But he shut his eyes and went to sleep.
CHAPTER EIGHT
He went to sleep!
He burst into her apartment, pinned her to her bed—and fell asleep!
Mariah twisted beneath his arm and edged back to lie watching Rhys now.
He looked exhausted. Drained. There were dark shadows under his eyes and a drawn look on his face, even in sleep. Where had he come from? How long had he been traveling?
And what on earth compelled a man who didn’t want to be bothered to come from… from… wherever just to boss her around?
Surely Sierra wouldn’t have really carried through with her threat to emasculate his brother!
She might have tried, Mariah thought with a wry smile. But Mariah had met Dominic Wolfe. He was not a man to be easily intimidated—even by a purple-haired virago.
Perhaps Dominic had strong-armed Rhys into it. Yes. Very likely that was it.
Dominic Wolfe had an enormous sense of family responsibility. He worked in the family business, dealt with his bossy, pushy father, took his lumps, and kept coming back—all for the good of the family.
She knew that, long ago, he’d even been going to marry to please his father, not himself.
She didn’t know much more about it than that because Rhys didn’t tell many tales. But he had said that Dominic took his duty to his family very seriously.
Obviously he thought Rhys should do likewise.
And so, clearly, did Sierra.
Mariah didn’t think her sister had ever met Rhys’s brother. She hadn’t thought Sierra even knew who he was.
Apparently she’d found out. Sierra, when she made up her mind, could move heaven and earth to accomplish something. Once she’d made up her mind to find Rhys, she would have done so—any way she could.
Mariah sighed. She should have known her sister wouldn’t have given up when she’d shut up about needing to find Rhys. She’d had too many other things on her mind, too many important things—like the health and well-being of her children—to pay attention to her sister.
She should have tied Sierra to a chair.
“Yeah, you and whose army?” she murmured.
“Mmm? Huh?” Rhys muttered now in his sleep. He tucked his hand around her middle possessively. As if it belonged there. As if she belonged to him.
Mariah felt her throat tighten. She swallowed hard against the lump that formed there. “Damn,” she muttered softly, her lips inches from Rhys’s. “Oh, damn. Why did you have to come back?”
How could she fight him when she had no strength left?
“G’sleep,” Rhys murmured.
She shouldn’t.
But she couldn’t help it. Mariah sighed and settled back against him, letting the curve of his body cradle hers. His hand eased away from her abdomen and pressed lightly against her breasts.
She reached for it, took it in hers and drew it to her lips. Then once more she tucked it against her belly.
And then she, too, slept.
The first hint of sunlight peeking in the window woke him.
It happened like that sometimes, when his internal clock became so befuddled it didn’t know where he was or what time it was. It relied on the sun then and woke him no matter how long he had—or hadn’t—been asleep.
It happened that way now. And Rhys had no idea where he was or why—until he rolled over and bumped against the warm body of a woman.
His eyes flickered open. And then he remembered—and wished he hadn’t.
Because the woman was Mariah. And he was in her bed.
It came back to him then.
Dominic’s phone call. His own call to his boss, his dash to the airport, cooling his heels in London, worrying, wondering… and finally his arrival last night.
He’d never been so glad to see anybody up and around and looking reasonably healthy and still very, very pregnant in his life.
He hadn’t wanted to worry about her. But he had.
He would, he was sure now—until these babies were safely born. Until Mariah was through this pregnancy. Until, however much it changed, she had her life back.
It was up to him to see that that happened.
Then he could back off. Then he could walk away.
But, right now, this wasn’t about him.
It was about her.
Her. Mariah. He lifted up on one elbow so he could see her better in the dim morning light. There were dark circles under her eyes. Her normally rosy cheeks looked pale—the way they’d looked when she’d taken a whiff of that fish.
It wasn’t fish causing this. It was stress—too much worry, too much work, too much of everything, from what little Dominic had told him.
Well, Rhys could take care of that. He could take care of her.
He would do his bit—exactly as he’d promised he would. He’d see her through this.
Then he would go.
* * * * *
“I don’t know why you want to come to the doctor with me,” Mariah grumbled. She was trying to put on her shoes, a major challenge when she couldn’t even see her feet— but she looked up long enough to flick a glance in his direction, one designed to communicate her wish that he would just go away.
Of course, he didn’t move. He’d been sitting in that chair ever since she’d opened her eyes, and it seemed as if he was watching her every move. She finally retreated into the bathroom to dress. But she still felt awkward and ill-at-ease.
And, oh, damn, why didn’t he just leave?
“I want to find out what he thinks,” Rhys said reasonably. As if it were reasonable to suddenly drop into her pregnancy after seven and a half months and act as if he cared!
Mariah didn’t want him to care!
Well, no, that wasn’t quite true. She did want him to care. But for the right reasons—for reasons of love and a genuine desire to be with her—and their children—for the rest of their lives.
That wasn’t why he was here.
He’d already explained why he was here. “Because you need me,” he’d said.
And all the arguing in the world hadn’t changed his mind on that.
