She gasped. ‘You wanted to marry me before you knew I was pregnant?’
‘I dismissed perfectly good candidates because they were not you. I didn’t want to admit it to myself, but I couldn’t see any of them as my wife. None of them touched me the way you did. When the pregnancy presented itself as an option for me keeping you, I took it.’
The timer on the screen beeped. They both ignored it.
Tears filled her eyes. He brushed them away with his fingers.
‘I thought you were only with me because of the baby.’
He looked down at her belly, then back at her. ‘I love our child more than I can adequately put into words. I was overwhelmed with terror that you’d wake up in the middle of the night and ask for your freedom.’
Her mouth wobbled before she pursed her lips. ‘And the night you came to me?’
‘I came to tell you that Joaquin Esteban had been arrested.’
She gasped. ‘What?’
‘Mendez handed him over as part of our agreement. If I have anything to do with it, Esteban won’t see the light of day again.’
Tears threatened. She blinked them away. ‘So you came to tell me...and?’
‘You looked so beautiful. I couldn’t stay away. I missed you so much I couldn’t breathe, never mind sleep. I planned to leave a note and be gone before you realised I was there. Leaving you ripped me apart. After that I didn’t want to put myself through it again...so I used my duties as an excuse to stay away.’
A deep tremble shook her. ‘Oh, Reyes.’
The timer beeped again.
She asked the question burning its way through her heart. ‘Why are you here now, Reyes?’
‘Because staying away from you is killing me. I need to be with you. With our baby. Loving you, protecting you both.’ He started to reach for her.
She pulled back. ‘Loving me?’
He closed his eyes. ‘Dios. This wasn’t how I intended it to go—’
‘Stop trying to wrap everything perfectly and just tell me how you feel!’
‘I love you.’ He exhaled, then struggled to catch his breath again. ‘You blew me away that first night in Rio. I went to sleep thinking I could have found the one, even though I wasn’t looking for you or even dreaming that the overwhelming feelings I felt for you existed. I let how I felt about my mother and Anaïs cloud my judgement so I could hate you for what you did. Even after I understood your motivation I was too scared to let you in.
‘But you wormed your way in anyway. I admire your courage, your intelligence. My people love you already and it’s been mere weeks since you entered their lives.’
Jasmine smiled. ‘I love Santo Sierra. I’ve loved your home and its people since I stepped off the plane, Reyes. And I adore its king. When he’s not breaking my heart by staying away from me for weeks on end.’
He caught her to him and smothered her with long, breath-stealing kisses. ‘Your king is back. He will never leave your side again.’ He spread his hand over her belly again the way he’d done, painfully briefly, weeks ago. ‘He will never leave either of you. Ever again.’
With a flick of his finger, he turned the screen off. When he pulled his shirt over his head, she could barely keep from crying with joy. ‘Reyes...’
‘I’m here, querida,’ he rasped.
Strong hands reached for her, lifting her up and carrying her into the bedroom. About to kiss him back, she paused. ‘Did you bring any guards with you?’
A look, almost of regret, passed over his face. ‘Sí, it’s protocol. But they know not to disturb us, even when you scream with passion. Now, where was I?’
The look in his eyes set off spirals of excitement through her. Feeling almost wanton, she slowly licked her tongue over her upper lip. ‘Somewhere here, I think.’
She expected his customary growl, a sound she’d become accustomed to when he was fully aroused. Not this time. His eyes fixed on hers, he slowly inhaled, taking in her scent, imprinting her on his senses.
Jasmine found that even more enthralling than his growl and she watched, fascinated, as his chest expanded on his breath. Slowly he breathed out. ‘I don’t know what it is about you, Jasmine Navarre, but you captivate me. I might even go as far as to say I’m completely obsessed by you.’
Her breath stalled in her throat. ‘Stay that way, and we won’t have a problem at all.’
‘I love you, my queen.’
‘I love you, Reyes.’
His eyes misted. Then he cleared his throat. ‘No more talking.’
His kiss was hard, possessive, sucking out every last ounce of sanity from her as he unleashed the raw power of his arousal. He broke from her mouth to let her inhale a mere breath before he was back again, demanding. And receiving the unfettered response she couldn’t hide.
Jasmine touched. Stroked. Nearly wept with delight at the sheer pleasure touching Reyes brought her. And everywhere she touched his skin seemed to react, to heat, bunch and flex, as if his every nerve ending was attuned to her.
That thought only served to increase her bliss. He pulled away for a moment. ‘I know you’ll berate me if I ruin your precious shirt, so I’ll let you take it off.’
She wanted to tell him she didn’t care if he ripped her shirt to shreds! But no way would she be able to articulate those words, not when her brain was too busy devouring the solid, sculpted lines of his naked torso. With shaking fingers, she divested herself of her shirt, letting it fall to the ground unheeded.
She arched her back, reached for her bra.
He growled low in his throat.
‘I love that sound.’
‘I growl only for you, mi amor. Always and for ever.’
* * * * *
Read on for an extract from RUSSIAN’S RUTHLESS DEMAND by Michelle Conder.
CHAPTER ONE
‘YOU’RE BREAKING UP, PETRA. Who did you say quit?’ Lukas Kuznetskov pressed his mobile phone closer to his ear, straining to hear as his PA explained the latest issue to befall the supposedly creative genius who had been hired to build his ice hotel. Apparently the man had stormed out after Lukas had questioned his latest set of drawings, complaining that Lukas was too controlling and stifled his creativity.
Creativity?
Lukas swore under his breath.
So far he had come up with the overall concept of the hotel himself while the architectural wizard he’d hired had done little more than fill in the technical details and organise the preliminary build. With only a month left until the most anticipated project in Russia was due to open it was fair to say Lukas was a little agitated. ‘Please tell me he at least redesigned the interior of the guest bedrooms like I asked,’ he growled, grinding his teeth when Petra confirmed that no, he had not.
Useless, lazy, good for nothing... Lukas sucked in a sharp breath as he strove for calm and told Petra he’d handle it. As if he wasn’t busy enough.
‘Trouble?’
Having momentarily forgotten his Italian ship engineer was in the room Lukas turned away from the splendour of Italy’s Adriatic coastline and glanced at the plans laid out on a scored