Page 147 of In Love and Revenge

Then I want it on her finger.

I want Aurora Thorne to be Mrs Aurora Fairfax.

I just hope she still gives me that chance when she finds out what I did.

Taking a deep breath, I ring the front doorbell, rearranging my features into a picture of calm.

‘I love you,’ Aurora says, seeming to know exactly what I need to hear and when I need to hear it.

I gaze at her, drinking in her beautiful, innocent expression, and committing it to memory. That final niggle, that hesitation I have about what I’m opening her up to if she loves me, is fading fast. But even though this is what I want, there are moments it still scares the hell out of me.

‘I love you too.’ I lift our entwined hands to my lips and graze her knuckles with a kiss at the exact moment the door swings open.

‘Oh!’ My mother claps her hands together in front of her face, her eyes glowing as they zero in on Aurora. ‘Thank heavens. You’re real!’ she declares, tugging Aurora from my grasp and enveloping her in a crushing hug.

‘I didn’t fabricate a girlfriend when I accepted your dinner invitation, Mum,’ I say, my lips twitching in amusement at Aurora’s shocked expression as my mother lets her go.

‘He always says he’ll bring someone one day, but he never has,’ my mother tells Aurora. ‘And then he turns up with you! What a treat!’ She grins. ‘I’ve already heard a lot about you from Dove.I didn’t think I’d be seeing you with my eldest son,’ she titters. ‘Maybe Gabriel.’

‘Gabriel?’ I bark, making my mother wave away my concern with a laugh.

‘He’s not as grumpy as you are, Rafe,’ she says lovingly. ‘You’ve got a good heart under all that frowning,’ she adds, for Aurora’s benefit.

Aurora glances up at me, then smiles at my mother. ‘He does. A really good one.’

My heart rate picks up as I stare into her eyes, my lips curling into a smile.

‘Well,’ my mother announces, sounding delighted, ‘get yourselves inside. Everyone else is here. Except Angelo, but he’s on his way.’

We’re ushered inside and Aurora sneaks a sideways glance at me.

Girlfriend?she mouths.

‘Girlfriend,’ I whisper in her ear, loving the way the pulse in her neck flutters faster at my proximity.

Her smile is bright as my mother closes the door and links arms with her, leading her down the hallway. The two fall into easy conversation, Aurora complimenting the house and how lovely dinner smells as we walk towards the kitchen.

I hang back, one step behind as I watch, my head growing light. Aurora’s wearing a new figure-hugging cream dress I insisted on buying her when I took her shopping a couple of days ago. The dressing room at home is now filled with racks of new outfits, all in her size. As well as shoes, bags, accessories. None of which she wanted, but all of which I insisted I buy for her. After helping her unpack it all, I sat her on that chaise and took my time eating her out, surrounded by all her shiny new things.

Turns out spoiling her gets my dick hard.

Everythingabout her gets my dick hard.

We walk into the kitchen. Dove beams, calling out a greeting from where she’s pouring drinks at a sideboard, and Gabe waves from the other side of the room.

I move closer, my hand falling to Aurora’s lower back as I sense her hesitation at being faced with my family – or namely, my father. Dove’s her friend, and she’s spent enough time working with Gabe to be comfortable around him. And she and my mother seem to have hit it off. So that just leaves him – the suited tower of a man rising from his seat on the far side of the room wearing a curious expression.

I dip my mouth to her ear, admiring the new diamond earrings and necklace I bought her, bright and dazzling against her soft skin.

‘Breathe,’ I instruct.

Aurora shivers. She’s nervous, and I know it’s meeting my father that’s got her wound up tight like a knot. Even taking my time coaxing three orgasms out of her before we left home hasn’t loosened her up.

‘I know,’ she whispers back. ‘I just want to make a good impression.’ She smooths her dress as my father crosses the room. The uncertainty on her face makes me recall the story she told me about she and her father going on holiday when she was a child and being upgraded to a nicer hotel. About how she felt she didn’t belong there.

But here, beside me, is exactly where she should be.

My father stops in front of us. ‘Evening, son.’