Page 36 of All Roads Lead to You

“Beth?” His dark, husky voice was a whip crack in the silence of the gallery. “Beth, what’s wrong?”

She opened her mouth to tell him nothing was wrong, absolutely nothing, she was fine, just a little upset tummy, no biggie, when the doorway she was leaning against moved and she wasn’t upright anymore but falling.

Things went black for a couple of seconds, and when her brain decided to work again, she found herself lying against something very warm, very hard, and covered in black cotton.

She blinked.

Someone was holding her. Finn was holding her.

For a moment all she was conscious of was his warmth and his delicious scent—spicy and earthy and masculine—and the strength of the arm that was circling her, holding her against his chest.

Feeling was coming back to her hands and feet, making them tingle, and her heartbeat was slowing, and long seconds passed where all she wanted was to simply exist there, lying against him, feeling safe and warm.

But no matter how badly she wanted to deny it, no matter how desperately, the truth was sitting inside her and she couldn’t escape it.

She wasn’t sick; she was pregnant. And Finn was the father.

And she had no idea, no idea at all, what she was going to do.

***

Finn had a group of tourists waiting down by the lake and a trip to Glitter Falls to manage, and he’d nipped into the gallery to find Izzy to let her know that Chase had another booking mix-up, and since it was taking him a while to sort out, he might be home a bit late.

It shouldn’t have taken long. Only a minute or two. But what he hadn’t expected was to find the gallery empty at first, before a very pale Beth staggered out of the bathroom and promptly fainted in front of him. And it had only been lightning-fast reflexes, honed by years of guiding tourists around who did stupid things constantly, that had had him catching her before she hit the floor.

Now he was sitting on said floor, holding her against his chest, a complicated mixture of anger, frustration, worry, and unholy desire tangling in his gut. She felt small in his arms—small and warm and very vulnerable.

He did not want her to be vulnerable. He did not want to be holding her either, but it was clear she was unwell and he couldn’t leave her in this state.

So much for three weeks of distance.

Finn ignored the thought, glancing down at the woman in his arms. He could only see the soft curve of one cheek, her pale, silvery lashes resting against it. Her hair was in a messy ponytail and he was conscious of the sweet scent of apricots or peaches. A familiar scent. A scent that was haunting his dreams…

The desire inside him coiled tighter, but he shoved it aside the way he’d been shoving it aside for the past three weeks. The last thing Beth needed was him getting inappropriately turned on while she was feeling crappy.

“Beth?” He shifted her so he could see her face. “What’s wrong? Are you sick?”

Her eyes were firmly shut, and she didn’t open them. There were big black circles beneath them, and she looked so white she was almost green. A sour smell was coming from the bathroom, a sure sign that someone had thrown up and recently.

Well, not just someone. Beth.

The worry he’d tried to tell himself he didn’t feel tightened its grip. “Come on,” he said, securing her more firmly against him. “Let’s get you to the Rose and I’ll call a doctor.”

That seemed to galvanize her because she moved abruptly, pushing at him. “No, I’m fine. You can let me go.”

He didn’t want to. Especially since she’d fainted just before and quite clearly wasn’t fine. “Beth,” he began.

But she pushed at him harder. “Please, Finn.”

Color was returning to her cheeks, though they weren’t at their usual pretty deep rose yet, and since he knew it was for the best if he wasn’t physically close to her, he loosened his hold. He did keep an arm around her as he helped her to her feet though, because she was unsteady, noting that she pulled away almost as soon as she was standing.

Used to assessing people’s well-being as part of his job when he was guiding tourists, he gave her a rapid scan. Yeah, she was still pale, and she looked exhausted.

“What’s going on, Beth? Tell me.” It was an order, and he made no effort to soften it. If she was unwell, he wanted to know, because if so, he was here to help. He, Chase, and Levi were all up-to-date with first aid since the closest ambulance was two hours away in Queenstown, which made them also first responders in an emergency.

That’s not the only reason you want to know.

Yeah, well, if so, he wasnotgoing to be interrogating those reasons just now.

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