“Really.”
He reached for her hand, but she pulled away, nearly tipping back on the bed. “I’m glad for Vi.” And secretly thrilled Ethan hadn’t moved on so quickly.
He bit his lip, worrying the soft flesh with sharp, white teeth. Scarlett had never seen him so on edge, so uncertain. A short pause ensued, one Scarlett was unwilling to break, until he burst out, “I know you’ll love the baby with everything you have. But the thing is, Scarlett—I want to love it too.”
“You can. I won’t stop you. You can see her any time you like.”
His eyes opened wider. “You know the sex?”
Even now he could make her smile. “No. I say ‘she’ one day and ‘he’ the next. Because I got sick of calling the baby ‘it.’ There’s no way I’m having an ‘it.’”
He smiled too, but only briefly. Despite the brevity of it, he brought a flash of sunlight to this shadowed room. The sun had passed over, and it would be filling the charming dining room downstairs with light. “That’s ‘we.’ We are having a baby, Scarlett. I want to be there every step of the way. I want to see the baby grow, be with you when you’re ill. Take care of you.”
“But…” She wrung her hands. “You’re in America. I don’t want to go back.”
“Why?” His question was gentle; otherwise, she couldn’t have answered it.
But she hadn’t told him, and she had to now.
“Because I don’t want to travel too much. I intend to make everything right for the baby. I’m so thrilled to have this baby. I shouldn’t even be having one, you know that. I was dumped before because I couldn’t conceive.”
He froze. “When?”
“Before I met you.” She sucked in a breath, determined to see this through. “I told you I was involved with somebody before. He was the son of a baron, and he wanted an heir, so we started trying before the wedding.”
She plowed through her difficulty, in describing her relationship with another man. The only other man she’d had a serious relationship with. “We met at university. A year later we went to see a doctor. We were marrying the next month. The tests showed it was me. My fault.” She swallowed. “I thought it was, because my periods have always been scanty. That’s why I didn’t worry when we—you and I—you know.”
Unable to talk about the searing connection she had with Ethan, not when he was watching her with such pain in his eyes, she didn’t pursue that thought. “Anyway, I’m low. My fertility, I mean. I have a condition which means my eggs don’t ripen properly. I never expected to get pregnant, especially from something like that. A bit of carelessness.”
“What happened to this man, the one you were engaged to?”
She would have laughed it off with anyone else, but not him. Not Ethan. “He left me and found a woman who could give him the family he wanted.”
“Bastard,” Ethan said, softly but with a great deal of heat. “And an idiot. He couldn’t see what a treasure he’d lost.”
Tears pricked her eyes. Scarlett blinked rapidly.
With a surge that shocked her into scooting back on the bed, he fell to his knees in front of her, reaching for her hands. “I can’t let you leave me. Do you hear me, Scarlett?”
The shock of touching him again nearly finished her, but she held firm. She had someone else to consider now. She had to be strong for her child. “You don’t want me, Ethan. We can co-parent. But you see why I needed to come home.” His touch was killing her.
“Of course, my darling. You want to be with people you know.”
“But it’s okay.” She stumbled on the words. That endearment had floored her. “I know desire doesn’t last long. You told me that.”
“I don’t just desire you, I love you,” he roared. At her flinch, he closed his eyes, and took a couple of deep breaths, his chest heaving. Opening them again, he fixed those blue orbs on her. “I adore you, Scarlett Woodward. I was a stubborn idiot. I should never have said I could not love you.”
“You’re just saying that. Shouting it. That doesn’t make it true.” Hurt ricocheted through her. Would he stoop to anything to get his way, to arrange things the way he liked them?
“No.” When she would have pulled her hands away, he held tight. “Hear me out. Please, Scarlett. I’ve done a lot of thinking. Having such a miserable childhood didn’t make me incapable of love. It made me incapable of recognizing it when it came knocking. I’ve loved you since the first day we met, when you were in that shabby office, looking like an undiscovered pearl.”
She let her hands rest in his, dizzy as he talked to her. She couldn’t deny the sincerity in his eyes and voice.
“But I was too stupid to recognize it as love. I called it desire. Of course I desire you, and I always will but, Scarlett, I can’t bear to think of losing you. These last weeks have made me completely miserable. I wanted to talk to you, to hold you. To make love to you.”
Ignoring the flush that rose to her cheeks, Scarlett protested. “You had no time for me. You persuaded me to stay, then you ignored me. I gave you time, and I tried to talk to you, but you were too tired and too caught up in what was happening with the company.”
He shook his head. “That won’t happen again.”
“You can’t be sure. Your family will keep fighting you, but you’ll do the right thing. I understand, Ethan. I know what it’s like to lose your inheritance.”
A smile curved his lips, sending her heart crazy. “This time I got my priorities right. I’m done with my family, and with the Noir Group. I resigned.”
“What?” Now it was her turn to shout. Never in a thousand years would she have predicted that scenario. “You can’t do that. You’re dedicated to saving the company, you said so.”
