Wife: Bought and Paid For

‘Ow. Woman, that hurt,’ Solo said, his eyes glinting devilishly down into hers. ‘But maybe you’re right. By then I was so desperate to have you that nothing could have stopped me. Almost four years without a woman is hell on the old libido,’ Solo husked, and lowered his head, stealing her mouth again in a kiss like no other they had shared before, a kiss of love and commitment freely given and a promise for the future.

‘I…you…Solo…really?’ She was filled with awe. ‘You didn’t…’

‘Believe it.’ He pressed her back against the sofa. ‘I was waiting for you, no one else would do.’ His mouth captured hers again as one hand slipped under the lapel of her robe, cupping her breast.

Immediately Penny was aching for him, but, breaking the kiss, she pulled his hand from her breast and, holding it in her own, she looked into his eyes. There was something more she needed to know. ‘Then why after we made love the first time were you so cold, and demanded we marry on a temporary basis?’

‘Because I dare not face another rejection.’ The look he gave her was full of self-mockery and, lifting her hand to his mouth, he kissed the wedding band on her finger. ‘I figured once I got you wearing my ring and in my bed, time was on my side. I thought I had succeeded on our honeymoon, but when we got back to England and I suggested we could travel together and you turned me down flat…’ He let go of her hand and curved his own around the back of her neck, holding her face up to his, and looking deep into her green eyes. ‘It felt like another rejection, Penny, and I couldn’t take any more. I didn’t know whether to love you or hate you, all I knew was that you loved that old house a hell of a lot more than me.’

She saw the flash of anguish in his eyes that he could not disguise, and her heart wept for him. This proud, wonderful man, so scared by his childhood, he didn’t believe anyone could love him, she realised. ‘So that was why you were in a temper. I wondered but I was afraid to ask, because I thought you were already tired of me.’ Penny traced the outline of his lips with a loving finger, determined to let him know it was all right to be afraid by revealing her own doubts. Love was a scary emotion, but she had to show him how much she adored him. ‘I loved our honeymoon and it was there on the tiny beach I realised I still loved you, Solo. I’d always loved you, and I did not want our marriage to ever end, still don’t,’ Penny admitted huskily.

Solo looked at her with brilliant eyes. ‘You and I both,’ he declared in a voice that was not quite steady. ‘The last day at the cabin as we were leaving, you said you wanted to return one day. I looked at you, and wiped a tear from your cheek and said no problem, I would drive you across from England any time you wanted. But in my head I thought I would drive you to the ends of the earth if you asked. I was struck dumb. That was the moment, when I finally admitted to myself I loved you, and I was scared.’

Penny closed her arms around his neck and smiled up at him, her eyes shining with love and something else. ‘I’m so happy I wasn’t just bought and paid for.’

‘Never.’ Solo lowered his dark head, murmuring huskily, ‘I love you as you love me.’ He covered her face and throat with tiny kisses. ‘And I’m never letting you go again,’ he declared adamantly, pulling her onto his lap and kissing her thoroughly.

‘I’m afraid you will have to,’ Penny suddenly cried, and slid off his lap and dashed for the hall cloakroom.

‘Penny, please.’ Solo followed her. She couldn’t leave him now; she couldn’t change her mind. For a second he froze. She was leaning over the toilet bowl being violently sick. Oh, Dio! What had he done to her now? ‘Penny, cara.’ He leant over her, placing a supporting hand around her head and another around her waist. ‘What’s wrong?’

Penny straightened up, washed her mouth out at the vanity basin, and sank back against the hard length of his body. ‘I’m fine now for the rest of the day—it only lasts for a couple of minutes.’ She felt his arms wrap around her stomach, and smiled at his image in the mirror in front of her. Her stony-faced husband looked sicker than she felt, and she smiled. ‘I’m pregnant, we are pregnant.’ Suddenly she was lifted up in his arms and carried back to the living room.

‘Oh, my God, you better lie down.’ Solo deposited her on the sofa and knelt on the floor. ‘You’re sure?’ His silver eyes glistened ‘When, how?’

A mischievous smile parted her full lips and, rising up, she pulled Solo up onto the sofa beside her. No longer shy but all sensuous woman, with a slender hand she traced the outline of firm jaw, then trailed one finger down his strong throat and lower to scrape over a cotton-covered, hard male nipple, and she felt his body shudder.

‘You know very well how, Solo.’ A tiny grin flirted around the edge of her mouth. ‘As for the when, probably the first time we made love.’

Powerful hands burrowed under the towelling robe and pulled her close so her naked breast brushed his broad chest. Gleaming silver eyes burnt into hers. ‘You have made me the happiest man alive, and the randiest right at this moment.’ Solo groaned. His dark head dipped, and his mouth claimed hers as his hand cupped one firm breast.

‘Solo, you’re here! Are you coming to the zoo?’ James asked.

A wave of frustration went through him. Solo quickly adjusted Penny’s robe, and crossed his legs. He looked balefully at the little boy standing in the doorway. Then it hit him. Very soon he might have a son of his own. ‘James.’ He grinned broadly. ‘Sorry, but I can’t come to the zoo with you today.’ Never one to miss a chance, as Jane walked in behind the boy he continued smoothly, ‘Penny isn’t feeling too well. So I am going to stay and look after her, while you and Jane go to the zoo.’

‘Nice try, Solo,’ Jane said with a glance at her friend’s and her husband’s flushed faces, and, guessing exactly what they had been doing, she was glad. ‘But Penny is driving.’ She grinned.

‘No problem,’ Solo drawled. ‘I’ll get the firm’s limousine to take you both—it will be much safer that way,

and you will have a man to help you around.’ His grey eyes gleamed wickedly at Jane. ‘The female staff are of the opinion the chauffeur is rather handsome and he’s single, Jane, but make sure you bring him back. I’m taking Penny and James home tonight.’

Jane started to laugh. ‘I can see why Penny loves you—you’re a devil.’

‘Alone at last,’ Solo husked, walking towards Penny.

Breakfast over, Jane and James had left in the limousine for the zoo.

Penny, showered and dressed in a cotton print dress, was leaning against the kitchen sink having just finished washing the dishes.

‘I thought they were never going to leave. Let’s go upstairs.’ Penny agreed.

‘You really are devious.’ Penny gasped as Solo slipped her dress down over her hips. ‘I heard you tell the chauffeur not to come back until after six, and you’d pay him double.’ She grinned up at him, her eyes shining with love and something more.

Solo laughed and pulled her into his arms. He had already stripped off, and his perfectly honed body gleamed golden in the daylight, his silver eyes sparked into hers. ‘So I have a lot of time to make up for.’

‘You’re incorrigible.’ Penny planted a kiss on his sensuous mouth, and nibbled on his bottom lip as his hands shaped her waist and thighs and slowly moved back up to remove her bra and cup her full breasts, his thumbs deliberately teasing the rigid, dusky peaks. Penny closed her eyes, breathing deeply as wave after wave of pleasure surged from her breasts to her thighs. Solo’s husky-voiced, ‘If I don’t have you soon I’ll die,’ had her eyes flying open just as they tumbled back on the bed.

Solo looked into her eyes. He was breathing fast, his own eyes gleaming. ‘I love you, Penny,’ he said in a deep voice raw with feeling, then his mouth was on hers, hot, hard and insistent.