Regret Me Not by Clare Connelly

Author:Clare Connelly [Connelly, Clare]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

HE WATCHED HER PLAYING with Jack across the terrace, a rock in his gut. He’d been so sure, last night, that he was doing the right thing. Clearly spelling out where he was at and what he wanted. He’d been so sure she’d see the sense in what he was proposing and agree to keep things as they were.

Simple. Satisfying. Pleasurable.

She hadn’t.

“I need to sleep. And think.” Her smile had been tightly dismissive. “Let’s talk tomorrow.”

What could he do? He’d put the ball in her court and she was holding on to it. He’d nodded curtly, resisted the impulse to kiss her goodnight – knowing a kiss would inevitably lead to her curling her hands around his neck, pulling his head lower, to her wanting more and him needing more.

So he’d shrugged and smiled and walked from the room, wondering at the sense of misgiving in his belly.

“Count with me,” she smiled at their son, a natural smile that reminded him of the first night they’d met, when she’d laughed so freely. He ran a finger around the top of his glass and pushed the newspaper aside.

“One,” the little boy placed a block on the tiles of the terrace and Elodie nodded encouragingly, taking another block and placing it on top of the first.

“Two,” they said in unison.

Her grin widened. Something in the region of Fiero’s heart opened up.

“Three.” The next block found its place.

“Four.”

He wanted their son to know Italian, too. That would come, surely, being surrounded by Italian speakers, here in Rome. Elodie would need to learn the language too.

The idea had him sitting up a little straighter, the sudden movement drawing Elodie’s quick glance, her eyes resting on his face, a frown tugging at her lips, all of the joy of a moment ago gone.

His gut wrenched.

“Mama?”

She jerked her gaze back to Jack, the smile forced. “Right. Where were we?” She reached for another block and placed it on the top. “Four.”

“No,” she murmured kindly, and pointed to the bottom. “One, two, three, four…”

She watched their son expectantly. Something glinted in his eyes, a dimple scoring deep in one cheek, and he lifted his hand to the middle of the tower of blocks and swiped at them. “Crash,” he grinned, and Elodie laughed, reaching for him and tickling his sides.

“Oh, you are a cheeky monkey, aren’t you, little Master?”

Fiero stood, his ribs feeling as though they were being cracked wide open. Jack was his son. And she, Elodie was…a beautiful mother.

His eyes swept shut; he turned away from them for a moment, uncertainty shifting through him. She’d been here a little over a week, and he’d promised her six months. How the hell was he going to endure this?

All of his calmly laid out plans of the night before evaporated.

He no longer knew what made sense.

“There is a playground near here. Let’s go and see it.”

He chose not to turn around to face her. Something strange was happening to him, it was as though his being was being unstitched, piece by piece.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.