To Make a Marriage(12)

He watched warily as she swung her legs to the floor, sitting up now as  she looked across at him with enquiring eyes. It had been this way  between them since-since that night, he acknowledged wearily.

He hadn't left her apartment that night only because she'd asked him to.  No, he had also seen the shocked dismay in her face when she'd realised  what they had just done, a wishing that it had never happened.

He had left her that night knowing they could never go back now, that  the easy friendship that had existed between them was no more. That it  never would be again.

He hadn't gone straight to his own apartment but had parked his car and  walked. And walked. And walked. Desperately trying to find a way back  from the dark abyss they had fallen into. There wasn't one, he had  finally accepted.

That conclusion had been borne out over the next few weeks, Andie not  around whenever he'd visited Rome at the estate. And Andie had returned  the flowers he had sent to her office on the Monday morning following  that fatal night, having obviously read the card that had accompanied  them, her own message written clearly beneath his apology-'Not as sorry  as I am!'

Not as sorry as she must have been when she'd found she was pregnant with their child …

Adam moved out of the shadows of the villa, having already removed his  jacket on the drive from the airport, the heat of the late August  Majorcan sunshine having hit him like a blanket as he'd stepped out of  the air-conditioned airport.

'Who told you?' Andie demanded as he came to stand beside her. 'Or do I really need to ask?'

'It wasn't Rome,' Adam assured her softly, looking down at her with  hooded eyes, still having difficulty accepting that his child nestled in  the warm perfection of her body. It didn't really show yet, only a  gentle swell visible to the smoothness of her tummy over the green  bikini. 'He is otherwise preoccupied at the moment,' he added  derisively.

Andie nodded abruptly, reaching up a hand to the sunglasses that lay  amongst her honey-blonde hair, bringing them firmly down over the  windows of her eyes. 'I intend returning for the wedding next month,'  she revealed.

The two of them had pushed Rome in the right direction where Audrey was  concerned and, having proposed and been accepted, Rome was now wasting  no time in making Audrey his wife!                       
       
           



       

Adam's mouth tightened as he thought of the battle he had in front of  him to do the same where Andie was going to fight against accepting  that, probably with the last breath of her body!

'So who did tell you, Adam?' Andie prompted.

He wished she didn't have those sunglasses covering the usual candidness  of her eyes, wanted to reach out and remove them-but he already knew,  from the experience of last weekend, that she would recoil away from him  if he tried to touch her. She had done it so many times already …

'I called into your office in the week to see you-'

'Why?' she queried flatly.

Because he hadn't been able to stay away from her any longer! Because he  knew she would never voluntarily make a move to see him. Ever again!

'You left last weekend without saying goodbye,' he granted, remembering  all too clearly his heart-sinking disappointment the previous Sunday  when Audrey had told him Andie had left earlier that morning. Before the  two of them had been able to talk any further …

Andie's mouth turned down at the corners. 'I hadn't realised you were such a stickler for good manners, Adam!' she taunted.

He drew in a harsh breath before dropping down onto the lounger next to  hers. It hadn't been easy to come here at all, the delays at the airport  and subsequent two-hour flight not helping his feelings of  trepidation-and his legs were now shaking so badly they wouldn't support  him any more!

It hadn't seemed this complicated when he'd been in England. Away from Andie …

He had been shocked to his core when he'd learnt of Andie's pregnancy.  But once over that shock, his own part in that pregnancy acknowledged,  the way had seemed clear and simple. Andie would have to marry him …

But looking at her now, the unsmiling line of her mouth, the stubborn  jut of her chin, Adam knew there was going to be nothing clear or simple  about persuading her that a marriage between the two of them was the  only answer!

'I'm not,' he answered her taunt, running a hand through the slight  dampness of his silver-blond hair. 'I-your assistant editor explained  that you're away on-on maternity leave.' And his shock on hearing that  hadn't yet receded!

