She reached her climax fast—too fast—and lost control with a throaty scream of shock. And then she was all melting, soaring, gliding on thunderclaps of sensation.
‘More?’ Tiago suggested when she was finally reduced to astonished sobs.
‘Please...’ She only needed that one word in her vocabulary, Danny concluded as she stared into Tiago’s eyes.
She pressed her mouth against his shoulder as he began to move again, faster now. She clung on tightly as the primal imperative to move with him, to work with him, claimed her.
‘Let me pleasure you,’ he encouraged huskily, opening her legs wider still.
‘Yes...’ she agreed. This was everything she had ever wanted, and it thrilled her all the more to know that Tiago needed her too.
She exclaimed with disappointment when he withdrew, and then laughed when she realised that he was teasing her. When he sank deep again she moaned and pressed her mouth against his neck.
‘More?’
‘As much as you can give me?’ she suggested. Her whole world was sensation now, and he had centred it in that one place.
He thrust deep and pulled out, then thrust deep again. Her heart cried out to him to give her everything, to find his release. Grabbing hold of his buttocks, so firm and muscular, she moved with him. She was demanding now, claiming her mate and moving as strongly as he was with every stroke. They were both ravenous for this, and she could be as fierce as Tiago.
It was only a matter of moments before she felt the pressure building again and, seeing the mist of pleasure reflected in Tiago’s eyes, she knew he was close too.
‘I’ll tell you when,’ he cautioned.
‘Now,’ she said fiercely.
He could do nothing to stop her—to stop himself—as she tightened her muscles around him. They were both lost, both swept up in a fire storm of sensation, and when she found release he did too.
* * *
If only she hadn’t read the screen on Tiago’s computer. She had come downstairs for two glasses of water while Tiago was in the shower, and she hadn’t been able to wait to get back to bed. But now she was squatting on the kitchen floor with her arms over her head, pressing—pressing hard—as she tried to make the words on the screen go away.
If she hadn’t come down to the kitchen she wouldn’t have nudged his computer and the screen wouldn’t have flashed on. It was too late now. She’d seen it. And, short minutes after crying with happiness, she had tears of desperation pouring down her face.
She never learned. She always trusted. She always hoped for the best. And now she was a ridiculous bride in a skimpy outfit that one of the young girls had left out for her to wear on her wedding night. The decorated bathroom, with its candles and scent bottles and flowers, had been wasted on her. The women on the ranch had wanted her to feel like a treasured bride, when in fact she was a complete idiot.
Burying her head again, she hugged it harder. But the words on the screen still flashed in front of her eyes.
‘You will never hear anything good about yourself if you eavesdrop, Danny,’ her grandmother had used to say.
And you wouldn’t read anything good about yourself either—as she had just discovered. Tiago had been in the middle of writing an email back to Lizzie when he had broken off—presumably because the gauchos had arrived to escort him to their wedding. And once she had started reading the screen she hadn’t been able to stop. She had even scrolled back to read the rest of Lizzie’s messages.
It had been about then that she had ended up on the floor. Her legs must have given way as her world had shattered.
It was all lies. Tiago had lied to her by omission.
The subject line on Lizzie’s email had been enough without the rest: Chico told me. That sounded so accusatory. What could Chico possibly have told Lizzie to make Danny’s best friend so angry?
Reading on, she’d found out.
I know you’ll stop at nothing to secure the ranch, because I know you, Tiago, but your plan smacks of desperation to me. And if you hurt her—if you force Danny to do anything she doesn’t want to do—you might be Chico’s friend, but I swear I’ll never forgive you.
Danny’s my friend, and I will protect her. You can’t marry someone simply because you need a wife and a baby fast. When I challenged Chico about it he said you would keep the child, but not the mother. How could you, Tiago? I refuse to believe my friend would agree to this unless you’ve lied to her—and when she finds out her heart will be broken again.
Please send her home. The work on the roof is nearly finished, so the house is safe to live in, and we’ll be back from honeymoon soon. Please tell Danny she always has a home here—
Tiago would keep her baby?
Danny shook her head in desperation. It wasn’t so much the fact that Lizzie obviously believed Danny’s marriage to Tiago was doomed but the thought of having her child taken from her that had stopped her in her tracks.
Tiago had never mentioned anything about a baby. Even when she had confronted him about the possibility of their having a child he had shrugged it off. No system of birth control was absolutely reliable, and they had used none today, but if Tiago thought he could take her child away from her—he didn’t know her at all. She would fight to defend her child to her dying breath.
What was wrong with him? The terms of his grandfather’s will had been unreasonable. Tiago had acknowledged that. His grandfather had wanted him to found a dynasty that carried his name, but they had both agreed how outdated that was.
Saving the ranch was something she could support—but tearing a child from its mother?
A chill of dread swept over her. Tiago believed he had to comply exactly with the terms of his grandfather’s will or risk losing everything: the community he’d built, the wonderful people... Everything he cared about would be destroyed. And she had entered into this arrangement with her eyes wide open. But did an unborn child deserve to be a pawn in their game?
It wasn’t going to happen. She wouldn’t let it happen. She couldn’t change him. She had to get that through her head. Tiago’s childhood experience had been with utterly selfish parents and he’d built a carapace of steel around his heart. Her past had made her determined to survive anything—and she would survive this.
‘DANNY?’
She could hear him coming down the stairs, and his purposeful stride heading towards the kitchen. She was on her feet, leaning over the kitchen counter with her arms braced and her fists planted. She didn’t move when he came into the room. She couldn’t bear to look at him. She didn’t respond in any way.
‘Are you okay? Danny—what’s wrong?’
Tiago was at her side in moments, still warm and damp from the shower. She could smell soap on him, she registered numbly as she pushed his hand away.
She stepped to one side, but he stood in front of her.
‘Speak to me, Danny.’ Dipping his head, Tiago searched her eyes.
She turned her face