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Azar stared, wondering how he could have blocked so many obvious details from his mind.
With a heavier dose of the unease that had been eating away at him since last night, he forced himself to remember those flashes of innocence when they’d touched.
But, Nick’s possible scheming aside,she had still chosen him over Azar.
Yes, she might have been settling for second-best, but he couldn’t overlook the fact that the choice had been made.
And he, having spent his childhood coming second to his mother’s rabid ambition to elevate herself in lifeat all costs, had felt something crack in him when she’d made that choice.
It had been unforgivable then.
It was…should be…unforgivable now.
Unless she’d struck out in blind self-defence? Had her‘I’m with Nick now’been designed to hurt with words and not an actual truth?
But even as those niggles of doubt swelled bigger inside him he was fighting not to reach across the table, to experience the silky smoothness of her warm, firm skin all over again.
Arizona hadn’t been enough.
Last night had been nowhere near enough.
He was beginning to entertain the jarring possibility that what he was facing was a challenge without end.
He pushed every single disconcerting thought aside and nudged the fruit one inch closer. ‘The doctor is waiting for us. And he will most definitely not consider it progress if you turn with an empty stomach.’
Her frown deepened. ‘I can see him on my own.’
‘You can, but you won’t. Even if you can’t stand the sight of me right now, we have appearances to uphold—remember?’
‘And that includes invading my privacy?’ she bit out.
The signs of her fire were better than her chilled distance, even if she was using that fire to push him away.
‘What privacy,tesoro? You already had Dr Ramsey share your history with me. There’s nothing more to hide, is there?’
Her eyes flashed with the pure fire he’d hoped to provoke. And,sí, maybe he was playing dirty, but he wasthatunsettled.
When he had her attention, he nudged the plate another daring inch closer.
Unfiltered exasperation was stamped in every inch of her body, but he watched her devour the fruit. And when he slid her a plate of buttery croissant, ham and eggs, he enjoyed watching her consume that too with way more satisfaction than he should have felt.
But he didn’t even fight it. Theirs was a conundrum hidden in a maze. It would take time to unravel.
And if he sensed time already slipping through his fingers…? That she might make another choice, leaving him in the cold once more…?
The constriction in his chest froze his breath.No.He would not permit that to happen.
What if the choice isn’t yours?
‘I’m done. Let’s go and get this over with.’
She stood, blissfully unaware of the tectonic chaos unfolding within him.
Max was tidied up, and she caught him in her arms and strode for the door, her intention not to leave him clear in every sinew of her beautiful body. It was a plan he wasn’t about to argue with. The thought of those hours last night still sent faint ripples of icy horror and dread through him, along with the knowledge that any harm befalling his son would’ve destroyed him.
But in the clear light of day he also realised that the ordeal had done something else. It had cut through his deep need to claim and establish a relationship with his son and turned it into a deeper yearning formore. And not just with Max.
He wanted more with Eden, too.