Page 44 of Billion-Dollar Baby Shock

Sex,yes.Anything more intimate?No way.

And yet, as Dion sat here now with his team, who were discussing the hugely exciting project of managing the reconstruction of one of Paris’s most iconic art deco buildings, all he could see was her face as she’d appeared looking sexily dishevelled and sleepy, in a robe, just before he’d left that morning.

A couple of hours earlier…

* * *

When Tara woke she knew she was alone.The bed feltcold around her.She cracked open her eyes and it wasn’t Dion’s room with its soft brown and dark gold furnishings.Not that she had taken all that much detail in last night.She’d been embarrassingly eager to get naked and lie back and let Dion use her body like an instrument that only he could play.

And he had obliged her.Over and over again.Showing Tara that, contrary to her view of herself as being quite boring and responsible, she had a capacity for sensualism that astounded her.

But there was nothing sensual about finding herself naked, in another bed, with the covers pulled up to her chin.She tried not to let the hurt in.The hurt that Dion was so expressly making the point that he didn’t want her near him unless they were making love.

Having sex,she amended.

And then she told herself she should be grateful.If she’d woken wrapped around him like a limpet, she might not have been able to hide her emotions.

Then she heard a noise out in the apartment and a little rogue devil inside her made her jump out of bed and pull on the robe that had been left on a chair nearby.Along with her clothes.That little detail made the hurt dissolve to be replaced by something else more volatile.

She went out into the apartment and stopped at the doorway leading into the dining room, her recent surge of adrenalin fading a little when confronted by the sight of Dion’s broad back.A blue shirt tucked into dark trousers.Hair still damp.

Then he turned around and Tara wasn’t even sure she remembered her own name.He was clean-shaven, hair swept back.Breathtakingly gorgeous.

‘Hi,’ she managed to crack out.

‘Morning.’He gestured to the table that was full of breakfast things that smelled delicious, especially the coffee.‘Help yourself.I have to leave in a couple of minutes.’

Tara felt bereft already and that reminded her.She lifted her chin.‘You could have woken me last night.I would have gone to the other room.You didn’t have to carry me.’

Like a sack of potatoes.

It was galling to think she’d been so out of it after the pleasure he’d wrung from her body that she hadn’t even noticed being moved.

A small cup of coffee was halfway to his mouth.Tara could have sworn she saw a twinkle of amusement in his eye, which made her emotions surge again.

He said, ‘It was no problem.I didn’t want to disturb you.’

Tara held back the waspish response,It’s a bit late for that.

Then he said, ‘There’s an event this evening, a charity banquet to raise funds for different charities.’

‘And this is relevant because…?’

‘We should go together.News is already trickling out online about us after yesterday evening at the opera, so it’ll shore up our position.I think news of Niko is going to break any day now.Apparently someone, somewhere, has leaked it.To be honest I’m surprised he’s been a secret for this long.’

The thought of Niko being subjected to a barrage of cameras like Tara had experienced earlier made her go cold.But as Dion said, it was inevitable.

As lightly as she could, Tara asked, ‘And what happens when we’re no longer…a thing toshore up?’

Dion’s face was impassive.‘We’ll issue a brief announcement stating that we’re no longer in a relationship but we’ll continue to co-parent our son.’

Co-parent.It sounded so…reasonable.And perhaps it would be possible.If Tara could ever come to look at Dion and not be filled with desire and those tumultuous emotions.

Surely, she thought a little desperately, this couldn’t be it?Her first lover, ruining her for all other men?

‘What will you do today?’he asked, clearly taking her silence as acquiescence to go to the event with him.

Tara blinked.She hadn’t even thought of that and she suddenly had a feeling of weightlessness.She was in one of the most beautiful cities in the world with all the time to explore it.Her spirits sank a little.On her own.