Emily sent her fingertip around his mouth. ‘You were amazingly gentle with me.’
‘I’ve never made love to a pregnant woman before. It’s a bit nerve-racking, actually.’
‘You don’t have to treat me like I’m made of glass.’
He stroked his finger down between her breasts. ‘Does this hurt?’
‘No.’
He moved his finger to her right breast and traced a lazy circle around her nipple. ‘This?’
‘No...’
He brought his mouth to her breast, using his tongue to follow the earlier pathway of his finger. The feel of his warm tongue on her sensitive flesh made her skin shiver. ‘You have beautiful breasts.’
‘Glad you think so,’ Emily said. ‘I was about to send out a search party when I was a teenager but thankfully they showed up before my fifteenth birthday.’
This time his slanted smile made his eyes sparkle. ‘You have nothing to be worried about, Emily. You are one of the most naturally beautiful women I’ve ever met.’
She couldn’t help basking in the glow of his compliments. Who wouldn’t feel beautiful, the way he looked at her? She wasn’t a vain person—how could she be with an overbite and freckles and bad eyesight? But every time Loukas looked at her she felt as if she was the most stunning creature in the world. ‘I’m not holding out for a Vogue shoot any time soon, but thanks anyway.’
He picked up a tendril of her hair again and wound it around his finger, his eyes holding hers in a smouldering lock that made her insides clench all over again with need. ‘I want to make love to you again but I don’t want to tire you.’
Emily pinched his chin between her finger and thumb and brought his face down to hers. ‘Did I say I was tired?’
His lips moulded themselves to hers in a leisurely kiss that had a blistering undercurrent of lust. She opened for him, making a sound of sheer pleasure when his tongue circled hers. His afternoon stubble grazed her face when he changed position, but it only heightened her awareness and need of him. He turned her so she was lying over him, giving her more control and less of his weight to worry about. He placed his hands just below her breasts, offering them gentle support.
Emily swept her hair back over one shoulder, straddling him with her thighs, her body flaring with incendiary heat as his erection rose in front of her mound. She moved against him, letting him feel how ready she was for him.
He sucked in a harsh-sounding breath and groaned. ‘You’re killing me.’
She leaned over him, planting her hands either side of his head, letting her hair fall forward and tickle his chest. ‘Kill me right back.’
Loukas’s hands gripped her by the hips and he pushed up into her with another deep groan of satisfaction. The movement of his body in hers incited her to be more daring and adventurous. She moved her body in a circular motion, delighting in the way the friction changed with each movement. Each time his body surged and withdrew, waves of pleasure built in tantalising ripples and coursed through her flesh. She was so close to flying, but couldn’t quite lift off, until he came to her rescue by massaging the swollen heart of her, sending her soaring into the abyss on an orgasm so intense she could barely register anything but the sensations ricocheting through her body.
His took his pleasure with a series of thrusts, each one sending a vicarious wave of delight through her intimate flesh. His whole body relaxed back against the mattress, and he brought her down to rest her head against his chest, one of his hands moving in a slow stroke up and down the curve of her spine.
Never had Emily felt so physically close to another person. Love-making with Daniel—when it had infrequently occurred—had often been quick and unsatisfying, for which she had mostly blamed herself. And, because Daniel had gone to any lengths to hide his secret from his overly conservative parents, he too would often allow her to feel it was her fault. For seven years she had felt hopelessly inadequate.
But ever since sleeping with Loukas she’d realised she was more than capable of experiencing earth-shattering orgasms—of being a sexually competent partner who could give and receive pleasure. The chemistry she shared with Loukas wasn’t just in bed but in every aspect of her contact with him. She was attracted to his intellect, his quiet strength of character and his dry sense of humour. His sense of responsibility impressed her, the fact that he was prepared to do whatever he could to provide for his child, even though it pushed him out of his comfort zone.
Loukas’s hand settled on the small of her back, creating a warm, soothing glow that threatened to melt her bones. Emily lifted her head and, leaning on his chest, toyed with the line of his lower lip with her fingertip. ‘I think my mother might be on to something.’
One of his brows lifted. ‘Oh? What’s that?’
She traced the shallow dip below his lip. ‘She teaches couples how to communicate better through having great sex.’
His hand began another slow stroke of her spine, his dark eyes glinting. ‘Sounds like the homework could be fun.’
Emily sent her finger over his top lip, playing special attention to the firm philtral ridge running beneath his nose to his mouth. ‘Not that it ever worked with my ex.’
‘So what happened between you and him?’
You’re talking about your ex while you’re in bed with Loukas?
I have to tell him some time, don’t I? Anyway, it’s called communication.
It’s called being a gauche idiot, that’s what it’s called.
Emily focussed on Loukas’s stubble-coated Adam’s apple rather than meet his gaze. ‘In the seven years I dated and lived with Daniel, he forgot to mention he was gay.’
Loukas frowned. ‘You didn’t suspect anything?’
