“Why did you come to me at all? You had to know I wasn’t interested in seeing him.”
Guilt creased her expression. “I knew Niko planned to leave everything to Aurelia. I was sworn not to tell anyone about her, but if you had come to the island, you would have met them and learned everything.”
“Seems a dirty trick on Kiara. I thought she was your friend.”
“She is. And I only wanted to give you the chance to learn what he planned so you could make an informed decision about rejecting his money. My conscience demanded I do that much! What happened between us was completely unexpected.”
“It was unexpected?” he scoffed.
The sexual tension between them had simmered for years. He had ended a longtime relationship immediately after the first time he’d met her, convinced he would sleep with Scarlett by the end of that week. He’d been too proud to chase her, though, and she’d been tied too tightly to Niko to visit him more than once or twice a year. Each time she had left a wake of what-ifs until that last time when their chemistry had burst into flames.
Then she had still gone back to Niko.
“Ask yourself how you would be feeling right now if everything was going to Val’s daughter,” she challenged softly.
“I’d feel great.” But his mother would have had a stroke. Even so, he said, “Don’t pretend you did me a favor, Scarlett. You’re as bad as he is, making choices for people that change lives.”
“I’m being punished for my poor judgment, trust me,” she choked. “Maybe if you’re lucky, I won’t survive, and you can ride your high horse forever.”
“Too far,” he snarled, appalled she would think he wanted her to die. He wasn’t enjoying her suffering. He sure as hell didn’t want anything tragic to happen to her or his unborn child.
Her phone rang.
“Kiara,” she said as she answered with shaking hands. “I’m in labor, what do you think? How did you do this?” That might have been an effort to make light, but her arm was trembling as though the phone was too heavy for her to hold to her ear. Her voice didn’t disguise her fretfulness as she added an urgent, “No, wait.”
She glanced at him, doubt and distress clouding her blue eyes along with a question.
“Javiero wants to stay with me.”
He did. He stepped closer without hesitation, as if he could physically oust anyone from trying to get between them. He wasn’t sure where that compulsion came from. So far this had been a hellish reunion for both of them and it didn’t promise to get better, but this was exactly where he would stay until his baby was born.
Then he didn’t know what he would do.
He was close enough to hear the woman’s voice ask, “What do you want?”
“I don’t know.” Scarlett rubbed at the crinkle of anguish between her brows. “I had to tell him everything. Now he thinks you shouldn’t be here. Because of Val.” She sounded bereft. Anxious and deeply vulnerable and... Was she crying?
Scarlett was tough as nails. She argued with reason, stuck to her guns and kept her cool. That was why he had always found her so infuriating. And compelling.
The sight of a tear leaking from the corner of her eye down her cheek snapped his roiling emotions into a new pattern, one that drew her firmly behind the shield of protectiveness he’d been wielding against her.
The flip of mind-set happened so fast it made him dizzy, but one thought crystalized—whatever else was going on between them had to wait. Right now, Scarlett was in genuine distress.
He touched her bare knee to get her attention. She apprehensively met his gaze and he held it. He shoved all his anger and resentment into compartments behind his breastbone and deep in the back of his throat. He conveyed confidence he had no right to because he had no idea what they were in for, but here he was and here he would stay.
A fraction of her tension eased, and her mouth trembled while the woman’s voice softened. He only caught the gist that Kiara was promising to book into a nearby hotel. She said that Scarlett should call her if she wanted her.
“Thank you,” Scarlett said in a quavering voice. “I’m a wreck and—Oh, here comes another one.”
He gently took the phone. “Breathe?” he suggested gently.
“I am breathing.” She sounded petulant. Persecuted. “What do you know about it? Oh, my God, I hate you for doing this to me.”
That stung, but he ended her call and set the phone aside. Then he stepped between her knees and took her weight as much as he could while she pinched his biceps in biting fists and pressed her forehead into his shoulder.
He rubbed her back, trying to ease the rigidity in her.
After a full minute, she slumped weakly against him. Her hands still clung to his sleeves and her head rested against his heartbeat. Her tears dampened the front of his shirt.
“We’re not going to fight anymore,” he promised as he continued to rub her back. “Not right now. Our baby won’t be born into a war zone the way I was.”
As far as Scarlett knew, Niko hadn’t been present for the birth of either of his sons. She hadn’t expected Javiero to be here for this. She probably should have drawn back when the pain passed, but she stayed leaning on him. It felt too good to be held by him.
“I’m scared,” she admitted. Terrified, more like. “I was Kiara’s birth coach and thought that meant I knew what to expect. I convinced myself it would be different for me. I would handle it better because I’ve had more practice at keeping a stiff upper lip. She’s kinder and softer in all the right ways, but I’m starting to think she’s the bravest, strongest person I’ve ever met.”
He continued the soothing run of his hand up and down her back. It
