Best of Temptation Bundle Page 19
EVA LET the screen door slap closed behind her, then stopped to rub the small of her back. Eight months and some three weeks pregnant and she felt as if somebody had strapped a fifty-pound cement bag around her waist. She moved her fingers slowly from her back to her front, marveling at her girth, wondering how her stomach could be so rock-hard. In awe that the baby that moved around incessantly would soon join her and her family.
She pulled her sweater closer. While February temperatures in the bayous of Louisiana didn’t get near the freezing temperatures in the north, they hovered between fifty and sixty degrees. The thick humidity made it feel warmer, but Eva wasn’t taking any chances. She usually wore a thick pair of leggings, a long jersey shirt and bulky sweater whenever she went to the warehouse. Which was at least once a day to use up some of the restless energy she felt. To ease the pain that even now pierced her heart.
Every day she walked the path from house to warehouse. And every day she thought about Adam. Wondered how he was doing. Imagined him on assignment somewhere buried up to his ears in accounting ledgers.
And she remembered those few sultry days last summer when they had fallen in love.
For days after he left, she’d cried at the drop of a hat. Now…Well, now she struggled to channel those special feelings Adam had awakened in her toward her baby. She missed Adam. Terribly. But it was difficult to focus on what she couldn’t have, when what she could have demanded her attention nearly every moment of every day.
Eva emerged from the moss-covered oaks and stared at the warehouse, her restlessness more acute than ever. Mavros Seafood had closed for the season two months ago. But now her father, her brother, Pete, and the employees that were more friends than co-workers, milled around, readying the equipment for the start of a new season. Eva smiled as they uncovered the boat. Then the smile eased from her face as she saw a larger boat next to it.
That’s odd. She stepped closer, eyeing the long, narrow sailboat moored to the other side of the dock nearer the bayou.
Jimmy hurried out of the warehouse, newly oiled chain hanging from his shoulder.
“What is that?” Eva called out to him, gesturing toward the handsome schooner.
Jimmy shrugged and kept moving. “Don’t know.”
She frowned, watching him take the chain to the fishing boat and hand it to her father.
“Eva?” Pete called to her from the door of the warehouse. “Something came for you this morning. It’s in the office.”
Her gaze lingered on her brother. Her return to live permanently in Belle Rivage had brought on more than the obvious changes in the Mavros family. Papa seemed to have mellowed in a way she never would have thought possible. She guessed it might be because his first grandchild was due any day now. But she sensed it went deeper than that and occasionally she even felt it was her return home that had inspired the change in him.
Then there was Pete. Eva smiled, wondering at the shift in his demeanor. No longer the shadow looming behind Papa, he had finally stood up to Tolly Mavros and even now was building two boats by special request on a piece of family land nearby. He’d agreed to help Papa out from time to time, but he’d made it clear he was going to follow no one’s dream but his own. And Papa had not only accepted—however grudgingly—Pete’s decision, but Eva secretly believed he was proud of his son.
She shivered. Pete had said something had come for her. What could it be? Why hadn’t it been delivered to the house?
As she ducked inside the brightly lit interior of the warehouse, she knew that the something waiting for her couldn’t have anything to do with her old job. She’d resigned from Sheffert, Logan and Brace last autumn, with the sale of her house coming soon after. She’d heard from the gossip mill at the firm that Oliver Pinney, Norman Sheffert and Alice Turley were indeed the ones behind the elaborate money-laundering scheme Adam had uncovered, and they were due to stand trial in the spring. Certainly the FBI wasn’t contacting her to appear in court?
Leaving the office door open, she stepped to her desk. A desk her father had ordered for her and had had delivered a couple of weeks earlier. Though Eva intended to pursue her accounting career—and had tested the waters in nearby towns, already receiving two offers—after the baby was born, her father was adamant that she also play a role in the business.
“Family,” he told her, patting her stomach with his callused hand.
Family, Eva thought now, eyeing a small, rectangular package on her desk.
Her fingers trembling for a reason she couldn’t understand, she picked up the plain box, searching it for a return address. There was none. Also evident was that there was no postmark. No indication it had been mailed at all, but likely hand-delivered.
She slipped the top open.
Her heart skipped a beat.
Nestled in some sort of slinky green material were eyeglasses. She took them out to find they weren’t just any glasses, but Adam’s taped-together glasses. Her throat closed painfully and she slid out the two scraps of material. They were part of a two-piece, very skimpy, very naughty bathing suit.
“Hello, Eva.”
The low, achingly familiar sound of the voice hummed through her. For long moments she stood, her back to the door, her eyes tightly closed, unable to believe it could possibly be Adam.
But she needed to know.
She slowly turned toward the voice, clutching the items in her hands as if they could protect her from some unnamed threat. But when she saw his tall, engaging body filling the doorway, she burst into tears. And he turned into one big, endearing blur.
