Brazilian's Nine Months' Notice

by Susan Stephens

  ‘No,’ she growled, collapsing against him.

  ‘Try to think of something else,’ he suggested.

  ‘How am I supposed to do that?’ she gasped out.

  ‘Do it,’ Luc commanded.

  She dragged deeply on his warm, clean scent, revelling in everything about him, knowing that if she did as Luc said the pleasure would be stronger and would last even longer. But there came a point where she couldn’t wait and arching towards him she took him deep, moving fiercely and fast, relishing the feast of sensation—wailing as she crashed over the cliff. She clung to him furiously as he made sure she was done.

  Luc rested inside her, smoothing her hair with long, calming strokes, and when she was calm again he withdrew slowly and with infinite care.

  But he was only teasing her and plunged deep again. The shock was glorious. The pleasure was intense. She responded immediately, coming apart in his arms as he pressed deep and rolled his hips. ‘More!’ She laughed. ‘Give me more,’ she begged him, as if they hadn’t done this over and over in the sand.

  She would never get enough of him, Emma realised as to her relief Luc began to move.

  He gave her what she needed in a series of firm, deep strokes. And then repeated the technique he had used before, withdrawing slowly and thrusting firmly, driving her further and further up the thick smooth strut of the marquee. She dug her fingertips into the muscles on his shoulders, her arms almost straight he’d pushed her so high. Throwing her head back, she gasped noisily as she silently sang the praises of this big, powerful man.

  ‘Again?’ he suggested when she quietened.

  ‘Are you asking permission?’

  Luc’s answer was to drive into her and pleasure them both this time with fast, hard strokes. ‘Yes!’ she screamed, loving the sensation even more when he lost control with her.

  ‘That has never happened to me before,’ he admitted when they had both recovered. ‘I was so angry with you—’

  ‘And me with you,’ she agreed.

  ‘How am I keep supposed to keep a rein on myself now?’

  She stared into his eyes, uncertain whether Luc was joking or not. ‘Maybe you’re not,’ she said as he held her close. She pressed her face against his chest. Their heartbeats were equally rapid, but did Luc feel as she did inside? If there was some potion she could take to render her immune to Luc, she’d take it so she could be as cool as he was, but right now she had never felt so close to another human being in her life, and that felt so good she wanted to shout it to the world, not keep it hidden deep inside.

  Outrageously good sex and a shared sense of humour, along with a certain amount of caring, was a tender shoot on which to build a relationship.

  But it was a start, Emma told herself firmly as she straightened her clothes.

  I love you, you impossible man, was what she wanted to say to him, but of course she didn’t. It was too soon. Luc might laugh—would laugh, she corrected herself. The time might never come, and she had to accept that. From what she could tell, Luc had spent his entire adult life keeping people at bay, and one passionate encounter on a beach wasn’t going to change that.

  * * *

  He linked fingers with her and led her through the entrance of the marquee. He didn’t care who saw them. Emma had made him happy. She had made him feel good about himself for the first time in a long time.

  ‘You can’t refuse to be my mistress now.’

  ‘I’m sorry?’ She stopped dead and looked up at him. ‘So you think that what just happened means you can drink your fill of me and then get rid of me? No,’ she said levelly. ‘Where becoming your mistress is concerned, nothing has changed.’

  ‘Why?’ Bringing his face close, Luc brushed her lips with his.

  ‘Why am I the only woman on earth to refuse you? I don’t know,’ Emma admitted, pulling back. ‘I just know that what you’re offering is never going to be enough for me. However you dress it up, you’re asking me to forfeit my freedom in return for financial gain.’

  ‘So you don’t feel anything for me?’

  ‘Of course I feel something for you—too much,’ she admitted. ‘But nothing’s changed because of tonight. I won’t live with you. And I won’t become your mistress. I should never have agreed to stay in that fabulous apartment to begin with. I should have had enough wit to demand accommodation in your staff quarters from the start. Then we wouldn’t be having this conversation.’

