Pregnant by the Billionaire: Pregnant with the Billionaire's Baby / Mistress: Pregnant by the Spanish Billionaire / Pregnant with the De Rossi Heir
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She eyed him challengingly. ‘You think so?’
‘I live in hopes of that being the case, yes,’ he said wryly. ‘But my invitation to come and look at my study was exactly that,’ he continued briskly as he saw a light of rebellion creeping back into those incredible blue eyes.
He had done very well by succeeding in getting her to the house in the first place without too much resistance on her part—he certainly didn’t want to push his luck.
Luccy frowned her puzzlement. ‘And why would I want to see your study?’
‘Just come and look, Luccy, hmm?’ He didn’t wait for her to prevaricate further, but took hold of her by the arm, striding out of the kitchen and through to the back of the house before throwing open another door.
If the kitchen was so neat and pristine it looked almost unused, then this room was in chaos! The huge oak desk was overflowing with papers and files and several cups of half-drunk coffee; the bin beside the desk was completely full too, and several drawers had been left open in the filing cabinets along one wall.
Luccy turned to look at Sin as he leant against the wall of the hallway outside, arms crossed over the broadness of his chest as he waited for her reaction. ‘This is a mess,’ she exclaimed, remembering belatedly that when she had visited him in his hotel suite that evening two months ago it hadn’t been particularly tidy, either.
He smiled. ‘I’m glad you approve. Wallace is under strict instructions never to enter or touch anything in this room unless he finds himself with a masochistic desire to be parted from a certain part of his anatomy!’
Luccy gave a rueful smile at the unmistakable reference. ‘And who is Wallace?’
‘Wallace is my—ah, here’s the man himself.’ He turned as a door opened further down the hallway to admit an elderly gentleman dressed in black trousers and a black waistcoat worn over a snowy white shirt, a grey tie tied meticulously at his throat.
‘You have been in the kitchen again, Master Sin,’ the elderly man—as English as Luccy was, surprisingly—tutted reprovingly.
A rebuke Sin seemed completely unconcerned by. ‘Wallace, come and say hello to Luccy Harper-O’Neill,’ he invited warmly.
‘Luccy, this is Wallace,’ he introduced once the older man had joined them.
‘Mr Wallace.’ She shook his hand, instinctively liking the kind blue eyes in the elderly man’s lined face.
‘He insists on just Wallace,’ Sin told her ruefully. ‘Apparently it isn’t the done thing in an English household to call a butler by the title of Mr,’ he confided with a gently mocking glance at the older man.
Luccy raised surprised brows. ‘You’re a butler?’
‘I consider myself more in the nature of a nursemaid, Miss Harper-O’Neill,’ the elderly man confided dryly. ‘Master Sin may be able to run a business empire with aplomb, but without my presence here I doubt that he would even be able to find a clean shirt to put on to go to work in the morning, let alone feed himself.’
‘You see what happens when someone has known you since you were two years old—you get absolutely no respect!’ Sin said good-humouredly.
Luccy found herself smiling at the obvious affection that existed between the two men.
Sin enjoyed seeing Luccy’s obvious bemusement at the addition of Wallace to his household. Maybe persuading her to stay awhile wasn’t going to be quite as difficult as he had thought it was going to be…?
He turned to Wallace. ‘I was only in your precious kitchen earlier because I was about to make some tea for Miss Harper-O’Neill.’
‘Really?’ the elderly man said. ‘Believe me, Miss Harper-O’Neill, you will be much safer if I make it. Master Sin has been known to give even boiled water a strange taste!’
‘There was something wrong with the water supply that particular day,’ Sin protested.
‘Of course there was, Master Sin,’ the manservant murmured. ‘If you would care to take Miss Harper-O’Neill out onto the terrace I will serve tea to you both directly.’
‘Luccy?’ Sin prompted as he saw she was still rather bemused by Wallace’s complete irreverence towards him. But having known the elderly butler for thirty-three of his thirty-five years, Sin considered Wallace as part of his family rather than a servant, and he knew that the affection was returned; the Sinclairs were Wallace’s family.
‘Sorry.’ Luccy grimaced at her own distraction before smiling at the elderly manservant. ‘Tea on the terrace would be lovely, thank you,’ she accepted.