Instantly, he was in front of her and gathering her in his arms. Arms she had longed to feel around her for so long. Arms that were strong, yet gentle, and oh so wonderful to be held by.
“Shh,” he whispered, his breath stirring the hair over her ear. “It’s all right now.” She felt his deep swallow. “At least I hope it will be.”
He smelled of soap and a subtle woodsy cologne, the texture of his flannel shirt soft under her cheek. “Adam—”
“Shh,” he said again, rubbing his hands over her arms as if she needed warming. If only he knew just being near him again, just touching him, made her warmer than she could almost bear.
His hands hesitated, then slipped to her sides. Eva took a deep, steadying breath and moved slightly away, her gaze fastening to his. But he wasn’t looking at her face. He was looking at her swollen belly.
“May I?” he asked with a rough whisper.
She slowly nodded.
As his hands spanned her stomach, feeling the baby within, she drew in a sharp breath as suppressed emotion started swirling in her chest, growing until she almost felt pain. The awe on his handsomely chiseled face touched her so deeply she feared the tears scalding her cheeks might never stop.
“Is he…she, okay?”
She offered a watery smile. “She’s fine.”
He lifted his eyebrows and she nodded again. Yes. An ultrasound revealed months ago that her baby was a girl.
“Adam—”
He lifted a finger and pressed it against her mouth. “Shh,” he repeated.
Eva grew impatient with longing. She needed to know why he had returned. Why he looked better than any man had a right to. And if…if he was going to stay.
“Eva, I have some things to tell you,” he murmured, his brown eyes holding hers. “And I don’t want you to say anything until I’m done.” He scanned her from hair to chin. “Okay?”
She nodded, suddenly incapable of words.
“I need you to know I never meant to hurt you.” He dragged in a breath that told her he was struggling for control. “I can hurt myself to hell and back. I don’t care. But the thought that I hurt you…it’s something I’ll never forgive myself for.”
She opened her mouth to speak. To tell him it didn’t matter. They’d hurt each other—
“I’m not done yet.”
She swallowed back all the words crowding her throat, all the emotion mending her
broken heart.
His gaze was penetrating. “Five months ago, when I left you, I did so with honorable intentions.” His fingers closed over her upper arms, accelerating her heartbeat. He made a bitter sound of self-loathing. “I thought…I knew I didn’t have anything to offer you. I couldn’t be the man you needed—the father your daughter needed.”
Eva bit her bottom lip hard thinking Adam Grayson would never know how very much he had to offer.
“But my intentions weren’t honorable at all. They were driven by cowardice. Everything had happened so fast. I couldn’t trust how I felt about you, Eva. I couldn’t trust that you could love me. Not the way I loved—love—you, because I couldn’t trust myself.”
His gaze slipped to her mouth. For a moment he appeared to consider kissing her. He groaned.
“There hasn’t been a day over the past five months that I haven’t called myself a fool. Told myself I deserved to hurt the way I did.” His voice caught. “Until I realized I wasn’t only hurting myself. I was hurting you. And that’s one thing I can never forgive myself for.”
Eva snuggled into the cradle of his arms, yearning for him to stop talking and just hold her, yet needing to hear what he had to say. “Adam—”
“I’m not done.”
Smiling despite her tears, she rubbed her cheek against his shirt, her hands pressed tightly against his back. Each of his words were like a salve to her battered soul.
“What I’m trying to say, Eva, is…if you can forgive me…if you’ll have me…I want to adopt that precious baby you’re carrying…I want you to…I need you to marry me. Now. Tonight. Next week.” He dropped to one knee and urgently coaxed her to meet his gaze. “I don’t care when. Name the date. Any date. I’ve taken a supervisory position in the New Orleans office, so I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.” He searched her face. “Say anything, but please, don’t say it’s too late. Don’t tell me I’ve ruined my chances by leaving you.”
The air froze in Eva’s lungs. Her body refused to move. All she could do was wonder at the pain and uncertainty and hope that darkened Adam’s passionate brown eyes. And marvel at the fact that even now, as huge as she was, as uncomfortable, all she wanted to do was lead him up to her room where they could continue where they’d left off. To make love to him in all the ways she had fantasized about for the past months.
She cleared her throat, fighting the need to pull him to his feet. “Is that your boat outside?”
His puzzled expression nearly made her smile.
“Yes, it is.”
She held up the naughty bathing suit. “And this?”
A slow, devilish grin spread across his face. “The last thing that’s needed to make my fantasy complete until the baby’s born.” He laid his head against her protruding stomach. “You, the boat and that bathing suit.”
A laugh bubbled up from her chest. “I don’t think the designers had me in mind when they invented this skimpy thing.”
His gaze warmed her all over. “It’s exactly what I have in mind.” He rose from where he kneeled, his hands skimming her wide girth. “I can’t imagine anything sexier, more appealing, than you in that bathing suit. Now. Exactly the way you are.”
