One Night With Morelli (14 page)

She scrunched her brow, trying to remember if the supermarket on the corner stayed open twenty-four seven and, if they did, did they stock pregnancy-test kits?

‘Look, I’d invite you in for coffee but I’m a bit tired.’

Mark nodded, kissed her cheek, then hugged her. Eve planted a reciprocal kiss on his clean-shaven cheek and hugged him back.

‘You will come to Charlford to visit, won’t you? Amy is longing to meet you. The place is upside down as she’s ripping out and tearing down everything that reminds her of Dad—she always said he made her skin crawl. But after I found out about you… She says the best way we can punish him is by having good lives.’

‘Amy sounds…I’d love…’ Her voice trailed away.

Mark, his hand on her shoulder, turned to follow the direction of her wide-eyed, shocked stare. He turned just in time to see the fist that a moment later connected with his jaw and sent him sprawling.

With a cry Eve was on her knees beside her brother. ‘Mark, are you all right?’

Holding his jaw, Mark shook his head. ‘Fine. He took me by surprise, that’s all.’ The glazed expression in his green eyes was replaced by one of anger as he looked up at the tall man who stood over them. It was mixed with a healthy helping of fear as the man was big in a lean, athletic way, a real tough customer.

‘What the hell are you doing, Draco?’ Eve demanded, fitting a clean tissue to the blood seeping from the corner of her brother’s mouth as she sat back on her heels to glare up at him.

The red haze that had descended when Draco had seen the guy touch Eve’s cheek and then tenderly embrace her was slowly receding, leaving an anger that was equally lethal but as cold as surgical steel.

‘I would ask you the same question but it’s very obvious,’ he bit out.

‘Oh, I am so,
so
sorry, Mark.’

Mark took the tissue from her.

‘And he’s sorry too, aren’t you, Draco…?’ Eve said.

‘No.’

The unequivocal response drew a glare from Eve, who lifted her head to tell him exactly what she thought of him but he was gone… She turned her head to see him walking away down the street. ‘Stay there and don’t move,’ she said to Mark. Her jaw tightened with determination. ‘I have something I need to do.’

Mark caught her arm. ‘Leave it, Eve. The guy is dangerous.’

Eve let out a scornful snort. ‘I’m not scared of him!’ she declared.

He was walking and she was running but it took her fifty yards before she caught up with Draco. As she drew level with him she caught his arm.

She was panting to catch her breath as Draco swung back, his lips curled in a snarl, his eyes as cold as ice chips.

Her eyes searched his lean face. ‘Are you mad?’

One corner of his mouth lifted in a sneer. ‘Not any more.’ For weeks he had fought the knowledge that he loved her, then finally admitted that he was afraid. He’d felt he had moved forward when in reality it turned out he’d been right all along. Loving someone always ended badly.

His cryptic reply just added another layer to all the other layers of confusion in her head—him being here when she knew he was in the States, his attack on Mark, his attitude now as he looked at her as though she were something unpleasant he had stepped in. She was too shocked to be angry or even hurt.

‘You’re not even here.’ Stupid thing to say, Eve, she told herself as her eyes travelled the long, lean length of his broad-shouldered, muscle-packed frame, seeing but still not quite believing he was here. That this was happening.

‘Yes, I can see how that might be inconvenient for you,’ he drawled.

There was a heavy beat of silence as she waited, fully anticipating that any second now a light would go on in her brain and she’d understand what was happening. But there was no light, just the aftertaste from the acid bite of his sarcasm. She saw his hands clench into fists, and the tension that was rolling off him in waves had a physical presence.

‘What are you doing here?’ If she could work that out maybe the rest would fall into place but, no, it wouldn’t, because nothing would explain him hitting Mark and nothing, she thought, feeling a stab of anger, would excuse it.

His jaw clenched as he realised he’d nearly made the mistake of his life. ‘Spoiling your evening. I suppose you do know he’s married.’

Her green eyes still shocked and glazed like someone who had just been jolted out of a trance, she blinked. She followed the direction of the sharp, contemptuous movement of Draco’s head to where her half-brother had got to his feet and was walking towards them.

‘Mark? Yes, I know.’

