Fooling with her peignoir’s lacy neckline, he stage-whispered, ‘Darling, you promised not to mention that once we got here.’ Appropriately embarrassed, he turned to their hostess. ‘Thank you, Penny. Punch would be great.’ He touched his throat and rasped, ‘I am rather dry.’

As they moved off, Penny prattled on about her house renovations. Cooper stopped and held a hand out to Sophie. ‘Coming?’

The time seemed right for payback for crossing the loincloth line earlier tonight. ‘You’ve so looked forward to catching up with Penny.’ She blew a kiss. ‘I’ll see you both later.’

Above a knowing half-grin, his unmasked eye shot playful daggers as Penny dragged him and his billowing cape away.

Left alone, Sophie inhaled the aroma of the hot finger-food doing the rounds, then appraised the milling crowd—Terminator, Dorothy from Oz, Edward Scissorhands and, if she wasn’t mistaken, Pamela Anderson, in a red one-piece that didn’t come close to covering her famous bust.

Sophie rearranged her peignoir and smiled. Cooper was the kind of man most women dreamed about. Completely and irrevocably masculine. Confident to the point of arrogance. But Sophie didn’t feel the least concerned that she would lose his attention tonight. Not because she considered herself more attractive or entertaining than any woman here, or because they were close to being in love. But rather because she was the mother of Cooper’s unborn child, and right now that was all he could see. She would be a fool to think otherwise.

From behind, a set of hands swept over her eyes and Sophie jumped. She pulled them off and spun around to see Kate’s razor-cut red hair hidden beneath a thirties-style blonde wig.

Kate circled her. ‘Oh my God, Sophie—look at you!’

In a shredded dress and rope bracelets, Sophie was guessing Kate was King Kong’s date, Fay Wray.

Kate’s brow wrinkled. ‘Have you lost weight?’

For once in her life Sophie felt wonderful saying, ‘I’ve put a little on.’

Kate’s gaze sharpened. ‘What happened after Wendy’s wedding? You didn’t return any of my calls.’ She craned a look around the busy, dimly lit room. ‘Are you with that guy tonight?’

‘As a matter of fact …’ She buffed her nails.

Kate pressed a palm to her chest. ‘I lost my breath when he carried you away like that.’

‘Knocked me out too,’ Sophie admitted.

That night had been one of a kind—overflowing with colour-filled magic. Every woman should be lucky enough to experience a night with a lover as expert as Cooper. Sophie’s body flashed hot whenever she thought of the heights to which he’d taken her. Release had become more intense, more necessary, each time.

But would she enjoy those same kinds of thrills again? Though she would never admit it to him, she couldn’t imagine being with anyone but Cooper.

Kate absently rearranged her ropes. ‘I can’t think why Evangeline cut him loose. I tried to dig a little, but she wouldn’t give even a hint.’

Sophie’s antennae picked up. ‘You know Cooper’s ex?’ The woman who had tried but failed to conceive while they were an item …?

‘Evangeline’s a friend on Wendy’s husband’s side. Didn’t come to the wedding for obvious reasons.’ She mouthed, ‘Too awkward,’ then nudged Sophie’s ribs. ‘Good thing for you, though.’ She tilted her wavy blonde wig towards the kitchen. ‘I saw her earlier. Guess she didn’t realise her ex would be here.’

Someone nuzzled her neck from behind, and Sophie jumped, higher this time, then spun around.

Cooper, minus the mask, waved a cracker and spread under her nose. ‘Chilli-cheese dip. I can get another.’

Spicy food upset her stomach—particularly now she was pregnant. She tried not to screw up her nose. ‘You enjoy.’

He popped the cracker in his mouth, but stopped mid-chew as he stared off over her shoulder. His bright blue eyes doubled in size at the same time as his olive complexion came over all pasty. His voice was little more than a rasp.

‘Evangeline?’

Nausea rolled up and down inside Sophie’s tummy. Swallowing hard, she followed Cooper’s eyeline while Fay Wray, obviously sensing hazards ahead, quietly slipped away.

A petite woman waved once, looked around, and, finding no escape, moved to join them.

When she came close, Sophie saw the woman’s eyes were almond-shaped and deep hazel in colour. She smelled like roses—soft and subtle—and looked like an oriental princess—or was it geisha? She probably would even out of costume.

Her gentle tone was no surprise. ‘Hello, Cooper. It’s been a while.’

