‘Everyone needs someone, Kimmie.’
She turned to stare at Kris as they walked out of the room. ‘Think about when you have the baby,’ he added persuasively. ‘You’re going to need some help then.’
‘Lots of women manage on their own,’ she pointed out.
‘But you don’t have to.’
‘And you don’t have an ulterior motive in coming up with this sudden proposal of marriage?’ she pressed.
‘Why would I?’ he said with an easy shrug.
But he’d paused before answering. Had her question thrown him? ‘I don’t know why you’d do it,’ Kimmie admitted. ‘Perhaps because you need an heir for your company, and a son for you?’
He gave her a sideways look. ‘Or a daughter,’ he corrected her.
Having successfully shifted the awkward conversation on to a safer track, he added, ‘Now who’s being blinkered? I might be many things, but no one could accuse me of being a dinosaur.’
‘Of course not,’ Kimmie agreed. ‘It was just a figure of speech,’ she said quietly.
‘If you’ve got time,’ he said as they crossed the lobby, ‘I’d like you to meet my uncle. Perhaps he can reassure you.’
‘As to your motives in proposing to me?’
‘As to my good character,’ Kris said dryly. ‘He’s in town at the moment, so it’s a great opportunity for the two of you to meet.’
‘So he can give his opinion on my suitability as a wife?’ she challenged lightly.
‘You are suspicious,’ Kris countered with a shrug and a sideways look.
Maybe with good reason, Kimmie thought bitterly.
‘Anyway, I’ve made the offer,’ Kris told her as they approached the door. ‘It’s up to you whether or not you accept it.’
She frowned thoughtfully.
‘Bed?’ he said.
Kimmie blinked as she glanced at the bank of lifts. Was he serious?
‘You look tired,’ Kris added. ‘You should probably go back home now.’
Ah. Okay. She breathed a silent sigh of relief, though her body was less enthusiastic about the way things had turned out. Sensibly, she reasoned the gulf between them was too wide to ever consider staying together permanently and, however charming Kris’s uncle might be, nothing could persuade Kimmie to change her mind. It was too soon in every way possible. The wall around her heart was just as high, while her determination to remain independent remained unchanged.
‘I’ll pick you up tomorrow,’ he said, ‘and we’ll walk through the park if it’s sunny. A good dose of fresh air is what we both need to get things out in the open and talk.’
Would Kris get things out in the open?
‘I’ve had a lovely evening,’ she said as they walked outside to where his limo was waiting.
‘My driver will take you home. I’ll stay here tonight,’ he explained. ‘I have a suite,’ he added.
Of course he had a suite. And a town house in London, by all accounts. That gulf between them wasn’t just wide, it was unbridgeable, and she was a fool to imagine otherwise, to hope things could be different.
‘Tomorrow,’ he said as he helped her into the car.
‘Tomorrow,’ she confirmed, feeling a rush of excitement in spite of her nagging doubt. Kris in charming mode was irresistible, and shouldn’t a truly independent woman be free to follow her heart?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
TO HELL WITH THAT, he thought just as his driver closed his door and buckled up.
‘Wait! I’m coming with you.’
Kimmie was speechless, which was just as well. He didn’t want to waste time talking. Telling the driver to head for his town house rather than Kimmie’s flat, he raised the privacy panel and settled back. They were completely enclosed and private in a vehicle with blacked-out windows. The consequences of that were inevitable. Neither of them needed to speak. Hunger suppressed too long required an outlet. They reached for each other at exactly the same time. No thought went into it as they grappled and tugged at each other’s clothes. His hand was where he needed it to be...on Kimmie’s plump warmth, while her two hands were wrapped firmly around his erection.
‘Not yet... Let me,’ she said, sliding onto her knees on the carpeted floor.
This wasn’t a request, he gathered, but an instruction. Pressing back against the seat, he opened his legs wide so she could kneel between them. Wrapping her mouth around him, she sucked and licked while he laced his fingers through her hair to keep her close. He had no need to bind her in any way at all, as Kimmie made it plain that she had no intention of going anywhere.
‘Pleasuring you gives me pleasure,’ she told him as she paused to take a breath. ‘How responsive you are. I love that!’
Groaning rhythmically, he hardened still more beneath her increasingly skilful attention. ‘You’re very good at this,’ he observed.
‘Are you surprised when I have the very best of subjects to work on?’
She smiled and continued, barely breaking the insistent rhythm until finally he couldn’t hold back any longer and thrust deeply and repeatedly into her eager mouth. It took a long time for his breathing to steady, and when it had he helped her onto the seat beside him. ‘Your turn now,’ he said.
‘Oh, that’s really not necessary,’ she protested.
‘But I say it is.’
‘Okay,’ she agreed on an excited, shaking breath. She gasped as he found her with the slightly roughened pad of his forefinger. He knew exactly what she needed—how fast, how firm—and he wasn’t disappointed by her immediate response. ‘Again?’ he suggested. ‘I’ll take the edge off your hunger, then rouse you again when we reach the house. There’s no need to wait,’ he insisted. ‘In fact, don’t wait,’ he added as the limousine turned off the main road and onto a wide, elegant square. ‘You’ll need to be quick,’ he warned.
‘And you don’t think that’s possible?’ she asked him in the same shaking voice.
‘I do. You can and you will,’ he promised, and both delicately and intuitively he made sure that was the case.
She bucked wildly as pleasure surged through her in a series of powerful clenches. He held her firmly in place until she’d finished, and even then little aftershocks continued that made her shake and moan rhythmically. The moans became contented groans just as the limousine drew to a halt.
‘Perfect timing,’ he said as the engine was switched off. ‘Now straighten your clothes,’ he instructed briskly, ‘and I’ll reward you again just as soon as we’re in the house.’
‘Promise?’ she whispered.
‘You have my word,’ he pledged.
After thanking the driver, Kris opened the front door for Kimmie, closed it behind them and switched on the lights. That was the signal for them to lunge towards each other. ‘I want to watch you,’ he growled. ‘Gently, because of the baby,’ he warned when her fingers bit into him.
‘Yes,’ she gasped as he helped her to scramble up him.
Supporting her with his big hands on her buttocks, Kris buffeted her repeatedly against the door. The sensation was incredible, like nothing she’d ever experienced before.
‘Lean on me,’ he invited in a husky whisper. ‘Don’t think about anything but pleasure. Leave everything to me.’
How tempting was that? Irresistible. Like Kris, Kimmie reflected in the nanosecond left to her before she lost control.
* * *
Kimmie slept in his arms. She was totally exhausted, he realised as he stroked her tangled hair away from her face. First, the exhibition of her paintings, and then him turning up, as well as carrying a baby, and the passion that bound them together had also taken its toll. She looked so innocent and vulnerable as she lay completely relaxed beside him. Could he find a better wife? But persuading Kimmie he’d make an ideal husband and the best of fathers for their child might be a little harder
to pull off. For the first time he could remember, thanks to Kimmie, his personal life was extraordinary, but her independent and unpredictable nature meant he couldn’t guarantee the future.