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He shook his head in despair. “You’re determined to be sofucking noble. Did you ever stop to think of how this would play out if our positions were reversed?”
She shook her head. “But it’s not,” she cried. “I’m the one?—”
“Who has to make all the sacrifices? Even more than you’ve already done?”
“You don’t understand?—”
“Then educate me. Or actually don’t. I’ve had it up to my back teeth with you falling on your sword for everyone.” He stepped forward and grabbed her arms. “Be selfish for goddamn once. Demand what you want. Take what you need and to hell with everyone else. You want me. Take me, dammit. Don’t apologize or make excuses not to have me.”
Her eyes rounded when he held up the scan. “I didn’t plan for this, but I’m making room in my life for it because I have no choice. You have a choice to make room in your life for me. Do you want to?”
She squeezed her eyes shut for a blessed second. “Yes. Yes, I do.”
His eyes narrowed. “You said yes to me once, and I dared to believe you meant it. You better make sure you mean it this time.”
“I mean it. If you want me, Noah, I’m yours.”
He stared at her for a long time before he exhaled harshly. Crushing her in his arm, he muttered, “God, you drive me crazy. I have no metaphorical toes left from dancing to your insane tune.”
Her heart hammered as she sought the words she needed to say. “Noah, about… about the baby.”
He stiffened. “Yes?”
“You know what I said about not wanting to be saddled… I didn’t mean it. If you want me to be part of yours and the baby’s life, I’ll?—”
They both startled as the phone rang. She knew the moment Noah realized what she was thinking.
Phone calls in the middle of the night were never a good sign.
“Leave it,” she pleaded.
Noah soothed her shiver with warm hands. “Okay, if that’s what you want.”
The ringing stopped. Then started again almost immediately.
“No,” she whispered under her breath.
“Hey.” He lifted her chin and pressed a kiss to her lips. “Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it.”
Gritting her teeth, she nodded.
He picked up the phone, listened, and looked over at her. His closed face set her heart racing. “It’s for you. From your office.”
She gave a sigh of relief. Business problems she could deal with, although finally talking to Noah about Ashley and the baby hadn’t gone too badly.
She answered the phone, her mind on that last, most important thing she needed to say to Noah.
At first, her PA’s words barely trickled through. Then she clutched the phone and fought the icy shivers dancing up her nape.
“Hang on, Celia, could you repeat that?”
“I’m sorry, Miss Michaels…” Her PA’s voice shook.
“Stop apologizing and tell me what’s going on.”
“I… I managed to track down the manager from our manufacturing outfit in Hong Kong. The reason they’ve been out of touch with us… Well, the manager says the warehouse burned down. We’ve lost the whole collection.”
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