Princes Waitress(60)

‘You’re extremely angry with me, and I can’t blame you for that.’ He studied her for a moment and then reached gently for her hand and curled her slender fingers into a fist. ‘You can hit me again if you like.’

‘It didn’t make me feel any better.’ She pulled her hand away from his, hating herself for feeling a thrill of excitement instead of indifference. ‘And I’d be grateful if you’d stop looking at me like that.’

‘How am I looking at you?’

‘You’re sizing up the situation so that you can decide which of your slick diplomatic skills are required to talk me round.’

‘I wish it were that easy.’ Casper lifted one broad shoulder in a resigned gesture. ‘Unfortunately for me, I have no previous experience of handling a situation like this.’

‘Which is?’

‘Grovelling.’ A gleam of self-mockery glinting in his sexy eyes, he reached for her hand again, this time locking it firmly in his. ‘I was wrong about you. The baby is mine. I know that now.’

Holly closed her eyes tightly, swamped by a rush of emotions so powerful that she couldn’t breathe.

He believed her. He trusted her.

Finally , he trusted her.

And then she realised that something wasn’t quite right about his sudden confession and her eyes flew open. ‘Wait a minute.’ She snatched her hand away from his because she couldn’t keep her mind focused when he was touching her. ‘The last time I saw you, you were accusing me of having an affair with Eddie—when did you suddenly become rational?’

Dark streaks of colour highlighted his aristocratic bone structure, and Casper spread his hands in a gesture of conciliation. ‘I believe you, Holly. That’s all that matters.’

‘No.’ Holly scrambled to her feet, knowing that she only stood a chance of thinking clearly if he wasn’t within touching distance. ‘No, it isn’t. You went to the doctor, didn’t you?’

A muscle flickered in his bronzed cheek. ‘Yes.’

Holly wrapped her arms around her waist and gave a painful laugh. ‘So you placed your trust in medical science, not me.’

‘Holly…’

‘So they’ve told you that you’re capable of fathering a child. That’s good. But it still doesn’t tell you that this child is yours, does it?’

His stunning dark eyes narrowed warily, as if he sensed a trick question. ‘I have no doubt that the baby is mine.’ He drew in a long breath, his shimmering gaze fixed on her face, assessing her reaction. ‘I have no doubt that you have been telling me the truth all along.’

‘Really? What makes you so confident that I didn’t have sex with the whole rugby team once I’d finished with you?’ Her voice rising, Holly winced as the baby planted another kick against her ribs, and glared as Casper lifted a hand in what was obviously intended to be a conciliatory gesture.

‘You’re overreacting because you’re pregnant. You’re very hormonal and—’

‘Hormonal? Don’t patronise me! And anyway, if I’m hormonal, what’s your excuse? You overreact all the time! You accuse me of having sex with just about everyone, even though it should have been perfectly obvious to you that I’d never been with a man before. You thought I was some scheming hussy doing some sort of—of—’ she searched for an analogy ‘—paternity lottery. Trying to win first prize of a prince in the “most eligible daddy” contest.’

Casper rose to his feet, a tall, powerful figure, as imposing in casual clothes as he was in a dinner jacket. His mouth tightened and his lean, strong face was suddenly watchful. ‘You have to agree I had reason to feel like that.’

‘To begin with, maybe. But not once you knew me.’ Dragging her eyes away from the hint of bronzed male skin at the neck of his shirt, Holly stooped and stuffed her few items back into her bag. She wasn’t going to look at him. So, he was devastatingly handsome. So what? ‘I loved you, Casper, and you threw it back at me because you’re afraid.’

He inhaled sharply. ‘I am not afraid. And you’re stuffing sand in your bag along with the books.’

‘I don’t care about the sand! And you are afraid—you’re so afraid you’ve shut yourself down so that you can’t ever be hurt again.’ Frustrated and upset, she emptied her bag and started again, this time shaking the sand onto the beach.

Casper stepped towards her, dark eyes glittering. ‘I came here to apologise.’

Holly stared at him, wishing he wasn’t so indecently handsome. Wishing that she didn’t still ache for him to touch her. ‘Then you definitely need more practice, because where I come from apologies usually contain the word sorry at least once.’ With a violent movement, she hooked the bag onto her shoulder and reached for her hat, but he caught her arm and held her firmly.