Page 27 of Fractured (Not Quite a Billionaire)
Her arms had gone around herself under my suit coat. I could barely see her in the darkness, but I could tell she was rocking back and forth. “I’m scared,” she said. “All this…”
“Aw, baby,” I said helplessly, and took her in my arms. “And you sayIhave trust issues.”
She let out a choked little laugh, and her face was against my chest. I sank down onto a boulder at the edge of the track, pulled her into my lap, and held her there.
“You’re still married,” she said against my shirt.
“Yeh,” I said. “I am. Bugger.”
I could feel her sigh. “I kind of wanted to marry you, you know? Even though I’m apparently still nervous about it.”
“You’re going to marry me.” Of that, I was absolutely sure.
She sighed again, and we sat quietly for a minute. “Well,” she finally said, “we’d better go home and tell your grandfather, I guess.”
“No. We’ll just say we’ve decided to wait. That it was too fast.”
“Hemi.” She sat up, put her hand on my cheek, and looked at me. “No. Karen knows, and keeping that secret from your grandfather—wouldn’t that hurt you, and him, if he found out? And whynottell? If we don’t have secrets, nobody can use them against us.”
“That’s not true,” I said. “It’s always better to hold your cards close, not to show weakness.”
“Maybe in business,” she said. “Not in this. If we’re open, we don’t have to worry about anyone finding out, or about keeping a story straight. And then we do whatever you want.”
“We do, eh. I like the sound of that.”
“I mean,” she hurried on, “once this is settled, we can get married in New York, or we can come back here. Maybe…maybe Christmas or something.”
I’d wanted to fly back to New York already married to her. I hated the idea that I wouldn’t be doing it. I dealt with what was, always, not with what I wished for or hoped for, but I couldn’t seem to make the shift.
“You’re still moving in with me,” I said.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I have to—”
“No,” I said. “You’re doing it. You and Karen.”
“Let’s see what happens,” she said, and then she climbed off my lap. “And we need to go back. Karen.”
“No,” I said. “Not yet.”Let’s see what happens?No.
“Karen—” she said.
I almost said something very rude about Karen. I was frustrated enough to say almost anything. Instead, I said, “She’s readingThe Lord of the Rings,and she’s only halfway through Book Two. She’ll keep for five more minutes. If she gets bored, she can buy tires.”
She had her mouth open to say something else, and I didn’t let her. I shoved a hand through her hair, pulled her into me, and kissed her hard. She was gasping into my mouth, and I was pulling her down by her hair, propping her up with my arm under her shoulders while I got my other hand up under her sweater and claimed her breast.
I kissed her until she was moaning into my mouth, and played with her, running my hand over her, pinching and teasing and stroking, until she was whimpering. She was so sensitive, it was never hard to wind her up if I concentrated. And I was very good at concentrating.
When I felt her melting into me, lying back against my arm, boneless with desire, wanting it so desperately…I sat her up, pulled my hand out from under her sweater, tugged it back into place, and said, “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s go home. Karen.”
“You are…” She was trying for anger, but she was all but panting with need. “Hemi.”
“Mm.” I dropped a gentle kiss onto her swollen lips. “You can tell me tonight. Or maybe not. Because how do you imagine I’ll be able to keep you quiet enough at Koro’s?”
“You’ll…I’ll…”
I waited, but she didn’t come up with anything. I traced the edge of her jaw with the back of my hand and said, “Will my hand over your mouth do, or do you fancy trying something a bit more…adventurous? You see how I’m asking, sweetheart?”
“Hemi. You wouldn’t.”
