He hadn’t been lying when he had said that some shopping had been done. The cupboards were full—as was the fridge.
‘I’ll send my man back to your house to get the rest of your things.’
‘There’s nothing, really. Like I said, I’ve packed my clothes and my art stuff...and the few knick-knacks my parents gave me to make the place a little less... What’s left are just some stupid posters and bric-a-brac I bought to make the place less...less...’
‘Vile? Disgusting?’
The corners of her mouth twitched and unconsciously she placed her hand on her stomach. ‘Maybe...’
He knew those knick-knacks. They were the anomalies in her flat that had first made him suspect her of not being who she said she was—the expensive little things that had seemed to prove her a liar, the lingering question mark that had finally driven him to that wedding.
‘Why don’t you stay...have something to eat...some lunch...? I mean, you’ve stocked the cupboards...it’s only fair... Of course you must be busy... In which case...’
She met his gaze and instantly her body sprang into life. Her nipples tightened into aching peaks, her legs turned to jelly and a deep pain began in her pelvis...spreading until she was melting. He was looking at her with such intensity...
Giddy, she leaned against the wall, as weak as a kitten.
‘You don’t want me to stay, Susie.’
‘What are you talking about? I just asked you, didn’t I?’
Very slowly he walked towards her, and the closer he got the more helpless she felt.
‘If I stay...I’m going to have to touch you...’
‘What do you mean?’ She hated herself for asking that, because the answer was written in the intensity of his gaze.
‘You’ve changed... Your breasts have become bigger...’
‘It’s the pregnancy,’ she said weakly.
Dangerous conversation. It played to her weakness and she knew she should resist, should say something funny or sarcastic, but all she could think was, God, you’re beautiful, and I want to make love to you more than anything else in the whole world...
Looking at her, Sergio knew that he could have her. Right now, right here. Hell, they probably wouldn’t even be able to make it up the stairs. But what would that prove? Nothing. And what would follow in the aftermath of that?
Marriage might be out of the question, but was he going to blow their fragile truce by stampeding her into bed like someone who had zero control? He had built his life on control, and he knew it was the most powerful ally anyone could have.
But, God, his whole body was aching. He wanted to reach out and slip his hand under the jumper, wanted to feel the weight of her breasts, wanted to push that jumper up and suckle on engorged, enlarged nipples, bigger and darker now that she was pregnant.
And he wanted to taste her down there, get his fill of her, and then come inside her without the nuisance of protection.
‘I won’t stay for anything,’ he said abruptly. ‘I should go. Is there anything else you need?’
Her body cooled and she stiffened in receipt of a rebuttal he wasn’t even bothering to dress up.
‘Nothing. And you’re right. Silly of me to have asked you to stay. You’re right—so right... You should head off...’
CHAPTER NINE
SUSIE’S FIRST THOUGHT when she felt a cramping in her stomach was to ignore it. Firstly, she didn’t want to overreact and be labelled a hysterical hypochondriac by the hospital into which she had been booked. Secondly, Sergio had just left and she didn’t want to summon him back on what would probably be a fool’s errand.
Things had been ticking along between the two of them for the past four months.
The bigger she’d grown, the more she had tried to hide her body under an ever-changing assortment of shapeless clothes. He had rebuffed her that one time, and she wasn’t going to risk falling into the trap of thinking that he might still find her sexy. He didn’t. Somehow wearing attractive maternity clothes or, worse, non-maternity clothes with a high, stretchy Lycra content, would have made her feel vulnerable. She didn’t want to feel vulnerable. Not on top of everything else she was having to deal with—namely the fact that her feelings towards him hadn’t lessened in the slightest over time.