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They’d never been together, he reminded himself, stopping running, his breath burning in his lungs, thrusting his hands onto his hips as he stared back at the mansion.
God, thank heavens for small mercies, they’d never slept together. He never would have, of course. It was out of the question. No matter how much he’d wanted Kat, she’d been married to his mentor and friend, a man who’d taken Vitalo under his wing when Vitalo had been fleeing his father and his life. A man who’d been almost like a father to Vitalo.
A thick sense of dread drugged his senses but he ignored it.
For now, he didn’t need to think about Kat. He didn’t need to worry about telling her, nor about telling Bella. She was pregnant with his child; they were married. The rest would fall into place.
Besides, Bella would never know that Kat had fallen in love with him. A muscle jerked in his jaw. And that he’d loved Kat? Because he had, hadn’t he?
A sense of unease clawed at him, and he saw Bella as she’d been hours earlier, when she’d climbed on top of him; so trusting, so beautiful, so honest.
She’d been hurt before, he could see that. No matter how she tried to gloss over the details of her first marriage, he heard the pain in her words, he saw the effort it cost her to produce a voice of lightness, and he understood – she was hurting in some way.
He didn’t want to hurt her. He didn’t want their marriage to cause her pain.
So he had to manage that. He would speak to Kat. He would explain. He would be firmer than he’d ever been – there was no hope for them. Whatever dance they’d been doing for over a decade was over. Kat was married, and now, so was he.
The resolution was firm, and yet his sense of unease didn’t lift, and he wondered if this, then, was how he was going to live his life from now on – always looking over his shoulder, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Waiting for a dark cloud to thunder on the horizon of his life, his marriage, his future with Bella and his baby.
Resolution or not, there was no way to blot out the outside world.
When he returned home, Bella was still asleep. Regret punctuated his gut but he told himself he needed to let her sleep – still – and showered once more, this time changing into a pair of jeans and a polo shirt, heading into his office. He’d left his phone charging in there overnight; he looked at the screen now and saw Kat’s name emblazoned across the screen and his gut clenched.
He abhorred cheating, lying, infidelity, and yet he felt now as though he was engaged in just that. His eyes shifted to the door and he swiped his screen open, his heartrate charged as he read her message.
Came to you in Athens – housekeepers said you’re on the island. Unplanned visit? K. xxx
He dropped the phone onto his desk, his expression taut. He cursed then, under his breath, but it felt damned good to issue the harsh invective, so he let another rip.
“Problem?” The voice at the door was still thick with sleep and his eyes slammed to the doorway.
Heaven help him.
Bella.
Young. Beautiful. Trusting. Innocent.
She’d pulled on a t-shirt of his, and it was enormous on her, swimming to just above her knees, and dropping down one shoulder to show her creamy, soft flesh.
He stared at her, and her cheeks heated pink. Her dark hair was all tousled, from the way he’d driven his fingers through it that night, and he found his throat too thick to speak now.
“You’re awake,” he managed, finally, the observation stupid and vapid.
But she was paying as little attention to his words as he was to making them.
“You weren’t there,” she said, padding into his office and casting a quick glance around before returning her attention to him.
“Did you miss me, agape?” he asked, intending it to be teasing.
But there was a ferocity to her expression then, as she came around behind his desk and pushed at his chest. She was tiny, and he was huge, but he sat into his chair on her command, and she moved onto his lap, straddling him, facing him, and s
he kissed him and rolled her body, seeking the friction of his movement, his hard cock pressing against her – she was naked beneath his shirt, he realized now, and he groaned at her need.
“We shouldn’t,” he said, more to himself than her. “The pregnancy…”
“Sex is fine,” she said, reaching for his button and undoing it, lifting up on her knees so she could push his zipper down next. Her lips moved over his and his tongue dueled with hers. “I saw a doctor,” she said, as if he needed more convincing. “And asked specifically.”
He wasn’t sure he shouldn’t demur anyway, but hell, she was curling her hands around his length, freeing him from his jeans with an impatience that took his breath away and then she was lifting up, taking him deep inside her, and he could think of nothing but this.
