by Abby Green
“And feathers,” she added. “For what it’s worth, it works magnificently.”
“I just bet.” He could feel the laughter bubbling up, and he let it go. When she joined in, he howled even more, mentally envisioning the reigning monarch of Wynborough covered in sticky feathers. Finally, his amusement died away to an occasional chuckle. “Remind me never to get on your sister Serena’s bad side,” he said.
And just that quickly the atmosphere changed. Her face sobered instantly, and she picked up her taco again. “I doubt there will ever be any occasion for you to meet,” she said.
Her attitude got under his skin and before he could restrain himself, he leaned across the tiny table until he was right in her face. “As the father of your child, I’m going to be meeting all of your family eventually.”
“Why should you?” He could tell he’d shaken her, but still she didn’t back down. “It’s not as if we were getting married. We barely know each other.”
Her tone irritated him thoroughly, and her words annoyed him even more. “In case you haven’t figured it out yet, we’re going to get to know each other a whole lot better.”
Four
“Fine. You want us to get to know each other, now it’s your turn.” Elizabeth gestured at him with her taco. He could tell he’d unsettled her when he’d spoken in that tone of voice that told her he meant every word he said, but she clearly didn’t intend to let him think she was just going to listen. God forbid she should make it easy.
“My turn to what?” he asked.
“Tell me about your childhood.”
“I only lived at home for five years before I got shipped off to boarding school,” he said dismissively. “There’s not much to tell.”
Elizabeth set down her food and her green eyes began to flash. “I know evasion when I hear it. This getting-to-know-you bit was your idea to start with, so don’t try to wriggle out of your half of the deal.”
He shrugged. “There really isn’t anything exciting to tell. I was sent to boarding school, went to Eton over in the U.K. from there and eventually to Oxford. That was when I decided to come to the States for further study at Harvard University.”
“You have a brother. I know him.” Elizabeth was prompting him as if he were slightly slow and he sighed, having learned enough about her by now to know she wouldn’t give up—or shut up—until he had satisfied her curiosity.
“Roland. I was nine when he was born. You probably know him better than I ever will. Each of us was raised virtually as an only child.”
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. “I can’t imagine not being close to my family. You must have missed them terribly when you went away to school.”
“No.” When she turned startled green eyes on him, he realized his answer had been too immediate, too final. “My father and I are like oil and water,” he said, shrugging to indicate how little it mattered. “It was a relief to everyone, I’m sure, when I was at school. When I came home on holiday, we only seemed to get on each other’s nerves.” An understatement of the greatest proportion. But there was no reason for her to know the rest. He’d forgotten half of it himself.
She was looking at him speculatively, and he could see that she wasn’t done with the topic. So it was a surprise when she spoke again.
“So what shall we do this afternoon?”
“That depends on you,” he said. “Are you tired? If you’d like to nap, we can go home.” The sound of the phrase struck him forcefully. What would it be like if Elizabeth lived with him? If they really could go home together?
She wouldn’t be napping alone.
The basic truth annoyed him. He wondered how many men thought a pregnant woman was the sexiest thing they’d ever seen.
It was only that his body remembered Elizabeth’s, he assured himself. It was normal to wonder if that first time had become better in retrospect than it had really been. Just because he couldn’t ever remember better sex in his life was no big deal.
Then the significance of the earlier thought drowned out all others. If Elizabeth lived with him…! Where had that come from? True, he fully intended to marry one day, which would certainly entail sharing his home with a wife. But why was it that he could so easily picture his pregnant princess in the role?
Could there be a woman anywhere on the globe less suited to his life-style than a blueblood who’d known luxury every waking moment of her life?
The incongruity of it would be laughable if it wasn’t so damned irritating. He’d spent the better part of his adult life running from his aristocratic status and here he was, about to become a father to a child who would have even more ties to royalty.
He and Elizabeth might not agree on many things, but they’d always be stuck with each other now, all because of his irresponsible behavior. For the rest of his life, he’d have royal ties that could never be broken. That much he was sure of. No child of his would be raised in the rigid, duty-demanding manner that he had been. He intended to be a warm, loving father in every way.
“I’m not tired,” she said, interrupting his racing thoughts. “For the first three months all I wanted to do was sleep, but now I feel great most of the time.”
The first three months.
Before he could squash the curiosity that welled, he asked, “How long was it before you realized our night together had lasting consequences?”
She slanted him an enigmatic look even though he could see the pretty pink blush deepening in her cheeks again. “You mean other than losing my virginity? That I realized right away.”
“That wasn’t what I meant and you know it.” He pushed his plate aside, no longer hungry. He’d been a cad and he knew it; she didn’t have to keep reminding him of how careless and thoughtless his actions had been. “When did you first suspect you were pregnant?”
She finished the last bite of her taco and set her plate aside as well, then took her sweet time dabbing at her mouth with her napkin and studiously wiping her fingers before laying it aside. She didn’t look at him. Instead, her eyes were unfocused as she looked into the past. “I was worried about it right away. So I took a pregnancy test as soon as it was recommended. It confirmed my fears.”
