“ You look much better,” he observed, his eyes continuing to run over her face and form. “Not as gaunt, and you’re getting some color in your cheeks. How do you feel?”“Better.” She nodded. “Bored.” He shocked her by gracing her with the smallest of smiles.“ Yes, you were never one for long periods of inactivity.” He nodded. “Have you given any thought to what you want to do once you’ve recovered?” She stared at him in dismay, having no clue how to answer that question. She hadn’t dared think about the future; she had no idea what Gerard wanted from her. Did he expect them to just continue to live together in the same soulless fashion for the next fifty years or so? Because Cindy couldn’t do that. She absolutely refused to live like this for much longer; she would rather get a divorce. Did he want a divorce? For that matter, were they divorced already? She was certain of only two things; he wanted his daughter but he did not want Cindy. I don’t . . . what do you mean?”He frowned. “
“Alice is fantastic,” he was saying. “Just what Pierre needs.” Sidetracked by that, Cindy frowned and tuned back in to the conversation.“Pierre De Coursey married a woman named Alice?” Somehow she had always pictured Pierre, when she had even entertained such an absurd notion, as ending up with a woman exotic in both name and looks.“Yes. She’s a nice woman, a bit quiet but sharp as the proverbial tack,” he recalled fondly, and Cindy forced back a tide of envy at the warmth in his voice.“How did they meet?” she asked, curious.“Hospital. Pierre was visiting me and wandered into the wrong ward. Alice had been in an accident too, a really bad one from what I understood. She was unconscious, apparently in a coma, and while every other patient in the room had cards and flowers, Alice had nothing. I don’t know, I think Pierre felt a little sorry for her, so he checked in on her every day on his way to visit me and soon learned that she had no family and that she had just moved here from
“ I want to see you,” he muttered harshly. “When you speak, I want to know what you’re saying! When you laugh, I want to see your eyes light up, and when I make you come”—his voice lowered sexily—“I want to see you scream even if I can’t hear it.”“I don’t think . . .” she began uncertainly, preferring to make love with him in the dark, where she could fool herself into believing that he was the old Gerard, the one who had pretended to love her, even if he now claimed that he never had. A shaft of agony pierced through her as she recalled his confession at dinner, and she tried to move away from him but he would not permit it. He pinned her down, his eyes boring into hers, so that she was unable to hide her pain from him. His brows lowered into an intimidating frown, and she flinched, wondering what scathing remark he had in store for her this time.“You were crying at dinner,” he said almost accusingly.“What do you expect?” she asked bitterly. “You can’t keep cutting me without spil
“ I saw you,” he maintained, clearly not believing her. “Saw you with my own eyes!”“You were sliding in and out of consciousness; you were in shock and in pain . . .” she pointed out reasonably. “You don’t think that maybe you were delirious as well? Seeing things that were not there?”He frowned and shook his head.“No, of course not,” she scoffed. “Not Gerard , he never makes mistakes.”“God damn you,” he growled. “I know what I saw . . . you were standing there looking impassive and completely uncaring.”“This?” She waved her hand back and forth between their naked bodies. “This thing that just happened between us? It was a mistake that shouldn’t be repeated. I should never have let you touch me, but you got me in a moment of complete weakness. That ends now. I won’t allow a man who just hours ago said I made his skin crawl use me like this again. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need a shower,” she informed him unsteadily. There was really nothing she could say or do right now to prov
“ I know.” Cindy smiled. “She rejects any attempt to help feed her. I usually give her extra portions in the hopes that she manages to get as much of it into her mouth as she does all over everything else. But sometimes I have to take the bull by the horns and feed her myself anyway, despite her fervent protests.”“She is also inordinately fond of ice cream,” he pointed out with a grimace, seeming to recall something particularly unpleasant.“I’m guessing you discovered one of her favorite pastimes?”“Finger painting?” He nodded and she laughed.“Unfortunately ice cream, especially chocolate, seems to be her favorite medium,” Cindy said solemnly.“I thought Celeste would quit after Kayla demonstrated her talent on the kitchen walls, but luckily she seems to have the patience of a saint.”“I hope that you reprimanded Kayla?” Cindy asked with a frown, and he shook his head.“She seemed so proud of her painting,” he responded, and Cindy sighed before shaking her head.“She’s testing you,”
Cindy turned away angrily and carried Kayla back into the house. She headed straight for the baby’s room and after tucking her in, stood beside the cot and watched the baby sleep, her heart absolutely overflowing with love for the innocent child.“You’re worth everything, my darling,” she whispered, leaning over to kiss her short, silky curls. When she straightened up and turned around, Gerard was standing in the doorway, still wearing nothing but his board shorts. She frowned resentfully, annoyed that a deaf man could move so silently, and moved to pass him. He barely shifted, crowding her abominably as she tried to squeeze through the doorway and into the hall. She flushed crimson when she inadvertently brushed against his muscular naked chest. She frowned up at him, making sure he was looking at her before she spoke.“Get out of my way,” she demanded, and he grinned lazily.“Glad to see you’re getting your fire back, babe . . .”“Don’t call me that,” she reprimanded, and he grinned
“So then it’s me?” he stated matter-of-factly.“Is it ever anyone else?” she muttered snidely beneath her breath, but he couldn’t read her lips because she ducked her head as she said it. She tried to wriggle her arm and glared up at him when he wouldn’t release her.“ You’re hurting me!” she stated as clearly as she could, and he let her go abruptly.“I’m sorry.” His immediate release and apology took her by surprise, and she felt a little guilty when she saw a flare of genuine remorse in his eyes. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”“You didn’t,” she admitted. “But I’m tired and I have nothing more to say to you tonight.”“You think you can dismiss me and expect me to obey like a whipped dog?” he sneered, taking hold of her elbow again and giving her a gentle shake to emphasize his point.No, I expect you to respect my wishes,” she told him tiredly, all of the fight leaving her. Her arm hung limply in his grip. He sighed and took hold of her other elbow before running his hands caressingly
“Gerard,” she tried to find a way to explain her decision to him and drew a complete blank. “After four months of constant and inexplicable rejection, I gave up on trying to reach you. By that point I didn’t think that you deserved to have the baby or me in your life. I wanted to move on and couldn’t do so with your money. I needed to do it on my own, without being beholden to the man who had made it clear that he didn’t want anything to do with us. I didn’t feel entitled to your money after making that decision.”“You didn’t feel entitled to it?” Gerard latched onto those words, obviously dismissing the rest of what she had said. “To the father of your child’s money? I don’t even know how to respond to that, Cindy. You may not have felt entitled to it, but Kayla certainly was, and is, entitled to it. You could have set aside your pettiness and considered her in all of this!”“Oh please just stop throwing Kayla in my face. I did everything I could for her. I gave her the best I could