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Just this once, let them do this thing with no subterfuge, no lies between them.
She wrapped her legs around his waist as he marched into the bedroom. He dropped her on the bed, then tore off his clothes, and watched her scramble out of hers. He fell on her like a starving man, licking and nipping at her breasts, fuller now because of her pregnancy. He touched the swollen seam of flesh, felt her jolt in response as he tested her readiness.
‘Take me, Lukas. I need you inside me now.’
Grasping at soft flesh, he plunged deep. She widened her hips, taking him deeper still as he ploughed into the welcoming heat. He tried to hold back—he wanted to make this good for her, as good as it was for him. But then she tightened around him like a vice, massaging his length as she climaxed, and an agonised shout was ripped from him as he crashed into orgasm.
He lifted off her with an effort, scared to crush her. Then held on to her, his heartbeat slowing, his limbs heavy with exhaustion as he listened to her breathing.
He lifted the sheet and draped it over her, the image of her heavy with their child in the months ahead making his hands tremble. He’d kidded himself that this marriage was to protect his business, to protect her, to protect their baby. But it had never been about that. It had always been about stealing the one thing he was terrified he needed beyond everything else. Her.
But now he was very much afraid he would never be able to let her go.
Her hand covered his and he was forced to look into her eyes. Those deep emerald pools that had always captivated him.
‘I love you, Lukas. And I’m going to keep on loving you. And, for now, it doesn’t matter if you think you can love me or not. Because I know you can.’ Gripping his hand, she pressed it to her belly. ‘We both do.’
His eyes felt gritty, the surface of them raw and painful with tears he hadn’t allowed himself to shed since he’d sat in his father’s office all those years ago.
‘But why does it matter if I love you?’ he murmured, knowing there was no if about it. ‘If I still end up hurting you?’ His gaze travelled down to her belly, where her hand covered his. ‘Both of you? And Nico?’
* * *
Bronte’s heart lifted and swelled at his gruff, agonised words. He looked lost and mildly terrified. And she knew precisely how he felt, because she had felt exactly the same way when she’d first become captivated by him—this dominant, frustrating, possessive, infuriatingly over-protective man. But she didn’t feel that way any more. They had a long way to go before he would fully believe what a wonderful father and husband he would be. It would take them both some time to fully trust in this love, which was still so new and fresh and raw. But hope and honesty were powerful things. So much more powerful in the end than the rejections they had both suffered.
Lifting up, she straddled his hips, rejoicing in the dark intent in his gaze as those onyx eyes roamed over her and his hands clasped her waist.
Leaning forward, she let her hair drift over his cheek. The tips of her breasts grazed that solid, unyielding chest and she murmured, ‘Is that your roundabout way of telling me you love me too?’
‘I’m so busted,’ he murmured.
She covered his hard lips, her heart lifting as she captured the stunned chuckle that finally signalled his surrender to hopes, to dreams... And, best of all, to love.
EPILOGUE
‘LUKAS, HOW’S FATHERHOOD? The new baby giving you and Bronte any sleep?’
‘Bronte, are you enjoying your first family vacation since the birth? What’s the Blackstone Island Resort like?’
‘Nico, Nico, give us a wave.’
‘The resort is wonderful,’ Bronte shouted above the melee of shouted questions while Nico tugged her hand to lean past her and wave at the reporters, who were being held back by a phalanx of Blackstone security guards in Velana International Airport.
‘Do not encourage them, you two,’ her husband demanded as he wrapped his arm around her, shielding her and Nico from the burst of camera flashes.
‘But I want them to know how great the resort is.’ Bronte grinned at his grumpy expression as he ushered them into the private gangway.
‘Publicising the resort is not your job,’ he announced, as he led her and Nico towards the exit gate for their private flight to the Blackstone atoll, with their baby son cradled securely against his shoulder. ‘That’s Garvey’s job and I intend to have words with him next time I see him,’ he said, his expression thunderous. ‘I very much doubt it’s a coincidence that the press knew exactly when and where we would be changing planes.’
‘Garvey’s just doing his job,’ Bronte said as they stepped aboard the private jet.
The staff greeted them then left them in the luxury cabin to prepare the plane for the final phase of their journey to the resort.
‘Garvey is going to be looking for another job if he pulls any more stunts like this one. I’ve told him before—my family is off-limits,’ he said, while absently patting their baby son’s back to soothe the little boy, who had been woken up by all the commotion.
The picture he made, so competent, so caring, so devoted, and so different from the man she had met over a year ago, made Bronte’s heart swell in her chest and her pulse batter her eardrums.
Their lives had been a whirlwind in the last ten months as they adjusted to marriage, to becoming a family, to welcoming Markus into their lives. But their love for each other had never faltered. And now Lukas believed in it too.
