Page 43 of Reunited By the Greek's Baby

Finally their breathing eased, their taut bodies slumping together in sated abandon. She didn’t have the energy to move even if she wanted to and she knew with a clarity that would have shocked her mere hours before, that there was nowhere in the world she’d rather be than here, like this, with Theo.

It felt as if the world had been shattered and remade by what they’d shared.

As she drifted into sleep Isla told herself it was an illusion. What felt to her like love was merely sex. She couldn’t make the mistake of reading too much into it.

All that had changed was her pregnancy. She had to remember that and not fall into the trap of romantic fantasies.

From now on she’d be sensible and pragmatic with Theo. Starting tomorrow.

CHAPTER TEN

SEVERALHOURSLATER, Isla leaned back, relaxing in the warm water that came up almost to her collarbone. She spread her arms along the edge of the wide bath and felt every muscle in her body soften.

‘You look like the cat that got the cream.’

The deep voice burred across her skin. Despite her floating feeling, as if her well-used body couldn’t possibly move again, her nipples tightened.

Maybe she wasn’t quite as exhausted as she’d thought.

She opened her eyes and there was Theo at the other end of the massive, sunken bath, his eyes glowing like embers as he surveyed her.

‘I’m not the only one.’ He looked like a man well-satisfied with his lot.

He sat higher than her, the impressive spread of his shoulders and muscled arms evident above the water. His chest, broad and leanly muscled as if from athletic exercise rather than steroids or pumping weights, glistened. The dark hair across his pectorals was wet and Isla remembered how that felt against her skin from the night they’d made love months ago during a moonlit swim.

A coil of heat circled low in her body. Definitely not as tired as she’d imagined. Or maybe she simply responded to this feeling of utter, physical well-being. She’d woken to darkness in Theo’s vast bed, alone. Realising he’d left her, the gloss of satisfaction had worn off. Till he appeared in the doorway, naked and compelling, to ask if she felt like a restorative bath.

She’d barely said yes when he hoisted her into his arms and carried her into the most stunning bathroom she’d ever seen. Even here there was a panoramic view of the city. Yet it wasn’t that or the luxurious fittings that caught her attention. It was the array of candles set around the room, bathing it in a soft glow, and the vast sunken tub, an invitation to decadence. All evidence that Theo had exerted himself to make this nice for her.

You’re going to be sensible and pragmatic, her head reminded her.

Her heart squeezed. She wanted to be anything but sensible. But she owed it to her baby not to be swept away by a romantic gesture.

Her gaze narrowed on Theo’s chiselled features, trying to read his thoughts. ‘The scar. How did you get that?’

In the heat it looked more livid than usual and she swallowed, registering how close it was to his eye.

He shrugged, sending a ripple of warm water to lap around her bare body. ‘A recent altercation.’

Isla frowned. Theo had never revealed a temper or the sort of antagonistic masculinity that sometimes led to fights. She couldn’t imagine him provoking violence. Then enlightenment dawned. ‘Someone hurt you while you were locked up?’

After a moment he nodded. ‘It wasn’t a safe place.’

There was something in his tone, irony and understatement, a bitterness she’d never heard from him before. Who wouldn’t be bitter, locked up for a crime they hadn’t committed?

‘I thought the authorities would protect people in a remand centre. After all you hadn’t been convicted.’

Another flash of stark emotion in those stormy eyes. ‘I wasn’t in a remand centre, I was in a high-security prison. And no matter how good the security, there’s always a way around it.’

Isla’s heart beat high against her throat. ‘How did it happen?’ She couldn’t imagine him deliberately threatening another prisoner.

Theo shook his head. ‘It doesn’t matter. It’s in the past.’

She slid her arms down and wrapped them around her torso. The image of some hardened criminal attacking him, and by the look of that scar with some sort of weapon, made her feel sick. She knew it would haunt her.

That was why she found herself crossing a boundary she’d vowed not to go near. ‘You say you want marriage, yet you won’t share that small thing with me. How do you expect me to contemplate marriage if you shut me out? That’s not how marriages work, even the sort you’re suggesting.’

Not that she was seriously considering marriage, that would be a recipe for disaster, with her craving more than he could give. But Isla wasn’t above using his outrageous proposition to satisfy her curiosity. Though it didn’t feel like idle curiosity. Her fear when she thought of him being attacked ran too deep.

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