Forehead furrowed, she tried to figure this out. What was the relevance of Mark’s marriage? Did he know her half-brother? Was there some sort of feud between them, though she had not imagined until now that Draco was the sort of man who resolved feuds with his fists. Up to this point she had only seen Draco be controlled and cool, the last man in the world she had imagined losing control. Not that he didn’t have a passionate nature, but outside the bedroom he kept those passions on a tight leash.

She was relieved to see that her half-brother seemed all right, no thanks to Draco. Worried for his safety if he followed after her, she waved her hand and yelled, ‘No, Mark, it’s fine.’ The last thing she wanted was to be in the middle of a brawl.

Had Draco thought she was in danger? The idea might have worked if he hadn’t walked away immediately afterwards, and if it hadn’t been for that look he’d given her, the coruscating contempt in his eyes in that last dismissive glare…

Turning back to Draco, she said in a fierce voice, ‘You lay a finger on him, you bully, and I’ll…just don’t…’ She expelled a shaky sigh. ‘You hit him, you really hit him!’ That part still didn’t seem real; none of this seemed real.

She knew the man was married and she had been totally brazen about it. Draco searched Eve’s face for some sign, some little spark of guilt, and saw none…nothing. How could he have got it so wrong?

Mark reached them, the bruises already coming out on one side of his face, the sight of which made Eve feel sick. She moved to stand between the two men. ‘Leave him alone,’ she warned again.

Draco’s jaw clenched at her protective gesture. ‘I’m curious…is it the title?’

Eve blinked. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Is that the attraction?’ He slid a look of smouldering contempt Mark’s way and she felt her brother take an involuntary step back. Eve for one didn’t blame him. Draco was being positively intimidating! ‘Or do pretty blond boys do it for you now?’

‘Pretty?’ What on earth…? Mark, he meant Mark, who was not pretty, but definitely handsome, in a much less aggressively masculine way than Draco. When illumination came it was dazzling, and with total clarity she finally realised what Draco had seen—or rather what he thought he had seen.

Draco thought that he had caught her in an assignation with a lover!

Ignoring Mark’s restraining hand, she stepped forward, her hand extended towards Draco.

‘Or does your deceitful little soul enjoy the illicit thrill of sneaking around?’ Draco accused.

Her hand fell away.

The shocked hurt in her eyes made him pause, anger, guilt and jealousy twisting inside him, but only briefly. Had she considered his feelings when she got into bed with his pretty lordship? She had zero loyalty and did she ever consider anyone’s feelings but her own? He’d seen qualities in her that weren’t there, the same way he’d felt a deeper bond where there wasn’t one. There was just sex, as she’d always insisted.

‘Or is it just a case of like mother, like daughter? Where is your father in all of this?’

Eve was not even conscious she had raised her hand until the whiplash crack made her jump back in shock. Only she hadn’t jumped; Mark had pulled her back after she’d slapped Draco across the face.

Mark held her back with a protective arm, anger making him feel brave as he faced Draco. ‘He’s dead. Her father is dead;
our
father is dead.’

Draco froze, the blood draining from his face as his gaze moved between the two faces staring back at him with similar expressions of disgust and loathing.

‘He’s your brother? Charlford was your father?’ he said in a strangled voice. He was struggling to take in the information as panic slid through his body, freezing his brain. He had messed up big time! ‘I thought…’

‘You thought that I was cheating on you and you also implied that my mother has questionable morals,’ Eve said coldly.

‘I didn’t say that!’

Even as he protested he realised that it didn’t matter what he said; there was no going back. She would never forgive him—he had insulted her mother, and he’d punched a man…her brother!

She was looking at him with loathing in her beautiful eyes and he deserved it.

The shame of having lost the control he prided himself on, the shame of acting like some sort of Neanderthal was a bitter taste in his mouth, and the words he wanted to say wouldn’t come. Maybe that was for the best. So far what he’d said had only made things worse.

‘As good as!’ she charged furiously. ‘I’m really glad I discovered before it was too late what an intolerant, evil-minded jerk you are!’

His lean profile clenched. She was saying nothing that he didn’t deserve. The furious jealousy he had felt when he saw Eve appear with another man had ripped away any claim he had to being civilised. He had never experienced anything like it before, and he never wanted to again.

‘Well?’

He arched a brow and said quietly, ‘What am I meant to say?’

‘Sorry?’ she suggested in an icy voice.

