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“I’m going home.”
“You’re already home. This is home, Beth. Our apartment. Manhattan. Your family. The family you don’t seem too interested in right now.”
She felt a stab of guilt but refused to let him manipulate her. “I’m going home to Scotland. To my parents.”
His skin lost the last of its color. “You don’t want to spend Christmas with us?”
“Of course I do. I don’t want Christmas without the girls. You can fly out a few days before as planned. You have the tickets. If parenting is as easy as you seem to think it is, I’m sure you’ll have no issues. The presents are all bought, wrapped and labeled. Remember to pack them.” She grabbed her phone and called the airline. Before she could change her mind, she’d booked and paid for a ticket flying out of JFK that evening.
“But—” He muttered something under his breath “I have meetings tomorrow.” There was a note of panic in his voice that she’d never heard before.
“I’m sure you’ll find a way.”
“Beth—”
“I need you to see that the decision to have another child is not like buying another sofa or a new vase. Quite apart from the fact that giving birth to two babies destroyed my insides and my nerves, they take commitment and compromise.”
“This is insane.” He ran his hand over his jaw. “Are you at least going to leave me a list of food they eat? And I don’t know what clothes you’d want me to pack for them for the trip at Christmas.”
“Figure it out. You have full control, although I suggest you don’t let Melly wear her best dress to the park because she’ll be sad if she ruins it.”
“I can’t believe you’re doing this.”
Neither could she. “You’ll be fine, Jason.”
“What about my promotion?”
“You said Sam understood that you have a family. Let’s test that understanding. If he wants you that badly, he’ll be prepared to wait a few weeks. Don’t forget to take Ruby’s inhaler whenever you go out. The cold weather sometimes triggers an asthma attack. Do not feed them chips, no matter how much they beg you, because they need fruit, vegetables and healthy food, and whatever you do, do not lose Bugsy, because Ruby can’t sleep without him.”
She felt a moment of anxiety as she contemplated all the things that could go wrong, but her anger was too great for her to back down. And anyway, she knew exactly what would happen.
As soon as she was out of the door, he’d call his mother.
10
Posy
The sun poured through the skylights in the loft, sending shafts of light across the bed.
Posy lay naked, her skin damp and her heart pounding. “Usually I don’t take a lunch break.”
Luke pulled her close. “Since neither of us has eaten, this doesn’t count as a lunch break.”
“Good point. Are you hungry? We should grab something to eat before we go back to work.”
“Is it a choice between sex and food? Because I choose sex.” He shifted so she was underneath him, then lowered his mouth to hers, his kiss lingering and full of erotic promise.
She felt the weight of him, the roughness of his thigh against hers and then the slow stroke of his fingers as he explored every sensitive part of her.
She wrapped her arms round his neck, wondering how it was possible to feel this close to someone you’d known for only a couple of months. It surprised her. More than that, it shook her.
He wasn’t her first lover, but in the past sex had felt more like a pleasurable workout than something special. On some level she’d always been aware that her emotions weren’t deeply engaged. With Luke, she’d dis
covered how different sex was when the feelings shared were more than just physical. She trusted those feelings. She’d trusted them when they’d told her that Callum was all wrong for her and she trusted them now as they told her that being with Luke was right.
Since that evening in the pub, they’d spent every night together as well as every lunchtime and the occasional hour in the afternoon. She hadn’t known life could be this exciting.
She’d never felt the need to protect her heart but felt a fleeting moment of anxiety, not that her heart might be hurt, but that this intimate connection, this bliss, might end. Emotionally, she could feel herself sliding deeper and saw no reason to stop herself.
