The Tycoon's Temporary Bride: Book Four

by Ana E Ross

  Tashi bit into her lower lip. “Okay, I’m convinced. I’ll stay home. I’ll remain in the mansion. But I will worry until you get home. I love you.”

  “I love you, too, cara. Sei amato, Eve.”

  Tashi smiled. “Tu sei amato, troppo, Adamo.”

  “Che è la mia ragazza. A presto.”

  After ending her call, Tashi took a deep breath and folded her arms across her stomach as she reflected on her meeting with Dr. Walsh. She still didn’t know if she was pregnant, but Dr. Walsh had taken some blood for testing. She’d also pointed out some symptoms that Tashi wasn’t even aware of: like tenderness in her breasts, which she’d thought was a result of Adam’s constant sucking and kneading them, and the fact that her appetite was reduced. That had surprised Tashi. She thought it was suppose to increase with pregnancy, but Dr. Wash had explained that sometimes it decreased in the beginning of the first trimester as a woman’s hormone levels adjusted.

  If she wasn’t certain of the fact that she was pregnant, Tashi would have demanded that the guards take her to her husband. But it would be foolish of her to place her unborn child in danger. If anything happened to their baby, Adam would never forgive her. She would never forgive herself.

  Tashi glanced out the window as the vehicle crossed the Aiken River Bridge. And for the first time in a long time, she thought about the car she’d pushed in there sixteen months ago. Was it still where she’d pushed it over, or had it drifted downstream? Would it ever be found and her crime made public? Would they send her to jail if Agent Dawson wasn’t alive to testify on her behalf? Her heart began to race with the questions, and soon Tashi felt as if her throat would explode.

  “Stop—stop the car!” she shouted, gripping the door handle.

  Hank pulled over immediately.

  Tashi was barely able to open the door and lean over the side before she began to retch in the mixture of gravel and dirt along the side of the highway. It was minutes before she realized that her seatbelt was still in place and that Caleb, the other guard was standing beside her and holding back her hair from her face. When she was certain that there was nothing else in her stomach, Tashi pulled herself back into the Hummer and slumped back against the cool leather seat.

  “Feeling better, Mrs. Andreas?”

  “Yes, thank you,” she whispered on a ragged breath. “I’m sorry,” she gazed up at him, referring to the specks of vomit she’d seen on his shoes.

  “No problem, ma’am. It beats getting it in the car which my wife has done on more than one occasion.”

  “There are some bottles of water in a cooler on the door,” Hank said, passing her a box of tissues from the front seat.

  “Thank you.”

  “Here you go, Mrs. Andreas.”

  “Goodness.” Tashi took the bottle of water Caleb had retrieved and uncapped for her. She took a long sip, happy to get rid of the taste of bile in her mouth. “You guys are the best.”

  “Just following orders, ma’am,” Caleb said with a grin. “Mr. Andreas instructed us to treat you like a queen. Always.”

  Tashi chuckled. “I’ll be sure to tell him you’ve surpassed his expectations, and I’ll insist he give you both raises.”

  “You’re the queen, ma’am.” Hank’s dark face sported an energetic grin. “Are you ready to go home?”

  “Yes, thank you. And please don’t report this incident to Mr. Andreas. I’ll tell him myself,” she added, knowing that they reported everything to him. Adam had finally admitted that Daisy had told him about Claire approaching her. He’d promised her it would not happen again.

  “Not a word.” Caleb closed the door and retuned to the front seat.

  Tashi settled down and closed her eyes as the vehicle pulled carefully back onto the road and headed west on Route 80. She didn’t need the results of that blood test to tell her that she was carrying the next generation of Andreas in her belly. Except for the time she had salmonella poisoning, she’d never been sick a day in her life, had never even thrown up.

  For the rest of the ride home, Tashi speculated about how she was going to tell Adam he was going to be a father.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Adam awoke to the clicking sounds and flashing lights of a camera. He blinked and covered his face with his hands. Through his fingers, he peeked up at Tashi standing beside the bed wearing a red satin thigh-high nightgown, while he, he realized, taking a quick glance down at his morning erection, was stark naked with no covering. A long-stemmed rose was lying on his groin area. Thank goodness, she’d removed the thorns. “What are you doing?”