  Luc stared down at her indulgently. ‘You do know this is hormones talking?’

  ‘No, Luc.’ Emma shook her head. ‘This is me talking. We’re back to where we started, so I’m telling you all over again that I won’t be controlled.’

  ‘That’s not what I’m trying to do.’

  ‘So what are you proposing?’

  * * *

  Not marriage, he thought as Emma turned away. He’d been down that dark alley once before and had no intention of repeating his mistake.

  When he didn’t answer, she shook her head in despair at him.

  ‘You’re a riddle, Emma,’ he admitted. ‘You’re the most passionate woman I’ve ever known, but you say I’m controlled? What about you?’

  ‘I don’t want to hear about your other women,’ she told him firmly. ‘I certainly don’t want to be compared to them.’

  He could feel her pulling away in spirit, and they were already standing six feet apart. Emma glanced back towards the hotel, rather than towards the party, where they might have prolonged their evening. Losing her was unthinkable, he realised suddenly. He couldn’t allow it to happen. He was confident he could pull this back. It wasn’t the first time in his life he had faced an apparently insurmountable problem and triumphed. He had turned the scorn of the father he could never hope to impress into a positive that had driven him to succeed. Would he let Emma get the better of him?

  ‘Goodnight, Lucas.’

  Goodnight? He stood in silent disbelief as he watched her go. She was leaving him? She was walking away?

  She didn’t look back.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  KARINA RAN UP to him and put a hand on his arm. ‘Don’t,’ she cautioned. ‘Don’t go after her yet, Luc. Give her time.’

  ‘Time for what?’ He was in no mood to discuss Emma with his sister.

  ‘You know why I’m saying this,’ Karina insisted.

  ‘Do I?’

  ‘You don’t want to rehash the past—I know that, but sometimes it has to be faced. You have to tell her, Luc. You can’t keep avoiding the subject.’

  He shook his head—the head he badly needed to get together. So much had happened in so short a time, the events he had been ignoring were back. All the old anger, the hurt, the sense of betrayal... Karina was right. He had to come to terms with it before he could move on. But not here where the noise from the party was deafening—or even in the hotel, where the demands of his work were ceaseless and would cause constant interruptions to his thought processes. There was only one place on earth where he could unspool the tangle and rewind.

  ‘Please,’ Karina was saying to him, hanging on to his arm as she stared up into his face. ‘Don’t let Emma go. Can’t you see what you stand to lose? Emma’s changed you for the better, and I’d rather see you like this—all beat up inside—than not feeling at all. Give love a chance, Luc.’

  ‘Love?’ he exclaimed with an incredulous laugh. ‘I think you’re overstating the case.’

  ‘Am I?’ his sister demanded. ‘Yes, Lucas. Love. I’m not frightened of the word. Why are you? Just because you’ve been hurt once doesn’t mean you’ll be hurt again. Give yourself a chance, Luc. This could be your one chance to be happy again.’

  He laughed bitterly, knowing it was easier to let the ice grow back around his heart.

  ‘Everyone has secrets,’ K
arina persisted. ‘It’s who you choose to share them with that counts.’

  ‘Thanks for the counsel, little sister. There are more secrets than you know.’

  ‘There you go again,’ she said. ‘You’re a patronising, arrogant pain in the butt—who means well, but who goes about things all the wrong way. You don’t have to take the world on your shoulders. Emma and I can do that for ourselves.’

  ‘I doubt it,’ he murmured, narrowing his eyes as he stared in the direction Emma had gone. She had disappeared out of sight. He was itching to chase after her. Karina might have made sense. Both he and Emma needed space, but Emma’s safety was his paramount concern now. ‘I’m going after her.’

  ‘Of course you are,’ Karina told him with a smile in her voice.

  He caught up with Emma running along the beach. She was barefoot, holding her sandals in one hand and her skirt in the other so she could run faster. The wind had caught hold of her hair and was tossing it about. He wanted to stand and watch her but he couldn’t let her carry on. ‘Emma! Wait!’

