He snapped the book shut and rested his head in his hands. A baby. A child.
He lifted his head, darkness surging up to fil the empty places inside him. He wasn’t doing that again.
He couldn’t.
Kit didn’t understand. Him getting out of her and the baby’s lives—that would be best for her and the baby.
He nodded heavily. And for him too. It didn’t stop a part of him from feeling as if it were dying, though.
When he final y fel asleep that night, Alex had a nightmare about Chad. He raced through a darkened mansion, his legs wooden and heavy, his heart pounding faster and faster as he searched for the two-year-old. Chad’s laughter, always just out of reach, taunted him and spurred him on. The rooms in the mansion went on and on. He tried cal ing out Chad’s name but his voice wouldn’t work. His legs grew heavier and heavier. It took al his energy to push forward. He pul ed open the final door, surged through it, to find himself plummeting off the edge of a cliff.
He woke before he slammed into the jagged rocks at the bottom, breathing hard and with Chad’s name on his lips. He lay in the dark and tried to catch his breath, his skin damp and clammy with perspiration. He tried tel ing himself Chad was safe, living somewhere in Buenos Aires with his mother, but that didn’t ease the darkness that stole through his soul.
Before he and Kit had made love, he hadn’t had a nightmare about Chad in over ten months.
He shoved the thought away. It wasn’t Kit’s fault she made him feel things he hadn’t felt in a long time. It was his fault for giving in to temptation. Biting back a groan, he pushed up into a sitting position.
Past experience told him he would get no more sleep tonight. He dragged a hand down his face.
That was okay. There was stil plenty of cleaning to do.
A sharp rap on the front door just after nine o’clock had Alex fal ing over his feet to answer it before the noise of another knock could wake Kit.
The woman who stood on the other side raked him up and down with bold, unimpressed eyes. ‘I’m Caro,’ she said without preamble. ‘Kit’s best friend.’
She didn’t stick her hand out. ‘Doreen rang me. I take it you’re Alex?’
‘That’s right.’
She folded her arms. ‘I’ve heard al about you.’
He gathered none of it had been complimentary.
‘How’s Kit?’
‘Asleep,’ he ground out.
‘Al night?’
‘She was up—’
She brushed past him into the living room. ‘She’s not supposed to be up!’
He clenched his jaw til he thought his teeth might snap. He unclenched it to say, ‘The doctor said she was al owed up to have a quick shower once a day.’
He felt like a schoolboy hauled up in front of the principal. ‘She had breakfast, took her antibiotics and now she’s sleeping again.’
‘You’d better tel me you prepared her breakfast.’
Who the hel did this woman think she was? He was tempted to shove her back out of the door again. ‘Look, I’m worried about her too. I mean to make sure she fol ows the doctor’s orders to the letter.’
‘I’m going to pop my head in to check on her.’
‘Don’t wake her,’ he growled.
She tossed him a withering glance before disappearing down the hal way that led to Kit’s bedroom.
He scowled after her. She had another thing coming if she thought he was offering her coffee.
Darn it! She was Kit’s friend. He stalked into the kitchen and put the jug on to boil.
Caro entered moments later. ‘You and me—’ she pointed to him ‘—outside, now.’
He blinked. ‘Are you cal ing me out for a fight? I’ve got to warn you, Caro, I don’t hit women.’
She smiled sweetly. ‘It should be a walkover then, shouldn’t it?’ She glared and held the back door open. ‘I want to talk to you and I don’t want to disturb Kit while I’m doing it.’
And she was itching to bawl him out. It didn’t take a degree in economics and a finely honed ability to read people to figure that one out. He decided it might be safer if Caro didn’t have a hot drink in her hand. He preceded her out of the door and into the back garden. Kit’s bedroom faced the street. They shouldn’t disturb her out here.
‘How long before you shoot through again?’
Again? What did she mean, again?
