart. Or maybe that was her. It had certainly hurt that much. Hurt to move, to be alive.
She knew it wasn’t just the shock of finding out that he had had a baby. That was a slap in the face but seeing Liam holding his son had stung for another reason, one that she had fought so long and hard to deny. Looking at a photo of her ex with his child was the closest she would get to having the family unit she coveted.
No wonder she’d still been spinning out when she’d walked into the bar. It was such a crushing reminder of who she was, who she had always been and could only ever be. To fight against that family curse would be a fruitless exercise, which was why she lived as she did. Why she had set up two offices on two different continents. Why she never met a man for a second date. Why she had taken Harris’s hand but not asked his name.
Only then they had gone to that hotel room, and all the pain, shame and envy she had been feeling had melted away.
It was supposed to be just a night of passion with a stranger. Love, commitment, parenthood were not options. Except now they were. Somehow, that moment of ultimate pleasure had led her here to this beach.
She gazed out at the sea she couldn’t swim in because she was alone.
He was right, she thought, glowering at the cool blue water, resentment simmering inside her. This was going to be a long week.
But first she had to get through today.
Harris might have wanted her to be under his watchful eye, but he was perfectly happy to delegate the watching to someone else. One of the maids came to find her on the beach with a jug of chilled cucumber water, and every now and then as she wandered down the beach picking up shells, she would catch a glimpse of one of the security detail.
Harris did join her for lunch, briefly. But then, having reminded her that she needed to wear her hat and sunblock and adding in a new rule about staying hydrated, he murmured something about a conference call and disappeared.
After lunch, she was tempted to go for a long hatless walk, but the glaring heat of the afternoon sun defeated her, and she retreated into the villa.
Which was how she ended up standing in silence, staring at his shut office door.
He would never say it to her face, so he had let his door do the talking and the message was clear. She was useful as an employee and he was happy to share a bed with her for a night but other than that he had no interest in her.
That thought made her want to hammer loudly on the wood, and she was just lifting her hand when she heard his voice, followed by a deep laugh.
Her pulse accelerated sharply. She had never heard him laugh. But then their interactions to date had held few comic moments. Just raw, uncontrollable passion, angry accusations and some mutual cold-shouldering.
What would it take to make him laugh like that?
Nothing she had to offer, that was for sure. Even with Liam, when she had thought that theirs was an actual relationship rather than a side dish to one, they hadn’t laughed much. Hadn’t talked much either. Or argued. And at the time, she’d been so proud of herself, so convinced that it meant she’d found the yin to her yang.
Her fingers clenched at her sides. It was only later when she’d realised he didn’t need to laugh or talk or argue with her because he could do all those things with his wife.
For Liam, she’d only ever been a thrill, a diversion.
And for the man on the other side of this door, she was just a baby carrier.
Inching backwards, she turned and walked softly away to continue her exploration of the villa. It was a lot more relaxing doing it on her own and without Harris’s edgy, silvery gaze fixing on her face when she was least expecting it.
An hour later, she was hunched over a book she wasn’t reading, trying not to watch him as he powered up and down the pool.
After New York’s autumnal dampness, the blast of heat had knocked her out and she had decided to lie by the pool on what looked like a four-poster bed complete with sheer curtains that quivered in the whisper of a sea breeze.
She had been almost on the edge of dozing off and then Harris had emerged from the villa looking cool and composed.
And semi naked.
Okay, he was wearing swim shorts and flip-flops, but his chest and shoulders were bare and unadorned except for the flickering rays of sunlight that seemed to want to caress him as much as she did. She was still a woman, albeit a thwarted, pregnant one, and for a moment she let herself drink in his beauty.
Her breath stuttered in her throat as he pulled himself out of the pool, picked up his phone and began walking towards her. He stopped and squinted up at the sky, and she stared at the contoured muscles of his thighs and tried not to remember what it had felt like when they’d pressed against her bottom.
‘What happened to the hat and suncream rule?’ she said coolly, dragging her gaze away from his smooth, golden body.
He sat down beside her, and she had to snatch her feet back and tuck them under her legs to stop them from touching him.
