‘I don’t care, I need you,’ he panted, before gently biting my lip with a passion I had felt many times before.

‘Even with boeuf bourguignon in the oven?’ I smiled into his lips as we went in for another long kiss, soft and warm. Swapping sex for food was the only thing guaranteed to work with Oscar.

‘You’ve got a point there, Miss Raven, but your curves make me feel horny,’ he said. ‘I’m going to be even crazier for you when this little one arrives, but I know I’ll have to fight for your attention, because I’ll have competition. I need to make the most of having you to myself.’

I pulled back to take in his face. His eyes were sparkling in the landing light. He looked handsome. I was aware that the dinner really was going to be spoiled if we carried on right now. I peppered his lips with shorter kisses until our mouths separated again. When I opened my eyes once more, Oscar was beaming at me.

‘Why are you laughing?’ I asked, thinking something about my appearance must be humouring him.

‘I’m so happy,’ he said. ‘I didn’t think it was possible.’ I knew it was his way of acknowledging not just the passion we shared, but our deepening bond. ‘Our future is so bright.’

I smiled into his lips once more. ‘I love you, Mr Bright.’

Chapter Six

Aisha

Saturday 1^st May

A week later, Jason and I were on our way to the second Baby Group meeting when his phone rang. I knew instinctively it was bad news.

‘Seriously?’ he said loudly, stopping in the middle of the pavement. I watched him put his hand to his forehead and took an educated guess that it was his boss, Peter, on the other end. Then Jason said: ‘I’ll be there in thirty,’ and hung up. My heart rate quickened.

‘The system’s gone down again,’ he said. ‘It’s a nightmare, Aish, I thought we’d fixed the problems yesterday, but apparently not. Peter is going nuts because no one’s getting any emails.’ He blew air out of his mouth harshly. I wanted to feel sorry for him because he genuinely was having a work nightmare, but right now, I was more sorry for myself – and our baby.

I sometimes wished Jason worked for the ambulance service. At least then the unsociable hours and emergency calls would have the payoff that he was saving lives in the process. Instead, I have an IT manager who gets all the stress and upheaval, but with none of the genuine heroism.

‘At least you’re not actually in labour, hey?’ he said lightly, as if this was a sweetener.

‘Yeah, because if I was in labour, I’m assuming you wouldn’t be going in!’ I snapped.

‘If you were, I’m sure I could remote in, and keep working,’ he retorted.

I failed to see the joke and looked around self-consciously, hoping that no one else from The Baby Group was witnessing this. I was royally pissed off. Jason was going to miss another meeting. Not to mention he knew how anxious I was about going into labour.