Nick’s hand came down on her shoulder, halting her. “Where were you?”
With her standing two steps above him their eyes were level. Seeing the dark blue this close up was strangely intimate…and incredibly disconcerting. Candace sought a distraction. “Is your sister still here?”
“No, she left hours ago. I was about to file a missing persons report.”
She hitched Jennie up higher in her arms and smiled uncertainly. “You’re joking, right?”
The brooding scrutiny he subjected her to made her heart skip a beat. “Except I wasn’t sure that you were missing…I thought you might have taken Jennie into hiding.”
“Kidnapped her?” Astonishment caused her to blink. “I’d never do something so stupid.”
His mouth relaxed imperceptibly. But all he said was, “Good.”
“If I did something like that, I’d kiss goodbye to any sympathy I might get from the courts when I challenge your custody of Jennie.”
Nick glanced over her shoulder, and Candace became aware of Mrs. Busby hovering in the lobby.
“I’ll take the baby, shall I?” she asked.
Reluctantly, Candace surrendered Jennie to the housekeeper.
“Come into the sitting room.” Nick stood back, allowing her to pass into the stark room that Candace had decided she hated.
She halted in the middle of the cold space and wished, for once, that the immense flat-screen television was on so it could break the taut silence that vibrated between her and Nick. Candace could see the tension humming in his tall lean frame.
“I’d advise you to think long and hard before deciding to drag this through the courts,” he murmured. “You have everything to lose.”
Instantly, she started to panic. “What do you mean?”
He came closer, and the breathless fear changed into something else…something more dangerous, rooting her to the spot.
“It would be foolish to threaten me.” He spoke through his teeth. “I’m being as patient as I can. Don’t push me too far.”
“Or what?” Candace challenged boldly. “What will you do?”
“I might be tempted to pursue court proceedings myself and have you prohibited from coming within a hundred feet of Jennie.”
The impact of his words jolted her. Candace stared at him, stunned by his reaction. If he made good on his threat, her baby would disappear behind high walls and electronic gates. Then she’d be forced to go to court to challenge the legality of his custody of Jennie. That would take money. A great deal of money. Money that she didn’t have.
A vision of a future too bleak to contemplate faced her. She’d be standing on the outside—in a world that would become a desert if she was without her baby.
“You can’t do that.”
“Is that a challenge?”
“No…please.” Tears spilled out her eyes. “I couldn’t bear never to see Jennie again. Please, not that.”
“Oh, Christ, don’t cry!”
The rough brush of his mouth against hers came as a shock. Yet instead of shoving him away Candace found herself yielding…leaning into the warmth of his body as he kissed her again. And again.
She tasted the salt of her tears, a hint of mint. Then she closed her eyes and her body slumped against him, his heat and hunger filling the empty numbness. His arms steadied her, pulling her more firmly into his embrace.
One hand stroked her hair, and he whispered, “Steady on.”
She rested her head against his shirt and sniffed.
His hands cupped her nape, tipping her head back. She shut her eyes, refusing to let him see the hopelessness, the hurt flooding through her.
“Look at me, Candace.”
Finally, she opened her eyes.
There was an expression on his face that caused her throat to constrict.
“I shouldn’t have said that.”
“You’re such a bastard.” She discovered she was crying in earnest now. “How could you do that to me?”
“Candace—”
“Don’t touch me.”
She wrenched herself away and rushed from the room before he kissed her again…and she lost what little of her heart still remained intact.
Nine
In the summery morning light that streamed into his bathroom and sparkled off the white tiles, Nick stared at a face half covered in shaving cream in the mirror.
His eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep. Through the long hours of the night he’d been unable to shake from his mind the hurt, shocked look in Candace’s eyes. Her pain had haunted his dreams last night.
He didn’t much like what he saw; he wasn’t proud of himself.
Without flinching, he thought about how the women in his life might have reacted if they’d been caught in the same position as Candace: Bertha Williams, his grandmother, his sister…even his devious wife. And he came to one conclusion.