by Frost, Sosie
Mackenza wiped away her tears with a frustrated swipe of her hand. “Do you know how many women might be wearing the Maxwell Intimates line right now? Maybe it’s not glamorous. Maybe it isn’t the ultimate fashion statement. But this company is what I want to do. This is how I plan to support my family.”
“If you’re serious, then do as I say. Get on my jet, come home, and listen to me. If all goes well, maybe you’ll get to lead Maxwell Intimates. Refuse, and you’ll be the one who ruins your family’s empire. Not me.”
She pouted, rising from the chair to rush past me.
And, Christ forgive me, I couldn’t let her go.
I captured her in my arms.
Milan must’ve been closer to Heaven than I thought, because she didn’t push me away.
“Have I been that horrible to you?” I whispered. “Tell me. Am I that loathsome? What do you really think of me, Kenza?”
“You don’t want to know.”
I gritted my teeth. “Think I haven’t heard the worst before? Think you’re the first person to hate me.”
“I’m the first person you couldn’t fire for defying you,” she said, her eyes wide with panic. “And you still want to get rid of me.”
Yet despite my best intentions, I couldn’t fathom being without her.
“I don’t want to push you away…” My voice roughed. “I want to keep you here. With me. Forever.”
“Why would I believe that?”
Why wouldn’t she believe it?
What scared her that much about me that she couldn’t just trust in the words I said and the touches I gave?
“Because you’re the only woman capable of pissing me off like this. That I’d cancel meetings, clear my schedule, and fly to another country to act like the biggest fucking fool in the world.” I caressed her cheek, savoring the satin of her skin. Fuck silk. Nothing in this world was softer than this woman. “Then, because you infuriate me, I upgraded you to the most expensive and luxurious hotel room in the damned city. And, to prove how much you irritate me, I plan to take you to the most gratuitously extravagant restaurant in all of Milan, just so I can sit you down at candle light, hold your hands, and look you in the eyes as you confess how much you hate me.”
She looked away, her voice weakening. “Sometimes I wish I’d never met you.”
And that broke my heart, but I’d survive. “You did.”
“And look where it got us.”
“The best sex of our lives?”
She nearly laughed. “Oh…none of this would’ve happened if I hadn’t slept with you.”
And I never would’ve realized what real pleasure was had she not slipped between my sheets and shown me how much was left to discover in this world.
I seized what wasn’t mine and stole her kiss. Mackenza whimpered, breaking away to fight only with herself.
“I can’t do this…” Her panic flustered her. “You don’t understand.”
I kissed her again, ravaging her lips and savoring her resistance.
“Fight me, once and for all,” I said. “Tell me you hate me. Remind me of how much you despise me. Gloat and insult me and wish for the day you can finally be rid of me.” I gripped her hips and tugged her close. “Then you can surrender to my touch, let me inside you, and we can both deny what we truly feel.”
“You have no idea what I’m feeling.”
“Then tell me.”
“No.”
The woman would tear out my heart just to see how it beat.
What the hell did I have to do to convince her that this was real?
“Don’t be scared,” I whispered.
“I’m more than scared. I’m terrified.”
“Because you fell for the wrong man.”
Her eyes closed. “We’re well beyond falling, Cameron. I’ve smacked the dirt.”
My blood burned in my veins. “Then tell me. Say it. You want me.”
“What good would it do?”
My fingers tangled in her shirt as I pulled her against my body. She gave in to the kiss this time, wrapping her arms over my neck as if she feared I’d run. As if I’d never hold her this tight again.
Why did I let this woman destroy me?
And why did I enjoy every minute of the torment?
“You can blame me for the company,” I said. “Blame me for everything. You can hate me while we’re at work and in public…but here?” I brushed my hand along her shoulder, earning those beautiful goose bumps that led me straight to her heat. “We’re alone. No one can see us. No one has to know the truth. You can be honest now.”
“You don’t want me to be honest.”
“Tell me what you’re thinking.” I bumped her chin up, staring into her eyes. “It’s only three little words, Kenza. All I want. Those three words that I know damned well you want to tell me.”
The tears returned. Not the reaction I’d wanted, but it was closer to that burning secret which threaded in our desire.
If I was to regret anything, it wouldn’t be my feelings for this woman but the words unsaid in my heart.
“Three words?” Her voice trembled.
“Three little words.”
Mackenza savored my touch, but she broke free of my embrace to raise her hands, her fingers counting off each word.
“Cameron…I’m pregnant.”
14
Mackenza
Only Cameron Mitchell could make abject panic look so damned sexy.
Most men would’ve had a slapstick sort of reaction—eyes rolling back, sweat dripping from their brow, knees buckling as visions of potential futures and hedonistic freedoms vanished before their eyes.
But Cameron wasn’t like most men.
Even if I couldn’t imagine how the self-made fashion “mongrel” could sell lingerie with a slobbery, giggly baby bouncing in his arms.
His eyes narrowed on me, his brows bundled in confusion.