  Whipping her head around, she shouted back at him, ‘Go away, Luc. This is over. I’m leaving. I never want to see you again.’

  She was running away from him along a strip of ivory sugar sand, with the moonlight in her hair and the surf pounding at her feet. He raced along the sand to join her, and was with her in seconds. ‘This has nothing to do with control,’ he shouted against the wind, raising his hands in mock surrender when she looked at him. ‘Do you know how dangerous this is? Running along the beach at night on your own—and in your condition?’

  ‘Pregnancy isn’t a threat to my health, Luc.’

  ‘But an attack on a woman on her own at night is a threat,’ he insisted, catching her close. ‘You must never do this again. Do you understand me?’

  She didn’t fight him this time. In some calm part of her she knew he was talking sense. ‘No, Luc, no,’ she said softly. ‘Don’t say anything. I should never have come to Brazil. I should have told you about the baby when we were in Scotland, and I should have stayed there. But I had to be stubborn and come here, and now I’ve complicated everything.’

  ‘When is life ever straightforward?’ He brushed a wayward strand of hair from her face.

  ‘It’s not straightforward tonight,’ she agreed. ‘Tonight is so complicated that I need to take a step back, but if you want to see me safely to the hotel...’

  ‘Of course I will.’

  ‘I was silly to run off. You were right about the hormones.’ She shook her head. ‘They rule me.’

  ‘I know.’ He paused before suggesting, ‘What if there were no conditions to your staying?’

  She shrugged. ‘I’d stay?’

  ‘Seriously?’

  ‘But only if I can move into the staff quarters, and only if you let me stand or fall by my own merit.’

  Everything she asked for was contrary to his nature, but he couldn’t deal with Emma as he dealt with everything else in life. He would have to learn to compromise. They both would. ‘We’ll have to talk this through.’

  ‘No surrender on the staff accommodation,’ she warned him.

  Staying close but not touching was the most extreme torture known to man, but he did as he had promised and took Emma straight back to the hotel. They walked in silence the entire way, and by the time they arrived in the lobby something significant had changed. Even though they hadn’t spoken, it was as if a wall had come down.

  ‘Thanks for giving me the space I asked for,’ she murmured as they waited for the elevator.

  He stood back as the steel doors slid open. ‘Goodnight, Emma. I’ll have someone sort out your accommodation.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  He stood for a moment staring at polished steel as her face disappeared behind the sliding doors, and then, decision made, he turned on his heels and walked away.

  * * *

  She had asked Luc to back off and give her space. She hadn’t expected him to take her quite so literally, Emma reflected, chewing on her lip as she headed out of her new and very comfortable room in the staff quarters. They hadn’t spoken to each other since Karina’s party and that was days ago. She had lain awake at night since then wondering where he was, and had asked different members of staff, only to be told that Senhor Marcelos was away on one of his trips. She didn’t like to ask Karina. She had too much to tell her before that, and as Karina had been busy the old story of the right moment to talk about the baby had never come.

  She found Karina sitting at their usual table in the staff canteen. She looked up as Emma approached.

  ‘You look as if you haven’t slept. Frustration keeping you awake?’

  Ignoring this, Emma pulled a concerned face as she sank down onto the seat next to her friend. ‘Sat up all night worrying about the lack of hot water in my bathroom, if you must know.’

  ‘As diversionary tactics go, that was lame,’ Karina remarked. ‘Hot water?’ she repeated suspiciously, scooping up another mouthful of aromatic sauce. ‘Really?’

  ‘Yes. Really. The shower in my room,’ Emma explained, blinking owlishly as she forced out the story. ‘There’s something wrong with it. It made me think it might be worth completing a snagging list on every apartment in the staff quarters, so that’s what I’ve done.’

  ‘Of course you have,’ Karina commented drily, getting back to her food.

  ‘The plumber’s coming round today to check them all out.’

  ‘That’s not the kind of plumbing I had in mind,’ Karina murmured, shooting a look at Emma.