‘I am sorry,’ he said, including Mark in his response.

‘Is that meant to make things better?’ she shrilled, not to be placated. ‘I never want to see you again ever!’ she yelled wildly, then, grabbing her brother’s arm, she stalked off towards the entrance to her building, not pausing until they were in the communal foyer. ‘Is he coming?’ she asked her brother through clenched teeth, adding urgently, ‘Don’t look!’

Mark, who was already looking, turned back. ‘Don’t worry, he isn’t coming. He’s gone.’

Eve expelled a long shuddering sigh. ‘Gone?’ she parroted blankly.

‘Yes.’

Mark’s smile died as his sister burst into tears.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

S
ITTING
AT
HER
desk as Draco walked into the office, his PA beckoned him wildly. ‘It’s him!’

‘I’ll take it in my office.’ He didn’t ask who the him was; there was only one person he had seen make his unflappable middle-aged secretary blush and that was Kamel, the Prince of Surana. He’d be lucky if he got any work out of her for the rest of the day, he thought sourly.

‘Hello, Kamel. What can I do for you?’

‘Grow a pair.’

It was an answer that only a good friend could have uttered, but even so the harsh suggestion made Draco’s eyebrows rise dramatically. ‘Have I done something to upset you?’

‘You’ve done something to upset my wife, which amounts to the same thing. No, actually, it’s worse.’

Draco, who could only recall having exchanged half a dozen words with the princess at her father’s wedding or at the charity evening, waited for an explanation.

‘Eve is Hannah’s best friend, Draco. They’re sisters now! Your name is a dirty word in our home. What the hell is wrong with you, man? Eve is a… Actually, this is none of my business.’

‘You’re ringing to tell me it’s none of your business or that I’m a loser?’ Kamel wouldn’t be the only one. Josie had stopped asking him about Eve but he could see the disappointment and disapproval in her eyes every time she looked at him.

His best friend, his daughter… Was there a message in there he ought to be hearing…? No, Eve had made her feelings very clear, and, even if he did jump through hoops to get her back, who was to say it wouldn’t happen again? There was a limit to how often a man could reinvent himself. He was who he was and if she didn’t like him warts and all what was the point?

The point is you’re lo… No, he wouldn’t even allow himself to think the word. His life was full, busy, and
loneliness
was a state of mind reserved for people who indulged in self-pity.

‘Both, but, no, I’m ringing you regardless, and God knows I hope I’m doing the right thing here… You know Hannah is pregnant?’

‘Congratulations.’

He heard the hissing sound of exasperation echo down the line at the interruption. ‘The thing is the doctors won’t allow her to travel right now and I’m not leaving her.’

An icy fist suddenly reached into his chest. ‘Has something happened to Eve?’ On his feet, he dragged a hand through his hair and thought, I should be with her.

‘Not Eve, no, not in that way.’

‘Eve is all right, isn’t she? She’s not hurt or ill or…’

‘Eve is well. It’s her mother, Sarah, who’s been rushed to hospital. We’ve had Charlie on the phone and the man is totally distraught, falling to pieces, as I would be in his place. Sarah has been admitted with severe pre-eclampsia.’

The medical term rang a warning bell in Draco’s mind. ‘That’s bad?’

‘Very bad,’ the other man confirmed. ‘Apparently they’re going to deliver the baby early to give her a fighting chance.’

‘Charlie told you this?’

‘No, Eve did. She took the phone off him and it was just as well as he was sobbing and not making much sense. Hannah is worried sick about Eve, her father, and Sarah, and she feels guilty as hell she can’t get there and she’s mad at me because I won’t leave her and come over to take control of the situation. There’s no question that my place is here with her, but if I could tell her someone is there with Eve, and that she isn’t alone coping with it all…?’

Draco’s jaw tightened. ‘I’m the last person Eve would want there.’

‘This isn’t about you.’

The comment hit Draco with the force of a below-the-belt kick delivered with perfect accuracy.

It was something he had needed to hear. He’d been going through the motions for weeks, telling himself that he was better off alone, but what about Eve, what was best for her? Eve might not want him in her life and the choice was hers, but,
Dio
, he would be a fool not to try to convince her to change her mind. But that was for the future. The priority now was to be there for her, take some of the burden off her slender shoulders.

