Scandalously Expecting His Child(72)

                Her heart seemed to hold its beat. “Saw what?”

                “The news of your pregnancy all over the newspapers and the internet.”

                * * *

                It had been two hours since Hiro had left. She was still sitting where he’d left her. All she’d done since had been reaching for her tablet to check the tabloids.

                And it was all there, complete with a thorough photo documentation of all of her appearances with Raiden. The feverishly gossipy articles dissected their torrid affair, and ended with the speculation she’d been having about the possibilities in their future, just in outlandish versions. One article hypothesized that Raiden would convert to a religion that would legally allow him to practice bigamy.

                All in all, it was an unqualified disaster.

                And its shock waves must have reached Raiden by now.

                In fact, it must have reached him long before now. So why hadn’t he contacted her? She had to see him at once to figure—

                “Scarlett.”

                Raiden. Here. As if she’d summoned him.

                She turned her head so suddenly, the world spun again and she slumped back on the couch. He rushed from the wide-open door and swooped down on her, looking exactly as she imagined herself to look. Harassed, unsteady and nauseous.

                Not that he could be physically nauseous as she was, but he must be sick to his stomach with the developments.

                Before she could say anything, apologize for the trouble this would cause him, he caught her head in both his large hands, hitting her like his namesake with an enervating bolt of craving. He claimed her lips in a devouring kiss that mimicked his latest overriding possession.

                She’d become a puddle of longing by the time he pulled back to sear her in the roiling emotions radiating from his gaze and every pore of his body. Then he spoke, and every supporting impulse in her body gave way.

                Catching her in a fierce embrace, he repeated what he’d just said, every word expanding inside her until she felt she’d burst with the enormity of it all.

                “I love you, Scarlett. I’ve always loved you, and I will love you to the day I die.”

                He’d said it again and again before she could at last vent a measure of her shock. “Oh, God, Raiden...you do?”

                “What did you think our magical five months were about? And the five years I didn’t even think of having another woman? And the past miraculous eight weeks, with their heaven-sent outcome?”

                “I—I didn’t think, I just loved you, just wanted to love you...and loved every second with you.”

                “You didn’t know I loved you in the past? You didn’t feel me working up to ask you to be with me forever?”

                “I—I thought you loved Hannah, who didn’t exist.”

                He ran his fingers through her hair, his eyes a blaze of sincerity. “I only ever saw you, whatever name you used or whatever facade you wore. You admitted that you were always yourself with me, and I already told you it was you I felt, you I wanted. But I never confessed completely. Now I am confessing. I will never again hide an iota of what I feel for you. I love you. I worship every breath you take. You’re everything to me, my darling, everything. You and our miracle child.”