“What happened? Tell me what the fuck stands in the way of me loving you and I will remove that obstacle.”
“Remember I’m a lawyer, Peter.”
“I know.”
Aricia sighs. I pull her closer to me and she sinks into my chest. I feel a surge of victory that I can’t explain. Did I really miss her that much? I didn’t expect to miss her this much and now that I have her in my arms, I know that I won’t be letting her go any time soon.
“My ex-husband’s mistress showed up at my office today.”
I didnotexpect her to tell me that. I pull away from Aricia to get a good look at her face. She’s a lawyer, which she just reminded me of, so it’s hard for me to read the expressions on Aricia’s face when she drops a big detail like that so casually.
“What happened? Did she try to hurt you?” I ask her, putting my thumb on Aricia’s lower lip. Warm. Just like the rest of her. I will do anything to take this woman’s pain away and have her tonight.
“Yes and no. Rana kicked her ass, but she wants more than that. And she’s pregnant.”
Oh?
Chapter Twenty
Aricia
Confessing this to Peter feels like throwing up all over him. Wouldyouwant to throw up on a tall, attractive Italian man who not only got you pregnant, but views you as this gorgeous, successful woman – not a damn mess who let Kennard Plant make a fool out of her. I’m scared when I finally confess a part of the truth to Peter, but he doesn’t budge. His feet don’t even move an inch. He just holds me close and I can’t read his mind at all.
I just have to trust him. Peter kisses the top of my forehead again. The shiver of excitement as he does this runs straight down my back. But the fear is still there along with the arousal. Peter’s hand travels down my back and he touches my ass, unfortunately distracting me with the sudden flash of memory from what happened the last time we were this close to each other.
Did I miss this man? And why is it so hard for me to trust him?
“I’ll make it go away, Aricia. Tell me everything.”
Fuck, when did his voice get this sexy? Every once in a while when I was younger, I would fall in love with a judge who had a James Earl Jones’ deep, sonorous voice. You don’t hear a manwith a sexy, deep voice like that often. My thighs clench together unwillingly.
Peter’s voice sounds similarly deep and compelling when he offers to make all my problems go away. I put my head on his chest, even if there’s a tug of worry from sharing this dirty, unprofessional, totally improper secret with Peter.
“She surprised me in my office. Rana tried to warn me but I don’t even know what I expected, honestly.”
His hand cups my head. My gut tells me to fight his touch. He’s a white man touching myhairafter all. But his touch is so gentle that I don’t want to deny myself what it feels like to have his hand cupping my head protectively. I’ve never been held like this. I’ve never had someone promise to take care of me like this and… I’ve never felt like more than a business partner to the man I was with for decades.
It’s almost enough to make me break apart. When you’ve held yourself together for years without cracking, the slightest bit of intimacy can threaten the walls around your heart. I can feel my heart pounding, but Peter just silently encourages me to continue.
“She had this whole binder with all her information, blackmail that she intends to use against my company and then she drops the bomb.”
“The pregnancy?” Peter asks. He grunts and shakes his head. I can’t tell how hefeelsor if how hefeelsmatters. Men don’t think as much about their feelings and sometimes that leads them to not think very much about yours.
“That bomb.”
“I understand why you’re so tense,” Peter says. Understanding. My heart flips again, and I try to tell myself that this should be the bare minimum. It’s easy for someone on the outside to see that – not easy when you’ve spent decades loving a man who could never return the same feelings for you or evenunderstand what you were going through without you having to explain it to him like a kindergartener.
He kisses my cheek. I shudder and move closer to him. Feeling heard turns me on almost as much as Peter’s voice and his light touch. If this closeness gets too far, I already plan to blame it on the pregnancy hormones. Not a good sign that I’ll resist Peter successfully.
This snaps me back into reality.No. Resist. Keep fighting.
“I’ll kill her for you,” Peter whispers.
I pull away from him. Sharply. He smiles. Does he really mean that? I examine his face for signs that he’s joking, but I can’t read him. I should be moving away from Peter’s body since he calmly just suggested that he would take another person’s life for threatening me. Didn’t I start off this conversation by reminding him that I’m a lawyer?
And nothisdefense attorney either. Most of my work these days isn’t even directly involving casework. I can’t imagine Peter having to face a jury of his peers or worse – actual prison. “I’m joking,” he says. “Come here. Let me kiss you and make this go away…”
The first kiss is almost enough that I forget the bullshit. How the hell could I have forgotten how good he was at this? His lips part mine roughly. The heat between us rises instantly. The gushing between my thighs plasters them with my arousal and makes me profoundly aware of how Peter makes me feel just from touching and kissing me.
