Noah POV

I push her back. She comes forward again immediately, hands reaching, and I push her back again, and she comes forward again, and by the third time something in me has run out of patience for the rhythm of it.

“Paige.” My voice comes out louder than I intend. “Don’t.”

She stops. Takes a small step back. Then her expression rearranges itself into something wounded, and she puts one hand against her abdomen with the careful deliberateness of a woman who has ...