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘Exactly. Oh,’ Karina echoed. ‘I know about you and my brother, so no use pretending. Did you really think I wouldn’t notice you were missing from the party? For ever?’ she emphasised, rolling her eyes. ‘Or that when you left, Luc chased after you?’ she added when Emma started to protest.

  ‘That was nothing.’ She brushed this off with a casual gesture. ‘Luc saw me safely back to the hotel, and that was it.’

  Karina hummed as if she didn’t believe a word of it. ‘Did he say anything when he caught up with you?’

  ‘Like what?’

  Karina lips pressed down as if she wasn’t quite sure whether to say something or not.

  ‘Well?’ Emma pressed.

  ‘So...’ Clearly determined to change the subject, Karina swung around to pin her with a stare. ‘Let’s get back to that night. If you say there’s nothing between you and my brother, what about earlier when you arrived at the party looking flushed and excited with a dusting of sand and grass in your hair? Was that nothing too?’

  ‘That was—’

  ‘All right—not sure I want to know,’ Karina interrupted. ‘Anything more than a confession about a peck on the cheek and you won’t need a sauce for your spaghetti.’

  ‘Nice.’

  ‘Stating facts. What’s going on between you two? And, more importantly, what’s gone wrong? That’s what I want to know. It was clearly getting serious and now it’s not.’

  ‘How do you know all this?’ Emma sat back in her chair, bemused.

  ‘I know because when my brother takes off like this, it can only mean one thing. He’s got something on his mind and needs to get away. He’s been gone for over a week now, so it must be serious. And you very carefully haven’t asked me where he’s gone. So I’m obviously suspicious. And then there’s you,’ Karina added. ‘I only have to look in your eyes to know there’s something wrong with you. And whatever it is, you’ve got to get it sorted—both of you. What can be so bad that you can’t talk about it face to face?’

  Upsetting Karina was the last thing Emma wanted. ‘I’m afraid it’s a lot more than a disagreement,’ she admitted.

  ‘Well, tell me. Come on. What’s the big news?’

  ‘I’m having Luc�
��s baby,’ Emma blurted. She braced herself for Karina’s response. Karina’s hand had flown to her mouth and her face had paled with shock, but if there was one thing Emma had learned, it was that waiting for the right moment didn’t work. Thankfully, Karina recovered quickly, and leaping out of her seat, she exclaimed, ‘But that’s wonderful!’

  Sending plate and pasta dishes flying everywhere, she hugged Emma across the table. ‘I can’t believe you look so worried about it.’

  ‘It’s not that easy.’

  ‘What’s easy?’ Karina exclaimed with a shrug, sitting down. ‘Is there anything I can help you with?’

  ‘The problem is Lucas.’

  ‘Ah. That might be difficult.’

  ‘It’s not him exactly...’ Emma hesitated. ‘It isn’t easy to share this with his sister—’

  ‘Give it a try,’ Karina advised. ‘I’m your friend. Who better to confide in?’

  ‘I just don’t know how to say this in a less hurtful way,’ Emma admitted.

  ‘Luc is controlling? Does that help?’

  The expression on Karina’s face made it hard not to laugh. ‘He wants to control everything,’ Emma admitted. ‘He wants to control me at work, when I’m away from work, my pregnancy, the baby, me—’

  ‘I know Luc can be difficult,’ Karina interrupted, ‘but there’s a very good reason for it.’

  ‘Can’t you tell me what it is?’

  Karina bit her lip and shook her head, as if she’d already said too much. ‘It’s not for me to tell you. You’ll have to ask Luc.’

  ‘That might be difficult when I don’t even know where he is. We didn’t part on the best of terms. I stalked off.’

  ‘You behaved like every other couple in love?’ Karina suggested.

  ‘We’re not in love.’

  ‘Aren’t you?’

  ‘I told him I needed space, and he took me at my word.’

  ‘Luc hasn’t gone for ever. I’ve never seen him happier than he is with you. You have to give him a second chance, Emma. Speak to him, and then you’ll understand why Luc is the way he is.’