His Lover's Little Secret

by Andrea Laurence

  “This bed?” she asked sweetly, although she felt anything but sweet.

  Gavin had his hands balled into fists at his side. “What are you trying to do to me?”

  He was fighting for control, but she didn’t want him to win. She wanted him to break, to lose himself in her. It would only require her to push a little bit harder. She climbed up to her knees and hooked her thumbs beneath her panties. Looking him in the eye, she bit her lips and glided the slick fabric over her hips.

  His breath was ragged in his chest, but he held his place. Gavin’s burning gaze danced between the bite of her teeth into her plump pink lips to her full, pert breasts, to the ever-lowering panties. When the cropped dark curls of her sex peeked out from the top, he swallowed hard. His hands went to his belt. His eyes never left her body as he removed the last of his clothes.

  Now they were both naked with no more barriers between them. She was ready for him to unleash his passion on her.

  With a wicked smile, Sabine flicked her dark hair over her shoulder and curled her finger to beckon Gavin to come to her. He didn’t hesitate, surging forward onto the bed until she fell backward onto the soft comforter.

  Every inch of her was suddenly covered by the massive expanse of his body. The weight of him pressed her into the mattress, molding her against him. He entered her quickly as well, causing Sabine to cry out before she could stop herself.

  “Yes,” Gavin hissed in encouragement. “Be loud. You can scream the walls down tonight.” He thrust hard into her again. “I want hotel security knocking on the door.”

  Sabine laughed and drew her knees up to cradle him. When he surged forward again, he drove deeper. She groaned loud, the sound echoing off the walls of the room. He wanted her loud and she would be happy to oblige.

  Eight

  Sabine rang the doorbell with her elbow, fighting to keep ahold of her son. Jared squirmed furiously in her arms, and she didn’t blame him. For their trip to see Gavin’s parents she’d dressed him in his best outfit—a pair of khakis, a short-sleeved plaid shirt and a little bow tie. Adrienne had bought the outfit for him and he looked adorable in it. When he stopped squirming. His two-year-old heart much preferred hoodies and T-shirts with cartoon characters on them.

  Putting him on the ground, she crouched down to his level and straightened his clothes. “Hey, buddy,” she said. “I know you don’t like this, but I need you to be a good boy today. You’re going to see Daddy and meet some nice people who are very excited to see you.”

  “Don’t wanna.” He pouted, with one lip sticking out so far, she was tempted to kiss it away. “Want truck.”

  “I’ve got your truck in my bag, and you can have it later. If you’re a good boy today, we’ll get ice cream on the way home, okay?”

  The dark, mischievous eyes of her son looked up at her, considering the offer. Before he could answer, the door opened and Sabine looked up into the same eyes. Gavin was in the doorway.

  “Hi, Jared,” Gavin said, his whole face lighting up at the sight of his son. He knelt down and put out his arms, and Jared immediately stopped pouting and ran to him. Gavin scooped him up and swung him in the air while Jared giggled hysterically.

  Sabine stood and smiled, nervously readjusting her purse on her shoulder and smoothing a hand over her hair. She’d pulled the black-and-purple strands back into a bun at the nape of her neck. The violet highlights were still visible, but not so “in their face.” Adrienne had insisted she wear one of her newly designed tops today, a silky, scoop-neck red top that gathered at the waist. She’d paired it with some black pants and a patent leather belt. It looked good on her, but it was hardly the armor she’d wanted going into this.

  She sucked a deep breath into her lungs, trying to even out her frantic heartbeat, but it did little good. She was about to see Gavin’s parents again, and this time, as the mother of their grandchild. They had been polite but distant the last time. Obviously, they hadn’t felt the need to get invested in Gavin’s latest dating novelty.

  She didn’t anticipate this going well. They might hate her for keeping Jared a secret. They might turn their noses up at her like Viola had. Only today, she couldn’t dump a drink on the bitch and run out.

  “How’d it go?” she asked.

