He handed her the glass, along with a small napkin embossed with his initials. “I have two more bottles, should you require more.”
She sipped the water, then smiled. “Usually one is my limit, but I’m feeling somewhat daring tonight, so I might have two.”
He rubbed his chin and returned her smile. “Living life on the edge is my specialty.”
That attitude could affect their future as parents.
“Shall we go bask in the moonlight now?”
He rounded the bar, grabbed his drink and took her hand. “Yes, and perhaps be a bit daring.”
Kira wasn’t certain what he meant by that, yet she sincerely wanted to find out. Clearly her hormones had commandeered her common sense. But with the feel of his slightly callused palm in hers as he showed her to the veranda, the scent of his heady cologne, that gorgeous mouth framed by a slight blanket of whiskers, taking a sensual journey with him again wouldn’t be a bad thing. Or would it?
She could throw caution to the trade winds, or come back to the land of realism. He had no idea she was pregnant. And she still had no idea how to tell him. Yet when he guided her to the deck, stood behind her and wrapped one arm around her waist, she only considered here and now, wisdom be damned.
“The view is stunning,” she said as they watched the lights of the marina begin to fade in the distance.
He nuzzled the side of her neck below her ear and whispered, “You are stunning.”
She sipped another drink to soothe her parched mouth. “And you, as always, are quick with the compliments.”
Suddenly he dropped his arm from around her, prompting her to turn and meet his serious expression. “Never doubt my sincerity when it involves you, Kira. From the first time we met, you have invaded my fantasies on a daily and nightly basis.”
She could relate to that, yet some serious issues between them still existed. “This is all a fantasy, too, Tarek. The dress and the dinner and especially the dancing. Tomorrow we’ll be back to normal. You’re the consummate global businessman on the fast track to continuing success while amassing a fortune. I’m the daughter of domestics who doesn’t require all the finer things in life and yearns for a common life with a husband and kids. We are two very different people.”
After setting his flute on a nearby cocktail table, he took her glass from her clutches and placed it beside his. He then returned to her and slid his arms back around her, pulling her closer.
“Do you not wish to travel the world before you settle into a domestic routine?” He made the word settle sound blasphemous.
“I’ve seen quite a bit of it already. I’ve also seen sheer happiness in the faces of the Mehdi brothers and their wives. Call me a fool, but I want to experience that, too.”
His features went stony again, yet he didn’t let her go. “What do you expect from me, Kira?”
To be a father to our baby. To want what I want. To fall desperately in love with me.
The last thought took her mind by surprise and her heart by storm. She didn’t want his love. She wanted his respect and willingness to be involved in their child’s life. She certainly didn’t want to fall in love with him even though at times she thought she could be precariously close to going down that ill-advised path. But not knowing everything about him, and falling into that trap, could be disastrous.
Kira chalked the threatening fuzzy feelings up to a romantic evening with a sexy rogue and pregnancy hormones that had her emotions running amok.
“I don’t want anything you’re not willing to give, Tarek.”
He feathered a kiss across her lips. “I am willing to give you all the pleasure possible. I wish us to be together again in every way. I want you not to concern yourself over the future beyond what we experience tonight. Life is too brief to discard what we have found together.”
She rode the waves of confusing emotions. “You’re referring to sex.”
“I am referring to our undeniable desire for each other. I have never before experienced what I feel with you in my arms. It is very powerful, yet it leaves me powerless. No woman before you has done that.”
He seemed bent on saying all the right things. “Not one?”
“No.”
“Not even Athena?”
His frown deepened. “Definitely not. And now that she is no longer employed by me, you will not have to endure her again.”
A total shock to Kira’s already shaky system. “Did you fire her?”
“She resigned, with my blessing.”
“Why?”
“She knew she could not compete with you.”
Flattery could get him everywhere. Flattery had already immersed her in hot water one other time. She truly, truly didn’t care about then, or tomorrow, only now.