A Royal Baby Surprise (The Sherdana 2)

She blinked. “What do you mean?”

“What happens after the fun?” While hot water ran into the sink, he propped his hip against the counter and crossed his arms. “Have you thought about what happens when we leave this island and go our separate ways?”

Her shoulders sagged. “I head back to California and my dream job.”

“And I start looking for a wife.” To his surprise, he’d managed to get the last word in.

Deciding to capitalize on his advantage, he scrounged up the CD with Sherdanian folk music Ariana had given him for his birthday several years earlier. As the first notes filled the air, he extended his hand in Brooke’s direction. “Get over here. It’s time for you to learn a traditional Sherdanian country dance.”

Five

Nic woke to the smell of coffee and tickle of something in his ear. He reached up to brush away the irritation and heard a soft chuckle. The mattress behind him dipped. His eyes flew open as a hand drifted over his shoulder and a pair of lips slid into the erogenous zone behind his earlobe.

“You sleep like the dead,” Brooke murmured. “I have been taking advantage of you for the last fifteen minutes.”

“I doubt that.” But oh, the idea that she might have hastened his body’s awakening.

“Don’t be so sure.” She sounded awfully damned confident as she snuggled onto the bed behind him, a thin sheet the only barrier between them as she traced the curve of his backside with her knee, running it down along the back of his thigh. As if this caress wasn’t provocative enough, she wiggled her pelvis against his butt, aligning her delicious curves against his back from heel to shoulders. “I know you’re not wearing any underwear.”

“You’re guessing.”

“Am not.” Her palm drifted along his arm, riding the curve of his biceps. Her touch wasn’t sexual; she was more like a sculptor admiring a fine marble statue. “I peeked.”

He couldn’t even gather enough breath to object. What the hell was she doing to him? Reminded of her threat the night before, Nic knew that letting her get her fill of touching him would only lead to further frustration on his part and more boldness on hers. Yet, he couldn’t prevent his curiosity from seeing how far she intended to go.

“How long have you been awake?” he asked as her fingers stole up his neck and into his hair. He closed his eyes and savored the soothing caress.

“A couple hours. I went for a swim, started the coffee and grew bored with my own company, so I decided it was time to wake you. How am I doing?”

Brat.

“I’m fully awake,” he growled. “Thank you. Now, why don’t you run along and fix breakfast while I take a shower.”

“Want some company?”

Her mouth opened in a wet kiss on his shoulder. Nic bit back a curse. The swirl of her tongue on his skin caused his hips to twitch. The erection he’d been trying to ignore grew painfully hard.

“Didn’t we come to an understanding last night about this being a bad idea?”

“That was your opinion,” she corrected. “I think we wasted a perfectly lovely night dancing around your living room when we could have set fire to this big bed of yours.”

“Set fire?” Amusement momentarily clouded his desire to roll her beneath him and make her come over and over. She had the damnedest knack for tickling his funny bone.

“Set fire. Tear up the sheets.”

He shifted onto his back so he could see her face. Bare of makeup, lips soft with invitation, eyes shadowed by long reddish lashes, her beauty stopped his breath. He cupped her pale cheek in his palm while his heart contracted in remorse. For five months he’d savored the notion of spending the rest of his life with her. He’d claimed her body and given her his heart. At the time, with Gabriel’s wedding to Olivia fast approaching and the future of Sherdana safely in their hands, Nic believed he could at last have the life he wanted with the woman who made him happy. It wasn’t fair that circumstances had interfered with his plans for the future, but that’s the way it was.

His hand fell away from her soft skin. “You know we can’t do this.”

“Damn it, Nic.”

The next thing he knew, she’d straddled him. Astonished by her swift attack and trapped between her strong, supple thighs, Nic reached for the pillow behind his head and dug his fingers in. The challenge in her green-gray gaze helped him maintain control—barely. She settled her hot center firmly over his erection and smirked as his hips lifted off the mattress to meet her partway. She obviously intended to push him past his limits. To incite him to act. He clenched his teeth and held himself immobile.

She put her palms on his chest and leaned forward. “I’m sad and I hate feeling this way. I want to be blissfully happy for just a little while. To forget about the future and just live in the moment.”

Where she touched him, he burned. The curtain of her hair swung forward. Still damp from her swim, it brushed against his cheek. He gathered a handful and gently tugged.

“It’s not that I don’t want that, too,” he began and stopped. She couldn’t know that what he felt for her went way beyond physical attraction. “I just can’t see where that’s going to be good for either of us.”