Three Wishes(88)

At her words, he let out a sharp bark of laughter that filled the car and she smiled to herself at the sound of it.

“You already broke your own condition anyway.” She was letting their easy banter relax her even further. She hadn’t felt this carefree in, well, since she last was with Nate.

“I beg your pardon?”

“This morning when we, when you…” She broke off and thought how to put it delicately. “We didn’t use any protection,” she informed him.

“Yes we did.”

She was watching the scenery but, at his words, her head snapped around to stare at him.

“We did?”

“I did,” he amended.

“You did?” she queried in wonder.

“Obviously, I did it right,” he muttered to himself.

“How…?” she mumbled then went on. “Forget it, I don’t want to know.”

His answer was to take her hand from her lap and lift it to his mouth, brushing her knuckles with his lips all the while his eyes never left the road.

The lone gymnast in her belly liked it when he did that too.

Later, Nate expertly parallel parked in front of Lily’s house and before he’d fully helped her alight, Natasha had flung the front door open to the house and was rushing to them.

“Mummeeeeee,” she cried and Lily had just stepped on the sidewalk when Tash’s body slammed into her and her thin arms closed around Lily’s hips.

“Hey baby doll.” Lily bent to kiss the top of her shining, black hair, the blue gleaming in it from the still-strong sun.

“Daddy!” She disengaged and threw herself at Nate to give him one of her fabulous hugs.

He bent as well but to pick her up. He swung her in front of him and her legs closed around his waist and linked at the ankles behind his back as her arms rested around his shoulders.

“Natasha,” Nate murmured.

“Your things arrived,” Tash informed him cheerfully and Lily’s once-contented, now-startled gaze moved from her daughter to Nate.

“Good.” He was smiling at Tash.

“What things?” Lily asked, vaguely realising Fazire had also come out of the house and was emanating genie-rage all the way down their front walk.

Nate didn’t answer but his eyes moved to Lily’s.

“What things?” she repeated.

She’d asked Nate but Tash answered, “About a million suitcases and some boxes. There’s a few things for you in some glossy bags but not nearly as much stuff as for Daddy.”

At her daughter’s words, Lily crossed her arms in front of her, started to tap her toe and she glared at Nate.

He put Natasha down and Lily’s eyes cut to her daughter. “Go inside a sec, Tash, I need to speak to your father.”

Tash presented her with a child-scowl. “You’re always needing to speak to my father.”

Lily raised her eyebrows and Tash read the meaning swiftly after years of seeing her mother give her that look, she had lots of practice reading the meaning, unfortunately, Lily hadn’t learned about the eyebrow raise tactic until it was almost too late. Tash ran inside and Fazire, with a jerk, followed and slammed the door behind them.

Lily whirled to Nate.

“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?” she snapped.

“Are we going to have this conversation on the pavement?” he enquired blandly, even in asking the question, he sounded like it was all the same to him.

Her hackles rose. There was simply nothing that penetrated his armour.

“Yes, we are.”

“You told me to move to Somerset,” he reminded her.

“I didn’t mean today!”

“When did you mean?”

She closed her mouth and glowered at him because she thought that was her safest bet considering she didn’t have an answer to his question.

His eyes changed, they became hard and glittering and she felt a thrill of fear at the sight.

“I’ve lost eight years. Eight years of you and seven years of my daughter. If it’s within my power not to lose another day, I’ll not lose it,” he told her, the force behind his deep voice almost like a physical thing, “and it’s within my power.”

She had to admit, he had a point, although she wasn’t going to admit that to him.

“It seems everything is within your power,” she grumbled perhaps a little unconvincingly.

Nate didn’t respond.

“So that’s it then, one day you live in London, the next you live in Somerset. Easy as that?” Lily asked.

“You did it for me,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“I didn’t have a penthouse and a multi-gazillion-pound company to run!” she retorted.

He took a step toward her and one of his steps brought him within an inch of her. His hand went to her jaw and she tilted her head back to look at him. His eyes had lost their steel and were glittering with something altogether different.

“Are you worried about me?” he asked softly.

“Well, what are you going to do?” she flared. “You can’t exactly commute two and a half hours one way. You’ll be on the road five hours a day. You’ll be home in time to kiss Tash’s forehead while she sleeps.”

“I’ll figure it out.”