by Dani Collins
The music changed, and she began to sing. Her voice climbed and fell with deep emotion, filling the high-ceilinged space with every octave of love imaginable as she slowly made her way down.
Vijay didn’t understand a word, but he felt his own heart rising and wrenching. The way Estelle never removed her eyes from her husband told him she meant every syllable. It was magnificent.
After his broken engagement, Vijay had convinced himself love was a sentiment sold by greeting cards and Bollywood musicals, but as he watched Arnaud cross to the bottom of the stairs and hold up his hand for his wife, with his face flushed and his eyes aglow, there was no denying the pair shared something beautiful and precious. It made Vijay feel small to be so cynical when, for some, love was absolutely real.
As the song ended and the final notes faded, Arnaud said, “Mon coeur.”
The pair kissed, and everyone applauded once more.
Oriel’s expression was gleaming with fierce love for them, but Vijay thought he glimpsed envy there, too. When her naked gaze lifted to his, his heart lurched. He read her question plain as day.
She wanted what her parents had.
He needed to be completely honest with her from here on out. He’d been burned deeply by love, not just by his fiancée’s infidelity, but also by his own father’s betrayal. He didn’t trust lightly anymore and wouldn’t give up his heart easily to anyone.
When she looked at him like that, however, he wanted to promise her the world.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“WOULD YOU LIKE to dance?”
Oriel was spellbound by the romance of the evening. The marquee was strung with fairy lights, the air laden with the scent of roses and jasmine. A twenty-piece orchestra played between courses and speeches. Several songs and recitations had been performed by close friends of the celebrating couple. She herself had given a final, heartfelt toast to her parents, and her mother had left everyone in tears with one more song that had earned her a standing ovation.
Now Estelle and Arnaud, had started the dancing and Vijay was standing over her, offering his gloved hand.
She was losing her mind over how sexy he was, and it had nothing to do with the tuxedo. It was all him. His sensual mouth and half-lidded eyes were pure seduction, his air of alert watchfulness and quiet command delicious.
She almost wished things had gone worse with her parents. Then she could hate him and use her resentment to hold him off. As it was, she was falling under his spell as easily as she had that night in Milan. Had she learned nothing? He was a destroyer of worlds.
“You waltz?” Her heart tripped as she placed her hand in his and he helped her rise.
Of course he waltzed. He was a man of infinite capabilities, hidden depths and fascinating angles.
“I know the basics. Don’t expect...that,” he said with a wry look at her cousin, who had married her fellow champion and partner from the professional ballroom circuit. They were swirling around the floor with airy grace.
“We’re a family of overachievers.” Oriel swooned as he took her in steady arms and confidently led her into the steps. “That’s why it was so hard to find my niche and why I still feel only moderately successful.” She was babbling out of nerves and felt like she had said too much when he frowned with perplexity.
“You seem pretty successful to me.”
“Well, yes. I am. I mean, most women would kill for the opportunities I enjoy, but my work is based on genetic luck and tricks like attending high-profile premieres with attention-starved actors. It’s not the same as rising through practice and mastering of craft.”
“Your work is still a performance. You have to distill a mood down to a single snapshot. I saw you do it tonight when you came down the stairs. I was captivated.”
“You don’t have to build me up,” she said with discomfort. “Maman and I made our peace with our differences a long time ago. I’m just saying...this is a lot to live up to,” she ended on a mumble.
“I was being sincere, but okay. How are things between you and your mother now? Is she upset by the news?”
“Unsettled. She came to my room earlier. We had a heart-to-heart.” And enough tears they had had to use cool compresses after or risk looking like puffy-eyed newts at the ball. “She said she always knew this could happen, and she only wants whatever I want. She asked about you. She wanted to know if you were more than my sort of bodyguard.”
“And you said?”
She didn’t know! She had first been drawn to him because he had sparked a more intense attraction within her than she’d ever experienced before. Since then, he’d made her feel all the emotions in the most intense ways. She couldn’t help but be wary of what more could come.
“I told her I’m trying to keep my distance since I have enough to worry about.”
“Trying,” he mused, mouth curving. “That sounds like you’re having to work at it.”
My hormones would love a sidebar with yours.
If her presence here for her parents’ celebration hadn’t been so important to her, she might have allowed them to fall into bed at the hotel. Vijay was an incredibly compelling man, confident and handsome and still capable of waking her senses with a glance. The fact he knew what she was going through and was actually facing her unplanned pregnancy with her made her gravitate to him even more.
She’d been starkly honest when she’d told him she was tempted to lose herself in the same wild excitement they’d shared in Milan so she didn’t have to think about the more mundane and difficult details of how they would proceed. Maybe there was something very basic to her desire, too. Her body recognized he was the father of her child and yearned to pair-bond with him as a way of reinforcing their connection, ensuring he would look after both of them.
No matter what it was, she was breathless and dizzy as he steered her from the cloying scent of cigar smoke and gave her a small twirl as the song ended.
