I don’t know why I was so terribly nervous about telling them, especially after the positive reaction they gave us when Bryce had tentatively asked them during that stupid game of Truth or Dare. I guess it was just the thought that deep down inside there was a possibility that the news could disappoint them in some way. Regardless, the time had come, and we had come up with the best idea of how to reveal the information.
“Nate and Charli, come here. We need your help with something,” I called from where I was standing at the bottom of the staircase. Both of them came out of their rooms simultaneously. I motioned them down the stairs. “Remember how we came up with that idea a couple of months ago of a treasure hunt for children staying at City Promenade? Well, we want to test it out on the two of you before we make it into a permanent thing. So we thought we’d have a little practice in the apartment. Does that sound good?”
“Cool! I love treasure hunts. What’s the treasure? Is it gold?” Charli asked, excitedly.
“Is it money?” Nate queried, hope in his eyes.
“No, you silly duffas, it’s just a practice. Here, this is your first clue.” I handed them a card which Nate began to read.
“Say it out loud Nate, I can’t read,” Charli huffed and put her hands on her hips, frustrated that reading was a skill she was still learning at school.
Nate slowly read the note out loud. “Your first clue is feeling unfit. You can find it on the place where you exercise while you sit.” He screwed up his face, then instantly realisation dawned on him. “The exercise bike,” he yelled, and then he took off.
“Wait for me,” Charli called out after him.
Bryce and I followed. “So far so good,” he whispered as he placed his hand at the small of my back while walking out onto the balcony following the kids.
Nate had already torn the envelope from its sticky-taped position on the exercise bike. He ripped it open and pulled out a photograph, looking at it strangely.
Charli snatched it from his hands. “It’s you and Bryce, Mum. It’s a picture of you two.”
“Give the photo to Bryce and he will give you your next clue,” Nate read, from the instructions that were attached to the picture. Charli skipped over to Bryce and handed him the photograph, he in turn handed her another card. She passed it to Nate who again read it out loud. “Go and play pool...but don’t get wet.”
Charli walked over to the swimming pool and looked into the water for the next clue. “How do you play in the pool without getting wet?”
“Not that pool, the pool table,” Nate explained as he grabbed his sister’s hand. They hurried off into the man-cave, only to come back out to where we were standing in the lounge area shortly after entering, Charli now holding a wooden letter R. She gave it to Bryce, who once again handed over another clue. Bryce placed the letter R next to the picture of the two of us. I smiled.
“Your third clue is hungry and wants something to eat. Go to the place where you’ll find something sweet.”
This time Charli took off heading straight for the kitchen, yelling, “Lollies. The treasure is lollies.”
Nate ran after her. “Wait, we have to share.”
“Do not. Not if I find them first,” she teased while looking over her shoulder and screamed, noticing that he was gaining on her.
Bryce laughed as I took a seat on the couch.
“They’re going to be disappointed when they realise the treasure is not edible,” I said, suddenly feeling like maybe I should’ve organised some form of tangible-treasure.
They both came back into the lounge looking a little glum. I laughed at them. “So, what did you find?”
“A stupid word that says HAVING,” Charli sulked as she passed Bryce the cardboard card with the word having written on it. He placed it down next to the letter R.
At this point I thought Nate would catch on by reading the clues placed next to each other—but he didn’t. Instead, he moved right along and read the next card.
“This clue is in a hurry and doesn’t want to go slow. You’ll find this clue waiting for a ride on the Crow.” Nate threw the card and spun around heading back outside. Charli grumbled and sat down.
I gently squeezed her knee. “What, Sweetheart? Don’t you like this game?”
“Yes, but I’m too slow.”
“Don’t worry. I reckon you’ll find the next clue before Nate.” I winked at her.
Nate came running back in, puffing and out of breath. He passed Bryce the wooden letter A.
Charli scratched her head. “Another letter?”
Bryce handed Nate the final card then came and sat next to me, leaning back on the couch in that sexy position that I love. I stared at him and licked my lips. Crap! That was involuntary.
