He settled her on the bed and leant over her, all hard profile and dominance in the low light. ‘Have you any idea how sexy it is that you’re carrying my children?’
As a big hand splayed possessively across her abdomen, Tabby blinked and shook her head. ‘Sexy?’ she queried in disbelief because, to date, pregnancy had not felt sexy to her. It had meant tiredness and nausea and the irritatingly strong rise of hormones that craved Aristide and his lean, hard body round the clock, something that torture would not have persuaded her to admit.
‘It makes me feel proud, possessive, territorial,angelos mou,’ Aristide husked. ‘When I entered that bakery and saw another man fondling your hand—’
‘What other man?’ she exclaimed.
‘The guy in the chef outfit—’
‘Oh, you mean Luca, Violet’s replacement baker. He’s harmless,’ she assured him without concern. ‘He flirts with every female around him and he’s ridiculously touchy-feely.’
‘You need to crush that tendency in him. He’ll land you with a sexual harassment issue,’ Aristide forecast.
Tabby loosed a startled laugh and reached up a hand to cup his hard cheekbone. ‘Aristide, all the female staff, no matter what their age, adore Luca because he makes them feel good, he makes them feel interesting. He’s a genuinely nice person and you don’t meet as many of those as you would like to.’
‘But you won’t be there any more for him to flirt with,’ Aristide affixed, clearly happy at that development. ‘You’re out of bounds now.’
‘Oh, really?’
For the next two weeks, she was thinking.
‘I’m the only guy allowed to flirt with you,’ Aristide told her.
‘Oh, I don’t think that’s going to work,’ she warned with helpless amusement. ‘Sometimes a little flirting is what makes the day go around a little faster.’
‘Not for you,’ Aristide asserted, nuzzling his jaw against the soft silk screening her aching breasts. She could feel her nipples, tight as buds, straining for attention.
The warmth of his mouth enclosed a pulsing bud below the thin silk and she shuddered, sudden excitement claiming her at even that slight touch.
‘And what do I get in return for not flirting?’ she dared to gasp as he lifted his head again.
‘Me and bragging rights,’ Aristide quipped with a lazy, wildly engaging grin. ‘Only you can pin me down.’
‘That’s you assuming that Iwantto pin you down,’ Tabby murmured. ‘But just like you, that first night I was only after one stolen experience, only we both got more than we bargained for out of it.’
‘Why did you only want that?’ he demanded.
‘Think about it. I didn’t want this contracted stranger of a husband to become my first lover,’ she argued ruefully. ‘It was a stupid, short-sighted move and I soon regretted it—’
‘I don’t,’ Aristide imparted, lifting the vest top off over her head, quickly sliding his attention to her slender hips and skimming down the fabric there as well. ‘I met you and I have not a single regret.’
‘Seriously?’ Tabby gazed up at him in wonder at that statement. ‘But youmusthave regrets. You didn’t want children—’
‘It would be more accurate to say that hurt pride made me deny any desire for children of my own,’ Aristide contradicted, lowering his dark tousled head to find the pert buds of her full breasts.
Just as quickly, the concept of talking vanished from Tabby’s mind as the erotic invitation of his teasing mouth caught and played with her swollen pink nipples and his lean fingers joined in the torture. Her body writhed under him of its own volition. She was like a touch paper set alight, need burning through her like an arrow, sharp and unsatisfied. She had wanted him for what felt like for ever and now suddenly he was there and nothing could happen fast enough to answer that fierce craving for sensation.
Aristide was intuitive. It was as though he were inside her head, knowing the extent of her desire, working though that to a painfully slow degree down her body to find all the most sensitive spots. She couldn’t stay still, racked by hunger and intense urgency. He parted her slender quivering thighs, traced the heart of her with teasing fingertips when she was already too far beyond that stage. As his touch glanced across her swollen clit, she went off like a rocket into an orgasm that shot through her like white lightning, momentarily stilling her before her body jerked and convulsed in pleasure.
Unperturbed, Aristide continued to dally there, utilising his mouth and his tongue and his long fingers with a finesse that sent her shooting a second time into orbit, a deep flush drenching her cheeks as she thought of how easily she had responded and the depth of the need that she had exposed. He had been quite correct when he had accused her of being impulsive, she acknowledged unhappily. She had not even thought about what would happen if she ended up having sex with Aristide again. But did that matter any more? They didn’t need a label, she told herself. They were both single and committed only to their unborn children. Perhaps friendship would’ve been a wiser option but there was little chance of a platonic relationship developing while they were still so wildly attracted to each other.
He held her against him while she still trembled and gasped and struggled for breath. A lean hand ran down the damp curve of her hip and her heartbeat started to edge up in pace again. ‘Do you want a break or may I continue?’
A little sensual tingle at her molten core answered and she shifted back into his long, strong body, drinking in the fresh scent of him with pleasure. ‘You need to ask?’
Aristide laughed with rich appreciation, claiming her mouth again, tasting her with hungry concision. He ached for her and he crushed her parted lips beneath his, teasing her tender flesh with skilled fingers, probing her slick depths with a satisfied growl. Excitement gripped her again. He could make her want him again so easily that for a split second she felt intimidated. Reacting to that feeling, she slid a hand down over his muscular stomach and found him, velvet over steel, more than ready for her, and he groaned and nipped at the taut muscle between her neck and her shoulder in retribution.
He rearranged her like a doll but there was nothing doll-like about the zing of pure energy surging through her veins or the race of her quickened heartbeat. He slid between her thighs and drove into her with precision. He was being careful, she sensed, careful of her pregnancy. ‘The babies are fine, but I won’t be if you stay this cautious,’ she warned him.
