The scrape of wood against terracotta brought her eyes back to him.
‘It’s deceptively dangerous. That cove down there is relatively sheltered, but the island can get twenty-five-foot waves at times, and then the beaches are littered with seaweed.’
His tone was much darker than it needed to be and Ava suspected he was talking about more than just the island. She suspected it was a warning for her not to fall for him, but if it was it was not only too late but completely unnecessary. What did he think she was going to do? Stalk him?
‘And speaking of for ever...we didn’t use protection last night.’
Ah, so that was what had triggered his tension. Ava felt her stomach bottom out. She hadn’t even thought of it. She’d been so absorbed by her feelings for him, by her anxiety about what to do...
‘I can see you’re shocked.’ He gathered up their plates, the harsh sound of cutlery sliding against porcelain jarring her. ‘If you’re pregnant it will change things.’
She was shocked—but more because the prospect didn’t make her nearly as unhappy as he thought. In fact it made her feel elated to think of herself carrying his child. Something she definitely wasn’t prepared to admit when his face had taken on all the levity of a thundercloud.
‘What do you mean?’ And still her silly, hopeful heart beat just a little faster as she waited for him to declare his love for her. Ask her to marry him.
‘You’ll have to cancel any plans you have to marry the Prince of Triole, for one thing.’
Quoi?
Ava stared at him. He thought she was going to marry Lorenzo? And he’d still slept with her! Controlling her temper by a thread, Ava arched her brow. ‘No?’
One of the knives on the plate he was holding clattered onto the tiles but neither one of them broke eye contact to locate it. ‘No. You’ll be marrying me.’
‘You?’ She hadn’t expected him to say that and it threw her off balance. ‘I already told you I wouldn’t marry without love.’
He paused, his brows pulled together. ‘Not even for a child?’
Dull colour flooded her cheeks and a breeze rustled the nearby shrubs. Trap a man who so clearly wanted his freedom? ‘I’d rather be a single parent.’
He glared at her. ‘Since I don’t hold the same view you’d better hope you’re not pregnant. Because if you are you will marry me, Ava.’
* * *
‘You’d better hope you’re not pregnant. Because if you are you will marry me.’
Wolfe leaned his elbows on his desk and cupped his face in his hands. What an idiot.
Before, when she’d been sitting on his deck, he’d been looking at her and thinking how lovely she was. How much he enjoyed having her in his home. In his life. Then she’d mentioned for ever and he’d broken out in a cold sweat. It was as if she’d read his mind.
Panicked, he realised that in making breakfast and playing house with her he was not only still breaking all his rules with her but grinding them into the dust for good measure. This must have been how his father had felt about his mother. How else to explain why he’d taken her back over and over? Wolfe had vowed never to let a woman mean so much to him that she weakened him in the same way. But that had nothing to do with Ava, did it?
Hell, he’d acted like an ass and he owed her an apology.
A big apology.
After checking once more for updates on the bomb blast that had ripped her gallery in half, he scoured the house and found her walking on the beach.
She was a vision of loveliness, with his large blue T-shirt swamping her lanky frame and her mane of dark hair rippling down her back. Watching her, Wolfe felt a now familiar tug in his chest and knew he was in trouble. Deep trouble.
Not that it would do him any good to think that way. She’d made it pretty clear before that she saw him as nothing more than a temporary entity in her life.
‘I’d rather be a single parent.’
Just the thought of her vehemence made him see red. Made his anger— He stopped. Blinked. What the hell was wrong with him? Had a brick from her building landed on his head last night and messed with his brain? Surely nothing else could explain his seesawing emotions.
Ava’s soft laugh reached him from across the sand and forced his attention back to the present moment.
She turned slightly to twist her hair out of her face and Wolfe forgot all about his apology when he saw that she was on her phone.
When had she got that? And, more importantly, hadn’t he told her not to use it while she was here?