passing her the
glass. Belle took it from him but he had a feeling that the water would have
been over his head if her coughing fit had not taken precedence. Once she’d
regained her composure, her eyes met his, they were as green as the Christmas
trees they sold on the farm, deep and dark…and oh boy, they looked mad. The
dark green eyes holding his mesmerised him; he couldn’t stop looking at her
beautiful face. The way her small nose turned up at the end, the long dark eye
lashes that were so seductive, the deep cupid’s bow of her lips that was so
delicious to taste.
“Ethan—”
“Thompson.” He raised a grin.
“No way on this earth am I leaving my
home with a man I’ve only—”
“Slept with,” he interrupted, narrowing
his eyes so she couldn’t see the mirth that he knew was in them.
“Once,” she interjected.
“I can soon remedy that.” Ethan stood
and her hands gripped the edge of the table pushing back. They stood facing
each other off.
He was close enough that he could almost
hear her heart beating as her breath came through her slightly parted lips. She
was so tiny, so petite compared to his big frame, he was almost afraid to
touch her.
“Not a chance,” she said looking up at
him, her tone emphasising her words. “No way. Ethan the first time was a
mistake, there won’t be a second time. We don’t even know each other, we were
strangers in the night…it was a huge mistake”
He looked down at her, and she
moved further away but he just followed until her back was against the wall. He
reached up and placed his hands on either side of her head, and the wall was
warm beneath his touch.
“We may have been strangers but what we
had, what we did produced a baby…our baby... and you can bet your life I am not
walking away from that.” He leaned down. “The small seed inside of you was made
out of passion, a feeling of connection between two people. Do you have any
idea how rare that is, this thing that is clawing at my gut is you. I want to
get to know you . I want to explore what we have together.”
He let his mouth touch her small
shell-like ear, her skin warm and soft to his lips.
Chapter
3
Belle sucked in a breath when as his
lips touched her ear, just a whisper, just a touch, so gentle and light; it
literally took her breath away. How was this so? How did he do that to her, take
her breath away with a simple touch? But it wasn’t just his closeness that
tugged at her heart, it was his words.
A dry mouth made her swallow hard, her
mind raced for answers that would suit them both. This was crazy, he was just
feeling responsible and she couldn’t base any relationship on him just wanting
to do the right thing. The circumstances of her condition were not going to
change but she’d seen too many young women marry just because they were
pregnant. At the women’s shelter there was plenty there to remind her of that.
Belle laid her hands on his chest…it was
hard, solid and warm to the touch even beneath his clothes; she remembered all
too well how that felt—skin on skin. From somewhere deep, the strength came to
push him away.
She walked across to the sink and rinsed
her hands with cold water; the blast of iciness gave her a focus away from him.
Picking up the towel from the hook she dried them, before turning to face
Ethan.
He stood with his back to the unit that
she had been leaning on, his arms folded, his expression unreadable. Belle
swallowed back the dryness in her throat.
“I know you’ll want to be part of your
son or daughter’s life. I will never deny you that but I will not go with you
just because we are having a child.”
He didn’t say a word although his jaw
tightened and his lips thinned slightly but his eyes were still gentle. Her
heart thawed a little.
“However seeing that you’re here and
Christmas Eve is tomorrow…by the way, haven’t you got family you need to spend
it with?”
“I have, but I’m not ready to leave here
yet,