Virgin Mistress(23)

“I'm sorry, Ellie,” he said quietly. “I had to know what kind of woman you really were. I had to know that you wouldn't hurt our child.”

She wiped the tears from her face. “And now that you know?”

Now that he knew? Diogo still wanted to protect his child.

But he also wanted Ellie in his bed. To have her every night and make love to her until he was utterly satiated. He took her in his arms.

“I want you to stay with me, Ellie. Raise our child together. I want you to remain in my bed for as long as the sweetness lasts.”

She took a long breath. “And then?”

He stroked her cheek, forcing her to raise her chin. “We will always be parents, Ellie. Even when we cease to be lovers.”

Looking up into his eyes, the expression on her face changed.

“Damn you,” she whispered. “I won't be your toy.”

“Yes,” he said with absolute certainty, “you will.”

And he kissed her.





CHAPTER SEVEN



HIS KISS WAS TENDER and pure, but Ellie felt the hunger beneath his embrace. Diogo's demand matched her own, threatening to consume her and burn her in his fire.

He wrapped his arms around her. He towered over her, so much taller and stronger than she, and Ellie felt captive in his arms, unable to pull away. But it was her own longing that trapped her, holding her as no act of force possibly could. His body was hard and warm against hers. The fresh wind blew from the ocean, twisting her blond hair around them, and she felt the hot Brazilian sunshine against her skin. The world seemed suspended in time as his lips demanded the surrender she longed to give.

She realized she was holding him as tightly as he held her. Her fingers clutched his back as his tongue teased hers, causing a sigh to rise from deep in her throat.

She knew she should stop but she wanted another minute in his arms. Her whole body begged for just one more minute…

But no matter how she wanted it, she couldn't let this happen.

To Ellie, making love to a man meant being in love, while to Diogo it was nothing but a moment's pleasure, swiftly forgotten before the next break of dawn.

Diogo's hot kisses lured her to her own destruction.

“Ellie,” he whispered against her hair. “Come to my bed. Now.”

Her heart pounded. She pressed her cheek against his chest, barely able to breathe for the pounding of her heart. “It wouldn't be wise.”

“Why?”

She licked her lips. “I told you…I can't just be your one-night stand.”

He ran his hands through her blond tendrils, down her bare arms. “You're far more than a one-night stand to me.”

She looked up at him. “I am?”

“We will always be connected, Ellie.” His dark eyes crinkled as he smiled down at her. His charming, arrogant, impossible-to-resist smile. “You are the mother of my child.”

Only that.

In spite of herself, her heart sank in her chest. She should have been glad. That Diogo would wish her to be his mistress, and that he'd be an active partner in their child's upbringing, was far more than she'd once dared hope.

But it no longer satisfied her. Her stupid, greedy heart wanted more. She wanted to be able to make love to him and be secure in his arms. To know that she could trust him with her heart. To know he would forget about pursuing other women, all those beautiful women with brilliant careers and college degrees….

He gently raised her chin. “I will always respect you, Ellie. Always honor you.”

“But no one else will,” she whispered. “Everyone will assume just what you did—that I'm a gold digger who purposefully got pregnant. They'll always treat me like your whore.”

A rough Portuguese curse escaped his lips. “I will kill any man who dares call you so.”

She shook her head as tears rose to her eyes. “It doesn't matter. The real question is, can I trust you to be a good father?”

He drew himself up, affronted. “What?”

“You've never committed to any woman for longer than a week. Can I truly trust you to love a child for a lifetime?”

“Those two things are entirely different!”

“No.” She shook her head fiercely. “It's the same. It's love. It's loyalty—”

“I will never abandon a child. Do you understand me, Ellie? Because I know what it feels like. I had no father. When I was eight, my mother abandoned me to leave the country with her newest lover.” He looked away, clenching his jaw. “I would never do that to my child.”

She stared at him in shock.

“But you're a Serrador,” she said, bewildered. “Your father owned half the gold mines in the world before he died. Your older sisters married European royalty. You were rich by birth, long before you made your first million in the steel business!”