“You can tell her I’ll be there at nine.”
“Don’t forget the silver chain.”
“I won’t.”
She nodded, not so much as glancing at him.
Quin could feel his jaw tightening, his hands clenching. He had to battle the instinct to fight. There was no physical conflict between him and Nicole. It was mental, emotional, and laying out his side of the past tonight was not enough to remove the hurt of being consigned to a secondary role in his life. She might very well be thinking that their daughter now had first place. He hadn’t brought up marriage before meeting Zoe.
Bad timing.
It had always been bad timing with Nicole.
He needed to make a new plan to win her over.
His car was waiting at the entrance to the hotel lobby. The doorman ushered them over to it and opened the passenger side for Nicole to get in. She stepped forward quickly, lowering herself onto the seat and fastening her safety belt, keeping her head averted from Quin.
Tomorrow is another day, he told himself, reining in his frustration with the current situation as the doorman closed Nicole into the car and he rounded the bonnet to take the driver’s seat. He started the engine, but before accelerating away from the hotel he shot a glance at Nicole, wanting to catch her looking at him. She wasn’t. Her thick lashes were lowered but they couldn’t quite catch the tears that were trickling through them, making shiny wet tracks down her cheeks.
Shock ripped through Quin.
In all the time he’d known her he’d never seen her in tears, and the certain knowledge that he must have caused them appalled him.
What had he said to give her grief?
What had he done?
His mind was in absolute tumult as he automatically manoeuvred the Audi back onto the route to Burwood. It was impossible to shake the image of Nicole sitting miserably alone, sad and defeated by forces that were beyond her control—forces that made her feel terribly vulnerable—no way out because he was Zoe’s father.
There was no use arguing he didn’t want to hurt her. He had in the past. A promise that it would be different this time probably sounded like empty words to her. Why should she believe it, given her past experience with him when he’d concentrated solely on his needs?
Words were useless.
Taking her to bed with him was useless, too. That was the same as before.
The thirteenth night…
He had to change what was happening on their nights together, show Nicole it was different. He could arrange a dinner party, invite not just his friends but hers, too, like the couple he’d met at the Havana Club, Jade and Jules Zilic. Involving other people might get Nicole to relax more in his company, and drawing her into his social circle would prove he wanted her by his side for more than just sex—his woman—his wife!
He heard a siren wailing and immediately checked his speedometer, aware that he hadn’t done so and they’d been on Parramatta Road for some time without much traffic to slow them down. It was all right. He wasn’t driving above the speed limit. He hadn’t drunk any alcohol, either. Maybe the siren came from an ambulance on its way to an emergency.
If that were the case, he might have to pull over into another traffic lane. The rear-vision mirror didn’t show any vehicle with flashing lights yet the siren was definitely louder now, probably coming from a nearby street. He thought of Zoe, seriously ill with meningitis. Had she been rushed to hospital by ambulance in the middle of the night? He should have been at her side. At Nicole’s side, as well.
It didn’t occur to him to stop at the next intersection. The lights were green. There were cars in front of him, cars behind him. He was thinking of the daughter he hadn’t known about, the years he’d lost, the years ahead of him and how he wanted to spend them.
He didn’t see the car that hurtled straight past the red lights, speeding straight across the intersection towards him until it was too late to take evasive action. There was a split second when he knew it was going to crash into the Audi. Then the impact came and he lost consciousness.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
PAIN.
Nicole struggled against sickening waves of it, a sense of urgency driving her to keep on fighting them, make it through. There was something she had to remember but her head was swimming in a whirlpool and it couldn’t reach the important thing that hovered on the edge. She felt wetness on her face. Panic clutched her heart. Was she drowning?
Her eyes flew open and were hit by a swarm of dots.
Not water.
“Ah! You’re awake,” someone said.