her skin.
“How’s Connor?” she asked.
He rubbed Rachel’s upper arm. “He’s okay now but he was very upset this afternoon.”
“This is very late for him, isn’t it?”
“He’s been in bed for a couple of hours already.”
She waited for Jake to tell her where he’d been for those last two hours but he didn’t speak. She could see it in the furrow in his brow, in the tension in his jaw. He’d spent the evening with Bianca, talking about Connor, working out what was best for his family.
Jake didn’t need to tell her but that didn’t make this any easier for her. It was all too darned hard.
Wordlessly, he slipped his arm around her and led her past the kitchen into the sitting room. He sat on the sofa, his long muscular thighs taking up the full depth of the seat as she sat delicately beside him.
“I’m sorry, Rachel,” he said. “This isn’t at all how I planned for this to be. It’s been one hell of a night.”
Leaning forward on the sofa, she looked down at her hands clasped between her knees. “It’s not how I thought it would be either.”
“I don’t know where to start,” he said. “So much has happened. Connor’s at home with the nanny right now. And Bianca. She’s unbelievable.”
Rachel kept her eyes lowered. Edging closer to her, he slipped one hand under her chin and lifted her face, waiting until she met his gaze with her own.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She looked away. “Like you said, it’s been one hell of a night.” Despite her words, she still felt she was in the calm centre of the storm and now that Jake was here, the tempest was about to tear through.
“I don’t know what’s come over Bianca. She never used to be like this.”
It didn’t escape her notice that although he wasn’t sure where to begin, he chose to start with Bianca.
Rachel sucked in a deep breath. “Jake, it’s okay. I’m not going to make this hard for you. I can see the hold she has on you. I can’t compete with her and I’m not going to try. She’s always going to have one up on me.”
“You don’t understand. I’ve spent the last two hours arguing with that woman. She’d been drinking in the afternoon and forgot to collect Connor. That’s why I had to get him. I can’t tell you how angry I was. Ready to punch something.”
“She’s Connor’s mother and that’s never going to change.”
Jake shook his head. “No. When she did that to Connor, it changed everything. The gloves were off. I was playing by her rules. I was ruthless.”
“So what happened between you two?”
“Let’s be clear about this. There is no ‘us two’. There’s nothing left between me and Bianca. I told her I wasn’t going to back down from the divorce. That’s why we were arguing. She threatened to take Connor away. Told me there’s no way I’d get custody. So I called her bluff. I told her she couldn’t afford the lawyer’s fees, that they’d eat away at her share of the money and she’d have nothing left. And, you know, she’d rather have the money than Connor so that’s how it’s going to be.”
He paused. “I don’t think she’s even going to stay in the country for long. She’s been talking about a long holiday in Italy. She’s sunk as low as she can go and good riddance to her.”
It was too much for Rachel to comprehend. Bianca was leaving. Jake didn’t want any part of her.
If he was finished with her, he might be free but free for what? For a bit of fun? Or a commitment?
“I thought long and hard about it,” he said. “I’d worked so hard to try and give Connor a family. But I decided there was something more important than that. You’ve been through so much. I know you might not want me. But either way, Connor will learn to cope.”
She didn’t dare look up. “I-I thought you were coming here to finish it between us.”
He slipped his fingers down her arms so they once again covered her trembling hands and enveloped her hands in his. He locked her eyes into his powerful, intense gaze and slowly slipped off the sofa.
Down on one knee.
It could only mean one thing but she was too scared even to think it. She took in the length of his kneeling form and tried to take it all in. He was on his knees before her, holding