‘I’m done with arguing with you,’ he warned.
‘And I’m finished with you,’ she assured him angrily, struggling in his arms. ‘Will you please let me go?’
‘No,’ he said flatly. ‘This discussion is over.’ And to prove it, he kissed her into silence.
‘No. Luc!’ she said when he finally released her. ‘You can’t get round me this time!’
‘No?’ he queried, kissing her neck.
She shivered and tried to pull away as he rasped his stubble gently against her tender skin. Finally, she rested her hands flat again his chest. ‘You don’t play fair.’
‘No. I don’t,’ he agreed. Running his hands lightly down her back, he whispered, ‘Now we eat.’ He smiled to feel her tremble. Was the disappointment on her face because he’d chosen food over progressing this?
She made an angry sound. ‘Do you really think I’m going to sit down and eat with you?’ Her gaze flashed to the food.
‘You need to eat. I’ll feed you, if I have to,’ he warned.
‘I’m not hungry.’ But her rumbling stomach gave her away.
Her hand felt so small in his as he led her to the sofa, where he told her to sit. This was quite unlike any other encounter he’d ever had with a woman and required a whole new rulebook. Emma was like a wounded animal who had come back home to Scotland, thinking she could avoid the media furore in London surrounding her parents’ death, only to find the uproar was also well rooted here. She had no one to turn to. Her friends were married, or moving away, leaving her to cope with the fact that she was well and truly on her own.
She ate slowly at first, and then ravenously without inhibition. He thought back to another night and a different appetite.
‘What?’ She looked at him, sensing his distraction. ‘Aren’t you going to eat anything? Shall I choose something for you?’
He huffed a small laugh. ‘In the interests of equality, go right ahead.’
Her small gesture touched him. When she passed him the plate of food, he reached out and ran his forefinger lightly down her cheek.
CHAPTER SIX
SHE WANTED TO be angry with Luc, but he made it so difficult. He made it impossible, by being unreasonable one minute and yet so kind the next. She had so many more important things to discuss with him than whether or not they should eat. Until she reminded herself that this quiet interlude was exactly the right time to explain calmly that she was expecting his child.
‘Relax,’ Luc insisted, sensing her sudden tension.
It was so easy to slip back into a fantasy where they were expectant parents, sharing precious time together as they waited for the birth of their longed-for child.
‘Fruit,’ he said, snapping her out of the fantasy. ‘You need to eat fruit for the vitamins, you’re so pale. And you need the chocolate because you like it.’ He slipped a chocolate-coated strawberry between her lips.
How could she not indulge in that fantasy when the man she loved was smiling into her eyes? Yes. She loved him. Crazy. Inconvenient. Fact.
It was crazy because love between them was unlikely in the extreme, and inconvenient because her feelings for Lucas always clouded her mind. ‘Luc, I—’
‘Not now, Emma. We’re going to leave heavy discussions for another time. It’s getting late and you’re still tired. We will find a time to talk, but not tonight. Good?’ he murmured, slipping another berry between her lips.
Everything was good, except for the opportunity to tell him being snatched away, and though Luc’s eyes were warm and amused as he tempted her with the ripe fruit, she got the feeling that he was asking her another question entirely. Luc accepted no boundaries, no restrictions, and he took his freedom, along with the freedom to indulge his smallest whim, for granted. He had an enormous appetite for life that saw him zooming back and forth across the globe. He lived a privileged life she could only imagine. And while their baby meant more than life itself to her, Luc had given her no reason to be confident that he would feel the same. How was he going to take the news that he was about to become a father? ‘I should get dressed.’
Luc’s eyes darkened. ‘Why?’
‘Do I need a reason?’
Angling his chin, his mocking eyes gave her the only answer he was going to give her.
‘I’m going to get dressed.’ She stood, conscious that she was naked beneath the robe. And not just naked but violently aroused. Playful little pulses were throbbing between her legs, while just the abrasion of the material against her super-sensitive nipples was enough to make them pucker and strain towards him. Luc was so physical it was impossible not to respond.