“You’re…pregnant?” He rasped.
“I just found out.”
Still no reaction. He stood before me, calm, collected. Sauvé.
The exact opposite of my pants-on-head terrified reaction to the news.
“Are you sure?” The night nearly stole his question.
“I took another test at thirty-five thousand feet.”
“And?”
I buzzed my lips. “It wasn’t easy.”
Cameron was in no mood. “Kenza.”
“We hit turbulence, and the bathrooms are very small. Have you ever tried to bend yourself into a pretzel and aim while your elbows are crashing into the sink and the airplane is knocking you across two different time zones?”
His voice steadied. “What did the test say?”
I sighed. What use was there denying it anymore?
“I thought it’d say something else,” I said. “I hoped maybe the baby needed a ticket or something and wouldn’t be allowed on the airplane.”
His stare had yet to break. “You are pregnant.”
“Not sure how the baby made it through TSA—I had to strip down to even get on the plane. The kid apparently gets to march right-on through.”
“Mackenza.”
I gazed over the city skyline—blitzing with flashing lights and the echoes of hundreds of years of intrigue, glamour, and secrets. I didn’t need the view of a lifetime to remember this moment. Pretty sure I’d have a pretty decent reminder in about eight months.
“Looks like it,” I said.
Cameron tapped his chest. “And it’s…mine?”
I resented the implication. “Are you kidding me?”
“I didn’t mean it…that wasn’t what I…” He apologized with a shrug. “I’ve never had a baby before. This is…very new.”
“Well…we haven’t come up for air for three months.
I offered him the chaise to sit, but he refused. That I didn’t trust. Instead, I tossed a couple pillows at the ground by his feet. At least, if the news bowled him over, he’d be spared a concussion against the cement p
atio. A head injury and a baby would complicate an already messy situation.
But Cameron remained standing, simply watching me. Studying me.
Memorizing every inch of me, as if it were the first time he’d ever really looked.
“I should’ve told you when I found out, but then you wanted me to organize that debacle for the board members.” I chuckled. “We got lucky there, Cameron. You think the Manties were a bad idea? Can you imagine what would’ve happened if I had to explain why the miracle of life looks particularly chunky when vomited onto a board member’s shoes?”
Cameron finally reacted, his expression twisting. “Are you still feeling sick? Can I…do anything?”
I laughed. “Think you’ve done enough. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. We haven’t exactly been very careful, but…”
I bumbled through my words with a huff.
Why the hell was this part so damned hard?
And awkward?
It wasn’t like this was the first time we’d seen each other naked. Or the first time we’d revealed our dirty little desires and accidentally mixed up the whipped cream and the lube…which still wasn’t as bad as mistaking the icy hot for body lotion.
This was a baby.
Surprising, sure. But I’d faced scarier experiences.
Hell, I was the one who had to stuff Cleo and the other senior women into their lingerie. I’d juggled three pairs of size 40-G geriatric gazoombas into a lace cup held together by the wishes of fairies, a few ribbons, and an underwire which tested the very limits of human ingenuity. No reason I couldn’t tell my baby daddy that his swimmers found their way through my channel as easily as he had swum across the English.
I glanced over the skyline, sucking in a deep breath of cool night air which even tasted of pure sophistication and class.
Only wished I could get some of it into my lungs.
“Cameron, I don’t expect you to become anything you’re not,” I said. “I know this is sudden and overwhelming, but I want you to know that you can be as much a part of this as you want—or as little. I don’t need a thing from you—”
His words growled, low and dire. “But I sure as fuck need you.”
The man moved like a shadow, rushing into the night to capture and sweep me into his arms.
I yelped, pinned against his chest as he hauled me inside the penthouse and searched the dizzyingly vast halls for the master suite. When two empty and dark rooms proved fruitless, he growled and barged into the space with the biggest bed and dropped me onto the mattress. My sandals kicked off my feet, spiraling across the room and crashing into a rather expensive looking vase that instantly shattered into a dozen pieces.
“Forget it…” Cameron’s ragged, lust-bitten words held me in place. “I’ll replace it. Or I’ll buy the whole damned hotel. Then we never have to leave…”
The man moved as if possessed, answering no questions as he pushed me onto the bed for a triumphant, unyielding kiss.
And his kiss was a hell of a lot better than panicking, worrying, and dreading his reaction to our little complication.
His ravenous smile reassured me, though the devious speed in which he stripped me of my blouse was enough warning that—somehow—he’d taken the news far better than I’d thought.
“What are you doing?” I whispered.
Cameron didn’t hesitate, flicking the latch of my bra with a single stroke of his fingers. Not too bad for a man with the moniker of Panty King.
“What do you think I’m doing?” he asked.
“I’m going to guess you’re having a stress-induced psychotic break.”
“As long as I can do it without clothes.”
He aimed for my jeans.
And, despite my every hesitation, I let him.
But this was getting out of control.
We needed to talk about this. Plan things. Figure out next steps and schedules.