‘I’m used to it. And besides, I’m the boss. The rules don’t apply to me.’
She glared at him. ‘Let’s just get one thing clear. You’re not my boss. And I’m only following your rules because I choose to do so.’
‘Or you like me giving you orders.’ He turned his head slightly, staring at her steadily, his gaze soft but unyielding, and she felt suddenly unanchored.
‘Do you mind?’ She pushed his leg. ‘You’re getting water all over me.’
‘Speaking of water, you don’t seem to have any,’ he said calmly as if she hadn’t spoken.
‘Then maybe you’d like to get me some. Please,’ she added, handing him her empty glass.
He eyed her, then got to his feet, holding up his hand to stop the maid rushing forwards as he walked over to where a refreshing array of chilled water and juices and fresh fruit was laid out on a table.
Leaning back against the cushions, Eden tried to breathe normally but it was hard when Harris was still in view. Thankfully, his phone buzzed then, giving her a reason to look away. It was probably a notification about the space station. Did that mean you could see it from here? Would she be able to find it without his help? As much to distract herself from the sight of his back muscles as because she was curious, she picked up his phone.
She frowned.
It was a notification about Tiger McIntyre.
That was weird. Okay, McIntyre was a competitor, but that seemed a little obsessive, particularly as Harris played down their rivalry at every opportunity.
‘Are you reading my messages?’
She glanced up. He was standing beside her, his grey eyes harsh in the sunlight.
‘No. Well, yes, but only because I thought it was from the space station. Why are you getting notifications about Tiger McIntyre?’
‘Because he’s in the same industry as me and I want to know what he’s doing.’
‘But you have lots of competitors. Why follow him?’
‘He’s my biggest competitor, and I don’t follow him.’ But she got to her feet and chased Harris as he turned and walked inside.
‘What is your problem with McIntyre? And don’t play dumb because I know you know what I’m talking about.’
The tension in the room clicked up several notches. He was doing that staring thing he did so well.
‘Okay. Don’t tell me. But you know what, Harris, whatever he did, I’m starting to think you deserved it.’
‘Then you’d be wrong. You don’t know Tiger McIntyre. You don’t know what he did. What he’s capable of.’ He stopped abruptly as if he’d said too much.
‘So, tell me? What did he do?’
‘What does it matter to you? You’re not saving my reputation now, Eden.’
Her breath stumbled as it always did whenever he used her first name. Which was why he’d done it, she realised a moment later. He was trying to knock her off her stride.
‘It matters because, weirdly, I’d like to be able to think that the father of my child could be open and honest with me.’
‘You want to talk to me about being open and honest?’ The flare of incredulity in his voice made a shiver run down her spine. ‘That’s rich coming from you. I mean, when exactly were you planning on telling me you might be pregnant with my child?’
She hesitated. ‘I don’t know—’
He shook his head. ‘In other words, you weren’t going to. But given your lack of exclusivity, I suppose you thought the chances of my being the father of your baby were pretty remote.’
‘That’s not why I didn’t tell you. I wasn’t not going to.’ That was too many negatives, wasn’t it? ‘I wasn’t ready. I’d only just found out I was pregnant, and last time—’
Last time.
The words were out of her mouth before she even realised what she was saying and she felt all the air leave her lungs as she saw the look on his face—
She stepped past him, walking swiftly, blindly, back through the house and up the stairs into her bedroom. Darting into the bathroom, she crouched over the toilet bowl, a visceral, twisting panic slopping heavily in her stomach like wet concrete, her fingers splaying protectively against her flat belly.
A flash of memory. Of a dull, throbbing pain doubling her up and blood, enough to scare her into a taxi to the nearest ER. The doctors and the nurses had been kind but brusque. But then it was an ER, and they’d been dealing with multiple casualties from a six-car pile-up on the freeway, so she had felt as though she were standing in the eye of a hurricane. They had asked questions she could barely answer and given her answers she hadn’t been able to process and all the time she had been losing her baby.
Last time…
How could she have said that out loud? Might Harris not have heard her? Stupid question. She knew that he had. She had seen the expression on his face. Confusion. Shock, then understanding.
