AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘I knew it was a mistake to let him invite half the damned world tonight. Biagio is down there now inviting everyone to our wedding, telling them to keep Christmas week free.’
‘Ignore him,’ Anna soothed as she shook out the red dress and laid it on the bed. Without the confidence she had gained from being loved by Soren she would never have had the poise, the sheer nerve, to appear in public in something that was so...revealing, so in-your-face sexy.
‘Are you going to be able to dance in those shoes?’ he asked, looking at the spindly heels she had selected.
‘I can always take them off.’
He grinned. ‘So long as you put them back on when we’re in bed.’
Anna struggled to pretend outrage.
‘So how are thing going down there?’ she asked warily. She had strayed into the organised chaos early when it became obvious that organised was debatable. She had not put up too much resistance when Soren had got all masterful and removed her from it.
He sat down on the bed. ‘Do you really want to know...?’
‘Ooh, that bad?’ She shook her head. ‘Definitely not. I shall just waft in there looking sexy and beautiful.’
‘You always look sexy and beautiful.’
’You are a dutiful fiancé and I will reward you.’
‘I am relying on it.’
‘But tonight I’m making a big push-the-boat-out glam-up effort.’
‘Fair enough, it will be much appreciated. One thing I should warn you about... Biagio has brought his...friends...’
Her face dropped. ‘No, seriously...both of them?’ His grandfather, who was suffering from what Soren called a displaced alpha male syndrome and Anna called a second childhood, had two twenty-somethings in residence with him on his yacht.
‘It’s window dressing. He’s not actuallydoinganything with them—he’s eighty, for God’s sake!’
‘They’ve not come in bikinis, have they?’
‘They are wearing clothes...sort of.’
‘I can’t wait,’ she responded, straight-faced.
’Let’s face it, it’s not as if anyone is going to be looking at them, is it? Not with my lovely fianceé there,’ he purred, dragging her down onto his knee and sliding his hand inside her silk robe to massage her breast. He stopped when she winced. ‘Is something wrong? Did I hurt you?’
‘No...nothing is wrong, Soren,’ she said, laying her hand against his cheek. ‘I’m just a bit tender...’
Sudden comprehension lit his face, his expression changed and wonder slid into his eyes. ‘That is why you didn’t drink any champagne last week.’
She’d thought nobody had noticed she was drinking sparkling water. ‘I wasn’t sure then, but I am now... It’s early days,’ she warned. ‘I don’t want to go public yet...but I do think maybe we might not want to wait for a Christmas wedding. Maybe a nice small village wedding next month with our friends?’
Soren laid a protective hand on her flat belly and kissed her lips deeply.
‘It will be our private secret for as long as you wish.’
‘You do know that the plus side to this is I might actually get boobs? Mum will approve.’
At the mention of her mother his expression darkened. He made an effort for Anna’s sake, but he would never be able to relax in the company of a woman who had not appreciated the gift she had been given. As always, he experienced a rage when he thought of her, made worse because he knew it was powerless, but he accepted it for Anna. The self-absorbed woman did not have the emotional intelligence to ever comprehend what she had done to her daughter.
‘Don’t worry, I won’t be telling her, but your mum, if you don’t mind...?’ She was pleased to see the look of delight she had hoped for on Soren’s face. She would have made a point of cultivating a relationship with Soren’s mother in any case, but she took a lot of pleasure from the relationship.
‘She will love being a grandmother.’
Anna swung her head, holding her rich hair back from her face to look at the man beside her. ‘Scary or what?’
