The Millionaire's Revenge(63)

‘Better?’ he murmured into her ear. ‘Perhaps we should go upstairs, lie down on the bed. Altogether more satisfactory for what I have in mind, now that I have been browbeaten into marrying you, you beautiful witch.’

‘Okay, but first there’s something else I have to tell you.’ She sat up and looked him straight in the eye. What she saw was a tiny, black-eyed infant with a mop of curly dark hair and a gummy smile. ‘If we get married, it might be an idea for it to be sooner rather than later.’

Comprehension took a matter of seconds. She could see it dawning in his eyes and then he grinned with radiant, unchecked joy. ‘You are pregnant?’

‘I did the test this morning. I ...it happened the first time we made love, when we didn’t use any protection. If you don’t want to marry me now that you know, then I’ll un­derstand. It’s a big responsibility and it’s just been dropped on your lap like a bombshell.’

‘Not want to marry you?’ He placed his hand on her stomach, still flat and toned. ‘There is no way I would not marry you, and the fact that you are pregnant with my child, our child, is the icing on the cake.’ He stroked her stomach in slow circles and Laura’s breathing quickened, a little fact that did not escape his notice.

‘Perhaps we should go upstairs,’ she murmured, catch­ing the satisfied expression on his face and blushing.

‘Oh, yes? And what did you have in mind when we get there?’

‘You know exactly what I have in mind!’ She led him up the stairs, holding his hand, and only paused to look at him when they were on the threshold of the bedroom. ‘I shall lose my figure,’ she warned him and he nodded.

‘So perhaps I ought to explore you thoroughly now, mmm? Before our baby starts pushing out your stomach and making those breasts of yours heavy and big with milk? I find the thought of you pregnant very erotic, as a matter of fact...’#p#分页标题#e#

And he then proceeded to show her how erotic he found her. But nothing could be as erotic as the thought that at long last the dream of happiness had become reality and that from here onwards their steps forward would be taken together ...forever.



EPILOGUE

‘Gabriel, darling...’ It was three-seventeen in the morn­ing. Laura could glimpse the illuminated hands of the clock on the table next to her beloved husband, whose naked body was warm next to hers. She brushed her lips against his cheek and then grimaced as another contraction hardened her stomach.

Nearly two weeks overdue and a girl, Gabriel was for­ever telling her with a grin, because only a female would keep everyone waiting for as long as she had done.

‘Gabriel, don’t panic, but...’

It must have been the word panic that did it because his eyes flicked open and the first words he uttered were a heartfelt, ‘Dios!’

‘I’m only just beginning,’ Laura said soothingly, gritting her teeth together as another contraction ripped through her, and watching with amusement as Gabriel leapt out of the bed and began flinging on his clothes, only switching the light on as an afterthought.

‘Laura, my sweetest, God, you are in pain.’

‘It happens around this time of the pregnancy.’ She began edging herself off the bed and he raced to net side, half tripping over his trousers, which were hot fully on.

‘You’re wincing. You’re trying to be brave but you’re wincing. I am not blind! I can see!’

‘Calm down.’

‘How can I calm down? Your bag. I’ll get your bag. Where is your bag? Of course I know when your bag is! Stay calm, Laura, don’t panic!’

He had solicitously helped her pack her bag over a month ago, insisting on adding so many unlisted items to the contents that in the end she had warned him that he might have to buy a trunk to hold it all.

‘I’m not...’

‘And do not get dressed!’ he ordered from their en suite dressing room, from which he was fetching the bag as well as jumpers and coats for them both, I will help you!’

‘I think I can manage.’ Sometimes she wondered why she bothered to say certain things when she could always so accurately predict his responses. As she expected, he completed the job of getting her nightdress off, his voice laced with frantic panic as he demanded to know whether she was up to changing or whether they should just fling a coat over her and hurry to the hospital. Maybe, he ful­minated, they should take the helicopter.

‘I don’t think the hospital has anywhere for helicopters to land,’ Laura said lovingly.

‘I’ll carry you to the car.’