“Yeah, when I stayed there, she tried to get me to eat about ten thousand calories.”
“Yep, that’s my ma.”
“After I have the baby, you’ll have to help me get back into shape.”
“I can certainly help you with cardio.” This time, he turned to look at me, that big-ass grin on his face.
I rolled my eyes, but it was completely playful.
He patted his thigh, then nodded for me to join him.
“There are people around.”
“So?” He snapped his fingers like I was Medusa. “Get your ass over here.”
The chairs immediately around us had been vacated, so there wasn’t anyone directly next to us. It wasn’t private, but it was semiprivate. And anyone who was uncomfortable with it was just jealous they weren’t me.
I moved to his lounger and settled between his legs, my back to his chest.
He pulled me against him, his big arms like two safety belts in a car, and he cocooned me between his muscular thighs as the summer breeze moved over our skin. He dipped his head and kissed my shoulder a few times, even though it probably tasted like sunscreen. He flattened his hands over my stomach like he could feel a bulge no one else could see. “I can’t wait until you start to show.”
I relaxed against his hard chest, feeling him support me from behind while making me feel loved with his big hands and arms. He always smothered me in love that felt so masculine and secure. There were beautiful women everywhere in Taormina, but I never saw his eyes wander once. They were always on me, loving me physically and emotionally with just his stare.
“Turns me the fuck on,” he said into my ear.
“Wait until my belly is enormous and I can barely walk.”
“Oh, sweetheart.” Right on command, his dick hardened and poked into my back. “Don’t torture me.” He hooked his arms around me againand pressed another kiss to my shoulder as he cradled me to him. He eventually lay back, his chest rising and falling evenly, peacefully.
With a belly full of pizza and mocktails and a beautiful man to hold me like a pillow, I stared at the ocean for a minute or two before my eyes grew tired and I slipped away.
When I woke up, my eyes stayed closed, but I could hear the waves in front of me. They’d increased as the day went on, the tide rising as the afternoon passed. My eyes opened to look at the beautiful sea, and I breathed a quiet sigh, feeling Constantine’s slow heartbeat against the back of my shoulder.
I stroked my hand along his arm, feeling all the different muscles underneath his warm flesh. He lifted his hand, then moved for mine, sliding his underneath my palm to cradle it against his chest.
That was when I noticed it.
The enormous diamond ring that he slipped onto my finger while I’d been asleep.
I should have noticed the weight the second he put it on, but I was knocked out cold. Now that I knew it was there, I tilted my hand to look at it better, to see the large princess-cut diamond sitting on a platinum band. It took me a second to react, to understand what was right in front of me.
“If one of my other lovers had told me they were pregnant, I would have been a man and risen to the occasion, but I wouldn’t have been happy about the news. But the second I knew we were having a baby, I was the happiest I’ve ever been. Yes, I’m asking you to marry me because you’re pregnant.” He tightened his arm around me and pressed a kiss to my shoulder. “But also, because it’s shown me how deeply I love you. Because I’ve never been so excited for anything in my life. Because you’re the only person I’d ever want to do this with. Because I look at you like you’re already my wife, and I’d give anything to call you that.So please let me be your husband. Let me love you and support you and protect you for the rest of my life. Please, sweetheart.”
I turned in his arms, pivoting my body so our eyes could lock in place.
He automatically slid his hand into my hair and cradled my face as he looked at me, like he hoped and prayed I’d give a different answer than the last time he asked me. His eyes were so assertive and sincere.
If this pregnancy hadn’t happened, I didn’t know when he would have asked me to be his wife, but I believed that proposal would have come at some point. I believed we would spend the rest of our lives together, regardless of how it came about. It wasn’t exactly how I imagined it, but this was the man I loved with all my heart. And I could see he loved me with all of his. “Yes.”
His eyes immediately softened when he got the answer he wanted, and his fingers slid farther into my hair as he cupped my face. The most handsome smile he’d ever worn broke out on his face before he pulled me into him and kissed me. Kissed me like there was no one around us except us and the Mediterranean ... and the large rock we’d jumped off like two teenagers falling in love during a summer fling.
Chapter 19
Constantine
The second we made it home, I had her on the bed in her little bikini and cover-up. I pulled it off so fast that I almost ripped the material. I hooked her bottoms over her ass and yanked on the string around her neck so her perfect tits came free.
I was harder than a teenager who’d just seen his first pair of tits.
