Page 17 of Bought For The Marriage Bed

‘I insist on picking you up.’

‘I won’t be going with you if your car isn’t adequately fitted for carrying a child. It’s not safe.’

Marc released his tight breath. ‘I will have the seat fitted if it is the last thing I do, all right?’

‘Good,’ she said. ‘Can I trust you on that?’

Marc closed his eyes and counted to ten.

‘Marc?’

His eyes sprang open at the sound of his name on her lips. She had such a breathy voice, like a feather stroking along the sensitive skin on the back of his neck.

‘Yes…’ He cleared his throat. ‘You can trust me.’

‘I’ll see you tomorrow then,’ she said into the small silence.

‘Yes.’ Marc released his suddenly choking tie. ‘See you tomorrow.’

The doorbell rang at nine-fifteen the next morning, but Georgia was still crying, as she had done from the moment she’d woken at five a.m.

Nina was getting desperate. She was already aching with tiredness, and the beginning of what promised to be a monumental headache was marshalling at the back of her eyes.

She gently patted Georgia’s back as she answered the door, her hair hanging limply around her shoulders and her eyes hollow from lack of sleep.

When she saw the tall imposing figure of Marc Marcello standing there it was all she could do to stop herself from howling in a similar vein to the small child in her arms.

‘Is she sick?’ Marc asked, stepping inside.

Nina brushed a long strand of hair out of her face and gave him an agonised look as the door closed behind him. ‘I don’t know. She’s been like this from the moment she woke up.’

Marc took the baby from her, resting his open palm over the baby’s forehead to check for a temperature.

‘She is warm but not overly so.’ He lifted his eyes back to Nina’s. ‘Has she had a feed?’

Nina shook her head. ‘She turned away from it. I’ve offered it three or four times but she keeps pushing it away.’

‘Maybe she needs to see a doctor,’ he suggested. ‘Who do you usually see?’

Nina looked at him blankly. For the life of her she couldn’t think of who Nadia had taken Georgia to for her monthly check-ups, if indeed she had at all.

‘I…’

Marc gave her an accusing look. ‘You have taken her to a doctor, haven’t you?’

‘Ah…’

He let out his breath on a hiss of fury. ‘This is a small child,’ he railed at her. ‘She is supposed to have regular jabs and weigh-ins to make sure she is growing to schedule.’

‘She’s perfectly healthy,’ Nina said, wincing as Georgia let out another howl of misery.

Marc raised an accusing brow as the baby continued to cry in his arms. ‘You think so?’

Nina bit her lip. ‘Maybe she’s teething.’

‘She is how old? Four months? Isn’t that a little early?’

‘I don’t know! I’ve never—’ She stopped herself from saying the rest. How close she had been to telling him she knew nothing about babies! What sort of mother would he think her?

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