Shut out. She was shutting him out. Jonas felt the panic come first, then the anger. Then the determination. “I will say it. If I say it enough, sooner or later you’ll start to believe it. Do you think all these nights have been a game? Haven’t you felt it? Don’t you feel anything?”

“I thought I felt something once before.”

“You were a child.” When she started to shake her head, he gripped her tighter. “Yes, you were. In some ways you still are, but I know what goes through you when you’re with me. I know. I’m not a ghost, I’m not a memory. I’m real and I want you.”

“I’m afraid of you,” she whispered. “I’m afraid because you make me want what I can’t have. I won’t marry you, Jonas, because I’m through taking chances with my life and I won’t take chances with my child’s life. Please let me go.”

He released her, but when she stood, his arms went around her. “It isn’t over for us.”

She dropped her head against his chest, pressed her cheek close. “Let me have the few days we have left. Please let me have them.”

He lifted her chin. Everything he needed to know was in her eyes. A man who knew and who planned to win could afford to wait. “You haven’t dealt with anyone as stubborn as you are before this. And you haven’t nearly finished dealing with me.” Then his hand gentled as he stroked her hair. “Get dressed. I’ll take you to work.”

Because he acted as though nothing had been said, Liz relaxed. It was impossible, and she knew it. They’d known each other only weeks, and under circumstances that were bound to intensify any feelings. He cared. She believed that he cared, but love—the kind of love needed to build a marriage—was too much to risk.

She loved. She loved so much that she pushed him away when she wanted to pull him closer. He needed to go back to his life, back to his world. After time had passed, if he thought of her he’d think with gratitude that she had closed a door he’d opened on impulse. She would think of him. Always.

By the time Liz was walking toward the shop, she’d settled her mind. “What are you going to do today?”

“Me?” Jonas, too, had settled his mind. “I’m going to sit in the sun and do nothing.”

“Nothing?” Incredulous, Liz stared at him. “All day?”

“It’s known as relaxing, or taking a day off. If you do it several days running, it’s called a vacation. I was supposed to have one in Paris.”