Page 44 of Cinderella's One-Night Baby

Gabrielle’s moans of pleasure fell like nectar into Andrés’s ears and fed the fever gripping him. This went beyondeverythingand he was having to fight to hold on, fighting and fighting until her moans shallowed and he felt the thickening around him. Thrusting himself so deep inside her he didn’t know where he ended and she began, he shouted out her name and climaxed with enough force to shatter himself into atoms.

Tokyo was the most fascinating place Gabrielle could have dreamed of, and considering she was completely thrown by being in a completely different time zone, everything happening to her felt much like a waking dream. It had done since she’d fallen back under Andrés’s spell on his plane.

They’d spent the whole flight in that bed. All talk about their future, the very reason for her accompanying him, had been forgotten as they’d made love, dozed, made love and dozed until time had run out.

Andrés had been locked in perpetual meetings to thrash out the deal’s stumbling blocks ever since.

While he’d tried to salvage the deal that meant so much to him, Gabrielle toured Tokyo’s streets with the French-speaking guide he’d arranged to keep her company and act as translator, with the thrums of their lovemaking beating strongly inside her.

She couldn’t get over how clean the city was. She’d thought Monte Cleure was clean but here it was so spotless it all looked brand new. In complete contrast to the seemingly chaotic roads they’d travelled to their hotel on, the pedestrian areas were sprawling and orderly, the high-rises dominating the skyline making her feel buffeted and safe.

Everything about Tokyo seemed busy, busy, busy but she never felt that she had to rush. An air of politeness pervaded the city and she wished she had more time to spend here and explore. If Andrés pulled the deal off then he would become a frequent visitor to the city.

Who would he bring with him the next time he came?

It was a thought she quickly pushed aside. They were having a baby together; their lives would always be entwined, but she wasn’t foolish enough to expect anything more, not with the memory of her sister’s desolation at The Bastard’s cruel treatment so fresh in her mind.

Eloise’s pure heart had fallen madly in love and it had been smashed into pieces.

Andrés would never treat Gabrielle the way Eloise had been treated but that didn’t mean she shouldn’t tread carefully with him. Treading on quicksand with lust when that lust would come to a natural end was one thing. Planning a future where their lives were entwined around their child was another thing.

Imagining a future, a real future, with a man who didn’t do future was for fools.

After two backbreaking days, the deal was ninety per cent assured.

Confident his team could take it from there, Andrés took Gabrielle to one of Tokyo’s hidden gems, a Kaiseki restaurant set in a quiet residential area.

Their table overlooked a tranquil secret garden, an abundance of sweet-scented flowers in full bloom. Gabrielle outshone its beauty.

Ravishing in a pretty black kimono-style dress with red lilies embroidered onto it that she’d bought earlier, one look had been enough to steal his breath, just as she’d stolen it that first night.

Just as she did every time he looked at her.

‘What time do we have to leave?’ she asked, attempting to grip a matsutake mushroom with her chopsticks. Andrés had offered to ask for cutlery but, determined to master it, she’d refused.

To his deep regret, this was the first meal other than breakfast they’d been able to share together. Negotiations over the deal had been more fraught than even he’d anticipated, the cultural differences as difficult to navigate as the main business issues. He’d returned to the hotel both nights mentally drained but still intending to discuss the issues he’d insisted Gabrielle accompany him here to discuss, only to take one look at her and find all thoughts escaping his mind.

‘Early in the morning. With the time difference and the flight times, we’ll be back in Monte Cleure with time for you to rest before your mother brings Lucas home.’

She shook her head. ‘How do you cope with it all? I’ve only just got over the flight over and adjusted to being in a different time zone, and now we have to go back. You do this kind of travelling constantly. Doesn’t it exhaust you?’

‘I can sleep anywhere and never suffered from jet lag so it’s never been an issue for me,’ he dismissed with a shrug. ‘But I’m going to make changes to my schedule now that we’re having a baby. All this travelling across continents isn’t right with a child. Children need stability.’

Her thoughtful gaze settled on him. ‘If our baby’s raised with a father who spends a great deal of time travelling then that will be his or her normal. That will be stable.’

‘Not in the way I want and it is for this reason that I think we should live together.’

Andrés didn’t know who was more disarmed at his choice of words, himself who hadn’t meant for it to come out like that, or Gabrielle who almost choked on a bonito flake.

Luckily a drink of water was enough for her to catch her breath, and he explained his thinking before his mis-choice of words could root. ‘I grew up with parents who hated the sight of each other but being together as a family was important to me. Like you, I only want what’s best for our child, and I want them to grow up knowing that if they wake in the night with a terror, that their mother and father are both there for them, and I think the best way of doing that is if I buy a property to use as our main home where we can each have our own wing and lead our own lives but still be under the same roof.’

He watched her intelligent eyes process this.

‘You can choose where we live. It can be Monte Cleure if you wish. Wherever you choose, this arrangement will allow us both to keep our independence and once this...’ He had to swallow a sudden lump in his throat. ‘...thing between us fades away, we will be in a position to parent as friends, if not lovers.’ His eyes glittered as he added, ‘I will be honest with you, Gabrielle,ma belle, I am in no hurry for that to happen. What we have between us is pretty damn incredible.’

Gabrielle’s heart was beating fast, and she drank some more of her iced water in an attempt to calm herself.

Thisthing.

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