  Gavin settled Jared in his arms and turned to her. “Well, I think. They were surprised. Okay, more than surprised. But we talked a lot, and they’ve had some time to process it. Now I think they’re excited at the prospect of their first grandchild.”

  It was too early for Sabine to feel optimistic. She was about to reply when she heard a woman’s voice from inside the apartment. “Are they here? Ohmigosh, look at him!”

  Sabine was expecting his mother, but instead, the face of a younger woman appeared over Gavin’s shoulder. She had long, dark brown hair like his, but her eyes were a steely gray color. It had to be his sister, Diana.

  Gavin turned toward her, showcasing his son. “This is Jared. Jared, this is your auntie Diana.”

  Jared played shy, turning his face into Gavin’s shirt when Diana tried to coax him to say hello. More voices sounded inside with footsteps pounding across the floor. How many people were in there? A crowd of four or five people gathered, all fussing at Jared and Gavin at once.

  “He looks just like you did at that age!”

  “What a handsome boy!”

  Sabine was happy to stay safely in the hallway and play spectator for the moment. It was easier. She always knew they would accept Jared. He was their blessed heir. The vessel that brought him into existence was another matter.

  She could feel the moment the first set of eyes fell on her. It was Diana. She slipped around Gavin into the hallway, rushing Sabine with a hug she wasn’t anticipating.

  “It’s so nice to finally meet you,” Diana said.

  Sabine patted weakly at the young woman’s back and pulled away as soon as she could. “Finally?”

  Diana smiled and threw a conspiratorial look over her shoulder. “Gavin had mentioned you to me when you were first dating. He just went on and on about you. I’d never heard him do that about another woman before. And then it ended and I was so disappointed. When he called and asked me to come over today to meet his son, I was so happy to hear that you were the mother.” She grinned wide and nudged Sabine with her elbow. “I think it’s fate.”

  Sabine tried not to laugh at the young woman’s enthusiasm. She couldn’t be more than twenty-two or twenty-three. She still believed in all that. And since Diana was the beautiful only daughter of a billion-dollar empire, Sabine was pretty certain no man had the nerve to break her heart. At least, not yet.

  Diana snatched up Sabine’s hand in hers and tugged her over the threshold of the entryway. The polished parquet floors were too slick for her to resist the movement and before she knew it, the door was closed and she was standing in the apartment of Byron and Celia Brooks.

  Okay, apartment was a misnomer. This was a mansion slapped on the top of an apartment building. In front of her was a grand marble staircase with a gold-and-crystal chandelier twinkling overhead from the twenty-foot ceilings. On each side of the doorway were large urns filled with bouquets of fresh flowers that were nicer than the arrangements at some people’s weddings.

  That was all she could see with the press of people, but it was enough to let her know she wasn’t in Nebraska anymore.

  “Everyone, you remember Sabine Hayes. She’s Jared’s mother.”

  Sabine’s chest tightened instantly, her breath going still in her lungs of stone. Every eye in the room flew from Jared to her. His father’s. His mother’s. His brother Alan’s. She tried to smile wide and pretend she wasn’t having a panic attack, but she wasn’t certain how convincing she was.

  His mother stepped forward first. She looked just as she had the last time. Sabine and Gavin had run into them at a restaurant as they were going in and his parents were leaving. It had been an accidental meeting really, given their relationship hadn’t called for the m
eeting of the parents yet. Sabine had been struck by how refined and effortlessly elegant his mother was. Today was no exception.

  Celia’s light brown hair was pulled back in a bun like Sabine’s. She was wearing a gray silk dress with a strand of dark gray pearls around her neck and teardrops with diamonds from her ears. The dress perfectly matched her eyes, so much like Diana’s. Her gaze swept quickly over Sabine from head to toe but stopped at her eyes with a smile of her own. “It’s lovely to see you again, Sabine.”

