‘Thank you.’
* * *
Now, though, as they walked down the hallway of the beach house, Kaspar tried for a little more levity. ‘I know you can kiss far better than you showed me today.’
Archie tilted her chin up at him, utterly elegant and poised. It gave him an unmistakeable kick to realise that he could see straight through her. He could read her in a way he’d never expected to be able to.
‘It may shock you to know this, Kaspar, but I don’t want to kiss you again. I certainly don’t want to sleep with you.’
He grinned unexpectedly. The first in days.
‘I was talking about a kiss. Who said anything about sleeping together?’
‘I surmised it was where you were going with the conversation.’ She flushed, struggling hard not to sound so prim. Too hard.
‘I hadn’t been. Interesting it was where your mind went, though.’
‘My mind went nowhere untoward, I can assure you.’
Something like relief skittered across her face and Kaspar realised it was a game. One designed to speak to his basest instincts. She was wriggling under his skin, the way she’d always been able to as a kid. Only there was nothing childlike about the attraction that now fizzed between them.
‘Is that so?’
‘That’s so,’ she confirmed, but her voice quivered.
‘Are you sure?’
She didn’t answer and his gaze held hers, missing nothing. Not her quick, shallow breathing, or the flush creeping up her neck, or the way she tried to swallow so discreetly. For a moment there was nothing. No sound, no movement. Then, suddenly, without even thinking, he closed the gap between them and haule
d her body to his and wrapped his hand around her hair to tip her head backwards until she was staring up at him.
She didn’t speak. He suspected she couldn’t, and that send a shot of pure triumph jolting through him. And then he was crushing her mouth to his and a thousand glorious, dazzling fireworks were going off in his head all at once. Greedy and demanding, he feasted on her and she responded willingly. Wantonly. Her body, bump and all, pressed to him, her tongue dancing to his tune, her hands reaching for his powerful shoulders. And when she moaned against his lips his whole body tightened in response, everything shining that much brighter in his mind.
If he didn’t stop this now, he feared he would never be able to do so. She was too damned intoxicating. Still, he didn’t know how he succeeded to drop his arm or move away from her. He had no idea how he managed to hold his ground as she stood there, swaying and confused. It was a battle to talk as though he wasn’t every bit as affected by the kiss as she clearly was.
‘You’re right, your disinclination to have sex with me again is abundantly clear,’ he taunted softly, feeling bizarrely exhilarated as the oddest sense of calm seemed to permeate his body.
It didn’t matter that Archie was staring at him as though he had lost his mind, and it didn’t matter that even though he could see the jumble of thoughts that were barging through her head, he felt oddly detached. Confident. Right. A whisper of euphoria curled inexplicably through him.
‘You had no right to do that,’ she choked out eventually. ‘I don’t want you to do that.’
‘Then you shouldn’t kiss me back so willingly,’ he responded, offering no room for argument.
Not another. Not when he was already feeling so rattled. And yet so triumphant. He felt another chunk of ice fall away.
‘Marriage isn’t what you wanted when you came here,’ he told her quietly. ‘I know that. Just as I know you gave me a thousand reasons why it was insane. But we’re married now and those reasons don’t matter. You don’t matter. I don’t matter. All that matters is our baby. And that he or she has the childhood, the life that you had. Not the one that I had.’
‘How would I know that much about your childhood?’ she bit back. ‘I saw a little but my father kept his confidences. Mostly, I know the rumours from the press. Now I’m your wife. But how can I begin to really understand?’
He had no intention of answering, certainly not in a way that invited investigation of his life, but suddenly he heard himself speaking.
‘What do you want to know?’
‘You would tell me?’ Wide, round eyes pinned him down. It was all he could to get a response out.
‘Ask.’
She visibly deflated. Her anger seeped out of her and into the ether so suddenly it was though it had never existed. Still, he wasn’t prepared for her fingers to suddenly reach out and skim his cheek.