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‘I don’t appreciate the sarcasm.’
He cut off her protest with a disarming smile. ‘Not even a little bit...?’ He held a thumb and forefinger a whisper apart. ‘Don’t worry, I’m exceptionally subtle. I forgot your name twice to put them off the scent.’
She gave a snort. ‘Sledgehammer-subtle.’
His mouth lifted in one corner in a half-smile. ‘Why would it bother you when no one had a bad word to say about you?’
‘Maybe you asked the wrong people.’ Her parents would have told him what a disappointment she was to them—they told everyone else in their social circle. ‘Some people think that having Ellie ruined my life.’
He arched a brow. ‘What people?’
‘My parents...or, at least, my father.’ But then she shook her head, remembering how her mum had not defended her when her father had insisted she get rid of her precious baby.
Her nostrils quivered as she pushed the memories away, swallowing hard before she looked directly at Rio with defiance shining in her eyes. Her father had made her choose between them and her baby and it truly amazed Gwen that he had been shocked when she had told him she had every intention of keeping her baby.
‘I’m not trying to steal her away from you, Gwen. I just want to share her.’
The quiet assertion took her breath away, and returned the shadow of wariness to her eyes, as once again his ability to read her thoughts and feelings was unsettling.
‘I’m not afraid of you, Rio.’ Perhaps she ought to be?
‘But you don’t trust me.’
It was a statement.
‘You have Ellie’s interests at heart and so do I—we are on the same team, and we need to work together,’ he added.
‘You sound so reasonable.’Which obviously makesmethe unreasonable one and in a moment I’ll even be apologising, she thought irritably.
‘She isn’t going to love you any less when new people come into her life.’ He sensed her eyes were on his face but the road had narrowed at this point, as they joined the mountain track that led down to the beach house, and it took all his attention.
‘Well, thank you for those words of wisdom, Professor. What sort of selfish, possessive,needyidiot do you think I am?’ The car jolted and she grabbed for the door handle to steady herself.
‘Sorry, we had the track resurfaced last year but there were some bad storms last winter.’
‘How far is it?’ she asked, clinging on as they jolted along.
‘Not far now.’
‘Is it a big resort?’
He flashed her a look before turning his eyes back to the road. ‘Not a resort as such, just a beach house, and the mountain road meant that the area has remained totally undeveloped. My brother and I used to come here during the summer with our parents, and when they divorced she moved in and renovated it, pretty much rebuilt it.’
‘So did they remarry other people, your parents?’
‘My father died a few years ago.’ There wassomethingin his voice, but his expression gave away nothing of his feelings.
‘Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.’
‘We were not close.’
‘And your mother? Did she—?’
‘My mother is making up for lost time.’
‘Lost time?’
‘Her marriage to my father was not good at all. He was a jealous bastard who tried to manipulate and control every aspect of her life.’
