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‘I got this modelling job—it was good money and I needed money.I fell for Paola—she was in the shoot with me.I fell in a twenty-year-old-boy kind of way.She was beautiful on the outside and I thought that beauty went all the way in.She came from this big Brazilian family and it was this fantasy of everything I’d never had.’
‘You still love her.’
‘Loveher?’He looked aghast.
‘I saw the way you looked at her.’
He frowned.‘I don’t know what you thought you saw, Cally, but it wasn’t me looking at her with love.I don’t think I ever loved her, not really.It was the idea of her.She was so beautiful and successful and she wanted me?You know, Cally?’
She did—infatuation, the heady way she’d felt about Luc.Nothing like real love.
He sighed.‘She got pregnant.I wanted to marry.I wanted to marry into her big family and have a family of my own.’
He was silent a while, looking tortured.Remembering Paola’s words, Cally reluctantly prompted him.Fearful of what she was going to hear.‘What happened?’
He closed his eyes.‘She said she couldn’t be sure the baby was actually mine.But, even if it was, she was too busy with her career to have a family and she certainly wasn’t marrying me.’
‘The baby?’
His eyes opened and told her more than his words ever could.‘She didn’t have it.’
Pain and pity hit Cally with hurricane force.Finally she understood him, his need to take charge of their situation.The reason why he’d fought to have her neatly tied to his side.He didn’t want to go through that again—the anger and the inability to have any control over the loss of his child.
‘I’m so sorry, Blake.’
For a long moment he said nothing, then stretched out his hand to her.‘Let’s go to bed, Cally.Let’s forget about tonight.Let’s start over tomorrow.’
With a heart that was bursting, she was unable to deny him a thing right now.‘Okay.’
The next morning she woke to the gentle splash through the open doors.Stepping out onto the balcony, she freely watched what she’d secretly watched before: Blake in the pool doing his lengths.Waking up, working out.Strong, methodical, capable, he took the pool apart piece by piece.Solid and dependable.He’d been there for her, every step of the way.Even if she hadn’t appreciated it initially, she saw him helping, and thinking of her and her baby.He listened to her, he supported her, he sought out solutions.And when he held her in his arms and caressed her, the pleasure was wild.
He’d been so hurt.What she would give to spare him more.She wanted to give him everything.
Certainty settled in her.Her feet moved without her really knowing it, taking her to her heart’s desire, to her love.What a fool she’d been to think she could deny it, repress it.Barefoot, she stood by the pool.The concrete was already warm from the early morning sun and kept her toes a comfortable temperature.The hem of her silk chemise fluttered in the slight breeze.
He must have seen her because abruptly he stopped swimming.He stood up in the middle of the pool, the water lapping at waist-height.Droplets ran from his bronzed body.Their eyes met.He waded to the nearest edge, put his hands flat on the concrete and in one smooth effort pushed up and out.He walked towards her and all the while didn’t break the eye contact.
She said nothing.He said nothing.Instead their eyes spoke, and she knew nothing was hidden from him right now.
His breath didn’t seem to be easing from ceasing the exercise; in fact it seemed to be coming even more jerkily now.
She reached out her hand, cupped his roughened jaw with her fingers.
‘Cally.’He muttered her name, hoarse.
There was no early morning nausea, no fatigue, just the inner glow from the gift she was ready to give him.Whether he understood what it was he was receiving she didn’t know, but perhaps he did, because his expression was more tender than ever before.
She stepped forward, lifted onto tiptoe and pressed a small kiss to the column of his throat, heard the catch of his breath and stepped even closer.Maybe her love could be enough for both of them.
She wound her arms around him and they kissed.The wet of his body made her silk cling to them, until he pushed the straps off her shoulders and she wriggled to make it fall.
Somehow they were on the ground, not noticing the gentle grazes from the concrete as they traced over each other, warm and naked in the sun.
His big body was always a welcome challenge to hers, a delicious fullness that she delighted in.She arched a little, easing his entry.
‘Okay?’he breathed.
‘More than,’ as he more than claimed her.
