It was all the reassurance Saskia needed. The hunger in his tone ignited her, like a match to petrol. Without taking another step towards him she locked her gaze with his, the blood pounding through her veins as she slid off her jumper. Taking her time, she began unbuttoning her shirt, and as Malachi inhaled sharply, heat spiralled through her. A corkscrew of desire headed straight for her core. His eyes gleamed and she allowed it to slide down her shoulders before letting it fall to a puddle at her feet.
But if she’d thought he would fall at her feet, too, she’d been sorely mistaken. The truth hit her as if she’d been doused with a bucket of ice water. His eyes had stopped at her middle. Right where the obvious swell of her abdomen was showing.
And his hard gaze wasn’t one of pride or tenderness.
‘Malachi—’ she began, not knowing what to say.
‘You were right,’ he cut in harshly. ‘This isn’t a good idea.’
Pain sliced through her. He was rejecting her—but, more than that, he was rejecting her baby.
Their baby.
Even though she’d known all along what kind of a man Malachi was—a businessman, not a family man—it didn’t just hurt. It constricted her heart. As if he’d just thrust his fist inside her chest and was squeezing it.
She couldn’t move. Couldn’t even breathe. They both stood immobile, staring at each other, and the earth might as well have been splintering apart, fracturing, as a whole chasm opened up between them.
Abruptly, without a word, Malachi turned and strode out of the room.
And the soft closing of the door behind him echoed in Saskia’s head, louder and with more finality than the last time he’d walked out on her, back at his penthouse a few months earlier.
* * *
Malachi had no idea where he was going. He’d marched around the castello before his brain had even registered where his body was taking him.
What the hell had he been thinking?
Somehow she had imprinted on him when he hadn’t been looking. So much for his assertion that marriage to Saskia was the right and proper thing to do, given the circumstances.
Deep down, he knew that was if not a lie, then surely only the half of it.
Deep down, he recognised that it wasn’t completely honourable, the reason why he wanted Saskia as his bride; the truth was far worse.
Deep down, he understood that Saskia felt it, too.
Which made it all the more dangerous for them to be here in this castello in the middle of winter, together.
He couldn’t risk staying. He wasn’t sure he could trust himself around her.
The only thing he had to give her was his honour, his integrity. He couldn’t give her the grand love she wanted but he had promised to protect her.
And their baby.
And so far he had failed at both things.
If anything had happened to his unborn baby because he had given in to this dark, intense...thing that twisted inside him, that craved her so desperately, he would never have forgiven himself.
It was a mistake to have married her, and it was a mistake to have brought her here.
She’d told him that ages ago, but he’d thought he knew better.
Turned out he wasn’t the man he’d thought he was.
He certainly wasn’t the man Saskia—or his baby—deserved.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
‘WHAT HAVE YOU got for me, ladies?’ Saskia plastered a smile onto her face, as if that could convince the world that she was feeling happy inside.