Page 54 of Reunited By the Greek's Baby

He put the soft drink down and moved closer. ‘The nausea is back?’ Now he really felt guilty. She’d been doing so well lately.

Isla’s gaze meshed with his and heat slammed into him as he felt the full force of her fury. Then she gave a lopsided smile. ‘Not literally. But the injustice makes me so angry. Treating you both as if you’re some sort of public amusement.’

Theo stared. ‘You’re angry with the guests?’

‘Of course! I know there were plenty who were genuinely glad to see you but there were others who enjoyed the drama at your expense. Even after all you’ve been through.’

Hisexpense not hers. Something shuddered deep inside as her words touched a part of Theo that he’d kept isolated behind his strongest defences.

He couldn’t accustom himself to the fact Isla thought of him whenshewas the one pregnant and tired, facing the future in a foreign land, complete with paparazzi and gawking socialites. ‘It’s you I worry about. I’m okay, I’ve—’

‘Got broad shoulders, so you keep saying.’ She shook her head. ‘But it’s still outrageous.’

She fizzed with energy, like a lit firework about to explode. Theo reached out and took her wrists, gently tugging her arms from around her ribs and pulling her to him, trying to calm her restlessness.

‘Don’t get worked up about it. It’s not good for you or the baby. I’m fine.’ It took more than a bit of malicious speculation to get the better of him. ‘It’syouI’m concerned about. Stavroulis is a volatile man. I worried how he’d react when you approached him.’

Isla shook her head. ‘That poor man. Imagine losing a family member to violence and not knowing who was responsible.’

Theo’s jaw clenched on a familiar spasm of regret. The whole situation was appalling. If only Toula had never met Costa Stavroulis. If only the guy hadn’t gatecrashed the family party.

If only, if only. Were there any more fruitless words?

‘Theo?’ He looked down to see her bright eyes fixed on him. ‘You look...haunted. Is it from seeing Stavroulis again?’

That was the least of it, but the full story wasn’t his to tell. He only had suspicions. How could he act on those, knowing the consequences?

‘Don’t fret about me,’ he growled. He was buffeted by frustration at circumstances he couldn’t change and the roiling emotions that surfaced every time he was with Isla, or thought about her.

It wasn’t the drama of tonight’s scene that ripped at him, but that he’d brought this woman into the heart of it all. It would have been easier for her if he’d let her stay in England, out of the limelight. But how could he have? He needed her with him.

Her and their child.

Except when he looked into those silvery-blue eyes it wasn’t her pregnancy he thought of. It was her fire, her determination, her stoicism in the face of so many traumas. Her sympathy and warmth.

How he wanted that warmth, that sympathy now.

‘Theo?’ She licked her lips and swayed closer.

What did she see in his expression? He’d warned himself to keep his distance because she messed with his head and because he’d already let her down. But the words were already in his mouth.

‘I want you, Isla.’ His voice was rough with a hunger so deep he’d never experienced its like.

Heneededher so much it made him shake, because he was selfish and losing himself with Isla was the closest he’d come to finding peace in forever. Not that it was peace he wanted now, but the sheer addictive bliss of melding himself with her. Of finding that place where together they touched heaven.

Theo’s chest ached and he realised his breath had stopped. Until Isla leaned in, rising on her toes to brush her lips across his.

The air rushed from his lungs like water from a bursting dam. He gathered her to him, lifting her and covering her mouth with his. A storm of sensation hit as their lips met and clung. There was nothing tentative about their kiss now. It was the full-bodied kiss of lovers too long apart, filled with hunger as well as delight and homecoming.

Isla said something, the sound muffled in his mouth, but Theo recognised it as his name. Just as he recognised acute need in the clamp of her fingers against the back of his skull.

No matter the circumstances that had brought them to this point, they were equals in this.

‘I need you now, Theo.’

Theo lifted his head. ‘The bedroom. I need to take care of you—’

Her fingertips raked his scalp, sending flashes of lightning into his blood and straight to his groin.

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