“You’d— You’d marry me tomorrow?” I stammer.
A slow grin spreads on Rhys’ handsome, confounding, infuriating face. “If you’d have me.”
His lips crash into mine before I can reply, his tongue slipping between my lips and coaxing mine into compliance. He growls and grabs me, deepening the kiss as he drags my body flush against his.
A sharp intake of breath cuts into our lust. “Oh. I…uh…” I hear Chris the security guard mutter, more to himself than us and he walks in on our kiss. “Sorry.”
Rhys breaks the kiss, his eyes fixed on my swollen lips as he pulls back an inch. He quickly and greedily places another kiss there as if the temptation proved too much to resist. Then he looks up to Chris and smiles, cool as a cucumber. “If she comes back, call the police,” he instructs.
“Yes, Mr. McAllister.” Chris nods, standing aside when Rhys takes my hand and marches us back through the control room, out across the reception and over to the elevators. We wait in silence until a car comes and we step inside. Up through the floors the silence grows. Then I break.
“So you just keep pregnancy tests on hand?
Rhys laughs, some relief audible. “Not ordinarily, no.” He turns to face me. “I just…had a feeling.”
“That’s a very specific kind of feeling to have,” I speculate.
Rhys shrugs. “Let’s just say I received a tip off a little while ago that prompted me to be prepared.”
I scowl, not appreciating his vagueness at a time like this.
Accurately reading my expression, Rhys concedes. “A mutual friend informed me that she has pulled a pregnancy scam before. Some heir to a small fortune back in her college days apparently. He finished with her and she tried to sucker him in with an imaginary bun in the oven.”
“What happened?”
“He believed her of course, did the right thing. Had her set up in a nice apartment and drowning in luxury before there was any hint it was all a lie. I imagine she milked him dry before she was exposed. I don’t know all the details. I just know enough to have been ready for her lies.”
I breathe out a long sigh, relieved beyond belief that he has a reasonable explanation and even more still that I actually believe it.
I’m still slightly speechless when the elevator arrives at the penthouse floor. I let him usher me back into his home and right into the bedroom, where he strips off his tie and tosses it to the floor, then sits on the edge of the bed.
Long moments of silence follow and I find myself with the urge to fill the gaping void in conversation.
“Rhys, I—” I blurt.
Only to be cut off by his equal and opposite, “Kitten, I—”
We both stop ourselves and wait expectantly for the other to continue. After a beat, Rhys laughs, standing and taking my hand, walking me over to the huge windows that make up one wall of the room.
We stop and look out at the view outside, the lights of London making the sky twinkle in the twilight. Rhys buries his face in my neck from over my shoulder, laying a tender kiss there.
“Do you think we could wipe that little fiasco from the slate?” he murmurs against my skin.
I blow out an incredulous sounding breath.
“Seriously,” he insists. “We were getting somewhere before that happened. I want to pick up where we left off.”
His kisses turn to nibbles and I groan, despite myself.
“You were going to tear down that wall remember?” he whispers hoarsely, before taking my earlobe between his teeth.
“Mmmmm,” is all I can manage in response.
He threads his fingers through mine, deepening our connection and I feel myself giving in, ready to give it all to him.
He pulls back suddenly, letting go of my hand and unhooking the curtains, closing us off from the world. He comes back to me and stills, raking his eyes over me hungrily. “Take off your dress,” he commands.
My heart starts hammering in my chest, unprepared for him to turn the heat up so soon after my chest had been filled with icy fear downstairs. Not ready to pick back up where we were held an hour ago when I’d been consumed with the need to let him help me to let go. Now it seems more than ever that I should keep hold of that control to protect myself.
And yet, I reach behind me, finding the zipper at the back and unzip it slowly, shrugging out of it and letting it drop, pooling at my feet.
“Come here,” he demands. His voice hitches, betraying his need, but I obey.
He holds out his hand and I place mine in it, aware that I’m trembling. I step up to him and he drags me against his hard body. I gasp and while my lips are parted in shock, he takes his chance and kisses me so deeply that my legs buckle with the onslaught of passion. He lowers me to my knees before him and then breaks off the kiss.
I groan at the loss.
“Hold out your hands, kitten.”
I lift them up slowly, not sure what’s coming next, and to my surprise he wraps the cord from one of the curtains around my wrists, just tight enough that I can’t break them apart.
“What are you doing?” I ask on a shaky breath.
“I’m helping you, kitten.”
“Helping me with what?”
“Finding your saorsa,” he whispers. “You’ve held on to control for far too long. I’m going to show you what it is to be free. You just have to trust me and let go.”
And after staring up into his intense eyes for long moments, I know I can do just that.
Epilogue
Rhys
“Happy birthday, mate,” I say as I clink glasses with Michael. It’s late and we’ve moved onto the top shelf. I swirl the single malt we are enjoying in the glass and watch it rise and then die down.
“Thanks.” He looks across the bar to where the ladies are dancing to the music with Connor. “Another year older. Still no wiser.”
I chuckle. He seems distant tonight. We haven’t been friends for long but over the weeks that Charlotte and I have been together, I’ve gotten to know him quite well. And tonight he seems to have slipped inside himself in a way I haven’t seen before.