I might’ve been the only woman who took a pregnancy test and then immediately turned to Excel with its lovely, neatly organized spreadsheets to help make sense of the grandest mysteries of my uterus, but when a girl had accidentally been impregnated by her boss, she couldn’t make too many preparations.
Especially since she’d skipped the most important one.
“Shouldn’t we…” My words dried as Cameron wrenched his suit jacket off. Didn’t even bother unbuttoning his dress shirt. He popped the buttons and ripped the material from his straining shoulders. “Maybe we should talk?”
“Why?”
He fell over me, and my fingers danced over the hardened peaks and gym-defined valleys of his perfect chest.
“We should stop,” I whispered.
The man didn’t know the meaning of the word.
His eyes darkened with lust, desire, and a madness which, God help me, was reprehensibly sexy.
“Kenza…” He breathed my name with pure possession. “You’re gonna be lucky if I ever stop.”
Cameron worked frantically, but not as deftly as my own fingers, yanking my jeans over my hips. My panties came next, racing the denim to tangle at my ankles. He ripped them both away in a blaze of unrepentant need.
I fell back to the bed, stripped naked of everything.
My clothes. My secrets. My bravery.
Cameron studied me, his hands warm and welcomed as he stroked a gentle line from my cheekbones to my trembling knees.
I didn’t look any different. At least, not that I could tell.
Maybe my breasts had grown? My skin softened?
But I still looked like myself.
And yet…
Everything had changed.
My confidence had shattered. My plans were changed. Two pink lines had collapsed my every priority, my dreams, my entire future.
Not bad. Not unwelcomed.
Just…out of sequence.
And with the man I never imagined needing.
But Cameron studied me with such a lustful, primitive stare that my insecurities seared away in a burst of heat and longing.
He seized me in his arms, his body humming with a wild energy. I parted my lips for his kiss.
Rough. Demanding.
And yet, he invigorated me with a newfound strength. We tumbled into the sheets, my back arching as his lips traced to my nipple, capturing the bud in the warmth of his mouth.
I groaned.
He liked that, suckling harder just to seize my whimpered noises, my desperate wiggle, and my unconditional surrender to his knowing touch.
Cameron’s attention fixed lower. His kiss trailed to my tummy, pausing at my navel before he glanced up at me.
“I never imagined this could happen,” he whispered.
I wish I had been more prepared. “We should’ve been more careful.”
“No.” His voice sharpened for just a moment, only to command my attention. Then, his smile grew, wide and joyful. “We should’ve done this a lot sooner.”
I couldn’t pretend to understand the machinations of Cameron’s mind, but I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing his every twisted and devious fantasy.
He moved between my legs, teasing my thighs with a soft kiss and playful caress. My body instantly heated.
I wasn’t strong enough to deny him, but I certainly wasn’t fool enough to pretend that I hadn’t delighted in the heat swirling in my core.
Cameron owned me with his expert fingers, delirious kisses, and the sheer confidence of his smile.
He devoured me in an instant, savoring my every encouraging murmur. The devotion astounded me. Not just the quick and fierce attention of a man seeking his own reward, but…
Gratitude.
He feasted upon me as a gift. No more animosity. No more frustration.
Just passion.
Desire.
And something else…something which panicked me even more than the secret about the baby.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
I wasn’t supposed to be naked and writhing, stealing my pleasure from
my own confusion on the softest sheets in the biggest bed of the most expensive hotel room in the most beautiful city in Italy.
Cameron’s kiss teased my most delicate and sensitive area, but the man knew just how much torment and pleasure I could handle. I cried out as he suckled my petals and groaned his name as his fingers teased my entrance with a heated bliss only he could create.
The damned man had an absolutely wretched ability to make me question everything I’d ever believed only to show me the truth of what my body actually craved.
And he made it too easy to surrender again and again to his skill, his perverse and wonderful curiosities. He’d molded me into his perfect lover, teaching me all I needed to know while thrilling me with the mysteries of his touch that he’d forever keep as his own wicked secrets.
But denying this man meant denying myself.
And he made every terrible decision seem so right.
Cameron claimed me, and the skilled licks of his tongue took everything from me. My voice. My trembles. My surrender.
A delicate shiver shook me from head to toe as I realized that, had I wished it, had I asked for it, I might’ve belonged to Cameron Mitchell now and forever.
God help me, I loved the thought of it.
All I wanted was to understand how we’d become so twisted within the other that our every mistake felt destined, our every fight turned to lust, and our every indecision united us forever.
How had it come to this?
And why didn’t we give in to it sooner?
“I want you to come for me.” His command growled with perfect devotion.
I couldn’t. Not yet.
“We should talk,” I gasped.
“About what?” He took the challenge, thrusting his fingers inside to focus on that perfect spot deep within me. “The only thing you need to tell me is how good this feels.”
I couldn’t fight the pleasure, and so I fought him.
I had to hide it, or I’d accidentally voice the words I’d forbidden, the panic I’d hidden, and the realizations that would destroy us.
