One Night with Morelli(78)

                It was only because the hand stroking her hair stilled that she registered belatedly what she had said. She lifted her head, too tired to be appalled by what she had admitted and, with her hands flat against his chest, pushed away until she was standing a few feet clear. Head tilted to one side like a curious bird, she angled a cautious look at his face.

                Draco stood there holding the red ribbon she had hastily tied her hair back with when she had got the call in the middle of the night; it looked incongruous in his fingers. Unable to shake the idea that if she looked away he’d vanish, her eyes clung to his face, which was crazy. He wasn’t a mirage, he was real, and her body reacted to the reality by coming alive… Her nerve endings tingled and her heart began to thud hard.

                Draco’s presence filled any room he entered, but in this antiseptically white box it was overwhelming but also intensely comforting. She had been feeling desperately alone, unable to stop the negative thoughts filling her head, and weighed down by a terrible sense of impending doom.

                And now she wasn’t alone… She pressed her hand to her stomach, thinking she was never alone and never would be again. Not the time, not the place, though, so very not the place to mention the new life growing inside her when another new life so close by was clinging on so tenaciously to his.

                If she hadn’t known before, the past few hours had brought home dramatically to her how precious the life she carried was, and how terrifyingly vulnerable. She had never had more admiration than she did now for her own mother, who had carried that responsibility of motherhood alone, had brought her up all by herself.

                She would tell her—if she got the chance.

                Her lips trembled as she felt tears press at the backs of her eyes. ‘My mum might die, Draco.’

                The fear shining in her eyes pierced him deeper than a blade. The muscles in his throat worked and the rush of tenderness he felt was so strong it took his breath away. He would have given anything to be able to tell her that nothing bad would happen to her ever again.

                He touched the side of her face gently, his fingers brushing over the peachy softness of her smooth cheek before he captured both her hands in his. Drawing them up, he placed them against his chest.

                ‘Why assume the worst when the best could still happen? Your mother is in the best place and you torturing yourself like this is not helping her, is it?’

                Eve swallowed. ‘You’re right, I know, but—’

                ‘It isn’t my mother.’

                ‘No, it’s just this place is…’ She looked around the room filled with the hum and mechanical bleep of the machines that were monitoring her brother.

                ‘What you need is a break,’ he said firmly.

                ‘You can’t help yourself, can you?’ she said.

                He was taking charge again, she thought with a small inward smile. But this time, rather than displaying his usual unstoppable energy, the lines bracketing his mouth were deeper, and those fanning from his incredible eyes were more sharply defined, and his cheekbones pushed tighter than she remembered against his bronzed skin.

                ‘You look tired,’ she exclaimed, then winced. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that out loud.’

                You look beautiful, he thought. ‘Hannah sends her love.’

                Eve gave a tiny smile and tipped her head in acknowledgement. Hannah’s love was good, but it was Draco’s love she needed, Draco’s love she craved, Draco’s love she woke up in the middle of the night feeling the lack of like a big black hole in her chest.