His gaze captured hers as he kissed her. Eva melted against him. Had she ever felt so special in her life? So sexy? So needed? So loved? Adam’s tongue explored her mouth, and she reacquainted herself with the intoxicating taste of him, knowing the answer was no.
“Yes,” she whispered between kisses. She might not be able to consummate their marriage until after the baby was born, but she reveled in knowing that there were so many other ways she could satisfy him. “Oh, yes, I’ll marry you, Adam Grayson. Now. Tonight. And this time it will be for more than one day. The way I see it, you have a lot to prove to me. And you’re going to need a lifetime to do it.” Her lips lingered on his. “It’s a good thing I have that lifetime to give you.”
Somewhere during his endearing proposal, Eva realized the restlessness she’d felt all day wasn’t due to inactivity, but was rather the beginning of labor. “And Adam?” she asked as what was clearly a contraction surged down through her abdomen. “I, uh, I think you’d better get started right away. Because I think our daughter is anxious to join us.”
Epilogue
Twenty months later
Birth Announcement
Caroline Mavros Grayson is tickled to announce—along with proud parents Adam and Eva—the birth of her little brother, Daniel Christos. Weighing in at a hefty nine pounds, five ounces, Daniel came screaming into the world at 8:05 p.m., on Thursday, December 24, during holiday festivities at the Mavros household. Proud grandparents Tolly—who helped harried second-time daddy Adam deliver the determined infant—and Katina agree that Daniel is the best Christmas gift they have ever received.
You are cordially invited to a post-New Year’s Bash to help celebrate the newest addition to the Mavros and Grayson family….
ADAM PUT the extra birth announcement down on the pine dining-room table. Caroline fidgeted on his knee while he ran a callused finger along his month-old son’s peach-soft cheek where he lay in the bassinet next to the table. Pure emotion surged through Adam at the thought that these two children bore his parents’ first names—a Greek tradition—and his last and were a product of his and Eva’s love, regardless of their genetic makeup. He tightened his arm around Caroline and nuzzled her neck, his day-end stubble eliciting a shrill giggle from the toddler.
To his right, Eva read the most recent of the RSVP’s for the party next week, then closed an envelope. The quick, provocative flick of her tongue swept away Adam’s paternal thoughts in exchange for far more erotic ones. She’d abandoned her heavy, red cardigan to the back of the chair, revealing the new clingy flower-print dress she wore. Her breasts, full and heavy, pressed against the material and her bare legs teased him from the generous slit in the skirt.
Adam swallowed hard. God, would the woman ever figure out how profoundly she affected him?
“Eva?”
Her green eyes shifted from the cards she had stacked on top of the laptop computer where she conducted most of the accounting associated with her home-based company. “Hmm?”
He said nothing. He didn’t have to. The warm blush of color to her cheeks and her sexy little smile told him she knew exactly what he was thinking. His physical and emotional need for her skyrocketed to almost aching proportions. After nearly two years of marriage, and two children, it was amazing that he could still make his wife blush.
“Come on, Caroline,” Eva said, sweeping the toddler from Adam’s knee and plopping her into her playpen. “Why don’t you play with your new toy for a while? Mommy and Daddy need to privately…talk about something.”
Before the little girl could protest, Eva checked on the napping Daniel, then tugged Adam down the hall to their bedroom. They had built their four-bedroom ranch house on a corner of Tolly Mavros’s generous land, the large bay windows of their bedroom overlooking the sleepy bayou.
Adam passionately kissed his wife, groaning when she pushed him toward the wrought-iron bed they’d filched from her old room. He fell against the mattress and Eva climbed on top of him, her womanhood cradling his painful erection as she unbuttoned the top of her dress. Adam’s gaze followed the torturously slow movement, tempted to rip the fabric…. The dress finally fell away, revealing her wondrously swollen breasts.
Eva pulled the clip from her hair, and the tangled curls tumbled around her creamy shoulders. “My parents are going to be here in ten minutes, you know.”
“I know,” Adam grumbled, gently testing the weight of her breasts with both hands. He felt her shudder and he groaned again. Two long agonizing months had passed since he’d last made love to his wife. Sure, they had generously pursued other avenues of sexual gratification, but nothing short of a hurricane could prevent him from completely claiming her now.
“Adam?”
“Hm?” His gaze flicked up to her enchanting face.
His throat tightened so completely he couldn’t push the words through. He nodded instead.
“Then make love to me. Now.”
Adam couldn’t think of anything he needed to do more. And when he was finally surrounded by everything that was Eva, felt the blood pounding through his veins like a runaway locomotive, he knew that everything that had happened in his life had led to this one moment in time. He had been meant to love Eva. And Eva had been meant to love him. He caught her face in his hands, locking his gaze with hers. It was there in her eyes that he saw glistening everything he ever needed: the past, the present, the glorious future that stretched before them…and the raw proof of their love no words could ever express.
Private Lessons
by Julie Elizabeth Leto
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
1