Page 30 of Secret Baby for Mr. Grump

Unfortunately for her, I had changed too much, and not in good ways too. If anything, age and riches only made me more jaded. Now, I was a bitter old man who should not taint her with my hardness. She deserved someone who was like her, all light and rainbows, and who would make her smile and laugh.

I reached out, caressing her cheek, watching her eyes shift from anger to disoriented confusion. I thought she would step back from my touch, but she stood still, her back ramrod straight, only reluctantly accepting my touch at first.

The atmosphere slowly but decidedly shifted.

I could feel the exact second when anger left her body and desire began to set in. Her eyes grew darker, and her lips lost their tight press. My eyes dropped to her cupid’s bow, wanting it in my mouth. My body tightened in anticipation.

Fuck, I can’t do this. Not again.

“Why did you decide to marry your husband?” I asked instead to distract myself from the lust growing in the pit of my stomach.

“None of your business,” she retorted, but there was little heat in her words. She raised her jaw stubbornly, but I could sense she was weakening.

“I’m not asking to rub it in, Allie. I’m trying to make a point. You deserve someone who can give you the world, who can give you a clean soul the way you deserve.”

“Kenwasa good man,” she said. “And he was always a gentleman with me.”

“Good,” I said with a firm nod.Maybe I wouldn’t have to track him down and make him pay for touching what was mine.

Ease up on that. Allie was never yours.

“He was a good father to Caleb, too,” she said, and the mention of her son made a distant part of me ache. I wasn’t mad or sad that Allie had a son. What I felt was more of a distinct feeling of loss that I couldn’t explain.

“But…we ultimately weren’t compatible,” Allie finished, looking a little regretful at the thought.

“Sounds like you guys were,” I said.

“Yes, but not in the one way that mattered.” At this, her eyes widened, and she bit her lips after she said it—as if she hadn’t meant for the sentence to leave her mouth.

And once her meaning sank in, I realized why.

It took everything in me not to crow.

He never had her, I thought savagely,feeling the same possessive heat go through me. Not in the way that mattered. He might have touched her and conceived a child with her, but he could never make her soul sing the way I did, never inspire that heat inside her. He didn’t make the wild child inside her come out like I did when I had her dancing on my cock, moaning her head off.

“Ah, I see.” I forced out the words past the desire choking my throat. The dream I had was still in the back of my mind, and it was one of the reasons I tried so hard to ignore her today. I didn’t want to remember it, but the moment I looked up and saw her there, it was in the back of my mind, my cock hardening again. And it made me mad. God, here I was, pining like a pathetic teenage boy after a woman who was far too young and innocent for me.

My sexual tastes were also far too dark for her. That night we spent together proved it. I’d had to restrain my deepest desires, my need to dominate her. Because I didn’t want to hurt her and have her terrified of me for the rest of her life. I couldn’t let that happen. I would tear out my own heart before I let that happen.

“Has any other man made you feel like that?” I asked quietly. The scene was far too intimate that a raised voice just might shatter it. And I didn’t want it shattered.

I didn’t know why I was asking. I couldn’t take it if she said yes, but I especially couldn’t take it if she said no.

And when she held my gaze and slowly shook her head, the feeling exploded between us.

“God.” My head sank until it touched the top of her head. I could feel my heart pounding, my breath coming out heavy. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”

“Save the resort, Marcus,” she whispered pleadingly, and I was truly sad that I had to shake my head.

“I can’t,” I said, moving even closer to her, drawn by the way her eyes darkened at my proximity, the way her lips parted slightly. As I licked my lips, I watched her gaze drop to them and then drag back up to my face. She felt the desire throbbing between us. I knew she did, and there was nothing she could do about it.

There was nothing I could do about it too.

Because as her tongue came out to lick her lips, mimicking my movement, a groan worked its way out of my chest.

I was doomed,I thought as I began inching closer and closer to her lips. There was nothing I could do. I was drawn to her like a moth to a flame, and I would die if I didn’t have her.

A rough clearing of the throat interrupted us and had Allie jumping, a fiery blush flooding her face. She looked at the intruder before I did, and her blush deepened.

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