She laughed, her lips quirking.
“I have always wanted you, Diana. You have always been the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.” He pressed his engorged cock into her side. “The body doesn’t lie, goddess. And this body, heart, mind, and soul all want you.” He leaned in, brushing his lips against the shell of her ear. “Forever.”
“So…what does this all mean?”
David brushed a strand of hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear. Her breathing hitched. She was so responsive to his touch.
“What does this all mean?” he repeated, trying to get his thoughts into a coherent line. “This all means that we love each other. We love these babies”—he slid his hand over her belly, holding it there— “and we’re a family.”
Her eyes lit up, her face breaking into a smile that melted his bones. “A family?”
Leaning in, David brushed a kiss over Diana’s forehead, then her nose, then, finally, over her mouth. She moaned, sitting up to make the kiss harder. He gave her what she wanted, kissing her thoroughly, before breaking the kiss to breathe.
Once he could think again, he announced, “You will move in here, with me. You belong here, in my home, where we can raise our children together.” He knew he was just throwing it out there and that, after how he’d treated her, she could just throw it right back. He held his breath, waiting, his gaze examining every micro-expression on her face.
“You mean that? You want me to live with you?”
“Why do you sound so disbelieving, Diana? I love you, why wouldn’t I want to live with you?”
She shrugged a sexy, naked shoulder. “Well, it’s just that, after that charity event where those women talked about me, I assumed you wanted to put me into hiding again. The gold digging charity case who happens to be carrying your babies.”
“Those women were jealous bitches. There are plenty of those no matter where you look. Don’t let bitter women keep you from taking what you want.”
Diana sniffed, indignant redness on her neck.
“What I want is to know why you hid me away all that time in the Incantata if you were going to just take me to the charity event and then out my pregnancy to all those reporters.”
Guilt slammed into him, probably making his own neck red. He rubbed at the back of his neck, suddenly extremely worried. How did one go about explaining his utter assholery in a way that would make sense?
Just be open and honest, his mum’s voice whispered in his ear. Of course, when he’d gone home after speaking with Rick about Diana, the first thing he’d done was ring up his mum for her advice. She told he was an asshole and that he needed to make things right. He’d agreed.
“The truth, Diana, is that…well, I took you to the charity event because I wanted to show the world what an amazing gem you are. In the beginning, I wanted to keep you to myself, close to the chest so I wouldn’t have to share you. But the more I learned about you through our nightly conversations, and the more time I spent with you, watching you grow ever more beautiful with my children inside of you, I wanted to show the world how special, how precious you are to me.”
“So you drag me to a charity event, introduce me to a bunch of people I don’t know, and then blurt out that I am pregnant?” she interjected incredulously.
Sighing, he rubbed at his neck again, the ache between his shoulder blades telling him he’d spent too much time being tense, carrying an unseen weight he needed to get rid of.
“I wasn’t thinking Diana. I only saw what I wanted and didn’t take your wants into consideration. I just assumed that because it was a glitzy party at a museum, you would be happy to come with me. Then, once the night was over, and you were flying high on happiness, I was going to ask you to move in with me, to live with me as my girlfriend.”
Air whooshed from her chest. She visibly swallowed. “You were going to ask me to be your girlfriend?”
Nodding, he offered a shy smile. “And I was going to tell you that I loved you, and you were going to tell me you loved me back, and we were going to live happily ever after.”
One golden eyebrow lifted into an arch.
“You had it all planned out, eh?” she drawled, but there was no anger in her tone. “What about that scene with the reporters?”
“Not my best moment. Some jack off waiter had just told me that my “charity case” had left. I had no idea who he was talking about until I looked around to find you, and you weren’t there. I was headed to the bathrooms to look for you when I spotted you outside the doors, talking to the paps.”
“And you thought I was going to spill the beans about the babies,” she stated, obviously knowing him better than he thought.
Hanging his head, shame filled him. “Yes. So, I jumped in and did it before you could.”
Hurt etched lines into her lovely face. “Why? How could you think I would do something like that?”
“I wasn’t thinking. I rarely do where you are concerned.”
“But why blurt it out rather than just pulling me aside and keeping me from saying anything?”
Good question. Terrible answer.
“I knew, in the pits of my chest, that you were pulling away from me again. I couldn’t fathom not having you in my life any more so I did the most outrageously awful thing I
