She ate slowly at first, and then ravenously without inhibition. He thought back to another night and a different appetite.
‘What?’ She looked at him, sensing his distraction. ‘Aren’t you going to eat anything? Shall I choose something for you?’
He huffed a small laugh. ‘In the interests of equality, go right ahead.’
Her small gesture touched him. When she passed him the plate of food, he reached out and ran his forefinger lightly down her cheek.
CHAPTER SIX
SHE WANTED TO be angry with Luc, but he made it so difficult. He made it impossible, by being unreasonable one minute and yet so kind the next. She had so many more important things to discuss with him than whether or not they should eat. Until she reminded herself that this quiet interlude was exactly the right time to explain calmly that she was expecting his child.
‘Relax,’ Luc insisted, sensing her sudden tension.
It was so easy to slip back into a fantasy where they were expectant parents, sharing precious time together as they waited for the birth of their longed-for child.
‘Fruit,’ he said, snapping her out of the fantasy. ‘You need to eat fruit for the vitamins, you’re so pale. And you need the chocolate because you like it.’ He slipped a chocolate-coated strawberry between her lips.
How could she not indulge in that fantasy when the man she loved was smiling into her eyes? Yes. She loved him. Crazy. Inconvenient. Fact.
It was crazy because love between them was unlikely in the extreme, and inconvenient because her feelings for Lucas always clouded her mind. ‘Luc, I—’
‘Not now, Emma. We’re going to leave heavy discussions for another time. It’s getting late and you’re still tired. We will find a time to talk, but not tonight. Good?’ he murmured, slipping another berry between her lips.
Everything was good, except for the opportunity to tell him being snatched away, and though Luc’s eyes were warm and amused as he tempted her with the ripe fruit, she got the feeling that he was asking her another question entirely. Luc accepted no boundaries, no restrictions, and he took his freedom, along with the freedom to indulge his smallest whim, for granted. He had an enormous appetite for life that saw him zooming back and forth across the globe. He lived a privileged life she could only imagine. And while their baby meant more than life itself to her, Luc had given her no reason to be confident that he would feel the same. How was he going to take the news that he was about to become a father? ‘I should get dressed.’
Luc’s eyes darkened. ‘Why?’
‘Do I need a reason?’
Angling his chin, his mocking eyes gave her the only answer he was going to give her.
‘I’m going to get dressed.’ She stood, conscious that she was naked beneath the robe. And not just naked but violently aroused. Playful little pulses were throbbing between her legs, while just the abrasion of the material against her super-sensitive nipples was enough to make them pucker and strain towards him. Luc was so physical it was impossible not to respond.
She stopped on the way to the bathroom, shivers streaking down her spine knowing Luc was behind her. His heat strengthened the pulses tempting her, making them impossible to ignore. Could she resist him? However many times her mind screamed caution, she couldn’t stop her body craving his touch. It didn’t help that every little detail of their wild night in London had led to the creation of a child, and that, far from acting as a warning that might prevent her from responding to him, that fact appealed to some primal instinct that demanded she must continually reinforce the relationship with her mate.
Breath caught in her throat as Luc towered over her. He made her feel small and protected, and made her body glow with every expectation of being pleasured again.
‘You’re beautiful,’ he murmured in a husky drawl.
She inhaled sharply as he pushed the robe from her shoulders and let it drop. Cupping her breasts, he made breathing difficult as he worked some magic with his hands. Her nipples responded instantly to his touch, and the sensation was spectacular. In her mind she was back in London, with Luc leaning over her, exhaling shakily as he moved steadily, rhythmically, deep inside her. She had missed this, missed him. Luc knew just how to touch her. He was sensitive to her every need, and her body shook with longing for him. When he scored the tips of her nipples very lightly with his thumbnails she was lost.
‘It’s been too long, Emma.’
‘Yes,’ she agreed. Her lips were dry. She licked them and could remember how swollen they had been from his kisses. She wanted more kisses, more touches, more of everything; her body ached for him. She wanted him deep inside her. She wanted him to possess her, to hold her down and pleasure her as he had done then. She could remember exactly how it had felt to have him fill her, and how he had withdrawn slowly and completely, only to plunge back hard. She wanted that extreme of pleasure again, and she wanted it now.
‘Yes?’ Luc queried, his black eyes smiling into hers.
‘Yes,’ she said, remembering how he’d taken her so firmly against a wall he’d driven her up it with every stroke. She could still remember the pleasure and her screams of excited release, and then Luc soothing her down again.
‘What?’ he murmured, smiling against her mouth when she sighed and closed her eyes. ‘Are you remembering?’
How did he know?
His hands moved firmly over the swell of her belly and down the insides of her thighs, making her core yearn for him, though he was careful to miss every part of her that craved him. She gulped in some much-needed air, and even widened her stance a little, only to admit to herself that Luc was the master of frustration, as well as the master of seduction. He knew just how to bring her to the brink and keep her hovering there. A firmer touch in the right place was all it would take. Tension was building—becoming unsustainable. She was like an overwound spring. Covering his hands with hers, she refused to wait and, applying more pressure, she rocked her body into his.
