Page 27 of Billion-Dollar Baby Shock

‘For ever is a long way away.Why don’t we focus on the present moment?’

In spite of everything and Dion’s clear doubt that she would stay the course as Niko’s mother, her blood was hot and her heart was thumping erratically.She wanted to alternately kiss Dion and then slap him for being so arrogantly cynical.And then that made her think of how his own parents had treated him and her heart ached.

‘You want me, Tara.’

How she longed to dent that arrogant self-assurance.But it was hard to do when she was literally weak at the knees and already imagining what it might be like to have his mouth on her again.

‘Niko…’ she said weakly.

‘Niko is asleep, we have a baby monitor and we’re literally next door.’

We.Any paltry resistance dissolved.Dion straightened up from the wall and held out his hand.Before she could overthink it, Tara stepped forward and put her hand in Dion’s.His fingers curled around hers and he led her back down the corridor a little and into his bedroom.

Inside, there were some low lamps sending out goldenpools of light.Tara could see the bed, massive.Dion pushed the door almost closed but not quite.He let her hand go and took the baby monitor, putting it on top of a chest of drawers.He asked, ‘Is it turned right up?’

Tara nodded.The bare flicker of lights on the monitor indicated that Niko was still fast asleep.

‘Come here.’

He was standing at the end of the bed.He’d taken off his jacket and was undoing the buttons on his shirt.She lamented the fact that she wasn’t wearing some silky filmy negligée as she walked towards him.He pulled off his shirt, revealing his broad, hard-muscled chest.It truly was a sight to behold.

Instinctively, Tara reached out and her put hand on it, splaying her fingers, feeling the soft springiness of his chest hair, the warmth of his skin.The hard nubs of his nipples, making him suck in a breath.

She looked up.He was staring down at her.‘I need to taste you.’He cupped her face in his hands and urged her closer while lifting her face to his.Tara’s mouth opened on a sigh just as his covered it and their breaths mingled and tongues touched, tentatively at first and then with more intensity, exploring and tasting…

Dion’s hands moved down, fingers undoing her robe and pushing it from her shoulders, down her arms and off her body.He drew back and looked at her.All she was wearing was a flimsy vest and sleep-shorts.Plain and unadorned.At least the first night they’d met she’d been wearing the evening gown.She ducked her head but he tipped her chin up and shook his head and said with a rough quality to his voice, ‘Don’t do that.You are beautiful.’

Howcould he say things like this to her and make her feel like the most precious thing, and then also be the man who had acquired a baby like an accessory to his life?

But she didn’t have time to think about that because he was lifting her vest from the bottom and she lifted her arms to allow him to pull it up and off completely.

Now she wore only panties.While he was still half dressed.As if he were reading her mind, Dion’s hands went to his trousers and he undid them and pushed them off his hips, taking his underwear too, stepping out of his clothes.Now he was naked.Skin gleaming in the half-light.A Greek statue brought to life.

He caught her by the arms and tugged her into him again so that their bodies were touching.The tips of her breasts against his lower torso, his rising erection against her belly.

She moved closer, trapping him against her, and moved delicately.

He caught her hair and pulled gently, tugging her head back, ‘You little cat.’

Tara felt like purring.She came up on her tiptoes then and wound her arms around Dion’s neck, finding his mouth and pressing hers against it in a desperate kiss, silently asking him to take control so she wouldn’t have to think about anything but these wondrous sensations that he sparked to life in her.

For someone who’d spent the last decade worrying about everyone else, it felt beyond decadent to indulge herself like this.

Dion obliged.He ducked a little and caught Tara under her legs, lifting her up and carrying her to the bed.It made Tara feel emotional—just this small act—because it madeher feel cared for, when she’d been the one who had done all the caring.Dangerous.She had to push notions like this out of her head because it was an illusion.This was just aboutsex.And she was catching up on lost time.

He laid her down on the bed and put his hands to her underwear, tugging it off.She lifted her hips.Now she was naked too.But she didn’t feel self-conscious.She felt hungry.

Dion was standing, looking at her, that dark gaze roving all over her body, making her tingle.

‘Dion…please…’

‘What,gattina?’

‘What does that mean?’

‘Little cat.Do you want me to touch you?’

Tara liked that, too much.She nodded.‘Yes, please.’