Page 31 of Christmas Baby with Her Ultra-Rich Boss

Lena was lost in a world of sensation. Lost in a world of Konstantinos and the slowly increasing pressure coiling so tightly inside her that came only from him. Only from him.

She was his, she thought dimly as the pressure built into a peak that exploded and had her crying out his name, sending her soaring on a kaleidoscope of sensation so intense the colours swirled together and white lights flickered behind her eyes.

This was like nothing Konstantinos had ever experienced. He didn’t care that he couldn’t be buried as deep inside Lena as it was possible to be; what they were sharing was beyond comprehension. And so he didn’t try to understand, just closed his thoughts off to everything but Lena, her scent, the taste of her mouth, and the exquisite pleasure of their bodies crushed together until his name spilled from her lips as a cry and her climax pulled him over the edge and into the abyss.

Lena’s eyes fluttered open. The sleeping bag covered so much of her face that she was struggling to breathe. The darkness was as all encompassing as it had been before she’d drifted into that excuse for sleep but, other than the bit of her forehead exposed between where her hat rested on it and the sleeping bag started, she was as warm as she’d ever been. Cosily warm. How could she be anything else when she had Konstantinos pressed so snugly against her back and his arms wrapped around her?

She had no idea what the time was but instinct told her twilight—not that it existed here at this time of year—had long passed.

Reluctantly letting go of his arm, she pinched the top of the sleeping bag covering her mouth and nose, drew it down to her chin and inhaled the frigid air into her lungs.

His arms tightened around her. ‘Are you okay?’

Konstantinos’s sleepy voice made her chest expand. Putting her hand back on his arm, she gently squeezed. ‘I’m fine. Go back to sleep.’

He shifted his head to rest his chin on her shoulder. ‘You sure? If you have another panic attack coming, tell me. Let me help you.’

Oh, she could choke from the emotions filling her. ‘Not another attack, I promise. I just needed air.’

He kissed her neck and slipped a hand beneath her top.

She groped for it, threading her fingers through his, and closed her eyes at the simple pleasure of his flesh against hers.

This was the most dangerous time. She knew it. She’d woken in the witching hours the night they’d conceived their child feeling like she’d woken in heaven, Konstantinos’s hot mouth already urgent against hers, his possession of her almost savage in its intensity. She’d never have believed in those blissful moments that a few hours later he would look her in the eye and tell her it had been a mistake. She wanted desperately to believe that this time it would be different, that having a baby together made it different, but how could she trust that, especially with the warnings he’d given her barely forty-eight hours ago? What had happened that night hadn’t been planned. A spell had been cast over them and she was terrified that when the bright lights that indicated daytime were switched on, the spell would be broken for him, just as it had been the last time.

‘How long have you suffered with them?’ he asked quietly, his chin still resting on her shoulder.

‘I don’t really suffer them anymore.’

‘Then what was it you suffered earlier?’ he asked in a dry, indulgent tone that made her smile and wish so hard for things she shouldn’t wish for.

‘It was my first one in four years.’

‘So the last one was when you stayed the night in The Igloo for the first time?’

‘Yes. I wouldn’t have applied to work here if the attacks weren’t under control. I didn’t know I’d become claustrophobic. If I had, I wouldn’t have stayed in The Igloo and the panic attack wouldn’t have happened.’

‘If you had them under control does that mean there was a time when they were out of control?’

Lena thought back to the time when having up to ten panic attacks a day was considered normal. Terrifying but normal. ‘I don’t know about out of control but they were pretty frequent.’

‘Is it something you always suffered with?’

‘No.’

‘So when did they start?’

‘Six years ago.’

‘So around the time your sister had her accident?’

‘Yes.’

If Konstantinos squeezed her any tighter he feared crushing her bones. He didn’t understand why he felt the need to hold Lena so closely to him but, for that night, he accepted that whatever they were sharing was a spell of its own making.

With her hand resting on top of his, he made smooth circular motions over her belly. Earlier, after they’d straightened themselves up as best they could and he’d wrapped her into his arms, he’d put his hand to her belly like he was doing now and felt their baby move beneath his palm. He’d drifted off to sleep filled with emotions deep enough to choke him. ‘What happened?’

She sighed and twisted in his arms so she lay on her back, and palmed his cheek. ‘I was in the car with her.’

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