When he turned back to the shower, he saw that she was waiting, gaze fixed on him, and it wasn’t worry he saw in her eyes now, it was need. Fresh. Raw. Powerful. He’d never been with a woman so in tune with his own desires. Mia was more than a match for him in so many damn ways he couldn’t even count them all. But at the moment, it was their identical cravings that pulled at him.
He went back to her, and as the shower jets pummeled at their bodies, he levered himself over her and pushed himself into her depths.
Like every time with Mia, that first slide into her heat was a welcome into heaven. He felt surrounded by her, his body cradled within hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled his face down for a kiss, and he let himself drown in her. The heat of her. The sexual draw between them was overpowering, all consuming. And yet it wasn’t just sex that simmered between them.
It was the connection he still feared and couldn’t trust.
He moved inside her, pushing them both toward the climax he knew would crush him. Dave felt her shiver. Felt the first of the tremulous quakes racking her body and when she surrendered to them, he went with her. Giving himself up to what he had only found with Mia. The completion. The rush of pleasure, excitement and peace that existed only when he was in her arms.
* * *
A half hour later, they were dried off and in his bedroom. As she took a pair of jeans from a dresser drawer and tugged them on, he asked, “Sure you wouldn’t rather just wrap up in robes? Be easier than getting out of all these clothes again later.”
She whipped her hair back from her face and gave him a wicked smile that set his insides on fire. “A few clothes won’t slow you down. Think of it as a challenge. Plus, I’m not cooking naked and I’m hungry.”
He laughed. “Of course you are.”
“Besides,” she said as she tugged a long-sleeved, dark red sweater on over her head, “we still have to talk.”
“Right.” He grabbed a pair of his own jeans and pulled them on. He didn’t bother with underwear, since his plan was to get her naked again as soon as he’d fed her. “Can’t forget the talk. So. Before we head to the kitchen, you want to show me what my mom brought for you?”
She pointed. “It’s in that box by the fire.”
He spotted it on the table between the two armchairs. Barefoot and shirtless, he walked over and pulled the lid off. Beneath a layer of tissue paper was a white, lacy baby dress slightly yellowed from age. “What the—”
“It was your christening gown.”
“Gown?” He turned around and stared at her, horrified. “I wore a dress?”
Mia laughed shortly and shook her head. “That’s what’s bothering you about this?”
“Hell, yes. Boys don’t wear dresses.”
“Not a dress. A gown.”
“Same damn thing if you ask me.” He dropped the offending item back into the box and set the lid in place again. “Why would she bring it to—” He broke off, tipped his head back and stared at the ceiling. “Oh, crap.”
“Exactly.” Mia sat on the edge of the bed, her bare feet dangling inches above the floor. “She brought it to me so we could use it for our baby’s christening.”
Mia wants four children. He could hear the glee in his mother’s voice still. Four kids. And here’s the dress they get to wear, poor things. Kids weren’t in his plans, Dave reminded himself sternly even while a weird feeling crept over him. His mind provided an image to match that weird feeling and suddenly he had the mental picture of Mia, pregnant with his child. Even through the wave of terror the image projected, he could admit to himself that she looked lovely pregnant.
But there weren’t going to be any babies.
He gave the closed box another glare and rubbed at the ache in the center of his chest. “This has gotten out of hand.”
“I know.”
Fixing his gaze on hers, he said, “You should have let me tell her the truth.”
“I couldn’t. She was so happy, Dave. So excited. So pleased for you and happy for us.” Shaking her head, Mia sighed. “Alice has spent the past two days telling me all about you, showing me pictures of you as a child. She’s…” Mia shrugged helplessly again. “I just couldn’t tell her. And I couldn’t let you, either.”
“Mia, she’s got to know.” He wasn’t looking forward to breaking that news, but he knew it had to be done.
Her voice was soft, but there was steel in her words when she said, “Please don’t make me a liar to your mother.”