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Her hair had been gathered on top of her head, with one long lock curling around her neck and falling down to graze the rise of her breasts, and she wore the simple waterfall necklace of glittering rubies that he’d bought for her.
She looked beautiful. Exquisite. And so luscious he wanted to take a bite out of her.
‘You really don’tlike these things, do you?’ she asked quietly, a crease between her brows as she studied him. ‘Why not?’
He didn’t know how she managed to always know what he was feeling. It was as if she had some kind of inbuilt radar automatically attuned to him, and he should have found it as annoying as he had a couple of weeks earlier, when she’d first come to him in New York with news of her pregnancy. But for some reason, he didn’t now. He had, after all, given her a little piece of himself back in Greece, when he’d first revealed his London plans to her, revealing that he didn’t like social engagements.
You didn’t have to tell her you were broken, though.
No, he didn’t. But he hadn’t been able to lie to her, tell her he could give her something that he couldn’t. She had to know that there was a part of him that didn’t work properly, that couldn’t be fixed. It wasn’t fair otherwise.
He put his hand over hers where it rested on his thigh, the warmth of her skin a comfort he hadn’t anticipated. ‘I find them a waste of time. Small talk is pointless and no one wants to talk about anything of any value.’
She smiled. ‘You must be fun at parties.’
‘I don’t like parties,’ he said.
Her dark eyes sparkled. ‘I’m teasing you, Bear.’
He couldn’t think when she smiled at him that way. There were literally no thoughts in his head right now except how velvety and soft her eyes looked, and how biteable her mouth was, and how silky her skin seemed. How her smile made him want to check the sky through the window to see if the sun had somehow come out, even though it was night.
And a sudden realisation caught at him in an intense, breath-stealing rush: he couldn’t let her go after this. Not after they got back to Greece, and definitely not after their twins were born. He couldn’t let her go. Not ever.
He wanted to tell her, right here, right now, that she wasn’t ever to leave him, that she couldn’t, but he bit down hard on the words. Not now. Later, after the gala, he’d tell her. When they had some privacy enough that he could convince her to take his ring. He’d tell her anything she wanted to hear if it meant she’d agree to be his wife.
They couldn’t stay long here anyway, not given her condition. The doctor had okayed the event, but told him that Nell could stay only a couple of hours at most, and that she wasn’t to be on her feet the whole time.
So he didn’t speak and instead gripped her hand, and when the driver opened the limo door, he got out first, then helped her from the car and into the glare of the paparazzi’s cameras.
She was smiling as she stared around, gripping tight to his hand, and the paparazzi began calling his name and taking pictures. Wanting to know who she was and what she was wearing, all the usual things.
Strangely, he found himself smiling too, watching her excitement at all the fuss.
‘Do I tell them who I am?’ she asked as they walked up the stairs hand in hand.
‘Do you want to?’ he murmured back. ‘Or would you rather be my mystery woman?’ He’d thought she might prefer that, but he hadn’t been sure. Yet her mischievous smile confirmed that he’d been right, which made him feel extremely pleased with himself.
‘Definitely your mystery woman,’ she said, and gave him a look from beneath her lashes that nearly incinerated him with desire on the spot. He didn’t know how he was going to last the next few months of her pregnancy without touching her. It would likely kill him.
But while not touching her was a torture, the gala itself turned out to be the best he’d ever attended in his entire life. It had nothing to do with the venue or the occasion, and everything to do with Nell.
Nell’s hand in his and her excitement as they went inside and she kept pointing out celebrities, politicians, and the odd royal. Then her asking questions about who the other people were—CEOs like himself and other industry leaders—and so he spent a good deal of time telling her who they were and explaining what industries they were in.
Nell, and how she glittered as brightly as her ruby necklace, catching fire from the auburn glints in her hair and the deep red of her mouth.
Nell, and how she somehow managed to make the conversation with people flow so easily and so naturally, it made him wonder why he’d ever found it so difficult.
Nell, who made him find out what charity this was in aid of and then, when he discovered it was a children’s charity, wanted to be introduced to the CEO and then had a long discussion with them about children in need.
He stood by her side, watching her, unable to take his eyes off her. Listening to her talk confidently about kids and what they needed, and how important it was to the future of society to look after the children of today.
It mystified him how he could ever have thought that she was somehow less intelligent than any of his dates. Bewildered him how he could ever have looked down on her choice of career. Puzzled him how he’d managed to get this far in life without her in it.
Because if she wasn’t in it, he didn’t know if he could survive.
That’s why you have to hold onto her. She can’t leave you. She can’t ever leave you, yet you know she might. After all, your mother left you...
Ice wound through him, turning his fingertips numb. No, that thought was wrong. Nell wouldn’t leave him. How could she? He was the father of her children; she had to stay with him. She didn’t have the support she needed at home and, also, she was happy; he was certain of it.