Well, maybe the doctor would. She dared to hope.
But she found out an hour and a half later that the doctor was no use at all. In fact, he and Rhys seemed determined to complicate her life even more.
The doctor was delighted to meet him.
About time, his expression said when Rhys introduced himself as the father of her children and said he was concerned about what was happening.
In the beginning of her pregnancy, the doctor had asked questions about Rhys’s medical history, but once he’d asked if the babies’ father was going to be “involved,” and she’d said no, he’d been discreet and polite, unintrusive and nonjudgmental.
Apparently that didn’t preclude his being thrilled at the notion that Rhys was behaving in the time-honored role of the arrogant-male-taking-charge at last.
He shooed Rhys out while he checked Mariah over, nodding and muttering to himself. Then he called Rhys in again and spelled everything out.
“She needs total rest,” the doctor said to him, just as if Mariah wasn’t there. “No stairs. No lifting over twenty pounds. No climbing on ladders or lugging groceries. She needs to sit back, put her feet up and be waited on twenty-four hours a day.”
“I do not!” Mariah objected.
But the doctor, warming to his task, went right on. “She needs lots of TLC because if she doesn’t get it these babies are going to come early and that won’t be good.”
“She’ll get it,” Rhys vowed.
“I am getting it,” Mariah said.
“My brother has a place out on Long Island, about an hour from here,” Rhys told the doctor. “I’ll take her out there.”
“You will not,” Mariah said.
“All one level. Right on the beach. About ten minutes from the local hospital. Not that I expect it will be necessary.”
“Sounds perfect,” said her doctor
.
“She’ll get a lot of rest. And I won’t let her do anything stupid.”
Mariah glared at Rhys. “The stupidest thing I ever did was—”
“Thanks very much,” Rhys said to the doctor, cutting Mariah right off. “Pleasure to meet you.”
“You, too.” They shook hands like old friends. “I want to see her again in two weeks.”
“I don’t need—” Mariah began.
But the doctor was already gone.
“I’m not going out to any house of your brother’s,” Mariah told Rhys sharply as they went out through the waiting room.
He waited until they were out on the street before answering. “Yes,” he said. “You are.”
She wasn’t. But she wasn’t going to argue with him about it. They rode back to the apartment in silence. Mariah kept her arms folded across the top of her belly. They bounced a little because one of the babies was giving her plenty of kicks.
She hoped Rhys didn’t notice. She slanted a glance his way, but it was hard to tell if he was noticing or not. He had sunglasses on and his eyes were hidden. She wished she knew what he was thinking, then thought it was better that she didn’t. She doubted he’d be thinking anything she wanted to know.
He didn’t speak until they got out of the taxi. She headed right up the steps while he paid the driver. If he wanted to come along, line, he could pay the fare. She was just opening the door when he caught up with her and took her by the arm.
“Didn’t you listen?” he demanded.
“You mean while you two talked right over the top of me?”
“While the doctor talked about what you need to do— and not do. Like climb stairs.”
“I live upstairs!”
“Not anymore.”
“What?” She stared at him, flabbergasted.
“No stairs. That’s what he said. That’s one reason we’re going out to Dominic’s.”
“We’re not going—”
“I thought you wanted these babies.” He took off his sunglasses now and looked her square in the face.
Mariah, frowning, took a step back and folded her arms protectively over her belly. “Of course I want them!”
“Then stop being so damn pigheaded. You can’t do what you’ve been doing, Mariah.”
“That doesn’t mean I have to go to your brother’s.”
“Well, I suppose we could check into a hotel.”
“We could not!” Staying in a hotel was a ridiculous idea. It was prohibitively expensive for one thing, and totally absurd when there were other alternatives. “Chloe—”
“Chloe and Gib have a baby of their own. They don’t need to be taking you on.”
“Finn and Izzy—”
“Have to climb stairs, too.”
“Sierra—”
Rhys just stared at her stonily. They both knew Sierra’s fifth-floor walk-up was out of the question.
“I’m not your responsibility,” she told him.
He met her gaze, then his lowered to focus on her belly. “They are,” he said. “I got you into this, Mariah,” he said firmly. “I’m going to see you through it.”
Through it. As if they were in some sort of endurance contest. A battle. Something that they would get to the other side of.
Well, she supposed that was the way he saw it.
He tipped her chin up with one finger so that they looked at each other again. “Do it for the children, Mariah.”
The children. His children. Someday all she would have left of him.
She drew a breath, then sighed. “All right.”
He called Dominic and told him he needed the house. It was the house they’d all grown up in and which Dominic had bought from their father two years ago when the old man ostensibly retired and took himself off to Florida. Their father seemed to be in the city now more than when he’d been officially head of Wolfe Enterprises. But when he was here he preferred to stay in a pied-a-terre in Sutton Place.
“Sure.” His brother agreed at once. “Is she… all right?”
“She’s fine,” Rhys said tersely. “She just needs rest. She’s having twins.”
“The old man will be—”
“Left out of this. You will not say a word.”