  “Making memories.”

  “I’m in the buff, you know.”

  “You do everything else buck naked. Why not this? I need memories to lay on my pillow the next time you lie to me. You said you’d be home soon. That was two days ago, mister. Then you sneak in here at one in the morning.”

  “I thought I apologized for that, over and over again. And I remember you accepting my apologies, quite enthusiastically, I may add.”

  Her sweet lips puckered. “Want to apologize again?” she asked, placing the camera on the nightstand. “I love the way you say you’re sorry.”

  Chuckling, Adam tossed the rose aside, caught her hand, and pulled her down on top of him. Clasping the back of her head, he drew her face to his and kissed her deeply while his other hand caressed her body through the silky material of her gown. The musky, intoxicating odor of morning-after- sex was pungent on her skin.

  She moaned in pleasure and kissed him back, but when she began to rock against him, teasing him through her nightgown, he lifted her head from his, and in one fluid movement, he flipped her over on her back and settled himself on top of her. He pushed her hair away from her face and admired her early morning beauty. “Do you realize that when we’re together all we do is make love?” he asked. “I think I’ve made love more times in the past two weeks than I’ve done in an entire year of my life.”

  “Is that bad?” She held his hair away from his face.

  He traced the outline of her arched brows with his thumbs, and gazed into her eyes that sparkled like green, polished jade. “No. It’s very good.”

  “Then why are you complaining?” She wiggled beneath him, sending fire shooting through his already burning jade stalk.

  “I’m not complaining. It’s just that the way I feel about you scares me sometimes. I would do anything for you. Anything. I would commit murder and treason, demolish companies, and disown my family for you.”

  “I hope you never have to do any of those things, Adam,” she said with a faint tremor.

  Already committed one. Maybe two. He still couldn’t believe that Claire has sent her girlfriends to occupy the table next to Tashi and the girls just to eavesdrop on their conversation that day at the esplanade. Armed with a photo, the information that Tashi was born in Cleveland, and that she had attended college in New York, Claire had set out to dig up dirt on her, just so she could humiliate her. Adam cringed inside to think of the danger Claire had placed Tashi in, and what could have transpired if Paul hadn’t been the one Boris had sent to Granite Falls to kidnap her. He could really strangle that woman with his bare hands.

  “Sometimes I get scared of my feelings for you, too.” Tashi’s voice cooled his thoughts. “But I’m even more scared of losing you. You didn’t come home for two days, even though you did call. Where were you?”

  Adam averted his eyes by glancing out the row of French doors that led to the balcony. It was going to be a gloriously sunny day, for so many people.

  “Adam.” She gently turned his face back to her, and tenderly caressed the stubble on his chin and the sides of his face with her delicate little fingers.

  “I was planning a surprise for you. A huge one.”

  “What kind of surprise planning would take you away for two days?”

  “Can’t tell you. And you’re not allowed to ask me anything about it.”

  “Am I going to like it?”

>   “I hope so. I hope you love it.”

  “When can I have it?”

  “How quickly can you get dressed?” What he really wanted to do was spread her wide and love her, but there were other important matters to take care of this morning. Once those were squared away, he would love her for the rest of the day. He kissed her lips and attempted to roll off her.

  “Wait.” She grabbed his arms. “I have a surprise for you, too. I’m pregnant. Dr. Walsh called me to confirm it yesterday. I’m two weeks along. I’m going to have your baby, our first baby, Adam.” Her emerald eyes shimmered.

  Adam’s heart stopped beating for a split second. He’d suspected it, been expecting it, but to hear it uttered aloud filled him with the sweetest joy. “Oh, baby, that’s not really a surprise. I knew there was a ninety-nine percent chance the first time we made love.” He kissed her deeply, and thoroughly, their tears blending into a river of joy and excitement before he trailed his lips down her body. He pushed her gown up above her waist and dropped a series of warm kisses on her flat belly. “Hi there, little guy. This is your daddy. Welcome to our little family.”

  Tashi chuckled. “Could be a girl.”

