He steeled himself against her sigh. There was no choice—he needed to ensure her safety. He’d already made a mistake by leaving her earlier and she was even more vulnerable than he’d realised. ‘And so you shall.’
* * *
Phoebe could only stare as Edo grabbed her luggage. He guided her downstairs to where a massive car waited. One heavy set guy held the door for her while another two sat in the front behind the thick glass screen. Had he requested extra bodyguards? Why? As well as taking her passport?What the actual hell?
‘Are we going straight to the airport?’ she asked tensely.
He watched her fasten her seatbelt before fastening his, taking his time before answering. ‘We don’t have a huge amount of time, Phoebe, we need to make secure arrangements.’
His concept of time clearly differed from hers. ‘It might be later than is ideal to learn I’m pregnant, but we do still havemonthsbefore this baby arrives.’
A frown furrowed his forehead. Apparently he couldn’t stand to think of it being an actual baby.
‘Once word gets out, it’ll cause problems,’ he said.
She flinched. ‘What business is it of anyone else’s?’
He rubbed the back of his neck. ‘How can you go from writhing in my arms to running away the second my back is turned?’ He dragged in a breath. ‘I’m getting whiplash.’
She could hardly explain it to herself. Maybe it was just the culmination of tension over the last few days, or the need to delay the realisation of what had happened. But it wasn’t even lunchtime, she was pregnant with his baby and the first thing she’d done when finding out was sleep with him again. Her attraction to him was unstoppable—even now she was burning with desire to move closer to him. But he’d left her. Alone. And he’d taken her passport. And she didn’t understand anything.
‘What happened this morning was just a primal reaction to the pregnancy news,’ she murmured vaguely. ‘I wanted to forget.’
‘Sex is a stress release for you too.’ He nodded acceptingly. ‘We’re good at it.’
Phoebe masked her flinch. Maybe that afternoon in Tuscany had been carefree fire because it had been meaningless. They’d not shared surnames let alone thoughts of any future. It was meant to have been one time—merely sexy hijinks with supposedly zero consequences. But Phoebe suddenly realised that what had happened this morning had been hugely different. She’d ached for him on a level that was actually terrifying. That need had been too much—too undeniable. And their encounter had been too good not to mean something—to her.
He regarded her from hooded lids. ‘Marry me and the stress-release sex can continue indefinitely.’
She stared at him for a long moment. ‘Are you joking?’
‘It would be for the best.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Marry me, Phoebe.’
She couldn’t believe he was even suggesting it. ‘Edo, neither of us want to get married.’
‘This isn’t about either of us any more.’
She tried to ease her breathing, but she was beginning to feel like she was into the fourth hour of an ultra-marathon and each inhale hurt. ‘We can parent this baby perfectly well without some piece of paper.’
His jaw hardened. ‘Doesn’t it deserve to have legitimacy and social acceptance?’
‘What archaic world are you from?’ she whined, ignoring the steel hardening his gaze.
‘It needs the security of my name and the protection I can provide.’
‘Thebabycan have your name,’ she snapped. ‘But there’s no need forusto marry.’
She focused on staying measured and not screeching at him. But she saw the implacable set to his mouth and, heaven help her, it was intensely attractive. Worse, what he was offering struck deeply at some primal level within her. She lost her mind—hell, herwill—around him. She was so tempted to say yes, to go all in—to indulge her weak desire to leap to the extreme. And she couldn’t let that happen. Not on this.
‘You don’t want my name?’ he asked softly.
She shook her head, denying the curling lick of pleasure inside at the prospect of having something so deeply personallyhis. The possessiveness inside her—the greedy part she couldn’t shut down—wanted that. But it was madness. She wouldn’t lose herself again. Certainly not in some man she barely knew.
‘Do you think that just because I slept with you again that I’m going to say yes to everything you want?’ She wouldn’t give in to everything for a guy ever again. ‘You’re too used to getting your own way, and you can’t keep me here against my will.’ She glanced out the window and saw they were still in the city. ‘We are going to the airport, aren’t we?’
‘No, we’re going somewhere private to thrash out the plan for our future.’
‘There’s no need for a plan. It’s straightforward. We’re having a baby and we’ll cope.’
