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Kelly’s eyes flew to his and for a moment everything around her ceased to exist. Had he said…? Did he mean…? Even before her brain had answered the question, her heart performed a happy dance all on its own. He couldn’t possibly mean that, could he? He couldn’t be proposing…
‘W-what did you say?’
‘I want you to wear it.’ His hands sure and decisive, Alekos took the ring from her and slid it onto the third finger of her right hand.
Her right hand.
Kelly felt the hard slug of disappointment deep in her gut and suddenly she was cross with herself. What was the matter with her? Even if he had proposed, she would have said no, wouldn’t she? After what happened last time, she wasn’t just going to walk back into his arms, no questions asked. No way.
‘It looks good there,’ Alekos said huskily, and Kelly bit back the impulse to tell him that it had looked even better on her left hand.
The diamond winked and flashed in the bright sunlight, dazzling her as much now as it had four years before. Reminding herself that a diamond didn’t make a marriage, she yanked it off her finger before her brain could start getting the same silly ideas as her body. ‘I’ve told you, I’ve already spent the money. I don’t want the ring. I don’t understand what’s going on. I don’t know why I’m here.’ Which probably said more about her than him, she thought gloomily: he’d summoned her and she’d come running.
‘I wanted to talk to you. There are things that need to be said.’
Kelly thought about the child growing inside her and decided that had to be the understatement of the century. ‘Yes.’ She squeezed her hand around the ring, feeling the stone cutting into her palm. ‘I have a couple of things to say to you, too. Well, one thing in particular—nothing that…’ Suddenly she felt horribly nervous about his reaction. What was the best way to tell him—straight out? Lead up to it with a conversation about families and kids? ‘It’s something pretty important, but it can wait. You go first.’ She needed more time to build up her courage. She needed someone like Vivien bolstering her up from the sidelines.
She needed to stop thinking about her own childhood.
‘Put the ring back on your finger, at least for now. I’ll pour you a drink—you look hot.’ Alekos strolled over to a small table which had been laid by the beautiful pool. ‘Lemonade?’
Still rehearsing various ways to spill her own piece of news, Kelly was distracted. ‘Oh, yes please. That would be lovely.’ Wondering what on earth he wanted to say to her, Kelly slid the ring back on the finger of her right hand as a temporary measure. They could argue about it later. ‘So, I read in the papers that you broke up with your girlfriend. I’m sorry about that.’
‘No, you’re not.’ A smile touched his mouth as he poured lemonade into two chilled glasses, ice clinking against the sides.
‘All right, I’m trying to feel sorry, because I don’t want to be a bad person. And I do feel sorry for her, in a way. I feel sorry for any woman who has been dumped by you. I know how it feels. Sort of like missing your step at the top of the stairs and finding yourself crashing to the bottom.’
He winced as he handed her a glass. ‘That bad?’
‘It feels as though you’ve broken something vital. Will your cook person be offended if I pick the bits out of this?’
‘The bits?’
‘The bits of lemon.’ Kelly stuck a straw into the glass and chased the tiny pieces of lemon zest around. ‘I’m not good with bitty things.’
Alekos inhaled deeply. ‘I’ll convey your preferences to my team.’
‘Team? Gosh, how many people does it take to peel a couple of lemons?’ She sipped her drink and sighed. ‘Actually, it’s delicious. Even with the bits. All right, this is all very nice—the whole private jet, pretty clothes and lemon-from-the-tree scene—but don’t think I’ve forgiven you, Alekos. I still think you’re a complete b—’ her tongue tangled over the word ‘—bleep.’
‘You think I’m a “bleep”? What is a “bleep”?’
‘It’s a substitute for a bad word that I absolutely don’t want to say out loud.’ Kelly snagged a few more bits of lemon with her straw. ‘On television they stick a bleep sound in instead of the swear word. I’m doing the same thing.’
‘Which swear word?’
‘You have more intelligence than that, Alekos. Work it out for yourself.’
‘You don’t know one?’
‘Of course I do.’ Kelly sipped her drink slowly. ‘But I’m always very careful with my language. I don’t want to slip up in front of the children. I try never to swear, even when severely provoked.’
‘I seem to recall that you called me a bastard.’
‘Actually, you said that about yourself. I just agreed. It felt good, actually.’ Kelly pressed the glass to her arms to cool her overheated skin. ‘So why did you make me deliver the ring in person? Why not use a courier or send one of your staff? They can’t all be peeling lemons.’
‘I didn’t want the ring. I wanted you.’
Kelly’s heart tumbled and she put her glass down because her hands were suddenly shaking so much that they’d lost their ability to grip. ‘You didn’t want me four years ago.’
