Pregnancy of Revenge (24 page)

Shocked, Charlie looked at him. She had been trained to remain cool in a crisis, but obviously Jake was not. His eyes were cold and angry, exactly as they had been the last time she had seen him. No change there, then. His arms tightened in a deathlike grip around her and she yelped and pushed back. 'Please, you're hurting me. I think I've scraped my back.'

'Scraped your back?' Jake's arms eased slightly, and he stared down at her, his black eyes leaping with violence. 'My God, woman, you're lucky you didn't break your neck! Are you stark staring mad?' His anger washed over her in ever-rising waves. 'What possessed you? You're pregnant, for God's sake. Have you got a death wish or something?*

'Or something,' Charlie snapped back. 'Common human decency, something you know nothing about.' He could not have made it plainer it was only the baby he was worried about.

Jake reeled as if he had been struck, all the anger draining out of him. His passionate, beautiful Charlotte was looking at him with contempt in her magnificent blue eyes, and he deserved it. He had been yelling at her like a madman when what he should be doing was comforting her—loving her. Finally he
recognised
what in his arrogance and conceit he had tried to deny. He loved Charlotte. He opened his mouth to tell her so, but the moment was lost as chaos reigned.

Marta
swept
Aldo
into her arms, crying her eyes out, and berating him at the same time, then, grabbing Charlie's hand, she kissed it and thanked her over and over again.

Charlie murmured something appropriate, embarrassed by all the fuss. Police and firemen crowded around her with congratulations coming from all sides, and all the time Jake was at her back, his hand resting lightly on her waist, his dark presence towering over her.

All the people, the heat, the noise were making her head spin. A camera flashed right in her face and Jake dived past her to grip the hapless photographer and tear the camera from his hands.

Charlie's legs wobbled and for the first time in her life she fainted.

CHAPTER TWELVE

SLOWLY
Charlie opened her eyes, and
realised
she was lying on the bed in the master bedroom. Jake was leaning over her, his handsome face grey and drawn, his eyes burning like black coals beneath hooded lids.

'You're awake, thank God. How do you feel? Where does it hurt?' he demanded in a voice that was not quite steady, and grasped her hand as if his life depended on it. 'Are you all right?'

'Oh, please,' she sighed, trying to sit up, but Jake gently pushed her back down. 'I'm fine.' And surprisingly, she
realised
she was.

The fog that seemed to have numbed her brain for the past few days was gone. Climbing the cliff, doing what she knew she was good at, while taking all her energy and skill had paradoxically restored her strength—her belief in herself. She didn't need Jake's concern—she didn't need him— and she glanced up at him, for once unmoved. 'How is
Aldo?
Is he all right?'

'Aldo
is fine, hardly a mark on him, and confined to his room for life if I had my way. It is you I am worried about.'

'No need, I'm okay, but what are you doing here?'

'I could ask you the same question,' Jake said curtly.
'Unconscious in bed and why?
Because you decided to scale a cliff to rescue that little devil instead of waiting for the emergency services.'
A muscle jerked at the side of his mouth. '
Dio
—when I saw you climbing up alongside
Aldo...'
He shook his head in disbelief. 'If I live to be
a hundred I
will never forget that image. I nearly went out of
my mind. I was sure you were going to fall in a crumpled heap at my feet.'

'You wish,' she mocked, and pulled her hand from his. His concern was too little and too late, as far as she was concerned.

'This is not a game, not something to joke about,' he grated, the tension in every line of his body evident as he added, 'You are my wife, you are carrying my child, and you could have killed the pair of you.'

She would never do anything to harm her child, and she had been as careful as she could. But it wasn't in her nature when any child's life was threatened to stand by and do nothing when she knew she could help. That Jake could think otherwise showed exactly how little he knew her. She might have told him so, but
Marta
appeared with
Dr
Bruno and a nurse in tow, and Charlie was grateful for the interruption. She didn't want to see Jake, didn't want to argue with him.

She did her best to ignore Jake's brooding presence as
Dr
Bruno conducted a thorough examination and pronounced the baby fine, and allowed the nurse to treat her cuts and bruises. Then they congratulated her on her act of heroism, and, horrified, she learned she had appeared on the television news.

'But how?' she asked, sitting up in bed. 'I saw you grab the man's camera.' She addressed her comment to Jake but avoided looking at him directly.

'The police cars have video cameras, as does the fire service; they film all their rescues,' Jake informed her, scowling. 'You are now the lead story on the local news station. And given you're a very beautiful and wealthy woman and you climbed a cliff to rescue a young boy, you will probably be splattered all over the national news, if not international.'

Charlie went pale. 'Oh, my God, in fact, they'll probably dig up your life history, and the house will be besieged by paparazzi—'

'Now, Jake,'
Dr
Bruno cut in. '
Don't
upset your wife; she has had enough for one day. But she is a remarkably fit young woman and the baby is fine, so you have nothing to worry about.'

'Are you sure about that?' Jake queried. 'I think she should be in hospital. She might have hidden injuries. What about
a full body scan
?'

Charlie looked at him as if he had taken leave of his senses, but the intense expression on his handsome face told her he was serious.

'I am the doctor here, Jake, and I can assure you Charlotte is fine.'

'But she was unconscious,' Jake said. 'Surely she must stay in hospital one night at least.'