“What did you do then?” His conscience jabbed even more sharply.
Unexpectedly, she smiled. “After the first day or so of panic, I realized I was happy about it. I’m looking forward to being a mother.”
“Even without a husband?”
Her smiled dimmed slightly. “Even without a husband. Though that’s going to make it difficult when I tell my parents.”
“Don’t you think you’ve waited a bit long?”
Her smile grew brittle around the edges. “It’s my baby. When and how I choose to share the news with my parents isn’t your concern.”
Want to bet? His jaw ached from grinding his teeth to keep from informing her that it damned well was his concern. But he knew that would be the worst thing he could say to her. A glimmer of an idea teased at the edges of his mind. If her parents didn’t know yet, he might be able to use that as leverage to get her to stay. Satisfied with his own cleverness, he let it pass. “So you aren’t tired. Is there anything special you’d like to do?”
She tilted her head to one side. “What I’d really enjoy is a hot air balloon ride. I read somewhere that you can take a one-hour ride over the Sonoran Desert that includes a champagne brunch—”
“No way.”
“I beg your pardon?” It was her snootiest royal tone. He decided not to tell her how much it turned him on. If he did, she’d probably never use it again, just to be perverse.
“You’re not going up in a hot air balloon,” he said instead.
“And you would be the one making that decision?” she asked in a too-gentle tone.
“I would,” he confirmed. “You’re five months pregnant. They probably wouldn’t take you anyway. Besides, you can’t drink champagne until after the baby’s born.”
When she suddenly shoved her chair
back from the table and stood, he was caught off-guard. “I don’t take orders from you,” she said through her teeth, both hands flat on the table. “What I do with my body and my baby is my affair and no one else’s.” And she spun on her heel and began to stomp out of the restaurant.
Rafe jumped to his feet. He fished money from his clip and tossed more than enough on the table to cover their meal, then surged through the tables after her.
“Go get her, buddy!” shouted some delighted onlooker from behind him.
She hadn’t reached the door when he caught up to her. He didn’t give her a chance to register his presence when he took her elbow and half-turned her, then swung her into his arms and began to stalk out of the eatery. Scattered clapping and scandalized laughter followed them as he carried her into the blinding midday sun. His damn sunglasses were in his shirt pocket and he couldn’t get to them without setting her down, which steamed him even more.
Elizabeth was squirming and struggling. “You Neanderthal! I hated this the last time you did it! Put me down immediately.”
“Not until you promise me you won’t do anything stupid,” he said, grimly quelling her struggles.
“Stupider than sleeping with you, you mean? That would be hard to top. That was definitely the stupidest move I ever made,” she said in a bitter tone.
He set her down beside the car then, crowding her with his body to keep her from getting away as he fished his keys from his pocket. “You weren’t complaining at the time,” he reminded her. He yanked open her door. “Get in.”
“No. I don’t wish to ride with you.” She folded her arms.
Rafe leaned very, very close. “Either you get in the car or you’re going to be the first pregnant woman ever to get turned over a man’s knee in this parking lot.”
She glared at him.
He stared at her with stony implacability.
Then she turned her back on him, sliding gracefully into the passenger seat. As he slammed the door and came around to the driver’s side, she said, “You don’t know that.”
“What?” he barked, still furious and wondering what in the hell she was talking about.
“You don’t know if I would have been the first pregnant woman to get her bum smacked in this lot.”
She wasn’t going to make him smile. But he could feel the anger draining away. “No, but I’d be willing to bet on it,” he said grudgingly.
There was a silence that lasted until he had pulled out of the lot and wound his way through the streets back to the freeway.
“Look,” he said, wondering why in hell he felt compelled to explain himself. “I wasn’t trying to give you orders. I was concerned for your safety.”
“You mean you were concerned for the baby’s safety,” she said quietly.
“No, that is not what I meant,” he said. “Could you possibly quit taking exception to every word I utter? The baby is still an unknown, an abstract to me, although I know that to you it’s a very real presence by now. Yes, it’s important, but not as important as your safety.”
“Because of your promise to my father.”
He wanted to strangle her. “Fine. If that’s what you want to believe, then yes. I promised your father you’d be safe with me.” Another reason, far more accurate, tried to rear its head, but he ignored it. He was not going to let her get under his skin.
Another silence. She was looking out her window, and she had to have realized he wasn’t headed for home by now, but she wouldn’t look at him or speak to him.
Finally he said, “Would you like to drive out to Saguaro Lake? We could rent a canoe and paddle around the lake. It’s not hot air ballooning, but it’s pretty and peaceful.”
She turned to face him then, and he could read surprise in her face. “That sounds lovely.”
“But I’m not bringing champagne,” he warned.
She gave him a small, smug smile. “I can’t stand the stuff. Never drink it.”
He shook his head. “You were just trying to rattle my cage back there, weren’t you?”
“Maybe a little,” she conceded. “May I apologize?”
“Only if you’ll accept one from a Neanderthal.”
She chuckled. “Done.”
