AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He frowned. He hoped it would.
He’d intended to take her out for dinner, somewhere glitzy, to see and be seen, but the way his body kept reacting had ruled that right out of play. The idea of making a fool of himself in a public place—which, given the state of his libido, he probably would—gave him the shudders.
Leaning forward, he gave the driver his instructions and had a vivid mental flashback of Rosie running to the front of the car and telling the stuffily correct chauffeur when he’d dropped them off for that walk in the park, ‘We’ve not stopped for lunch because we had a huge breakfast. But I’m sure you must be starving. We won’t mind waiting while you go and get something to eat.’
She’d looked so concerned, her lovely head tipped to one side, and not altogether convinced when the starchy, impeccably uniformed man had immediately thawed, his craggy face transformed by a fatherly grin as he’d confided, ‘That’s thoughtful of you, madam. But the missus always makes me a packed lunch. You just enjoy your walk now.’
Sebastian slid the glass panel back into place and subsided against the leather upholstery. When had he ever heard his date concern herself about the well-being of another human being, let alone someone he would consider to be a humble minion and so far beneath her they weren’t worth noticing?
Never. Ever.
Aware of every breath she took, he glared straight ahead, not trusting himself to look at her.
He wanted to have sex with her. Here. Now.
Oblivious, Rosie fingered the fine gold chain around her neck.
Sebastian had insisted on buying it; he’d whisked her into a jeweller’s and had taken ages making his selection. Then, when he’d lifted her hair and fastened the cool gold links around her neck, the heated brush of his fingers on her nape had made her breasts strain against her suit jacket which, as it had happened, had been pressed against his chest. She hoped he hadn’t noticed.
She hadn’t wanted him to spend any more money on her, and she’d told him so, but she’d had to agree with him that the chain did set the suit off beautifully.
The lovely suit would wear out eventually, but the gold chain would last for ever. If she ever had a daughter she would pass it on to her, she decided dreamily. And tell her how it had been given to her by the most handsome man ever to walk the planet, a man she had only known briefly but had loved with all of her heart.
Shades of her own mother! Her hand dropped heavily to her lap. Maybe she was already carrying that daughter. Sebastian’s child.
Oh, my goodness! Her face flooded with heat. It wasn’t remotely sensible, but she passionately hoped so! Any child of his would be utterly adorable, a part of him that would be hers for always.
A sudden flash of inspiration made the breath snag in her throat. Turning to him, she gazed at his hard, set profile, her voice low even though she knew the driver, behind his glass partition, couldn’t hear her, ‘We’ve been really dim! You can buy something to test for pregnancy at any chemist, can’t you? Then we’d know for sure, wouldn’t we?’
Yeah. Right.
Sebastian felt her eyes on him and didn’t move. Stared ahead at the back of the driver’s neck.
And the morning after pill. Don’t forget that. It had been the first thing he’d thought about. And immediately discounted.
Because subconsciously he’d wanted her to be carrying his child?
And he’d ruled out a pregnancy test. Because he’d needed an excuse to keep her with him?
Doing a test had only just occurred to her. Her naivety was one of the thousands of things he liked about her. With a smothered groan he turned to her. He ached to take her in his arms. She gave him an encouraging smile. Sebastian shuddered; she had no idea what she was doing to him. She was probably expecting him to instruct the driver to stop at the first chemist’s shop they came to. And he knew then that whether she was pregnant or not he wanted to keep her with him.
And it wasn’t just sex. There was a lot more to it than that.
He closed his eyes, his jaw tightening. The need to take her in his arms, hold her, kiss her senseless, was fiercely strong, and it was probably just as well they were now sweeping into the underground parking lot of the apartment block. He was going to have to think long and hard about what he really wanted, no jumping in feet first. He’d done that ten years ago, landed a cropper and learned a useful lesson.
But Rosie wasn’t like Magdalena, or any of the other glossy harpies who had cash registers for hearts—
‘Sir?’
Aware that he was still glaring straight ahead, that Rosie had exited the car and the driver was holding the door for him, Sebastian got a firm hold on himself. He’d already been more than rash where Rosie was concerned. The little fact that his behaviour had been unprecedented was neither here nor there.
He had to use his head, not think with his hormones.
Concluding his business with the driver, he escorted Rosie to the lift. His subconscious might have dismissed the pregnancy test but it was time his clear-thinking logical mind took control.
There would be time to purchase the necessary first thing in the morning and do the test before their flight left at midday.
Ignoring the sour lurch of his guts produced by the fact that if the test turned up negative her ticket on the flight to Jerez wouldn’t be used because as far as she was concerned she would have no need to accompany him, he allowed her to precede him into the small foyer of his apartment.
