Then she looked at his shoulder then his nose then his ear.
Then she took in a deep breath and what she did next stunned him to immobility.
She pushed through him and his dogs, walked into his room and around his bed to what had become her side. Once there, she pulled back the covers and slid between them.
With some effort, Jack forced himself out of his frozen stance, put the phone to his ear and shut his door.
He talked on the phone while she hung over the side of his bed, petted his dogs and then cooed to them to lie down which they did.
He finished his call while she settled in, facing the windows.
He turned out the lights, slid in behind her and pulled her to him.
When her body relaxed, Jack thought it only fair to try one more time to calm her fears. “Love, you do know there are no such things as ghosts.”
“I know,” she lied and he bit back his laughter but not his smile.
The smile died when her arm came to rest on his at her waist, her hand over his at her belly.
He closed his eyes and pressed his face into her hair.
Minutes later, he felt her drift into sleep.
Minutes after that, he did the same.
He knew the minute she woke.
He waited while she hesitated for long moments, lying awake in the curve of his body and it cost him to let her go when she eventually slid out of bed and left the room.
But Jack was not going to move too quickly and make the same mistake twice.
This time he was going to earn her trust and, when he knew he had it irrevocably, only then would he make her understand she was his.
For he already knew it.
He’d known it since their first night.
She appeared at the breakfast table five minutes after him.
After breakfast, she caught him and his dogs on the way to the stables and told him (or, more to the point, she told his ear) that she was taking a walk.
Jack had intended to ride.
He allowed himself a moment to consider taking Belle with him.
Jack would very much enjoy riding with her in front of him, taking her along the coastline he knew she loved for she walked it nearly every day. His horse, Shadow, could take her farther than she could walk, showing her more than she’d seen and Jack knew Belle would like that.
As pleasant as this thought was, he didn’t want her riding while pregnant even on Shadow who he knew would take care of her. So he changed his morning plans and walked with her.
This did not go exactly well.
His first mistake was to explain to her, when she’d quietly asked about him driving to and from London in a day, that he didn’t drive.
He told her that he flew.
That didn’t garner a reaction until he further explained that he not only flew, he piloted the plane.
This garnered a response.