‘Don’t ever do that to me again, okay?’ he said quietly, the humour in his voice strained.
She sent him a weak smile back, the tenderness and the feeling of vulnerability making her throat ache. She blinked furiously. She never would have expected him to react this way. She hadn’t mentioned the sickness because it would have felt too needy. She’d simply assumed that he probably wasn’t interested in the symptoms of the pregnancy. He’d started dropping by regularly and she liked that. The sex was amazing but she’d also enjoyed the companionship, maybe a little too much. They’d eat the take-out he usually brought while they sat cross-legged on the bed together. She’d ask him about his day. And he’d ask about hers. And it felt comfortable.
But she hadn’t expected this level of intimacy. And she wasn’t sure quite how to cope with it. She didn’t want to need him to be here, but at the same time she couldn’t deny that it was nice to have him hold her like this, to have him care.
‘Is there anything I can get you?’ he asked, and her heart pounded into her throat. ‘Cos I’m figuring the sushi I bought is probably off the menu.’
She wrinkled her nose. She loved sushi, but she wasn’t sure she could keep it down at the moment. ‘Dr Hillier recommended dry toast and herbal tea.’
‘Cool.’ He eased her off his lap, stood up. ‘You stay there and I’ll go get it.’
‘Nate, it’s okay, you don’t know where anything is. I can get...’ But as she tried to stand he placed his hands on her shoulders, edged her back down.
‘Tess, I can figure it out. Let me get it, okay? It’s not that big a deal.’
As he strolled into the kitchen, leaving her sitting on the sofa, she tried to persuade herself he was right. That it wasn’t that big a deal. But as goosebumps pebbled her skin she wasn’t entirely convinced.
Their relationship had changed somehow. Had deepened in a way that didn’t feel quite so casual any more. And the realisation wasn’t doing a thing for her heart rate.
* * *
‘You always smell so good in the morning,’ Nate whispered against Tess’s hair. His arm snaked around her midriff and he pulled her back against his chest.
She smiled at his dark head in the bathroom mirror, his hair still glistening from the shower they’d just shared. The skin under her ear buzzed pleasantly as he nuzzled her neck. She put down the mascara wand. Trying to do her make-up in the morning with Nate in the bathroom was generally a bad idea. One or other of them would get frisky and she’d end up doing a client meeting with only one eyelid properly shaded.
Predictably enough his palm strayed down to the compact mound of her belly, and her thighs got wobbly, even though they’d had lovely, languid wake-up sex less than twenty minutes ago.
‘How’s Junior?’ he murmured, still nibbling on her ear lobe.
She covered his hand, glad that the enquiry sounded a lot less tense than it had a couple of weeks ago, the morning after he’d discovered her retching in the bathroom.
He’d stayed the whole night that night for the first time, rubbing her tummy gently while she’d drifted to sleep. And making her breakfast in bed the following morning when she woke up.
She pushed the memory away. It didn’t really mean anything. It just made more sense for him to stay over, instead of driving all the way back to the city late at night.
‘Junior’s fine.’ She picked up her lip-liner pencil. ‘Now go away before I end up with only half a face on again.’
He made a groaning sound but stepped back. Affection swelled in her chest as she watched him turn his attention to the tie looped round his shoulders. She swallowed down the lump of emotion at the concentrated frown on his face. Funny after having him ‘drop by’ more and more frequently over the last month, it was all the little things about him she had become so accustomed to. The way he liked to spoon in bed after they’d made love like lunatics, the fact that he had no difficulty bounding out of bed at six o’clock when she never felt fully awake now until nearly noon. And the way that little crease always appeared on his brow when he was tying his tie in the morning.
Swivelling round, she brushed his fumbling fingers aside and knotted the tie herself, as she’d also become accustomed to doing.
‘What are your plans for today?’ he asked, leaning forward to check the knot she’d made in the mirror.
‘Eva’s finally coming over for lunch with Carmy, and then I’m checking out that new hotel in Half Moon Bay I was telling you about as a possible wedding venue.’
‘Um-hum.’ He adjusted the tie slightly, then aligned the ends against the buttons of his shirt. Lifting her chin with one finger, he kissed her on the lips and her heartbeat bumped her throat at the tender look in his eyes. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve given some more thought to my offer of investment?’