Lucky Stars (Ghosts and Reincarnation #5)(45)

She no sooner processed this disturbing fact when she heard dog tags and two canine heads popped up on her side of the bed.

One darker (Baron), one blonder (Gretl).

She had not gone to sleep last night with the dogs in her room.

She had also not gone to sleep with James in her bed.

Indeed, she had only seen James once after she ran from the stables to tell Joy her two sons were fighting.

Yes, she told on two grown men, what else was she going to do?

Half an hour after she’d run from the stables, Belle, Rachel and Lila stood on the front steps and watched James load a far worse for the wear Miles into Joy’s Mercedes. Then James left Joy to drive Miles to the hospital, Rachel running down to the car to accompany her.

James had walked slowly up the steps, fury in his eyes, as Lila and Belle watched him in open-mouthed shock.

He hadn’t said a word but his glittering eyes sliced through them making them both take a large step away from the door

Then he’d locked himself in his study.

Several hours later, Joy and Rachel had come back.

Miles had not.

Joy had gone directly to her room.

Lila made Rachel and Belle leave her alone. A half an hour later, Lila herself went up, taking a tray of soup, sandwiches and a bottle of wine with her.

By the time Rachel and Belle went to bed, Lila nor Joy nor James had emerged.

Now, somehow, James was in bed with her.

Belle reached out an arm, curled her fingers around the edge of the mattress, preparing to catapult herself from the bed.

Before she could succeed in this endeavour, James’s arm, resting lightly at her waist, became an iron band, hauling her into his hard body.

Belle froze and felt his face burrowing into her hair.

“We have to talk,” he growled.

Holy heck, her mind breathed.

“What are you doing in my bed?” her mouth asked.

“Containment,” he answered.

“What?”

“Containment,” he repeated. “Given the chance, you’ll escape. I’m not going to let that happen.”

Holy heck, her mind breathed again.

Belle had dealt with a number of different James Bennetts in the last three weeks. The jerky one (at their first meeting, post-fling). The demanding one (at the doctor appointments). The broody one (the times he wasn’t being something else). The impatient one, which was a variation of the jerky one (at the stables). The sexy one (also at the stables). And the loving one (again, at the stables).

This, she could tell, was an all new James Bennett.

Therefore she thought it best to proceed with caution.

“Can I please get out of bed?” she enquired.

His body moved away and she thought that was an affirmative response.

She was wrong.

His hand pressed her so her back was to the bed and he loomed over her, up on an elbow, his other arm resting on her midriff.

“No,” he replied unnecessarily.

She looked in his eyes to see they were still slightly heavy with sleep but nonetheless alert. She couldn’t read them but she felt a curl of fear all the same.

So her eyes moved to his ear.

When they did, he murmured, “That’s a good sign.”

She didn’t know what he meant but she also was not going to ask.

“Um, I’m finding this a bit weird,” she confided to his ear.

“Too bad. I have three things to say to you and you’re going to listen. Only then can you get out of bed and start your day.”

“Oh… kay,” she replied hesitantly, hoping with all her heart this would be fast and relatively painless.

He was weirding her out!

“First, if you even see Miles, you get away from him and you call me immediately.”

That curl of fear did an ugly little twist.

“What does that mean?” Belle asked.

“This isn’t question time, Belle. This is me talking to you, you listening and giving a definitive indication that you understand exactly what I’m saying to you.”

Belle went silent and just stared.

Definitely weirding her out.

“Do you understand what I just said to you?” he enquired.

She understood.

Oh boy, did she.

All she could do was nod.

“Good. Second, you’re avoiding me and it’s pissing me off. I didn’t ask you to move here so you could enjoy the seaside. I asked you to move here so I could share in the experience of your pregnancy.”

“Actually, you didn’t ask at all. You told –” Belle started to correct him but then clamped her mouth shut when his brows drew together in a scary way.

When he was assured she wouldn’t be foolish enough to utter another word, he continued.

“You’ll spend time with me. You’ll eat breakfast with me. You’ll eat dinner with me. If you’re in the mood for a walk and I’m in the house, you’ll find me and, if I can, I’ll go with you. I’ll take you to your shop. When you’re finished, you’ll phone and I’ll come and pick you up.”

As he spoke, Belle realised she was having difficulty breathing.

“Now, is that understood?” he finished.

“James –” she whispered and his eyes started glittering with anger so she stopped speaking (she didn’t know what she was going to say anyway).