He massaged her hands. “Your email brought me to my senses when I opened it in the boardroom. They were taking my life away from me, chipping at it bit by bit. You forced me to face that. So I walked away. I stopped at my office long enough to formally draft my resignation. I’d already agreed to help Violet, so I picked her up, then I came straight to you. I’m putting my shares up for sale. The Noir Group has nothing to do with us any longer.”
She couldn’t speak. Her jaw dropped. Gently, he tucked a finger under her chin and pushed it back up. “I’m concentrating on my dream, and I want it to be your dream, too.”
“But it’s such a risk…” Without the support of the powerful Noir Group, would he be able to get the company off the ground? Did he have the money for it?
“I have enough.” He watched her, his eyes so blue they broke her heart. “I will never let you or our children starve, darling.”
“Ch-children?”
“Don’t you want more? I don’t think it’s healthy to have an only child, unless you can’t manage any more. I want a bunch of kids. A garden full.”
Her dazed mind was just about taking it in. “Three boutique hotels?”
“Six. I bought three more on the way over. Paris, New York, and one in Florence. I’ll take you to see them.”
“Oh. Oh!” She frowned. “But aren’t you afraid your family will wreck the Noir Group?”
He lifted one shoulder and distracted her with the unconscious display of his muscular form. “I don’t care. They can do what they want.” Gathering her hands in his, he lifted them to his lips and kissed the knuckles. As always, his touch made her shudder with need. “You’re the most important person in the world to me. I love you, Scarlett. Whatever you want, it’s yours. Unless it’s to tell me to walk back into that boardroom.”
“What will they do without you?”
He shrugged. “Probably tear each other to pieces.”
“Doesn’t that make you sad?”
“A little.” His eyes, so expressive, darkened, but when he looked at her again, they blazed bright. “But not that much. And I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I’ve done with them, and they are not part of my life any more. You are, my darling. You are the center of my life. I’m sorry, so sorry I didn’t real
ize it before.”
Finally, she believed him. He’d stopped the destructive force that was wrecking him, the erosion she hadn’t wanted to witness. But by walking away he was leaving his legacy, and enormous wealth. For her? No, for his sanity, too. Joy filled her.
She didn’t resist when he drew her forward, and when their lips met, they sealed their promises.
Suddenly having a bed seemed like the perfect solution.
Their kisses turned passionate, but Ethan paused in the act of lifting her T-shirt over her head. He touched her stomach with the tips of his fingers. “Hello, little one.”
Within five minutes they were naked, their clothes tossed aside like rags. Laying her back, spreading her out like a feast, Ethan caressed and kissed every inch of her, and with every kiss he told her he loved her. By the time he’d made his first thrust inside her, Scarlett was so far from caring about anything but Ethan that she couldn’t have said where he ended and she began. She gasped, arching back and swinging her legs up to hug his ribs, hold him so tight he would never let her go.
“You’re staying.”
“Forever, if you’ll have me. Sweetheart, you feel so good.”
So did he. He rapidly brought her to her first climax, and while shivers were shaking her body, the ecstasy began again, building on the first.
The first bout of lovemaking didn’t last long. They had missed each other so much that they came together hungrily, giving and taking with complete abandon.
Later, curled up in the crumpled sheets, Scarlett watched Ethan retrieve a small velvet box from his trouser pocket. “You brought my ring in your pocket?” she asked him.
He turned his head to meet her eyes and smiled. “Yes and no.” Coming back to bed he curled her into his arms and cracked open the box, taking out the ring that was tucked inside. Taking her left hand, he slid it on to her finger. Not the huge blue diamond, but a smaller, more delicate piece. An emerald-cut diamond in a simple setting. It still wasn’t tiny, but it was more manageable. “This is for every day. The other is for when you want to knock people’s eyes out.”
“Oh, Ethan, it’s beautiful. I love it.”
“And plain gold bands for our wedding rings. As soon as we can arrange it. Something small and intimate, the absolute opposite of the society wedding neither of us wants.”
He leaned up on one elbow, smiling down into her face. “I can’t wait to start our new life.”
*
Night was falling when she stirred from a deep sleep in Ethan’s arms. They kissed, and he settled her, but the night added intimacy and he felt safe to tell her his other news. “I called Daniel. My brother, the one I haven’t met. He contacted us.”
“I’m glad.”
“So am I. He’s a good man. We’ll go to Texas and meet him when we can.” He kissed her. “After the baby.”
The call had been emotional, and Ethan feared he’d left Daniel with more problems than he’d meant to. No doubt about it, they were brothers.
Ethan’s people had done a lot of work, not all of it strictly legal, to track Daniel down. “He hadn’t known who his biological parents were before I contacted him and sent an invitation for him to take a DNA test. The doctor had my sample, and Ronan sent his. He said he thought there was no chance, so he didn’t want to waste our time. Instead, he discovered the truth, and he did some digging from his end. He knew he was adopted, but he couldn’t remember anything about his previous family. Unlike Ronan and me, he had a pretty good childhood.” He grinned. “He was shocked to find out his biological mother was Evangeline Miller.”
“What about his father?”
“We have a name, but not much else. Rory O’Connor. There are a lot of those in Ireland.” He paused at the second, even more shocking news. “And when my mother was in the car crash, she was pregnant.”
“What?”
