Page 46 of Cinderella's One-Night Baby

She’d have to get used to lonely nights permanently once he’d bored of her, a thought she steadfastly refused to allow to set in, and as the sun went down on her first night in Seville and her exhausted child fell asleep in his ice-cream, her pulse quickened to think that after five days of no physical contact, they could be together.

‘Let me carry him up,’ Andrés said, carefully lifting Lucas from his seat.

He opened his eyes, and immediately looked over Andrés’s shoulder for her, but instead of reaching for her when his eyes found her, rested his head back on Andrés and relaxed.

Only once Andrés had laid him on the king-size bed of the room he’d been appointed for the weekend, did their eyes meet in silent wonder at this huge leap in progress.

‘I’m going to take a shower and get to bed myself,’ Andrés said, throwing her completely.

‘Oh. Okay,’ she said, simply because she couldn’t think of anything else to say.

A faint smile played on his lips. ‘Goodnight, Lucas. Sweet dreams.’

He slipped out of the room leaving Gabrielle bewildered and disconcerted that he didn’t wish her a goodnight too.

The staff having already unpacked their possessions for them, it was for once an easy matter to get her usually wriggling child into his pyjamas. Lucas was simply too exhausted from the lateness of the hour, the travelling and excitement of the day to be anything other than compliant, no energy to even wriggle at the sight of the toothbrush aiming for his mouth.

He was asleep before she’d read two pages to him.

Kissing his forehead, she whispered, ‘I love you,’ before creeping out of his room and into her own adjoining one.

Oh, well, she thought moodily as she closed the door, if Andrés was going to bed then she might as well too. And at least her room was fit for a princess and had a television because she didn’t feel in the least bit sleepy.

And at least she had her own beautiful bathroom, and when she stood under the powerful shower head she tried not to let the panic nibbling at her heart take root, only to find that actively trying not to let the panic take root had the opposite effect.

Was he boring of heralready? Was that really possible when he called her every night? When he pulled her into his arms the second they were alone, which admittedly wasn’t enough for either of their liking.

The emotions rising in her chest threatening to erupt, she wrestled her pyjama shorts and vest top on, and brushed her teeth harder than she’d ever done before stomping back into the bedroom...

Andrés was in her bed.

Her mouth fell open. ‘What are you doing?’

He threw the bedsheets off him. He was naked, and fully erect. ‘Thinking about you.’

‘But...’ She could hardly think let alone speak under the weight of her relief. ‘I thought you were going to bed.’

His eyes gleamed wickedly. ‘I didn’t say whose bed I was going to.’ He gripped his arousal. ‘Going to join me?’

Unconsciously, she cupped her breast, even as she shook her head. ‘I...’ She swallowed the moisture that had flooded her mouth. ‘I can’t.’

He nodded at the tablet on the bedside table. ‘Turn that on.’

‘What?’

‘It’s a monitor. If he wakes, it will alert you.’

She pressed the biggest of the buttons. Immediately the screen filled with an image of Lucas sleeping.

‘Touch the screen.’

She did so. The screen went blank.

‘Now it is set to sound activation.’ His voice thickened and his movements over his excitement strengthened. ‘Take your clothes off.’

Now fully locked in the sexual haze Andrés was exuding, Gabrielle pulled her vest top up and over her head.

He groaned.

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