Page 63 of Bedding his Innocent Mistress

They hadn’t been to Spain for six weeks, and now she saw why. “You’ve built an extension?”

“Well, no. I had Lorenzo and Saul and Benedetto for that. But si, if it makes you think better of me, I crafted it by hand.” His grin was pure sensual temptation. “Do you like it?”

Ivy stepped down into the space – it was carved off the side of the main house, so that i

t fell away a little down the mountain, showing the view of the expansive ocean that she’d come to love with all her heart. There were several computer monitors, and a wall-mounted screen big enough to serve as a cinema, an arm chair, a sofa, a little kitchenette.

“You built me an office?”

He nodded, his expression intensely watchful. “You are giving up your life in London. It doesn’t mean you need to give up your work.”

She arched a brow and ran her hand over the round, full tummy. “Well, I hate to break it to you, but I think my attention’s going to be split for a while.”

He nodded. “Yes, indeed.” And like a kid in a candy store, Rafe moved quickly through the office, turning back towards Ivy when he reached a door. “But look.”

Curious, she followed behind him, and when he pushed the door inwards, she saw that he’d thought of everything. “A nursery?”

He nodded. “With a nanny’s apartment through here.” He pointed towards yet another door.

“We haven’t decided on a nanny,” Ivy pointed out, a smile on her lips.

“No, but the option is there.” He shrugged. “Or we can put your parents here when they come to visit. Or Lisette,” he added teasingly, and Ivy laughed. Though the announcement of her engagement to Rafe had come out of the blue, but pleasure had quickly followed surprise, and Lisette had come to stay with them often.

Rafe sobered. “I want you to have everything you need in life, Ivy. You know that.”

She walked towards him, more slowly now. With only weeks to go until the birth of the baby, her back was sore and she was tired often. “Do you think I need anything more than what I have, Rafe?”

“My life’s work has become guessing that.”

She shook her head. “You, me, and a healthy little baby – that’s more than I ever thought I would have.” She lifted up on tiptoes and kissed him, and he kissed her back. Pleasure spun around them, a happiness from deep within. Here, in the house named for his father, Rafe would become a dad, and despite his wealth and success, there was nothing that mattered more to him than the family he was making. He broke the kiss, reaching down for Ivy’s hand and lifting it to his lips.

“Well, Miss Hennessey, what do you say we have a swim before the sun sets?”

Rafe had told Ivy that he wouldn’t hurt her. He’d told her he would make her fly. And he’d been doing that every day since she’d met him. He was the force at her back, pushing her forward, making her soar, bringing her dreams into her lap.

“I say, yes.” And she did. With all of her heart, and for the rest of her life. Yes to Rafe, yes to the future, and yes to happiness.

THE END

Following is an excerpt from Clare Connelly’s THE TYCOON’S SUMMER SEDUCTION.

CHAPTER ONE

She’d never noticed how long Anita’s legs were.

Strange, given that the two women had been best friends since Saphire’s tenth birthday.

But apparently there was a lot she hadn’t really noticed about her friend before.

The depth of her tan. The red of her fingernails. The tattoo of a butterfly that had danced darkly at the top of her thigh as she’d wrapped her legs around Saphire’s husband’s waist and begged him to, “Take me, baby, now!”

Saphire blinked but the image was still there, where it would undoubtedly remain forever. Her best friend and husband making love against the perfect Laura Ashley sheets Saphire had picked out only a week earlier.

No, they hadn’t been ‘making love’. Making love was what she and Jordan did. Making love was calm and affectionate; predictable and reassuring.

Anita and Jordan had been going at it like wild beasts. They’d been having passionate, animalistic sex all over her perfect bedroom and what she’d thought was her perfect life.

Her finger jabbed at the ‘call’ button in the armrest impatiently and a hostess appeared almost instantly.

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