Emily sighed. ‘On reflection, there were lots of indications, but I disregarded them. He comes from a really conservative background. He didn’t feel he could ever come out to his parents in case they disowned him, so he hid it since he was a teenager. I think that’s why I never suspected anything at the beginning, because he was romantic and attentive and made me feel special. It was only after we started living together that things went downhill. For all of that time I blamed our patchy sex life on myself. We seemed to only ever have sex when he’d had a few drinks. It made me feel he wasn’t attracted to me unless he had wine-or beer-goggles on. It wasn’t great for my self-esteem, that’s for sure.’
‘You didn’t think about leaving him sooner?’
She gave a self-deprecating grimace. ‘I can be pretty stubborn when I know I’m in the wrong. I dig myself in deeper and deeper because I don’t want to admit I’ve made a mistake. Don’t get me wrong—we were good friends...really good friends, but the chemistry wasn’t right. Once five years had passed, I got even more desperate to pretend everything was fine. Looking back now, I can see how I’d convinced myself everything was okay with the relationship when in fact it was anything but. The more time that passed, the more determined I was to ignore the signs. All of them were there but I point-blank refused to acknowledge them. I would’ve made a great attendant on the Titanic. I would’ve had those deck chairs repainted and handed around drinks and conducted the brass band to boot.’
‘So how did you find the courage to leave?’
‘Here’s what I’m really ashamed about,’ Emily said. ‘I didn’t find the courage. Not really. It was only when I found Daniel in bed with his lover when I came home unexpectedly from work one day, I realised I had to finally face up to what was right in front of me. He begged me to stay in the relationship to keep his cover for his parents. He even said we could have kids and the dog I’ve always wanted as long as I kept his secret. I was angry at first but then I felt so sorry for him. I knew his parents well and I knew exactly what would happen if he came out to them.’
Loukas’s forehead was still deeply furrowed. ‘You surely weren’t going
to stay with him after that?’
She pulled at her lip with her teeth. ‘I thought about it for a day or two. It was so hard, because I actually loved him, and I truly believe he loved me in his way. But I ended things and moved out and within a few weeks he finally told his parents.’
‘How did they take it?’
Emily let out another sigh. ‘They haven’t quite disowned him but they refuse to accept he’s gay. They think it’s a stage he’s going through or something. They even blamed me for turning him to “the other side”. I got the most horrible phone call from his mother accusing me of being such a rubbish partner he had no choice but to look elsewhere for comfort. They refuse to meet his partner, Tim, and they’ll only see Daniel if he comes to the house alone. It’s terribly sad.’
He touched her face again, his expression suddenly wistful. ‘You’re a good person, Emily.’
‘So are you,’ Emily said, holding his gaze.
A shadow moved through Loukas’s eyes before he gently moved her aside to vacate the bed. He picked up his trousers and, stepping back into them, zipped them with a sound that sounded suspiciously to Emily like a punctuation mark.
‘Let me guess,’ she said, sitting upright. ‘You have some urgent work to see to?’
A frown flickered over his forehead. ‘Emily...’ His voice had that note of reproof in it that made her feel like a child who had overstepped the mark. ‘You don’t understand...’
‘I understand more than you give me credit for,’ she said. ‘I know how guilty you must feel. I can’t imagine how painful it must be to—’
‘Do you?’ he asked, eyes glittering. ‘Do you really know what it’s like to ruin someone’s life and never be able to do anything to fix it?’
Emily swallowed a tight lump as big as a pineapple. ‘You can’t fix it, but you’re not going to help your sister or your mother by keeping your distance. They love you, Loukas. They want to be connected to you, but you seem to prefer to keep them at arm’s length. They shouldn’t have left this afternoon. They shouldn’t have felt they had to go. They shouldn’t have had to ask if you wanted them at your wedding. You should’ve insisted they stay for the rest of the weekend at the very least.’
He dragged a hand down the length of his face, the sound of his palm against his stubble overly loud in the silence. ‘When I got back to the villa from a walk they’d already left. Chrystanthe informed me the butler from the cruise had collected them moments earlier.’
‘But would you have asked them to stay?’
He let out a long stream of air. ‘No, probably not.’
Emily got off the bed and, without bothering to cover herself, came up close to wrap her arms around his waist. She craned her neck to look up at him. ‘Perhaps we can ask them to stay a few days before the wedding so I can get to know them better, plus get Ariana’s dress sorted. Would you mind?’
His arms came around her to hold her closer. ‘It’s impossible to deny you anything when you stand naked in front of me. But then, I guess you know that, don’t you?’
Emily gave him an impish smile and lifted her mouth to his descending one. ‘I was counting on it.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
WHEN EMILY CAME DOWNSTAIRS the following morning, Loukas had already been up for several hours. He had left her to lie in bed, giving her tea and toast and making her promise to rest as long as she wanted. She found him in his study, working at his computer, but he pushed his chair back when she walked in and came over to take both her hands in a gentle hold. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘Pretty good, actually,’ she said. ‘I think having that tea and toast first thing really helped.’
He gave her hands a tiny squeeze, his expression guarded. ‘Emily, I’ve made an appointment with my lawyer to see to a pre-nuptial agreement. He’ll be here in an hour.’