“Starlight is asleep. Go wake her.” Nate took off again toward the Observatory.
I fell back into Bryce’s side. “I told you he’d go there.”
Charli frowned. “You said I’d find the next clue, Nate probably already has it.”
“No, he doesn’t Charli. What did Nate just read out?”
“Starlight is asleep. Go wake her.”
“Yes, now think about it.”
She screwed up her face, then her eyes widened and a large smile appeared.
“Ahhh, see? Go and wake her up.”
Charli laughed and ran upstairs to her room. She came back moments later holding her baby doll, Starlight.
“I found it Nate,” she called out as she handed Bryce the baby. Nate came bounding down the stairs, and I cringed as I watched him, predicting a stumble and one or two broken bones.
“Please don’t run down the stairs, little man. You’re giving me a heart attack.”
“What was it?” Nate asked, ignoring my plea.
“Starlight, my baby,” Charli answered. She looked from Bryce to me. “So where is the treasure?”
“Read the clues,” Bryce suggested.
I waited with baited breath as Nate read the clues out slowly, trying to piece them together.
“Photo, R, word having, A, Starlight,” he said. “That’s just dumb.”
Shit! Crap! Balls! That didn’t work.
“Who’s in the photo?” I asked.
“You and Bryce.”
“What’s the letter?”
“R,” they said together.
“What’s the word say?”
“Having.”
Next letter?”
“A”
“What is Starlight.”
“A doll.”
Bryce cracked up laughing.
“No, she’s a baby. Now read those all out again.”
“Mummy and Bryce, R, Having, A, Baby,” they both said together.
Nate’s eyes widened, and I held my breath.
Charli said it again still not quite catching on.
“Mummy and Bryce, R, Having, A, Baby. A Baby...really? A real baby?”
I stood up and rubbed my belly. “Yes. There’s a baby growing in here; your baby brother or sister.”
Nate smiled. Oh thank fuck. Charli stepped closer and touched my tummy. “Can she hear me?”
“I think so,” I answered.
“Hi, I’m Charlotte, your sister,” she yelled like a banshee into my stomach.
Bryce and I laughed, and a tear of joy rolled down my cheek. Bryce leaned forward and gently rolled up my top a little. I still wasn’t overly showing, but when I was standing there with nothing to cover my bump, it was visibly protruding—a little bit.
“You don’t need to yell, Charlotte. Just talk like this.” He placed his lips to my stomach and gave it a soft kiss. I swear I felt a little flutter.
“How do you know it’s a girl?” Nate questioned. “It could be a boy.”
“Are you a girl or a boy?” Charli asked in a lower voice, smiling at Bryce as she spoke into my belly. For some reason we all stayed quiet, appearing to be stupidly waiting for an answer.
“We will find out in just over a month if you have a baby siste
r or brother.”
“A month? Is that when she’ll be born?” Charlotte was pirouetting in front of me. “I can’t wait. Can I pick her name?”
“Settle, Petal. No, we will find out if the baby is a boy or a girl when Mummy has an ultrasound, then you can help pick a name.”
“What’s an ultrasound?”
“An ultrasound is a special camera that can look inside your tummy.”
Nate walked over and hesitantly touched my bare stomach. “I can’t feel anything.”
I placed my hand on his head and gave it a gently rub. “You won’t be able to, Sweetheart. Not yet anyway. Maybe in a few more weeks, you might feel the baby kick.”
“Kick?” Charli asked. “Why would the baby kick you?”
“Because there is not a lot of room in there, so babies push and kick at their Mummy’s tummies. You used to do it a lot.”
“That would be weird,” confessed Nate. And he removed his hand looking slightly distressed.
