Page 50 of Under His Control

Finally, when I was certain that we wouldn’t make noise, I broke the long, wet kiss we’d muffled our reactions with. I pressed my lips to hers once more, just because I couldn’t resist. Then I reared back and smiled at the sluggish smirk of satisfaction she gave me.

“Imagine that. We made it to a bed for once.”

“Da-Da.”

We widened our eyes at each other, locked in a freezing paralysis of shock at Olivia’s little voice. In unison, we turned to face the crib. Throw pillows formed a wall at the end of the bed to block her from seeing us, but just barely.

“Oh, my God,” I whispered as a smile took over my face.

Eva nudged at my chest. “Liam! Do you think she saw us? Heard us?”

I faced her again after realizing Olivia didn’t have much of a vantage point. Even if she had, she wouldn’t have seen much or understood what was happening.

I couldn’t wipe this stupid smile off my face. “That’s the first time she’s called me that.” Liv knew quite a few words. Danicia assured me she was on par with her milestones, but I’d been waiting for her to call meDaddy.

Now that she had, I felt better. No. I felt great. My daughter recognized me. My woman was letting me love on her.

Nothing could go wrong as far as I was concerned.

I kissed Eva quickly, knowing things could only look up from this moment forward.

18

EVA

“So, you and Liam, huh?” Nina teased as we headed to the tea party room once more.

I wasn’t sure if it’d taken Tessa a week to tell Nina that she’d walked in on me and Liam during a heated moment or if it had taken all this time for both women to get me in place to talk about it. We seemed to be going in different directions even though we were all in the same house, but it was only now, a week after Liam and I actually made love on a bed, that we could have our girl talk.

I wasn’t one to kiss and tell, but it seemed that would be changing. We were here to discuss the catering for the baby shower, and during the wait, they seemed to assume we had much to chat about other than party preparations.

“Yep.” I nodded, glancing up from the contract the venue had given us. “Didn’t we invite forty guests? This only says thirty.”

Nina pushed the paper down. “It can wait for a moment. Really? You and Liam?” She smiled wide, but I didn’t miss the mischief in her eyes.

“Okay.” I set the paper down and crossed my arms. Leaning back in my chair, I sighed and tried to be as diplomatic as possible. “You know I’ve never done this before.”

Tessa choked on her tea. “You arenottelling me that you were a virgin before you met him.”

I furrowed my brow. “What are you implying?” I wasn’t. I lost my virginity when I was eighteen with a soldier. He was unfortunately killed in a turf war a month afterward, and I liked to think that we’d at least seen to his not dying a virgin.

“Nothing.” Nina elbowed her hard. “Or she shouldn’t be. Your virginal status—or lack thereof—is your business and no one else’s.”

“Sorry.” Tessa rubbed her arm where Nina jabbed her. “I’m just surprised.”

It was a moot point to argue about whether I lost my virginity to Liam. But I was curious. “How so?”

“You’re so…” Tessa shaped her hands in the air, gesturing at me. “So sexy. And gorgeous. Confident and cool.”

Nina shrugged. “You act and look like you could chew up a man and spit him out when you’re done with him.”

“But have you actually seen me with any men since you’ve come into the family’s protection?”

They shook their heads. “No,” Tessa said.

“Then why couldn’t I have been a virgin?” I asked.

“Well…” She winced. “I don’t know. You looked too confident and intelligent to be ignorant about sex.”

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