She shook her head.
“Do you know why I thought the worst of you Sophie? Why I believed you to have engaged in affairs with both Eric and the man from Sydney?”
“Because you’re suspicious, cynical and untrusting?”
His lip twisted in a half-smile. “No. Because I fell in love with you the first moment I saw you, half hidden beneath the sofa. I loved you. Your voice, your energy, you. And how could any man not feel as I did? How could any man not see you and want you, as I did, with a total, full-body response?”
She blinked her eyes opened and stared at him as though he must surely have thought her to be some kind of idiot. “You’re being ridiculous. You never loved me. I’d go so far as to say you hated me. Or you would never have gone through with this ridiculous plan to get me out of Helena’s life.”
“I loved you then, Sophie, and I love now. Do not argue with me. I always win. Eventually, you will accept that.”
“Eventually … Alex, it’s over between us. I can’t … I won’t … forgive you.”
“You will.” His smile now was confident. “Stay here. I’ll arrange for you to be checked out.”
“Discharged,” she muttered to his retreating back. “It’s a hospital, not a hotel.” She looked down at herself hopelessly, feeling more alone than she ever had in her whole life. “I have nothing to wear.”
He frowned. Her clothes from yesterday were nowhere in sight. “Okay. Wait here.”
“Do I have any other choice?” She queried with a sarcastic smile. And even then, angry with him and desperately miserable, she knew she was being rude and unfair. He had lost their baby too. And he was trying to help. Only she’d run out of any kind of generosity of spirit.
In barely no time at all, Alex was back clutching a dark green shopping bag. “Would you like help changing?”
She scowled at him, but didn’t perceive any innuendo in the question.
He lifted his hands. “It was a genuine question, agape mou.”
“I’m fine.” She took the bag without thanking him and peered inside. A black sweater and a pair of jeans were inside, complete with fresh underwear.
“Wait outside. Please.”
“It was a serious offer of help, Sophie. You might be weak …”
“Then I’ll buzz for a nurse,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Okay. Fine.” Alex tamped down on his frustration. He had lost any right to expect Sophie to simply be an unquestioning part of his life.
Out of nowhere, he thought back to the first week on Corfu, when she had been so happy she’d practically beamed with light and pleasure. He thought back to those heady days, when they’d shared one another’s bodies and they’d talked and laughed as though they were careless and divinely euphoric. That brief, glimmering window of perfection that he’d smashed with his idiotic plan. What he wouldn’t give to go back to that perfect oasis of time and hold it tight to his chest.
She dressed slowly, and Alex was on the verge of bursting back into her room when Sophie finally emerged. She’d washed her face and finger combed her hair, but she still looked a long way from well.
“Ready?” He smothered the worry from his voice, instinctively understanding that she didn’t want sympathy. “My car is out the front.”
She fell into step beside him, and the whole way, she knew she should separate herself from this man. Except she was tired, and she didn’t feel great. It was only with enormous effort that she was able to walk without showing any physical signs of discomfort.
Alessandro Petrides was parked on double yellow lines just outside the hospital. His windshield had a host of paper on the front and he ripped them out impatiently.
“Alex,” Sophie said sharply. “You’re illegally parked.”
&n
bsp; The look he sent her was rich with disbelief. “Did you think I would waste time searching for a better spot while you were in hospital?”
She didn’t let her heart swell. He felt guilty, that was all.
“You must have a thousand pounds in fines there.”
“Worth it,” he held her door open and waited patiently while she settled herself into the seat. He had to ball his hands into his pockets to stop from aiding her.