Bryce placed both his hands on my belly. “I can’t wait to feel the baby kick.” He flexed his fingers gently. I looked down at him, my eyes suddenly piercing his with an ignited yearning. He registered my gaze and twitched his eye. Fuck, I love this man. This incredibly sexy, sweet, father of my unborn child. I want to undress him and show him just how much I crave, lust, love and appreciate him. I want to show him with my tongue, my hands, my mouth, my wet, sleek—. My tummy rumbled, snapping me out of my inappropriate head-porn. These hormones are driving me freakin’ crazy. One minute I’m horny as hell, the next I’m vicious, angry and short tempered, then after that I could cry a river and eat pickles with chocolate.
“Was that the baby? Did she growl? Is she angry?” Charli blurted out, starting intently at my stomach.
I laughed. “No.”
“Are you hungry, Hunny?” Bryce asked.
“Yeah a little.”
He stood up. “What can I make you?”
“Um...I could go some of that yogurt you made the other day, the one with the raspberry sauce.”
“Sure. Anything else?”
“Um...yeah, maybe one of those turkey baguettes with the Swiss cheese. Oh, oh, and a chocolate brownie. I feel like a chocolate brownie with caramel. Does the hotel kitchen make brownies?”
He raised his eyebrow and smiled then kissed me on the cheek. “They will today, my love.”
***
Bryce had arranged for the hotel’s kitchen to make me a freshly baked chocolate caramel brownie, together with a turkey baguette. He had also organised for Sebastian to collect a hot white chocolate with a marshmallow from Gloria Jeans—that was just lunch. For dinner, he made a steak and mushroom pie with sautéed vegetables. I had laughed when he dished up my plate, and as a side he had made me rice cakes with peanut butter—Bryce, Nate and Charli passed on those.
Bryce had worked in his office after dinner, finalising paperwork from the F1 Grand Prix which had been held weeks ago, and while he worked, the kids and I had cuddled in bed, watching the movie Madagascar 3. When the film finished, I tucked them into bed while all of us sang ‘Afro Circus’ and laughed—that bloody song was going to be stuck in my head for quite some time.
Completely drained and exhausted from the constant stream of baby related questions from Charlotte, I had a quick shower and laid down in bed with my book—a new adult style story about a boy and girl in college who were insanely perfect for each other, but just couldn’t get their shit together long enough to be privy to this vital detail. Oh, young love is so aggravatingly simple, or so it seems when you are reading it.
I must have unintentionally fallen asleep, because for a split second I entered that realm where you were tentatively trying to distinguish the difference between dreaming and reality. It wasn’t until I moved my hand down to in between my legs and ran my fingers through Bryce’s hair, that I realised I was in reality, but living my dreams—this becoming strongly evident when his tongue slid up then down my sleek clit. Oh! Hello, Mr Tongue Twirling Clark. My hips instantly bucked, magnetising toward him.
I practically purred. “Oh, fuck.”
“Did I wake you?” he asked, wickedly.
“I don’t know. I think I might be dreaming.”
He chuckled then slid two fingers inside me, my eyes fluttering open while I gasped. “No, I’m definitely awake.”
“Yes you are.”
He deliciously moved his fingers in and out as he twirled his tongue over my sensitive spot.
“Did you finish your work?” I moaned.
“No, not yet.”
“Oh?”
“My work is not done until you are coming all over me, Hunny.”
Oh Fuck. I squirmed from the mixture of sensation and hearing his dirty words. “Mmm, best you get to work then, Mr. Clark.”
He growled and blissfully mauled in between my legs until I was clenching my thighs around his head. He had turned the lights off and lit a few candles, giving the room a sensual, amber glow. I gazed at his hungry, sexy eyes as he released himself from my legs and prowled slowly up my body, stopping to kiss my stomach. Propping myself up on my elbows, I watched him spend a small moment bonding with his baby who was none the wiser of what its parents were getting up to. He continued on with a knowing smile stopping again at my breasts; both of them eagerly anticipating his attention.
My head fell back has he teased my nipples with his lips, tongue and teeth. Holy shit, he is mind-blowing. He lifted his head the same time I brought mine back up to watch him. Then suddenly, our lips were together, his mouth pressing hard against mine, our tongues reuniting after hours of being apart. I simply adored kissing him, tasting him, feeling the wet warm roll of his tongue against mine.
