Cara and Pepe had reached the perfect compromise when it came to naming their child, both reasoning that it wasn’t his baby, or her baby, but their baby, and therefore should share both their names.
At least he was capable of compromise. Most of the time. He still had an unerring ability to get his own way on most things. Like now.
Before much more time elapsed, he leaned back and flashed a grin. ‘See—that wasn’t too bad, was it?’
‘It was fine.’
‘Stay where you are—I need to get some fresh water to clean you up.’
She watched him stride off to the en suite, not in the least bothered about his nudity, with a lump in her throat. No wonder so many artists clamoured to immortalise him in whatever medium they used. Pepe’s strength and poise, mixed with his underlying good humour, were like nectar to a bee.
He returned with a fresh jug of water and a towel.
This time he didn’t have to ask her to part her legs.
‘Have you done this lots of times?’ she asked, then immediately castigated herself. His answer had the potential to lance her.
His eyes met hers, glittering with something she didn’t recognise. ‘Never.’
Her heart hitched.
For long moments neither moved. She wished she could read what was swirling in his eyes, but before she could catch it, he broke the hold.
Bowing his head, he placed a kiss on the area he’d just shaved. Then another kiss. And another.
His movements were so gentle and...reverential, that as he made his way to the very heart of her she forgot to feel embarrassed, lying back to rest her head on the back of the sofa and simply feel.
Pepe was such a wonderful lover, she thought dreamily. So tender yet so fantastically wild, and always wanting her. She remembered how he’d arrived back from an overnight stay in Germany. Within five minutes of getting home he’d had her bent over on the desk in his study. She’d been so desperate for him too that they’d been like a pair of rutting animals.
Heat from these gorgeous memories pooled into her core right at the moment Pepe found her clitoris. She moaned.
Her mind drifted off, her body a haze of sensation all circling around what this wonderful man was doing to her.
Oh, how she loved him. With every fibre of her being.
And as this realisation filled her, the pulsations that had been building inside filled too, and, with a cry, she felt the pulsations explode, rippling out of her in one long, continuous wave of sensation.
When she opened her eyes, Pepe was gazing up at her, his eyes hooded and glistening.
‘That’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,’ he said hoarsely, before rising to kiss her. Pulling her into his arms, he lifted her off the sofa and carried her over to his sprawling bed.
His lips fused to hers, his hands gripping hers above her head, he entered her immediately. But, despite his impatience to be inside her, there was nothing hurried about their coupling. This was tender beyond her imagination.
With her body already fizzing from her earlier climax, she didn’t think she was capable of another orgasm, but Pepe knew her so well, knew exactly when to increase the friction to bring her all the way back to the edge.
Clinging to him, she gloried in his fervent control, her heart singing in tune with her body. Pepe might not love her—might never love her—but in this moment he was making love to her as if she meant more to him than just the mother of his child and his lover for the moment. He was making love to her as if she were the most precious thing in his world.
When her climax finally erupted, he was right there with her, his face buried in her shoulder, groaning words in Italian as he drove himself inside her with a final thrust.
‘You are crying?’ he asked, long minutes later when he eventually lifted his head from her neck.
She hadn’t even noticed tears were streaming down her face.
‘Did I hurt you?’
She gave a quick shake of her head. ‘Hormones’ was the most she could utter.
How could she tell him she was crying because she’d done the one thing she’d sworn she would never do?
Far from living together as a couple sating the desire between them, it had shifted it into something deeper.
She had fallen in love with him, and she knew without a shadow of doubt that when the time came for Pepe to call it a day her heart was going to shatter into tiny pieces.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
‘ARE YOU SURE you’re okay?’ Pepe asked for the third time since they’d left the house. Cara seemed to have lost much of her colour and was much too quiet for his liking.
‘I guess I’m a little apprehensive about this exhibition.’
Reaching for her hand, he pulled it over to rest on his thigh. ‘I won’t leave you alone for a second when we’re there, I promise.’