Page 43 of The Baby His Secretary Carries

She was warming and softening with more than that. She was fighting an urge to agree to his proposal and fold her life into his. He might not love her, but he loved his grandfather very much. He wascapableof love, which filled her with hope that he could love her, given time and absolute honesty.

Sadly, she couldn’t give him either of those things, which was cleaving her heart in two. She felt torn every minute of the day, but especially now, when she was preparing to confront the parents of the baby she carried.

Gio removed a velvet case from the hotel safe, one that was unfamiliar and pristine.

“I bought something else for you to wear.” He nodded to dismiss the stylist and opened the case.

“Brought? Or b-bought?”

“Bought. I thought you might like to wear something of your own for a change.”

No-o-o.

She swallowed as he revealed a stunning necklace in yellow gold with a dozen links made of pear-shaped yellow sapphires. Each was surrounded by white diamonds. A larger sapphire, also a pear surrounded by bigger diamonds, formed the pendant. The earrings matched.

“It’s too much,” she said weakly.

“It’s an incentive. We both know that,” he said impassively.

He really wanted her to marry him, she realized with a thudding sensation behind her heart. Why, though? For those dispassionate reasons he’d given her yesterday? For his grandfather? Or was he developing feelings for her?

She couldn’t bear to slight him again by refusing the necklace, so she stood still while he circled behind her and set the weight of the pendant against her throat. He clasped the chain behind her neck before he set a kiss on her nape, exactly in the spot that weakened her knees.

“Surely this is an incentive, too?” He lingered to nuzzle and inhale.

Goose bumps rose on her skin and a moan of longing throbbed in her throat.

She couldn’t resist turning to kiss him. To touch and hold on to him a little longer, a little harder. She was in Athens. The last grains of their time together were falling into the bottom of the hourglass.

Since becoming lovers, they had been making love every chance they got. Each time she felt as though she lost a little piece of herself, and today, with this dark cloud looming, she felt an urgent need for one last act of intimacy.

She sank to her knees and worked to open the fly of his tuxedo pants.

“That’s not what I was hoping to gain,” he said in a voice that had turned gritty.

She paused in freeing him. “Is that a no?”

He swallowed. “You know I always want this.”

She finished exposing his thickening flesh. A feral noise came out of him as she took him in her mouth. He grew harder against her tongue as she sucked flagrantly on his salty flavor, exploring his textures then tilting her head to take him deeper into her mouth.

His fingertips dug into her shoulder and he made a noise as though he was trying to withstand acute pain. His other hand cupped her cheek and he pumped a few times, saying something unintelligible.

His stomach tightened. All of him did as she caressed between his thighs and closed her fist around the base of his shaft, trying to give him every bit of pleasure she could.

Just when she thought he would lose it completely, he crushed his fist around her own and carefully withdrew from her mouth. He pulled her to stand before him.

She swayed drunkenly. “Don’t you want...?”

“I wantyou,” he said in a rasp. “All of you.”

He brought her with him as he backed toward the bed and sat on the edge.

She wanted him, too. All of him. Forever. But she could only have this, so she gathered the delicate fabric of her skirt before she straddled his thighs. When he moved her underwear aside and caressed into the slippery heat that awaited him, she closed her eyes to savor the sensations.

“Take me,” he growled as he dropped onto his back.

She was aching. Not just physically aroused, but aware of a hollowness in her heart, in her soul. She needed more than pleasure. She needed the indelible connection of their bodies.

---