“You don’t need to worry.” I briefly touched his shoulder. “Our baby will always be safe and loved.” I cradled my hands over my belly. “I promise you.”
“I know.” His eyes met mine. “Because I’ll be there.”
I glared at him. “Edward—”
Reaching out, he deliberately put his larger hand over mine, gently on the swell of my belly. I gasped when I felt him touch my hand for the first time, felt the weight of it resting protectively over the child we’d created. “I’m not going to let her go.” He looked at my belly with a trace of a smile on his lips. Then he looked up at me. “Or you.”
My mouth went dry.
“But I don’t love you,” I choked out, as if those magic words were a talisman that could make him disappear. “I’ll never love you again.”
The words seemed suspended in the air between us. Then he smiled. Moving closer to me, he cupped my cheek.
“Friends with benefits, then.”
“And marriage?”
“And definitely that.”
“I won’t let you do this,” I said, trembling beneath his touch. His fingertips stroked softly down my cheek, tracing my full lower lip. My breasts, now lush and full with pregnancy, felt heavy, my nipples hard and aching. I breathed, “You can’t just come back, after the way you broke my heart, and force yourself into my life!”
“You mean I have to earn it.”
“Well—yes—what are you smiling about?”
“Nothing.” He lifted his chin. “I’m not afraid. I know exactly what to do.”
“You do?”
“Yes.” He slid down the bench until he was right against me. I felt him close to me, so close, and I shivered with heat in the cool shade of the garden. “I’ll do whatever it takes to earn back what I’ve lost.”
“You can’t.” I swallowed. “Yes, you’re my baby’s father. There’s nothing I can do about that. But that’s all. I’ll never open my heart—or my body—to you again. I won’t be your friend. I won’t sleep with you. And I definitely won’t marry you.”
He pulled me into his arms. “We’ll see....”
My heart beat fast as he held me against the warmth of his body. I heard the intake of his breath, and realized he was trembling, too. That was my last thought before he turned me to face him. And he lowered his mouth to mine.
He kissed me hungrily, and when his lips touched mine, in spite of my cold anger, I could not fight it. When he kissed me, the colors of the garden whirled around us, pink bougainvillea and green leaves and palm leaves glowing with sun, flying wild into the sky. And against my will, I kissed him back.
Just a kiss. One last kiss of farewell, I told myself. Before I sent him away forever.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE COOL OCEAN BREEZE came in through open sliding glass doors on the other side of the cottage, oscillating white translucent curtains as I peeked inside the front door.
“Edward?” I called hesitantly, stepping inside the tiny house he had rented on Malibu Beach. “Are you in here?”
No answer. It took several seconds for my eyes to adjust to the light. The old grandfather clock on the other side of the floral sofa said nine o’clock. The tiny galley kitchen was empty and dark.
Edward had asked me so particularly to come over tonight, as soon as I was done filming a commercial on the other side of town. Where was he? Surely he couldn’t have forgotten?
For the past month, since he’d arrived in California, he’d gone out of his way to take care of me, putting me first in anything. The only thing he’d flatly refused was to stay away from me.
“Give me a chance to change your mind about me,” he said.