Cooper finished swallowing his cracker. ‘Nice to see you.’

Madam Butterfly forced a smile. ‘I didn’t expect to see you here.’

A pulse leapt twice in his jaw. ‘Small world.’ He placed an arm around Sophie’s corseted waist. ‘I’d like you to meet Sophie.’

She could have kissed him for leaving off her last name.

Evangeline had the kind of face that reminded Sophie of angels—beautiful, serene. First impressions were everything, and although Sophie knew their background, she had a hard time believing this woman had taken matters into her own hands about starting a family with Cooper.

Sophie accepted her hand. ‘Good to meet you.’

Cooper’s gaze had dropped to Evangeline’s waist. Seeing his frozen expression, Sophie stole a look too. She was no expert, but she’d place the gestational age of Evangeline’s baby somewhere around six months.

A hot tingling flashed from the base of her skull all the way over to her beading forehead.

Oh, God … how long ago had Cooper said he and Evangeline had broken up? Surely this wasn’t his baby too? Evangeline would have said something long before now.

Wouldn’t she?

Cooper blinked rapidly at the half-egg shape under Evangeline’s red silk dress. He coughed out a dull laugh. ‘Got a pillow under there?’

‘No pillow. I’m having a baby.’ Evangeline bowed her head, cupped her belly and smiled. ‘Actually, two. I’m having twins.’

Cooper pulled in his chin as if he were trying to digest the news. Or maybe he was counting backwards too. A fine sheen broke across his gelled back brow. ‘That happened quickly.’

‘Robert and I met the week after we broke up.’ Evangeline shrugged an apology. ‘Yes, it was very quick.’

Evangeline’s unspoken words hung in the thick air.

It wasn’t me who couldn’t fall pregnant, Cooper. It was you.

After an awkward silence, in which the other woman held her stomach, Cooper knocked back his punch and Sophie withered in her shoes, Evangeline glanced over her shoulder.

‘He’s around somewhere. My fiancé,’ she explained, looking back with a weak smile. ‘You’ll have to meet him.’

Cooper’s smile was practised, but his eyes hinted that he’d been struck hard.

‘Another time,’ he said. ‘We really ought to go.’ He drew Sophie closer. ‘Sophie needs her rest.’

Sophie did a double-take. Had she understood Cooper correctly? Had he just let his ex know that she was pregnant too? She hadn’t even told her parents yet.

While Sophie got her bearings, Evangeline’s fine eyebrows arched in astonishment, then delight. She looked as if she didn’t know if it was safe to smile. ‘That sounds like an announcement. Am I reading too much into that?’

Lifting his chin, Cooper eased back his caped shoulders. ‘Triplets run in Sophie’s family.’

Sophie almost spluttered. Then she almost slapped his face. How dare he use her like this. Divulge something so private and important merely to bolster his wounded sense of masculinity and show up his former girlfriend.

Ears burning with indignation, Sophie found Evangeline’s eyes and pushed out through gritted teeth, ‘We’re keeping it quiet at the moment.’

Evangeline nodded her understanding even as she threw out her arms and drew Sophie in. ‘I’m so happy for you both.’ She stretched on silk slippered tiptoe to place a no-hard-feelings kiss on Cooper’s cheek. Her eyes smiled her good wishes. ‘Obviously I just wasn’t the right one.’

Sophie and Cooper said their goodbyes and left five minutes later. Cooper was uncommonly quiet on the drive home. That was fine, because if Sophie had opened her mouth, she’d have torn him to shreds. Did he have any idea how it felt to have your feelings dismissed like that? He constantly told her he wanted this to work, yet how could it when Cooper’s point of view and concerns were the only ones that counted? She was so upset with him she wanted to cry.

When they entered his house, Sophie began to stride off without a goodnight. But Cooper held her back with a gloved hand on her forearm.

She spun back to see him drag the cravat from around his throat. ‘Tomorrow I’ll move your things down to the guest room on this floor.’

Sophie studied the shadows in his usually clear blue eyes. Why did he want her to move? And what gave him the right to demand like that? She thrust back her shoulders. ‘I’ll stay where I am.’

‘This is non-negotiable!’ His expression cut from stone, he glanced up at the stairs spiralling towards the mezzanine floor. ‘Those stairs are dangerous. I won’t take any chances.’

