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She blinked. ‘Excuse me?’
‘Severe morning sickness,’ he said. ‘Which could be harmful to both you and the baby.’
She stared at him. ‘How do you even know that term?’
‘It’s in one of the booklets on your coffee table. The ones you said your doctor gave to you.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘You have read them, haven’t you?’
She shifted in her chair. ‘I’m working my way through them.’ It was close to the truth. She’d made a start and then given up when she’d felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information. She’d educated herself on the basics—what she should and shouldn’t eat, which supplements to take—and that was all she could cope with for now.
‘Good.’ He stood up. ‘Let’s go.’
She frowned. ‘Where?’
‘To lunch.’
She shook her head. ‘I’m not hungry.’
‘You have to eat, Emily.’ His tone grew stern. ‘For you and for the baby.’
The knowledge that he was right—she couldn’t live entirely on crackers and herbal tea—grated against an instinctive urge to rail against the web of control he was slowly weaving around her. She wasn’t accustomed to having her decisions made for her...and yet she understood that he had the best interests of their baby at heart.
And that, she reminded herself once again, was all that mattered right now.
Her baby.
Their baby.
She retrieved her handbag from a drawer and stood. ‘Very well,’ she said, the prospect of trying something other than crackers for lunch not as unappealing as she’d made out. She missed food. Missed her ordinarily healthy appetite.
Before Ramon opened the door, she placed her hand on his forearm. ‘I haven’t told anyone yet,’ she said. ‘Not even Marsha. I’d prefer we keep the pregnancy a secret until I’ve passed the first trimester.’
‘Of course.’
She felt the muscles in his arm tense under her hand and quickly let go. ‘You haven’t told anyone?’
‘No.’
‘Not even your family?’
His mouth tightened fractionally. ‘No one, Emily.’
Sensing she’d ventured into sensitive territory, she left the subject alone, yet as they exited the club through a discreet side entrance she couldn’t help wondering about his family. She’d assumed he would want to tell them almost straight away about the pregnancy but clearly that wasn’t the case. For a moment she thought that was strange and then it occurred to her that she was the last person qualified to make that kind of determination.
What did she know about family?
Sadly, not a lot.
>
* * *
On Saturday morning Ramon flew to Paris to meet with a team of engineers at Saphir. Apparently there was some structural issue with the enormous swimming pool in the recreation centre and a dispute with the original installation company that was sufficiently serious for him to involve himself.
He’d urged Emily to go with him, but she’d refused. Returning to Paris, to the same place where they’d shared their one night of incredible, mind-blowing sex, would do neither of them any favours. Sharing her home with him, sleeping in separate rooms while every night she yearned for his touch, was challenging enough without stirring up memories safer left buried. Reluctant to leave her alone even for a single night, Ramon had argued, and their heated exchange had acted like lighter fluid on an already blazing fire, ramping up the sexual tension that’d simmered below the surface of their every interaction in the last five days.
Tired and irritable by the week’s end, Emily had told herself she was looking forward to his absence.
Now, after twenty-four hours without his overwhelming, charismatic presence in her home, she had to admit the truth.
