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Awe filled her as she saw the bundle of cells that was her baby for the first time, just as Seve’s fingers brushed soothingly over her knuckles, making her spine ease against the bed and the tension ooze right out of her. Genie couldn’t have separated the two emotions if her life depended on it. And when strong hands tightened around hers, she tightened hers in return. She told herself she couldn’t look away from the screen because she didn’t want to miss a thing.
But deep down she knew she wasn’t ready to see the same emotions weaving through her reflected in Seve’s face. Or worse...not.
And weren’t pregnancy emotions truly the worst? Because now her jumbled emotions were making her eyes prickle and the blood rush into her ears, and the insidious voice asking if she was truly ready to go off to Norway, continue this journey on her own when she could stay right here. In the sun and warmth and mercurial but, oh, so stimulating presence of her infuriating captor.
A peculiar sound escaped her throat before she could stop it. More alarming reaction to add to the suddenly mystifying code that was her life.
‘Everything all right?’ Dr Dominici asked.
Genie cleared her throat. ‘I believe I...we should be asking you that.’
The doctor smiled. ‘Sí.Everything is as it should be. The heartbeat is strong and the measurements show you’re almost ten weeks along. We will be able to tell the sex of the baby on the next scan if you’re interested?’
Genie felt Seve’s gaze boring into her, compelling hers. Unable to resist, she glanced up at him. And there it was. The formidably powerful range of emotions she’d been too terrified to confront. It was right there, swirling through his eyes, and in the slightly elevated rise and fall of his chest. In the eyes that left hers for a brief moment to cling to the screen, his fingers spasming a touch before firming again.
Oh, he was affected as much as she was, and she was one hundred per cent sure he’d want to know the sex. But for some reason, he quirked one eyebrow, leaving the decision to her.
To butter her up? To make her feel in control of a situationheultimately controlled?
Genie didn’t care.Couldn’t.Because all this was suddenly too much.
‘I prefer to wait.Gracias,’ she tagged on.
Dr Dominici nodded briskly, then went through a list of caretaking advice. Finally, she hit a button on the screen, then held out two squares of glossy paper, one to each of them.
Genie took it, heart hammering and throat clogging when she looked down at her child. Seve scrutinised his intently, then slid it into his pocket.
Five minutes later, they were back in the hallway and the tension was creeping back.
‘I need a moment...’ she started, then realised it sounded as if she were asking permission. She cleared her throat. ‘I have things to do. I’ll come and find you when I need to talk.’
‘Genie.’
Again that wave of suppressed emotion was evident in his voice. Her belly clenched, half in alarm and half in anticipation. But layer by layer, the emotions dissipated, leaving his face as smooth as cold glass.
‘I’ll see you at lunch.’
He walked away without a backward glance.
And she escaped to her bedroom, pacing the living room as she clutched the photo of the child growing in her belly.
When she eventually flopped down onto the sofa and dragged her beloved laptop close, Genie wasn’t surprised to find an email from the project manager in Norway. She barely went past theDue to unforeseen circumstances...before she closed the email.
Whether Seve Valente had a hand in disrupting her project or not didn’t even matter. The traitorous relief flowing through her unlocked the cipher of her decision. She had a handful of hours until her self-imposed deadline ended, but it didn’t matter any more either.
Staring down at the ultrasound picture, she took a breath.
And made a decision.
Four months later
Genie would be reluctant to admit it openly, but she loved everything about Cardosia.
Four months and thoughts of Norway had receded so far, she struggled to recall why she’d felt so strongly about going there in the first place. Yes, her ambition to discover new and improved ways for communities to realise a sustainable future burned bright, and the auspices under which she’d arrived in Cardosia still stung a little, but her perspective had shifted somewhat.
For starters, because Seve had never made her feel like a prisoner. And because once she’d got the full picture of what needed to be done in his country, she’d known that her plans could be shelved for the moment. Cardosia was on the brink of ecological disaster.
Maybe all this had happened because Seve knew her better than she knew herself? Knew she wouldn’t try to escape? It was a recurring thought that lately triggered mild panic in her. One in a series of alarming fluttering every time she thought of the man whose baby was growing healthy and strong inside her.