  “Likewise,” she said, politely shaking the woman’s hand. Every description Gavin ever gave her of his mother had built an image of a cold, disinterested woman in Sabine’s mind. Their meeting before hadn’t been very revealing, but today, she instantly knew that was not the case. There was a light in her eyes that was very warm and friendly. Celia Brooks had just been raised well and taught early the rules of etiquette and civility that a woman of her class needed. Yes, she could’ve been a more hands-on mother and let her children get dirty every now and then, but that wasn’t how she was brought up.

  “Please, come in and meet everyone. You remember my husband, Byron, and this is my other son, Alan.”

  Sabine shook each of their hands and was amazed at how much alike the Brooks men looked. Thick brown hair, eyes like melted dark chocolate, strong builds. Just one glance and Sabine could tell exactly how Jared would look when he was twenty-five and when he was fifty-five.

  “Nora has refreshments set up for us in the parlor,” Celia said, ushering everyone out of the hallway.

  The farther they went into the apartment, the more nervous Sabine became. Not because of his family, but because of their stuff. Every item her eyes lit upon looked fragile and priceless. “Do not put him down,” Sabine whispered to Gavin.

  At that, Gavin chuckled. “Do you have any idea how many things my siblings and I have broken over the years? I assure you, if it’s important, it’s not sitting out.”

  “Oh, yes,” Celia insisted. “Don’t worry about a thing. It has been quite a while since we had a youngster here, but we’d better get used to it, right?” She got a wistful look in her eye and glanced over at Jared. “A grandchild. What an unexpected and wonderful surprise.”

  Sabine wasn’t quite sure what to say. She expected the other shoe to drop at any moment. But time went on, and it didn’t. They chatted and nibbled on treats their housekeeper, Nora, made. His family asked questions about her with genuine interest. Jared was turned loose and managed not to break anything. To her shock, Byron, the former CEO of BXS, got on the floor and played with him and his dump truck.

  She had made herself sick worrying about today. Thinking they would hate her. That they’d never accept her or her son. But as time went by, she found herself to be incredibly at ease with his family. They were polished and polite, but not cold and certainly not blatantly rude like Viola. It was nothing like she’d expected.

  It seemed Sabine was as guilty of prejudice as she worried they would be. Just as she feared they would look at her and make snap judgments, so had she. She had this idea of what rich people were like. Gavin’s stories of his distant, workaholic family had only reinforced the image in her mind.

  But she was wrong. And it made her angry. People like Viola had made her believe that she could never have Gavin. That she would never fit in. She was angry at herself, really. She was the one who was too afraid to find out if their wicked whispers were true. She pushed away the only man she’d ever loved, deprived him of his son for two years, because she was certain they could never last.

  She was wrong. At least in part. They might never truly be together as a couple again, but they could be a family and make it work.

  Sabine had wasted so much time being afraid. She wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice.

  * * *

  “You don’t have to keep trying to take me out to dinner, Gavin.”

  “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Gavin smiled and helped her out of the car and onto the curb outside a restaurant.

  “You didn’t fail the last time.” Sabine slowly approached him, pressed herself against the length of his body and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I seem to recall that evening ending in quite a...spectacular fashion.”

  “Spectacular, eh?” Gavin growled near her ear. “I’m glad you seemed to think so. But—” he planted a kiss on her neck and whispered to her “—we never actually ate.”

  “That was okay with me.” She looked up at him with her wide green eyes and a wicked smile curling her lips. “We could have the same thing tonight, if you’d like.”

  He smiled and let his hands roam across the silky fabric of her dress. She was trying to lure him back to bed, but he wouldn’t let her. Couldn’t let her. At least not tonight. “Well, as tempting as that is, I’ll have to pass. You see, I brought in reinforcements to make sure this meal was a success. We can’t stand up our guests.”

  Sabine frowned at him, her nose wrinkling. “Guests?”

  “Sabine!”

  She pulled away from Gavin and turned to find Adrienne and Will behind her. “Adrienne? Will? What are you two doing here?”

  Adrienne leaned in to give her a hug with an amused smirk on her face. “Gavin invited us to have dinner with you tonight. Did he not tell you?”

