Three Wishes(82)

She was beginning to squirm and looking more than a little uncomfortable.

He couldn’t care less about her discomfort. “Answer me, Lily,” Nate demanded, giving her a mild shake.

“No.”

“Why the hell not?” he snapped.

She glared at him but didn’t answer.

“Answer me.” Nate was beginning to get angry.

She’d graduated from Oxford, for Christ’s sake, she wasn’t stupid. She’d nearly died during her last pregnancy, hell, she did die. She should be protecting herself.

He hated the idea of another man touching her, especially since, in the beginning she had only been his. But as much as he detested it, he understood he had to let go of that now. She was back, Natasha was theirs, his entire focus was on their future.

“Did they use it?” he asked, not exactly thrilled about talking about her lovers but he had to know.

Consideration to contraceptives wasn’t something he’d taught her in the brief time they’d had together, indeed, he’d avoided it with calculated purpose but he could imagine she’d learned a great deal in eight years.

“Who?” she queried, looking mystified.

“The men you’ve been with.”

Even in the dark room, he saw her face pale.

She kept her silence for a moment and then said, “Nate, I really don’t think it’s any of your –”

He shook her again, this was slightly-more-than-mild.

“Nate!”

“Lily, you’re going to be my wife. Considering my condition on our impending nuptials, this subject would eventually come up.”

“I didn’t agree to your condition,” she told him.

“You aren’t getting pregnant again,” he retorted.

“Really, I –”

He interrupted her. “We’ll get you to a GP tomorrow as well and get something arranged.”

He had decided to give up. She was definitely more stubborn than he remembered and there were other ways he wished to spend these moments, vastly more enjoyable ways, not arguing about birth control and definitely not thinking about her other lovers.

Even so, he couldn’t stop himself from muttering, “It’s stunning, someone as obviously intelligent as you would be so immensely dense about protecting herself with contraceptives.”

She stiffened in his arms. “I am not dense.”

“Considering the fact you nearly died in childbirth, yes, I’d say you were dense,” Nate bit out curtly because the subject was so important, considering what happened with Natasha, and Lily’s nonchalance about something that important intensely annoyed him, therefore he instantly decided he liked the idea of arguing about birth control.

“I hardly need to fill my body with pills or be fitted with… with… some sort of apparatus if I wasn’t taking anyone to my bed!” she snapped her eyes firing and a blush so fierce he could see it in the dark crawling up her cheeks.

His body stilled and his arms tightened. “What did you say?”

“You heard me.”

“All right, I’ll ask another question. What did you mean?”

She seemed at a loss for a moment, clearly her agitation and her recovery from the migraine were slowing her processes. Then she caught up.

“You’re too smart for your own good, do you know that?” she enquired irritably.

“Don’t change the subject and answer the question.”

She looked skyward and for the first time she pressed against his arms to get away.

“This is mortifying,” she told the ceiling.

Then he knew.

He couldn’t believe it but he knew. It was nearly as unbelievable as the fact that she hadn’t been touched when he first had her. This was impossible to believe.

“There haven’t been any others,” he stated and her eyes flew to him. “Have there?” he asked softly.

She hesitated for a moment and then she said, “I know you think I’m the most, well, that I…” She made a strange, frustrated noise then burst out, “there just wasn’t time!”

He realised she was making excuses like this news was a bad thing. Like this wasn’t a gift from the gods, like her return, like Natasha, like the fact she just agreed to marry him.

“Lily.” His voice was low with meaning but she was beginning a roll.

“There was always something. When Tash was young, I was recovering then after that, I was just too tired. Then there was work, laundry, Tash, Fazire, the damned car. I mean, there wasn’t time.”

Nate tried and failed to cut in patiently by murmuring, “Lily.”

She talked over him. “And then there’s finding someone. I mean, Nate, there are a lot of losers out there. A lot. You would just not believe.”

She was underlining her words again like he remembered she’d do when she was agitated. It was so very Lily, not meek, mild, world-weary Lily but his Lily, spirited and hilarious.

Nate’s body started to shake with laughter and relief and what he’d felt before, something he didn’t recognise but now he knew was triumph mingled liberally with joy.

“Lily.” His voice was suffused with mirth.

She ignored him and her eyes rolled to the ceiling. “And some of the things they said. One guy even told me I had nice breath! He complimented my breath as a pick up line. Please tell me you’ve never done that.” Her gaze came back to him at her query, she finally felt his body shaking and her eyes narrowed. “What’s funny?”