“There could be another sibling. We’re looking.” The search had escalated, and his team had discovered more than he wanted to know. But he couldn’t unknow it now, so he had told them to carry on.
“That’s awful. She died in London, and she abandoned all her children.”
“That’s what it looks like.”
“I’d like to meet your brother. Brothers. But I bet they’re nowhere near as handsome and sexy as you.”
Ethan gave a delighted chuckle. “You can’t possibly know that.”
“Yes, I do.”
They lost more time then. Kisses and caresses meant so much more when love was involved, when he was kissing the woman he intended to spend the rest of his life with. He celebrated her, adoring her, especially when she climbed on top of him and reintroduced his straining cock to her soft, honeyed center.
As she rode him, they watched each other. He cupped her breasts, noting darker nipples and the slight growth in size. When she winced, he paused. “Does that hurt?”
“Not exactly. They’re so sensitive now, Ethan.”
He eased off, treating her with reverent respect, his heart full of love. “I’m a lucky man.”
“So you are.” She moved in a way that made him groan.
Shards of pleasure sliced through him as he grasped her hips to steady and guide her. He loved watching her work him. And now she knew, because he had lost all desire to hold back. He told her how he felt, pushed up into her body as she drove down, watched her delight when she brought them both to another mind-blowing orgasm.
She woke him at some godforsaken hour in the morning when she visited the bathroom, but he didn’t care. He welcomed her back into bed, snuggling her into his arms.
Finally the future looked bright. There were no shadows left.
Epilogue
Five years later
“What do you think to buying the flagship Noir Group hotels?”
Scarlett nearly choked on her tea. “What?”
Ethan waved his electronic tablet at her. “They’ve finally declared bankruptcy. Everything will be up for sale soon.”
“Can we handle it?”
Since their new hotel group, the Rouge Group, had employed the best of the Noir Group staff as they left the company, they now had a solid base to build on. They didn’t have to work day and night, as they had when they’d started, but this was a big step. A huge step.
“Yes, we can. But there’s a big renovation project ahead.” Ethan flipped down the list. “I don’t want all of them, but I know which ones I want. We’ve branded as high end, and I’m not sure the Noir brands would fit in to the Rouge brand. Except for one month a year.”
Sighing, Scarlett propped her elbows on the kitchen table, where their laptops vied with a large brown teapot, a French press and a plate of biscuits. A shaft of light came through the windows of their London home, a Regency house in Mayfair, bringing out the gold lights in his dark hair and turning his eyes into angel’s. She wasn’t fooled. Her husband, the ruthless businessman, was back in force.
The small boutique high-security hotels had waiting lists. They couldn’t buy and turn them around fast enough. Now he was suggesting buying the giant monoliths that were the remnants of the once-mighty Noir Group?
She’d think him crazy if she wasn’t so excited by the idea. “Why a month a year?”
“I want to reduce the prices once a year. Halve them or more, but provide the same level of service. Give people a chance to live the good life. Maybe we’ll run a contest, or a lottery for places. What do you think?”
“Well, the publicity will be fantastic—”
The door to the breakfast room burst open to admit their oldest son, his brother toddling behind, trying valiantly to keep up with him. Stephen held a spade aloft, the plastic kind children used in sandpits. “I caught him eating dirt again,” he declared.
That was evident, from the smears around Mark’s mouth.
Ethan stood and swept his baby up. “I swear, this kid is going to be a landscape gardener.”
“You’re supposed to dig the dirt, not eat it.” Scarlett prayed with all
her heart that Mark would grow out of that habit soon. And that he didn’t idolize his brother quite so much. Stephen was a fighter, and a risk-taker, just like his father. While she loved her sons with all her heart, she had to admit she didn’t love all their habits.
Stephen’s birth had jolted Scarlett into having a regular cycle, but she’d coped with it. This time Scarlett had been almost three months gone before she realized the good news and blissed out.
The media called them unconventional, because they took their sons with them when they went to view a new hotel, or check on it. But with Stephen at the age he should be starting school, they were pondering whether to homeschool him or to send him somewhere he could socialize with other kids.
Considering Ethan’s miserable childhood at boarding school, they’d settle for the latter.
But she had some unexpected news for him.
After they’d sorted out the disturbance, the boys helped them to finish their breakfast. Leaving the chaotic breakfast room in favor of the office they shared, Scarlett stopped her husband with a hand on his chest. “You remember when Mark was born you said you were so happy Stephen wasn’t going to be an only child after all?”
“Uh-huh.” He tilted her chin up and gave her a tender kiss.
As always, she melted. It didn’t matter how many times they made love, or how much time she spent with him, she always wanted more. Nestled in the place she loved best, in his arms, her own arms around his waist, she told him her news. “Remember when we made love in that Venice hotel? What you said then?”
He stilled, gazing down at her. “That if you had low fertility, we just had to try harder.” His eyes widened. “You mean…”
Delighted by his shocked response, she grinned. “Yes. Maybe we’ll have a girl this time.”
This time his kiss was deep and passionate. “I didn’t think I could be any happier. You’ve just proved me wrong.”
The End
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Captive Hearts (Hearts on Fire Book 2) Page 19
