As if reading her mind, he raised an eyebrow and stepped forward.
She had to get a grip; if she let Adam touch her she would be lost. Stepping backwards, she sucked in a breath to avoid any such possibility. The downside of that strategy being that she got a lungful of his woodsy scent. Her head whirled as desire jolted through her.
‘Let’s make this quick. I don’t care if Mum knows you’re here. I want you gone before she gets back.’
‘That’s no problem. Jodie won’t be back for a while.’
‘Huh? What have you done? Where is she?’
‘Liv, I’m not the mafia, and this isn’t a mob movie. Jodie said she’d spend the day with her friend Juliette and go to the cinema.’
He’d called her Liv, and the fact spread warmth over her chest. A heat she had to fight.
‘Hang on a minute.’ Olivia slammed her hands onto her hips, tried to ignore the sudden predatory glint in his eyes as they rested on her body. ‘Exactly when did Mum tell you all of this?’
‘Yesterday. I called her and we met for a coffee. Or a herbal tea, in your mum’s case.’
‘You came to sort out the money?’ Why else would he have turned up?
‘Amongst other things,’ he agreed calmly. ‘Your mother strikes a hard bargain.’
‘She took the money?’ Confusion mixed with an obscure sense of disappointment.
‘Why shouldn’t she? The baby is my sister just as much as yours. I don’t see why she shouldn’t benefit. Jodie suggested I set up a trust fund for the baby, which is exactly what I’ve done. The money will be hers when she reaches the age of twenty-one—or before, if Jodie, you and I all agree. So if she wants to go to university, or go travelling, or set up a business, or buy a home she’ll be able to.’
Adam smiled. Her smile—the one that warmed his eyes and curled her toes in the grubby trainers that currently adorned her feet.
‘You and your mum are very alike. It took me a while to persuade her to accept anything from me.’
Olivia flexed her feet and attempted to pull her brain into gear. ‘This is all very generous of you, Adam, but it’s between you and Mum. Nothing to do with me. It doesn’t explain why you’re here. Unless you want my gratitude? If so, thanks very much, and the door is that way.’
Ungracious, she knew. But Adam must know that she couldn’t be bought—though what he was trying to buy was anyone’s guess. Another night? Heaven help her, her body melted at the thought. So the sooner he left, the better.
He stepped forwards, closing the space between them, and she moved backwards, manoeuvred herself behind the sofa.
‘I’m not after your gratitude, Liv. I came here because I wanted to see you. I needed to see you.’
Her tummy fluttered with an anticipatory fizz that common sense instantly doused. There were loads of reasons for Adam to need to see her. She tucked a stray tendril of hair behind her ear, her fingers skimming the synthetic material of the utterly horrendous scarf. Her fingers itched with the feminine need to tug the damn thing off and she dropped her hands to grip the back of the sofa. She didn’t care how she looked.
‘If you need me to sign something to do with the trust fund leave the papers here. I’ll get them back to you once I’ve read them.’
‘That’s not what I need.’ Brown eyes looked at her with a hunger he made no effort to hide. ‘Why didn’t you tell your mum about us?’
Olivia narrowed her eyes. ‘How do you know I didn’t?’
‘Because after I took her to her antenatal class last night we went for a drink, and until I explained the situation she seemed to think that I was just someone who’d helped you find Zeb.’
Olivia wasn’t sure which bit of the sentence to tackle first. ‘You went to her antenatal class?’
‘Yes.’
Adam took another step closer to the sofa so that he stood at the corner, and her heart started flipping like a blueberry pancake in her chest.
‘Why?’
‘Because I want to be part of my sister’s life.’
‘You do?’
‘Yes,’ he said simply. ‘Just because Zeb isn’t choosing to feature it doesn’t mean I can’t. That’s why I went to Jodie first, before coming to find you. I want you both to know that regardless of what happens between you and me I will always be involved. Not out of duty but out of love.’
His words swam around her mind, her brain circling and trying to come to terms with them. It focused finally on ‘regardless of what happens between you and me’.
‘You and me?’ Clenching her nails into the palms of her hand, she straightened her shoulders. ‘I don’t understand. There is no you and me. And, whatever happened between us in the past, I’d never stand in the way of you being in the baby’s life.’