He nudged her away.
‘Why?’
Ignoring her cry of desperation, he showed her why. Dipping his head, he took her nipple into his mouth and suckled it firmly, whilst torturing the other between his thumb and forefinger. The extremes of pleasure transferred straight to her core, while Luc watched every reaction, and read every hungry little thought in her head, until finally he lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed.
She shivered as his mouth left a trail of sensation over her neck, her ear, her eyelids, and finally her mouth, by which time she was lost to reason. Teasing her with his tongue, he demanded full access to her mouth. His arms pinioned her like steel bars on either side of her body, holding her in place while he plundered her mouth and she whimpered shamelessly with need. Then, lowering himself, he tightened his arms around her. His tongue circled hers, plunging deep and withdrawing slowly in a mind-numbing sequence of reminders of another night, another act—
‘Not yet,’ he instructed when her body tensed.
How could she hold back when Luc had brought her to the edge with nothing more than a kiss and a suggestion?
‘Soon,’ he promised, reading her with his usual ease.
‘Please,’ she said, her eyes entreating him.
‘How badly do you want this, Emma?’
She couldn’t answer him. She was wholly focused on sensation. Luc had positioned himself between her thighs and had pushed them apart, leaving her exposed, swollen and ready for him. Lifting her legs, he rested them on the wide spread of his shoulders. ‘Rest back on the pillows,’ he ordered. ‘Relax and let me do all the work. You’re so aroused.’
His tone was appreciative as he stared down. A smile hovered around his mouth as she dragged in a ragged breath. Pressing her thighs even further apart, he dipped his head to deliver new levels of pleasure. Holding him close, she worked her bod
y frantically against his mouth until she was there...almost there. Hovering suspended in Luc’s erotic net, she was ready to fall. The world shimmered around her. She was so close to the edge, she didn’t know if she could hold on, but Luc was too skilled to indulge her so quickly, and knew exactly when to pull back.
‘Don’t tease me,’ she begged, lacing her hands through his hair.
Reaching up, he cupped her breasts, shifting his hands as he enclosed them.
She flinched—just a little, but enough to alert him to the fact that her breasts were really tender, and maybe they had filled out a little too. She froze as he stilled. She’d been so engrossed in passion and need she hadn’t even considered the first and, to date, the only sign that she was pregnant.
‘Emma?’ Lifting his head, Luc stared at her. For a moment his expression didn’t change, but then it did and time froze as they stared at each other in silence.
Grabbing a cover, she swung out of bed. Instinct demanded that she be on her feet when she faced him.
Luc broke the silence first. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
Her stomach clenched with apprehension. Luc had changed in an instant from powerfully seductive to cold and mistrustful. Her throat tightened with dread. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. And this was all her fault. She should have told him long before now. It was no excuse to say the opportunity had never come. Standing motionless with his back turned to her, Luc’s tension frightened her. He was so powerful her imagination was hard at work. He might decide to take their child from her. He might decide to prove she was an unfit mother by fighting her through the courts, and how could she afford to fight him?
She had to calm down. That was the first step. Then she had to find a way to calm Luc, but she didn’t know this man. Even his back was hostile. Their friendship had been tenuous at best, and now it was destroyed. She covered herself with the sheet. Somehow she had to make this right, but Luc was in no mood to listen.
‘Don’t play the fool with me, Emma. When were you going to tell me? Ever?’ he demanded, swinging round. His furious stare drilled into hers. ‘Or did you want me well and truly hooked before you decided to mention it?’
‘No! Of course not.’
‘And I’m supposed to believe this is my child?’
‘I wouldn’t lie to you where my child is concerned.’
‘I don’t know what to think. I don’t know you at all.’
He was right. They didn’t know each other. Why wouldn’t Luc think the worst of her? She hadn’t exactly played hard to get in London. Or here, for that matter. And Luc had never pretended to want anything but sex. She could accept he was shocked. The last thing he was expecting was that their casual fling would take such a life-changing turn.
‘I’m going to take a shower.’ His muscles rippled with hostility as he turned his back. ‘There’s another bathroom over there. Use it, and get out.’
* * *
To say he was shocked by his discovery would be massively understating the case. He was tempted to believe it was his baby. He doubted Emma would lie to him where a child was concerned. She had never been the type to take advantage of a situation. It was usually the other way round, with the situation taking advantage of Emma.
Adjusting the shower to ice-cold, he turned his face up to the stinging spray. Close relationships didn’t work for him. He had never pretended otherwise. His plan had been to offer Emma a deal she couldn’t refuse—the best training in the hotel industry, and enough money to start her own business, if that was what she wanted. It would be the pay-off for pleasure—cheap at the price for both of them. No strings attached. No regrets. No consequences on either side.
But now?