“But—”
“No.”
“So you’re just going to turn your back on ’em?”
“Does it look like I’m turning my back on them?”
“If you won’t tell the old man—”
“I’ll tell the old man sometime. When I’m good and ready.” When I know he won’t he pushing a wedding down my throat. Because that was exactly what he’d try to do if he found out. And Rhys didn’t want a wedding. He didn’t want ties.
“Have it your way,” Dominic said, but there was a note of disapproval in his voice.
Rhys ignored it. He had other things to think about.
He made Mariah go down to his place and rest. “I’ll pack for you.”
She started to protest, then shrugged. He was glad. It meant she understood and would go along with what he was trying to do. “Go watch TV or take a nap,” he told her. “We can leave after rush hour.”
“I can make dinner,” she said.
“Order something,” he replied. “Sit down, put your feet up. Doctor’s orders. Got that?”
He made sure she was sitting, with the TV on and a book in her hands, before he went upstairs and let himself into her place.
It seemed odd to be there without her. Echoey. Lonely. He went back to her bedroom and began going through her drawers and her closet, picking out clothes for her to wear. He picked the baggiest sweatshirts and trousers with stretchy paneled fronts. He got her bathrobe and her toiletries. He poked through her closet looking for a warm winter jacket and coat. It was November already and the wind would be sharp by the sea.
He found a long wool coat and a hip-length bulky quilted jacket hanging next to a dress he remembered well. It was flame-red, a low-cut silk dress she’d worn to the Christmas party at Finn and Izzy’s last year.
He ran his hand over it, remembering that he’d touched it then when they’d danced together. He’d found himself looking down her neckline that night, aware of her breasts, aware of Mariah as a very attractive woman. He lifted it out of the closet now. It was so narrow, so sleek-looking. The Mariah he’d seen at the doctor’s today couldn’t come close to fitting in it.
He wondered if she ever would. She’d lost her figure to those babies, to the seed he’d put in her. He rubbed his fingers over the silk again and shook his head.
He wondered that she didn’t hate him for it.
She didn’t like him much, that was clear. She’d been prickly and grumpy since he’d got home. Of course, given the shape she was in, he couldn’t see any reason to expect anything different.
He’d just have to make it up to her. Take care of her, like the doc said. See that she got the rest she needed, see that the babies didn’t come until they were supposed to.
And after?
He didn’t think about that.
* * * * *
Mariah wasn’t used to being pampered.
She wasn’t used to having someone wait on her, do for her, fetch for her, bring her hot milk at night and, in the morning, breakfast in bed.
But that was what happened.
Rhys’s brother’s house was on the south shore of Long Island. It sat on a grassy knoll overlooking the beach and the Atlantic Ocean. It was a low clapboard house with French doors that opened onto a flagstone deck just steps from the sand. It was an old, comfortable family home, not at all what she would have expected of a hard-driving businessman like Rhys’s brother Dominic.
She said so and learned that it was the home where Rhys had grown up. That made her look around avidly, at the same time that she told herself she shouldn’t. He didn’t want to get involved with her. He was only taking care of her because he felt responsible, and it wouldn’t do her any good to find more reasons to care about him.
>
But it was hard not to find them. Especially since he seemed determined every moment to be at her beck and call. He put her in the biggest bedroom. It now belonged to Dominic, but it had once been his parents’. Their wedding picture was still on the wall.
Mariah couldn’t help looking at it, couldn’t help wishing…
She tried not to. She tried not to look around, tried not to ask for anything.
But Rhys seemed to read her mind. He settled her in the bedroom, grabbed his brother’s clothes out of the top two dresser drawers and put her few things in there instead. He brought in a box of books that he’d gathered from her living room and bedroom and he set them in a row on a shelf by the bed.
“I wasn’t sure which you were reading and which you’d already read, so I brought ’em all,” he said.
She smiled her thanks.
He handed her the remote and showed her how to use it to turn on the television and the stereo in the bedroom. “So you don’t even have to get up.”
He pointed out the intercom speaker by the bed. “If you need something, you just push the button and talk. I can hear you wherever I am in the house, and I’ll get it.”
She stared at him, astonished.
“You don’t have to move,” he told her.
“I’ll go crazy,” she said.
He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and seemed to seriously consider this possibility. “You can go out on the deck on the afternoons that it’s sunny,” he decided.
“Thanks,” Mariah muttered.
“Can I get you something to eat?” They’d eaten Chinese before they’d left the city, but now it was past ten and that had been a while ago.
Mariah looked at him narrowly, wondering how far he would go. “Pizza?” she said. “With anchovies and Canadian bacon and sauerkraut?”
Rhys swallowed, then nodded. “You got it.”
She didn’t know where he got it, but half an hour later she heard the doorbell ring, and a few minutes after that he came in bearing a pizza, two plates and two glasses of milk.
She blinked her astonishment when the pizza turned out to have exactly what she’d ordered. She blinked again when Rhys ate three pieces. He licked his fingers after, then downed a glass of the milk.
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