Halfway out of the door, his keys in his hand, Draco said to Kamel, ‘I’m on my way.’ He was about to toss the phone to his secretary when he realised he didn’t know where he was going. ‘What hospital?’

Every second of the record-breaking fifty-mile journey Draco sat with his jaw clenched and his hands white knuckled on the wheel. He tortured himself with imagined images of Eve alone in pain and distress, having to cope with a disaster that was a whisper away from being a tragedy and having a man far too heavy use her as an emotional prop.

Her mother being in a critical condition was not his fault but everything else could legitimately be placed at his door. His friend thought he was a fool and he was right. If Draco had not been a total fool he’d have been there with Eve right now and she wouldn’t be facing this
alone. Alone…
The word kept reverberating through his head.

Well, she wouldn’t face anything alone again.

He was going to be there for her whether she wanted him or not. He was not going to let her out of his sight and, short of a restraining order, she couldn’t stop him.

That’s right, Draco, just bulldoze your way in because that has worked so well so far! How about showing a bit of humility, saying sorry and letting Eve decide if she wants you there? he told himself.

She’d sent him away but it had been pride and fear of rejection that had stopped him asking her for a second chance. His mouth twisted into a grimace of self-disgust as he caught a glimpse of himself in the rear-view mirror.

‘You gutless wonder, Draco.’

She was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

The hospital was a maze of corridors but he finally found someone who could, if not answer his questions, at least show him a visitor’s room. The nurse’s grave face did not send out a positive message.

If anything had happened to her mother Eve would need a lot of support. It hurt to admit he might not be the person she wanted at such a time, but had anyone contacted her brother?

‘Mr Morelli?’

Draco stopped pacing and turned his critical glance on the white-coated doctor who had entered the room. He stifled the impulse to demand to be taken to Eve immediately and tipped his head in acknowledgement.

‘Is there any news?’

‘You’re family?’

It took a supreme effort but despite his frustration at the delay Draco showed no offence at the question. ‘I am Draco Morelli. Eve Curtis is my fiancée.’

The younger man’s face cleared as he offered a hand. ‘Sorry about that but we had an incident earlier. Some enterprising reporter got wind of this and got as far as outside Recovery dressed as a porter.’

‘Blood-sucking vampires.’

The medic responded to this heartfelt observation with a nod of his head. ‘Unfortunately Mr Latimer’s own security overreacted to the situation and we have also had to exclude them. I’m George Robinson, part of Mr Stirling’s team. I’ll get a nurse to show you to the SCBU. Miss Curtis is with her brother.’

‘A boy?’

The doctor nodded. ‘Very small, as you’d expect, but his condition is stable. It is the mother we are more concerned about at this juncture.’

In the special care baby unit and feeling very much out of his comfort zone, Draco nodded his thanks when given a gown to put on, and, after washing his hands, he was shown the way to a glass-panelled side room.

The nurse who escorted him was speaking, something comforting, he thought, but Draco, who nodded absently at intervals, was only catching one word in three. His heart nearly stopped when he saw Eve through the glass sitting side on to the door. She was enveloped in the same sort of gown he was wearing, but on her it reached the floor. As he stared she reached forward, her eyes trained on the tiny scrap of humanity in the incubator, attached to tubes and wires that bleeped. The baby appeared smaller than Eve’s hand, and the loving expression on her face as she gently touched her finger to the baby’s thin cheek brought a film of moisture to his eyes.

Eve heard the nurse enter but didn’t take her eyes off the tiny figure in the incubator. Babies should be plump and pink but her baby brother was tiny and wizened, his skin shiny. It looked so fragile that she was afraid to touch him even though they had said that the contact was good for the baby.

‘Sorry I let the tea go cold.’ Logically she knew the baby couldn’t hear her, that his sleep was controlled by the drugs being fed into him and the machines that breathed for him, but she struggled to raise her voice above a whisper. ‘He’s not in pain, is he?’ It didn’t seem possible that the tubes protruding from his fragile little body could not cause him pain.

Slowly Eve withdrew her hand and turned her head, her eyes widening when she saw him.

Draco had anticipated many reactions from her and he had as many responses ready. He knew the one he should have used six weeks ago—
he was staying
. But it was the reaction he had
not
anticipated and that he was not prepared for that was the one he actually got.