‘Semi-skimmed milk would be healthier than full-fat, Wallace,’ Sin put in decisively. ‘And perhaps you could add some of your wholesome home-made biscuits, too. Anything else you would like, Luccy?’ he asked lightly.
As an afterthought, Luccy felt sure! ‘No, you seem to have it pretty well covered,’ she answered tartly.
‘What did I do this time?’ Sin asked once the two of them were outside seated at the green marble table on the terrace, the view incredible, the air warm and clear.
Her eyes flashed as she looked across at him. ‘You are going to be one of those overprotective prospective fathers!’
He gave an unapologetic shrug. ‘I just thought you should eat healthily.’
‘I know what I have to do, Sin!’
‘Then why are we arguing about it?’ he pointed out mildly.
Luccy almost growled in frustration. ‘I thought I had already made it plain that I don’t like being told what to do.’
‘Even when it’s in your own best interests?’
‘Even then!’
Sin relaxed back in his chair as he looked across at her between narrowed lids. ‘I think you’re just trying to provoke another argument…’
Maybe she was. But Luccy had seen another side of him since coming to the house, especially since meeting Wallace, and she didn’t want to actually start liking Sin. She could even fall in love with him if she allowed herself to do that!
She was only here at all because she was expecting his baby, Luccy reminded herself firmly. Sin only wanted the baby, not her.
And she would do well not to forget that!
‘Never mind,’ she dismissed. ‘I’m sure that Wallace’s tea will be wonderful.’ It was also obvious that Wallace was the reason the house looked so neat and tidy. ‘Have you lived here very long?’
Sin continued to look at her through those narrowed lids, his expression unreadable. ‘A couple of years,’ he said. ‘I got tired of living in the city.’
Luccy nodded. ‘It’s very peaceful here.’ She had often thought she might like to move out of the noise and bustle of London, but as her studio was in London it just hadn’t seemed practical.
That might have to change after the baby was born, of course…
‘I like it,’ Sin said in answer to her comment. ‘But I’m quite willing to sell up and move to a different house, either here or in England, if that’s what you decide you would like to do.’
She drew in a sharp breath. ‘Sin—’
‘Luccy?’ He quirked dark brows.
This was all going too fast for her!
Way too fast. She was barely used to the fact that she was expecting this man’s child, let alone being able to deal with the obvious repercussions of Sin knowing about it too.
‘I’m not going to be rushed into making any decisions I might regret, Sin,’ she told him firmly.
‘Of course not. Obviously we still have at least six months or so before we need to make any definite decision about where we’re going to live. But one thing I’m pretty definite on, Luccy…’ He sat forward, those grey eyes once again seeming like shimmering mercury. ‘I fully intend for you to have my wedding ring safely on your finger before they wheel you into that delivery-room, as you so daintily put it!’
As Luccy looked into those glittering grey eyes she was left in absolutely no doubt that Sin meant every word he said…
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘YOU completely took advantage of the fact that you knew I wouldn’t argue with you with Wallace present!’ Luccy protested indignantly.
Sin arched dark brows as he took in her flushed cheeks and the sparkle in her blue eyes. ‘If Wallace hadn’t been present I could hardly have asked him to make up the spare bedroom for you, now could I?’ he pointed out.
He had waited until they had eaten the tea Wallace had prepared for them—including tempting cakes as well as the delicious home-made biscuits—before mentioning the spare bedroom to the elderly man, wanting to ensure that Luccy had eaten before he introduced any more points of contention into their conversation. As making the practical arrangements for her to stay on here had been guaranteed to do!
She had seemed to relax as they had enjoyed their tea together, by tacit agreement the two of them keeping to non-controversial topics of conversation. Obviously that delicate truce had now come to an end!
‘You could at least give me credit for asking Wallace to make up the spare bedroom, rather than simply assuming you would be sharing mine,’ Sin pointed out mockingly.
‘You can make all the assumptions you like, Sin, but that won’t make them fact!’ Even that beautiful blue-black hair seemed to crackle with her indignation.
Sin gave a slow, lazy smile. ‘You look very beautiful when you’re angry.’
‘Oh, please!’ she groaned disgustedly. ‘That line is so hackneyed I can’t believe you even said it!’
His smile widened to an appreciative grin. ‘Neither can I,’ he said, sobering as he looked at her intently. ‘But I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that you really are very beautiful,’ he added with husky sincerity. ‘Even more so now you’re pregnant.’
