Page 30 of Bound by a One-Night Vow

Andrea took the heat pack out of the microwave and frowned. Izzy was right. He should be feeling relieved. Damn it. He was relieved. Incredibly relieved. The last thing he wanted to do was get her pregnant. A pregnancy would change everything. He didn’t want that. Too many things had already been changed and he was only just keeping control. He was happy with how things were going. They were enjoying their relationship. But that didn’t mean he wanted it to last any longer than the time they’d agreed on. He was keeping his emotions out of this. Wasn’t he? Of course he was. He wasn’t in any danger of blurring the boundaries.

Was Izzy relieved at not being pregnant? He had scrutinised her features but she was good at hiding her feelings. Better than he was at times. She was twenty-five years old. Was she hearing the tick-tock of her biological clock? She had told him she didn’t want kids, but would she change her mind? It was a big issue. A life-changing issue that had to be thought about carefully. It was an issue he had thought about years ago and never revisited. Why would he? He had no knowledge of what a happy family looked like. His ‘family’ had been a disaster from the get-go. His biological father hadn’t stayed around long enough to welcome Andrea into the world. His stepfather—one of a few over the years—had shown no interest in him other than as a punching bag. In theory, Andrea quite liked the idea of a loving and happy family but it was so rarely what happened in practice. He had decided it was easier, less painful, to move through life without the emotional encumbrances of a wife and children.

He refused to think of how lonely it might be once Izzy and he moved on with their lives.

He was used to being alone.

He’d been alone for most of his life.

Andrea took the heat pack upstairs to the master bedroom. Izzy was lying on her side with her head resting on one hand, her other hand pressed against her abdomen. There was an almost wistful cast to her features but when he approached she blinked and gave him a twisted smile. ‘Sorry to have ruined your beauty sleep.’

He sat beside her on the bed and placed the heat pack against her belly. He used his other hand to brush her hair back from her forehead. ‘Have those painkillers kicked in yet?’

‘A little...’

Andrea traced his finger down the curve of her cheek. ‘Will you be okay to come to Venice with me tomorrow for Patrizio Montelli’s wedding?’

She turned over so she was lying on her back and held the heat pack against her stomach. ‘Of course. It’s just a period, Andrea. I’ve been having them every month since I was thirteen.’

He gave a wry smile. ‘And here I was thinking shaving every day was a pain.’

She reached up and touched his jaw with her fingertips, her gaze going to his mouth. The tingle of her touch made every nerve in his body stand to attention. Her fingers were so soft, as light as a dove’s feather brushing his skin, and yet they created a storm of fervent longing in his flesh. He captured her hand and brought it to his mouth, kissing each fingertip as he held her gaze. ‘You should try and get some sleep.’ His voice came out so husky it was as if his vocal cords had been rasped with a steel file.

Her eyes met his, her teeth snagging her lower lip. ‘Andrea?’

He gave her hand a soft squeeze. ‘Yes, cara?’

She opened her mouth to speak but then closed it again, her eyes slipping away from his. ‘Never mind...’

He inched up her chin and locked his gaze on hers. ‘Is something troubling you, mio piccolo? The wedding tomorrow? There might be press there but I’ll try and—’

‘No, it’s not about that.’

‘What, then?’

She let out a gust of breath and her mouth moved in a vestige of a smile that looked sad rather than anything else. ‘Nothing... I’m just feeling a little emotional, I guess. Hormones.’ She lowered her gaze and began to pluck at the sleeve of his bathrobe as if she needed something to do with her hands.

Andrea bent down and pressed a soft kiss to the middle of her forehead. ‘I can sleep in one of the spare rooms if you’d like? It might help you sleep better.’

Her hand gripped his arm. ‘No. Please don’t do that. I...’ She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue, her gaze shimmering. ‘Would you just...hold me?’

Andrea slipped into bed beside her and gathered her close, his head resting on the top of hers as she nestled into his chest. Her silky hair tickled his chest and her body curled up so close made him feverishly aware of every place where it touched his. Her breathing slowly settled and he stroked the back of her head as if he were soothing a child. He couldn’t remember a time when he had held someone in such an intimate embrace. Not sexually intimate, but with an emotional honesty he found strangely moving.

A faint alarm bell sounded in his head but he disregarded it. He wasn’t getting too close to Izzy. They were both clear on the rules of their marriage. She was just feeling a little emotional due to hormones and he was comforting her. That was what any decent man would do, right? He wasn’t falling in love with her. That was a line he was never going to cross.

Not with Izzy.

Not with anyone.

Izzy sighed and made a sleepy murmur and then turned over so her back was towards him, her legs in a sexy tangle with his and her neat bottom pushed up against his groin. Andrea wrapped his arms around her, enjoying the feel of her spooning against him. His hand held the heat pack to her stomach, and then, when it lost its warmth, he replaced it with his hand. Her stomach was flat but a thought crept into his head—of her belly slowly expanding as it accommodated a baby. His baby. He pushed away the thought but it kept coming back like smoke curling under a locked door. He had never pictured himself as a husband, much less a father. Having children was what other people did. Whenever he walked past families he thought, Not for me. It was an automatic response and he had never questioned it.

But now, holding Izzy in his arms with his hand pressed against her abdomen, he wondered why he was feeling this vague sense of emptiness. Like something was missing from his life but he wasn’t sure what it was. Maybe it was the merger still hanging over him. Once that was sorted he would feel more balanced.

More in control.

And right now a little more control was exactly what he needed.

CHAPTER TEN

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