She’d barely processed it when Xavi messaged to say the deal had gone through and he would be home early evening. He’d even added a kiss to the message, which eased the tightness in her chest a little.
While it seemed that all the ducks lining themselves up were ducks from the past, history wasn’t about to repeat itself. This was something she reminded herself every five minutes.
What she didn’t like to remind herself was that the main reason history wasn’t poised for a repeat was the business. Xavi needed her shares. If only for that, he wasn’t going to come home and sever her from his life again.
After running herself a bath, Beth lay in it until the water ran cold. She kept stroking her stomach, her heart veering from wild excitement to wild terror.
When had conception happened? she wondered. It wasn’t like before. She hadn’t come off the pill this time. Had it been her stomach bug that had caused it, when she’d been too ill to take her pill? Could it have happened that quickly? Or had she just been sloppy?
Had she…had she been sloppy because her subconscious had been seeking a way to tie her to him forever?
She pinched the bridge of her nose and swallowed hard.
On Monday she’d book herself in to see an obstetrician. Xavi would want to come with her. Maybe the doctor could narrow the conception date. It didn’t matter. What did matter was reassurance that this baby was going to be fine, and that all the conditions were right so that it could live.
It was an assurance Beth knew in her heart could not be made. Life was too fickle and precarious for assurances like that.
She swallowed back more tears.
Xavi would be home soon. He would give her all the assurance she needed, and by sheer force of his will, make her wishes for their baby come true.
Xavi let himself into the apartment. The door had barely closed when an excited Diego bounded over to run rings around him. And then Beth appeared, ravishing in a halter-neck electric-blue satin dress that plunged in a V to her midriff and fell to her feet. A thin gold belt was wrapped around her waist, hooped gold earrings just visible beneath her loose, gleaming red hair.
He couldn’t fail to notice the apprehension on her beautiful face, and knew she was thinking about the last time he’d left her behind when he’d gone away on business. Smiling wanly, he drew her to him. ‘Mi vida, you look beautiful.’
‘Thank you.’ Her arms looped around his neck, her lips forming the upside-down heart that never failed to make his heart ache. ‘You look tired.’
‘I’m exhausted.’ He hadn’t slept in twenty-six hours. A cock-up with the flight slot had seen his plane depart an hour later than it should have done. What should have been a relatively short drive from the airport to his apartment had taken an hour thanks to numerous accidents and roadworks gridlocking the roads.
Her crystal-clear green eyes gazed into his. ‘We don’t have to go.’
‘We do. He’s holding it here in Madrid so I can attend.’ Though God knew he would give anything to get out of the party and spend the evening losing himself in his beautiful wife, but losing himself in his beautiful wife had already caused enough damage.
He kissed her gently so as not to smudge her lipstick. ‘Give me ten minutes to change.’
She nodded and lifted her chin for another kiss. ‘Can I get you a drink?’
‘A whisky fit for an alcoholic should do the trick.’
Her whole face creased into a smile. ‘That bad, is it?’
‘It’s better now I’m home with you.’
Somehow, her smile broadened. ‘Good. And when we get back, I’ll show you how much better it is to be home with me and how much I’ve missed you.’
He went to give her another non-lipstick-smudging kiss, but her lips parted and, with a sigh, her arms tightened around his neck and her tongue slipped into his mouth for a hungry kiss that told him more than any words how much she’d missed him.
For one sweet moment, he returned the hunger because,Dios, the nights in the bed of his Manhattan apartment had been excruciating without her.
With great reluctance, he broke the kiss. ‘Ten minutes,mi vida.’
‘I’ll bring the drink up to you.’
He put a finger to her lipstick-smudged lips and shook his head. ‘We are already late. If you come into the bedroom…’
Her eyes gleamed with knowing, but she stepped back gracefully, laughing. ‘Go on, go get ready.’
He swooped in for one more kiss, then bounded to their bedroom, reenergised.
