Collin eyed her suspiciously.
Hoping to throw off any suspicions he might be having, Bianca said, “I shouldn’t have had that burrito at lunch.” She moved over to the coffee table and dropped her purse. “Collin, our relationship is over. Go back to that woman you were playing house with.”
He gave a strangled laugh. “Why would I want a broke woman when I can have you? Sweetheart, we will have a wonderful life together and never have to want for anything. That’s the life I want.”
Money. This was all about money. Why was she surprised?
“You should have thought about that before you messed around on me. It’s over.”
“Sweetheart, what is it going to take for you to believe that I made a mistake? I’m sorry.” He dropped down on one knee.
“Please marry me.”
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“No.”
“Bianca, baby,” he singsonged. “Come on. We’re good together.”
Correction, before she had found out he was messing around, she was willing to make an exception. She had always had doubts about their relationship. There was no racing pulse or sweaty palms. Her heart didn’t skip a beat when he was near. She didn’t feel any of those things. In fact, if she weren’t pregnant she would have ended the relationship sooner. She was only willing to give their relationship a shot for the sake of her baby, but that was before London had revealed his secret. “It’s too late. Now leave before I call the police.”
Anger flashed in Collin’s eyes. He stalked to the door, turned the knob and opened it, but paused before stepping through and glared over his shoulder. “You’re going to regret this,” he warned.
The door slammed behind him, causing Bianca to jump.
Her stomach revolted. She bolted to the bathroom and lost her dinner. When the retching ceased, she lowered to the floor and leaned back against the bathroom cabinet. What was she going to do? All Collin cared about was getting her money. There was no way she could let him get his hands on her baby.
She rested both hands on her stomach. She needed to get married before she started showing. Otherwise, Collin would know the baby was his.
Panic clawed at her insides.
Instantly, she rose from the floor, went into her bedroom and took a seat on the end of the bed. After reaching for the phone, she dialed his number. A sob slipped out of her throat when his deep baritone answered. “Hello?”
“London, I need you.”
Chapter 12
London answered the door and Bianca walked in without waiting for an invitation. “Okay, if we’re going to do this then you need to understand a few ground rules.”
“I’m listening,” he replied with a smile.
Bianca swung around to face him and her eyes widened. She had been in such a rush that she hadn’t paid attention to what he was wearing, or, more precisely, what he wasn’t wearing. She stared ahead at a beautifully milk-chocolate chest and a white towel, wrapped low on his hips. What she saw was enough to make a woman drool in appreciation.
You can do this. You can do this.
There was no way she was going to start wanting him. If they were going to be married, it was going to be strictly a business arrangement. She knew she needed to keep her eyes on his face, but she couldn’t help noticing his flat stomach or the sprinkle of fine hair that traveled downward to where his towel had slipped slightly. Bianca swallowed, then took a deep breath. Oh, boy, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.
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“If you keep on looking at me like that,” he began in a low voice,
“I might drop this towel and see where the moment leads us.”
“I’m not looking at you,” she said so quickly that London chuckled.
“Yes, you are. You’re looking like you want me to sweep you up in my arms and carry you back to my room and finish what we started the other night.”
Her stomach churned. “You’ve got such an imagination,” she said with a nervous laugh. “And such a big head that you think everybody wants you. Guess what, I don’t.”
“So if I took this towel off right now, it wouldn’t affect you in the slightest?” He said, then taunted her by hooking his thumbs inside the top of his towel.
She made a nonchalant shrug. “Not at all.”
He loosened the towel and only seconds before revealing what was underneath, Bianca swung around—a cowardly motion—turning her back to him. “Wait! Keep your clothes on.
Either you want to talk about your offer to help me or you don’t.”
He gave her a chuckle that said, Chicken. “Yeah, yeah, I’m listening.”
Bianca took a deep breath. Glad that he had stopped when he had. Another few seconds of that and she would have been ripping the towel off, begging him to fill her with everything he had. Glad that her sanity had returned and her pulse slowed, she gave him a few seconds and when she was certain the coast was clear she swung around and this time focused on the area above his neck.
“Okay, let me hear your ground rules.”
“If I agree to marry you, it will be in name only.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning we sleep in separate beds and no…you know…”
His brow rose in amusement. “You know, what?”
“You know?”
“Sex?”
She nodded.
He shot her a long hard look, then shook his head stubbornly.
“Absolutely not. If we’re going to marry, you are going to be my wife in every sense of the word.”
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She swallowed. “Meaning?”
“Meaning,” London began as he took a step forward, “I want you to surrender all of you.”
“You’re kidding? Right?”
Again, he shook his head and said, “Nope.”
Bianca was shaking and tingling at the same time. “Why, when this will be nothing more than a business arrangement?”
London shrugged and gave her a sly smile. “Hey, you got to give a little to get a little. Haven’t you heard that saying before?”