Now a child was involved and that changed everything. At some deep primal level he knew without doubt that he was the father, and that linked him to Emma for all time. The child linked them. His whole thinking had been forced to change in an instant. Feelings he had brutally pushed aside for years had come flooding back. Two people creating a new life had touched him somewhere deep. He was going to be a father, and it was inconceivable to him that any child of his should grow up not knowing him. He would not be denied the pleasure of sharing everything he had to give as he watched that child grow and flourish.
The child would have to live with him. That much was clear.
Then he remembered his own childhood and his own beloved mother, who had cared for him in spite of the fact that she suffered under the heel of his father. Was he going to deny his own child that same love and commitment—that caring and nurturing love that only a mother could give?
* * *
She was frozen to the spot, standing in the bathroom, breathing, just about. She had taken a shower on autopilot, barely registering whether the water was hot or cold. This was not supposed to be happening. This was her worst nightmare come true. She had wanted to be the one in control, the one to tell Luc about the baby when they were both relaxed and Luc was receptive to news that would change his life. It was too late for that now. The news had hit him like a bolt from the blue, and she didn’t need Luc to tell her that he didn’t want this. Why would Luc want his life to change when he had everything? He controlled everything. Or he had done until she’d come along and her pregnancy became the one thing in his life over which Luc had no control.
‘Emma...’
She flinched as he hammered on the door. Her time was up. His voice was hostile. She doubted they could ever get past this.
Maybe not, but this was her body and her choice to make. This was one occasion when she was in charge, not Luc. Whatever he said or did now, she would never regret her pregnancy. They had both created a child, and she accepted her responsibility fully and gladly, and if Luc couldn’t bring himself to do the same, then that was up to him. Pulling on her clothes fast, she tidied up the bathroom and then opened the door. Luc was standing by the window with his back turned to her. When he heard the door open he swung around.
‘How much do you want, Emma?’
His first question hit her like a blow. Lifting her chin, she met his hostile stare steadily. ‘I don’t want anything from you.’
‘Really?’ One ebony brow lifted. ‘You’ll be the first person in my experience who doesn’t want something from me.’
‘How sad to always have to doubt other people’s motives. Is that what wealth does to you, Luc?’
‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘And I can’t talk to you while you’re in this mood.’
‘Why?’ Luc said coldly. ‘Are you afraid it will get you nowhere?’
‘I’m not afraid of anything. We’re both coming to terms with a radically changed future, but be in no doubt that I will protect my child, and my right to be with that child, with the last breath in my body.’
Luc ripped into her. ‘I should have known when I first saw you at the wedding party that night—your evasive manner, your shock at seeing me. All it would have taken was a quick calculation on my part, but I didn’t want to see what was in front of my eyes—’
‘I’ve had enough. I’m not here to be judged by a man who was happy enough to bed me, but who rejects the consequences. I can only assume that when you saw me at the wedding your brain was below your belt at the time.’
Luc reared back with surprise. The last thing he had expected had been for her to take him on. Lucas Marcelos versus Emma Fane, chambermaid? No contest, he must have thought. No contest? She’d be a mother soon. He’d better get used to that idea, and do some research while he was at it, on the lengths a mother would go to in order to protect her child.
‘I’ll need proof that your baby is mine,’ he grated out.
‘I’d expect nothing less,’ she said coldly.
‘I used protection. What went wrong?’
When pulling rank had fa
iled, Luc had turned to interrogating her, but her fighting spirit was back full force, and she was ready for him. ‘Do I really need to tell you what went wrong? I may not have your extensive experience of such things, but as two adults surely we both know that protection isn’t foolproof, and on this occasion it failed.’
‘Clearly.’ A muscle flicked in his jaw as he regarded her coldly. ‘Well, we are where we are, so I will tell you what’s going to happen next.’
‘No, you won’t,’ she argued firmly. ‘This is one occasion where you don’t decide. This is my body and my baby—’
‘Our baby, according to you,’ he fired back.
‘Our baby,’ she conceded. ‘There is no blame here, Luc. We’re both equally responsible for this child, and both equally invested in its future.’ She hoped that was true, and something in Luc’s eyes said he did want to be part of this, though whether that was a good thing, right now she couldn’t tell.
For all that he was a notorious playboy, Lucas Marcelos was famous for his loyalty—to his friends, to his polo team and to the staff who worked for him. She had no reason to suppose he wouldn’t be equally invested in the welfare of his child. She had never heard anyone say a bad word about him. Her only worry was that Lucas would take his sense of responsibility to the nth degree, and that once he was satisfied he was the father of her child he would demand complete control.
CHAPTER SEVEN
HIDING HER CONCERN, she tried to reason with him. ‘I’m truly sorry I couldn’t tell you sooner, but the right moment never came.’
‘The right moment?’ Luc scoffed. ‘And when would that have been?’
‘I don’t know,’ Emma said honestly. ‘But I do know I didn’t want it to be like this, with both of us angry and upset. But we still have to find a way forward.’
‘We?’ He practically laughed in her face. ‘We will decide how to play this? How are you going to raise a child? At the hotel in your freezing box room in the attic?’
Brazilian's Nine Months' Notice Page 7
