“I’m not used to the climate here,” she said with quiet dignity. “I’m aware that you think I’m a brainless fool, so you can stop rubbing my nose in it.”
“Princess,” he said, “I haven’t even started. What in hell are you thinking, running around here without a bodyguard?”
“I don’t need a bodyguard,” she said through clenched teeth. “I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself. And anyway the hotel assistant and the concierge knew my destination.”
“They wouldn’t have been much help if you’d spent hours out here in the sun.”
The only answer to that was silence, and she turned her head to gaze out the window, closing her eyes to shut him out.
&n
bsp; She must have napped, because she woke, groggy and disoriented, as they were entering the outskirts of Phoenix. Hastily, she straightened in her seat, hoping he hadn’t noticed.
“Have a good nap?”
So much for wishes. She didn’t answer him.
“Why were you going to Catalina?”
She was growing mightily sick of his constant interrogations. “I wanted to visit the next of my many lovers to see if he could be the father of my child,” she snapped.
There was a moment of silence in the truck, a silence that nearly vibrated with electricity.
“I apologize,” he said in a low growl. “I know it’s my child.”
He did? Momentarily stunned, she turned her head to stare at him. He glanced over at her and his blue eyes were dark and sober. He looked nearly as shocked as she felt.
There didn’t seem to be much to say after that. She went back to staring out the window, though she was no longer seeing the landscape that was so foreign to her, no longer enjoying the contrast between what she’d grown up with and the stark, dry, blindingly bright Arizona desert.
He believed her. That one thought kept running through her mind, and she wondered what had convinced him. Yesterday he’d appeared to doubt her claim. The memory of her naïveté made her wince inwardly, and she took a deep breath to stave off the tears that wanted to rise again.
She’d promised herself last night that Rafe Thorton, under whatever name he chose to use, was never going to make her cry again. She’d been stupid and she’d learned a lesson from her stupidity. Several, in fact.
“How do you feel?” Rafe’s voice broke into her thoughts, gruff and deep and distinctly noncommittal.
As if you care, she thought.
“Fine, thank you.” She made her voice as chilly as possible while still being scrupulously polite.
“You’re not used to this climate,” he stated. “You’ll have to be doubly careful of the heat, especially in your condition.”
“Thank you for the advice. I’m sure it will prove invaluable.”
His mouth tightened and she was pleased to see that she was annoying him. He didn’t speak to her again, but picked up the phone that was installed in the truck and punched in a number, then tapped his fingers impatiently against the wheel while he waited.
She wondered who he was calling, then decided she didn’t really care. But she couldn’t prevent herself from glancing over at him.
“Hey, gorgeous!” Rafe suddenly became animated. Apparently someone had answered on the other end. Someone female, she suspected, from the way his face relaxed and his teeth flashed in a grin that sent an arrow through her heart. He’d smiled at her like that once, she remembered.
And you fell for it, dummy.
“In the desert,” he said and she reasoned that the woman had asked him where he was. “Listen,” he said, “I have a weird question. I need to know the name and number of a reputable obstetrician in Phoenix.”
There was silence on his end and one black eyebrow quirked up, then he laughed, a low and intimate chuckle that set Elizabeth’s teeth on edge. “A friend,” he said. “That’s all you need to know.”
He scrabbled in the side pocket on his door and came up with a piece of paper and a pencil, tossing them at Elizabeth. “Write this down,” he mouthed.
She glared at him, but as he repeated the name and number she did take them down, then slid the paper back across the seat to him.