by Cat Schield
In the end he lasted four and a half minutes, each second counted out as her exploration taxed his willpower. But she was having such a fine time trailing her lips over his chest, her fingertips over his legs that he endured the sweet torment until she seized his erection and nearly put an end to their interlude with one swift stroke.
“Time’s up,” he announced, catching her by the wrist. Before she could protest, he flipped her onto her back and pinned her beneath him. “It’s my turn.”
“That wasn’t five minutes.”
“Are you sure? Damn it, Bella.”
She’d wrapped her thighs around his hips, bringing him into contact with her core. Only her panties kept them apart.
“Take these off.” Fingers bit into his hand as she guided him to her underwear. “Or rip them off. I don’t care. I need to feel you inside me.”
“Your wish is my command.”
But first he sheathed himself in protection. He knew how fast his willpower diminished once she was completely naked. By the time he turned back to Bella, she’d stripped herself bare and knelt behind him.
Her lips on his shoulder made him smile. Her eager fingers trailing up his thighs, however, shortened his breath. In a flash he’d snatched her into his arms and rolled them across the mattress. Once again, he stopped with her above him.
Without words, she understood what he wanted and positioned herself so that just the head of his erection penetrated her. Her lips curved in a blissful smile as she slowly lowered herself onto his shaft. By the time she’d fully encased him, Blake was certain he’d never seen a more beautiful sight.
*
The first hint of orgasm hit Bella before she’d taken in all of Blake’s considerable length. Being on top offered her a whole new sensation. The bite of his fingers on her hips heightened the wildness rampaging through her. So did his expression of utter satisfaction.
As the first wave of pleasure hit her, she rotated her hips, experimenting with driving herself against his pelvic bone, and then had nothing more to do but hang on for dear life as he gently pumped into her. She bit her lip to hold back her cries, not wanting to disturb Drew. Maybe if they were very lucky, he would sleep through the night and Bella could linger in Blake’s bed until dawn.
Suddenly she couldn’t breathe. Her focus intensified on the bliss crashing through her body. It spun her in circles and catapulted her outward in a thousand different directions. Dimly she heard a raspy voice fill the room, but didn’t realize it belonged to her until she returned to her body and spied Blake grinning at her.
“That was spectacular,” he told her, reverence below the delight in his tone. “You are a firecracker.”
With the heat of her orgasm blazing beneath her skin, Bella would never have believed she could feel hotter, but Blake’s compliment turned her into an inferno.
She clapped her hands to her hot cheeks. “I’ve never been this way before. You bring it out of me.”
Blake drew her palms to his lips and kissed each one, setting her body to tingling all over again. In turn, she grasped his hands and brought them to her breasts. He fondled her, tweaking her sensitized nipples and reawakening the desire momentarily sated by her climax. She rocked her hips. Inside her, Blake remained thick and hard. He hissed through his teeth as she began to move up and down on him.
“That’s it,” he told her, abandoning her breasts to show her exactly the way he wanted her to move.
She only had enough breath for one word. “Wow!”
As fast as she’d peaked before, this time the climb was slower. She had time to imprint Blake’s scent. The salty taste of his skin. His low murmurs of encouragement. By the time he quickened his pace and began thrusting his way to his own completion, Bella knew she’d never escape the memory of this night.
Blake’s movements grew more frantic. He was close. Bella felt the leading edge of another abyss, but she wasn’t going to get there before Blake finished, until his fingers slid between their bodies.
“Come with me,” he growled, touching her with the perfect pressure to make her explode. A second later he began to shudder with the power of his orgasm.
And then she was following him. Their cries were little more than low eruptions of satisfaction, but they crescendoed in harmony.
In the aftermath, Bella settled against his side, her cheek on his strong chest. With Blake’s fingers drifting up and down her spine, she floated on a cloud of contentment. Telling him about her family this afternoon had torn down the last of the walls she’d erected to keep him at bay. She’d opened herself to him and the intimacy left her wanting to understand him better.
“Today you let me go on and on about growing up on the farm. I’d love to hear a little bit about your childhood.”
Beneath her cheek, Blake’s chest froze as if his breath had stopped. It was a long moment before he spoke. “Mostly it was lonely.”
“Because your dad worked so much?”
“And because my mother spent more than half the year in Paris. Then she moved there permanently shortly after I turned eight.”
He was so terse that Bella wondered if she should have left well enough alone. “Is that why you never talk about her?”
“There isn’t much to talk about. She was beautiful and sang in French when she was happy. Often when I came home from school, she would be sitting by the window staring out at the park.”
Bella’s chest ached at the images of his childhood that his words conjured. No wonder he’d been so furious with her for deciding against staying in Drew’s life. He didn’t want his son to lack for a mother’s love. Even a surrogate mom. “Do you ever speak with her?”
“Every birthday she sends me a card. It’s the only contact we have.”
“Is that a mutual decision?”
“When I was a kid, she never responded to any of my letters or answered when I called her. In time I gave up. After my dad died, she tried to get ahold of me, but I was old enough not to need her anymore.”