He caught her close. “How are you feeling? It’s been a long day.”
“I had a nap before I dressed.” She was giddy from being in his arms, smiling even after he eased his hold and started to lead her off the floor. “I’m glad for the distraction of this party. Thank you for being my date. I know this is a lot.”
“What I find most fascinating is that I have the feeling this sort of evening is not unusual for you.” He nodded at the mime performing for a table.
“Not at all. Maman adores setting a stage and creating an experience. She began planning this two years ago, after Papa’s sixtieth birthday.”
“When I tell Kiran that tumblers served dessert while it was on fire, she will die.”
Oriel laughed. “I can’t wait to meet her. Will she be on the call with Jalil tomorrow?” They had agreed they would call in the morning for a brief introduction.
Vijay’s expression froze.
Her heart stopped. “No? You don’t want me to meet her?”
“No, of course. I hadn’t considered how much I have to tell her. I won’t say anything about—” He dropped his gaze to her middle. “Not yet. But...”
“I know. It keeps hitting me at odd times, too.” Aside from avoiding more than a sip of champagne when she toasted her parents, Oriel hadn’t been letting herself think too much about the fact she was carrying his baby.
His hand came to her upper arm in a small caress. “Tell me if you need anything.”
She nodded. He stood close enough that she could feel the warmth of his body. Her shoulder was still tingling from his touch, and his mouth was right there.
Seducing you isn’t some master plan on my part.
Wasn’t it, though?
His gaze touched her mouth, and his lips twitched. “Bodyguard, you said?”
“You said it. We all went along with it even though you were holding my hand.”
“I was, wasn’t I? I’m thinkin
g about doing it again.”
“Holding my hand?” She tried to suppress her grin, but her heart was soaring with excitement. Why? It was only hand-holding, for heaven’s sake! Even so, she gave him a coquettish bat of her lashes. “Perhaps while I accompany you on a patrol of the grounds?”
“I’m sure I’m overdue for that.” As he let his knuckles brush against hers, he dipped his head to speak in her ear. “I know you dislike that awkward moment of wondering whether a man will kiss you, so I’ll warn you now. I intend to.”
Her skin tightened with anticipation, and she opened her fingers for the weave of his.
It was a chilly night, something she felt as soon as they were away from the marquee. The music faded and the stars opened above them.
They weren’t the only ones seeking a moment of privacy. They passed two other couples tucked into shadows before they found a pocket among the hedges where the cool scent of cedar closed around them.
Oriel slid her arms over his hard shoulders and curled her hands behind his head, expecting the crash of his mouth onto hers.
He barely grazed her mouth with his own, running his lips across her jaw and blowing softly against her ear, making shivers rise up her arms and into her nape before he came back to lightly nibble on her bottom lip.
With a frustrated sob, she pressed herself tighter to him and slanted her mouth with invitation. He reacted by sealing them into the swirling darkness of a deep, passionate kiss, one that made them both groan in gratification.
His hands roamed her back and hips, pulling her tighter into the hardness behind his fly. When his tongue brushed hers, she sucked delicately. His whole body hardened and his fingers dug into her backside, holding her tight as he rocked her against his aroused flesh.
Oh, why be coy? She had known what she wanted in Milan, and she knew it just as clearly tonight. She dragged her head back.
“Let’s go inside.”
His nostrils flared. “For?”
“You need me to spell it out? I want to continue the affair we started. See where it might have gone.”
His gaze was flinty, his caress on her jaw light. “An affair is something you can walk away from. We’re beyond that.”
She couldn’t argue, not with his baby growing inside her, but lust had its talons dug into her. “You don’t want to see what our hormones can accomplish?”
He snorted and said in a graveled voice, “I’m quite sure they can level a city.” His mouth tightened. “You realize this is all I think about? I don’t have much room left in my head for being noble. Be sure, Oriel.”
“I am.” From a physical standpoint, at least. She led him into a side entrance up to her rooms.
Her suite was a pair of bedrooms off a shared sitting room, all with tall windows overlooking the pond. The curtains were already drawn, the only light a stained-glass lamp casting red and blue streaks across the walls and ceiling.
“Have I told you that you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen?” He leaned against the door as he locked it.
“Have I told you that you are the sexiest man I have ever seen?” With slow deliberation, she bit one finger of her glove and began to draw it off, making a show if it.
“Is that how we’re playing?” He loosened his bow tie and opened one collar button. “Strip tease?”
“It seems a shame to waste the costumes. I was barely going to undress at all.” She sent him her most beguiling look and came across to press the hand that was still gloved against his fly.
He looked down at her diamond bracelet, which flashed and sparkled. His breath hissed in, and his whole body went taut.
“I can definitely work with that,” he said with a slow, wicked smile.
His gloved hand cupped her neck, and he ran his hot mouth into her throat. His other hand worked a finger beneath the neckline of her gown. The cool silk of his glove scraped erotically across her nipple, making tight golden wires shoot heat into her loins.
