Steele 05 - Irresistible Forces

well. “There’s no hurry, Taylor. I’m enjoying your company. Come on, let’s sit back down.”
    He reached out and touched her arm and they both discovered within seconds it had been a mistake. Suddenly, it was as if the two weeks’ separation hadn’t happened and they were back on the island, in their suite, where getting naked and making love had become as normal to them as breathing.
    Her heart began racing when she saw him lower his head toward hers and she knew what she was in for. However, she also knew what she couldn’t have. She loved him but he didn’t love her and she refused to be one of those women who pined away for a love that would never be.
    With all the strength she could muster, she pulled her hand from within his grasp and took a step back. “I—I think I need to go and do that test now,” she said with a quiver in her voice as she steadily backed away from him.
    His eyes bored into hers. She could still feel the sensuous heat. “Need help?” he asked in a voice that sent more shivers up her spine.
    “No, thanks. I can handle things.” And then she turned and quickly rushed off toward the bathroom.
    * * *
    Dominic placed his hands in the pockets of his slacks as he walked back over to the window. He hadn’t meant to make Taylor feel uncomfortable, but seeing her again had done something to him. The moment she had opened the door he had wanted to reach out and sweep her off her feet and kiss her with all the intensity that he felt. He had firsthand knowledge of just how wonderful she would feel in his arms and just how delicious her taste was. He had missed both over the past two weeks.
    He’d had to constantly force himself to accept that he couldn’t call her and she wouldn’t be calling him. What had been between them was nothing more than a business agreement. He wasn’t supposed to start having these intense emotions. Nor was he supposed to think of her during every waking moment, remembering what they had shared on that island.
    But the fact of the matter was that he couldn’t forget. Neither his mind nor his body would let him. He would wake up during the middle of the night actually inhaling her scent. It was during those times when his senses would get stirred to a degree that he thought he was losing his mind. Never in his life had any woman affected him so deeply, made him want her so badly.
    The sound of footsteps had him turning around and his gaze immediately latched onto her face when she came back into the room. His heartbeat kicked hard in his chest when he saw the tears that glistened in her eyes. Were they tears of joy or of disappointment? What if she hadn’t gotten pregnant as he had so arrogantly assumed?
    Somehow he made his body move and crossed the room to her. Automatically he reached out and wiped one of her tears away with the tip of his finger. When she didn’t say anything for the longest time, just stood gazing at him, he asked in a near-quiet tone, “Are you or aren’t you?”
    As he watched her face, he saw a smile touch the corners of her lips. Then she nodded. “Yes, I am. Oh, Dominic, we’re having a baby,” she said in such an awed voice that to him it was like a match thrown in a box of bone-dry tinder. The blaze within him had flared into a full flame.
    He was going to be a father.
    The realization of that hit him and he hadn’t known just how much he’d wanted that until now. He could no more stop himself from kissing her at that moment than he could stop the day from turning into night. He reached out and pulled her into his arms and in one smooth sweep, captured her lips as if doing so was the most natural thing.
    * * *
    There was something in knowing the man whose hot and hungry mouth was insistently eating away at hers, was the man whose child she carried in her womb. Coupled with the fact that she loved him with all her heart she forgot that the last thing they should be doing was sharing a kiss.
    Neither should they be tearing away at each other’s clothes, but they were doing that, too. She hadn’t forgotten what this was like. An intense desire to mate. Nor had she forgotten the feel of wanting him with such a raw, primitive need like what she was feeling now.
    One part of her mind was saying this was crazy, totally insane. They weren’t thinking rationally. All she had to say to that was, yes, probably not. But at that precise moment she was happier than any one woman had a right to be. She was having a baby. A baby