  He rested his chin on her belly and captured her gaze. “I know it’s a boy because I saw him the instant I first gazed into your hypnotic eyes. He has dark curly hair and emerald eyes like his mom.”

  “Oh, Adam,” she said in a breathless whisper.

  “And we’re not circumcising him, nor cutting his hair,” he continued. “He’ll be all natural, just like his papà.”

  She giggled as he tickled her tummy. “Natural is good.”

  “Very good.” He crawled back up to lay beside her, but kept his palm open on her belly. “Why the sad face?” he asked, noting the faraway look in her eyes.

  She sighed. “I was just thinking about my mom and if she was as happy when she found out she was pregnant with me.”

  “I’m sure she was, sweetheart. The way you talk about your memories of her, it’s clear she loved you very much.”

  “Then why didn’t she tell my father about me? Why is he listed as Unknown on my birth certificate? Didn’t he want me?” She paused. “Maybe she had multiple partners and really didn’t know which one of them fathered me.”

  Adam’s heart broke for her. He wished he could tell her that Agent Dawson was alive, that he was her father, and that he wanted her. But that secret was not his to reveal, that gift not his to deliver. That was Paul’s gift to his child. Paul had already given him a gift by creating that child with Evelyn Holland, twenty-two years ago. He cleared his throat. “I’m sure your father would have wanted you if he’d known about you, Tashi.”

  A hopeful smile played at the corners of her mouth. “You think so? You think he didn’t know about me?”

  Paul had filled Adam in about his relationship with Evelyn Holland and the reason she might not have told him she was pregnant. It was so sad. Adam couldn’t tell Tashi that story, but he could tell her the truth. “There’s no other reason your father wouldn’t have been there for you, cara. If he knew you existed, he would have been in your life.” He kissed her forehead.

  “It’s not just not knowing my father that makes me sad,” Tashi continued in a dismal voice. “My mother’s death was ruled a suicide, but my uncle told me that she would never have killed herself and left me alone in the world.” A fresh batch of tears gathered in her eyes. “I wish I could find out what happened to her. I wish I could find out who my father is so he could explain why he wasn’t in our lives. I can’t tell my children about their ancestry. There are so many things I don’t know, and I can’t— I can’t do anything about them until the people who want me dead are caught. And then there’s Agent Dawson. I might never know what happened to him either.”

  Adam’s gut was ripping apart. This was wrong, so wrong. Hearts got broken and lives got ruined when people didn’t talk to each other, when they we’re honest about what and how they truly felt. “Tashi, darling.” He gathered her and held her tightly in his arms. It was all he could do for now.

  She trembled on a sigh and locked her arms around him as if he was all she had in this great big world. “I’m glad our children will never have to live with the pain of not knowing their father. I’ll learn what a good father is all about by watching you with them. Thank you, Adam. Thank you for rescuing me, and helping me find myself, and teaching me about love.”

  “No, thank you, Tashi,” he said, untangling her arms from around him and gazing lovingly into her eyes. “Thank you for coming into my life, for loving me, and changing me. And I promise that all your questions will be answered in time.”

  “You’re the only family I have, you and our unborn child.” She rested her hand on his that was still on her stomach, and entwined their fingers. “I know we made love last night, but can you love me, Adam? Our baby and I want to connect with you.”

  As he gazed at her, Adam lost sight of himself in the sacred holiness of her love. “You never have to ask for my love, sweeting. It’s yours for the taking. Always.” He knelt beside her, tugged her gently to a sitting position, eased her gown over her head, and dropped it behind him on the mattress. He settled her back against the pillows, and the sight of her curly red hair strewn across the white pillowcase fanned the eternal flame in Adam’s heart.

  “Now,” he said, raising her arms above her head and curling her hands over the cushioned headboard, “this is my gift to you. Do nothing, but receive.”

  Tashi quivered at the tenderness in Adam’s blue eyes. They spoke to her wordlessly, spilling the secret desire of his heart to worship her. Her lips parted on a smile, because she knew that by her merely embracing his worship of her body, his would be worshipped in turn as he reached across the space that separated them as two and touched her skin—the doorway to her body—and made them one. Even though they’d made love so many times already, she knew she would never tire of this man, never reach the point in her life when she would not yearn to be joined with him.