Blake’s blunt words and neutral tone wrenched at Bella, but there was more she had to know.
“Do you know why she left?”
“My father told me she missed her family in Paris. I imagine she thought he would make all her dreams come true when she married him, but he worked all the time and she was lonely.”
“I’m sure that was very hard on you.”
Another man with Blake’s experience might never open himself up to love and marriage. It said a great deal about his strong, passionate heart that he’d let Victoria in. Bella could only hope the next woman he chose would be worthy of him.
“It took me a long time to accept that it wasn’t my fault she left.”
Bella ached for every day that Blake had carried the burden of his mother’s abandonment. Often when Mommy or Daddy left, the remaining parent didn’t explain to their children that adults could be selfish. She suspected Blake’s father had been one of those.
“Now perhaps you understand why it was so important that you be in Drew’s life.”
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about that,” she began, pushing up on her elbow so she could gaze into Blake’s eyes. “I want to be in Drew’s life. Our connection might be a bit unconventional, but I should be there for him whether or not he needs me.”
Blake cupped her cheek and pulled her toward him for a long, slow kiss. There was more gratitude than passion in the contact, but Bella was smiling when he released her.
His intense blue-gray eyes were soft with appreciation as he gazed at her. “Thank you.”
“I should be the one to thank you. Drew is special. I’m so glad to be a part of his life.”
“I intend for you to be part of my life, as well,” Blake declared as he rolled her onto her back and blurred her thoughts with another heart-stopping kiss.
As he began making love to her all over again, Bella mulled his words and wondered what the future would hold once they returned to New York City and settled back into
their separate lives. The freedom she’d craved grew less and less appealing with each day that passed, and it was becoming more and more clear that the obligations she hoped to avoid by not having a family were not easy to shake even if she wanted to.
And now she was caught in a dilemma of her own making. She was falling in love with the man who’d fathered the child she’d given up. The responsibilities she’d hoped to avoid were now what she longed to have. Marriage. Children. She wanted it all. And with the man who, if he ever discovered how she’d conspired with his wife to deceive him, would never be able to forgive her.
*
While the hallways and offices of his New York City investment company hummed industriously beyond his closed door, Blake sat in the stillness of his large corner office and eyed the selection of engagement rings the jeweler had brought for his inspection. There were probably a hundred carats of diamonds twinkling at him, each more beautiful than the last. The decision was easy. His eye had fallen on the ring immediately. It was simply a matter of indicating his choice.
The jeweler sat across the desk from him as if he had all the time in the world. Blake appreciated the silence, because he wasn’t just picking out a ring—he was making a decision that would affect the rest of his life.
Was marrying Bella the best idea? He’d been unable to answer the question in the ten days since they’d visited Sam and Julie, despite the increased intimacy he and Bella now shared. Talking about how she helped out her family and discussing his mother’s abandonment had given him a deeper sense of connection with her.
But she’d kept from him that she—not Vicky—was Drew’s biological mother. Could he trust that Bella wouldn’t feel burdened by responsibility at any point in the future and change her mind about parenting her son? It was obvious that she loved Drew and he adored her, but was she ready to commit to being a family?
Should he let her remain as a part-time mom who saw Drew a few times a week? He’d rather she be fully in their lives, the full-time mother who got Drew up in the morning, took care of him all day and put him to bed at night. A mother who then became a wife. His wife. A wife he could worship with his body and cherish with his heart. But could that happen while he held on to his doubts?
Blake picked up the ring he’d chosen and gazed at it while the jeweler took care of the paperwork.
An enormous lie still lay between them.
After much deliberation, he’d decided not to confront her with his son’s true biology. She must never believe he was marrying her because Drew was her biological child.
His first priority was his son’s happiness. Drew deserved a mother who was willing to give him everything. He wanted Drew to have the sort of childhood Blake had been denied. To feel secure and loved. He should never need to question if there was something he’d done to cause his mother to leave.
Whatever it took to make his son happy, Blake would do. Any benefit he derived was a fortuitous byproduct. That he and Bella were good together was secondary to his son having a mother who loved him.
And while Bella was keeping Drew happy, Blake would make certain he took care of her. In every way possible.
*
A breeze off the Atlantic and the shade of a large umbrella kept Bella and Drew from feeling the worst of the afternoon sun. She’d still applied a liberal amount of sunscreen to his skin. Despite her sunglasses, she squinted against the glare coming off the pool’s reflective surface. Humming along with the children’s songs playing from speakers attached to the outside of the pool house, Bella carried Drew into the cool water.
The pool had been designed with a shallow shelf large enough to hold two lounge chairs. It was ideal for Drew because he could stand in the water. In the past two weeks, he’d become increasingly impatient with being held and when set down liked to pull himself up on the closest piece of furniture to him.
Bella had taken to walking with him on the lawn to strengthen his legs and improve his balance. Before long he would be walking on his own and she was determined to be around to witness his first steps.
