The Tycoon's Outrageous Proposal
Page 17
‘That’s what Scott said. But I want more than two children. I want at least six.’
‘Goodness!’
‘That’s what Scott said, too.’
‘What did Scott say?’ Byron asked as he joined them, winding an affectionate arm around Cleo’s waist and drawing her close.
‘Sarah’s having twins,’ Cleo told him. ‘A boy and a girl.’
His stiffening was infinitesimal, but it was there, Cleo realising then just how much Byron wanted children. She wanted them too, but it was an even stronger need with him, one which she could hopefully satisfy. She was, however, older than Sarah at nearly thirty. If she wanted to give Byron children she would have to get moving. And soon.
It was well after midnight before the party broke up and the house was finally empty. Byron showed her through all the rooms she hadn’t already seen, leading her up the grand marble staircase to the guest bedrooms, and, finally, into the master suite, which had its own private balcony and an even better view than downstairs.
‘I love this house,’ she said, turning to him. ‘I was thinking, I won’t be needing my home once we’re married. I’d like to give it to Doreen. Then Harvey can come and live with her and Mungo.’
‘Sounds like a good plan.’
‘I have another plan, which I think is just as good.’
‘Do tell.’
‘From tonight, I don’t want you to use protection.’
Byron’s blue eyes flared wide. ‘Are you serious?’
‘Very.’
‘Now that’s an even better plan,’ Byron said, and scooped her up into his arms.
* * *
When they married, two months later, Cleo was already pregnant. With a girl, they later discovered.
Harvey and Doreen were married just before Christmas, tying the knot in a simple register office wedding, and Mungo was a very happy dog when Harvey moved in permanently. He could con Harvey into a walk much more easily than Doreen.
Sarah’s twins were born one month early on the twenty-sixth of January. Australia Day. They called the boy Edward, after Scott’s father. And the girl Abigail, simply because Sarah liked the name.
Byron and Cleo’s daughter was born four months later, and they called her April.
* * * * *
Read on for an extract from CIPRIANI’S INNOCENT CAPTIVE by Cathy Williams.
EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT
Charlotte Adair has spent her life locked away – but once freed, she finds the one man she’s ever loved, billionaire Rafe Costa, is now blind, believes she betrayed him, and is bent on a vengeful seduction! Weeks after their scorching encounter he learns she’s pregnant—with twins! Rafe steals Charlotte away, but she is a far from biddable prisoner. She is irresistible, defiant—and Rafe must seduce her into compliance!
Read on for a sneak preview of Maisey Yates’s book
THE ITALIAN’S PREGNANT PRISONER
The final part of her Once Upon a Seduction... trilogy
Charlotte hadn’t touched a man since Rafe. She’d had no interest.
She needed to find some interest. Because she was going to have a normal life. Whatever she did, it would be her choice. And that was the point.
She didn’t know what answers she had expected to find here. Right now, the only clear answer seemed to be that her body, her heart, was still affected by him.
He excused himself from the group, and suddenly, he was walking her way. And she froze. Like a deer caught in the headlights. Or rather, like a woman staring at Rafe Costa.
She certainly wasn’t the only woman staring. He moved with fluid grace, and if she didn’t know better, she would never have known his sight was impaired at all.
He was coming closer, and as he did her heart tripped over itself, her hands beginning to shake. She wished she could touch him.
Oh, she wanted it more than anything. In that moment, she wanted it more than her next breath. To put her hands on Rafe Costa’s face one more time. To kiss those lips again. To place her hand over his chest and see if she could still make his heart race.
It was easy to forget that her stepmother had told her how Rafe had left, taking an incentive offered by her father to end his tenure there earlier. It was easy to forget that and remember instead the way it had felt when he had kissed her. Touched her. The way she had pleaded with him to take her virginity, to make her his in every way.
Really, he had never wanted her. He had simply been toying with her.
She should remember that. Her treacherous, traitorous body should remember that well. But it didn’t. Instead, it was fluttering. As if a host butterflies had been set loose inside her.
Suddenly, he was there. So close that if she wanted to she could reach out and touch the edge of his sleeve with her fingertips.
Could bump into him accidentally, just to make contact. He wouldn’t know it was her. He couldn’t.
Suddenly, he turned. He was looking past her, his dark eyes unseeing, unfocused. But then, he reached out and unerringly grabbed hold of her wrist, dragging her toward his muscular body.
“Charlotte.”
Don’t miss
THE ITALIAN’S PREGNANT PRISONER
By Maisey Yates
Available October 2017
www.millsandboon.co.uk
Copyright ©2017 Maisey Yates
ISBN: 978-1-474-05282-5
The Tycoon’s Outrageous Proposal
Copyright © 2017 by Miranda Lee
Published in Great Britain 2017
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
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