I know it’s thoughts of his wife pulling him there, but he himself has admitted that it’s time he stopped allowing that to pull him down. He usually lets thoughts of her lift him up these days, but a birthday can make you reflective I guess.
“You’re wiser than all of us,” I assure him. “You have Katie to show for that.”
His expression softens when he thinks about his daughter. “You’re right about that.”
“She’s an awesome kid, you should be really proud.”
“Thanks.” He smiles. “I am.”
“If you ever want to, you know hit the town, you can always leave her with us.”
Michaels eyebrows lift.
I shrug. “We could use the practice.” I can’t help the smirk I know breaks out. I’ve been fighting a persistent grin all day.
“Wait. Are you guys thinking of—?” Michaels eyes go wide. I’m sure he probably thinks we haven’t been together long enough to even dream of starting a family, but we are way ahead of him.
“She’s pregnant.” This time my grin almost splits my face and there’s no controlling it.
“Holy shit, man!” Michael booms. “Well congratulations!”
I wince and hiss, “Keep your voice down. She doesn’t know I know.”
Michael frowns. “Huh?”
“She hasn’t admitted it to me yet,” I clarify.
“Then how do you know?”
I watch her dancing with Louise and Connor and smile. “She was sick for days wasn’t she? But it was nothing she ate because I wasn’t sick. And it wasn’t a virus because I didn’t catch it and trust me there is no way I am not sharing germs with that woman.”
“Okay…but that doesn’t necessarily mean…” Michael tries tactfully to ease me out of my huge assumption.
“And she has been cagey, like really cagey. Hushed phone calls to Louise and some appointment she had right i
n the middle of the day last week. It was ‘nothing to worry about’ apparently, but I figured it out.”
“But, Rhys, it could have been for anything.”
I ignore him, pressing on. “And have you noticed how Louise is trashed right now and Charlotte looks as sober as my granny in church on Sunday?”
Michael studies them. “I guess…”
“She’s been drinking all of Charlotte’s drinks for her so no one notices she’s on the water.” I nod sagely. Oh yeah, I’ve got it all figured out.
Michael looks for the first time like he believes I’m on to something and turns to me wide -eyed. “So why do you think she hasn’t told you, if she is?”
“She probably thinks I’ll freak out.”
“And…you’re not freaking out?”
I smile and shake my head. “Not in the least. I’m over the fucking moon.”
“Shit.” Michaels smiles too. “You’ve got it bad, my friend.”
“Yep, it’s terminal,” I agree.
“You’re a better man than me. I freaked out when I found out about Katie and she was planned. I don’t think I could be as calm as you about an accident like this.”
I turn to him. “Who said it was an accident?”
Michael scowls. “You mean you’ve been trying?”
I shrug. “We sure as hell haven’t been trying not to. We’ve never used a condom. The first time we were so out of control it completely slipped my mind. After that she told me she was on the pill, so no harm done. I should have been pissed with myself, but if I’m honest I think I wanted to put a baby inside her.” Michael winces slightly and sips his whiskey, but I press on with my TMI. “I know, could I be more of a caveman? I’ve been trying to decide how soon I can convince her to come off the pill ever since. I figure she missed one maybe and doesn’t know how to tell me. Plus there was the whole Lisa drama, she probably thinks I’ll go all DNA test on her after that shit show.”
Michael blows out a breath and looks over to her. “So what are you going to do?”
I reach into my pocket, pulling out the ring I’ve had for over a week. “I’m going to give her this and tell her she is my whole world. That I want her to be my wife and the mother of my children and that I want her to share my name before we welcome the first of them. I’m going to promise to put them first until my dying day and love her with all my heart and soul. Then I’m going to hope to fuck she does the smart thing for once and listens to me.”
“Think she will?”
I down my drink and set the glass down on the bar pushing my stool back and getting to my feet. I meet his stunned eyes and grin. “Only one way to find out.”
Acknowledgments
We want to thank our husbands for putting up with our crazy and supporting not only our friendship with each other but being great friends to us yourselves. We love you both!
Big thanks to JR Gray for being our beta while we found our feet as a duo and mixed our styles into something we were proud of.
Thank you to Virgina Tesi Carey and Mandi Gibala for making our words shine!
And finally our deepest appreciation goes to all our readers, especially our HEA Squad. We couldn’t do this without your support and love!
About the Authors
Kerry Heavens is a London born indie author, iPhone addict & general ray of sunshine! Kerry writes: sometimes sweet, sometimes not, often funny, always hot, real romance, dirty romcoms and other such smut.
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Heather Shere is a wife of twenty some odd years and wants you to know that you get less for murder. She’s also the mother of two adult shaped kids, who she thinks she messed up just enough to make them highly successful individuals, who are also hilarious.
She has a masters degree in snark and nothing entertains her more than someone who can word battle with her. She considers herself an awesome cook and an expert baker but wants to eat out most days, however nothing is made ‘the right way’ unless she makes it herself.
When she gets bored she likes to tinker with different hobbies like crocheting, scrapbooking, stamping and card making. Her newest and most fulfilling passion is writing and she welcomes you into the deep dark depths of her mind.
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Saorsa Page 20