Tall, Dark... Collection

Yet he could not—no, he dared not—make love to her. The fear of further loss and trauma in his life made Gabriel determined not to put Bella’s life at risk with a possible second pregnancy.

His mouth tightened as he realised the disastrous predicament he’d landed them both in. ‘You are right, Isabella, it is not.’ He stood up suddenly.

‘I—Where are you going?’ Bella frowned as Gabriel strode off towards the beach.

He turned on the pathway, the moonlight turning his hair to ebony and reflecting in his eyes. ‘I require some time to myself,’ he said distantly.

Gabriel needed some time to himself…

He couldn’t have told Bella any more clearly that after only two days alone together he was already bored in her company!

‘Fine.’ She nodded abruptly. ‘I’ll see you in morning, then,’ she added lamely, still slightly stunned by the way Gabriel’s mood had changed so swiftly from seduction to a need to go off by himself. After spending so many weeks resisting him, Bella was also shocked by the fierce desire that she wanted to be seduced.

‘No doubt,’ he answered curtly.

And, Bella realised painfully, he looked far from pleased at the prospect…

The two days it had taken Gabriel to find himself bored with her company was the same two days it had taken Bella to realise she was more in love with him than ever!

CHAPTER TEN

‘BREAKFAST, Bella.’

Bella felt as if she were fighting through layers of fog as she roused herself from a deep and troubled sleep, inwardly wincing as she remembered exactly where she was. And who she was with…

Once again Bella had pretended to be asleep the previous night when Gabriel had finally come to bed about two hours after her, and had known by the restlessness of Gabriel’s movements as he lay beside her that he was no more asleep than she was.

Still they hadn’t spoken. Hadn’t touched. Had just lain there, side by side, awake but totally uncommunicative.

‘Your coffee is becoming cold, Bella,’ Gabriel told her sharply.

Bella could smell that coffee, and warm buttery croissants, finally opening her eyes to frown up at Gabriel as he stood beside the bed holding a breakfast tray. He was already fully dressed, his hair still damp from the shower, evidence that he had been up for some time.

‘Why the breakfast in bed, Gabriel?’ Bella sat up against the sumptuous pillows, having decided attack was her best form of defence after the way the two of them had parted the previous evening.

He shrugged. ‘It seemed like something a new husband should do for his bride.’ He placed the tray across her knees and stepped back.

‘No one has ever brought me breakfast in bed before,’ Bella muttered uncomfortably, keeping her gaze averted from him to instead look down at the pot of coffee and the freshly warmed croissants with a deliciously tempting pot of butter.

‘As we are leaving later this morning I thought it best if I ensure you have something to eat—’

‘Leaving?’ Bella cut in incredulously, the breakfast tray forgotten as she stared up at Gabriel. ‘As in going back to England leaving?’

He gave a haughty inclination of his head. ‘As in going back to England leaving,’ he confirmed evenly.

Bella was completely stunned as she watched Gabriel begin to take his clothes from the wardrobe obviously in preparation for packing them.

Gabriel had decided they were leaving. After only two days of their planned week-long honeymoon!

She gave a confused frown. ‘This is all rather sudden, isn’t it?’

What on earth were her family going to make of them cutting their honeymoon short like this? Especially Toby!

Gabriel saw the doubts flickering across Bella’s face. A face that showed the strain of the last few days and nights in the heavy tiredness of her eyes and the unhappy slant to her mouth.

The same strain that Gabriel was feeling. Although he doubted that Bella’s strain was for the same reason as his own!

He shook his head. ‘You are unhappy here, Isabella.’

‘So are you!’ she shot back.

His mouth tightened. ‘We were not talking about me.’

‘No, we weren’t, were we?’ Bella said. ‘Why is that, Gabriel? Why is it that you can never give me a straightforward answer to a straightforward question?’

Those dark eyes narrowed warningly. ‘Perhaps because the questions you ask have no straightforward answer.’

She sighed in disgust. ‘You’re doing it again!’

Gabriel was well aware of what he was doing. But he could not tell Bella of his fears, of his need to leave here, before he once again put her life at risk if she conceived a second time. ‘If you think that your family will be concerned at our early return from our honeymoon, then I suggest you go straight to your cottage. That way no one even has to know we are back.’

Bella frowned. ‘What’s the difference between us staying here for another five days or hiding out in my cottage?’

Gabriel gave a humourless smile. ‘I said that you could go straight to your cottage, Isabella, not that I would be joining you there.’

Her face blanked of all expression. ‘I see…’

‘Do you?’ Gabriel said grimly.

‘Oh, yes,’ Bella snapped as she placed the breakfast tray on the bedside table before swinging her legs to the floor and sitting up. ‘I can be ready to leave in half an hour or so, if that’s okay with you?’

Gabriel had thought Bella would be pleased at the idea of leaving the island today. That she would be even happier at the idea of being relieved of his company once they were back in England. But instead she merely looked angry.

‘There is no rush,’ he told her. ‘I have radioed ahead and instructed that the plane be fuelled and ready to leave as soon as we arrive.’

‘Now I know where Toby gets his organisational skills from!’ Bella huffed as she stood up. ‘I would like some privacy to get showered and dressed, if you wouldn’t mind, Gabriel?’ She looked at him challengingly.

‘Would it matter if I did?’ he growled.

Her eyes flashed violet fire at him. ‘Not in the least!’

His mouth thinned to a severe line. ‘As I thought. Eat some of the breakfast, Isabella,’ he instructed. ‘You will feel less sick on the helicopter if you have eaten.’

‘No—I’ll just have something to be sick with!’ she contradicted him mutinously.

‘That is true, also,’ Gabriel murmured dryly.

Bella glared. ‘Please don’t attempt to try and sugarcoat it for me!’