His tone was appreciative as he stared down. A smile hovered around his mouth as she dragged in a ragged breath. Pressing her thighs even further apart, he dipped his head to deliver new levels of pleasure. Holding him close, she worked her body frantically against his mouth until she was there...almost there. Hovering suspended in Luc’s erotic net, she was ready to fall. The world shimmered around her. She was so close to the edge, she didn’t know if she could hold on, but Luc was too skilled to indulge her so quickly, and knew exactly when to pull back.
‘Don’t tease me,’ she begged, lacing her hands through his hair.
Reaching up, he cupped her breasts, shifting his hands as he enclosed them.
She flinched—just a little, but enough to alert him to the fact that her breasts were really tender, and maybe they had filled out a little too. She froze as he stilled. She’d been so engrossed in passion and need she hadn’t even considered the first and, to date, the only sign that she was pregnant.
‘Emma?’ Lifting his head, Luc stared at her. For a moment his expression didn’t change, but then it did and time froze as they stared at each other in silence.
Grabbing a cover, she swung out of bed. Instinct demanded that she be on her feet when she faced him.
Luc broke the silence first. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
Her stomach clenched with apprehension. Luc had changed in an instant from powerfully seductive to cold and mistrustful. Her throat tightened with dread. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. And this was all her fault. She should have told him long before now. It was no excuse to say the opportunity had never come. Standing motionless with his back turned to her, Luc’s tension frightened her. He was so powerful her imagination was hard at work. He might decide to take their child from her. He might decide to prove she was an unfit mother by fighting her through the courts, and how could she afford to fight him?
She had to calm down. That was the first step. Then she had to find a way to calm Luc, but she didn’t know this man. Even his back was hostile. Their friendship had been tenuous at best, and now it was destroyed. She covered herself with the sheet. Somehow she had to make this right, but Luc was in no mood to listen.
‘Don’t play the fool with me, Emma. When were you going to tell me? Ever?’ he demanded, swinging round. His furious stare drilled into hers. ‘Or did you want me well and truly hooked before you decided to mention it?’
‘No! Of course not.’
‘And I’m supposed to believe this is my child?’
‘I wouldn’t lie to you where my child is concerned.’
‘I don’t know what to think. I don’t know you at all.’
He was right. They didn’t know each other. Why wouldn’t Luc think the worst of her? She hadn’t exactly played hard to get in London. Or here, for that matter. And Luc had never pretended to want anything but sex. She could accept he was shocked. The last thing he was expecting was that their casual fling would take such a life-changing turn.
‘I’m going to take a shower.’ His muscles rippled with hostility as he turned his back. ‘There’s another bathroom over there. Use it, and get out.’
* * *
To say he was shocked by his discovery would be massively understating the case. He was tempted to believe it was his baby. He doubted Emma would lie to him where a child was concerned. She had never been the type to take advantage of a situation. It was usually the other way round, with the situation taking advantage of Emma.
Adjusting the shower to ice-cold, he turned his face up to the stinging spray. Close relationships didn’t work for him. He had never pretended otherwise. His plan had been to offer Emma a deal she couldn’t refuse—the best training in the hotel industry, and enough money to start her own business, if that was what she wanted. It would be the pay-off for pleasure—cheap at the price for both of them. No strings attached. No regrets. No consequences on either side.
But now?
Now a child was involved and that changed everything. At some deep primal level he knew without doubt that he was the father, and that linked him to Emma for all time. The child linked them. His whole thinking had been forced to change in an instant. Feelings he had brutally pushed aside for years had come flooding back. Two people creating a new life had touched him somewhere deep. He was going to be a father, and it was inconceivable to him that any child of his should grow up not knowing him. He would not be denied the pleasure of sharing everything he had to give as he watched that child grow and flourish.