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He wired up even tighter, waiting to see where she was going to go with this
‘Won’t you be off having some wild stag-night?’
He couldn’t think of anything worse.‘I’m not really that into tradition.’
‘Ha.’She scoffed.‘This from the man insisting on marriage?’
Cally tried to face facts.She was a little in love with him.She’d been a little in love with him for a long time—like from the word go.But he couldn’t offer her the kind of love she needed.Her father had been crushed by a wife who didn’t love him back and here she was repeating his old mistake.It hurt that yet again she had to settle for less—a husband but not a loving husband, just as she had a mother but not a loving mother.But Cally was determined tobea loving mother.It was because she loved her baby that she would do as Blake wanted.
Damn him for insisting.What had happened to not talking babies and marriage?What had happened to the easy-come-easy-go philanderer she’d seen at the auction?When did he get so white picket fence?
She told herself that now he’d be the last guy she’d sleep with in a million years.Fact was hewasthe last guy she’d slept with.More than anything she wanted to do it again, yet she was determined not to give in.But her cerebral self-preservation message wasn’t getting through to her fevered body.She was nearly shaking with need of him.She ploughed on—one last attempt to get him to change his mind.‘I don’t think we need to do the wedding thing.’
Silence.
‘You know I didn’t plan this.There’s no need to tie each other up so drastically.’
More silence.
‘I’m giving up the company.I can stay in my flat.You know I’m going to do everything right.You don’t need to be breathing down my neck.’
Yet more silence.
‘Blake?’Her heart thumped painfully.‘You still don’t trust me, do you?’
He twisted in his seat, carefully put his glass on the table.‘I trust that we both want what’s best for this baby.But I learnt pretty early on that if you want a job done well, then you do it yourself.’
Anger trammelled through her.‘Damn it, Blake, you can be an involved dad.I won’t stop you from having access.’
‘You won’t stop me?’Exasperation poured off him.‘Damn right you won’t stop me.Don’t you get it, Cally?I am talking one hundred per cent full-on involved in this child’s life.Not some guy she sees every other weekend.I will be there every day, for bath, books, bedtime.To practise ball—’ He broke off and took a deep breath.‘The sooner we’re married, the sooner you’ll get used to it.’
Married.She closed her eyes.She didn’t know she could ever get used to being near him and not truly having him.She had no idea how she was going to keep herself whole.
‘It’s a sham, Blake.It will never work.’
He was out of his chair and beside her before she could blink.‘There’s this, Cally.’His hands gripped her waist hard and he hauled her to him.‘This will ensure our marriage is no sham.This will make our marriage work.’
At the press of his body hers convulsed.She couldn’t mask the small moan that escaped as she absorbed the tension in him—the tightness of his flexed muscles, the ridge of his erection digging into her belly.She had to open her mouth to get oxygen into lungs that suddenly felt a quarter of their usual size.
Time stood suspended as sexual attraction held them in thrall.His eyes had that dark glitter again and she longed to drown in it.Blood pounded faster, driven by desire.
His lips barely moved as he spoke.‘It’s still there, Cally, and it’s not going away.’
Another tremor ran through her entire body.Shaking with the effort, she suppressed the urges to rock her hips against his, to rake her fingers down his back.
Slowly he brought his head lower, spoke right into her ear, his breath stirring her hair; another millimetre closer and it would be a kiss.Her eyelids lowered, she only just clung to her control.
‘How much longer do you honestly think you can fight it?’
If he kept her close like this it wouldn’t be long at all, but still she felt compelled to try.She was fighting hard against something she wanted so badly because she knew that what was between them could never beallthat she wanted.
Breathing hard, she pushed back from him.For a second he resisted, but then his arms dropped and he let her go.
She felt no relief.‘I’m spending the last night at my apartment and don’t even think about trying to stop me.’
‘The wedding is at three-thirty,’ he replied curtly as he reached back to the table for his whisky.‘Show up, Cally.Or heaven help you if you don’t.’
Ten
