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Slowly I adjusted the silk at my breasts, not missing how his gaze followed the movement of my hands. ‘I’ve been thinking,’ I said breathlessly, ‘about your marriage proposal and about leaving, and I think I might have been a bit...premature.’
Constantine went very still, and this time his gaze met mine with the force of a hammer-blow. ‘What did you say?’ His voice was quiet and icy and deadly.
I lifted my chin, looked him straight in the eye. ‘I said, I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to go back to London. I think I’ll accept your proposal and marry you instead.’
CHAPTER TEN
Constantine
JENNYSTOODWITHthe window at her back, the red silk dress now firmly wrapped around her curves, her hair in a loose dark skein hanging down over one shoulder.
I should have been paying attention to what she’d said, because it was important. But I couldn’t get the sight of all that pale, creamy skin she’d flashed as she’d adjusted her dress out of my head. Or the glimpse of the red lace bra she was wearing underneath it.
The night we’d had sex, I hadn’t seen her naked. She’d been in a dress that hadn’t suited her, and all I’d wanted to do was strip her bare, see her glory for myself. Except that night there hadn’t been time.
There was time now, though, and I could see myself tugging the tie at her waist and pulling away the red silk. Noting how the red lace of her bra cupped her pretty breasts, then putting my hands on them, stroking her satiny curves, tasting her. I’d lift her onto the window seat and rip away her underwear entirely, so she was naked, and then I’d—
‘You did hear me, didn’t you, Con?’
I blinked, ruthlessly grabbing my thoughts from the gutter and directing my attention back to her. Because, yes, what she’d said was important. Vitally so.
‘You’ve changed your mind,’ I said. ‘You want to marry me after all, correct?’
Her cheeks were flushed, as if she’d read my mind and seen all the dirty things I wanted to do to her, and her warm brown eyes darkened.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I’ve been thinking about it. It’s not right for our child not to know you. I never knew my father, and maybe if he’d stayed things might have been different. But he didn’t, and I... I don’t want that for our baby.’
Heat flashed through me, an electric current that seemed to charge every part of me. My heartbeat was fast, my body hardening, that possessive, animal part of me already howling in triumph.
I wanted her. I wanted my baby. I wanted a family. I wantedeverything.
But you can’t. You’re going to send her away because that’s your best option.
Yes, thathadbeen the best option when she’d refused me. She wasn’t refusing me now.
I didn’t move, keeping myself very, very still. ‘I have said I will provide for you. Marriage isn’t a requirement.’
‘I understand that.’ Her delicate hands fluttered. ‘But it’s not just about our child needing its father. I think you might...need your child, too.’
Every muscle in my body ached with tension, with longing, because she wasn’t wrong. I had no idea what kind of father I’d be, but I knew exactly what kind of father Iwouldn’tbe. And whether I needed a child or not was beside the point.
I would have one.
A child that was mine to protect. Mine to keep safe.
I could not give that up.
‘Very well,’ I managed, forcing the words past the urge to growl that rose up inside me. ‘But I still won’t ever be able to give you love. That hasn’t changed, Jenny.’
‘I know.’ Her fluttering hands stilled. ‘But that brings me to another point. I don’t see why you get to have it all your way. If I have to give up something, then you have to give up something too.’
My patience was thinning, my blood running too hot for me to be near her. ‘And what should I give up?’ I demanded gracelessly, needing to be away from her.
Her dark gaze was direct. ‘A platonic marriage.’
I froze, every muscle, every cell in my body, electrified. ‘What?’ My voice sounded hoarse, unlike mine.
The colour in her cheeks deepened. ‘I don’t want to be celibate for the rest of my life, and I don’t want another man. I don’t want you going elsewhere for s-sex either.’
