He stopped stroking and she looked up at him. Although she missed his touch, she was grateful that he’d stopped. For God’s sake all he had to do was touch her and here she was blabbing about France. A lot had changed since then, and to be honest with herself about it.
His eyes were almost…sad. “The doctor is on his way,”
“What doctor?” Attempting to orientate herself to at least sound as if she were in some sort of control, Anna sat up, glancing at the bedside clock, appalled to see the hand edging towards eleven. “I’m supposed to be at the hospital in five minutes.”
“Forget about the hospital,” Cedric responded. “Garth Wilson is a leading obstetrician-well, according to my manager’s wife. I have to admit I had my reservations at first. From my brief conversation he’s into house calls and really getting to know his ladies. Personally I prefer my doctor with a mahogany desk between us.”
“Of course you do.” Anna sniffed.
Cedric ignored her. “Anyway, I’ve checked all his credentials, which are pretty impressive, so I’ve asked him to take over your care.”
“Excuse me?” Anna would have stood, would have jumped right out of the bed and extended her frame for all it was worth, but given that she was naked she had to settle for sitting up with the sheet wrapped firmly around her and fixing Cedric with what she hoped was a withering stare.
“If I want a second opinion, then I’ll arrange one myself. I certainly don’t need you to do it on my behalf. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to call the hospital and see if I can reschedule my appointment.”
“Forget the hospital.” Cedric shook his head. “Forget nameless faces looking after you. You need continuity of care…”
“Since when did you become such an expert on women’s health?” Anna stopped, not waiting for a response before she carried on hotly. “I don’t want to hear another word about private obstetricians and home visits; there’s absolutely no need for this.”
“Oh, I’d say there’s every need.” In a surprising move he lowered himself from his rather menacing position standing over her and instead sat on the edge of the bed, his voice almost bordering on tender when he spoke. “Anna, you’re underweight, your blood pressure’s through the roof and you collapsed yesterday due to dehydration.”
“I’ve explained all that,” Anna argued, but Cedric shook his head.
“You forgot to eat, Anna. Yes, your mind was on other things, but you can’t put everything down to yesterday. I don’t know much about pregnant women but I’d hazard a guess that their weight is supposed to go up.”
“How do you know it hasn’t?” Anna retorted.
He shook his head, one hand moving across the rumpled sheet, catching her calf through the cotton. Like a knee-jerk reaction, she went to pull it away, his touch more than she could bear, but Cedric held on tightly and she stared back at him, like a startled kitten. “I’ve seen you, Anna, remember?”
And he did remember, every day, every night he remembered, and staring at her now, feeling the warmth of her leg through the sheet, it was so easy to drift back, to capture for a tiny second the moment it had all started.
“Cedric,” Anna’s pale whisper pulled Cedric sharply back to reality. “You can’t compare my body now to how it was then… I’m pregnant,”
Anna didn’t want to remember, didn’t want to cloud the issue, didn’t want what they had once shared in any way to impinge on the decisions she made today, and it wasn’t fair of Cedric to bring the past up now, not when there was a doctor on the way, not when there was absolutely no chance of seeing the conversation through to its entirety.
She could feel the heat of his hand searing through the sheet, feel the caress of his fingers on the back of her calf, the nub of his thumb pressing into her flesh, and she knew he felt it too, knew he was remembering all that had taken place between them. The primitive, animal arousal in the air was so thick she could almost taste it, but as her words hit their mark Cedric moved his hand away.
“I wasn’t.” His voice was full of scorn. “I wasn’t,” he repeated as if saying it again might somehow alter the truth. “I was referring to the fact that you weren’t like this weeks ago when I saw you after I returned to Haerton, nothing else. Nothing else!” he said again, only more loudly this time.
His hand that had just touched her clenched so tightly the knuckles were white, eyes furious with his blatant denial, and Anna lay reeling, appalled that even the memory of their time together could trigger such a fierce response in him.
“You owe it to the baby to see this doctor,” he said in a more reasonable voice. “You need proper care and clearly whatever you’ve been getting hasn’t been sufficient.”
She gave a tiny, reluctant nod. “Okay, I’ll see him, but I’m warning you, Cedric, I don’t want you making decisions like this without me. I won’t have you interfering this way. I mean it,” she added firmly, but Cedric just stood up.
“Let’s see what the doctor says, shall we?”
“Lose the we, Cedric.” She watched his hand pause on the handle, saw the dart of frustration in his eyes as he turned around. “I will see the doctor and then I will have my own mind,”
He gave a small nod, made to go then changed his mind, determined to have the last word. “At the very least keep an open mind, Anna. Listen to what he has to say before you form an opinion.”
“That’s a bit rich coming from you, Cedric,”
The door was almost closed behind him, but she shot out her response, equally determined to say her piece. Yet despite her secret intention to remain suitably unimpressed with the undoubtedly expensive private obstetrician Cedric had infuriatingly chosen for her, Anna saw in an instant why Garth Wilson was so successful with his ‘ladies’.
In contrast to her visits with any given doctor at the hospital, going over and over her antenatal history to an unfamiliar face, Garth instantly put her at ease, taking his time to listen to her before finally examining her, and his care didn’t end there. He sat on the edge of the bed and carefully went through her birthing options, happily open to her suggestions for as natural a birth as possible.