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The other man shook his head. “I’m going to pass on that. Why don’t you introduce me to your lovely lady?”
“Emily Fielding,” Rafe said. “Eric Rubio. He owns this place.”
Emily held her hand out to Eric, who took it in his, winked at Rafe and then kissed it. Emily laughed at the easy camaraderie between the two men. As they made their way upstairs to the dance club, she realized that this was the first time she’d seen Rafe so relaxed in Miami.
Emily suspected it was because he was away from the Montoros and the decisions they wanted from him. She knew that she felt the pressure, and it wasn’t even directed at her.
She should just say yes to his proposal. She wanted to make everything easier for him, and her taking her time and trying to figure out what she felt for him and if he would always be there when she needed him to be was just making everything harder for Rafe.
Eric left them as the music started, and Rafe held his hand out to her and led her to the dance floor.
They spent the night dancing to salsa music, their bodies brushing against each other, fanning the flames of the desire that was always there between them.
She wished for a moment they could go back to the people they’d been when they’d first met. Just two lusty twentysomethings instead of a man and woman who knew too much about each other.
“You okay?” Rafe asked.
She nodded, but as she looked into those hazel eyes of his she realized she’d probably never be just okay again. All the debating in her mind about whether she loved him or not had been another diversion.
She went up on tiptoe and kissed him, pouring the emotions that she was too scared to admit to into that embrace. His hands skimmed down her sides to her hips and he held her pressed close to him. It felt as if everything dropped away but the two of them.
“Let’s get out of here,” Rafe said, taking her hand and leading her out the door.
Twelve
Emily wasn’t having a good morning. When Rafe’s alarm went off, she sprang out of bed and ran to his bathroom to throw up. The morning sickness, which had been waning, was back with a vengeance today. But then she was still in the first trimester. It had seemed as if months had passed, but in reality it was only four weeks since she’d confronted Rafe here in his penthouse. Ten weeks since she’d gotten pregnant.
Yet her entire world had changed.
She suspected it was partially nerves, since Rafe had a big meeting with his family this morning. One that she wasn’t invited to attend. He hadn’t said much but it had put a damper on their evening once they’d gotten home and he’d finally read all the texts from his cousin and brother reminding him about the meeting. She thought of her little family and how her mom was never one to pressure her into making a decision. But knew she was comparing apples and oranges. Rafe was in line to become king of Alma. There was nothing in Fielding family history that even came close to that.
Both of them knew that this time of dating and getting to know each other was over. She’d overheard a very tense conversation between Rafe and his cousin Juan Carlos last night that didn’t sound too promising. She rinsed her mouth out and splashed some water on her face, looking up in the mirror to see Rafe standing there. Simply watching her.
“You okay?” he asked, a gentle smile on his face. He wore only a pair of boxer briefs and she was struck again by how handsome he was. How much she loved every inch of his strong muscled body. “I didn’t know what to do. I hate that you get sick in the mornings.”
“Yes,” she said, taking a hand towel and drying her face. “How are you?”
“I’m fine,” he said. “Will you accompany me to the office? We can take the helicopter back to Key West after my meetings are over.”
She nodded. “Sounds great.”
“I need to shower and shave,” he said.
There was an awkwardness between them this morning that hadn’t been there in a long time. She wondered if he’d changed his mind about marrying her. Wondered if he wished that he’d just paid her off when she’d come here to tell him that she was pregnant. She just hoped that he didn’t regret coming to Key West and Shady Harry’s bar and spending that first weekend with her. But the man she’d come to know was now hidden away behind his official Montoro facade.
She knew his attitude had everything to do with his family. He seemed angry and a little bit hurt. And she was scared. For the first time she faced the very real possibility that she might be losing him.
She thought it telling that he hadn’t asked her again to marry him this morning. She assumed the time for that had passed. Maybe he wasn’t in the mood to pacify his family anymore.