Sophie’s laugh was devoid of humour. ‘Don’t I get a say in what’s dangerous and what’s not? Don’t I get a say in anything at all?’ She wrenched her arm from his hold. ‘How dare you tell your ex-lover that I’m pregnant?’

His gaze ran over her like a belligerent hot press. ‘You can’t hide from this situation for ever, Sophie. I have as much right to share the news as you do.’

‘Without even consulting me first? That was nothing more than grandstanding at my expense.’

He looked down to rip off his gloves. ‘We won’t discuss it now.’

She knotted her arms over her waist. ‘Now who’s hiding from the situation?’

His gaze pierced hers, and the pulse in his jaw kicked off again. ‘We were discussing where you’ll sleep from now on.’

‘How does my own bed at my own place sound?’ She shook her head, tears of frustration filling her eyes. ‘You’ve tried to push me around since I told you about the baby, but now you’ve gone too far.’

He moved forward till he towered over her. His voice lowered, more gravel than steel. ‘I’ll go as far as I need. Some things are too important for compromise, and my child’s safety is one of them. You’re staying here, and you’re moving downstairs.’

Bully. ‘No. I. Won’t.’

Exhaling, he rushed a hand through his dark hair, then gave her a warning look. ‘I won’t argue with you, Sophie. In the morning you’ll see that I’m right—about everything.’

He moved off towards an archway that led to the adjoining private theatre/TV room, but turned back to set a kiss on her forehead before disappearing.

Trembling, hating his kiss but wanting it too, Sophie let out a long exhausted breath. She knew he could be over-protective, domineering. But seeing Evangeline had brought those qualities out tenfold, and she knew the deepest reason why.

It wasn’t me. It was you.

When she and Cooper had fallen pregnant so easily, he’d assumed that Evangeline’s difficulty in conceiving must be hers. But with his ex falling pregnant as quickly as Sophie had, the question of fertility—and infertility—had been tossed into the air again.

Turning slowly, Sophie eyed the varnished timber, took several deep breaths, and then, lifting her peignoir skirt, ascended each stair carefully.

Cooper had made it clear he wanted a family more than anything. It didn’t take a mind-reader to know that now he must wonder …

Had the difficulty between he and Evangeline lain with him? Was this time—this baby—a fluke? No doubt he would get a specialist’s opinion, but Sophie doubted he would get it next week.

Cooper had a light side, but ultimately he was a man who possessed determination. He’d funnel all his energies into making certain this baby was born safe and healthy. Incorporated into that objective would be his resolve to continue to keep this child under his watchful eye and protection.

From the top of the stairs, Sophie gazed down at the soft flicker of the television dancing across the timber floor below.

A part of her couldn’t help but sympathise with Cooper. Tonight had been a shock. But, damn it all, even if he did have a point about the stairs, it didn’t mean he had the right to bring down the law and expect her to jump.

Removing her drop earrings, she headed for her room.

Tonight she would let him unwind.

Tomorrow she needed to decide whether it was time to call this charade off.

CHAPTER NINE

SOPHIE woke the next morning feeling awful. She’d barely managed any sleep. Her mind had been a tumult of revolving conversations from the previous night. Most particularly those final moments with Cooper.

Dragging her feet, she showered, dressed in a baggy jumper and jeans, and for the hundredth time contemplated how best to handle the scene that would no doubt confront her this morning. She was not prepared to bow to Cooper’s demands. She’d been crazy to accept this challenge in the first place. Never again would she be made to feel as if her opinion didn’t count. As if she didn’t count.

She opened her bedroom door, her heart physically aching. She would remain strong. This was over. Hell, it had been over before it began. And, no matter how much Cooper wanted to control the situation, there was nothing he could do to make her stay. She’d been here less than forty-eight hours, and already the shells were falling. This house would turn into a war zone if she stayed any longer. And what about her unborn child? Playing house and pretending things could be different were not conducive to maintaining a healthy pregnancy. The baby’s well-being must come first.

Before she tracked Cooper down, she smelled pancakes—fresh, hot, baking now. The aroma, and her empty stomach, tugged her straight into the kitchen. By the hotplates set in a huge island bench stood Cooper, dressed in worn jeans, and an unbuttoned white shirt, and with bed hair that looked ten times sexier than his usual neat style.

In the middle of flipping a pancake, he must have sensed her there and glanced over. Their eyes met and his Adam’s apple bobbed. ‘Hi.’

