Wife: Bought and Paid For
Penny was swept along on a great tidal wave of desire. They made love with a breathtaking, compelling, frantic urgency, an uninhibited passion that only two people who truly loved could claim. They possessed each other. As morning turned to afternoon the only sounds in the room were the murmured endearments, heavy breathing, the occasional laughter and the hoarse cries of completion.
Finally they clung together, sated and exhausted for the moment. Penny sighed. ‘You really don’t mind that I am pregnant?’
Solo leaned over her, tipped up her chin with a finger and kissed her, and it was some time later before he answered her question. He said unsteadily, ‘I’m thrilled.’
‘But how…how could it happen? How could they not know?’ Solo demanded, looking tense and anxiously down into Penny’s sparkling green eyes. ‘The doctor, I mean… The hospital… I paid for the best…’
Propped up in the bed in the master bedroom of their Italian home, Penny bit her lip to stop from laughing. Ever since she had given birth suddenly twenty-four hours ago and three weeks early in this very bed, Solo had hardly left her except to pace to the two cribs and stare. His legendary cool control had completely deserted him.
‘I seem to remember…’ she lifted a slender hand and ran it teasingly up his long thigh ‘…it had something to do with a “come on” and you.’
‘You know what I mean…’ Solo began, and paused, catching her hand on his thigh and sinking down to sit on the bed, his handsome features relaxing in a wry, if tired smile. ‘But twins, a boy and a girl, my darling, Paulo and Tina,’ he husked in wonder.
He had flatly refused to call the boy Solo, but had agreed to Paulo. In fact he had felt like Saul on the road to Damascus, redeemed by the love of Penny over the past seven months. She was his life. Solo rarely travelled on business any more; he delegated. They split their time between England and Italy. James was like a son to him, and now this…
‘The best room was booked, I had it all arranged.’ He still had trouble getting his head around it. The shock of seeing Penny in pain, and his housekeeper deliver the baby boy, had hurt and then awed him, his heart flooding with love for the tiny infant. But ten minutes later when the girl had appeared he had fainted. That the doctor had eventually arrived and declared everything was fine had done nothing to dispel his shock.
He lifted Penny’s hand to his mouth and pressed kisses to her palm, and then raised his head and gave her a serious look. ‘That’s it; we are never doing this again,’ he commanded forcibly. ‘I can’t bear to see you in pain.’
Penny felt the ripples of excitement in her palm, and grinned. ‘No more sex, then.’ She chuckled at the sudden flash of panic in his silver eyes.
‘Witch.’ His lips curved in a sensuous smile. ‘You know what I mean.’ Leaning forward, he captured her mouth in a deep, devouring kiss.
‘Yes, all your money and planning gone to pot,’ she teased when she had got her breath back. She was so happy she could burst. ‘And I don’t know what you are complaining about,’ she added with a beaming smile, looking up into his incredible silver eyes. ‘After all, you got the deal of the day. Two for the price of one!’
‘I got the deal of a lifetime and beyond when I got you, Penny.’ Solo blinked the moisture from his eyes, and gathered her into his arms. ‘You have given me the greatest gift in our two perfect babies. I love you. You’re my love, my wife, my life.’
With a heart brimming over with love and happiness, Penny stared at him, too full to speak, but she didn’t need to. Glittering silver meshed with misty green and the look they exchanged said it all…