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“I know.” Their eyes locked, and his heart skipped a beat.
He pulled her close, wrapping her in both arms, against his chest. Pressed against his white tuxedo shirt, her full breasts seemed barely contained by the sequined neckline, the spaghetti straps about to snap. It was all he could do not to snap them off himself.
All he wanted to do was kiss her, but Yiannis was just now pulling the speedboat close to the yacht. There was no time—
With an intake of breath, he looked at her. “We have two hours before we’ll reach my plane in Paros.”
“Right.” She started to pull away, suddenly all business. “I’ll start pulling up research, then call the Paris office—”
“Later,” Theo whispered and lowered his head to kiss her.
CHAPTER TEN
“YOU’REDONE,”Theo said suddenly one evening in their Paris office. “I’m taking you out.”
“Done?” Emmie looked up blearily from three separate computer screens spread over her desk, showing all the final details of the Harcourt proposal. “What do you mean? We still have—”
Theo gently pulled a stylus from one of her hands and an electronic tablet from the other. “We’ve done everything we can. We can leave the cleanup and polishing to the team.” He looked around the office. “Right, team?”
“We got it, boss,” came the cheerful replies in French and English.
Emmie blinked owlishly, disoriented after twelve straight hours of focus. She looked around her. With its cream-colored walls, gilt-framed paintings and old-wood parquet floors, the Katrakis Paris office was very different from the New York office’s glass and steel. The nineteenth-century building was in the Étoile district with a view of the Arc de Triomphe. The floor could hold twenty employees comfortably, but was currently bursting at the seams with thirty-two, including the extra staff flown in from London and New York.
For the last month, they’d been working all-out on this proposal—crunching numbers, collating technical and legal data, and creating a beautiful, eye-popping presentation, which they’d show Pierre Harcourt and his daughter tomorrow morning.
Now heavily pregnant, Emmie was finding it a little harder to make it through the sixteen-hour workdays, especially since every night, during time she should have spent sleeping, she made love to her husband once or twice. She didn’t regret it. How could she resist Theo’s touch, which was like an intoxicating fire?
But still. She’d be glad when the Katrakis team formally presented their proposal tomorrow at Harcourt’s office in La Défense. Theo was certain it would immediately succeed. Emmie was less certain. She suspected the Harcourts would request modifications, playing their offer against sales pitches of rivals, in give-and-take of negotiations that could take weeks, if not longer.
She hoped she was wrong and Theo was right. She loved the thought of returning to New York tomorrow night. She yearned for a good night’s sleep, for the baby’s sake if not for hers, and the chance to nap a little and put up her swollen feet. And to see her family again.
The Swensons were all doing well. Her brothers had all moved out of the family apartment, but Karl was hardly lonely as he and her two older brothers spent their days expanding Swenson and Sons Plumbing. Her second youngest brother, Sam, at twenty-one, had registered for nursing school and was living with his girlfriend in Jersey City. Daniel, the youngest at nineteen, had just departed for Oklahoma to study cybersecurity at the University of Tulsa. Emmie smiled. Call it the Theo Katrakis Scholarship Fund.
Her friends were doing well, too. Honora was pregnant again, and she’d promised to throw Emmie and Theo a baby shower when they were back in New York. Emmie could hardly wait.
But she’d given her word to Theo to help him achieve his dream. She intended to see it through. All she wanted was for him to be happy, because she—
Because she—
“I’m fine,” she told Theo briskly, even as her stomach growled and her knees shook with exhaustion. “I don’t need special treatment. I can finish.”
“There’s no question of special treatment, Emmie. You’ve fought harder than anyone.” Theo’s warm black eyes smiled down at her, his gaze like a caress.
Thiswas why she’d worked so hard, she thought. A lump rose in her throat. Forhim. For the last month, she’d thrown herself into being the perfect wife and perfect secretary because she’d yearned to see Theo look at her like this for just one precious moment. With approval. With admiration. With...
Love?
Catching her breath, she shook her head. “I’ll stay.”
Theo’s eyes flickered with respect, then he came closer, drawing her away to a quiet corner, away from the efficient, chattering employees crowding around the screens.
“Remember Rio?” he said softly.
Her lips lifted on the edges. Putting her hands over the full swell of her belly, she said, “Um, yes?”
He snorted, then his eyes grew serious. “You accused me of being a brute of a boss, never allowing you to leave the office even when we traveled around the world. And you were right. So tonight, before we leave France,” he took her hand, “I want you to see the City of Lights. To celebrate our coming triumph.”
Her eyebrows lifted at the wordtriumph. “Aren’t you the one who always says never to count on success?”