Sophie swallowed hard. She’d had every intention of telling him this was over, that she was going now and calling a cab. How dared he pull this on her? How dared he look so vulnerable, yet more masculine than she’d ever seen him?

He nudged his bristled chin at the bottle of sauce on the counter. ‘Chocolate,’ he said. ‘Hope you’re hungry.’

A lump swelled in her throat. ‘If this is supposed to be an apology, it won’t work.’ Hell, she almost meant it.

He left the pancake cooking and moved towards her, his gait fluid, his broad shoulders rolling. Her skin flashed hot and her stomach tied in one big aching knot when he didn’t stop until his body touched hers and his large hands cupped her face. God, he smelled good. She’d take his musk over pancakes any day.

She shook herself back.

No! She had to leave before this overpowering attraction crushed her spirit totally.

She tried to weave away from him. The muscles in his arms and chest bunched and flexed as he held her firm. His skin was steamy, his exposed torso uncompromisingly hard.

He tipped her chin up to have her look into his eyes. ‘I’m going to say something.’

She wanted to block her ears against the hypnotic rumble of his voice. ‘We said all there is to say last night.’ He’d embarrassed her, then ordered her to obey his demand that she sleep where he saw fit. Suffocating emotion burned her throat. ‘I’m not a child, and I won’t be treated like one—not by anyone, not for any reason.’

She almost saw it … the former Sophie waving goodbye and stepping back for ever. No matter how much she wanted Cooper to overwhelm and kiss her—and, yes, beg her to stay—she simply couldn’t.

‘I won’t apologise,’ he said, in the rich deep timbre that sent ripples lapping up her spine. ‘Not about you moving downstairs. You don’t want to hear it, but I’m right. If you slip and lose the baby you’d never forgive yourself, and I would never forgive myself for not protecting you both.’

Somewhere through his speech she’d stopped struggling. She hated to admit it … Could she admit it?

He was right.

Unshed tears stung behind her eyes. She wanted to run away, hide. Wake up when everything was sorted and she and her baby could live happily ever after.

Her voice was a strangled whisper. ‘You hurt me, Cooper.’ Through telling Evangeline about the baby as much as anything.

His thick sooty lashes lowered as his hand combed back her hair. She felt his heartbeat booming through his body and against her. ‘Forgive me.’

Her heart squeezed. Oh, God. Did he have to look at her like that?

‘Tomorrow you’ll be asking me to forgive you again.’

His jaw flinched as his gaze lowered to her lips. ‘I’m not perfect.’

She hesitated, then somehow, somewhere, found a small grin. ‘Can I get that in writing?’

The tension bracing his frame seemed to ease. He took half a step back to search her eyes more deeply. ‘Does that mean you’ll stay?’

He was insufferable, boorish.

Dangerously close to irresistible.

She set her jaw and tried to look fierce. ‘It means you’re on probation. That’s your one and only Get Out of Jail Free card.’

As he groaned with relief, drew her in and pressed an almost chaste kiss to her brow, she didn’t know if he realised, but in her heart she knew it was true. She owed it to her baby to give him one more chance. She owed it to herself and the baby to stick to that and not give in again.

CHAPTER TEN

ONE month and one day after the costume party, Sophie stood looking over the meerkats’ replica desert home at Sydney’s Taronga Park Zoo. No winding caves or upper storeys. These cute cousins to the mongoose lived on ground-floor quarters.

Just like her.

But she didn’t regret giving in to Cooper’s request that she move downstairs. It would be arrogance on her part to say she did. And, to be fair, after their talk-and-make-up that morning he’d been on his best behaviour. So much so, she’d begun to wonder whether miracles did happen and destiny had in fact shone its light on them both.

But it was early days yet. Surely a leopard didn’t change its spots? A man of Cooper’s determined and uncompromising character didn’t turn over a new leaf overnight. Each day when they said goodnight, and she curled up in her bed alone, she told herself, Wait a little longer and the bombshells will start falling again.

Every day she waited for the former Cooper to return. Every day she waited for the sparring to begin again. And every day that passed without a sighting, she found herself believing and caring a little more.

Whistling, Cooper returned with two bottled waters. He set one upon the waist-high fence and, smiling at a meerkat’s pointed little face and alert upright posture, unscrewed the other bottle and handed it over.

Sipping on her water, Sophie wondered again at Cooper’s newfound restraint with regard to trying to seduce her. Was this self-discipline part of a calculated game to have her crumple beneath the incessant craving and beg him to take her in his arms?

