Her chest fluttered, then grew tight. Her stomach flipped and she began to shake.

“Shhh, baby,” he said as he stroked down the curve of her body. “Just let me love you. We’ll figure this all out, Sophie. I swear it.”

“You don’t hate me?”

His eyes softened, and he leaned down to kiss her hip right above the band of her panties.

“I feel a lot of things for you, Sophie. But hate isn’t one of them.”

His thumb hooked into her underwear, and he carefully slid it down leaving her naked and vulnerable to his touch and sight.

Her hand fluttered over her belly, and she turned her face into the pillow, no longer able to bear his scrutiny.

“Do you have any idea just how beautiful you are?”

There was awe and reverence in his voice that had her looking back at him. It was there in his eyes as he simply stared down at her.

He bent and kissed her hip again and then showered a line of kisses down her leg to her ankle. He lifted her foot and kissed each toe until she twitched at the ticklish sensations.

He eased her foot down and moved behind her again. He lay down, his mouth close to her neck as he spooned against her. Her buttocks cupped his erection, and she moaned in anticipation.

He didn’t move her. Didn’t turn her over. He simply lifted her leg and eased it back over his until she was open and bare. His cock lay between her legs, but it was his fingers that found her heat.

“Sam ...” she whispered as he stroked the soft folds.

He parted them and dipped one finger inside her.

“You’re hot and wet and so damn tight,” he said in a near groan.

Another finger slipped inside her, and she arched helplessly. She wouldn’t last. Her body was painfully aware of him. She wanted him with every breath. She turned her head, and her cheek met his lips. He kissed her. The sweetness of that one kiss melted her senses and sent a trembling awakening through her heart.

How could she love someone she was so unsure of?

Sudden tears flooded her eyes. She blinked furiously, angry that she would be so weak at such a vulnerable moment.

“Make love to me,” she choked out. “Please, Sam. I need you.”

He paused for just a moment, and a low shudder worked its way through his body, pressing into her. She could feel his energy and his reaction to her soft plea.

His fingers left her to grasp his cock. He positioned himself at her entrance and then found her ear with his lips. One kiss. Two. And then he murmured low and sweet.

“Just relax, baby. Let me take you this way so you don’t have to move. Let me take care of you.”

He nudged forward, his hips pressing into her buttocks as he breached the tight clasp of her heat. She sucked in her breath, then closed her eyes when his shallow thrust sent streaks of pleasure through her pussy.

Back and forth. He rocked against her slow and measured, none of his thrusts going too deep. His hand left his cock now that he had position, and he laid it possessively over her hip. His fingers curled into her, holding her as he moved faster now but still as carefully as before.

He was driving her crazy. She flexed and pushed back, eager to meet his movements, but he gripped her hip and held her in place.

“Let me,” he whispered again.

Her leg lay over his, and she tucked her foot between his legs, enjoying the rasp of hair on her bare skin. His legs were muscled, lean and so strong. They flexed and twitched with each forward thrust.

Then his hand moved from her hip and eased underneath her leg, pushing it upward to give him room. He supported her thigh with his forearm and reached up until his fingers found her clitoris.

His thumb teased the entrance his cock rubbed back and forth over, while his fingers parted the soft flesh above and tenderly stroked the stiff, sensitive bundle of nerves at her center.

No longer able to lie still, she tightened and bucked back against him.

His thrusts got stronger, and he sank deeper, until her buttocks were flat against his abdomen.

“Are you ready, honey? Go with me. Come with me now.”

“Just one more second,” she breathed.

She closed her eyes and rocked against him. His fingers grew more assertive, and he moved his thumb up to roll over her clit in a demand for her to respond.

“Yes. Oh my God, yes. Just like that, Sam. Don’t stop please. Don’t stop.”

She was pleading. Her voice was hoarse and needy, and each demand came out in a short burst of air.

He drew back and then pumped deep just as his thumb rolled in a tight circle.

She cried out and tensed. Her fingers curled into balls, into fists so tight that her hands shook with the strain. Cascades of color flashed, little and big spots that floated through her vision even when she closed her eyes.

Sam was thrusting hard and fast now as he sought his own release. His hoarse shouts mixed with her agonized sounds. It sounded as though she was in the worst sort of pain, but the pleasure, ah the pleasure, was so intense, so beautiful that she didn’t want it to end.

She reached down to still his hand when the sensation became too intense to bear. He eased his thumb away but continued a gentle rocking motion that sent his cock gliding through tissues slick with his release.

Finally he stopped, lodged deep within her. She didn’t move for fear of displacing him, and she lay there simply enjoying the feeling of being so intimately connected to this man.

He kissed her back, rubbed his thumb in circles around the ball of her shoulder and then kissed her again, his erratic breaths sending goose bumps over her skin.

“I need you.”

His voice was quiet and regretful, as if he had no liking for the admission and hated voicing it even more. She wondered why he’d been honest; maybe he too was tired of all the deceit between them.

“I can’t explain it. Not sure I want to, but damn it, I need you, Sophie. It’s not just physical. It can’t be. I’ve had physical before.”

He moved slightly, and for a moment she feared he was pulling out of her, but he stayed locked tight, their bodies joined as he shifted closer to her.

He slid his hand over her waist and splayed his fingers over her belly. His grip was possessive and tender and told her more than words that he was claiming what was his.

He continued to pet and stroke her belly, his touch light and soothing. He rested his mouth on her shoulder, and neither spoke. She floated on a cloud between sleep and awake, existing in a state of delicious lethargy. Finally she dozed, and only came awake when she felt him finally pull away in a warm rush of fluid.

