Page 21 of The Baby Behind Their Marriage Merger

Hers was the smaller of the two cabins, and Jude was occupying the much larger one next door. He had a larger deck and a hammock strung between two trees. Their front garden was the white beach and gorgeous sea, and their back garden was a wild coastal forest.

Addi kicked off her shoes and half-pulled her shirt out of her skirt, thinking the band in her pencil skirt was a bit tight. She’d started to put on a bit of weight, not surprisingly, since she was feeding and growing a little human.

Addi placed her hand on her stomach, the thought punching her in her gut. Up until now, and apart from her not being able to drink coffee, the baby had been more of an intellectual exercise, a thought rather than reality. But with her stomach expanding, and with her feeling very tired, she was starting to feel the physical changes.

‘Are you okay?’

She jerked her head up and saw Jude standing on the deck of her cabin. He’d changed into a pair of swimming shorts and a loose, half-buttoned cotton shirt, sleeves haphazardly rolled up to reveal his tanned and muscular forearms.

‘Fine,’ Addi said, managing a quick smile. Last night he’d surprised her by whisking her from the church and treating her to an evening at Snell’s, Cape Town’s most exclusive restaurant. Thanks to knowing the owner, Patrick Snell, Jude had managed to snag an ultra-secluded table in the private dining room, the one with the best view of the city’s waterfront. The food had been exceptional, the service flawless and he’d made an effort to put her at ease.

After their meal, he’d driven her back to her house in Green Point and left her with a kiss on the cheek and a soft smile. It had been an exceptionally weird, and ridiculously chaste, wedding night.

When she’d met Jude at the airport earlier, she’d been quickly reminded that theirs hadn’t been a real wedding because Jude had treated her like a colleague and not the woman he’d married the day before. Despite Addi knowing that they were heading for a tropical island, Jude’s business-like approach was the bump back to earth she’d desperately needed. This was a business deal, they hadn’t made a lifelong commitment and, despite the white beaches and turquoise sea, this was most definitelynottheir honeymoon.

Until she’d seen the beach and the romantic cabin, she hadn’t realised how much she wanted to step out of time and revel in being the sole focus of a sexy man’s attention.

It was just one more thing that wasn’t meant to be.

She gestured to her laptop bag. ‘So, if you give me a moment to set up, we can get to work. I meant to do some work on the plane, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Sorry about that.’

His lips firmed and she knew he was unhappy about her lack of professionalism. Despite the craziness of the past week, she would not let her standards slip.

Jude looked to the Indian Ocean, a lovely, sleepy blue, and looked at her. ‘Addi, it’s three thirty in the afternoon. It’s already been a long day and there is no way I am going to look at spreadsheets and figures now. And neither are you.’

That sounded like heaven. Addi rubbed her foot on the back of her calf. ‘Jude, we need to work. This isn’t a holiday, at least it’s not for me.’

‘Actually, it is,’ Jude told her. He walked into the bedroom area, picked up her laptop bag and tucked it under his arm. ‘I’m confiscating this.’

‘You can’t do that!’ she cried, lunging for it, but because Jude was so much taller he simply lifted the bag up and out of her reach.

‘Want to bet?’ he grinned. Seeing her consternation, his smile faded. ‘Addi, it’s Thursday afternoon—we’re staying here until Monday afternoon. It’s been a long, rocky, tense ten days for both of us, for you more than me. You are mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted.’

Well, yes, maybe a little more than normal.

‘For the next four days, you are not going to work, or even think about work. You’re not going to do anything but eat, sleep and relax,’ Jude added.

Oh, God, that sounded like heaven. Her eyes filled with tears at the thought of doing nothing. ‘But—’

‘Work will still be there on Monday afternoon,’ Jude assured her, tucking her beloved laptop under his arm. ‘And, because I don’t trust you to not sneak in some hours, I’m going to take this.’

Addi bit her lip, tempted, but unsure whether this was a wise course of action. She could deal with terseness, with work demands and requests for figures and facts, but tenderness and thoughtfulness disarmed her. She genuinely had no idea how to deal with it and, worst of all, it made her realise what she’d missed out on.

She’d had so little kindness and thoughtfulness directed at her from men—Dean had been quite self-absorbed, her biological dad couldn’t have been bothered and, while her ex-stepdad Tom had been great, his kids had come first and rightly so. She wasn’t sure how to respond to Jude’s kindness.

And, without work as a barrier between them, what would they talk about and how would they interact? Apart from that hot, wild night when they’d slept together, and the dinner they’d shared last night, she and Jude hadn’t spent any quality time together. Last night they’d discussed the food and the hotels in Thorpe Industries’ portfolio, nothing more personal than that.

And what about sex? If they took work away, would all those inconvenient wants and needs come rolling back in? Would they find each other hard to resist? Would they end up in bed again? This was a business arrangement, but she still had the hots for Jude, and frequently spent her nights reliving the way he’d touched her, trying to remember exactly how he tasted, the feel of his hot skin under her hands.

‘I have never heard anyone who thinks as loudly as you do,’ Jude complained.

Addi rocked from foot to foot and shrugged.

Jude leaned his shoulder into one of the tree trunks that served as a pillar of the four-poster bed. ‘Are you worried that if we don’t have work to fall back on, your precious figures and spreadsheets, we won’t have anything to talk about? Are you concerned that our time together will be awkward? Or are you worried that we might lose our heads and fall into bed again?’

How did he read her mind?How?

Jude smiled at her shock. ‘I’m not expecting you to entertain me and I’m very comfortable with silence,’ he told her, reaching out to touch her hair. ‘And, if we do end up in bed again, that’s fine too.’

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