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“I agree completely.” He whispered against her mouth.
Chapter 16
She closed her eyes and purred as he hit the spot on her feet. His clever fingers kneaded the tight muscles and sent satisfaction coursing through her body. As soon as she opened her eyes, she read the expression on his handsome face and knew what was coming.
“Okay, fine. Let’s hear it.”
“Hear what?” His tone was deceptively mild as he continued to massage the skin.
“I can hear you thinking.” She wriggled her toes and eased back on the pillows.
“Your extraordinary talents stretches to mind reading now? I am impressed.”
“Okay, knock off the sarcasm. I am overdoing it. Satisfied?”
“Are you overdoing it?” His tone was still mild as his hands slid up towards her calves and started on them. “Are you suggesting that being six months pregnant with a series of pregnancy related complications should at least have you slowing down.” He efficiently pressed his fingers against the tight flesh and almost had her singing.
“It was just nausea, dreadful episodes and yes, swollen ankles. I refuse to let anything like that slow me down. Besides, I am your wife and that means I have to be by your side.
Not to mention the fact that those amoral bitches have been coming left right and center. Apparently bearing your name and carrying your son means nothing to them. Who the hell was that bitch wearing the tight red dress?”
He ducked his head and concentrated fiercely on his task, biting back a smile. He did not think his wife would appreciate his humor at the moment.
“Her name is Gabrielle, and we met in France.”
“You slept with her, didn’t you?”
“Technically, we did not sleep...,” he caught the fierce expression on her lovely face and decided some diplomacy and careful thinking was called for.
“It was a very long time ago.”
“How long?”
“Too long for me to recall.” Lifting her left foot, he tried to distract her by pulling her big toe into his mouth. But either she was not in the mood, or the subject was far too interesting for her to let it go.
“She was all over you.”
With a sigh, he put her foot down and continued the massage. “She was just giving me a hug. European women tend to be … handsy and very expressive.” That got him a kick in the stomach and a dark frown.
“You kissed her.”
“On the cheek. Darling, why are we having this discussion and why has it suddenly changed from the fact that I am mad at you for insisting on coming everywhere with me?” He frowned at her.
“Bad enough, you insisted on being there for the opening of ‘The Duchesse’” – the hotel had finally had its grand opening and as predicted it had been spectacular.
They had spent a week in Paris seeing to the details and attending the grandiose opening. Her ideas had been incorporated in the design and had been wildly successful. “But you have been to several dinners which I could tell from the look on your very expressive face that you were bored out of your skull.”
“I want to be with you.”
He eyed her for a minute, before turning to pick up the bottle of cocoa butter cream he rubbed on her stomach every night.
“Sherrian.”
“What?”
“I would like to think that I do not have to prove myself to you. I have been in love with you for almost three years now and that love has grown even stronger. What is going on?”
“I am pregnant!” She muttered, placing a hand over her belly. After suffering from some acute nausea, she had gone past that and was now eating everything in sight. She often complained both to her husband and Michael that she felt like a very pregnant elephant.