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Harder and harder and higher and higher he drove her to the pinnacle of her climax until finally, just when she thought she couldn’t take any more, Alessandro thrust them over the edge into an abyss of nothing but sheer pleasure.
CHAPTER TEN
ITTOOKAwhile for Amelia to realise she wasn’t asleep any more. Nestled into the curve of Alessandro’s huge frame, with his arm clamped over her waist, it had felt like an impossible dream. In Hong Kong, she’d not allowed herself to sleep. She’d stolen from the hotel room while Alessandro had been in the bathroom, unable to face the consequences of her actions...until those consequences had come looking for her.
But here, there was no chance of her sneaking out of bed. Alessandro’s arm was a weight holding her in place and he, apparently, slept like the dead. It was such a normal everyday thing to know about him that it made her smile, and burrow deeper into his embrace, close her eyes and fall back asleep.
When Amelia woke, she was alone. The heat, the safety, the promise of the night before—noticeably absent. Alessandro was in the bathroom and she wondered if she’d conjured the comparison with Hong Kong into reality. Should she leave? Should she stay? Would he emerge from the bathroom with a smile, a frown, or that purposefully blank look that meant he was waiting to take his lead from her?
This was the father of her child and she didn’t know. Hurt swirled with guilt. It wasn’t good enough. She had to do better,theyhad to do better. Now that her sabotage had been undone, she had to turn her attention to them. Because if she did want the security he offered and the relationship her child deserved, then she had to feel more than...than...discomfort and awkwardness. She looked at her ringless finger and wondered if perhaps it might for ever be bare now. A ring promising her to Alessandro far too much to ever dream of, let alone hope for.
I want a chance.
She knew that Alessandro would keep their agreement, but it was what she did with that chance that mattered now. For the sake of their child, they needed to get to know each other, outside the boardroom and the bedroom. She just had to figure out how.
She slipped from the silken sheets of his bed, returned to her room, and took a shower, thinking about how she could achieve what she wanted. She rolled her shoulders beneath the spray of the powerful jets and felt his palm trace the length of her spine. She soaped her skin and felt his open-mouthed kisses and the pleasant ache between her thighs from where she had gripped him, urged him, held him deep within her. But despite the pleasure he had given her last night, the satisfaction, her body craved him again. It was a drumbeat just beneath her skin, always, constant, somehow slipping into time with her pulse. Reluctantly she pulled her thoughts back to the idea beginning to form in her mind. It was a little...simplebut she believed that it would be effective.
By the time Alessandro emerged from the hotel suite room Amelia had dismissed the staff to give them some privacy, and was waiting for him at the table. He was dressed as if ready for the office, as always, and still as desperately handsome as he had been the night before. Any hope that their shared passion might have somehow taken the edge off her desire for him was dashed, instantly and irrevocably.
His gaze flickered from her to the table and confusion pulled at his brow. He was probably wondering why there were bits of torn paper in a glass jar. She nudged the steaming shot of espresso she had made him and steeled herself. She was about to explain when—
‘I’ve offered Obeid the Aurora project and she has agreed.’
Amelia’s mouth shut with a snap. It was as she’d expected, but she couldn’t help but feel hurt at being excluded.
‘The team in London will push on with it from here.’
She stiffened, realising the implications of his words.
What did you think would happen, Amelia? That he’d keep you on the project?
‘You will no longer—’
‘I understand,’ she interrupted him, curt in her desire to not hear him say it. For two years working for Alessandro had been a ruse. But it also hadn’t been. She’d enjoyed the work she’d done there. She’d been good at it too. But right now? She had more important things to worry about.
He studied her acceptance with something like scepticism that only proved her point.
‘Will you sit?’ she asked, pushing aside the small bruise forming on her heart.
‘We should be getting back to the jet.’
She clenched her teeth together, fighting the impulse to reveal just how affected she was by his dismissal. He might be the boss, but he seemed to have forgotten that she had never been a mere underling who jumped at his every whim. He caught her gaze, held it, testing the strength of her will and, clearly finding it unbending, he took the chair opposite her.
There was an air of impatience about him and it was this, this power struggle, this discord that they had to get over.
‘I am pregnant,’ she stated.
‘Sì?’he replied, his confusion evident.
‘The threat hanging over the Aurora project and Rossi Industries has been neutralised.’
Begrudgingly, it seemed, he acknowledged that statement with a curt nod.‘Sì.’
‘But you don’t trust me. You want me. I know that,’ she said, a blush rising to her cheeks as she maintained control of the conversation. ‘But you don’t, we don’t...knoweach other.’
His gaze flickered to the jar on the table that contained lots of little folds of paper.
‘Yet,’ she hurried to clarify. ‘We don’t know each other yet.’ Amelia took a breath. ‘You’ve said that you will protect our child financially and, I’m sure, well beyond that. But our child will need more than just financial support and physical security.’