But he didn’t really understand.
And she didn’t want him to. She didn’t need him to pretend that he cared. That he was interested in her. Yet it hurt to admit that. Just as it had hurt to admit that there was something off-key about her relationship with Liam.
The queasiness in her stomach was subsiding and she got to her feet and ran her hands under the tap to cool her wrists.
‘Are you okay?’
Looking up, she flinched.
Harris.
Hovering outside the door, dressed now, looking not entirely sure of his reception.
‘I’m fine.’ He stepped back as she pushed past him. ‘You don’t need to check up on me.’
‘But I do,’ he said simply, and it sounded so genuine that for a moment she thought she might start crying.
‘I don’t want to fight you,’ she said flatly.
‘And I don’t want you to give in.’ He rubbed his jaw as if trying to erase something. ‘I shouldn’t have said what I did. I spoke out of turn—’
‘Isn’t that the point of being the boss? That it’s always your turn—’
‘But I’m not your boss. I didn’t mean to upset you.’ His jaw tensed. ‘It’s always like that. With him. With Tiger.’ He stared past her, and she sensed that he was looking inside himself, seeing something there.
‘So, you do know him.’ A statement of fact, not a question.
He nodded. ‘We were mates at college. For a time I was probably closer to him than anyone else on the planet. But then he slept with my girlfriend.’
She winced. No wonder he hadn’t wanted to highlight his feud with McIntyre.
‘How did you find out?’
His grey eyes snapped back to her, and he gave her a small, bitter smile. ‘I wanted to talk to him about something and I saw her leaving his room. If they’d told me they wanted to hook up I would have been upset but finding out like that… I was so angry I wanted to hurt him.’
‘What happened?’
‘I punched him, he punched me back and we rolled around for a bit. It would probably have been okay, but Tiger mouthed off to the dean and got kicked out. That was the last time I spoke to him. We see each other at industry events, and we go to the same parties, but we don’t talk. I guess people notice that kind of thing and that’s how the rumours started.’
He rubbed his jaw again.
‘It was a stupid ego thing, which is why I’ve never talked about it. But I should have told you.’
‘I understand why you didn’t.’ It wasn’t fair that telling the truth made him look so solid and dependable then. Or that there was a softness to his eyes or maybe it was his mouth. Either way he was too close to her for it to be safe for him to look at her like that.
‘I think I might have a nap,’ she said, glancing pointedly at the door.
For a moment, she thought it had worked because he turned fractionally, his big body moving with that mix of precision and easy, masculine grace that had a gravitational pull all of its own. But then he stopped, and she fought down the desperation that was swelling inside her because she knew what he was going to say even before he said quietly, ‘What did you mean, downstairs? About the last time?’
Harris watched her face stiffen. He knew what he’d heard, even though it was just two words. Last time.
Before he’d had a chance to fully absorb their implication, she was gone.
He’d stared after her, feeling every kind of terrible because he had hurt her. No, he corrected himself. He’d added hurt to her hurt.
Which was why he began moving, walking swiftly first to his room to change clothes and then to Eden’s room.
The door had been open, which had spooked him as at first glance he’d thought it was empty, but then he’d seen her huddled over the toilet and he’d retreated, thinking she would rather him not see her like that. Only he hadn’t been able to leave. His legs had simply ignored the messages from his brain.
Last time.
‘Eden—’ he said softly.
Her green eyes were wide like a child’s. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘It feels like it does,’ he said carefully.
‘It was a long time ago.’
He nodded as if he knew when it had happened, and what had happened.
‘I’ve never been that regular with my periods so I didn’t know.’
‘You were pregnant.’
She nodded. ‘Ten weeks. It was winter. I’d thought I was coming down with a virus and then I started getting these cramps. There was so much blood… I was on the way to the hospital, and I tried to call Liam, my boyfriend, but he didn’t pick up and I didn’t want to leave a message. I didn’t want to panic him.’ She made a noise like a laugh except it didn’t sound as if she found it funny. He certainly didn’t.