“But we’re not going to stay married that long!” She protested, determined to do whatever it took for him to understand that if the two of them were intimate, it would be a big mistake.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m attracted to you and I know that you are attracted to me, as well.” She opened her mouth to deny the obvious, but he held up a hand interrupting her. “Bianca, you know it’s true, so I don’t know why you keep trying to fight it.”
“I’ll admit that you’re not bad looking.”
“Not bad looking!” He had the nerve to look insulted before he started laughing. “I don’t have to tell you that every available woman in Sheraton Beach wants me. Hell, even some of the married ones want me.”
Her eyes rolled. “Then let them have you.”
“They don’t need my help. You do.”
Damn him for reminding her of how desperate she was. She would have scouted around for someone else if she hadn’t already told her mother that she was engaged to him.
“I just want to know…what is it about me that you’re afraid of?”
“I’m not afraid of you,” she lied, just as the telephone rang.
“Hold that thought,” London replied, then moved over to the cordless phone on the table and answered it. “Hello, Dad.”
Whatever his father said caused London’s eyebrows to shoot up.
“Engaged? Who told you that?”
Uh-oh.
London continued to listen and Bianca felt the heat of his eyes when they came over to rest on her panic-stricken face. “Oh, really? Dad, let me give you a call back.”
London hung up, then folded his arms against his chest. “Is there something you need to tell me?”
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She was certain her cheeks had turned three shades of red.
“Well, I kind o
f already told Mother that we were engaged.”
He chuckled. He was getting a kick out of this. “Kind of, meaning what?”
He was going to make her say it. “Meaning, I told her at dinner tonight the name of the man I was engaged to.”
“And that man just happened to be me?”
“Yes.”
“Wow!” With a silly smirk on his face, he walked to an oversize leather recliner and had a seat. “So in other words, you need me now.”
Damn the man. Bianca realized that he wasn’t going to be happy until he had her squirming like a fish out of water. “Something like that,” she murmured.
“But I thought you said it wouldn’t work?”
Bianca released a heavy sigh of despair. How in the world had she gotten herself into this mess? “I guess it’s better than the truth.”
London paused to study her, then nodded and agreed. “Your mother must have called and told one of her friends because word has already gotten back to my father. His feelings are hurt that he had to hear about his son’s engagement from the checker at the grocery store.”
Bianca groaned inwardly. Somedays she hated living in such a small town. News definitely spread fast. “I’m sorry.”
“You should be.” He snaked out an arm and pulled her down onto his lap.
“Let me go!”
“Woman, hold still and give your fiancé a kiss!”
Bianca struggled until she freed herself, then rose and stood over him. London almost fell off the recliner, he was laughing so hard. The way the towel was shifting to the side was making her blood pressure rise.
“You are really getting a big kick out of this. Don’t forget that it’s all your fault.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know,” he said and suddenly got serious.
“That’s why I offered to marry you in the first place.”
She didn’t respond.
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He rose. “I guess I’d better make this official.” Then to her horror he dropped down on one knee in front of her.
“What…what in the world are you doing?”
London took her hand. “Proposing, the right way. Bianca Michelle Beaumont, will you marry me?”
Her heart was pounding rapidly. As she stared down at his sober expression, she felt her stomach quiver. She hadn’t felt any of those things when Collin had proposed. And this time it wasn’t even real! Somewhere deep inside, for several crazy seconds, she found herself wishing the proposal were the real thing.
“Are you gonna leave a ‘brotha’ hanging?”
Bianca gave him a smile and decided to play along. After all, he had offered to help her dodge a scandal. The least she could do was show her gratitude. Getting into character, she gasped, brought a hand to her chest and said, “Oh, my God!Yes,Yes! I’ll marry you.”
London dropped her hand and frowned. “Very funny.”
“I thought so,” she said and giggled.
She should have known that London was the type of man not to let her get away with trying to challenge his masculinity. He rose and she swallowed when she realized what he was about to do. Ignoring her shocked cry of protest, he moved against her and leaned forward. He had every intention of kissing her.
“I really don’t think this is a good idea.”
“I think it’s a damn good idea,” he said softly.
He took her breath away the moment his mouth came down on hers, and the jolt of awareness exploded through her whole body. When he parted her lips with the tip of his tongue, she was ready and opened completely for him. He tasted heavenly.
His left hand trailed the length of her body to her knee then slowly stroked up the inside of her thighs. Helplessly, she closed her eyes and gave in to his intimate touch.
“You like that don’t you?”
“No,” she moaned in outrage. He had no right touching her that way.
“Liar,” he snarled. His hand moved across her body to her breast, shaping it then rubbing his thumb over the erect swell of her nipple until her body took over and reacted with a series of sensual shudders that raced through her.
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“Tell me now if you want me to stop.”
Don’t.
