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“No.” She shook her head; the lustrous honey curls shifted like strands of heavy silk around her pale face. “I don’t. Really. I’m fine.”
Plainly, something was wrong. She needed help. He wanted to grab her and shake some sense into her.
Or take her in his arms and kiss her. Tell her she had nothing to fear, not from him. Not from anything, as long as he was here to protect her….
Dio, was he losing his mind?
Nicolo shot to his feet. “Tea,” he said briskly.
She looked up at him as if he’d lost his sanity. Perhaps he had but she wouldn’t let him call a doctor and he’d be damned if he’d leave her when she looked like a ghost.
“Tea cures everything, or so my great-grandmother used to say.”
Aimee didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He was human after all. He had to be, if he’d had a great-grandmother.
She stood up. He reached out a steadying hand but she ignored it.
“Thank you for the suggestion,” she said politely. “I’ll make myself a cup of tea as soon as you—What?”
“I will make the tea.”
He would make the tea. Aimee bit back another wave of what she knew was hysterical laughter.
This arrogant prince, this stranger who’d fathered the collection of cells in her womb, would make the tea.
That’s all they were, at this point, weren’t they? Just cells?
“You will drink some tea, and then I will leave.” He smiled. “Agreed?”
His mood had changed. He’d gone from threatening to charming, and she knew the reason. It was because he’d gotten his way. He’d wrung a humiliating admission from her.
Oh, but his smile was devastating.
Maybe the realization showed in her face, because he moved closer and looked at her through eyes gone as dark as the sea.
“Aimee.” His hands framed her face. “I’m sorry if I frightened you.”
“You don’t have to explain.”
He shook his head, lay a finger lightly over her mouth.
“I was angry. At you. At your grandfather.” He took a breath. “At myself, for wanting you so badly that night.”
“Please—”
“I never wanted a woman as I wanted you.” His voice roughened. “I think I might have died if you had turned me away.”
What did a woman say to such an admission? That she’d have died, too, if he hadn’t made love to her? That he’d made her feel things she’d never imagined? That she’d never forget that night in his arms?
All true—and now she carried his baby. For one moment, she’d forgotten that.
Aimee took a quick step back.
“The kettle’s on the stove. The tea’s in the cupboard over the sink. I’ll—I’ll just—I’ll just go and wash my face….”
“Damn it, we have to talk about that night! You can’t keep pretending it didn’t happen.”
Aimee shook her head, turned and fled. Just as she had that night, Nicolo thought, and thought, too, of what had happened when he caught her.