  “Uh, no, he didn’t.” Sabine looked over her shoulder at Gavin, who appeared appropriately admonished, at least for the moment. “How did you even know how to get in touch with either of them?”

  “Gavin and I have been acquaintances for several years,” Will said. “We play the occasional game of racquetball together.”

  Sabine just shook her head. “So...what? Do all young, rich guys know each other? Is there some kind of club or something where you all hang out and be rich together?”

  “Yes, we have a support group—Rich and Sexy Anonymous,” Gavin offered with a smile. “Let’s get inside or we’ll be late for our reservation.”

  They were seated at a table for four near the window. He’d known Will for several years but hadn’t connected that the Adrienne that Sabine worked for was the same Adrienne that married Will the year before. When the pieces finally clicked, he thought having dinner together would be nice. Not even Viola would have the nerve to come up to a table like this and make a fuss. They were guaranteed a fun night out with people that he already knew would make Sabine comfortable.

  He had also been curious to meet Adrienne in person. He’d read about her in the newspaper a few years ago after her plane crash and the scandal that followed. She had lost her memory for weeks, and everyone thought she was Will’s fiancée, who actually died in the wreck. It was the stuff of dramatic movies, but she had made herself into quite the success story. Her clothing line had soared in the past year, and her boutique was one of the most popular destinations for the young and hip in Manhattan. He just never thought to look for his runaway girlfriend behind the counter of the store.

  The waiter came to take their drink orders. “Is anyone interested in some wine?”

  “None for me,” Adrienne said.

  “We can order something sweeter,” Sabine offered. “I know you like a Riesling or a Moscato, right?”

  “I do normally—” she smiled “—but I’m not drinking at all for the next eight months or so.”

  The sharp squealing noise that followed was nearly enough to pierce Gavin’s eardrums. Sabine leaped up from her chair and ran around to embrace Adrienne. That kicked off a rapid-fire female discussion about things that Gavin would rather not be privy to. Instead, he ordered sparkling water for Adrienne and wine for everyone else.

  “Congrats, Daddy,” he said to Will.

  Will chuckled. “Congrats to you, as well. It seems to be going around.”

  “It has. I can assure you that mine was more of a surprise, since my child was walking and talking by the time I found out about it.”

  “Yeah, but you lucked out. You missed the morning sickness, the wild hormonal swings,
the Lamaze classes, the birthing room where she threatens to castrate you. After the child is born there’s the midnight feedings, the colic...”

  Gavin listened to Will talk for a moment and shook his head to interrupt. “I’d gladly take all that and more in exchange for the rest of what I missed. I also didn’t get to be there when she heard his heartbeat or saw his image on the sonogram for the first time. I missed his birth, his first steps, his first words.... Enjoy every moment of this experience with Adrienne. Things that don’t seem very important now will be the very stuff that will keep you up at night when you’re older. One day, you’ll look up from your BlackBerry and your kid will be in high school.”

  Gavin couldn’t stop the words from flying out of his mouth. Every single one of them was true, although he’d barely allowed himself the time to think about what he’d missed. He tried to focus on what was ahead. Jared wasn’t going to drift in and out of his life like so many others, so he had no excuse. If he missed moments going forward, it was his own fault. He didn’t want any more regrets.

  The waiter brought their wine, and Gavin took a large sip. “Sorry about that,” he said.

  “No, don’t be,” Will answered. “You’re right. Time goes by so quickly, especially to guys like us. The priorities start to change when you fall in love and even more so when kids come into the picture. I’ll try to keep it in perspective when she’s sending me out in the night on strange cravings runs.”

  “Gavin is taking us to look at apartments on my day off,” he heard Sabine say.

  “There’s an apartment down the street from us that’s for sale,” Adrienne said. “A really nice brownstone. It’s on the second floor, so there’s some stairs, but not many.”

  “I think I’d prefer her to be in a building with a doorman and some security. It would make me feel better.”