Stop.
Don’t stop.
His mouth was pleasuring her beyond anything she had ever known. He cupped the back of her head to bring their mouths closer, her hands reached up, she wrapped her arms around his neck urging him to continue the kiss forever. She took his tongue into her mouth, savored and connected with it. No man had ever kissed her this way before, and she knew that no man ever would kiss her this way again.
Suddenly, Bianca felt herself being swung up into his arms and placed on his lap as he continued to kiss her.
His hand dipped between her thighs, beneath her knit dress.
Instinctively, she sucked in a gulp of air, waiting for the heat of his hand against her most intimate place. Sanity was long forgotten. Her traitorous body had taken over. With his fingers, he slipped past her panties and parted the lips of her sex, finding wetness waiting for him. She sucked in a breath. Oh, this is what she needed. He began to torture her with slow gentle strokes that made her body jerk. His tongue continued to move in and out of her mouth, matching the rhythm of his fingers. She grabbed on to his arm and held on for dear life. Soon she was whimpering and she cried out.
“I think you like it,” he whispered, his lips closed to her ear.
“No…yes,” she whispered, her words broken, incoherent.
She didn’t know what she was saying or thinking, and right now she didn’t have time to care. She had far more important things to be thinking about.
Like what his fingers were doing.
She leaned into his touch and rocked with the rhythm of his fingers, first one then two inside of her. His mouth pushed her onward while his fingers danced in and out of her body. His strokes became stronger and his fingers traveled deeper until she knew she couldn’t take a moment longer. The ache inside her became a fierce convulsion that exploded in an orgasm.
As her breathing slowed, Bianca kept her head resting on his shoulder, not ready yet to look up at him. She felt too humiliated Angie Daniels
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to speak. How could she have allowed him to do something like that to her?
“That was a mistake,” she finally said.
“No, it wasn’t.” He kissed the top of her head then released a ragged breath and touched his forehead to hers.
“Tomorrow I’m picking you up at your office at noon.”
She sat up straight and looked him in the eyes. “Why?”
“We’re getting married, right?”
Reluctantly, she nodded.
“Then we need to go and shop for a ring.”
Chapter 13
The following day Bianca called her office to say that she wouldn’t be coming in. First, she had the locks changed. Second, the morning sickness was getting the better of her and she spent the entire day and well into the afternoon puking in the toilet.
By lunch she moved out to the couch and lounged across the pillows. Her cell phone rang and she looked down at the ID and saw that it was the man she had agreed to marry.
London Brown.
She gave a loud, strangled groan. How was she ever going to be able to face him again after letting him touch her the way she had last night? Her body still tingled just thinking about the rhythm of his tongue. Heat raced through her as she remembered his fingers buried deep inside her.
She closed her eyes at the memory of his mouth and hand, and she found herself wondering what it would feel like to have something else moving inside her. Never had a man’s kisses affected her so strongly. Could she blame it on her hormones and being pregnant? Or was it something else?
Bianca shook her head, as if to shake off the thought. There was Angie Daniels
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no way she could marry him. It was too ridiculous for
words. All afternoon her phone had been ringing off the hook and she ignored all the calls from London and her mother. When she listened to the messages she was floored to learn that her mother had arranged to run an announcement of her engagement in Sunday’s paper.
Opening her eyes, Bianca stared out the window at the rain beating against the glass. Today would have been a wonderful day to have stayed under the covers and slept, but she just had too much on her mind. So many changes were about to happen in her life, and marrying London was not one she was ready to deal with. She knew he was going to be furious when he dropped by the office to take her ring shopping and she wasn’t there. She just couldn’t do it. There had to be another way out of this mess she had gotten herself in, other than marriage.
Bianca spent the rest of the afternoon watching silly soap operas and feeling nauseated. It was after five when she finally heard a knock at her door. Bianca glanced through the peephole and expelled a long breath. It was London.
She tried to stop her rapidly beating heart as she took a moment to stare at him without him catching her. All she wanted to see were those lips, and she found herself remembering the kiss they had shared the previous evening. The kiss that left her lying awake most of the night. The same kiss that had been on her mind all day today. He was dressed in khaki Dockers and a crisp white dress shirt and chocolate tie. He looked confident and professional. Yet at the same time he also looked incredibly sexy.
She expelled a long breath. Looking through the peephole, she was beginning to think that she was just starting to truly see this gorgeous man for the first time.
“Bianca, I hear you breathing. Please open the door.”
She counted to five then took a deep breath, told herself to get it together and opened the door.
“London?” she said and raised an arched brow, as if she didn’t know why he was here.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
She looked up into his intense brown eyes and saw that he was genuinely concerned.
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enter, then closed the door behind him. “Better now. I only puked half the day.” She replied, leading him to her living room.
“Your assistant told me you weren’t feeling well. I wish you had called me.”
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