Sweet Surrender, Baby Surprise

Julia.”

Smiling tentatively, she said, “Really?”

He skimmed his lips along her hairline and breathed in her fresh scent. “Yeah.”

She sighed and closed her eyes, clearly swayed. “But what about your rule?”

Watching her closely, he lowered his head toward hers. “What rule is that?”

Her eyes fluttered open as she whispered, “Once you’ve finished with a woman, you never go back.”

Cameron frowned. “I told you that?”

Nodding solemnly, she said, “It was the last time I saw you. You said you had a great time but you wouldn’t call. You said you didn’t want me to get the wrong idea.” Her voice quavered as his lips hovered within millimeters of hers.

“I’m an idiot,” he said, cupping the nape of her neck in his hand.

With a smile, she gazed into his eyes. “You said it’s a long-standing rule of yours.”

“Rules are made to be broken,” he murmured, and covered her mouth with his.

A soft moan escaped her throat as she melted against him. He used his tongue to urge her to open for him and she relented. He thrust into her warmth and felt as though he’d come home. The problems of his world faded and all that mattered was her taste and his need for more.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pressed herself even closer. Sweet, was all he could think. Sweet and warm and passionate. He’d missed her, he realized. He shoved that thought away as her tongue teased and tangled with his.

He heard whimpering and wanted to hear more. Wanted to hear her shout his name. Wanted to hear her begging, demanding, crying out for…

Crying?

Cameron stiffened. Yes, that was definitely the sound of someone crying somewhere. Outside? Next door? That was odd, since it was almost impossible to hear anything going on outside the suite. The walls of all the rooms were reinforced and soundproofed.

But there it was again, muffled but discernible. He eased back a few inches to make eye contact with her. “Did you hear that?”

“Yes, I did,” Julia said, pushing him away and glancing around. Her eyes were sharp as she seemed to be waiting for it to happen again. But there was nothing, and after a moment, Cameron pulled her back into his arms.

“Must’ve been next door,” he whispered, then proceeded to plant soft kisses on her lips, across her cheek, grazing her ear before moving to taste her sexy neck.

She groaned as Cameron maneuvered his hands down her back until he gripped her supple bottom. He pressed his rigid length against her as his mouth devoured hers, then began to guide her toward the bed. He was hot, hard and ready for her.

“Oh, Cameron,” she whispered.

“Yeah, baby, I know.” He sat on the edge of the bed and eased her closer until she was standing between his legs. He reached for the hem of her T-shirt and began to pull it up, just as a sudden, wailing scream filled the hotel suite.

Julia moaned loudly as she eased out of Cameron’s arms. A million and one thoughts raced through her mind all at once. First, the baby needed attention. She’d foolishly left the baby monitor in the master bathroom when she was so rudely interrupted by Cameron, but she knew that if little Jake was fussy, she’d hear him from anywhere in the suite. After that initial scream for attention, he was quiet, but experience had taught her that he wouldn’t remain so for long.

Her other million thoughts were all centered around the realization that Cameron would finally meet Jake. She knew it would’ve happened eventually, but since he hadn’t brought up the subject tonight, she was fairly certain that Cameron, stubborn to the end, had never looked at her emails and therefore, had no idea about the baby. Well, she really hoped he liked surprises.

She headed down the hall toward the bedroom door to face the inevitable. “I’d better take care of this.”

“Take care of what?” Cameron asked, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist.

“The noise you heard before? The crying?”

“The noise from next door? I don’t hear it now,” he said, and continued his sensual onslaught by kissing her neck, then nibbling that most sensitive spot behind her ear.

She couldn’t help but sigh deeply. Her skin tingled everywhere Cameron’s amazing lips touched her. As his hands worked their magic over her body, Julia recalled that everything about Cameron Duke excited and delighted her.

But why in the world had she trusted Cameron’s staff when they’d promised he would be away this whole time? But even his mother had insisted it was safe to stay in the suite. Julia should’ve known by the twinkle in the older woman’s eye when she insisted that Julia stay in Cameron’s suite, that she was being set up.

Her first instinct had been to leave Jake at home with the nanny while she traveled to the conference. But their nanny had a chance to go on a cruise with her daughter, and many of Julia’s old friends attending the conference were bringing their families with them. They’d all wanted to see little Jake. For that reason, plus the fact that she missed her baby when he wasn’t with her, Julia had decided to bring Jake along, too.

It figured that Cameron would cause all her plans to go awry. It wasn’t as if she never wanted him to see the baby, but there was no getting around the fact that this was going to get very awkward, very quickly.

“Mmm, that feels so good,” Julia murmured as she turned in Cameron’s arms and kissed him with all the ardor she could muster. It wasn’t a hardship. The man was incredibly sexy and handsome as sin. He seemed taller than she remembered, and definitely stronger. More confident, too, if that were possible. His dark green eyes watched her with a predator’s gleam. She shouldn’t have found it so absolutely thrilling, but she did.

But damn him for showing up like this! It was just her bad luck, which was the only kind of luck she’d ever had when it came to Cameron Duke.

She’d met him eighteen months ago and willingly succumbed to his charms. They’d had an incredible, torrid four-day affair. Weeks later, she realized she was pregnant.

She’d tried to do the right thing and contact him, but Cameron had all these damn rules about women. Sure enough, true to his word, he never looked back, never contacted her again.

She’d tried emailing him a few times, but it was sadly obvious now, he’d never read any of her messages. And maybe it was just as well. With his so-called rules regarding relationships-or rather, the obsessive need to avoid them-she’d come to the realization that Cameron Duke wouldn’t want to have anything to do with raising a child.

She could just imagine what he would think of her for bringing the baby here, especially when he found out Jake was his. Cameron was a decent man so it wasn’t as if he would toss her and Jake out of his suite. But he might accuse her of setting this whole thing up and there was little doubt that he would deny the baby was his.

“Oh,” she whispered as he pressed himself closer to her. It was getting impossible to think straight with the delicious onslaught of his mouth and hands, but Julia was starting to wonder if she might possibly distract him long enough to get Jake settled. Then she could deal with everything tomorrow morning. Perhaps it was cowardly, but she could live with that.

Whatever she did would have to happen fast, before her baby decided to take matters into his own chubby baby hands.

“Look, Cameron,” she said, finally catching her breath. She needed to get him out of the hallway, now. “Why don’t you go get a fresh beer and I’ll just slip into something more-”

“I don’t need a beer, Julia,” Cameron said, running his hands down her sensitive thighs. “I just need this.”

“Mmm, me, too,” she said as she moved her fingers along his tight, muscled shoulders. “But first, I need a minute to freshen up.”

“You took a shower ten minutes ago,” he reminded her as he nuzzled her neck. “You’re fresh as a daisy.”

She moaned, then reluctantly wriggled out of his grasp. “But I really need to dry my hair.”

“Yeah?” He brushed a few curling strands away from her face. “It looks fine to me.”

“Thanks, but I don’t want to catch a cold.”