Page 46 of Cinderella's Secret Baby

“Kind of. I knew who you were so I knew you were rich, but I didn’t think you were rich like this.” She looked to the ceiling. “When I got into your room, I thought you had only booked it to impress whatever woman you brought back to it.”

“I wasn’t planning to bring anyone back to it,” he said, insulted.

“I know that now.” She lifted a shoulder. “And at least you were up-front about your lack of intentions.”

“That wasn’t my best moment,” he noted with self-disgust. “I shouldn’t have invited you to my room at all. We weren’t as equal as I thought at the time.” Virgin. He still couldn’t fully grasp it. “I can’t help feeling I took advantage of you.”

“No, that’s the thing. It was the first time a man had made a move on me who wasn’t trying to make me feel guilty if I refused. I genuinely knew it was my choice whether to go with you or not. Weirdly, I felt like if I said no, I would be saying no to myself. It’s hard to explain. I just knew I would regret it more if I didn’t go with you than if I did. I had never felt like that with anyone else.”

“Then you did regret it because you thought I was trying to pay you for it.”

“I did hate you a little bit for that,” she admitted, pulling her hair free. “It confirmed my worst suspicions of men, but thinking the worst becomes a habit that paves a straight road to despair and depression. With Jasper missing, I needed hope. I made myself look for the good in life. REM-ex gave us the runaround, but so many of our neighbors and friends were supportive and generous. Then Peyton became such a blessing. She’s a little joy machine, so how could I stay a pessimist?”

“True.” He chuckled, but drily. Amelia might have been disillusioned by Gareth, but Hunter hadn’t exactly redeemed his sex. “I was in a terrible headspace last year. Still grieving Dad and even though I wasn’t the least bit surprised by Irina going after the company, I couldn’t believe it went as far as it did, legally. There was even a part of me that thought, hell, take it. The idea of not being responsible for Wave-Com sounded like heaven.”

“You did mention that you were grumpy. Maybe Remy said that.” She fiddled with the tail on her robe’s belt. “I just remember Cheryl and Remy doing all the talking while I sat there wondering if you were interested in me at all.”

“That’s funny.” He released a gust of laughter as it suddenly came back to him. “I remember waiting foryouto show some sign of interest. I don’t know if you know this, but I’m rich and reasonably good-looking. I make great babies that come with all the latest features.”

She snorted. “Thatisnews to me.”

“I’m used to women making it clear when they’re interested, but you played it pretty damned cool.”

“Oh? Tell me more about the women who come on to you. Maybe text it from one of the other bedrooms,” she suggested with a flutter of her lashes and a sugary smile.

He ignored that. “Your friend was throwing herself at Remy, but you were quieter. When you did speak, you were funny, but you didn’t say much about yourself. I wanted to know more. That’s why I suggested we walk down to the water after they left. All you said was that it was a pretty night.”

“Oh, gosh. Big surprise you weren’t interested in more than a night with that brilliant conversation going on,” she muttered with self-deprecation.

“No. I remember thinking how refreshing it was.” He had the sense of a time slip. For a moment, he was there on the shore with her, coated in quiet blue light. “Everyone wants something from me.” Attention or money or favors. Conversation. A diaper change, he thought ironically. “Even Remy, with the best of intentions, insisted I give myself a break to golf with him. You said it was a pretty night. It was a simple observation that didn’t require me to agree or decide or do anything except stand in it with you. That made you precious.”

He had held her hand, and there had been music in the distance and sweetness on the breeze. It had been the first time since childhood that he’d felt so unencumbered. So at ease.

Then they had kissed, and his brain had wanted to know her better in the more biblical sense.

The way she was looking at him made his heart seesaw in his chest. Having her in his life was like having potent wine and spring sunshine and hope on tap at all times.

Skepticism had been his stalwart friend for so long, he didn’t know how to replace it with her, but he wanted to. She was softness and peace, and she brought light into the gloomy caverns inside him. She was a gift, and he didn’t know how to make her understand how precious she was except to show her.

Hunter pressed his mouth to hers in the most tender way, achingly gentle so Amelia felt like the most treasured thing in existence. He cradled the back of her head and worshipped her with his touch, shaping the hills and dips of her figure, setting small fires across her skin that licked their way into her erogenous zones.

They made love often, but this was the first time itfeltlike love. As she basked in the sweet way he kissed across her cheek to her ear, as he blew softly against her neck and made her hair stand on end, she closed her eyes and pressed more deeply into him.

It meant so much to her that he’d wanted to know more about her.Her. Their baby might have brought them back together, but their connection had been there from the beginning, the tiny, barely visible strands as strong as they were fragile. Precious.

When his lips came back to hers, she poured her soul into their kiss. Her passion. Her love. It felt so good to let it release without fear, holding nothing back.

His chest expanded as though he felt it. He squashed her breasts as he held her closer and deepened their kiss. She swore she could feel his heart pounding behind his rib cage, matching the urgency that was taking hold in her quickening blood.

This moment felt urgent yet not. She needed more of him. All of him. But they had their whole lives to discover every last thing about each other. They were still learning how to share their bodies and their hearts, and this was one of those times where they had moved into a new level of intimacy. Of caring and adoration.

Maybe he felt the same contradictory urges. He yanked at his shirt, then jerked open her belt, dragging her bared chest into contact with his.

She shivered and went on tiptoe, offering a deeper kiss, accepting his tongue and rubbing her hips against the steely shape behind his fly. She wanted him to know what he did to her. Only him. It had to be him.

“I want to be inside you,” he rasped as he skated his damp lips down her throat. “I could lose myself in you. I really could.”

“Yes.” That’s what she wanted, for all of him to overwhelm her. Fill her up and dissolve any barriers between them. “I’m yours.”Be mine.

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