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‘It will only hurt me more to hold onto false hope!’ Grace snapped back at him, her head flipping, vibrant red hair spilling across the pillows, pale sea-glass eyes distraught and accusing.
Leo’s eyes stung, frustration flaring through his lean, powerful frame because he wanted so badly to fix things and knew that he couldn’t. ‘It was my baby too,’ he murmured in a roughened undertone.
‘I know...that’s all you ever cared about. Believe me, I don’t need reminding,’ Grace framed jerkily, turning away again to present him with her slender back.
Leo paled and sprang off the bed to head for the chair in the corner. ‘Try to get some sleep. I’ll stay with you.’
Grace sat up with a sudden start, grief and regret weighing her down to the extent that she felt as if she were drowning in inner turmoil and unhappiness. She pushed the pillows back behind her and studied him in his pale grey exquisitely tailored suit that glimmered like dull silver below the stark hospital lights. His blue-black hair was tousled, his strong jawline rough with dark stubble, his stunning eyes unusually bright with emotion. Of course he was upset; she knew he was upset. After all, much as he might wish to be, he wasn’t a block of unfeeling wood. Unfortunately, Grace had already looked beyond their loss to become painfully aware of exactly what her miscarriage meant to them as a newly married couple.
‘There’s no point in you staying.’
Predictably, Leo argued. He needed to be with her. That was non-negotiable in his mind. He had to see that she was fed, properly cared for and that if things were to get any worse he was on the spot to provide immediate support. His sense of responsibility was too strong to be denied.
‘Why would you stay?’ Grace whispered, fighting her desire for his presence, fighting her longing for him to come close again, fighting all those softer feelings with the sure knowledge at that moment that she was doing what had to be done. She was facing up to reality, struggling to move forward and step away from the lure of a future that could no longer be hers. How could she feel any other way when that future had been so inextricably linked to their baby?
‘You’re my wife, hara mou. I belong by your side,’ Leo countered with fierce conviction. ‘You’re upset, we’re both upset but together we’re stronger.’
‘Maybe that would’ve been true had we been in love...but obviously we’re not.’ Grace closed her restive fingers into a tight ball of self-restraint, her deep sense of hurt tamped down. ‘Us...as a couple, that’s over. Of course it is. How could it be anything else after what’s just happened?’ she asked shakily, anger at the tumultuous emotions she was crushing arrowing through her trembling frame because with every word she spoke she was going against her own heart.
But how could she do anything else? she asked herself in despair. They had come together for the baby’s sake and without the baby there was nothing to keep them together. She had to face that, deal with it, live with it whether she liked it or not. She loved him but he did not love her. She was too proud and too fair-minded to cling to him and make him feel that he somehow owed it to her to stay with her.
Leo welded long tanned fingers to the rail at the foot of her bed, every muscle in his lean, powerful body pulling dangerously tight. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he said in a harsh undertone.
‘I’m just saying what needs to be said. You’re free, Leo.’
Leo lost colour, the exotic slant of his cheekbones pronounced. There was a lurch in the region of his gut as though he had been punched. He didn’t want to be free. Naturally he had got used to being married and he was content to stay married and eventually try for another baby. Grace suited him. He didn’t know how she did it or why she was so important to him but she matched him in all the ways that mattered. Indeed he had become so accustomed to Grace being around that he could not imagine his life without her. Obviously he was more of a creature of habit and routine than he had ever appreciated because within a short time Grace had become astonishingly necessary to his comfort.
‘And what if I don’t want to be free?’ he grated, soft and low.
