‘I wouldn’t be too sure of that,’ he murmured throatily.
‘I would,’ she assured him flatly, all too aware of how he felt about her sister.
‘Why don’t you try it and see?’ he encouraged softly, seeming suddenly closer now, although Gemini hadn’t been aware of him moving.
Gemini was more sure than ever that he was confusing her with Jemima. ‘You don’t really—’ She broke off as she heard the sound of Jessica’s whimpering cry coming from upstairs.
‘Saved by the bell—or in this case the baby,’ Nick drawled. ‘I think Jessica has decided it’s time for a feed, after all,’ he muttered dryly.
And Gemini, for one, didn’t know if she was relieved or disappointed at the interruption!
There was something different about Nick tonight, on his return from this business trip. He was exerting a sensuality over her that she would have to be totally uninterested not to be aware of—and she was far from being that!
‘You warm a bottle and take it up to her; I’ll turn the lights off down here when I come up,’ Nick told Gemini briskly as he turned away, and that air of intimacy that had briefly been between them was totally dispelled at the return of his usual terseness.
Gemini grabbed the bottle from the kitchen and hurried up the stairs, all the time aware that Nick was still in the sitting-room, where she’d left him.
What had happened between them just now? she wondered as she fed the baby. And had it really happened between them, or had Nick briefly allowed her similarity to Jemima in looks to deceive him…?
Somehow—sadly—she had the feeling the latter was the true explanation…!
CHAPTER THREE
GEMINI couldn’t believe it; her bedside clock read ten o’clock in the morning!
But it couldn’t be. She’d last fed Jessica at two o’clock, and although she knew very little about babies, surely Jessica was too young yet to have gone through the eight hours from her last feed?
Oh, no. Was there something wrong with the baby?
Gemini’s expression was frantic as she jumped out of bed and rushed to the spare bedroom—only to find the carrycot was empty!
But where was Jessica?
She felt sick as she rushed down the stairs. If anything had happened to the baby she would never forgive herself—
‘Where’s the fire?’
She turned sharply at the sound of Nick’s mocking voice coming from the doorway of the breakfast-room, coming to an abrupt halt as she saw the sleeping baby in his arms, her tension leaving her so suddenly she felt like a deflated balloon.
She groaned, putting a shaky hand to her forehead. ‘I thought Jessica had gone,’ she admitted breathlessly, that sick feeling still in the pit of her stomach.
‘She’s a little young to have just walked out of here, don’t you think?’ Nick mocked.
‘Very funny!’ She raised her head to glare at him with angry blue eyes. ‘I had no idea where she could have gone!’
‘And now you can see that she’s perfectly safe down here with me,’ he taunted, turning back into the breakfast-room, looking comfortable and relaxed in faded denims and a black shirt this morning. ‘Come in here and have a cup of coffee; you know you aren’t even halfway human until you’ve had your first cup of coffee of the morning!’
Living in such close proximity with this man meant he knew altogether too much about her, Gemini decided grumpily as she followed him into the breakfast-room and poured herself a cup of coffee. Because he was right, of course—when wasn’t he?
Her first gulps of the rich brew were bringing back some feeling of equilibrium. She frowned as she looked up to find him watching her with an amused smile on his arrogant face as he sat opposite her at the table. ‘It isn’t funny, Nick,’ she complained irritably.
‘I wasn’t laughing at you, Gemini—I was just thinking how sexy you look in pyjamas! And you blush delightfully, too!’ he added teasingly as her cheeks coloured fiery red at the intimacy of the compliment.
Because it was no longer two o’clock in the morning—and Nick was still making flirtatious remarks!
She’d changed out of the grey milk-stained pyjamas when she’d finally got to bed last night, and was wearing another silk pair now, the same cobalt-blue as her eyes this time. And once again she hadn’t had time to put a robe on over their silkiness!
Oh, damn it, after a year of being what she hoped was the perfect wife, always perfectly groomed and dressed, in the last twenty-four hours Nick had seen her not once, but twice, wearing only the pyjamas she favoured for sleeping in. It wasn’t fair!
She pushed some of her hair impatiently back behind her ears as the silky softness fell about her face. ‘I can’t believe I slept until this time of the morning!’ She couldn’t remember the last time she had slept in later than eight o’clock.
Nick shrugged. ‘Jessica woke at seven for a feed, and when I looked in on you you were sleeping so peacefully I just left you to it and fed her myself. It wasn’t a problem.’
Nothing ever was with Nick; he always seemed able to cope with any situation that was thrown at him—including crying babies that needed feeding.
Strange, because when Gemini had first met him, albeit as Jemima’s fiancé, her one worry about the relationship had been how Nick would cope if the two of them had children. He’d already been thirty-eight, his lifestyle firmly in place, and the arrival of children would definitely throw that routine out of the window! It hadn’t been something she’d particularly thought about when the two of them had married instead—children weren’t even a possibility when they occupied separate bedrooms!
But if the situation warranted it, as Jessica’s needing a feed had this morning, Nick obviously felt no qualms about entering her bedroom…
She looked at the sleeping baby nestled in his arms, her expression softening as she saw the total vulnerability of such a tiny creature. She admired the way Nick held Jessica, so capably that the baby couldn’t help but feel secure and loved.
Would she feel the same way if Nick held her like that…?
Gemini looked away abruptly, swallowing hard. ‘You certainly do seem to have a way with babies—’ She looked up questioningly at Nick as he began to chuckle softly.
‘I thought you were going to say with females.’ He dryly explained the reason for his humour.
‘And just how would I know that?’ Gemini came back waspishly, stung by the reference to other women.
Nick tilted his head questioningly to one side as he looked across at her, the intensity of that gaze making Gemini feel suddenly uncomfortable.
She’d said too much again! She seemed to have been doing rather a lot of that the last twenty-four hours, too. But
