Page 44 of The Tycoon's Shock Heir

Not yet, a voice told him. Not yet. Take it easy. She’s vulnerable, and look what happened the last time.

He needed way more than sex now. He needed her here, by his side, working things out together. This family, this merger, this life.

She reached for the sheet, pulled it up to her chest. ‘If you don’t mind...?’

He stood. ‘Of course. Join me on deck for breakfast when you’re ready. The shower’s in there. David’s delivered a load of clothes—just take what you want.’

He lifted his notebook, the pen. Took two steps and opened the door.

‘As soon as you’re ready we can talk.’

CHAPTER TWELVE

‘OVER HERE.’

Ruby stepped out onto the deck into a brilliant blue-washed day, where sky met sea in strips of azure and indigo and shards of sunlight beamed like lasers all around. They were in the middle of nowhere. Literally not a speck of land was anywhere to be seen.

She looked up to see Matteo. He too had showered and changed. A tight white T-shirt stretched over his broad chest and light blue jeans hung low on his hips. Her eyes dropped automatically to the waistline and the erotic trail of dark coarse hair that disappeared into his groin.

He leaned over the railing, beckoned for her to join him at a table laid with breakfast things.

‘You look lovely,’ he said, reaching for her hand and helping her climb to the top of the ladder onto the deck.

For a moment she felt lovely too. Stepping into silk underwear and trying on summer dresses had helped to quell her nausea and for ten glorious minutes she’d felt like a little girl at the dressing up box, lost in a froth of pretty clothes.

‘How was the toast? Did it work? Could you eat some more?’

She climbed the short flight of steps to the next deck and there saw a table awash with fruit and yogurt and baskets of bread. Hunger battled nausea and won. She was starving, but she wasn’t going to accept anything until they’d had a proper conversation.

‘Where are we?’

‘Boats have a habit of moving when you untie them.’ He smiled. ‘Just a little bit of privacy, Ruby. I wasn’t going to hang around the Riviera to find myself the subject of any more gossip. This—’ he held out his hands ‘—is private. There’s too much at stake for me right now to have anything go wrong.’

So she was right. He was keeping this under wraps. Alarm bells started to ring.

‘I’m not going to hide away, Matteo. You can’t keep me on a boat for the next seven months.’

‘I don’t plan to hide you anywhere. But staying back there wasn’t an option. You saw the press there last night—I don’t want anyone crawling around in my private life and I’m sure you don’t either.’

‘My private life is an open book,’ she said, as spiky hackles rose on her skin. ‘I’ve got nothing to hide.’

‘This isn’t about hiding, Ruby,’ he said calmly. ‘It’s about getting time together away from everything else. This is big. Huge. We need to get our heads around it.’

‘It’s quite simple. We’re going to have a baby,’ she said, hearing the shrill note in her voice and hating how desperate she sounded. But she was desperate. If he didn’t play his part she was as lost at sea as if she’d fallen overboard.

He sighed. He smiled. He put his hands on her arms and pulled her towards the chair.

‘Yes, we are. And from here on in we’re going to be adult about this. What’s the rush? We’ve got plenty of time to talk things through. And as soon as we’re both ready we’ll tell the world. Not before. I don’t want this to overshadow anything. I’ve got other stuff on the go and I want some time. That’s all. That’s not unreasonable, is it?’

‘I suppose not,’ she said reluctantly, calming at the lull of his voice and the gentle slosh of the boat on the water.

There really was no rush, she told herself. He seemed to be accepting it. He hadn’t denied it or accused her of sleeping around. He hadn’t howled or beat his chest or simply disappeared. He’d sat by her bed through the night and he hadn’t made a move on her.

She felt her shoulders slump and a slow breath ease out of her chest. The steady slap of water on the boat and the endless hazy day seemed to smooth her hackles, quiet her mind.

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