Conall was drowning in a sea of lapis lazuli, waves lapping around him, warm and silky smooth.
For a moment he held there, awed, until stillness was impossible. They moved together, Greer’s brow knotted in concentration even as her eyes glazed. Another thrust and the gentle waves became a maelstrom of pleasure, pulling him deeper, harder, drawing the very essence of him.
Greer shouted his name, fingers digging into his shoulders and still she held his gaze so he saw everything she felt,felteverything she felt as they exploded, shattering into oblivion.
Except it wasn’t oblivion, because she was there.
The woman he loved.
Conall tasted the confession on his tongue, opened his mouth to share it, but through the blur of ecstasy, reason returned. He couldn’t blurt the truth suddenly. He didn’t want to scare her off. Every time he’d thought they were on solid ground, he’d almost lost her.
He needed to understand why she’d run from him before. Why she tiptoed around the idea of marriage. Then he’d overcome her fears and change himself to be the man she wanted, a man she trusted. Not a man she hid from.
He’d win her and keep her. Whatever it took.
Chapter Thirteen
GREER STRETCHED LANGUIDLY, feeling the heavy silk of her robe slide across bare skin. She shot a glance towards Conall, munching on chilli ginger prawns. Instantly, as if sensing her regard, he turned his head, gaze meshing with hers so that slow-coiling heat stirred anew in her stomach.
He was bare-chested and she watched the play of his muscles as he ate. Just the sight of him beside her at the small table was sensual, arousing.
They sat in a pool of light. Beyond them, the open doors to the terrace let in the balmy, humid night air and a view of city lights. It was well past midnight but neither had eaten at the party and they’d woken hungry.
She could get used to a private chef preparing five star gourmet feasts on call.
But it wasn’t the food or the luxury service on her mind. It was Conall. Tonight he’d revealed a history that made her ache for the grieving child he’d been, taken from a loving home into a place where no child belonged. She sensed he’d held back a lot more than he’d revealed in order to spare her.
His story had made her upset and protective. She’d dearly love to tell Fraser Abercrombie and the world some home truths about his unfitness to be around children. He didn’t deserve a family.
‘You look very fierce, sweetheart. What’s wrong? If it’s Jason, don’t worry. I’ll make sure you never have to deal with him again.’
There it was again, his protectiveness. How was it Conall had grown into a caring, decent man so unlike his loathsome brother? They’d both suffered the same sort of upbringing. Such a childhood must have affected them both.
An idea lodged in her brain. The more she pondered the more she wondered if it could be true. Could his difficult upbringing have made him averse to having a family of his own?
‘Why didn’t you want our baby, Conall?’
Finally the words were out. The ones she hadn’t dared say before, when she’d decided she’d rather have Conall as a husband than not at all. It had been wrong accepting his proposal, knowing he didn’t want a child. But she’d been selfish and needy. Now she understood they had no real future without honesty. She had to understand what made him tick.
He stiffened, shunting back from the table. ‘Ididwant our baby!’ His voice throbbed with feeling and she saw a pulse pound at his temple. ‘Getting your message that you’d miscarried, then coming home to find you gone…’ He ploughed his hand back through his unruly hair. ‘It was the darkest time of my life. I’ll never forgive myself for leaving that day.’
Greer felt her eyes widen. He’d told her he was sorry about the baby, but in such terms she’d assumed he felt sorry forher, not his own loss. This was so much more. ‘You weren’t to know I’d miscarry.Ididn’t know.’
‘But you needed me.’
‘I wish you’d been there, Conall. But neither of us were to blame.’ It had taken her long enough to accept that.
She wrapped her arms around her middle and said carefully, ‘You really wanted our child?’
He sat rigid, chin up. ‘You think I’d lie? About that?’
She’d never known him to be dishonest. Which meant hehadwanted their child. Yet that made no sense.
‘But you didn’t always feel that way. Not in the beginning.’
Something shifted in his face. His posture changed and his mouth flattened. For the briefest moment he looked away then immediately back to her. ‘You knew that?’ Regret laced his words, and surprise. ‘I never said it.’
‘You didn’t need to. It was in what you didn’t say.’
