Amber slid away, breaking his hold and sitting up on the side of the wide bed, turning her shoulder to him. Aurelio couldn’t read her expression from this angle but his body protested the loss of her closeness.
He sat up too, drawn by something in her tone, in the sudden stiffness in her luscious body that now seemed all angles instead of curves. Her legs were crossed he realised, and her arms too, her shoulders hunched forward.
‘Amber?’ Concern rose as he leaned close and saw the colour bleed from her face. Surely her breathing was too rapid. ‘What’s wrong?’
Desolate eyes turned to meet his. ‘I can’t reassure you, Aurelio.’ Her tongue swiped her bottom lip and as he watched, dampness beaded her forehead. Her pale skin turned the colour of curdled milk.
Instinctively he reached for her but he was too late. One hand to her mouth, the other to her stomach, she stumbled to the bathroom.
Stunned, Aurelio got to his feet and strode across the room. She’d looked distraught, almost sick and—
The sound of retching reached him.
‘Amber?’ His stride lengthened but he pulled up short as the bathroom door slammed in his face.
What was going on? She’d been fine earlier. Was this nerves, some extreme anxiety reaction to the idea of a chance pregnancy?
Aurelio frowned, propping himself up on the wall beside the door. That wasn’t like Amber. She was a fighter, not the sort of woman to be laid low by the mere possibility of bad news. She had more gumption that any woman he knew.
Again the sound of retching, this time partly masked by running water. Nevertheless, it made the hairs at his nape stand on end.
Gut instinct said this wasn’t some simple nervous reaction. Or food poisoning.
Aurelio stared blankly across the room at the bright morning sunlight filtering around the side of the curtains. She’d been fine last night. More than fine — energetic and enthusiastic. It was only this morning…
Aurelio’s breath caught in his chest and his heart stuttered as his brain catalogued things he’d noticed but not attended to.
Since the day Amber arrived at the vineyard he hadn’t once seen her drink the strong coffee they both enjoyed.
Nor had she tasted any wine. First she’d claimed it was too early in the day. Then that she’d already tried the wines he wanted her to savour. Then last night at the gala she’d drunk nothing but sparkling water.
She hadn’t reassured him about being on the pill, even though she’d been using a contraceptive that week they spent in Rome.
She was sick in the morning.
Aurelio sagged against the wall as intuition filled in the blanks.
She was pregnant.
It should be a slim possibility only, yet it felt like certainty.
Bile rose in his throat.
He couldn’t do this. Fate wouldn’t be that cruel.
He remembered Valentina sweet-talking, trying to convince him to have a child, to bring forward the date of their wedding and start a family. Her disappointment when he’d stuck to his guns about finishing one last vintage away, building up the experience he’d need for his career. The career he’d need to support a family.
They’d been sweethearts forever and the one thing she wanted as much as their wedding was a big brood of kids. Kids he’d delayed giving her till it was too late.
The sounds stopped in the bathroom but Aurelio didn’t make a move to enter. He stood rooted to the spot, staring at the luxurious room but not seeing it.
Guilt and anguish enveloped him, pressing down from all sides, driving away the last vestiges of the well-being he’d known was too good to be true.
He’d refused to give the woman he loved a child when she wanted one. And now, when he’d turned into a man unable to love, he was going to be a father.