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‘You’re overreacting because you’re pregnant. You’re very hormonal and—’
‘Hormonal? Don’t patronise me! And anyway, if I’m hormonal, what’s your excuse? You overreact all the time! You accuse me of having sex with just about everyone, even though it should have been perfectly obvious to you that I’d never been with a man before. You thought I was some scheming hussy doing some sort of—of—’ she searched for an analogy ‘—paternity lottery. Trying to win first prize of a prince in the “most eligible daddy” contest.’
Casper rose to his feet, a tall, powerful figure, as imposing in casual clothes as he was in a dinner jacket. His mouth tightened and his lean, strong face was suddenly watchful. ‘You have to agree I had reason to feel like that.’
‘To begin with, maybe. But not once you knew me.’ Dragging her eyes away from the hint of bronzed male skin at the neck of his shirt, Holly stooped and stuffed her few items back into her bag. She wasn’t going to look at him. So, he was devastatingly handsome. So what? ‘I loved you, Casper, and you threw it back at me because you’re afraid.’
He inhaled sharply. ‘I am not afraid. And you’re stuffing sand in your bag along with the books.’
‘I don’t care about the sand! And you are afraid—you’re so afraid you’ve shut yourself down so that you can’t ever be hurt again.’ Frustrated and upset, she emptied her bag and started again, this time shaking the sand onto the beach.
Casper stepped towards her, dark eyes glittering. ‘I came here to apologise.’
Holly stared at him, wishing he wasn’t so indecently handsome. Wishing that she didn’t still ache for him to touch her. ‘Then you definitely need more practice, because where I come from apologies usually contain the word sorry at least once.’ With a violent movement, she hooked the bag onto her shoulder and reached for her hat, but he caught her arm and held her firmly.
‘You are not walking away from me.’
‘Watch me.’ With her free hand, she jammed the hat onto her head and then gasped as he swung her into his arms. ‘Put me down right now.’
‘No.’ Ignoring her protest and her wriggling, Casper walked purposefully to the end of the beach, took a narrow path without breaking stride and then lowered her onto soft white sand.
‘You’ve probably put your back out,’ Holly muttered, her fingers curling over his warm, bronzed shoulders to steady herself. ‘And it serves you right.’
‘You don’t weigh anything.’
Noticing their surroundings for the first time, Holly gave a soft gasp of shock, because she’d never seen anywhere quite as beautiful.
‘I had no idea there was another beach here. It’s stunning.’
‘When we were children, my brothe
r and I called it the secret beach.’ His tone gruff, Casper spread the rug on the sand and gently eased the bag from her shoulders. ‘We used to play here, knowing that no one could see us. It was probably the only real privacy we had in our childhood. We made camps, dens, we were pirates and smugglers, and—’
‘All right—enough.’ Emotion welling up inside her, Holly held up a hand, and Casper looked at her with exasperation.
‘I thought talking was good.’
‘Not when I’m angry with you.’ Holly flopped onto the rug and shot him a despairing look. ‘I’m so, so angry with you, and when you start talking like that I find it really hard to stay angry.’
Evidently clocking that up as a point in his favour, Casper joined her on the rug, his usual confidence apparently fully restored by her reluctant confession. ‘You find it hard to be angry with me?’ Gently, he pushed her onto her back and supported himself on one elbow as he looked down at her. ‘You have forgiven me?’
‘No.’ She closed her eyes tightly so that she couldn’t see his thick dark lashes and impossibly sexy eyes. But she could feel him looking at her. ‘You’ve hurt me really badly.’
‘Sì, I have. But now I am saying sorry. Open your eyes.’
‘No. I don’t want to look at you.’
‘Open your eyes, tesoro.’ His voice was so gentle that her eyes fluttered open, and she tumbled instantly into the depths of his dark eyes.
‘Nothing you say is going to make any difference,’ she muttered, and he gave a slow smile.
‘I know that isn’t true. You’re always telling me that I should know who you are by now, and I think I do.’ He lifted his hand and stroked her cheek gently. ‘I know you are a very forgiving person.’
‘Not that forgiving.’ Her heart was pounding against her chest, but she refused to make it easy for him.
Lowering his head, Casper brought his mouth down on hers in a devastatingly gentle kiss that blew her mind. ‘I am sorry, angelo mio. I am sorry for not believing that the baby was mine—for implying that you targeted me.’
Holly lay still, waiting, hoping, praying, dying a little—knowing that he was never going to say what she wanted to hear.