  She held her breath as Adam drifted over her like a warm encircling shadow. She moaned softly when his thick hair fell on her belly and breasts, glittering like a black threads of silk against her brown skin, grazing her lightly, tantalizingly, stirring familiar desires in her. She moaned aloud when his mouth settled gently on hers and he worked his tongue inside and danced a slow erotic silent tune around hers until she sighed her surrender into his mouth.

  Then his hands were soft and gentle on her body. His touch divine ecstasy. His throaty moans a euphoric song. She shivered as he hovered above her and slowly swayed his head from side to side, brushing his silky strands across her sensitive flesh, bathing her in a sea of tingling sensations, heightening her awareness and deepening her desire for him.

  His mouth followed in the wake of his hands and hair as he made his way down her body, kissing her lovingly. Her breath quickened, and her heart beat rapidly. Her body tightened and the fine hairs on her skin rose up like miniature antennas, sending sensual signals to him, begging, wanting all of him to touch all of her.

  Tashi’s hands dropped to the mattress when Adam lifted her legs, brought her feet to his mouth, and began to kiss and lick her soles. Tingling shivers sizzled up her legs and thighs and headed straight to her throbbing sex when his tongue connected with the underside of her toes and tickled her mercilessly, groaning out his own pleasure as he sucked each into his hot mouth.

  Exquisite flickers of wanting hummed through her with sated sluggishness, and as her body shook in the throes of passion, Tashi fisted her hands around the sheets and curled her toes inside Adam’s mouth. She whispered his name and squeezed her pelvis, trying to hold the orgasm as her breath came hot and soft, and her mind careened. But God, the pleasure was too hot, too intense to be contained. Tashi felt the explosion deep inside her womb, and as her body arced and quivered, liquid love poured from her, ran down her thighs, and dripped on to Adam.

  As she writhed in heavenly bliss, Adam spr
ead her wide and stretched himself out on her. “Do you feel loved, Tashi?” he asked hoarsely as his big warm hands wrapped about hers on the mattress.

  “Yes,” Tashi whispered in a daze, feeding on the sensuousness of his dreamy eyes. “I feel loved, Adam. But I’m greedy and I want more. All of you.”

  “As you wish, sweetheart.” Adam supported himself on his elbows and knees and took her right hand and guided it to himself. He sucked in his breath when her delicate fingers clasped around him. He looked deep into her eyes and said, “I want you to put me inside you and take all the love you want from me.”

  Tashi shuddered from the feel of the long thick shaft pulsing hotly in her hand. She pushed back the thin smooth foreskin and guided the tip to her quivering heat. She gasped when the hard column of flesh grazed her slick softness. She gazed up at Adam hovering rigidly above her. Understanding what he wanted, Tashi gave her hand back to him and began to thrust up and down, pushing her hips into his, riding him from below, taking more of him deeper and deeper into the wet quivering interior of her valley of love and solitude and soon the delightful friction of his jade stalk grazing her slickness was too overwhelming and Tashi began to sob from the sheer splendor of him and gave herself completely over to the sweetness of loving him.

  As Tashi’s sobs crashed over him and her hypnotic green eyes locked into his, Adam began moving with deliberate slowness inside her, each delicious stroke going deeper and deeper as her body melted into his, filling his world with her loveliness. He rocked backwards and forward, side to side, grazed every crevice of her hot wet cave, coaxing their bodies into an exquisite harmony, one with the other until passion’s fury churned and soared within them both.

  “Ti amo. Ti amo, Tashi.” Tears ran down his cheeks and blended with hers as he watched her shriek, her head thrashing uncontrollably on the mattress and her fingers curled tightly around his as wave after wave of contained orgasms coiled through their bodies. And when her eyes rolled back in their sockets, and her lips trembled, and her mouth opened, and her body quivered beneath him, tightened and arced upward like an evening rainbow, Adam died a thousand deaths in the sunset of her passion, only to be reborn in the glorious sunrise of her love, as they came together, over and over again.