Page 7 of Twins to Tame Him

If she wasn’t aware of the sudden narrowing of Sebastian’s gaze on her like a soft hum under her skin, she’d have spread her legs, unzipped her mom jeans, patted her belly and fallen into a much-needed nap before the boys arrived.

For a moment, she wondered if that was the best way to discourage him from his ridiculous proposal. Wasn’t Mama forever telling her that no man liked a woman who ate like he did? Who was at least as smart as him if not more, and stood just as tall, argued logic all the time and made no effort to hide any of those obnoxious traits?

She ticked at least two boxes with most men and with Sebastian, she could also add the “men want their women to be at least as good-looking as themselves” rule Mama kept throwing in her face.

So maybe all she had to do was be herself.

After all, she was nothing like the woman who had taken on Sebastian Skalas. She was not beautiful—that routine with false lashes and hair straighteners and rented clothes had taken her two hours that evening—she was not a helpless damsel in distress and she was definitely not the wide-eyed, naive, out-for-a-good-time party girl she’d pretended to be.

If she was ruthlessly honest, though, he had thoroughly reduced her to the last part. Once she’d started chatting with him, she’d forgotten the whole reason she was there.

By the time he stepped out of the pool, she had a battle plan. Or so she’d thought.

Clad in black swimming trunks that outlined every inch of his chiseled body—taut buttocks and muscled thighs and a lean chest with a smattering of hair and bands of abdomen muscles—he made it impossible to not remember how that body had felt on top of hers. How much care he’d taken with her. How he’d taught her that she was meant for pleasure, too, and how he’d wrung every ounce of it out of her.

“I do not know if the hungry way your gaze travels my body is indicative of the fact that your defenses are down or if you’ve revived your act.”

It was the last thing she expected him to refer to. And in that smooth-as-sin voice that wrapped itself like a warm tendril around her flesh.

Laila tilted her head back and licked her lips, feeling hunger of a different kind bloom in places she hadn’t thought of in a while. Not since that night. “I have no energy left to put on an act. If you’d spent a little more time in the pool, you’d have found me snoring with my mouth open, drooling away.”

“So you’re eating me up with the same eagerness you showed the cake because you’re lusting after me,” he returned in such a reasonable voice that it took Laila a few seconds to process his taunt. “I feel like I have an upper hand for the first time since you appeared.”

She blinked and looked away as he wiped himself. “I know you’re not so starved for the female gaze to make this a scoring point between us.”

“I’m not hearing a denial, Dr. Jaafri,” he came back, lightning fast.

Laila would have docked him a point if he addressed her like that to mock her—she’d met enough people in life who used her brains as a weapon against her femininity—but he said it like it was his nod to her. “It’s an exercise in exhaustion to deny things that are fact. Annika tried her best to do the right thing for all of us. I didn’t tell you about the pregnancy or the boys all this while because I didn’t know what you would do in retaliation for what I did to you first. And yes, I’m horny as any woman would be, especially since you’re a super-stud on steroids and no, it’s not a good thing or a bad thing between us.” She sighed as his grin got wider. “Except it seems to stroke your ego as if you were a randy teenager in search of validation instead of a thirty-seven-year-old man.”

“Now you sound like my grandmother Thea.”

She didn’t want to remind him of his grandmother. But maybe that was a good thing, too. “Please, will you put some clothes on? I can’t think straight with all this...” She moved her arm in the air signaling at his torso.

Flashing another grin, he walked away.

Laila could breathe again and tried to take stock of the situation. Clearly, whatever shock he’d felt at her news had been handled. Because he believed her? Because it was that easy and of not much consequence to him? She groaned out loud. It was hard to remember she was dealing with a chameleon when he blinded her with that megawatt smile or that naughty twinkle in his gray eyes.

When Sebastian returned, his hair was slicked back, and he wore gray sweatpants that sat low on his lean hips. He sat down on the lounger opposite her, his legs caging her in, without touching her.

An invitation but never an imposition.

Sebastian Skalas toed that line so well.

“I’m not sure if I should enjoy your refreshing honesty or search for a deeper motivation.”

“Then why tie yourself to me in marriage?” Laila probed.

“Because my children will grow up with me.” His dictatorial tone would have bothered her if she didn’t see the resolve in his eyes. “If you had come to me immediately after you discovered you were pregnant, I’d have demanded the same.”

“You’re the last man I can imagine to happily settle into matrimony and domesticity, and my sons...” Whatever fake warmth was there in his eyes turned to frost, and she backtracked. “Fine. Our sons are not hobbies you pick up because you’re in the mood to play father for a season. They’re a lifetime commitment and—”

“You claim to rely on cold, clear facts and not emotions, no?”

She nodded.

“From all the data you collected from Annika, you must already know that whatever my beliefs about you, and marriage and all those relationship traps, I would never let any harm or negligence come to any child, much less my own, ne? You’re basing your character profile of me on nothing but vague impressions. So, no, I will not let you cheat me out of what is mine again.”

There had been such warmth in Ani’s words when she’d talked about Sebastian that Laila had found herself weaving fantasies about what it would be like to share her life and her sons with such a man.

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