The Tycoon's Unexpected Baby (The Abbot Sisters #3) - Elizabeth Lennox Page 0,51

a long time, just stared at him, searching through the words that she wanted to say but couldn’t. “No,” she finally admitted, that simple word echoing between them.

His eyes held hers and she could feel the tension. “I won’t either. She might not be alive in this world,” he said carefully. “But she will always be alive in our hearts. And I want…” he paused and Pepper saw the need, the hunger in his eyes. “I want to go on living, Pepper. I can’t stand to see you hurting like this! I can’t imagine a world without you in it and, if you continue like this, you’re going to kill yourself. That will be wrong. So damn wrong and I can’t…I just can’t let you do this to yourself.” He didn’t hesitate now. Instead, he walked over and pulled her into his arms, lifting her off of her feet.

“Pepper,” he sighed as she wrapped her arms around his neck, finally returning his embrace.

She clung to him fiercely. “I don’t think I can forget.”

He lowered her feet to the floor and touched her chin, lifting her face. “Don’t forget, love,” he told her sternly. “Forgive, but don’t forget.”

She looked up into those dark eyes of his, wondering if he was right. “I don’t know if I can.”

He cupped her cheek, stroking her cheekbone with his thumb. “You’re one of the strongest women I’ve ever known. You can do anything you put your mind to.”

With a sigh, she leaned against his chest, closing her eyes as she listened to the strong, powerful thump of his heart. For long moments, they stood like that and then her stomach growled loudly. It was all the more startling because she hadn’t paid much attention to her body for a while now. “Did you say something about dinner being ready?” she asked.

“Yes. Dinner is ready. Come.” He led her over to the small table that had previously been heaped with used clothing. “I also had Nancy come over and collect some clothing and designs while you slept. She said that you’d been working too hard lately and that she thought you were a bit out of control.”

Pepper looked down, about to tell him that she wasn’t really in the mood to eat anything, but stopped. His words echoed through her brain. Forgive herself? Could she do that? And was she really trying to slowly kill herself?

She looked down at her fingers, bare except for the diamond rings that he’d slipped on her finger so many weeks ago.

He reached out to touch the platinum band. “You never took it off.”

Her eyes jerked up to his, startled. “No. I…” she stopped, thinking about the statement. “I couldn’t take it off.” Was that significant? She’d had a brief moment when she’d considered it, but in the end, she’d simply overlooked the ring on her finger and everything that it symbolized.

“I’m glad.” He lifted his own hand where his simple platinum band glimmered. “I couldn’t either. I was so angry with myself and the world, and furious with you for pushing me away when I needed you the most, but I couldn’t take off my wedding band, Pepper. I couldn’t do it because that might have broken the connection. The last, tenuous hold that I’d had on that elusive happiness that you’d brought into my life.”

Pepper smiled at his words. It wasn’t her old smile. In fact, her cheeks felt a bit stiff, but it felt good to try.

He held out a chair for her and she looked around. “Did you get a cleaning crew in here?” she asked, noticing that the garbage had been taken out and the counters cleaned, the dishwasher emptied, and…was that a bowl of fresh fruit on the counter?

“No. I didn’t want a cleaning crew to wake you.”

He served her a piece of lemony grilled chicken, and some pasta with an interesting scent that she couldn’t quite define. He opened another carton, spooning a large amount of freshly cut fruit onto her plate.

Then his words hit her. “Wait, did you clean my loft?” she asked, stunned and disbelieving.

He served himself some food, adding broccoli to the corner of his plate instead of fruit. The broccoli looked vibrantly green and healthy, but Pepper thought it was very sweet that he didn’t attempt to convince her to eat it. She wouldn’t and he knew it. Still, the fruit was a nice touch. And yeah, she needed the nutrients. She’d been living off of dry cereal and the