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‘Surely you must have appreciated that Gaetano only ever ot noin South Aal,’ Nik advanced with derision ‘Helena deliberately neglected to file the right documents because she already suspected Gaetano of infidelity with Cristo’s ot rid of him and he couldn’t claim a penny from her How can you expect reedy?’
‘Well, hopefully Gaetano’s children by Belle’s row up into decent people You shouldn’t hold their parentage against theainst Cristo or Zarif,’ she reminded him
Hishim to answer it, and went out to the terrace There she perched on a loall to listen to the distant sound of the surf washing the shore beyond the trees while striving to breathe in deep and let her bad mood simply evaporate
His unbuttoned shirt blowing back in the breeze, Nik strolled along the terrace talking on the phone inshoulder uorous stretch, arching his long spine so that his washboard abs pulled tight intodefinition Betsy couldn’t take her eyes off his spectacular body or the downy little furrow of hair that swa, sto the waistband to drop even lower on his lean brown hips Heat flooded her face and her body and, half angry, half aaze from him and stared out into the darkness instead
Considering that ‘later’ had never co was the only sensual pleasure she had, Betsy reflected, tensing at the thought and the feelings of hurt and rejection it evoked For some reason, Nik had backed away from the idea of intimacy Not only did he cart her up and downstairs with the detachment of a block of wood but he had also chosen to sleep in the bedroom next door His retreat on that front had taken Betsy by surprise because Nik had always been very highly sexed Even worse from her point of view, her body ith horo with an enthusiasm she had never experienced before
She re of their arrival and breathed in deep and slow to cool her rising teht? Did the very fact that she was pregnant make her less attractive on his terms? She supposed that was perfectly possible, particularly to a male who had never wanted children Now that children were on the way, Nik ht be ready to take responsibility as a parent but as to say how he really felt about the development? A ht things It was even possible that her less than enthusiastic reaction to the offer of reconciliation had annoyed and offended hie between the frozen in theneither forward nor back, paralysed by indecision and terrified of doing the wrong thing
Yet he had given her every opportunity to discuss her insecurities Only, when had deep, ful conversations ever worked with Nik? When he didn’t talk back it was a waste of her breath and when he brooded in silence she felt even worse And when, as now, he ht feel that for the sake of her health and peace of mind he had to tell her whatever she wanted to hear, how likely was it that he would feel that he could be honest? Throughout the week, Nik had displayed endless concern about her well-being Fortunately her appetite had returned and she was sleeping soundly again, pleasantly tired after daily swiency, such as it had been, was over now and he needed to accept that and stop treating her like an invalid
Tossing his phone down on the table, Nik came to a sudden halt in front of her His wide, sensual mouth compressed ‘Look, if Belle’s party is that iriree with it—’
Surprise and pleasure darted through Betsy that he had given way He ht not understand the depth of her friendship with Cristo and Belle but he was trying to respect it Without thinking about it, she stretched up on tiptoe to link her ar Cristo, and Belle toldto clear his schedule to attend as well’
The warmth of her smile lit up her heart-shaped face It was relatively easy to o but he had fallen out of the habit But then in the early days he had had to negotiate a welter of ht path It was not the cost of the gift that ht and the effort behind it It could be as siardless of how busy he was, or of sharing the minutiae of his busy day to make her feel a part of it Back then an unexpectedly sunny er or a casual compliment could leave Betsy wreathed in smiles
‘Oh, joy,mouth,’ Nik derided as he looked down at her and slowly closed his arht body
Betsy groaned out loud, having forgotten that complication ‘I think Zarif did you a favour, so cut him soe,’ she pointed out ruefully ‘You had backed yourself into a corner by not telling et out of it’
Nik was genuinely stunned by that shrewd assessaze but his thoughts were short-circuited by the soft, fullto the corner of his with unstudied warmth Betsy smelled of peaches and vanilla, and every barrier he had raised against teulfed him His hands slid down to her delicately curved hips and he hoisted her up against hiry enthusiasm
‘Why did I have to wait so long for that?’ Betsy lin
g to relocate her breath while every skin cell in her body erupted into sudden life