AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He frowned. “You don’t think environment matters to children?”
“Of course I do, but I have a lovely home back in Australia, just a street away from the beach, with a big backyard and Hills Hoist clothesline that’s just perfect for running up and grabbing hold of and swinging around and around until you’re so dizzy you can’t stand up straight.” She said, a small smile tweaking her lips despite herself, so when her eyes met his, she noted his reaction—almost of panic—and sighed, the smile slipping. “I don’t doubt this place is perfect in other ways. It’s just…more complicated than that.”
“No, it’s very easy,” he responded, softly, and with a flat tone to his voice, perhaps of resignation. “I cannot let you leave, Georgia. I won’t.”
She had been weakening. She could see the logical advantages to what he was proposing. But his threat was like a red rag to a bull. Her temper burst like lava from a volcano, spewing through her veins, making it hard to think straight.
“Are you planning to lock me in the house until the baby is born?”
Something shifted in his features and for reasons she didn’t comprehend, a different kind of heat began to run through her veins.
“No.”
She breathed out softly.
“But I will use every legal mechanism available to me to ensure I get my way.”
Her eyes swept shut and her teeth chattered. How could he be saying this? How could he be threatening her? Then again, why should it surprise her? He was a beast of a man. Apart from in bed, when he had some sublime skills and instincts, he had shown her every minute they’d spent together, which wasn’t many, what a horrible, arrogant, grump of a person he was.
“You’re shaking,” he said, as though he hadn’t caused her to have a panic attack, or something damn near it.
“I’m aware of that.” She wrapped her arms around her torso, hugging herself, and their baby.
“Sit down again.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
“That is your problem,” he responded with a hint of anger, his hands curving around her arms. And oh, how she wished he hadn’t touched her! The moment his fingers connected with her bare skin, it was as though she was being flashed with heat and memories, the intimacy of his nearness stirring something inside of her she desperately didn’t want to feel. Yet she didn’t wrench away. She didn’t step backwards, out of his touch. “You are stubborn to a fault,” he continued, staring down into her face. “You claim to be able to care for a child, yet I see no evidence of that.”
She flinched.
“You are reckless and impulsive. I will not let my son be harmed because you?—,”
It was too much. She lifted her palms and pushed at his chest then, every bit of her outraged fury conveyed by the gesture. He was so much bigger than her, so much stronger, so all her gesture achieved was for his nostrils to flare a little as their bodies connected in another way.
“How dare you?” She demanded. “You don’t know me. You don’t know anything about me.”
“I know you almost ran right off a cliff chasing a damned scarf,” he bit out. “And that instead of allowing me to help you from a high branch of a tree, you jumped and sprained your ankle. And instead of telling me you were hurt, you walked half a mile in a storm. Reckless and impulsive, all of it.”
Tears sparkled on her lashes. “First of all, I don’t agree with any of what you’ve just said. That’s your perception of what happened but it’s not how I remember it. Secondly, I would never take risks with my child’s life, nor the life of any person whom I was entrusted to care for. You’re so paranoid because of what you’ve lost, you see risks everywhere.”
“Don’t talk to me about loss,” he ground out. “That’s not a part of this.”
“Of course it is, because it’s a part of you,” she shouted, aware that he was gripping her and she had her hands on his chest, yet neither of them broke that contact. “I don’t know what happened to them. An accident, I presume,” she swallowed past a lump, unable to bear the thought of it. “Accidents happen, Dante. Awful, tragic accidents. But you know what? More often, they don’t. Most of the time, things are fine. I’m going to be fine. Our son is going to be fine. I can do this without you.”
His eyes were sparking with anger, but otherwise his face was impassive. “But you won’t.” He dropped his hands then, easily and without delay, so she realised that the current of awareness that had been threatening to drown her hadn’t even come close to him. “We will either do this together, as I suggested, or I will hire every barrister in England to ensure I have sole custody of this child. That is your decision.”
She shivered more, faster, so he made a sound of frustration, put his arms on her shoulders once more and this time guided her to the sofa, and down into it. She glared at him, even when she was grateful for the support of the soft, sumptuous leather.
“I hate you,” she whispered, for her own benefit, more than his. “You really are a ghastly person.”
“Yes,” he agreed, then turned on his heel and left the room.
Dante braced his palms on the kitchen counter and stared out at the garden his daughter had loved so much. It had been a pain to look at it these last few years. Every aspect reminded him of her, of Bianca, of the way they’d loved lying on a blanket and looking up at the clouds. How many times had he come home from work and found them out there reading a book, snuggled into the bed of blankets Bianca had dragged with her onto the grass?
It was still immaculately tended, courtesy of his gardeners, and now he imagined another little person there, exploring the rock walls, poking their fingers into the rough grout, finding little treasures like old snail shells and perfectly-rounded pebbles. His gut churned painfully with a whole host of emotions, none of them easy to interpret for how overlapping they were. So much grief, so much sadness, stress, worry, anger, resentment, but there was also a feeling of wonder, because he knew what lay ahead, and how a baby had a way of reaching into your soul and repurposing it as their own. He’d lived a life of indentured servitude from the moment Livvie had been born—he existed only for her. Would that be the case with his son?
Something burst in his chest.
