LITMIR.BIZ

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protect my own,’ was all he said, as if that should mean something to her.

      Well, it didn’t. ‘I do not belong to you.’

      The square cut of his chin jutted as he turned them around in the car park. ‘As my wife you belong to me, as does the child in your womb.'

      ‘If there is one—if!’

      Car tyres crunched as they drove over gravel. A few seconds later they were turning onto the road. ‘You had your chance to make it a definite no, Louisa, and decided not to take it.'

      Heat flooded her cheeks. ‘I will not apologise for that decision.'

      ‘Did I ask you to?’ He sent her a cool glance as the car accelerated away, all slick, smooth man of the minute, she observed with a resentful sting. A sophisticated man in his sophisticated suit driving his sophisticated car, wearing a sophisticatedly implacable expression on his too, too handsome face.

      ‘Implied it,’ she said, seeing herself sitting beside him in her high-street skirt and little top and with about as much sophistication running in her blood to make a complete mockery of the fact that they had ever been drawn to each other in the first place!

      ‘Then I apologise. It was not intentional.’

      ‘How did your henchman know what I was thinking outside the pharmacy anyway?’ she flung out.

      ‘He didn’t. He merely relayed your movements to me and I drew my own conclusions.'

      ‘So you’re very clued up on tacky things like the morning-after pill?'

      ‘As, by all accounts, are you,’ he returned. ‘In truth,’ he added after a moment, ‘at first I thought you must be hovering over going in the shop to buy a pregnancy-testing kit. It only occurred to me later that you could only be so upset if you had been considering the—other thing.'

      Louisa froze where she sat, she was so stunned that she had not thought of buying the test kit herself!

      Twisting round in her seat, ‘Take me into town and I will buy a test right now,’ she said urgently.

      ‘And give the islanders something to really gossip about?’

      He had an answer to everything. Sinking back in the seat she seethed in silence for a few seconds—then suddenly took notice of where they were.

      ‘You’ve gone the wrong way—the hotel is in the other direction.'

      His answer was a quick, smooth change through the gears and an indifferent profile.

      ‘Andreas …’

      ‘I know where we are going,’ he drawled.

      ‘But,’ not liking this, not liking the tight, tingling feeling that was telling her she had lost control of everything that was happening here, ‘I need to go back to the hotel,’ she insisted. ‘I’m meeting Jamie there in less than five minutes and you—'

      ‘Liar,’ he said. ‘I met Jamie in town this morning. He has gone fishing for the day with Yannis’s son.'

      Silence met that. Andreas turned his head to study the way she was sitting there with her silky blonde hair blowing back from the delicate formation of her face so she could not hide the guilty look at being caught out with the lie. She was not breathing as far as he could see and her teeth were pressing sharp crescents into her soft lower lip.

      ‘He did the protective-brother thing and warned me to stay away from you,’ he extended coolly.

      ‘Oh, he didn’t.’ She closed her eyes on a groan.

      Turning his attention back to the road, ‘It was his right to do it,’ Andreas shrugged. ‘I respect him for it.'

      ‘What did you say to him?’

      ‘I told him nicely to stay out of it,’ he responded. ‘Then I loaned him some money because he was hovering around the bank, which was closed, and the wall machine was not working.'

      ‘Jamie accepted a loan—from you?’

      Her disbelief made him grimace. ‘Not without a bit of manly posturing,’ he admitted. ‘Then, because he did not like to take anything from me without some pay-back, he told me about an enterprising guy called Max Landreau …'

      The air inside the open-top car had been circulating quite pleasantly but at that precise moment it seemed to go perfectly still. Lifting up her chin and turning her face to the sun-kissed coastline speeding by her side of the car, Louisa pressed her lips together and refused to say a single word.

      Tension inched into the sun-drenched vehicle.

      ‘Who is he?'Andreas asked when it became clear she was going to say nothing at all.

      Building an image of Max’s tall dark shape in her head, she paused before answering, ‘That is none of your business.'

      The hiss of his breath kept her chin up and her face averted. ‘He could become my business if you slept with him before you came here.'

      That twisted her head around. ‘I beg your pardon?’ she prompted indignantly.

      ‘If you are pregnant,’ he enlightened, ‘we could have a paternity question to deal with. Very messy.'

      ‘And who have you slept with in the last month?’ she flicked back.

      He frowned. ‘My recent sex life could not become a problem.'

      ‘If you were as careless with her as you were with me it could be! Now, there’s an interesting concept,’ Louisa laughed through her shimmering anger. ‘Two of your sexual partners pregnant at the same time … What will you do in your quest to have no child of yours born out of wedlock, Andreas? Dump the wife and marry the mistress?'

      ‘We were discussing your relationship with Landreau.’ He frowned. ‘Jamie said the guy wants to marry you.'

      ‘Well, lucky me,’ she mocked, thinking—you wretch, Jamie! ‘So which do I choose; the useless husband or the fabulous lover?'

      Long fingers flexed on the steering wheel at her very measured insult aimed at his sexual prowess. ‘I am being serious.'

      ‘Well, I am seriously not going to be pregnant,’ Louisa flashed. ‘And if I am unlucky enough to find out that I have conceived a baby I will not play the role of your unworthy wife again!'

      ‘Tell our son that.’

      The pained gasp she released hurt her throat and brought his face swinging round to flick a hard crushing look. Angry did not cover it, uncompromising ruthlessness did.

      ‘Tell Nikos that you are not prepared to sacrifice everything for his brother or sister in the same way that you did for him.'

      ‘Now who’s talking about him as if he’s still with us?’ Louisa pushed out chokily. ‘And you should be ashamed of yourself for saying any of that at all!'

      Breathing gone thickly haywire now, she turned her face away again, vibrating inside with hurt. Another silence stung between them like killer bees on the rampage. They’d almost reached the far end of the island when he swung the car off the road to dip down a track through a thicket of trees.

      They came to a stop in a dusty clearing. The engine died. The mood between them was thick. Louisa was fighting the lumps of tears lodged in her throat. Andreas climbed out of the car and came round to her side. When he opened the door for her she just remained sitting there refusing to look at him, refusing to move. The arm that lanced across her to unfasten her seat belt brushed against her cheek and sent her head jolting backwards. The air hissed from between his clenched teeth in response because it was so clear that her reaction had been one of revulsion.

      ‘I want to go back,’ she insisted.

      ‘Tough,’ he roughed out, hard fingers closing around her wrist like a manacle so

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