Page 91 of Heart of Stone (Dark Billionaires)

The therapy had helped. She was better than she had been, but the knowledge remained.

Rhys stared at her for a moment, a frown weighing down his brow. “He told me that you want him to give up his paternal rights?”

She nodded.

He pulled his phone out of his trousers, fiddling with it until Kate heard her new phone ping. “Then I’m sure you’ll want to speak to a solicitor. I’ve sent you the details of the law firm I use. I’ll set up an appointment with them for you.”

“You aren’t going to fight me on it? Or try and change my mind?”

“Nope,” he chirped, standing to his full height just as she finished the last of her chips. Rhys waited until he reached the door before speaking again. “Warren’s here by the way; I brought him. I think he’s with Mattie at the moment.”

Kate’s jaw dropped, and she flung a manky chip at his head. “You bloody judas!” It missed, leaving a damp patch on the wall where it had splattered. She stared hatefully in the direction of Rhys’s retreating footsteps.

Struggling to her feet, Kate stormed upstairs, thankful that Warren was nowhere to be found. With any luck, he’d stay with Mattie over in the games room. Her room, she was pleased to report, was at the other end of the house.

Even so, she had barely closed her bedroom door before dissolving into tears against it. “Shh, shh, shh,” she gasped to the squirming baby in her belly. “I’m sorry, bub. Did I wake you up?”

She whispered to her bump through her tears, softly cradling it and murmuring soothing words. It was comforting to focus on something other than her own feelings. Or the fact that her daughter’s father was under the same roof.

Worry had done its best to consume her over the last couple of months. Was she doing the right thing? Keeping her baby away from her father? Kate changed into her pyjamas and crawled into bed, snuggling up to the pregnancy pillow.

Her bedroom was full of baby gear—most of which Warren had purchased and sent over. She’d sent the first couple back, unwilling to accept his gifts. But the more gifts that arrived, the more useful they became.

Especially the pregnancy pillow. Over her dead body would she be separated from that gem.

She smiled as her daughter moved again. A small shift, as though she too was trying to get comfy. “Are you enjoying the chips I sent down?” Kate asked her quietly, eyes closing. “They’re not particularly healthy, but I think you’ll like them.” She chewed her lip, wiping away a final tear. “Just like your daddy’s not behaved particularly well, but I think you’d like him too.”

Kate snoozed into the early hours, phasing in and out of sleep, letting it carry her away like the tide. Her dreams were filled with her daughter to begin with. Who she would be. What she would look like. Would she take after Warren? Would she have his emerald eyes? Eyes that Kate could drown in…

And then her dreams took a turn, changing from an ethereal hopefulness into a darker, more sensual vista that had her moaning in her sleep. When she finally woke, needy and aching, Kate cursed her timing. With just a few moments more, she would have climaxed.

She opened her eyes and stared at the darkened ceiling. Alison had asked earlier what pregnancy symptoms she’d had. The truth was that Kate hadn’t had that many. What Kate hadn’t said was that her libido had gone into overdrive, and that she regularly woke in the night, desperate for relief.

Settling into what had become her usual routine, Kate reached into her bedside table for her vibrator. A rubbery, purple device that had become her closest friend in recent weeks.

Kicking off both her pyjama bottoms and the bedcovers, Kate sighed with relief at the gentle buzz against her clit. She nudged it further down, letting the pleasure dance across her aching skin. Whilst she would never admit it, the only fantasies that got her over the finish line involved Warren.

Kate lost herself in them, inching closer and closer to the end.

Until her finger slipped over the button, changing the setting from a gentle buzz to strong, jarring jolts that shook her teeth. The sudden shocks pulled an involuntary cry from her chest just as quickly as Kate pulled the vibrator away.

Barely ten seconds later, the door burst open.

Dressed only in pyjama bottoms, Warren stood there, coming to an abrupt halt at the sight of the juncture between her thighs.

Squealing with indignity, Kate threw the covers back over herself. “What the fuck, Warren? What are you doing here?”

He picked his jaw up off the ground. “Sarah invited me to stay. I’m staying in the room opposite. I… I heard you cry out. She said you’d fainted yesterday. I thought you’d hurt yourself, kitten.”

He was staying overnight in the room opposite her, was he? How convenient.Sarah, you are not being at all inconspicuous with your meddling.“Close the door.”

With a tilt of his head, he stepped inside and followed her order.

“That is not what I meant and you know it,” Kate hissed.

He merely shrugged. “And yet—” Warren spread his arms, and Kate tried not to notice what it did to his tattooed chest “—here I am.”

Yes. Here he was. The very man she’d been fantasising about, half naked in her bedroom.

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