Expectant Bride

'Ninety-two and, yes, they're completely inseparable.' Dio smiled warmly down at her and relaxed. He dropped an arm round her as he walked her up the spectacular central stair¬case. 'I'm glad you like them. I have a soft spot for my great-aunts. When my mother died, Polly and Lefki were a great comfort to me, and I've never forgotten that.'

He drew her into a fabulous bedroom furnished with the same unashamed opulence as the ground floor. Gorgeous flower arrangements scented the still air. Ellie glanced at the magnificent bed and her tummy clenched with anticipation. She looked away, her cheeks warming, embarrassed by the sensual stirrings of her own body. It was hard to credit that only a few weeks ago she had been blissfully ignorant of how powerful sexual hunger could be.

'I could do with freshening up,' she confided shyly.

'So could I,' Dio purred like a big lazy cat, casting off his jacket and tugging loose his tie.

Watching him strip, she ran out of breath and mobility. Meeting those dark golden eyes, feeling their bold, sensual glide over her taut figure, she felt her heart start to beat very fast. Naked now, his lean, bronzed, hair-roughened length a feast for her wakening senses, Dio strode over to her. He undid the buttons on her jacket one by one and eased it from her shoulders.

'I want to drive you wild,' he told her huskily.

'My imagination has already done that for you...' Ellie confided.

Releasing her bra, Dio curved his hands to the new fullness of her breasts. He smiled with sensual appreciation as she jerked and gasped at the brush of his thumbs over her urgently sensitive nipples. Suddenly intent, Dio pushed her gently down onto the bed. Following her there, he sealed his mouth hotly to a straining pink bud, laving it with his tongue and the edge of his teeth. Fiery response whooshed through her trembling tautness, provoking a driven moan from her parted lips.

Dio raised his dark head again, raw hunger in his eyes. He angled back and skimmed off her skirt. He dispensed with her remaining garments with unconcealed impatience. As he ran his burnished gaze over her pale nudity, she felt as if she was burning all over. 'You are so perfect... I need a shower just to cool off,' he confided thickly.

'Me too...'

In the spacious shower cubicle, she leant up against him beneath the energizing beat of the water. Weak and hungry as her treacherous body was, anxiety still pierced her thoughts. She wouldn't be perfect much longer. Her breasts were already fuller. Their baby would soon wreak havoc with the taut, slim figure he liked so much. Her waistline would thicken; her stomach would swell. Would Dio still find her attractive then?

‘I’m going to look like a balloon in a few months,' she muttered helplessly, unable to keep her fear to herself.

'Hmm...' Dio sighed, sliding a reflective hand down over her still flat tummy, letting his fingers splay and linger. ‘I’m looking forward to showing you off.'

'Showing me off?' Ellie echoed weakly.

Dio sank down on the comer seat and tugged her down on top of him. Angling his handsome head back, he luxuriated in the warm jets of water hitting them from all directions before he looked at her again. A slashing grin slated his wide, sensual mouth then. 'I think it must be a guy thing, agape mou. You have my baby inside you. That's a hell of a turn-on.'

'It is?' Taken aback by that assurance, Ellie stared at him.

Eyes flaming to molten gold, Dio deftly shifted her so that she sat astride him. With amusement, he watched her register the strength of his arousal for herself.

'Oh...' Suddenly bereft of breath, Ellie found her own hopelessly susceptible body reacting with violent enthusiasm to the sensual masculine threat of his.

Dio cupped her damp cheekbones and took her mouth with a hot, hungry brevity that sizzled through her every nerve-ending. 'So what are we going to do about it?' he husked.

Anything you want,' she whispered, barely able to keep her voice steady.

And, with a hungry groan of satisfaction, he took her at her word. The urgency of his need both shocked and excited her. In the aftermath of her own shattering climax, she was still trembling as he towelled her dry. By then Dio was apol¬ogising, and then laughing at the same time.

'Don't you ever tell anyone that our marriage was consum¬mated in a shower,' he breathed. 'I'd never hold my head up again!'

'Why?'

He laid her down on the magnificent bed. 'I should have been more romantic. It's our wedding night,' he reminded her with a rueful glint in his eyes that had so much appeal it tugged at her heart. 'But the thought of making love without contraception for the first time in my life made me rampant!'

'Rampant works like magic with me,' Ellie confided with a giggle, tugging him back down to her with possessive hands, surrendering to her overpowering need to keep in con¬stant physical contact.