‘Well—?’ he said harshly.
Rachel pressed her pale lips together and gave a shake of her head.
Tension sizzled. ‘Is that a no, as in you are not pregnant?’ he demanded.
Hands ice-cold and trembling where she clutched them together in front of her, Rachel nodded.
He moved—one of those short, sharp jerks of the body. ‘You have to be pregnant,’ she thought she heard him mutter beneath his breath. ‘Why did you feel sick—why the fainting?’ he asked hoarsely.
‘W-women’s stuff,’ she mumbled dully. ‘It—it’s like that sometimes.’ She added a shrug. ‘The real thing should h-happen any day now …’
Silence fell, one of those horrible awkward, don’t-know-what-to-say-next kind of silences that grabbed at the air and choked it to death.
Rachel couldn’t stand it. She was in shock. She wasn’t really functioning properly on any level. She’d been so sure that the answer to the test would come out positive, and if she did not find herself something practical to do she knew she was going to embarrass both of them by bursting out crying with sheer disappointment!
With no control at all over her trembling legs, she walked like a drunk towards the dressing room. ‘I’ll pack,’ she whispered.
‘What the hell for—?’ he raked out.
‘Time to call it quits, I think.’ She even added a flicker of a wobbly smile.
‘No,’ he ground out roughly. ‘I—don’t want you to go.’
White as a sheet, Rachel shook her head. ‘It might as well be now than next week—next month—’
‘No,’ he repeated.
‘But there’s no reason left for me to stay now!’
His wide shoulders squared. ‘Am I not a good enough reason?’ he demanded harshly. ‘Have our weeks together meant so little to you that you could just decide to leave me like this—?’
Stunned by the harsh husky agony in his tone, Rachel was further shocked to see how pale he looked.
Tears burst to life. ‘Raffaelle …’ she murmured pleadingly. ‘You know we only—’
‘No,’ he cut in on her yet again. ‘Don’t say my name like that—don’t look at me like that.’
‘But there is no baby!’ She had to say it—had to!
‘To hell with babies,’ he bit out fiercely. ‘We can make babies any time! This is about you and me and what we want. And I want you to stay!’
Was he saying what she thought he was saying? She just stared at him, not daring to trust what her ears were telling her. ‘Francesca—’
‘Forget about Francesca,’ he said impatiently. ‘I am blind to Francesca. I am blind to any woman who is not you.’
She took a wary step towards him. ‘Are you saying that you want me to stay even without a baby—?’
He threw out an angry hand. ‘Why do you need me to keep on saying it?’ he thrust out. ‘I want you to stay … because I want you to stay!’
‘H-how long?’
‘Dio, woman,’ he breathed savagely. ‘What are you trying to do to me?’ His silver-green eyes gave an aggressive flash. ‘For ever, okay? I want it all: the love, the ring, the marriage— the whole damn crazy package!’
‘Then why are you so angry about it?’ she cried out.
He squared his wide shoulders. Pale and tense, ‘It would not hurt you, Rachel, to give me some small encouragement to feel happy about loving you,’ he pushed out.
Then he turned his back to her and grabbed his nape with long angry fingers. Rachel hovered, wanting to go to him but still too scared to move.
Then, why are you scared? she asked herself. He had just said he loved her and she was standing here giving him every impression that she—
She closed the gap between them, running her arms around his waist and pressing herself in close to his rigid back. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered. ‘But I’ve loved you so much and for so long when I knew I didn’t have the right to feel like this!’
A sound ripped from his throat and he spun in her arms. His eyes were like twin black diamonds, still angry, possessive—real.
‘No—w-wait, I need to say this—’ she shivered out when she saw what was coming. ‘I knew that I had no right to fall in love with you after the way I had hit on you without giving a thought to the trouble I was going to cause! Then w-we thought we had made a baby so I used it as an excuse to stay and—’
‘We used it.’
‘But it just wasn’t fair of me to load you down with my foolish feelings when—No!’ she protested. ‘I’ve not—’
Finished …
What a waste of breath, Rachel thought as she fell into the kind of kiss that made words redundant.
By the time he lifted his head again, streaks of desire were burning into his cheekbones. ‘Any reason why we cannot continue this … discussion in bed?’ he said huskily.
What discussion? Rachel thought dryly as she wound her arms around his neck. ‘You want to … talk?’ she asked innocently.
His mouth twitched. ‘No.’
‘You perhaps want to say something about the way you unleashed your charms on another woman tonight?’
He tensed. ‘You want me to apologise—’
‘I want you to pay,’ Rachel told him. ‘At least you were saved from watching me act like that with Alonso.’
‘But I did see.’ He grimaced. ‘I watched the handsome bastard leap out of his car and take you in his arms. I watched him kiss you as if he had every right to do it, and I saw the adoring expression on your face as you looked up at him!’
‘It wasn’t adoring, it was shock!’ Rachel protested.
‘You let him kiss you.’
‘Italians are always kissing each other.’ She dismissed that accusation.
‘You let him drive you away in his flashy red car.’
‘It was either that or get caught in the street by a snooping reporter.’ Then she frowned. ‘Where were you when this was happening?’
His sigh was rueful. ‘Making a fool of myself over lunch with five important business associates, by just getting up and walking away,’ he confessed. ‘Then I got the call from Francesca and my day just continued downhill from there.’ He ran his fingers through her hair, his eyes hooded. ‘When you walked out of the restaurant I thought you were going to go to him.’
Rachel stared at him in blank disbelief. ‘Since when have you been so short on ego to think such a thing?’
‘Since I met you,’ he said. ‘You have a unique way of eating away at my ego.’
‘That’s such a lie,’ she denounced. ‘You’ve done nothing but bully me and want sex from me since we met!’
‘You hit on me, but not because you wanted me. And you taunted me with other lovers.’ He shrugged.
‘I’ve had one lover before you,’ she reminded him. ‘My one lined up against your many who have trailed themselves past me seems a pretty pathetic comparison to me.’
He