“I remembered,” she whispered, her voice solemn. “I remembered something horrific, something I didn’t think I could handle.” She leaned closer, put her hand on his chest and looked directly into his eyes. “And I’m all right.”
His fingers at her neck gave her a squeeze. “I’m glad, my love.”
He started to move to switch off the light again but turned back when she said, “Jack, no.”
His eyes caught hers and he waited.
“I’m not strong,” she admitted softly. “You know that. I’ve never been strong. Never in my whole life. If I’d been alone, I wouldn’t have been able to handle that.” Her hand went to her belly as did her gaze before returning to him. “Or this,” she threw her arm out and went on, “or anything.”
“Belle –” he started to disagree but she finished what she intended to say, using words that tore through his system, searing a direct path straight to his soul.
“But I’m all right because I’m not alone. I’m all right because I’m with you. Tonight, you made me all right.”
Jack’s body went still, his eyes held hers for a long moment and he forgot about the light. He forgot about going back to sleep. He forgot about everything.
He forgot that he graduated top of his class.
He forgot that he’d been made captain of the rugby team not because of his name but because of his abilities.
He forgot that he’d turned his back on the family business and built his own company from nothing.
He forgot the thrill he felt when he earned his first million pounds through his own hard work.
He forgot when he earned his second.
He forgot all the times he’d bested his brother.
And he forgot the last words his father said to him, telling Jack that he made him proud.
He forgot about everything he’d ever achieved, everything that ever mattered to him and in that instant, thought that if he’d never succeeded in anything again, that would be perfectly fine.
Because he’d made Belle feel all right.
When he came unstuck, he didn’t turn to the light.
He shifted into Belle’s soft body and she readily accepted his weight, his mouth on hers and his hands trailing along her skin.
And although they’d made love in his room four times before. Although he remembered every second of every time, all of them magnificent and one of them life-altering in a way Jack would be grateful for until the end of his days. None of them were as beautiful as that night when he slid inside her as her fingers glided into his hair, her calves wrapped around his thighs, his tongue tangled with hers and that sexy noise slid from her throat into the depths of his.
She was not filled with fear, with panic, with anxiety.
She was filled with him and his child, moaning her desire into his mouth.
And Jack was making her more than all right.
Chapter Sixteen
The Third Ghost
Belle
Belle drove her own car back to The Point, her mother beside her.
Mom had wanted to drive but Belle pitched a rude, un-Belle-like fit.
She hadn’t driven a car in weeks, hadn’t made but the meals she prepared for Jack, hadn’t done a load of laundry, hadn’t even made her own bed.
It was driving her up the wall.