page30 (1/1)
‘Yes’ Allegra tossed her phone and clutch on a chair and wrapped her arms around herself With her tuown she looked like a slender, burning flame, and Rafael wanted to wrap her in his arms, not out of desire now but to offer her co it felt like a pain, breaking open a scar deep inside him, a barely healed wound from when he hadn’t been able to help To save anyone
‘I should go to bed,’ Allegra said softly ‘It’s late’
‘Allegra’ He wanted to say so of what he felt, desperately needed to offer her soive? To whatever news it did, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it
A shudder racked her body and it felt like a wound to his heart He hated seeing her suffer, knowing she was afraid, just as he was Then she lifted her head, regarding Rafael with tear-daht, Rafael,’ she whispered, and walked out of the room
CHAPTER SEVEN
ALLEGRA COULDN’T GET to sleep She lay on her bed, staring gritty-eyed at the ceiling, everything leaden inside her It had been such a ht exciteh her blood, bubbles popping inside her head The music The mood The moment when Rafael had looked so sexy and intentand then the realisation, cold and hard, that this was all ephemeral and tomorrow reality would return with a dreadful thud
She pressed one hand against the soft swell of her bu Be safe Yet she kneasn’t in her baby’s power to be healthy It wasn’t in hers either
Around two in theto co to make herself a cup of herbal tea and then sit out on the terrace, watching the city settle down to sleep, but she stopped on the threshold of her bedroo roo pyjama bottoms, a tumbler of whisky cradled in his hands
He looked up at her quick intake of breath, giving her a smile that was both sad and wry ‘You couldn’t sleep either?’
‘No’ She shook her head ‘I was going to ot soer’
‘I need it’ Rafael’s voice was hoarse, and pain flashed like lightning across his face
It surprised her, because although Rafael was doing what he saw as his duty by her, Allegra had assuly, that he didn’t really want this child He’d said as much back in Rome, and he’d refused to talk about the what if? scenarios until they knew more She realised she’d assumed he hadn’t really cared, not the way she did, and yet now, looking at the set of his jaw, the slump of his shoulders, she wondered if he shared her fear, her agony If he longed for their child to live and be strong and healthy as much as she did
In the kitchen she brewed a cup of cha up on the opposite side of the sofa fro his strong jaw and the perfect, sculptedof dark hair for a V down to the loaistband of his pyjamas
But Allegra wasn’t thinking about how handso how sad he seemed, and it made her ache
‘I’ve felt the baby kick,’ she said quietly Rafael turned to look at her, hisopen in surprise
‘You have?’
‘Just in the last few days I didn’t knohat it was at first It feels like bubbles popping inside me Little flutters’ She took a deep breath ‘But they’ve becoer in the last day or two, al ht with the force of her feeling, the strength of her emotion
Rafael leaned closer, his expression intent ‘Telling you what?’
‘Telling me that he—or she—wants to live’ She scanned his face, looking for clues to how he felt, what this could mean—for both of them ‘That this baby wants to live, no matter what’