“Be right back,” he said.

He returned with a warm towel and gently cleaned between her legs. Then he settled next to her in bed once more and pulled her in close to him.

“Don’t we have to leave?” she mumbled.

“No, not yet. My team will notify me when it’s safe.”

She stirred and frowned. “Are we safe here, just us?”

She felt him smile against her neck.

“Yes, Soph, we’re safe. I wouldn’t risk you or our baby. I’ll know if anyone steps within ten feet of our door.”

“How?” she asked drowsily.

He chuckled. “Security. I did a lot while you were taking your bath. Sleep now and don’t worry about anything.”

She sighed as some of the postcoital euphoria faded. It was hard not to worry when she faced so much uncertainty. She still hadn’t told him everything, and when he knew, he might not want anything to do with her.

He hated her father, and if the apple didn’t fall very far from the tree, she couldn’t imagine Sam being overjoyed with spending time with her, loving her or allowing his child to be raised by a monster.

Fear churned in her stomach until she was sucking deep breaths through her nose to quiet the nausea. He couldn’t, he wouldn’t take her child from her.

She closed her eyes. She was being an idiot. Nothing of the sort was going to happen. She just had to be careful, pick the right time and make sure her uncle never got close.

And the last she couldn’t do without Sam.

CHAPTER 17

SAM woke to a warm, sweet body sprawled across him and a tiny pitter-patter thumping him in the side. It took him a moment to process that it was his child kicking him.

He smiled and slid his hand down Sophie’s spine, down to cup her plump little rear as he lay there soaking up the utter domesticity of the scene.

His woman, limp and sated, draped across him in a possessive manner that gave him a ridiculous sense of satisfaction, and his child, waking him up with a tiny foot to his gut.

If the little imp was anything like her mama, he was in for a hell of a ride.

As he continued to caress her behind, she stirred and murmured something against his neck before burrowing deeper into his arms.

“What was that?” he asked against her ear.

“Shower,” she muttered. “I need one. But God, I don’t want to get up.”

“Then don’t.”

He tightened his hold on her, content to stay just like this. He raised his hand from her hip to check his watch and then lazily trailed his fingers down to the cleft of her ass.

Chill bumps raced across her back, and he soothed them away with his palm. For a long moment, she lay there, the only sound her soft breathing against his neck.

Yeah, he liked it. He’d liked it five months ago and he liked it now.

Finally she shoved herself up, and her blond hair spilled over his chin. To his surprise, she leaned down and kissed him.

It wasn’t a tentative brush but a hot, open-mouthed kiss that sent a surge of electricity through his body.

She drew away, and her pupils dilated until there was only a thin ring of blue around the black. She laid her palm over his jaw and let her thumb glide across his lips.

“Why’d you tie me up before?”

He blinked. “Huh?”

“That time in the hotel. You tied me up.”

His chest shook as laughter escaped. “I don’t know. It seemed like the thing to do at the time. Maybe I’m a kinky bastard. Did you like it?”

She seemed to think about it as she cocked her head to the side.

“Maybe.”

He leaned up and kissed her quickly on the mouth.

“Then maybe I’ll do it again sometime.”

Her eyes widened and went even darker. He smiled. Oh yeah, she’d liked it. The thing was, he didn’t really know why he’d done it. At the time he’d wanted her completely at his mercy, and the idea of her tied to his bed had been a huge turn-on. Not that he needed much encouragement around her.

“Okay, I’m really going to take a shower now,” she said.

She tried to push away, but he caught her against him and then rolled with her until he was over her, staring down into wide swirls of blue.

His cock ached like a son of a bitch, and when she squirmed, the tip brushed through swollen, damp folds. He groaned and pushed, forcing his way through tight, liquid heat. She gasped and surged upward.

“Oh fuck,” he whispered. “This is going to be quick.”

He thrust and felt his skin peel away, leaving him raw and exposed. He tried to be gentle. He needed to be gentle, now of all times, when she was still sleepy and unprepared, but her channel hugged him, had a stranglehold on his cock.

Her nails scoured his back and then dug in. He thrust and rocked, and she opened her legs wider to take him.

When she whispered his name in sweet, husky acceptance, he lost it. He came apart while she held him. Her hands, like little feathers, whispered up and down his back.

He swallowed and tried to regain his composure, but he felt shattered by this one, quick encounter. He shook almost uncontrollably and went suddenly weak.

He lowered himself to her, and she enveloped him in her embrace. He buried his face against her neck and inhaled her feminine scent.

“Sorry, baby. Sorry.”

She turned her head until her lips met the skin behind his ear. She kissed, just once, and whispered softly, “Don’t be sorry for wanting me, Sam.”

He pushed himself up. “Never that. I’m just sorry I was such an inconsiderate asshole.”

She smiled. “Come take a shower with me.”

“No soak in the tub today?”

She shook her head. “No just a quick shower and then you can feed me again. When will we have to leave?”

He checked his watch, wondering the same thing.

“You go ahead to the shower. I’ll call and check in, make sure everything’s going according to plan.”

He carefully pulled himself away and then reached a hand to help her out of bed. He watched her walk into the bathroom, mesmerized by the gentle sway of her ass.

She was one beautiful pregnant woman. He’d always thought that pregnant women were beautiful. He loved to look at them, at the swollen lushness of their bodies, the spark in their eyes, and imagine the softness of their skin. But nothing had prepared him for the reality of a woman pregnant with his child.

He shook himself back to awareness. The devil of it was he knew he was on a clear collision course with something he wasn’t prepared to deal with, but at the moment he didn’t care.