I nipped at his chin and chiselled jaw line then dragged my lip back up to his mouth, hungrily deepening my insatiable need to taste him and groaning at my desperation to devour him entirely.
“Fuck, Alexis. Your need for me is the sexiest fucking thing I’ve ever seen and felt.”
“Good, because I need you; I need you in my mouth now.”
An alluring grin appeared across his face as he continued to crawl up my body until he was kneeling directly in front of my face, his erection prominent and gloriously close to my craving mouth. He placed his palm at the base of his shaft and slowly dragged his hand up then back down again. I’m going to come from the sheer sight of him. Geezus! He is downright sexually dangerous.
Slowly, I extended my tongue, lightly teasing his tip with my small swirling action. The hand he had wrapped around his cock flexed, sending a shock of excitement right through me. I opened my mouth and pressed my lips onto his warm crown, a bead of moisture already visible—evidence that I had the exact same effect on him as he had on me. I sucked at it then ran my tongue over my teeth while watching the fire in his eyes as he took pleasure from my tease.
His hips jerked involuntarily, igniting my core. Then, sliding my lips over him and moving forward, I took him into my mouth, as much of him as I could possibly take. He growled my name and his entire facade tensed deliciously; his pecks, biceps, abdomen and that luscious V shaped muscle at the top of his pelvis. I don’t know what that muscle is called, and to be honest I don’t freakin’ care.
With my free hand, I reached out and traced my fingertip along the defined V, trailing it from his left hip, down into his groin, across the front of him then back up the other side. Oh. My. God. That thing is fucking insanely attractive. My eyes flickered, aroused by the feel of him in my mouth together with taking in his exquisite form.
“Fuck, I need to be inside of you, Hunny. I can’t fucking watch you stare at me like that anymore and not come.”
I opened my mouth and he pulled away, moving back down the bed. He lifted my legs, placing kisses up my calves until my heels were rested on his shoulders. Tilting my pelvis, and angling it toward him, he eased himself in slowly. I could feel the walls of my pussy clench around him.
His eyes lit up at the tightening of
my muscles. “You like it like this, don’t you?”
“Is it that obvious?” I smiled.
“Yes.” He began to rock into me with an amatory look upon his face, feeding the journey my orgasm was taking. I bit down on my lip as I felt him delve deep. He rocked in and out, in and out, gripping my hips and flexing his fingers. “Fuck.”
He shook his head at me and smirked as his rocking increased—my orgasm with it. My fingers bit down into the bed sheets as the sensation of heat rushed to my head. And, as he slammed his pelvis against my arse, I let go; my orgasm rolling out of my mouth in the form of unmuted, explicit, sexual filth. I fucking loved it...and I fucking loved him.
CHAPTER TEN
The next morning, I woke up thoroughly sated and smiling constantly throughout the day. I loved and hated how Bryce had that power over me, the power to make me forget everything but him and how he made feel.
My family and friends arrived at City Towers for my birthday party; my actual birthday not til the day after. Bryce had taken it upon himself to organise the gathering—whether I had wanted it or not—convincing me to agree by saying it was a great way for the special people in our lives to see where we lived and how happy we were as a family. He had also convinced me that it was the perfect time to tell them all that we were expecting a baby. I tended to agree with him that one big announcement was much more appealing than many small private ones, with exception of my Mum and Dad, and of course, Rick.
Regardless of the fact that my soon-to-be-ex-husband and I had been at each other’s throats in recent times, and as much as I was still angry at him for having an affair, I still felt he deserved to know about my pregnancy in private—directly from me. Not in a room full of people we all knew. I respected him enough to give him that benefit.
Bryce had sent all our guests text messages informing them to check in upon arrival and make their way to the penthouse suite at 6 p. m.—I’m guessing Lucy had a hand in getting Mr. Creepy-Research Clark all the contact details. I had to hand it to them, the brother and sister duo were well organised and a force to be reckoned with.
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