Emily rolled her lips together, her gaze slipping out of reach of his. A pre-nuptial reminded her of how everything was different about their relationship. She knew it was an insurance policy, and it made sound financial sense for him to insist on one, as it would for any person in a couple who had independent wealth or assets they wanted to protect. But it was an unnerving reminder of the step she was taking—a step that was a long way from her dream of happy-ever-after. ‘Fine. That’s good. Makes sense to get things on the level from the get-go.’
He lifted her chin with the tip of his finger. ‘I know how that must make you feel, but I will be very generous in the event of a divorce.’
‘Don’t you mean when we divorce?’
His mouth tightened for a brief moment and his hand fell back by his side. ‘It would be wrong of me to expect you to stay with me indefinitely. It’s not what either of us want.’
But what if I do want it?
Uh-oh. I knew this was going to happen.
What?
You’re falling in love with him.
Emily pushed away the thought as if she were shoving something to the back of her wardrobe. She would sort it out later. Much later. Of course she wasn’t in love with him. How could she be? Just because they had smoking-hot sex didn’t mean they were Mr and Mrs Happy Ever After. It meant they had awesome chemistry—that was all. ‘Right, of course,’ she said. ‘But it just sounds a little weird to be going into marriage with the idea of a divorce being a given rather than a possibility.’
‘There is no need for our divorce to be anything but civil and entirely mutual.’
He made it sound so polite and clinical. How far away from her dream of a fairy-tale relationship was this heading? But she had to remember the baby. She was only agreeing to this because of the child they had made together. She owed it to their baby at least to give Loukas a chance to be a present and actively engaged father. She had seen too many fathers distanced from their children in messy break-ups. Even the most devoted fathers were often thwarted by custodial arrangements in the event of a separation or divorce. This way she could give Loukas a chance to build a solid relationship with their child, but she wouldn’t be tying either herself or Loukas down indefinitely.
His phone rang in his pocket and he fished it out, mouthed, ‘Excuse me,’ and answered it. He spoke in fluent Greek and she listened with one ear while her gaze drifted to his immaculately tidy desk. Unlike hers, which always looked like a child with a temper tantrum had taken to it. She was close enough to see what was open on his computer screen. Her heart gave a funny little skip. It was a popular and informative pregnancy site she had looked at herself. It touched her that he was showing an interest in the development of their baby. It was easy for fathers to feel shunted aside by the process of pregnancy and childbirth but he obviously wanted to equip himself with as much knowledge as he could.
Loukas put away his phone. ‘Sorry about that. I was waiting on an important call.’
Emily pointed to the screen. ‘Have you found that site helpful?’
His expression was too inscrutable to be described as sheepish but she couldn’t help feeling he’d been caught a little off-guard. ‘Yes and no.’
Emily frowned. She had found it the most helpful of all the sites she’d checked. ‘Why no?’
He looked as though he was trying to swallow something too big for his oesophagus. ‘Things can go wrong during pregnancy.’
‘Like miscarriage?’
His eyes flinched, as if blinking away a horrible thought. ‘Women still die in childbirth. It might be not as common as a hundred years ago but it does still happen.’
Emily wondered what had triggered him looking at the website. Was it concern for her, rather than interest in the baby’s development? ‘Why did you look at the website?’
His face got that boxed-up look about it she had come to know so well. ‘It has been a long time since I sat in a Sex Ed class.’
She fought back a smile. ‘M
e too. I don’t think I heard anything about morning sickness and extreme fatigue. I just remember condoms and courgettes and squirming with embarrassment at the snickering boys.’
A smile tilted his mouth, transforming his features and bringing life to his eyes. But then a shadow passed over Loukas’s face, dimming his gaze. ‘Are you worried about what could happen to you?’
‘Well, I guess I’m not so keen on getting stretch marks.’
He was still frowning in that I’m-being-serious-and-this-is-no-time-for-jokes manner. ‘I read about a condition where the amniotic fluid leaks into the mother’s bloodstream and it’s virtually always fatal. Then there’s post-partum haemorrhage. A mother can bleed out in minutes if help isn’t available.’
‘I’m not going to die, Loukas,’ Emily said, in a joint effort to reassure herself as well as him. She had skated over the risks section on the site. Her image of childbirth was a pink-faced, bunny-rug-wrapped infant in an exhausted but blissful mother’s arms with a doting husband and father present. Nowhere in her imaginings had there been any emergency blood transfusions, crash trolleys and panic-stricken doctors.
Loukas didn’t look all that convinced. ‘And the risks actually escalate if it’s a twin birth.’
Emily laughed. ‘Will you stop it? It’s bad enough accidentally falling pregnant with one baby, let alone two.’
A beat of silence passed.
‘Give me your hand,’ she said.
Loukas held it out and Emily placed it on her tummy, which was a little podgy for someone who was only a month into a pregnancy. But, given she was a comfort eater from way back, that was not so surprising. A family block of fruit and nut chocolate had to go somewhere and her tummy seemed to be where it had chosen. ‘In a couple of months you’ll be able to feel knees and elbows wriggling around in there.’
A look of awe passed over his face. ‘Can you feel anything yet?’
‘No, it’s way too early,’ she said. ‘It’s weird to think a new life is in there getting its act together, isn’t it?’
A Ring for the Greek's Baby Page 11
