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“How nice for you.” The sharpness in her voice betrayed how upsetting this news must be for her. “We must have made this trip for nothing then.”
Finn took the stick from her, stuck it in his pocket, then before she could pull away, and following an instinct he couldn’t resist, reached out and slowly drew her into his arms and held her.
She went rigid at first, then unexpectedly relaxed against him, her body warm and soft as she allowed herself to be held.
“You needed to take the test,” he said quietly, running a hand over her silky white-blond hair, soothing her like he’d soothe one of the horses. “You needed to see the lines. It’s good. Now we know, we can start making plans.”
“What plans?” Her voice sounded muffled, her cheek turned against his chest. “The only plans I’m thinking of making are going back to bed and sleeping for the next nine months.”
He smiled. “That’s okay. I’ll tuck you up and feed you sausage rolls.”
Her shoulders trembled and he could feel the warmth of her breath against his T-shirt. And it came to him that he hadn’t hugged a woman this way in years. Not simply held her in his arms to comfort her.
In fact, the last woman he’d hugged had been his mother-in-law at Sheri’s funeral. She and his father-in-law had moved from Brightwater to Christchurch after Sheri had died and he didn’t blame them. He didn’t see them much anymore.
But it was good to hold Beth. Good to hold her curvy body against his, to breathe in the sweet scent of apricots and sunshine. She reminded him of summer, of blue skies and the green peace of the bush, the heat of the sun on the back of his neck and ice cream melting on his tongue…
There were no painful memories associated with holding her, in the same way that there hadn’t been any making love to her either. Because she was different from Sheri, there was nothing to scrape the edges of his grief raw, nothing to cut him.
Even this was different.
He and Sheri had never had a pregnancy to deal with, not even a scare.
But Beth has, don’t forget.
His heart constricted. Ah shit, that’s right. There would have to be memories associated with this for her and not good ones.
Finn let her go and took her face between his palms, tilting it back so he could look into her eyes. They were darkened and he could see the fear in them.
“Are you okay?” he asked gently. “I know this can’t be easy for you.”
She looked up at him, and he was very conscious of her warmth and the echoes of sunshine he could see in the shadowed gleam of her eyes. And he knew that despite those shadows, there was a genuine core of lightness in Beth Grant and he was looking at it right now.
He wanted very much to hold it in his hands, wrap it around him, let it chase away the darkness he sometimes felt inside himself, the darkness that had settled there after Sheri died.
They were standing very close, the small space between them abruptly becoming charged with a certain familiar electricity.
Finn caught his breath, his body hardening in response.
Here they were in Levi’s house. Alone. No one would know if they decided to indulge themselves again. No one but them.
You’re thinking of sex? Now?
Yeah, not ideal. But shit, he was a man. And considering, bar that night in HQ, he hadn’t had it for five years and Beth was pregnant with his child and—
She flushed and abruptly pulled herself out of his grip, taking a couple of steps back, putting some distance between them.
“That’s…probably not a good idea,” she muttered, not looking at him.
He took a breath, fighting to get his physical response under control. He’d thought after a month of not being around her this desire would lessen, but apparently not. And not for her either.
Great. Just…great.
“Yeah, probably not.” He shoved his hands into his pockets once again.
“And to answer your question, I’m fine.” She’d turned away, moving over to the long line of windows that gave magnificent views out over the lake and the jagged teeth of the Remarkables, the mountain range on the opposite side of the lake.
Irritation wound through him.
