“You’re right I’m selfish,” he continued, “And you don’t have to be sorry for pointing it out, but I’ll be selfish as hell when it comes to protecting this child.”
“Don’t you mean your ticket to getting your inheritance?” she shot back, unable to stop herself.
Tears brimmed in her eyes, and the color was so vivid, so beautiful, and for a tiny second there as he touched her, he felt as if he had come home. Home, not just to some tropical paradise, where lush green trees reached for a sky that blended with the ocean, but home to the capricious, captivating spirit of Anna, and so alien was the feeling that welled inside him, so physical the pain that suddenly gripped him, it took a second for Cedric to register it as need. A need so pure he could feel it, a yearning for the balmy, safe haven he had found all those months ago, for the time spent in each other’s arms and minds, when the world had seemed at peace; and he ached, ached to reach over to catch the splash of tears that rolled down her cheeks, to pull her in his arms and make her world safe. But he couldn’t, because it was clear now that he’d ruined everything. It was too late. She hated him and she was never going to forgive him, but he had one more chance with their child, and he wasn’t going to ruin that too.
Anna could feel the tiny hairs rising on the back of her neck as he moved away from her, the chilling feeling that suddenly everything had become even more complicated, finally admitting to herself that today wasn’t going to end well, that things had, in fact, just started.
“Wait here,” he ordered, jangling her car keys in his pocket and pinning her with his eyes. “I’ll go and get your car home. Back to Haerton,” he emphasized, before she could say a word. “but don’t even think about discharging yourself and jumping in a taxi, Anna. Believe me, I’ll find you.”
_____________
She should go.
Every sensible thought told Anna to just demand the drip be taken down, pack up her few things, jump in a taxi and get the hell out of there. Cedric Blackwood had no say here. He couldn’t demand she stay at the hospital. Time and again she pushed down the cot side of the trolley, picked up a cotton swab, ready to pull the blessed drip out herself. It was her life, her choice if she walked out of the hospital this very moment; his idle threats bore no weight in the real world. He counted for nothing here.
She knew she was wrong though. He was still her husband and this was his his child, so he did have a say. But time and again she pulled the side of the trolley back up, leant against the pillows in utter defeat as the fluid dripped into her veins, knowing it was only herself she was kidding.
Cedric Blackwood counted for everything, and deep down she knew she needed the drip. She knew she had to rest, for the sake of her child, but did she have to do it at Haerton? With the way she felt when she was around him, would being in the same house with him not elevate her blood pressure?
She sensed his presence before she saw him. Felt the tension in the room lift a notch as the doctor removed her drip and the nurse helped her out of her gown, and tried to ply her shaking body into the beastly black dress.
“I’ll take it from here.” Cedric’s voice said. He stood at the entrance, supremely in control, trapping her with his gaze as the medical personnel drifted off.
“I can dress myself, thank you.” But pride had no place in this hospital; shaking hands and his unwavering gaze made the simplest task impossible. With only one stocking on it was easier to rip it off than attempt the other, forcing bare feet into her shoes, then reluctantly taking his hand as she lowered herself off the trolley.
“Have you got everything?”
“Apart from my pride.” Angry eyes met his. “How dare you demand I stay till you return? How dare you exert your authority on the hospital staff and talk about me as if I were some sort of unhinged person? I nearly went, you know.”
“But you didn’t,” Cedric pointed out, not remotely fazed by her outburst. “Turn around; your zip’s undone.”
And if she hadn’t been months pregnant she’d have reached her hand behind her back and pulled it up herself in one lithe movement, but pregnancy allowed for no such luxuries, and pulling her dress to her waist and half doing the blessed zip up then twisting it around as she had done this morning clearly wasn’t an option right now.
Instead, burning with shame, she stood stock still, refusing his order to turn around, her breath catching in her throat when Cedric gave an easy shrug and moved behind her, piling her curls unceremoniously on top of her head and lifting her hand to hold them.
“It’s stuck.”
She could feel his breath on her neck, feel his warm fingers as they tugged at the treacherous zipper that had chosen the worst possible time to give in on her. Okay, it wasn’t a maternity dress, just a simple linen shift, and maybe Anna had been pushing her luck choosing to wear it today, but never had she envisaged this outcome. When she had put it on this morning, not for a single second had it entered her head that Cedric would be dressing her later. Undressing her maybe.
The honest admission, even if it was only to herself, caused a deep blush to darken her cheeks, spreading over her neck and down to her swollen breasts. As his hands made contact with her spine it was as if he’d reached into her body and touched her somewhere deep inside, her whole body involuntarily quivering as slowly he worked the zip upwards, pressing one hand onto her exposed flesh, past the black of her bra strap, up between her shoulder blades, her arms trembling as she held her hair out of the way, eyes closing as he moved to the tiny hook and eye at the top of the neckline, his touch more than she could bear and be expected to breathe.