He hesitated and then took her hand. ‘I just wanted to check you’re OK. If you ever need anything…’
‘She has everything she needs.’ A harsh voice came from behind them, and Holly turned to see Casper standing in the doorway, his eyes glittering like shards of ice.
Visibly nervous, Eddie gave a slight bow. ‘Your Highness. I—Well, I just wanted to see Holly—say hello—you know how it is. I was just leaving.’
Casper’s threatening gaze didn’t shift from his face. ‘I’ll show you out.’
Shocked and more than a little embarrassed by Casper’s rudeness, Holly gave Eddie a hug to make up for it. ‘Thank you for looking me up.’
Eddie hugged her back awkwardly, one eye on the prince. ‘Good to see you looking so well. Bye, Holly.’ He left the living room, and moments later Casper strode back into the room, his eyes simmering black with anger.
‘I allow you a great deal of freedom,’ he said savagely, ‘But I do not expect you to entertain your lover in our living room.’
‘That’s ridiculous.’ Holly watched him unravel with appalled disbelief. ‘He is not my lover. And I don’t understand why you’re being possessive.’
He didn’t care about her, did he?
He didn’t want her love .
‘But he was your lover!’ A thunderous expression on his face, Casper prowled across the living room, tension emanating from every bit of his powerful frame. ‘And yes, I’m possessive! When I find the father of your baby in my living room, holding your hand, I’m possessive!’
Something snapped inside Holly.
‘I never had sex with Eddie! I have never slept with anyone except you!’ Consumed by an anger she didn’t know she could feel, Holly threw the words at him. ‘All you ever say is your baby, but it’s our baby, Casper. This is your baby too. And I’m sick of tiptoeing round the issue.’
His voice strangely thickened, Casper faced her down. ‘Don’t ever, ever touch another man!’
‘Why? I like hugging, and you don’t want me hugging you!’ Flinging the words at him like bricks, Holly took a step backwards, a hand over her stomach. ‘I can’t live like this any more. I can’t live in this—this—emotional desert! I’m afraid to touch you in case you back away, and I’m afraid to speak in case I say the wrong thing. I’ve tried so hard to do everything right. I know this marriage wasn’t what you wanted, but I’ve done my best. I’ve worked and worked, and I’ve been loyal. I haven’t once talked about you to anyone, not even when you pushed me away and I was so lonely I wanted to die! But not once, in all that time, have I ever given you reason not to trust me.’
A muscle flickered in his jaw. ‘It isn’t a question of trust.’
‘Of course it is!’ Her voice was high-pitched and unlike her usual tone. ‘I forgave you for what you thought about me at the beginning of our relationship because I was honest enough to admit that I didn’t exactly behave like a virgin, even though that’s what I was. I’ve made allowances for the fact that Antonia hurt you so badly, and I’ve made allowances for the fact that your position as ruling prince meant you weren’t allowed to grieve. But when have you ever made allowances for me? Never. Not once have you given me the benefit of the doubt. Not once.’ Her heart was racing and she felt suddenly light-headed.
Casper inhaled sharply. ‘Holly—’
‘Don’t look at me as if I’ve lost it! I am not hysterical. In fact, this is probably the sanest moment I’ve had since I’ve met you. I’ve always assumed that you act the way you do because of Antonia, but I’m starting to think it has more to do with your bloody ego!’
‘I’ve never heard you swear before.’
‘Yes, well, our relationship has been full of firsts. First sex, first swearing, first slap around the face—’ Feeling the baby kick, Holly placed a hand on her bump and rubbed gently. ‘You know what I think, Cas? I don’t think this has anything to do with Antonia. I think it’s more to do with your macho, alpha, king of the world, dominant—’ she waved a hand, searching for more adjectives ‘—man thing. You couldn’t bear the thought that I’d slept with another man, and the really ridiculous, crazy thing is I haven’t!’
‘You were engaged to him.’
‘But I didn’t have sex with him! That’s the main reason he dumped me, because I was too shy to take my clothes off!’ She glared at him, silencing his next remark with a warning glance. ‘And don’t ask me what happened when I met you, because I still haven’t worked that one out. You have a way of undressing a woman that James Bond would envy.’
‘You were devastated when you broke up with him.’
‘Obviously not that devastated or I wouldn’t have been having crazy, abandoned sex on a table with you the next day.’ A hysterical laugh escaped from her throat. ‘Just because you’re incapable of indulging in a relationship that doesn’t include sex, it doesn’t mean I’m the same. Now get out, and stay away from me until you’ve learned how to be human.’
In the grip of a savage rage, Casper strode through his private rooms and slammed the door of his study.
He’d lost his temper with a pregnant woman.
What had he been thinking?
But he knew the answer to that. He hadn’t been thinking at all.
From the moment he’d walked into the living room and seen Eddie standing there holding Holly’s hand, his brain had been engulfed in a fiery fog of red-hot jealousy.
Never before had he felt the overwhelming urge to wipe another person from the face of the earth, but he had today.
The thought that Eddie had been near her.
He felt physically sick, his forehead damp and his palms sweating.
He needed to apologise to Holly, but first he needed to make sure that Eddie didn’t set foot in her life again.
Not pausing to question the sense of his actions, he ordered his driver to take him to the hotel where Eddie was staying. Ignoring the amazed looks of the hotel reception-staff as they gave him the room number he wanted, Casper dismissed his security guards and then took the stairs two at a time.
Outside the room, he took a deep breath.
He was not going to kill him.
Having forced that thought into his head, he hammered on the door.
Eddie pulled it open and the colour drained from his face. ‘Your Highness—this is—’
‘Why did you break the engagement?’ Casper slammed the door shut behind him, guaranteeing their privacy.
Eddie’s mouth worked like a fish, and then he gave a slight smile and a shrug, his ego reasserting itself. ‘Man to man? Actually I met a stunning blonde. She had amazing—you know.’ He gestured with his hands and Casper gritted his teeth and forced himself to ask the question he’d come to ask.
‘Did you sleep with Holly?’ His voice was thickened, and Eddie gave a confident smile and a knowing wink.
‘God, yes—she was bloody insatiable.’
Forgetting his promise to himself, Casper punched the other man hard in the jaw and Eddie staggered backwards, clutching his face.
‘God, you’ve broken my jaw—I’ll have you for this!’
‘Go ahead.’ Casper hauled the man to his feet by the front of his shirt, ignoring the tearing sound as the fabric gave way. ‘So you had sex with Holly, and then you dumped her. Is that what you expect me to believe?’