She fumbled at his fly and got her gloved hand into his pants. As she caressed and fondled, his teeth took hold of her bottom lip, and they stared into one another’s eyes. His pupils were huge and glazed with feral passion right before he slid his arms around her and plundered her mouth with his own.
This was what she had wanted to feel again—alive. Connected. She was still angry at his subterfuge, but this incredible desire had pulled her toward him from the first, and it was still here. He was. Kissing her as though he would consume her. Wrapping his arms around her as though she was everything he needed in life.
She was so lost to the passion of their kiss, she didn’t realize he had backed her to the bed until he tilted her onto it. She gasped and braced her hands on the mattress, but he was already lifting her gown, caressing her legs.
“The number of times I have thought about doing this again...” He went to his knees, and the heat of his mouth scorched the inside of her knee. He took soft, playful bites of her inner thigh, swirling his tongue against her skin until her legs trembled. Then the warmth of his mouth settled against the silk covering her most tender flesh. He began to lick around the edges of lace.
“Vijay,” she moaned helplessly and sank onto her back in surrender.
He shifted the silk aside to anoint her until she was molten with need. She dove her fingers into his hair and arched, abandoning herself to the pleasure he bestowed, but he didn’t take her over the edge.
When she was sobbing and tense and lifting into his caress, he rose and said, “Do you mind?” as he gently rolled her onto her stomach. “I just want to see how you look with the shoes and this icicle dress up around your waist—”
His voice faded into a guttural curse as she accepted the challenge and owned it. She planted her feet apart and braced her elbows on the bed, then arched her back to lift her bottom. She cast him a provocative look over her shoulder.
Did he think she didn’t know how to use her sex appeal to achieve a desired result?
His breath was rattling unevenly as his hands moved over her buttocks and thighs, caressing everywhere but the place she ached most. He told her how sexy she was. How much he wanted her as he slowly, slowly drew her panties down her legs.
When he crouched to draw them free of her ankles, his teeth scraped the tendon at the back of her thigh where her leg met her cheek.
She shook in reaction, hands fisting in the blankets as she waited in agony while he caressed her calves and kissed the back of one knee, then stood. She heard the rustle of his pants as he freed himself.
“Do you want to roll over?” His voice was deep and far away, buried in layers of carnal hunger.
“No. Like this...”
“Naked?”
“Yes.” She could hardly speak as his hot tip began to trace and slide, seeking, then pressing for entrance.
She was so wet and aroused, he entered her in one smooth, steady thrust that made them both groan with abandon. His hands splayed to brace her hips before he slid his palms up to her waist, exposing more of her.
“You’re exquisite.” His powerful thighs shifted hers apart a little more, feet planting firmly between hers. He took hold of her hip and shoulder and began to thrust with lazy power.
She pressed her face into the mattress, moaning unreservedly. It was base and hot and no one else had ever broken her down this way, pushing her past inhibition into a state of pure animalistic pleasure. No one could hold her on this pinnacle of acute near-climax for what felt like hours, so she was lost to all but the exquisite sensations rolling through her in waves.
Only him. Only him.
Then, just as she thought she would break from the agony of resisting satisfaction, his hand roamed to where they were joined. His long finger caressed across the swollen bud of her clitoris, strumming and sending her shooting past the limits of her control. She exploded, crying out at the sudden powe
r of it.
He gave a final deep thrust and joined her with a ragged shout.
* * *
“We may not have thought this through.” Vijay could hardly speak, let alone find the strength to shift his weight off her back. He grunted with profound loss as he pulled free of her and collapsed on the bed beside her, legs dangling off the mattress.
It had taken everything in him not to hammer into her the way he’d longed to. Somehow, that controlled, exquisite lovemaking had been even more intense and left him utterly shredded.
“I have nothing left to get undressed.” Speaking was an effort.
“Same.” She turned her head on the mattress to blink at him. Her eyelids were heavy with gratification, adding a layer of smugness to his satisfaction.
“Was I too rough?” He had managed to hold back until the very end, but he’d lost some control as they’d hit their peak. This woman completely dismantled him every single time. He’d known it in Milan and had known it when they stood outside, necking in the hedges. He’d known coming in here that she would pull him apart in ways that weren’t comfortable, but he’d done it anyway.
That bothered him, yet here he was.
“I liked it.” Her smile kept the erotic memory glowing between them like a golden light of promise. “But you’re right. This won’t be my most graceful moment.” She stole his pocket square and asked, “Can you get my zip?”
He did, stealing a caress of her spine before she pushed up from the mattress. As she straightened, she let the gown fall to the floor in what was actually a very supple, unselfconscious display of glorious nudity before she disappeared into the bathroom.
With superhuman strength, he tucked himself back into his fly and rose to pick up her gown. He was still looking for the hanger when she appeared in a pink silk robe.
“That poor gown.” She tutted. “Never tell my mother what it’s been through.”
“You think I’m going to tell your mother that I bent you over the bed and made love to you in it?”