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She sucked in a deep steadying breath. ‘I’m … the thing is, Francesco, I’m …’ Hit without warning by a sudden wave of dizziness, she swayed and lifted a hand to her head as the colour drained from her face.
‘Shall I call a doctor?’
‘No, I’m fine.’
Her head was pressed to his chest, the hand that cradled her skull was holding it there next to his heart. Having lost the last twenty seconds, she had no idea how she came to be in this position. She just knew that the moment had passed.
Being this close to him was agony.
Erin felt his long fingers slide through her hair and … a choking sound escaped her clamped lips.
‘Clearly you are not.’ Francesco tilted her face up to his. She was looking at him with a suppressed longing she could not in that moment conceal. His expression abstracted, his finger traced the soft curve of her jaw.
‘There are shadows under your eyes.’ The discovery of the violet smudges made him frown and mutter something she didn’t understand in his native tongue.
‘Really, I’m fine.’
‘You nearly fainted. That is not “fine.” Dio, but I find English stoicism irritating.’
Erin took a deep breath and, hands pressed to his chest, pushed hard. His hands remained curved around her upper arms preventing her stepping back.
‘Not just English stoicism,’ she muttered.
One corner of his mobile mouth twitched into a half-smile as their eyes met. ‘No, you I find infuriating.’
On the brink of smiling back, Erin stopped herself and frowned. ‘I’m not ill, Francesco.’ Pregnancy was not an illness, though this was hard to remember some mornings!
He angled a sardonic brow and let her go. ‘You make a habit of fainting?’
‘I did not faint.’ Though the past few weeks there had been a few close calls, but the doctor had soothed her concerns and told her that this was normal, especially as her blood pressure was unusually low. ‘I just … lost my balance for a moment. And you have no rights, Francesco, not where I’m concerned anyhow.’
But he had rights where his child was concerned. She pressed a hand to her stomach and wondered how many of those rights he would avail himself of.
God, I have to tell him.
She looked at him and thought, I can’t do it! I need to psych myself up … I need to find the right words. In the back of her mind Erin knew that there were no magical right words. She knew she was only delaying the inevitable.
‘Don’t you think it might be an idea to sit down just in case you lose your balance again?’
‘What? Yes, fine.’ She tore her eyes from the muscle that was clenching in his shadowed jaw and sat down in the nearest armchair.
‘I’m still waiting to hear why you’ve come here, Francesco.’
‘I came here hoping that you might have stopped avoiding issues.’
If only you knew the half of it!
She opened her mouth, but the words wouldn’t come. Her shaking fingers massaging the skin of her throbbing temples, she shook her head in a negative gesture.
A hiss of frustration escaped Francesco’s lips. ‘Marriage is not something you throw away casually.’
‘I’m not doing anything casually.’
‘Walking out the way you did was hardly something you put a lot of thought into, was it?’ he retorted.
‘Well, the situation seems to have suited you.’
‘You base that statement on what exactly?’ The furrow in his brow deepened as he mused. ‘Or was it an accusation?’ he speculated.
