he even have emotions? That was something she was beginning to doubt.
But she thought she’d seen something in his eyes when he’d given her that fleeting kiss right after they’d exchanged their wedding rings.
He hadn’t touched her since, not even an accidental brush of his arm to hers.
She ran the bath and added a good dollop of scented bubble bath to it, watching the foam develop in the swirling water, determined not to cry.
When it had filled sufficiently, she walked back through the bedroom to the dressing room and armed herself with a pair of pyjamas, her oldest, most comfortable pair. Javier wouldn’t care that they were as sexy as a clown’s outfit. She’d worn her prettiest nightdresses all week and he hadn’t even cared to look at her in them.
She was about to step back into the bathroom when a vibrating sound caught her attention and a quick look found her phone on the bedroom table. A member of the staff must have put it there. She’d forgotten all about it, not having used it since at the hotel with her parents that morning.
She turned it on to find three returned messages from Freya.
She read the first.
What? Sophie, you CANNOT marry Javier. He will eat you alive. Come to France. We’ll take care of you and the baby.
The second:
Call me.
Then the third—the one she’d heard vibrate a moment ago.
It’s never too late. Please, Sophie, for your baby’s sake, take your passport and run. If you cannot escape then just say the word and we will rescue you.
Sophie read the messages with unfamiliar anger swelling inside her.
She fired a message back.
I don’t need rescuing. Javier is the father of my child. I’ve married him.
Less than a minute later came the reply.
You don’t know what he’s capable of. He destroyed Benjamin and they’d been friends since they were babies. His own twin has disowned him. He is unfit to be a father. He’s dangerous. He will destroy you and your baby. Let us help you.
‘You look worried.’
Sophie screamed and jumped.
She had no idea how a man as large as Javier could tread so quietly that she hadn’t heard him enter the bedroom.
She backed against the wall and pressed the phone to her chest, an automatic action, which caused him to narrow his eyes.
‘Something I should know about?’ he asked when the only sound coming from her was ragged breaths.
She wanted to smile and say there was nothing wrong but knew her scarlet cheeks would betray the lie.
He treaded slowly towards her with his hand extended. ‘Give me the phone.’
She shook her head and whispered, ‘You don’t need to see this.’
He really did not need to see those messages.
‘I will be the judge of that.’
He stood before her, the expression in his eyes clearly stating she would be going nowhere until she gave him her phone.
She dropped it into his hand, her heart dropping to her feet with it. If she didn’t let him read them it would fester in him. He might make assumptions that were even worse.
They needed to build trust between them, which meant openness and honesty.
But she wished he wouldn’t read them.
By no stretch of the imagination could Javier be described as an angel but those were messages no one should have to read about themselves.
He scrolled through them, emotionless.
After an age had passed he looked back at her, a pulse throbbing in his temples. ‘Do you believe yourself to be in danger from me?’
She didn’t have to think twice about her answer. ‘No.’
He was dangerous, that she did believe. Javier was a man you crossed at your peril. Cross him and he would strike back twice as hard with all the force at his disposal.
His chest rose as he breathed deeply. ‘Maybe you should believe it.’
‘And maybe you should trust that if I thought you were a danger to me or our child I would never have exchanged vows with you. I would have kept our baby a secret from you.’
Silence stretched between them and with it a tension, there in the air they breathed, thickening as it wrapped its tentacles around them.
The intensity of his stare upon her, the swirling shapes forming and darkening the light of his eyes...
She had never seen it before. Not even when he’d leaned in to kiss her...
Low in her belly a heat began to grow. It spread into her veins and down into her bones, then pulsed to cover her skin with warm, darting tingles.
His breathing deepened visibly but still he didn’t speak, his jaw clenched too tightly for words.
The ache she carried with her intensified and suddenly Sophie knew, as she knew he would never hurt her, that he would never make the first move to touch her. She didn’t know why but she knew it to be true.
If she wanted their marriage to be a true one and not a piece of paper she had to be the one to instigate it.
Gathering all her courage, she slowly turned her back to him and tried to breathe through the thuds of her heart. ‘Could you undo my dress for me, please?’
There was a long pause.
‘Please? I can’t reach.’
She closed her eyes and held her breath.
The hairs on the nape of her neck lifted and her skin warmed as he stepped to her.
At the first touch of his fingers to her spine the breath she’d been holding escaped.
Javier fought to keep his mind detached from what his fingers were doing.
He found the top button, a tiny, delicate creation, and, careful not to touch her milky skin, undid it.
Then he unbuttoned the one below and the one below that, not allowing even a breath of air into his lungs as he worked.
When he reached the final button at the base of her spine, he stepped back and cleared his throat. ‘You’re done.’
Was that his voice sounding so thick?
‘Thank you,’ she murmured.
About to make his excuses and leave the room, she turned