Luccy was very aware of the lurching sensation in her chest at his compliment, a fluttering feeling in her stomach too as she became tinglingly aware of him.
Of the dark thickness of his hair, the intensity of that silver gaze, the sensual curve of his mouth, the powerful width of his chest, and the way the sunlight glittered on the dark hair on his arms as they rested on the table top.
God, she had to get away from this man for a while. Needed some time, and space, in order to get her thoughts together. She felt as if she had been completely railroaded these last few hours.
It certainly didn’t help that she was so aware of Sin that she could think of nothing else, be aware of nothing else, that memories of their lovemaking kept intruding into her thoughts, inciting a longing, a yearning, to repeat the experience…
Sin was seducing her just by being there, Luccy realised self-disgustedly. ‘Don’t you have something else you should be doing other than sitting out here with me?’ she asked suddenly.
Sin found Luccy’s thoughts easy to read as he saw the self-disgust in her eyes and the return of those lines of strain beside her mouth and eyes. ‘I should go back to the office for a couple of hours, yes,’ he acknowledged ruefully.
‘Then please do so,’ she said tautly.
Yes, Luccy most definitely wanted him out of the way for a while. So that she could regather her crumbling defences? Well, he would go along with that for the moment…
He nodded. ‘You could just relax here, read a book or take a swim perhaps, and we’ll get together again later.’
‘At which time it will be too late for me to get any flight back to England today?’ she asked.
Sin bit back his impatience. ‘Would that really be so bad, Luccy?’ he reasoned. ‘All I’m asking for at the moment is a little of your time, the chance for us to get to know each other before we decide what to do for the best.’
‘Nothing is going to change, Sin.’ She sighed. ‘No amount of us spending time together is going to alter the fact that you believe I deliberately set out to seduce you two months ago, and for reasons that were far from innocent.’
‘I was Sin that night.’ His mouth had tightened. ‘You seduced Jacob Sinclair the Third.’
‘Sin. Jacob Sinclair the Third.’ She shrugged. ‘They’re one and the same person.’
‘Actually, they’re not,’ Sin bit out.
‘I see no distinction.’
She didn’t want to see a distinction, Sin recognised wryly. Only time would show her that there most definitely was one.
He stood up. ‘You’ll find plenty of books to read in the sitting-room. The pool and hot tub are at the back of the house—although I’m not sure you should go in the hot tub,’ he added with a frown. ‘I seem to remember reading on the instructions that pregnant women shouldn’t go in.’
Her mouth twisted derisively. ‘That’s only if you put the jets on.’
‘Right. But maybe you should stay out of there, anyway—’
‘I think I’m old enough to make my own mind up, Sin!’
He sighed, already knowing from the way Luccy refused to drink any alcohol that she was being conscientious about what she should and shouldn’t be doing during her pregnancy. He needed to back off a little.
‘Just ring for Wallace if you want anything, hmm?’
‘But stay out of his kitchen?’ Luccy offered.
‘That only applies to me,’ Sin retorted. ‘I’m sure he won’t object in the least if you go in there. I assure you that Wallace is as susceptible as the next man to the charms of a beautiful woman,’ he added dryly. ‘My mother has him wrapped about her elegant little finger!’ He paused beside Luccy’s chair to bend down and place a light kiss on her lips.
Luccy was completely unprepared for the caress, her response instinctive as her lips parted beneath his, deepening and lengthening the kiss as one of Sin’s hands moved to curve lightly about the nape of her neck.
Sin straightened reluctantly several minutes later to look down at the flushed confusion on Luccy’s face. ‘I’ll only be a couple of hours,’ he promised huskily. ‘Just tell Wallace if there’s anything you particularly feel like eating for dinner this evening.’
He found himself strangely reluctant to leave. Strangely, because Sin had never allowed a woman, any woman, to interfere with his work before, and yet unbidden thoughts of Luccy these last few months had done so constantly. This reluctance to leave her now was completely out of character, too.
Get a grip, Sinclair, he instantly instructed himself; Luccy had already shown him quite clearly that she didn’t feel the same reluctance to be parted from him!
Even so he found himself lingering unnecessarily. ‘You’ll be okay here on your own?’
