Tabby nodded slowly. ‘Like a sort of try-before-you-buy trial,’ she assumed in a tone of gathering condemnation as her temper began to spark.
Aristide breathed in deep and slow before he spoke in a sudden driven rush. ‘Please try to remember that you’re dealing with a guy who made the most horrendous error the last time he chose to commit to a woman. Maybe he’s been running scared since the moment he met you…’
At that unexpected speech, Tabby gazed up at him in unconcealed amazement and her anger drained away as though it had never been. In that moment, there was something so deep, real and emotional in Aristide’s brilliant dark eyes that her heart pounded and her chest tightened. Imogen—the most horrendous error? Yes, she could get behind that opinion.
Runningscared?Aristide? Of course, he would be apprehensive about getting seriously involved with a woman again. Afraid of trusting his own judgement, uncertain of what he had probably once been so sure of years earlier when it came to reading a woman’s character. Having got it so badly wrong once, he was much more likely to walk the other way when it came to commitment. But it also went unspoken that she had to be the first woman to seriously attract him since Imogen and that was an intoxicating idea. Or was the truth far more prosaic? she wondered. He had got her pregnant. Would she ever have seen or heard from Aristide Romanos again if that hadn’t happened? That was a more sobering thought and that fast she wasn’t feeling intoxicated by Aristide any more.
‘I shouldn’t have shouted at you earlier,’ Aristide commented over their delicious evening meal served on a deck overlooking the glimmering sea at his father’s opulent hotel. ‘But I was genuinely afraid that something had happened to you.’
‘It’s a flat beach and a straight walk into town. What were the chances of anything happening to me?’ Tabby countered ruefully.
‘Accidentsdohappen.’ He shrugged. ‘My mother tripped in her heels on the stairs and broke her neck—’
‘But nobody could’ve prevented that,’ Tabby reasoned in a pained undertone at that untimely reminder. ‘That was a freak accident. Most would sprain an ankle or end up with bruises but they wouldn’t die from it. Your mother was very unlucky.’
‘How was I to know that you didn’t go down to the beach today to swim?’ Aristide shot back at her unanswerably. ‘You didn’t tell anyone where you were going or when you expected to be back.’
‘Youdidn’tknow,’ Tabby accepted, irritable at having to make that concession, dropping her blonde head while shooting him an accusing look. ‘You just can’t let me win an argument, can you?’
‘And you can’t stand anyone telling you when you’re in the wrong,’ Aristide completed drily.
That was true but torture wouldn’t have persuaded Tabby to admit it to him. He had a mind like a steel trap and unforgiving principles.
‘And this is why we’re fighting,’ she pointed out quietly. ‘You like the last word—as do I. You can tell you’re an only child. You’ve never had to compromise with someone different from you. You’re a perfectionist. You won’t consider human error or oversight as an excuse.’
‘But I can change into a more user-friendly version of myself,’ Aristide quipped with helpless amusement at the way she had summed him up and delivered her verdict. ‘Only it won’t happen overnight. It will take practice.’
Tabby stiffened. ‘Peopledon’tchange.’
‘They mellow when theyhaveto. It’s the only way to build relationships with others. The art of compromise doesn’t come naturally to me, but you know that we will both change when we become parents.’
There was an infuriating truth to that assurance. Instinct warned Tabby that motherhood would rearrange her priorities and alter her outlook. Hadn’t she already watched Violet change as she grew into being Belle’s mother? She surveyed Aristide, so achingly beautiful even in casual clothing. Even more beautifuloutof them, a little inner voice reminded her, and she reddened as a flush of inner heat enveloped her entire body. She wasn’t about to allow herself to think that way any more about him. That was a victim mentality, wasn’t it? To imagine that she had no real choices of her own? And she was determined to choose a path that kept her safe from emotional harm or deep regret and, when it came to Aristide, that meant avoiding temptation and keeping the insanity of crazily good sex out of it.
‘You haveanotherprivate jet,’ Tabby whispered as she boarded the sleek plane with its black upholstery.
‘No, we’re borrowing my father’s,’ Aristide informed her with amusement, watching her pick a seat in a whirl of impatient movement.
A helicopter had transferred them to the private airfield where his father kept his jet. Tabby was clad in loose linen trousers and a floaty pink top, blonde hair restrained to a neat braid down her slender spine, a slick of lip gloss her only concession to cosmetics. He had never known a woman so little concerned with her appearance. She barely glanced in mirrors, selected clothes to wear and pack according to practicality and could choose a ball gown from a rail of fabulous offerings in five minutes flat.
He had assumed she would spend the entire morning choosing her gown and deciding what to pack but she had packed before she came down to breakfast and had contrived to pick her gown for the summer ball before he had even left the room.
‘Why are all the dresses some shade of blue?’ was the only question she had deigned to ask.
‘I love seeing you in blue and I have sapphires for you to wear at the ball—’
‘Matchy-matchy. That’s kind of controlling behaviour,’ she had complained, shooting him a mocking wide-blue-eyed glance, teasing him because it was her favourite colour. ‘What if I don’t like wearing blue?’
‘The next time, I’ll take that possibility onboard and give you more of a choice,’ Aristide countered without hesitation.
‘Have you met my sister’s husband before?’ Tabby asked, finally settling into her seat opposite him.
‘I’ve never spoken to him but I’ve seen him at events I’ve attended.’
‘Violet said he’s kind of a serious guy.’
‘Most titans of industry are…goes with the territory.’
‘I can’t wait to see Violet,’ she confided unnecessarily, her eyes sparkling at the prospect of the coming reunion. ‘And Belle. She’s walking now. I can’t wait to see that either!’