If that were indeed the case, all she could say was … it was working. Whenever he smiled that certain sexy way, or strode around in front of her in nothing more than a towel and foam upon his face, she had to call her body to heel. Unfortunately it never listened.

After removing his baseball cap, Cooper swiped the bottle’s condensation over his brow. The winter sky was a perfect dome of saturated blue, and the temperature had been delectable—though it was dropping now the afternoon was fading.

After quenching her thirst, she recapped her bottle, and Cooper turned for her to slot it into the khaki knapsack slung over his back. ‘We should visit the kangaroo park next,’ she said. The last stop on today’s busy agenda.

She adored the clean, open atmosphere of Taronga Park. More so, she loved that endangered species like the Asian elephant and Nepal’s Red Panda were being cared for here.

He checked the time. ‘Then we’d better get a move on. They’ll be closing soon.’

They meandered down a gently winding bitumen slope, Cooper keeping a half-step ahead—Sophie suspected in case she stumbled or tripped.

He snapped a digital pic of a massive croc grinning around a mouthful of jagged teeth. Showing her the shot, he asked, ‘Any update from the infamous Mr Myers this week?’

Cooper was aware that, as it had turned out, the principal hadn’t wanted to see her regarding anything personal, but rather had needed to discuss a parent’s complaint over a student’s assignment mark. Perhaps it was nerves, but Sophie had imagined a curious glint shining from behind Mr Myers’s large old-fashioned frames as he’d spoken to her from his orderly desk that day almost a month ago.

‘I must have been mistaken,’ she said, stopping to read a direction chart to make sure they were on the right path. ‘Myers still doesn’t seem to know anything about the pregnancy.’

‘But he’ll need to soon.’

Irrespective of how well things had been going between them, her hackles quivered. They’d been through this. ‘I don’t want to hide it. I just don’t feel a need to blurt it to the world.’

Her body. Her privacy. Her prerogative.

And there was another reason for not jumping in and telling everyone at work—the first twelve weeks of pregnancy were known for incidents of miscarriage. But she had entered her second trimester, thank heaven, and was discovering a whole new interesting side to her fluctuating hormone journey.

Cooper seemed to read her mind.

‘What were you looking up on the net last night? You shut the page when I came into the study.’

Sophie quashed a jab of embarrassment and twisted her mouth. ‘Hmm … sorry.’ She shrugged. ‘Can’t remember.’

He laughed—a deep, rich, scrumptious sound. ‘You look as guilty now as you did then.’ He gave her the evil eye. ‘You weren’t tinkering with the naughty sites, were you?’

She dug deep for an answer. ‘Not exactly.’ Then, more firmly, ‘No.’

They collected a bag of dry food pellets and entered a reserve full of kangaroos and wallabies but, almost at closing time, devoid of humans. The minty smell of eucalypt was close to overpowering.

Opening a pellet bag, Cooper walked around her. ‘I see you’re trying your best to intrigue me.’

He followed as she trod carefully up to a grazing wallaby. Sophie crouched, and glowed inside when the sweet little face nuzzled into her hand. Their eyelashes were so long—she ran a palm down its back—and their fur so incredibly soft.

Cooper nudged again. ‘Anything you want to share, Sophie? I’m all ears.’

The wallaby’s wet nose wriggled against the pocket of her palm, full of pellets. She shrugged again. ‘Just information about being pregnant.’

They stood back as a six-foot emu, Australia’s flightless national bird, trotted by.

‘I feel as though I’m pulling teeth.’ Cooper stuffed his empty wrap into his back pocket. ‘Will you tell me what you were researching, or do I get worried?’

She shook the rest of her bag’s contents onto the ground, and two more wallabies edged over on their long tails and hind legs.

He wanted to know.

She inhaled deeply.

Okay. She would tell him.

‘Fluctuating hormones.’ She knew she ought to zip her lip now, but a force greater than common sense seemed to spur her on. ‘Some women experience a phenomenon where their sex drive increases in the second trimester. Husbands sometimes complain they can’t keep up.’

She stole a glance at Cooper.

His lopsided grin said, I can keep up.

Avoiding his eyes, she moved towards the smooth dimpled bark of a giant gum tree. ‘It also says that this phenomenon might be linked to women’s basic need for reassurance during this time.’

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