Page 35

Nothing that had happened had made him change his mind, except that ship had sailed. He couldn’t even pretend an indifference to her feelings.
The silence pulsated.
‘Is this why you connived, and if you deny it I won’t believe you, you connived, pulled strings and, well, the stuff you do in your sleep, Draco, to have me here in your bed?’
‘I did not have to drag you here,cara.’
‘No, but—’ She took a deep breath, planting both fists against her chest as she pushed out, ‘There are rules. Don’t look like that. This is not a joke to me,’ she flared.
‘All right, what are your rules?’
Her lips tightened at the suggestion he was humouring her. ‘Well, for starters, this stays private.’
‘I was not about to invite an audience.’
Jane slung him a look, annoyed that he didn’t seem to be taking this seriously. ‘You know what I mean, no public displays of...’
‘Affection?’ he inserted when she stumbled searching for the right word.
She refused to let his sarcastic interruption put her off. ‘This is sex, not commitment.’ She almost felt stupid pointing this out, but the rule was for her own benefit as much as his. The best way to avoid heartache was by killing dead any irrational expectations before they took root. ‘And most importantly you need to understand that, for me, Mattie always comes first.’
The silence that had grown heavier as she spoke stretched.
Draco was not questioning her words, but his own reaction to them, which ought to have been living the dream...? Sex with no expectations of it becoming something else, no romantic gestures or pretending to feel what he didn’t.
He was not normally on the receiving end of rules, which might account for the irrational surge of dissatisfaction underlying his response.
‘It sounds workable,’ he finally responded coolly.
There was nothing cool about the smouldering expression in his eyes as he dragged her down to lie on top of him.
Every cell in her body wanted to relax into him, meld her curves to his hard frame, but one cell of sanity enabled her to draw back. She just prayed he would never know how hard it was for her to roll away. He made no attempt to prevent her.
‘I need to get back to Mattie.’
‘I will be away tomorrow,’ he heard himself say in some sort of reflexive response to the rejection.
Fine.
With her hand halfway to Mattie’s mouth with a spoonful of baby gunge Jane was telling him was super-delicious, her own mouth fell open.
She might even be drooling.
‘I thought you were away today?’
Her accusatory tone was aligned with the fact that Draco was not away. He was here, radiating an electrical charge of energy that sent her nervous system into shameful overload.
‘You decided to eat in the nursery,’ he said, not addressing her comment or his presence. He surveyed the table. ‘Except you are not eating.’
‘I have had coffee and some fruit.’ She blinked as someone in uniform appeared with a trolley bearing waffles and scrambled eggs. At least those were the items she could identify.
‘I didn’t order these.’
‘No, I did. You sit and eat. I will feed the baby.’
‘You...?’
He arched a brow. ‘You think me incapable of managing this task?’ he challenged, wondering if she might be right.