‘I was scared, and I wanted him to be there, but then he texted me back.’ Her voice was thick. ‘He said that he’d met someone and that it was over.’
He stared at her in disbelief. ‘Did you tell him what was happening?’
‘I couldn’t. He’d switched off his phone. I think he was scared how I’d react.’ She pressed her hand against her mouth, and he wanted to find Liam and scare him as much or more than Eden had been scared.
‘He texted me a couple of days after and I told him about the baby. He said…he said—’ she breathed in sharply ‘—he said it was probably for the best. And it was for him because I found out later that he hadn’t just met someone else. He was married.’
He could feel her shock and shame even now.
‘I should have known.’ Her voice was taut, as if she was having to break off each word to say it. ‘It was so obvious, but I wanted to be different from my mom and all the other women in my family who pick lying, cheating losers. I wanted to prove that I had the good judgement they lacked, and that I could make a relationship work, so I just ignored all the signs. I didn’t see anything, not even the fact that I was pregnant.’
She bit into her lip, hard. ‘It was my fault. If I’d realised that I was pregnant—’
He reached out and pulled her against him. ‘Miscarriages don’t work like that, Eden. There’s usually a reason they happen that is beyond our control.’
Her eyes found his, and he felt her fingers curl around his arm. ‘I did want to tell you. That I was pregnant.’
‘But you thought I’d react like he did.’ He flattened his voice to make sure it didn’t sound like an accusation, but she was already shaking her head.
‘No, I didn’t think that.’ Her mouth quivered and there was a brightness to her eyes that made his throat burn with anger, and something softer, an urge to protect her and keep her safe from the men in the world who took and broke and wrecked without impunity.
‘I was just scared of saying it out loud. Scared that something would happen to the baby.’
He pulled her closer. ‘But nothing has.’
‘It still might—’ Her fingers tightened around his arm. He felt her fast breathing and he hated that she was so scared and that he had cornered her when she was so fragile but having to hide it.
It won’t. He almost spoke the words out loud, but something in her face stopped him. The truth was that he couldn’t say for sure that it would be all right, and she had been lied to enough by that bastard of an ex. Maybe he hadn’t told her the whole truth about Tiger, but he couldn’t lie to her about this. After being so bravely honest with him, she deserved honesty in return, and he wanted to give her that.
‘It might,’ he agreed finally. He spoke gently but firmly, projecting the calm neutrality that Eden needed right now. And that was the thing: even though they’d known one another only a matter of weeks and nothing between them was straightforward, he badly wanted to give her what she needed so that she would trust him and know that he was no Liam.
‘But believe me when I say that I’ll make every effort to ensure that doesn’t happen.’ Her grip loosened a fraction and he let his hand move to cup her head, feeling her soften against him. Despite the difference in their height, they fitted together easily, her curves accommodating his lines.
And on a purely selfish level it felt so good to hold her close.
His heart was pounding in his throat. Maybe she felt the same way, he thought as Eden looked up at him, and he allowed himself to let his hand slide through her hair and press her closer.
To let his lips brush against hers and taste her sweetness…
His breath hitched.
Her mouth was soft and warm, and he parted her lips, tasting her with his tongue, his stomach balling into a knot of heat as she leaned into him, deepening the kiss.
It would be so easy for his hands to roam over her skin, to nudge her back onto the bed.
He felt his body ripple to life. Easy and wrong.
He was not going to exploit her need for closeness and comfort to satisfy his needs, his desire. If it stung a little, so be it. He deserved it.
Gently, he loosened his grip. ‘Why don’t you get into bed and have that nap? If you want, I can stay up here. I have some more work to do.’
He hadn’t planned to say that, but he was glad he did. She seemed to relax a little and five minutes after she slid under the covers, she was asleep. He could have left then, or he could have worked. But he did neither. Instead, he sat by her bed and watched her sleep.
It was something he’d never done. Something he’d never wanted to do. It was intimate on a different level and opened up a chasm of vulnerability he had never wanted to mine. But he couldn’t leave. More accurately, he didn’t want to. It felt right being here with her. There was nowhere else he could imagine being.
Not just then, but ever.