LITMIR.BIZ

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He looked right at her. ‘I came in and I knew you were still there. I followed my desire up the stairs and we seduced each other—the way we do and the way we always have. We took each other beyond the edge and, no, I was not thinking of pills, or condoms, or anything other than getting inside you. So, no, you did not trap me.’

      ‘Thank you,’ she said.

      ‘And another thing,’ Nico said. ‘My intention is not to lay a finger on you until we have talked this out, however, please go on the Pill—because there will be times, like this current one, where I want you on the floor.’

      ‘I am on the Pill,’ Aurora said.

      Thank goodness, she thought, because she was squirming with how turned on she was.

      ‘Why?’

      ‘Because whatever our feelings are, or are not, we do always seem to end up in bed.’

      ‘We do,’ Nico agreed, and took a long drink of red wine. He held it for a moment in his mouth, then swallowed it down. ‘But not now, because we have a lot to sort out.’

      ‘I’m not ready to sort it all out.’

      Tears were filling her eyes again. She did not want his practical solutions, she wanted his adoration—his relief that she was back in his life. Aurora wanted his love.

      ‘Please, Nico, I’m not ready to thrash things out with you.’

      ‘Then eat.’

      She nodded.

      ‘But I mean it, Aurora. No sex till we’re sorted.’

      ‘Good!’

      She took a mouthful of her own wine and swallowed that lie.

      For the first time in her life Aurora left dirty plates at the table. She was simply too drained and exhausted as she searched out the nanny. Her room was miles away!

      ‘He’s a delight,’ the nanny said as Aurora took over bathing Gabe. ‘Why don’t I warm him a bottle?’

      ‘Thank you,’ Aurora said.

      It was nice to sit in a chair and feed him, with this kindly woman watching on. She had missed her mamma so much these last few months.

      ‘I hope you’re settled in okay?’ Aurora said.

      ‘And you.’ The nanny smiled. ‘And little Gabe. It’s our first night here for all of us.’

      ‘True.’ Aurora gave a tired laugh.

      ‘Your cheek…?’

      ‘It wasn’t Nico,’ Aurora said, in an effort to clear the air. ‘He would never, ever do something like that.’

      ‘I know,’ the nanny agreed. ‘Or I would not have taken the job.’

      ‘I worked for someone who did, though,’ Aurora said.

      Oh, heavens, she was like a leaky tap all of a sudden, but it dawned on her how much tension she had lived with these past months. All the energy spent watching the gathering storms.

      Poor Louanna, Aurora thought. And Antonio and little Nadia.

      She looked down at Gabe, whose eyes were heavy and sleepy. He gave her a soft smile, at the very edge of his lips and looked at her with his trusting eyes.

      Poor Nico.

      It hit her then, fully, just how appalling it must be to be beaten by someone you love—someone you should be able to trust.

      It was no wonder Nico did not want anything more to do with love.

      ‘Go to bed,’ the nanny said when she saw Aurora’s tears. ‘I’ll take care of little Gabe.’

      Nico and the nanny were right, Aurora thought as she kissed her son goodnight. She needed a night to sleep properly, knowing her baby was safe.

      There was a surprise in the bedroom.

      And not just that Nico had straightened up the bed. He stood there in his black lounge pants.

      Aurora laughed. ‘I thought they were in case you had to go to hospital.’

      ‘Marianna talks too much,’ Nico said. ‘But, yes, these are for emergencies—and you, Aurora, are always that.’

      She did not know quite what he meant, but he’d said it almost fondly.

      Nico knew what he meant. She brought drama and tension into Nico’s life every time he saw her. She made the blood race through his veins and sent warnings screaming into his brain.

      And always he fought to keep a cool head and control. The one time he hadn’t, or rather the few times he hadn’t…

      But he must not think of sex now—he just did not want Aurora out of his sight.

      At first they lay in a silence that was neither easy nor companionable; it was just silence as they both burrowed deeply into their own thoughts.

      It was Aurora who broke it. ‘I don’t like leaving Gabe’s night feeds to the nanny.’

      ‘Well, try not to disturb me when you get up to go to him.’

      She laughed in the darkness, and it scared her how right it felt to be in his bed.

      ‘Did it hurt?’ Nico asked. ‘The birth?’

      ‘Agony!’ Aurora said.

      ‘You didn’t tell your parents I was the father?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘Why not?’

      ‘I don’t want to answer that, Nico.’

      ‘Okay.’

      ‘I don’t want to talk any more.’

      ‘Then don’t.’

      Aurora liked it that he did not push her to respond, and that he’d accepted her refusal to answer. She liked the feeling of being next to him in the darkness, even if he might not really want her there.

      And so they slept—albeit restlessly.

      Aurora rolled into him and rested her head on his chest, and then she found her fingers wanting to explore the dips in his ribs, and the hair on his stomach, but before she caved in and did, Aurora rolled away.

      And at midnight Nico woke up hard and pressed against her, so he turned onto his back and tried to think boring, unsexy thoughts.

      It was a joke that they’d pretended either of them would sleep. Nico wanted sex. And the woman he wanted to have sex with lay beside him. He could feel her desire in the thick air between them.

      Yet sex could only muddy the waters.

      He could tell that she was awake next to him.

      ‘Nico?’ she said. ‘We have to talk…’

      She said it as if he was the one who was reluctant—as if he was the one who had shut down the conversation two hours ago.

       Life with Aurora!

      But he didn’t bother pointing it out, for indeed it was time to talk, to work things out. Here in the dark.

      ‘What do you want to happen, Aurora?’

      ‘I don’t know.’

      ‘You must have thought about it or at least considered it.’

      ‘I’m confused,’ she admitted, and when he took her hand, she squeezed his back.

      ‘Then let’s talk it out.’

      ‘From what I can see I have two options.’

      ‘Options are good—so tell me.’

      ‘I want to tell you…’ She just did

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