She set her mug on the bedside table as her stomach clenched up again. ‘Do you believe in fate, Alex?’
‘Not real y.’
He didn’t pick his mug up again. He remained with elbows on knees, his ful attention focused on her. For a moment it made her feel spotlighted—at the centre of his world. She shook herself.
‘Why?’ he asked.
She swal owed again, found her fingers had started pleating and unpleating the quilt. She gripped them together to stil them. ‘Maybe I’m not fated to be a mother. I didn’t realize I was pregnant for three whole months. I drank caffeine and the occasional glass of wine, and…and I didn’t do stuff that I would’ve done had I known.’
He frowned. ‘Kit, you’re going to be just fine.’
‘Fine?’ Her voice rose. ‘How on earth can you say that? On Monday I didn’t even realize I was sick!
Honestly, Alex, what does that say about me and the kind of mother I’m going to make?’ Her heart ached.
She pressed her palms to her eyes for a moment before dragging them back into her lap. ‘It doesn’t before dragging them back into her lap. ‘It doesn’t reflect very wel on me, does it? For heaven’s sake, I don’t even know how to change a nappy! Maybe…’
She gulped. ‘Maybe I’m not meant to be a mother.’
‘What the hel …? No!’
Alex jumped up, knocking over his mug in the process. With a swift curse he tore off his T-shirt and used it to mop up the spil .
As a broad expanse of naked flesh met her gaze, Kit’s eyes went wide. She could feel them getting bigger and bigger as the space in her lungs for air became progressively smal er and smal er. Her thought processes slammed to a halt. Alex’s shoulders and chest and the sculpted line of his back
—tanned, muscled and toned—al beckoned to her.
She knew from experience how firm his skin would be to the touch. And how warm.
Her pulse skittered and skipped and skated through her veins.
‘Didn’t want the rug to stain,’ he said, his voice gruff as he glanced up at her.
She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth, felt an answering tug in her womb as he rose to his feet and stood before her in al his half-naked glory. She remembered another time… Her stomach, her lips, her limbs softened.
Oh, dear Lord! She tried to catch her breath. ‘I…
um… You didn’t need to ruin your shirt in the process.’
He lifted one powerful shoulder as he sat again, the T-shirt hanging negligently from his hands. ‘I’l throw it in the wash later. It’l be fine.’
The muscular definition of his biceps and the sinewy strength of his forearms had her melting against the bedclothes. He was so tanned. Had he worked beneath a hot African sun without his shirt?
‘You’re going to be a great mother, Kit.’
That dragged her attention back. His eyes had darkened to coal and they stared at her intensely as if by their very force they could compel her to believe his words.
‘What makes you so sure?’ she whispered. She wanted to believe him—desperately—but…
‘Look at how much effort you’re going to in order to provide your baby with the best life you can.
You’ve moved back to this place that you love because you think it’s a good place to raise your child. You’ve bought a house and you’re getting it ready for your baby’s arrival. You’re surrounding your baby with a community of people who wil love it almost as much as you wil .’
She bit her lip.
‘Kit?’
She glanced up into those coal-dark eyes again.
‘You love your baby. That’s more important than knowing how to change a nappy or abstaining from caffeine or…or anything! You want to be a mother, right?’
She nodded.
‘Then you’re going to be just fine. You’l learn al the things you need to know about being a mum along the way. You have your family and friends and your baby books to help you. You’l probably make the odd mistake because you’re human like the rest of us, but it won’t mean you love your baby any less and it won’t make you a bad person. It certainly won’t make you a bad mother.’
She blinked, considered his words, and then sent him a shaky smile. ‘You’re right. Thank you. I’m sorry, I just panicked for a bit.’
‘Nothing to apologise for.’
He leaned back in his seat. It highlighted the flatness of his stomach and the way the muscles there coiled and flexed beneath his skin. Her gaze drifted downwards and she noted how the waistband of his jeans sat low on his hips. Her mouth and throat went dry.
‘There’s something I’d like to discuss with you, Kit.
