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Zahara leaned forward, anger sweeping through her. “You moved in down the hall from me and sicced your family on me at every turn Carter. That is not giving me some space.”
He leaned forward, grabbing her hands before she could move back. “You are carrying my child, Zahara, I have every right to be close in case you need me, and as for my siblings, well, they thought they were trying to help. I did not know they were going to come down here after I told them the news of your pregnancy.”
She let out a sigh because he was right about having the right to be close. She did not want to keep him from getting to experience the pregnancy and his child, she just needed space to think. She tried pulling her hands away, but he intertwined his fingers through hers, and they both sat there looking at the colour difference between their hands. She suddenly envisioned a child that had a beautiful blend of both their colours, and maybe her eyes or Carter’s silver orbs.
She felt him lift her left hand, and his gaze became calculating.
“Carter, are you seriously sizing up my ring finger?” she sputtered, not knowing whether to laugh, be angrier, or cry. She was coming to learn this past week that the man never missed an opportunity, and that was why he was so successful at running his family’s business empire.
“Yes, how else am I supposed to know what size to get you? Also, do you prefer diamonds, rubies, saph—”
She growled, and for the first time since meeting him, she caught a fleeting smile grace his features before it disappeared, and his gaze captured hers. Seeing that cooled her frustration and anger. In that moment, he had looked less rigid, cold, and calculating, and she wanted to make him smile more. Carter’s life was work, and he did not leave room to enjoy life. She hoped to bring that into his life and decided that she would go to the family cabin as a start. He needed time to get to know her better and for them to work on building a relationship. Love would come after for him when he saw how well-suited they were and the love and joy she would bring him.
“Please come and spend Christmas with us. I want you and the baby to be with my family during the holidays. Maybe we can use this time to get to know each other better. The time at the ranch was short and surrounded by chaos and what happened at the cabin. I know everything happened fast between us, and now we are going to be parents.” He gave her another half-smile. “I still need time to process this, and we have to talk about what we are going to do, but for now, it would be a great idea for us to spend the holidays together while you are out of school and I’m taking a break from work to sort this all out.” He paused and added, “I promise not to push while we are together with family.”
Her eyes searched his, and she saw sincerity there. She nodded. “Okay, I would love to come and stay with your family in the Swiss Alps. When do you all head down?”
“A couple of days before Christmas Eve. We like to get the cabin decorated together; family tradition.” He shrugged his broad shoulders.
“And then, after just relaxing, playing board games, and skiing, Ambra, one of Ben and Michael’s friends, usually joins us the day after Christmas and stays till New Years. So you will have another young female there to chat with, and my mom will be pleased to have another woman there. Every Christmas she is surrounded by boys until Ambra shows up.”
“Sounds good. My last exam is on the eighteenth, but I have an assignment that my professor has given me an extension to submit. It’s due on the twenty-first, so I will meet you all down there.”
He frowned. “I will wait for you, and we can both go together.”
Zahara opened her mouth to protest, but Carter stared at her until she closed her mouth. She was secretly glad that they would go together. She would need help with her luggage, especially with all the gear she would have to bring.
“Oh no, you are leaving your laboratory set here. No tests, no experimenting, nothing.”
She scowled.
Chapter 6
Carter stared out the big bay window of his family’s winter chalet in the Alps. Outside it was cloudy, and big snowflakes were falling from the sky with a light wind blowing the snow about. He was focused on the beautiful, brown-skinned woman who was currently outside walking around with his mother and trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue. He did not know if he should be annoyed or amused that she was acting like a child enjoying the snow falling.
He reached into his slacks, his jaw flexing as he looked down at the three-carat oval diamond ring, the gold and silver band slim and delicate. Zahara had dainty fingers, and he thought that this ring and style would complement her hand. He had gotten this ring especially made for her, a rush order he secured by calling in a favour with Margaret, the woman Zahara had seen him with at the hotel.
Margaret had been happy to accommodate him, as he had signed her on to work with the architects and interior designers to bring her sketches to life at the new hotel in Vegas. He had also picked a new location for a hotel to be built in New York City. He would work in New York, using it as his home base until Zahara finished school. They hadn’t discussed anything, but he knew his soon-to-be bride would want to finish her education, and he liked the fact that her schooling was important to her, even though he was not too happy with her experiments.
“You know, she is going to say no.” He turned as his younger brother Ben approached. Both had the same dark hair and silver eyes, inherited from their father Carter Sr., but that was where the similarities ended. Ben was very quiet and brooding; he didn’t say much but was always observing. Ben mostly kept to himself when he was not with Michael or their friend Ambra. Carter had wondered if that was because Michael always made himself the centre of attention and Ben did not want to compete with that.
He gave his brother a glare before putting the ring back in his pocket.
“How are things between you and Zahara now that she is here?”
Carter’s eyebrows rose—it seemed that Ben was in a chatty mood. Michael had gone out to the slopes that morning in the hopes of meeting a woman he had spoken to the day before, named Summer, when they had all been skiing. He seemed to be smitten, and Carter had to admit that the woman was stunning, with her ice-blond hair, dark-brown eyes, and model figure. But she had turned out to be taken. A man had come up and put his arm around her at the café bar when Michael had approached her for a chat. Michael being Michael, he was determined to pursue her because of the flirting banter between them, which to him suggested that she was not all that serious about the man she was there with.
“We have been talking and getting to know each other better. Keeping everything light for now and discussing the baby and Zahara’s up and coming appointments.”
“Has she heard from her family?”
“Yes, her mom reached out during exams, thinking that she was coming home for Christmas. She was upset when she found out that Zahara had thought she could not come home and would be spending time with us instead. They both cried and then agreed that she would go and be with her family for a couple of days after we celebrate Christmas.”
It was his brother’s turn to raise his eyebrows. “I am assuming you are going to meet the family?”
“Of course, I am going to be her husband and the father of her children. I will be leaving here to go with her when she leaves.”
“Children?” Ben smirked. “So, you are getting serious?”
