Emma shrugged. “That’s none of your business,” she said, struggling to sound cool and composed.
“It damn well is my business!” James raged. “He was here, with you. That makes it my business!”
She looked away. “I don’t see how.”
“When someone is running around with what belongs to me behind my back,” James said coldly, “I generally make it my business.”
She glowered. “What do you care? Its not as though I mean anything to you.”
“You mean everything to me!” James shouted. “That’s the damn point!” His tone softened. “And what about the baby, Emma? When were you going to tell me, Em?”
“I don’t see why I should have.”
His eyes widened, and she thought there was just the tiniest hint of pain in them. “You don’t think I had a right to know about my own child?”
“It’s not as though you wanted it, or as if you cared.” Quickly she realised her mistake and amended, “It’s not as though its yours.”
His lip curled. “Nice try, sweetheart. Jordan’s told me everything. There’s no point denying it. The baby is mine. You’re mine.”
She looked up at him at last, her eyes flashing. “I don’t belong to anybody!”
“You belong to me, Emma. You carry my child within you. You’ve been mine the moment I laid eyes on you. Do you know how it killed me, having to pretend for those entire months while you believed you were Kit’s fiance? How, during the nights you’d lie in my arms and yet in the days would not look twice at me? Your eyes were all for Kit, and he didn’t even know you were alive, half the time! And then those months that I waited, waited for you to recover and finally move on, so I, at last, could court you. I’ve waited, Emma. I’ve waited for longer than you could imagine. And now I’m tired of waiting.”
Her lips parted, her eyes bewildered.
“I’m not going to force you. I’ve had enough of that. I’ve had enough of the uncertainty, the constant terror that you’re going to just disappear. Choose, Emma. Choose. I can go, or I can stay. Which is it to be?”
She shook her head, numbly.
“I love you, Emma.”
Emma stared at him. “But – but you said – it was just sex. And what about Kylie?” Her voice hardened. “Or Kyriane. Whatever her name is from upstairs with the noisy bed.”
James smiled. “Jealous, darling?” he taunted softly.
She looked away. “No,” she denied.
He bent down to cup her face in her hands. “Liar.”
Emma scowled. “What were you doing with her anyway?”
He grinned. “You won’t believe this – but she’s my cousin. Actually, she made me sit in the living room while she serviced her boyfriends. It made for bloody awkward conversation, I can tell you.”
“What?” Emma was astonished. “You’re related to Kylie the Sex Kitten? And here I was, thinking the Brandeworths were all high and mighty posh types…”
“Good lord!” James laughed out loud. “Is that what you call her? By the way, she’s related to me on my mother’s side. Not a Brandeworth, you see!”
“Its what everyone calls her. She’s famous in this building.”
“Hmm. I daresay Uncle George isn’t going to be pleased about that. He never has been, about her chosen profession. But never mind. Well? What’s your answer?”
“I love you.” Her eyes widened. The words had slipped from her lips, involuntarily. She groaned, closed her eyes for a moment then leapt to her feet and ran for the bedroom, intending to lock herself in. Startled, James remained frozen for a moment, then bounded after her. He wedged his foot into the crack just before the door slammed. He winced when the door banged into his foot. Pushing slowly, but inextricably, he managed to open to door wide enough to get inside. He grabbed both her arms, and held her against the wall. “What did you say?” James demanded.
Emma flushed. “I You you heard.”
“Say it, Emma.”
“I love you.”
James groaned, buried his face in her throat. “God, I thought I’d never hear you say those sweet words again. I was so stupid, sweetheart, forgive me…Say it again.”
“I love you.”
“Do you belong to me? As I belong to you?”
“James…I love you. I’m yours. No matter what happens, I will always be yours, even if you don’t love me anymore.”
He shouted out exultantly. “And I love you. I’ll never stop loving you, sweetheart. And I’ll never stop belonging to you, either. And are you going to marry me? And have my child? And many more as well?”
She smiled shyly. “Do you really love me, James?”
“Little idiot,” he kissed her, and she suddenly found herself with a mouthful of tongue. “As if anyone could not.”
“I love you too,” she whispered.
“Good,” James said, satisfaction emanating from every part of his body. His eyes gleamed with a fierce possessiveness. “Now kiss me.”
“Ok.” She brushed her mouth against his.
“Not like that,” he murmured against her lips. “Like this.” And then he was kissing her, hard, fiercely, with an unrestrained joy and a hungry, savage possessiveness. He picked her up, hefting her over his shoulder rather like the proverbial caveman claiming his woman.
Emma did not mind. In fact, she quite found that she thoroughly enjoyed being loved… and loved intensely.