Lucky Stars (Ghosts and Reincarnation #5)(56)

“No, this needs to be said.”

She held her breath a moment then sighed.

“Okay,” she relented and his hand gave hers a squeeze.

“We need to talk about what happened in the stables.”

She didn’t know which time they were in the stables that he wanted to talk about. The first time, which was marvellous and she didn’t want to talk about it. Or the second time which was terrible yet, also, in the end, marvellous, and she didn’t want to talk about that either.

Nevertheless, talking about either time was better than child support or visitation schedules.

“What about it?” Belle asked.

“I need to apologise.”

Her head twisted around as his turned and she looked into his eyes.

“Apologise?” she asked, confused.

“For carrying you down the ladder.” She felt her lips part in surprise as he kept speaking. “I was angry at you for avoiding me. I had residual anger at you for keeping the pregnancy from me. And I had a number of things on my mind, many of them needing my attention. This made me impatient. But none of that excused what I did.”

“Jack –” she whispered but he interrupted her and now his voice was fierce.

“I frightened you. The look on your face, I’ll never f**king forget it.”

“Jack –” she tried to cut in again and failed.

His hand in hers moved to wrap around her body, taking hers with it and he gave her a squeeze before he stated, his voice low and rumbly, “It won’t ever happen again.”

“Jack –” she said yet again and yet again he kept talking.

“And, you should know, you were right. It was exactly your imperfections that drew me to you.”

Belle stopped trying to interrupt and her parted lips became a mouth dropping wide open in complete and total shock.

His eyes dropped to her mouth hanging open and his lips twitched before his gaze rose to her eyes again. “That and your hair.”

She kept staring at him.

“And your dress,” he continued.

She didn’t utter a word, just kept staring at him.

“And your eyes,” he went on, the grin turned playful, his eyes went wicked and his voice dropped deeper when he finished, “And, a lot later, those unbelievably sexy noises you made while I was f**king you.”

She felt her belly dip and her br**sts swell and both felt too darned good for her peace of mind.

Therefore, in a belated attempt at self-protection, her body moved to bolt out of his arms. Where she was going, she had no clue but she was going there, and fast.

The problem was, he’d prepared for it and his arms went tight the minute her body prepared for action and he held her in place.

Her eyes flew to him in alarm even as her skin tingled in anticipation.

“Jack –” she started yet again but he talked over her.

“Now, should I kiss you or are you going to kiss me?” he asked and her mouth dropped open and his eyes moved to it again. “I’d prefer you kiss me but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen, so…”

He let that dangle in the air only the merest moment before he bent his head and kissed her.

His tongue slid inside her mouth and even though she really, really, really, really wanted to resist, she didn’t.

Not even for a second.

So maybe she didn’t really, really, really, really want to resist.

Instead, her head tilted, her torso twisted, he let go of her hand and she wrapped her arms around him as he pulled her up his chest and deepened the kiss.

It felt good.

No, it felt perfect, kissing Jack on the rocks by the sea. It was the best moment in her life (barring the other best moments she had with Jack) and she never wanted it to end.

His mouth broke from hers, trailed down her cheek to her ear and he whispered, “So f**king sweet.”

She trembled in his arms, felt his hand glide up her spine and trembled again.

She was about to twist her head to invite another kiss when her eyes fluttered open, they caught on something odd, she focussed on that something and she went completely still.

She stared and terror raced through her, so strong, she didn’t feel Jack’s body responding to her withdrawal nor did she hear him call her name.

Instead she stared at the two children standing in the window looking down at them. A boy and a girl. The boy was black-headed, the girl was fair. They couldn’t be more than eight and ten or even younger.

And, even though Belle could see them plain as day, she could also see through them.

“Jesus, Belle, what is it?” Jack’s voice was harsh and it snapped her out of her terrified shock, she jerked from his arms and got to her feet. Her eyes never leaving the window, she retreated, walking backwards.

Then, the little girl waved at her.

Waved at her!

Belle let out a strangled scream just as Jack’s arm hooked around her waist, pulled her to his body and dragged her back several wide steps.

“What the f**k are you doing?” he clipped and her eyes flew to him. “You nearly fell over the cliff.”

She looked around her dazedly, not having time for the possibility that she nearly did herself, and their child, bodily harm.

She looked back at Jack and said in an urgent, frightened voice, “Jack, there are children in the turret.”