AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I went to see Rachel a couple of days ago,” she whispered into his chest. A smile touched her lips as she felt him quiver when he recognized the name of the OBGYN.
“And?”
“I am ready.” Lifting her head, she looked at him. “I have been checked out thoroughly and the contraceptives have been flushed out of my body completely. I am officially a breeding machine.”
He had to laugh. Here he was, feeling emotions crowding him, and she injected humor into something so potent. The tears had dried on her cheeks, but the moisture made her large dark brown eyes luminous.
“Is that right?” He brushed back tendrils of hairs clinging to her cheeks. “And here I was prepared for a fight.”
“Aww. Sorry to disappoint you.” Her smile came, bright as the noonday sun, the deep dimple peeking out. “Just think,” Taking his hand, she pressed it against her stomach. “I might be carrying your seed inside me.”
“You might.” He felt the heat searing his skin and the emotions clogging his throat. He had spent last night and this morning thinking up ways to approach her, to issue an ultimatum. He loved her dammit and he was not accustomed to groveling.
But that was what he had been doing ever since he met her. Even his friends had noticed the difference in him. Now she had poleaxed him with her announcement. Was it any wonder he was so tied up in knots over her?
“How do you feel about it?” His light green eyes peered into hers and she felt as if she was under the microscope. She could not hide anything from him and it was daunting and a little annoying. She tried to move out of his arms, but he was not allowing it.
She shot him an annoyed look and moved her shoulders helplessly. “I am damned scared. And I hope you realize what you are getting yourself into. I have bad blood inside me from both sides.
The woman who carried me inside her womb for nine months was a junkie and dear old dad was a mean drunk. Don’t blame me if the kid turns out all screwed up.”
He tilted her chin up, keeping his gaze steady and making her feel like a bitch. “William Bramwell was cold and distant and hardly ever there for me and mother. I went through all the different stages and decided that I was not going to let it define who I am.”
“Good for you,” she muttered.
“And you are you. I know you, dammit. I know the heart of you. I have seen you with the children at the center where you go to give something back. I have seen the look in those beautiful big eyes of yours. The warmth you reveal. I know who you are beneath the tough shell. You are going to make a wonderful mother.”
“I am supposed to take your word for it?”
“Precisely.” He smiled as she rolled her eyes at him. “What did I tell you about that habit of yours?”
“I am not your damn child.”
“You are the heart of me. The love of my life and the focus of everything I am.” He stole her breath, she literally felt herself stop breathing.
“Oh crap.” She leaned into him, mashing her lips against him. The kiss took on a potency that had them clinging to each other. Pressing her back against the cushions, he climbed on top of her, sliding into her smoothly, his body a mass of raging desire.
*****
Later that night while she was curled into him and fast asleep, he had time to think and ponder. They had finally sat down to a meal and afterwards gone upstairs where he had ravished her body, unable to help himself.
He was always hungry for her. It had been the case since they first met. He had taken one look at the voluptuous beauty and felt something loosened inside him.
One minute he was striding into the freshly painted dining room of the newly acquired hotel, and the next he was enraptured by the woman sitting on the floor in the middle of the room with designs and swatches of fabrics strewn all around her.
For the first time in his life, he had been at a loss for words, his chest tightening up. A smile touched his lips as he recalled the conversation. He had disagreed with the color of the wallpaper. Instead of being intimidated, she had told him coolly that she was the expert here.
“I know this is your hotel, but I am exceptional at what I do. And I do not need you breathing down my neck. I am grateful for the opportunity to work on one of your hotels, but I am not going to tolerate any interference. Is that understood?”
He had given her the look he usually gave his opponents or competitors, but she had simply stared him down. That had been the beginning of the fascination for him.
He had then realized that he could not very well keep his mind off her.
He actively pursued her, blocking every resistance she put between them. It was after two months of intense lovemaking, that she broke down one night and told him the ugly story.
“The reporters are going to dig everything up anyway, so you might as well know what the hell you are getting into.” She had told him in a voice devoid of emotions. Where she had been brought up, what her parents had put her through and how she had had to take care of her younger brother since she was the age of six.
He had listened and felt the anger mounting that people who were supposed to take care of her, had heaped astounding misery on top of her head and she had somehow managed to come out on top.