Something else he was not prepared for was the strength of the feelings that broke loose inside him at the sight of her. She looked so vulnerable and so beautiful that in that second he knew he would have died to save her a moment’s pain.

Far better, though, to live for her.

She looked like someone in a trance as she got to her feet, not shouting at him, not rejecting him, but with a tremulous smile on her face and a glow in her green eyes made even more dramatic by the dark shadows beneath them that sent a surge of relief through him.

‘You’re really here?’ It was like a dream but the past few hours…Eve had no idea how many…had been a complete nightmare.

Unconscious he had said her name, Draco took a stride towards her and with a cry she flung herself at him, her arms going around his middle as her face burrowed into his chest. Draco did the only thing possible: he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in close to his body as she sobbed and clung to him.

‘Just came to say I’m off duty if you—’ The midwife, nodding with benevolent approval, took the emotional scene in her stride, having seen many, and left them to it.

‘Sorry,’ Eve mumbled into his chest. The sobs that had shaken her had stopped but she stayed where she was, leaning heavily into him and unable to summon the strength or the will power to pull free. ‘I missed you.’

It was only because the hand stroking her hair stilled that she registered belatedly what she had said. She lifted her head, too tired to be appalled by what she had admitted and, with her hands flat against his chest, pushed away until she was standing a few feet clear. Head tilted to one side like a curious bird, she angled a cautious look at his face.

Draco stood there holding the red ribbon she had hastily tied her hair back with when she had got the call in the middle of the night; it looked incongruous in his fingers. Unable to shake the idea that if she looked away he’d vanish, her eyes clung to his face, which was crazy. He wasn’t a mirage, he was real, and her body reacted to the reality by coming alive… Her nerve endings tingled and her heart began to thud hard.

Draco’s presence filled any room he entered, but in this antiseptically white box it was overwhelming but also intensely comforting. She had been feeling desperately alone, unable to stop the negative thoughts filling her head, and weighed down by a terrible sense of impending doom.

And now she wasn’t alone… She pressed her hand to her stomach, thinking she was never alone and never would be again. Not the time, not the place, though, so
very
not the place to mention the new life growing inside her when another new life so close by was clinging on so tenaciously to his.

If she hadn’t known before, the past few hours had brought home dramatically to her how precious the life she carried was, and how terrifyingly vulnerable. She had never had more admiration than she did now for her own mother, who had carried that responsibility of motherhood alone, had brought her up all by herself.

She would tell her—if she got the chance.

Her lips trembled as she felt tears press at the backs of her eyes. ‘My mum might die, Draco.’

The fear shining in her eyes pierced him deeper than a blade. The muscles in his throat worked and the rush of tenderness he felt was so strong it took his breath away. He would have given anything to be able to tell her that nothing bad would happen to her ever again.

He touched the side of her face gently, his fingers brushing over the peachy softness of her smooth cheek before he captured both her hands in his. Drawing them up, he placed them against his chest.

‘Why assume the worst when the best could still happen? Your mother is in the best place and you torturing yourself like this is not helping her, is it?’

Eve swallowed. ‘You’re right, I know, but—’

‘It isn’t my mother.’

‘No, it’s just this place is…’ She looked around the room filled with the hum and mechanical bleep of the machines that were monitoring her brother.

‘What you need is a break,’ he said firmly.

‘You can’t help yourself, can you?’ she said.

He was taking charge again, she thought with a small inward smile. But this time, rather than displaying his usual unstoppable energy, the lines bracketing his mouth were deeper, and those fanning from his incredible eyes were more sharply defined, and his cheekbones pushed tighter than she remembered against his bronzed skin.

‘You look tired,’ she exclaimed, then winced. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that out loud.’

You look beautiful, he thought. ‘Hannah sends her love.’

Eve gave a tiny smile and tipped her head in acknowledgement. Hannah’s love was good, but it was Draco’s love she needed, Draco’s love she craved, Draco’s love she woke up in the middle of the night feeling the lack of like a big black hole in her chest.

* * *

Draco couldn’t take his eyes off Eve. There had been moments when he had pictured her pining for him, regretting sending him away. But if she had been missing him it didn’t show. Of course the day had left lines of strain around her lovely eyes and soft purple bruises under her eyes but her skin was glowing with health and her magnificent hair was gleaming and glossy.