Luccy’s eyes widened. ‘Of course. Besides, I won’t be alone, will I?’ she added pointedly as Wallace came quietly out onto the terrace to clear away the tea things.
Sin gave the elderly man an affectionate glance. ‘I suppose not. Wallace knows where to reach me if you should—’
‘Sin, I’m not going to leave without first telling you, if that’s what’s worrying you.’ She arched mocking ebony brows. ‘After all, you know where I work, remember?’
Had Sin felt that reluctance to go back into the city because he was worried Luccy might take advantage of his absence to leave?
No, he trusted Luccy enough to at least believe that if she said she would stay here tonight, then she would do it. Besides, he did know where she worked!
His hesitation was for quite another reason, he recognised with an inward frown. In spite of everything he was still totally physically aware of Luccy. At the same time, he felt protective because she was carrying his child. Even if it was a protectiveness that Luccy obviously resented.
‘Sin, will you just go to work?’ Luccy said with a little laugh as he remained beside her. ‘I really don’t need a nursemaid.’
‘I’m well aware of the fact that you’re a grown woman.’
‘Then try treating me like one!’
He looked down at her silently for several more seconds before giving an abrupt nod of his head. ‘I should be back in plenty of time for dinner,’ he rasped harshly before turning sharply on his heel and walking back inside the house.
Luccy stared after him. What on earth had all that been about?
Maybe Sin was just feeling the strain of them being together here? After all, he was no more used to sharing his home with anyone—the devoted Wallace apart—than she was.
Well, Sin needn’t worry too much about that; Luccy had no intention of staying on here any longer than she absolutely had to in order to convince Sin that she was quite capable of taking care of herself—and anyone else who came along!
‘What the—? Sin, you scared the hell out of me!’ The water swirled wildly about Luccy as she surged up in the hot tub—minus the jets—to turn and glare at him, at the same time dislodging his hands from where they had been cupping her breasts beneath the water.
Sin looked down at her unrepentantly, his shirt sleeves dripping with water from being submerged in the hot tub.
He had returned to the house only a few minutes ago and learnt from Wallace that Luccy was outside on the deck relaxing in the hot tub, sparing only a few seconds to discard the jacket to his suit before going outside to join her.
Sin had watched her unobserved for several minutes. Luccy was obviously completely relaxed as she lay back in the warm water with her eyes closed, the slight smile that curved her lips telling him that her thoughts were at least pleasant ones.
It would be too much to hope that those thoughts might be of the two of them making love, of course, but Sin found himself unable to think of anything else but making love to Luccy as she sat there looking so temptingly beautiful; her face was glowingly lovely in the early evening sunlight, that long ebony-blue hair loosely secured on top of her head, completely exposing the long, creamy expanse of her neck and throat. The tee shirt she wore was clinging wetly to the firm thrust of her breasts just beneath the water, the darker nipples clearly visible against the white material.
Sin had moved stealthily to the side of the tub before bending down behind Luccy, his hands instinctively curving about the thrust of those breasts even as he bent to taste the creamy expanse of her throat with his lips.
A familiarity Luccy had obviously taken exception to!
‘You might at least have given me some sort of warning that you were there!’ Luccy could feel the embarrassed colour heating her cheeks even as she continued to glare up at Sin, aware that her breasts were totally aroused from the unexpectedness of Sin’s hands cupping them in that way.
‘Coughed, you mean?’ he taunted even as he began to unbutton his wet shirt.
‘Something like—What are you doing?’ she demanded sharply as Sin finished unbuttoning his shirt before taking it off completely and dropping it down onto the wooden decking.
‘I thought I might join you,’ he told her huskily as he slipped off his shoes and socks before unfastening his trousers.
‘I—but—you can’t, Sin!’ Luccy shook her head frantically as he removed his trousers and stood there wearing only figure-hugging black boxers that left absolutely nothing to the imagination—as they proudly showed off the firm thrust of his arousal!
He paused with his thumbs hooked into the waistband of those boxers. ‘Why can’t I?’
Any number of reasons that Luccy could think of. All of them to do with the fact that she simply wasn’t used to having a man strip naked in front of her. Even—no, especially—a man she knew as intimately as she knew Sin. And who knew her just as intimately.