'She
is the child's mother,' Charlie said in exasperation, sick of the two men talking about her as if she weren't there. 'And I was not unconscious. I fainted. And I fainted because I had little breakfast and no lunch, and after all that exercise I'm starving.' She almost laughed out loud at the stunned expression on Jake's face.

'There you are.'
Dr
Bruno chuckled. 'When a patient wants food there is not much wrong. Get
Marta
to feed her. As for you, Charlotte, eat and rest and no more climbing, until after the baby is born.' Turning to Jake, he added, 'as for you, Jake, do try and take better care of your wife. I don't understand you young men of today. In my day a new husband would never have dreamt of leaving his wife alone such a short time after the wedding.'

Jake didn't say a word. He couldn't, because nothing occurred to him but the gut-wrenching knowledge that he had nearly lost her.
Dr
Bruno was right; he should have taken better care of her. He looked at Charlotte, and her beauty
and the shining spirit in her blue eyes shamed him. And all he had done since she had come down the cliff was yell or scowl at her. How could she possibly know it was because he had been terrified at the thought of losing her—still was
... ?

When
Marta
bustled in and told him to keep out of the way, she would look after Charlotte, he let her. After the arrogant way he had behaved over the past few weeks he no longer felt he had the right to object. It would be amazing if Charlotte even spoke to him again, and as for loving him, as she had declared frequently in the past—no chance.

Bathed, changed and tucked up in bed, Charlie had eaten a plate of delicious home-made
lasagne
and a huge wedge of chocolate gateau. Replete and tired, she refused
Marta'
s
offer of cheese.

'No.
Marta,
truly I don't want anything else, only to sleep,' she said gently. 'You go and look after
Aldo.
I'm fine." She suffered
Marta'
s
thanks for about the thousandth time before
Marta
finally left.

She lay back against the pillows. It had been a traumatic day, but it had helped her clarify her thoughts on her marriage. She was going back home to England, whether Jake liked it or not, and when she saw him she would tell him so.
But not tonight.
She was tired. She let her eyelids droop, and was floating on the hazy edge of sleep when she heard the door close.

It was Jake, but he looked like something the cat had dragged in. His black hair was wildly
dishevelled
, as though he had been running his fingers through it. He had shed his jacket and tie and his shirt was open to the last button. His handsome face tightly drawn, he walked across to her and sat down on the side of the bed.

'What do you want? I was trying to sleep.' His dark
brooding gaze roamed slowly over her, lingering on the gauze bandage on her arm, his mouth tightening. It was a warm summer night and she was only wearing a slip of a nightdress. The cover was draped around her middle, and Charlie gathered the sheet closer about her, feeling absurdly nervous as the silence lengthened.

'Aren't you supposed to be in Japan?' She raised her chin, determined not to let him intimidate her ever again.

'Yes, but my wife hung up on me, and, hard as it may be for you to believe, I was worried about you.' He reached for her hand and grasped it in his. She tried to pull free, but he tightened his grip. 'No, please, hear me out. ‘There was a look of determination in his eyes, but also an uncertainty about him she had never seen before. 'I did a lot of thinking on the flight over here, and I
realised
, in the short time we have been together, I have not been totally honest with you because I have not been honest with myself.'

Charlie was pretty certain she knew what he was going to say next and didn't give him the chance. 'You have no need to explain. I know,' she said woodenly. 'Our marriage was a mistake, and we both know it. It was always the baby you wanted and not me. And don't bother denying it.'

It was never—' Jake began, but she lifted her hand to silence him.

'No, let me finish. I thought for a little while I could live with a marriage solely for the child, but I
realised
I can't. I'm going back to England.'

'Charlotte, I am—' She cut him off again.

'But don't worry, Jake, I won't deprive you of your child. We are both mature adults, I'm sure we can come to some amicable access agreement.'

'Amicable agreement?'
His dark eyes flared, all trace of uncertainty gone. 'I don't want an amicable agreement!' he growled, once more his arrogant, demanding self. 'What
I want is you, and I am trying to tell you I love you, damn it!'

'Oh, yes?' Charlie sneered, not believing him for a moment.

Jake's eyes bored into hers, dark and unfathomable, and a tiny muscle clenched at the edge of his jaw as he attempted to remain in control. 'I do love you, Charlotte. I think I have from the moment I saw you, but I told myself I didn't believe in love.'

'But now you do. How convenient, when I have just told you I am going home.' She tried for sarcasm but her voice wobbled ever so slightly. He sounded so sincere.

'No, love is not convenient, Charlotte. I have learned that much over the weeks we have been together. It is an ache, a hunger, a need that is all consuming. I tried to tell myself you were no different from all the other women I had known. In my heart I knew you were, but I refused to face it,' he said, leaning closer and gently stroking a strand of hair back from her face.

'When I spoke to you yesterday you sounded different, detached, and when you hung up on me—for the first time in my life, I was afraid. I ordered the jet and came straight back, but even then I was not ready to admit I loved you, because I did not fully understand what loving you meant.' He squeezed her hand so tight Charlie almost cried out. 'And then I saw the open gates, the empty house, and the horror scenarios that ran through my mind terrified me. I thought you had gone or been kidnapped, killed, and it was the worst moment of my life, but two minutes later I
realised
it wasn't when I lifted my eyes and saw you climbing that cliff.'