Proof of Their Sin(56)

They buried their faces in each other’s neck, clinging on as the final quakes wrung through them, convulsing their bodies.

Bliss filled Lauren, but it ended in a barb. She suspected she might love him. Always had. And it hurt.





CHAPTER ELEVEN

“HOW ARE YOU a banker, Paolo?”

Lauren’s lazy, somewhat rhetorical question pulled Paolo from a state of lassitude. They’d been making love on and off for hours. Her thigh was a warm line across his waist, her breasts plump and soft against his ribs. The weight of her head numbed his shoulder, but he didn’t care. At this moment he was a newlywed and everything else was a dot on the horizon.

He yawned and stretched, then snugged her back against his side, saying dryly, “My father died before I could become an astronaut. If we’re going out for dinner, we need to leave soon. Shall I call to have something delivered instead?”

“Delivery sounds good, but was that a joke? About being an astronaut? I mean, I’m sure you could have done it if you wanted to. You went to all those fancy international schools so your education was first-rate and you’re incredibly fit, but really? Is that something you wanted?”

“It was a childish dream. I always knew I had to step into my father’s shoes.”

She came up on an elbow, her kittenish sleepiness replaced by curiosity. “Did you resent that?”

Paolo skimmed a finger along her temple, smoothing back a wisp of her short hair, surprised at how easily she was bringing up the sting of his old regret. “I might have registered my frustration with a few moments of bad judgment.”

Lauren’s kiss-swollen lips widened into a knowing smile. “Like surfing typhoon waves in Thailand, for instance?”

“Heard about that, did you?” He made a face at the ceiling, wondering where he got the nerve to be alive after some of the stunts he’d pulled. If his child turned out like him, he didn’t know what he’d do.

“Your mother seems to think you were testing your own limits, not acting out, but were you rebelling?”

He thought back to his impatience with school and its dry courses in statistics and economics, languages and political policy. They’d made his eyes cross. The only thing that had held remote interest for him had been history because at least there was action, intrigue and battles.

“Not rebelling so much as determined to live my life to the fullest. I knew my father would eventually push the mantle onto me and I didn’t want any regrets. I pulled my application to the space program when he died. It was time to put away romantic notions and do what was right.”#p#分页标题#e#

He thought he saw a flash of protest in her eyes, but she lowered her gaze, brows tugged together in consternation. After a moment of reflection she asked, “Were you angry with him for dying?”

“Yes. I thought I’d be old before I took the reins and hated the idea of being second in command for most of my life, which is another reason I wanted to make my mark elsewhere. In space even. But you never appreciate what you have until you lose it. I’d give anything to have had him breathing down my neck all this time, training me to take over.”

She nodded in understanding. “I always felt cheated, not really knowing my father. That’s why I was determined to spend as much time as I could with Mamie. I didn’t have your ambition for making marks, though. I took a degree with the community college in French-Canadian literature of all things. Fat lot of good that did me. I hope you’ve grown to like your job because I can’t support myself on that.”

“I do,” he assured her, surprised to discover it was true because he hadn’t examined his feelings on the job for years. He’d been too head-down busy. “In the beginning it was almost more than I could handle. For all my schooling I wasn’t prepared, and quickly developed a new respect for my father and how easy he’d made it seem. I’ve grown into it, though. It still challenges me—mentally, not physically, but the stakes are higher than I ever expected, affecting not just my life and family but in some cases millions of lives. That’s enough to keep me focused and engaged.”

“It sounds very demanding.”

“Are you worried what that means for you? Don’t.” He touched where she was crinkling her chin into a concerned frown. “You’ll make a fine banker’s wife. You have poise and style and discretion. I’m more than pleased to have you at my side.”

Her lips parted as though she was about to say something, but then her brows twitched in surprised puzzlement. “Do you travel a lot?”