Luccy swallowed hard. ‘Look, I’ll get out and—’
‘If it makes you feel more comfortable, I’ll keep my boxers on,’ Sin offered as he unhooked his thumbs to look down at her mockingly.
‘Keeping your boxers on isn’t going to make the slightest difference—That was not an invitation for you to remove them!’ Luccy gasped as Sin did exactly that, instantly rendering her speechless.
Oh, God…
Sin was beautiful. Absolutely, completely, totally male and utterly beautiful.
The darkness of his hair grew slightly overlong to rest on the broad expanse of his shoulders, his face like a bronzed mask in the evening sunlight, chest muscled, stomach flat, his thighs—oh, dear Lord, those thighs!—firm and muscled as they flanked his blatant arousal, his legs long and lightly dusted with dark hair. Even Sin’s feet were beautifully shaped.
In the course of her work Luccy had worked with lots of male models over the years, in all states of dress and undress, but none of them had been as ruggedly compelling as Sin. Or made her senses sing in awareness…
‘Can I get in now or do you want to look some more?’
Luccy’s embarrassed gaze returned to Sin’s mockingly handsome face. ‘I really wasn’t in a—position, to look before,’ she came back tartly to cover that embarrassment.
‘Feel free,’ Sin invited huskily, grey eyes gleaming like silver.
Luccy instantly turned away from all that blatant maleness. ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Sin,’ she snapped dismissively, deliberately keeping her gaze averted when she felt the water move slightly as Sin climbed into the hot-tub with her, the long length of Sin’s thigh brushing against hers as he sat down beside her. ‘It’s probably time I was getting out anyway—’
‘Stay, Luccy,’ he encouraged throatily, so close now that the warmth of his breath disturbed the loose tendrils of hair beside her exposed ear, his arm curved along the top of the wooden tub behind her. ‘Did you miss me?’ he asked softly.
Luccy was totally unnerved by Sin’s close proximity, her shoulders tensed as she sat slightly away from the back of the tub in order to avoid coming into contact with the warmth of his arm. ‘You’ve only been gone a couple of hours,’ she pointed out.
Strangely, though, she had missed him, the house having suddenly felt very empty with only herself and Wallace in residence. But Luccy didn’t intend telling Sin that!
‘So I have,’ he murmured ruefully, his arm bending slightly behind her as his fingers began to play with the loose tendrils of hair at her nape. ‘Did you think of me while I was away?’ he added gruffly.
‘No, of course not—’ Luccy had turned sharply to look at him, and then wished she hadn’t as she found her face now only inches away from his, those silver-grey eyes totally mesmerising.
Sin had certainly found himself thinking of Luccy while he’d been in the city the past couple of hours!
None of his previous relationships had ever involved actually living with a woman, and with the penthouse suite at the Sinclair Hotel at his disposal he’d never brought women back to his home in order to sleep with them, either.
The clinging wet tee shirt Luccy was wearing revealed more than it concealed as Sin felt his gaze once again drawn to the darkness of her nipples so clearly outlined against the white material, and he wondered what else she was wearing…
Another of those scraps of lace, he discovered as his hand moved caressingly along the length of her thigh to her hip. Black this time, he found as he moved her tee shirt slightly to one side so that he could touch the warmth of her waist before cupping the fullness of her breast, watching the way Luccy’s eyes darkened, her lips slightly parted as the soft pad of his thumb moved across the rigid nipple.
‘You’re thinking of me now, though, hmm?’ he murmured.
‘Of how you like my hands touching you. Of how it would feel if I were to bend down and suck—’
‘Don’t, Sin,’ she groaned breathlessly.
‘Why not?’ he challenged huskily as he looked up and saw the flush of arousal on her cheeks.
‘Because I won’t become another of the women you seduce in your hot tub!’ she roused herself enough to protest.
‘Another of the women I seduce in my hot tub?’ he repeated incredulously.
‘No,’ Luccy insisted tautly as she very firmly removed Sin’s wandering hand before moving slightly away from him.
‘What makes you think I have a parade of women through here?’ Sin asked curiously.
‘The costume I found in the changing-room,’ Luccy snapped. ‘The costume with a 36C top.’
‘And you are?’
‘At the moment? A 32D, and growing,’ she added ruefully; Luccy had always been slightly disappointed that her bust size had stopped when she reached the age of sixteen, but she had definitely started to expand in that area since becoming pregnant.