“Tomorrow, in Scottsdale,” he said, “they celebrate the Parada del Sol. I’ll take you to it if you like.”
“Sol…sun? A festival for the sun?”
“Yes. The sun and wonderful climate have been good to Phoenix. The locals figure a little appreciation is in order. Did you know it’s the ninth largest city in the nation?”
Her eyes widened. “But it seems so…I don’t know. When I think of big cities, I think of London, New York. Everything here is golden and open, not gray and overpowering.”
He nodded, relieved that she’d accepted his olive branch. “There’s plenty of space here to spread out. And the climate can’t be beat.”
She laughed. “Growing up where we did, I suppose this is very appealing to you.”
He nodded, smiling. “No rain. None of any consequence anyhow. When I wake up in the morning and walk outside, I can be assured that the sun will be there to greet me.”
“You really like it here.”
He took his attention from the road to glance at her. “Yes, I really do. When I first came out here, my plan was to get as far away from my father as possible. Another state farther and I’d have been in the Pacific Ocean, so I figured this was far enough.”
“And has it been?” Her voice was quiet.
He sobered, reflecting. “No, not really. It’s amazing that the man can still try to manipulate me from across a damned ocean.”
“But you don’t allow it.”
“No.” He shook his head firmly, positively. “There’s nothing he can do or say that will affect me anymore.”
“You don’t say much about your mother,” she observed. “The Grand Duchess has been a guest at my mother’s ladies’ bridge game on many occasions. She’s a wicked player as I recall, having been suckered into playing against her more than once.”
Rafe nodded. “She always enjoyed those afternoons. Having no daughters of her own, I imagine she missed female companionship.”
He spent the rest of the drive to the lake pointing out native plants and animals to her. She was amazed to see the numbers of creatures that existed in the barren, dry world of the desert where there was no water for months on end. Phoenix itself, he explained, had grown from a village into a truly disreputable outlaw town by the end of the 1800s and it wasn’t until a couple of public hangings were conducted that the frontier town began to assume a semblance of civilization. After the Roosevelt Dam was created, significant power for industrial enterprise was generated, and the city began to grow and spread.
“How do you know so much about American history?” she asked him at one point.
Rafe shrugged. “Architecture is a field of study that often demands some knowledge of what came before in order to create a structure that reflects an area’s heritage. I’ve always enjoyed learning about new places, and once I’d decided to settle here I was doubly interested in learning about its past.” He chuckled. “If you were to ask me other questions about American history, you’d find me woefully lacking in knowledge.”
She snorted. “Somehow I doubt that.”
When they arrived at the lake, Rafe wasted no time in renting a canoe and taking her out on the water. But first he made her cover herself in sunscreen while he went into the little store and bought her a wide-brimmed hat. That creamy complexion wouldn’t stand up to the strong Arizona sun, and he would never forgive himself if he let her get sunburned.
She was skittish at first when the little craft rocked slightly from side to side as he paddled.
“This is certainly different from a rowboat,” she said.
“I enjoy canoeing,” he said. “A canoe is easy to maneuver in the water.”
She trailed her fingers over the side, letting gentle wave-lets lap at her hand as she rela
xed into the rocking rhythm of the little craft. “It’s so peaceful out here.”
He watched her from his seat at the back of the canoe as she swept a hand beneath her shoulder-length tumble of sun-touched curls, pulling them into a heavy twist atop her head, which she then anchored with a firm tug of the hat’s brim. The nape of her neck was white and vulnerable and he wondered if the skin there would feel as silky under his lips as the rest of her had the night they’d made love.
Mentally, he shook his head. How could she imagine that he was never going to kiss her again?
She dipped her hand into the water again. Such a small, dainty hand. She was a small, dainty woman, more than a foot shorter than he was. She wasn’t too tiny, though. As he remembered how perfectly she’d fit around him, his breath grew short and he had to look away from the languid motion of that pretty, pale hand with its long, slender fingers. Those fingers had touched him intimately, shyly at first, then more boldly when he’d shown her how much he liked it—
Damn! If he’d set out specifically to drive himself insane, he couldn’t have done a much better job.
“Put sunscreen on the back of your neck,” he said.
She half turned and looked over her shoulder at him, a wry smile curving her lips. “You’re keen on giving orders, aren’t you?”
He shrugged. “I guess it’s a habit. Sorry.”
She nodded her acceptance of his apology. “My father’s much the same, you know. The dear man doesn’t realize how autocratic he sounds at times.” Her light laugh floated out over the lake. “Unfortunately for him, we know there’s no bite behind his bark.”
“I bet you and your sisters have him wrapped around your little fingers.”
She laughed again. “I won’t deny that he finds it hard to say no to us.”
A new thought struck him. “Do you know yet…?” He motioned in the general direction of her abdomen. “Is this baby a boy or a girl?”
“I don’t know. And I don’t plan to ask, either.” She lifted a hand and tucked a trailing wisp of auburn curl back beneath the hat. “Personally, I’m hoping for a little girl I can dress in ruffles and lace.”
