‘I don’t want to hear about your other women,’ she told him firmly. ‘I certainly don’t want to be compared to them.’
He could feel her pulling away in spirit, and they were already standing six feet apart. Emma glanced back towards the hotel, rather than towards the party, where they might have prolonged their evening. Losing her was unthinkable, he realised suddenly. He couldn’t allow it to happen. He was confident he could pull this back. It wasn’t the first time in his life he had faced an apparently insurmountable problem and triumphed. He had turned the scorn of the father he could never hope to impress into a positive that had driven him to succeed. Would he let Emma get the better of him?
‘Goodnight, Lucas.’
Goodnight? He stood in silent disbelief as he watched her go. She was leaving him? She was walking away?
She didn’t look back.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
KARINA RAN UP to him and put a hand on his arm. ‘Don’t,’ she cautioned. ‘Don’t go after her yet, Luc. Give her time.’
‘Time for what?’ He was in no mood to discuss Emma with his sister.
‘You know why I’m saying this,’ Karina insisted.
‘Do I?’
‘You don’t want to rehash the past—I know that, but sometimes it has to be faced. You have to tell her, Luc. You can’t keep avoiding the subject.’
He shook his head—the head he badly needed to get together. So much had happened in so short a time, the events he had been ignoring were back. All the old anger, the hurt, the sense of betrayal... Karina was right. He had to come to terms with it before he could move on. But not here where the noise from the party was deafening—or even in the hotel, where the demands of his work were ceaseless and would cause constant interruptions to his thought processes. There was only one place on earth where he could unspool the tangle and rewind.
‘Please,’ Karina was saying to him, hanging on to his arm as she stared up into his face. ‘Don’t let Emma go. Can’t you see what you stand to lose? Emma’s changed you for the better, and I’d rather see you like this—all beat up inside—than not feeling at all. Give love a chance, Luc.’
‘Love?’ he exclaimed with an incredulous laugh. ‘I think you’re overstating the case.’
‘Am I?’ his sister demanded. ‘Yes, Lucas. Love. I’m not frightened of the word. Why are you? Just because you’ve been hurt once doesn’t mean you’ll be hurt again. Give yourself a chance, Luc. This could be your one chance to be happy again.’
He laughed bitterly, knowing it was easier to let the ice grow back around his heart.
‘Everyone has secrets,’ Karina persisted. ‘It’s who you choose to share them with that counts.’
‘Thanks for the counsel, little sister. There are more secrets than you know.’
‘There you go again,’ she said. ‘You’re a patronising, arrogant pain in the butt—who means well, but who goes about things all the wrong way. You don’t have to take the world on your shoulders. Emma and I can do that for ourselves.’
‘I doubt it,’ he murmured, narrowing his eyes as he stared in the direction Emma had gone. She had disappeared out of sight. He was itching to chase after her. Karina might have made sense. Both he and Emma needed space, but Emma’s safety was his paramount concern now. ‘I’m going after her.’
‘Of course you are,’ Karina told him with a smile in her voice.
He caught up with Emma running along the beach. She was barefoot, holding her sandals in one hand and her skirt in the other so she could run faster. The wind had caught hold of her hair and was tossing it about. He wanted to stand and watch her but he couldn’t let her carry on. ‘Emma! Wait!’
Whipping her head around, she shouted back at him, ‘Go away, Luc. This is over. I’m leaving. I never want to see you again.’
She was running away from him along a strip of ivory sugar sand, with the moonlight in her hair and the surf pounding at her feet. He raced along the sand to join her, and was with her in seconds. ‘This has nothing to do with control,’ he shouted against the wind, raising his hands in mock surrender when she looked at him. ‘Do you know how dangerous this is? Running along the beach at night on your own—and in your condition?’
‘Pregnancy isn’t a threat to my health, Luc.’