“It was why I blocked your number,” he added, his voice rising. “It was why I never answered your message. It would have been so easy to slowly let you down the way I, frankly, have done to other women. But even on that last night, I knew if we had any further contact, it would make giving you up harder. So… I took precautions.”
“Because we never had a chance? You never imagined anything more with me?”
He knew the answer she wanted, but he couldn’t make himself give it to her. It would be a lie. “I have made sure never to imagine anything more with anyone.”
“I see.” Her voice was a whisper.
“Until now.”
The silence that hung between them felt uneasy, precarious. He had just tipped his hand instead of playing his best card, and she could decide what to do with it. And still,still, he felt the pull of her body, the longing that had been building since the moment he had seen her in front of her apartment building. And he wanted her like nothing he had ever wanted in his life. He wanted to soothe the riot of feelings that were threatening to take over, but he held himself still, his fingers tense with the effort of not pressing his lips to hers, losing himself in her, and letting all other thoughts disappear.
She lifted her hand and ran it over his cheek, and when he met her gaze, he could see the understanding was mixed with determination. Did she think she could save him? Change him? Did she think this scenario had a happy ending, where he would get over his past and they would live happily ever after? If so, she was not the first to make the mistake. It had happened enough times that he understood this as a warning sign.
He should back away, but at his core he was a deeply selfish man, and some things just would never change. He knew this would create problems further down the road, but he reminded himself he had tried to do the right thing and it still had led him here. So he gave in. He leaned into the lush temptation of her lips and kissed her.
Chapter Seven
IHAVE MADEsure never to imagine anything more with anyone. Until now.
Alessandro’s words looped through Ann-Sophie’s brain as his mouth pressed against her for an achingly slow kiss. Her heart pounded in her chest, and it felt as if her body was floating. His kisses were both too much and somehow not enough, and desperation tinged her hunger for him.
I could spend forever right here, in this moment. The thought was startling, overwhelming, but before she could process it, she was suddenly in his arms and he was lifting her, belly and all.
“Where are you taking me?”
The intensity of his gaze was dizzying. “The place I’ve wanted you since the day I brought you here.”
He set her down in the middle of an imposing bed of thick dark wood, but instead of following, he got on his knees in front of her. Alessandro waskneelingbefore her. Slowly, he removed one shoe, then another.
“Thanks. My shoes are hard to reach these days,” she said, trying to lighten the mood and this feeling of enormity of the moment.
Alessandro smiled a little. “I am so happy to be of service, as always.”
This was the man who had seduced her in Nice, and she felt a sudden twist of disappointment as their conversation from just moments ago came together with this moment. For him this was a road to forgetting, not connecting. How did that fit with imagining something more?
She told herself it didn’t have to all make sense right now, not when she wanted him like this. She had wanted him so many times this week but was afraid of what would happen if she gave in, but now, she had decided to put her fears aside and have him. That thought disappeared when he began to lift her dress, revealing her body. Fear broke through the haze of desire. He hadn’t reacted well to the ultrasound of the baby. What would he do when he saw the full extent of her bare belly? It wasn’t easily overlooked.
“Are you sure you want to see…all of me?”
His dark eyes glittered. “Very sure.”
Then she remembered the way he had looked at her in the pool, with a kind of hunger that suggested that he desired her as she was, right now. But the fear that he would suddenly turn on her, reject her, abandon her—it still lingered, and she didn’t know how to make it go away.
He lifted her sundress again, this time exposing the roundness of her belly, and she stilled as he settled his hands on it. The baby moved, and she saw him flinch, but he didn’t pull away. Maybe this was what he needed, she told herself, just a period of getting used to the idea of having a child. After all, she had had seven months to get used to it, and Alessandro had had little over a week. She couldn’t expect him to seamlessly blend the idea of a baby into his life so quickly, could she? Of course, there would be these little bumps in the road.
They could move forward. She wanted to move forward when being with him felt this good. Maybe if she gave all of this a real chance, their little family could be everything she wanted it to be. Right now, everything was possible.
The tight coil of desire was building inside her, spreading languid heat through her limbs. Alessandro unfastened the top button of his crisp, white shirt, revealing bronze skin and a hint of dark hair. He unbuttoned another and another, each button revealing more of the flat planes of his chest, then his muscular abs, as Ann-Sophie stood, mesmerized. He shrugged off his shirt, his biceps flexing, a reminder of the power and strength her body remembered. He unbuttoned his pants, and her heart thudded relentlessly in her chest as the last of his clothes slid down his body. Alessandro stood in front of her very naked and very aroused. This man was a god, with burnished muscles and the infinite complexities of light and darkness.And he could be hers forever.
“I asked the doctor if this was safe when I made the appointment, and she said as long as you are comfortable, we are free to do what we like.” He flashed her a smile. “I intend to aim a bit higher than comfortable.”
He propped pillows on the top of his bed, then gestured for her to lie back on them. The mattress dipped as he climbed between her legs.
“You have no idea how sexy I find you,” he said, his voice a low groan.
She lifted one eyebrow and gestured to her round belly. “Even like this?”
“Especially like this,” he said, and the low rumble of his voice left no doubt in her mind that he was telling the truth. But attraction had always been their connection, not an obstacle that spread the distance between them.
