Page 52 of Bedded by a Playboy

But there was one thing he could do, he thought grimly, and he needed to start now. He had to distance himself. So when he moved on, they would both be able to handle it.

He finished putting away the paints.

He needed to see her, to talk to her. He couldn’t wait until tonight to get this settled. She should be back from the shopping trip with Linc and Emmy she’d mentioned that morning. He could stroll on over to the house. If he could just get her on her own for a moment.

He walked into the bathroom, stripped off his stained work jeans and stepped into the shower.

As the cold water hit him full in the face, he gasped. But once the water had heated up and he began to soap his tired, aching body, the tension inside him finally began to ease.

All he needed was to talk to her, maybe hold her a little, make love to her again. Everything could be as it was before. He couldn’t tell her he loved her. Serious wasn’t for them. But they could still enjoy each other for a little while longer.

Ali leaned back on her heels and felt every single muscle and sinew in her lower back scream in protest. She dropped the small garden fork clenched in her fist and tried to massage the pain away.

What had she been thinking trying to weed the flowerbeds while she was over eight months pregnant? She’d had some vague idea that it would help her forget the throbbing ache that had been pummeling her back all morning, but it hadn’t helped a bit.

She was just trying to figure out how she was going to get up off her knees without a tow truck when Monroe strolled into view round the side of the house.

‘Thank you, God,’ she gasped.

Monroe spotted his sister-in-law immediately, her dress speckled with mud and her face contorted in pain. His heart skidded to a halt and then started beating in double time as he raced over and knelt beside her.

‘Ali, what are you doing?’

‘Digging my way to China. What does it look like?’

Okay, so she wasn’t in the mood for kidding about. He took her arm and saw her wince as he eased her to her feet. Now he wasn’t either.

‘What was Linc thinking?’ he ground out. ‘Letting you loose on the garden when you’re about to have his baby?’

‘Oh, shut up,’ Ali huffed. ‘I put up with enough macho rubbish from him this morning before he left.’

‘I see,’ Monroe said carefully. ‘So I guess the trip to China wasn’t Linc’s idea?’

Ali shot him a withering look, but her fingers tightened on his arm as she tried to straighten.

‘Can you walk?’ he asked.

‘Of course, I can walk. I’m not an invalid.’ The crankiness in her tone didn’t dim the pain and frustration he could see in her eyes. It was starting to scare him.

‘I don’t know what makes men think that women lose all their faculties the minute they become pregnant,’ she snapped.

The statement would have had more heat if she hadn’t then groaned and clutched her back. ‘Ow-w-w!’

‘Forget this.’ Monroe bent down and picked her up.

‘Put me down. You’ll do your back in. I weigh a ton.’

She certainly wasn’t light. But he had no intention of putting her down as he marched across the pool terrace and into the house.

‘Where’s your bedroom?’ he asked as he walked across the living room.

‘You are not carrying me up the stairs. I can…Ah-h-h!’

He felt it then, the way her belly clutched hard and rigid against his forearm. She started to pant, tears sliding down her cheeks as she squeezed her eyes shut, gritted her teeth against the pain.

‘Damn it, you’re having a contraction!’ His arms shook. She was in agony. What should he do?

The contraction seemed to last for an eternity before she opened her eyes and looked at him.

---