'May I?' he indicated the jug of iced lemonade that sat on the table at her other side, the accompanying glass empty.

'Help yourself,' she invited, standing up before he could reach across  her, slipping lightly by him to go and stand at the railing of the  terrace, gazing out over the calm blue-green of the Mediterranean Sea.

Adam drank the lemonade thirstily, wishing, as he looked over at the  rigid set of Andie's back, that it were whisky. He definitely felt in  need of something stronger than lemonade!

'It's beautiful here, isn't it?" she murmured as he joined her beside the rail.

It was beautiful, the villa built into the terraced hills on the west  coast of the island, a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree view of the sea  visible as far as the eye could see.

'Peaceful, too,' Andie added with a faint sigh.

It must have been peaceful for her-until he'd arrived, Adam acknowledged  heavily. He had been to the villa with Rome and Barbara in the past,  its remote spot appealing to the other couple. A woman came in from the  village every day with the necessary shopping, staying on to cook and  clean, meaning that they didn't have to stir from the villa at all if  they didn't want to. As Andie didn't seem to have done …

'I'm sorry, Andie,' Adam said.

Her profile suddenly became rigid as she stared out to sea, her hands  tightly gripping the metal rail. 'I was too, to begin with,' she  admitted jerkily. 'But now-somehow I don't seem to mind any more,' she  acknowledged softly, her face still averted. But one hand moved  protectively to the soft swell of her tummy …

His heart leapt at the admission. Although he knew only too well, from  her lack of pleasure in his arrival a few minutes ago, that her feelings  towards the baby had nothing to do with him, that maternal instinct was  probably the reason for her change of heart.

'I actually meant I was sorry to have interrupted your peace and quiet,' he told her dryly.

Andie glanced at him now, lips twitching as she held back her smile at  his humorously raised brows. 'How silly of me.' She shook her head  self-derisively.

Adam became serious again. 'I- It seems a little early for maternity  leave.' He frowned. 'Is there anything wrong? With you? Or the  pregnancy?' His knuckles showed white on the rail as he waited for her  answer.                       
       
           



       

'No,' she assured him lightly. 'I did have a little scare early on-it's  okay,' she quickly soothed. 'But Jonas has advised it might be best if I  don't continue to work through the pregnancy.'

'So that's how Danie met the man!' he realised. 'She didn't waste any  time, did she?' he added ruefully; Andie was only three months pregnant.

Andie laughed. 'Jonas didn't realise what had hit him!'

Adam knew how he felt! The Summer women were absolutely lethal. 'What are we going to do, Andie?' he prompted.

She stiffened defensively, her mouth once again unsmiling. 'I have no  idea what you are going to do, Adam,' she said. 'But I am going to soak  up the sun for several more weeks, before I have to return for Daddy and  Audrey's wedding, and then I will probably stay at the estate until  after the baby is born.'

'Not "the" baby-ours!' he corrected more harshly than he had meant to.

He couldn't help it; the thought of Andie having their baby still made  him shake with reaction. Possessive reaction. He wanted to just gather  Andie up, her and the baby, and keep them safe for the rest of their  lives.

But one look at Andie's determinedly set features told him it wasn't going to be as easy as that!

'Andie.' He turned to her, gently grasping her shoulders and turning her  to face him. Although those damned sunglasses still hid her eyes from  him!

'Don't!' she cried, shying away as he would have reached up and removed  the sunglasses. 'Why have you come here, Adam? What do you want?'

What did he want? If he told her that, she would start running and never look back!

Stay cool, Munroe, he instructed himself severely. Hadn't he already  done enough to this woman, without scaring the life out of her with the  intensity of his feelings concerning her and their expected baby?

'It's not a question of what I want, Andie,' he ground out. 'It's a question of what is necessary.'

Her chin tilted challengingly. 'And that is … ?'

'Marriage!' The word burst out of him forcefully. 'The two of us have to get married, Andie,' he added with grim determination.