Her phone began to ring as she was drying off Drew. It was Sean. She sighed, hoping he wasn’t calling to borrow more money for repairs. She never should have lent him the money to buy the truck if she’d known he hadn’t had their dad check it out first.
“You are the best sister ever,” he exclaimed, barely giving her a chance to say hello.
“Thanks?” She wasn’t sure what had brought on such enthusiastic accolades.
“It’s absolutely the best.”
“It’s the best what?”
“Truck.”
“I’m glad,” she said, relieved that her savings account wasn’t going to suffer any further withdrawals. “So nothing else has gone wrong with it?”
“How could anything go wrong with it?” He crowed. “It’s brand-new.”
Bella felt as if she and Sean were having two completely different conversations. “What’s brand-new?”
“The truck.”
“You mean it’s like brand-new.” Bella was developing a sinking feeling in her gut.
“No. I mean it is brand-new. The guy from the dealership delivered it an hour ago. He said I should thank my sister.”
“Sean, I didn’t buy you a new truck.” But she had an idea who might have. “Let me call you back.”
She hung up on her brother and scooped up Drew. As she marched up to the house, uneasy thoughts tumbled through her mind. There was only one way a brand-new truck could have been delivered to her brother.
Bella rushed into Blake’s office. “Did you buy my brother a truck and say it came from me?”
“Yes.”
Drew squirmed in her arms and she set him on the ground at her feet.
“Why would you do that?”
“Because you were giving him all your hard-earned money to repair the truck he had.”
His matter-of-fact tone increased her exasperation. Bella glared at Blake, barely registering the chill of Drew’s damp fingers against her bare legs as he pushed himself to his feet.
“It’s too much. How am I supposed to repay you?”
“I don’t expect you to.”
Why was he helping her like this? She was an employee. He was paying her to watch his son.
But they were also sleeping together. And even though her heart wanted more, she’d never expected their relationship to be anything other than a casual summer fling. Now he was helping her in a huge way. What was she supposed to think?
Blake got up and came around his desk. His expression warned her that he intended to kiss away her concerns. She backed up two steps and lifted her hand to ward him off. His attention shifted to the space she’d just vacated.
“Look,” Blake exclaimed, breaking into a broad grin.
Bella followed his gaze in time to see Drew toddle three steps to reach his father. Her annoyance vanished as Drew clutched his father’s pant leg and gave a triumphant cry. His first steps and she’d been there to share the moment with Blake. At the same instant the momentous occasion registered, Blake’s gaze shifted to her and she realized that he recognized the significance, as well.
“Marry me.”
The proposal wasn’t at all what she’d expected Blake to say. Her mouth dropped open, but she had no words. Blake scooped Drew into his arms, seeming not to notice that his son wore a wet bathing suit, and caught Bella about the waist.
“Marry me,” he repeated, his eyes burning fiercely. “I want us to be a family.”
This same longing had been growing in her ever since coming to the Hamptons, but Bella shook her head. “That’s what I want, too—”
But before she could go on to explain the improbability of that happening, Blake gave her a kiss that was impulsive yet tender. Her body came to life as it always did when he touched her, but it was her heart that escaped the protective walls she’d built and soared free.
Blake loved her. The knowledge gave her the confidence she needed to trust her
own heart. To accept that the right path for her was not to be free of responsibilities and obligations, but to embrace them the way Blake was embracing her. No wonder her mother had wanted a whole bunch of kids. They were a tangible reflection of her great love for Bella’s father and for the life they had together.
As soon as Blake let her come up for air, she answered his proposal with all the joy in her. “Yes. Oh, yes.” She set her head on Blake’s shoulder and stared down at her son. “I want us to be a family.”
Drew babbled at her, adding his own opinion to the mix.
Blake laughed. “I think we have a unanimous vote.”
“It sounds that way.” Bella rose on tiptoe and gave Blake a quick kiss. “And now I think we should get out of these wet clothes.”
“While I love the way your mind works—” his hand slid downward from the small of her back, fingers trailing along the edge of her bikini bottoms “—I still have a couple calls to make before I’m free for the afternoon.”
“That’s not what I meant,” she said, plucking Drew from his grasp. “We came straight from the pool…” Bella suddenly remembered why she’d charged up here in the first place. “You bought my brother a truck. Why?”
“I want to take care of you. Helping out your family is one way I can do that.”
Relief made her knees wobble. She’d been the strong one for so long. “No one has ever taken care of me before.”
“That’s about to change. I don’t ever want you to feel anxious or worried again.”
The relief that washed through her was like a tsunami. It mowed down all her feelings of obligation, resentment and guilt and left behind a clean slate that she could use to build her new life upon.
“Thank you.” The words were inadequate. She’d been transformed by his commitment to her. A tear escaped her eye. Not wanting to spoil the moment by losing control and sobbing in front of him, Bella dashed away the moisture with the back of her hand and set her cheek against the top of Drew’s head. “I’d better get him changed.”