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Lilah blinked rapidly. ‘Crazy about me?’
Bastien lifted one hand to his mouth and kissed it almost awkwardly. ‘Can’t-live-without-you crazy,’ he extended in a driven undertone. ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re pregnant or not pregnant, or even if you can never get pregnant. I just want and need you in my life to make it feel worthwhile.’
‘Even though I go interfering in things that are none of my business?’ she whispered, scarcely able to believe what she was hearing, while her heart was taking off inside her like a rocket ship.
‘That was just you, taking a typical caring approach to sorting my life out,’ Bastien informed her forgivingly. ‘You know, in my whole life nobody has ever stood up to defend me or try to protect me until you spoke up today. And when I thought about that...that was the crucial moment when I finally realised how much I love you and why.’
Lilah was gobsmacked. ‘It was?’ she whispered.
‘I’ve probably been in love with you since you called me a man whore and slammed that door in my face two years ago...’ Bastien groaned. ‘I’ve certainly been pretty much obsessed with you ever since then.’
‘Obsessed while sleeping with other women?’ Lilah derided gently.
‘And I couldn’t settle for five minutes with any of them. Don’t blame me for that when you weren’t willing to take a chance on me back then.’
Moisture stung the backs of her eyes and she blinked rapidly. ‘I wasn’t brave enough to dream that something more lasting might come from what seemed to be a very shallow sexual interest.’
‘Ouch...’ Bastien groaned again, looking pained. ‘The minute I had you in my life everything changed, hara mou. You make me feel things. And when you’re not around... I feel dead, as if I have nothing to look forward to or work for.’
A tear trickled down Lilah’s cheek. ‘Oh, Bastien...’ she mumbled in a wobbly voice. ‘You’re making me cry. I love you so much, but I’m terrified you’ll wake up some day and feel trapped.’
‘Every woman who came before you made me feel trapped or bored. You do neither.’
His dark golden eyes burnished with warmth and appreciation, Bastien leant down and claimed a kiss—a slow, deep kiss that said everything he couldn’t find the words to say. She was the woman he hadn’t even known he was looking for, waiting for. Her image had been locked in his head for two long years, ensuring that no other woman could please or hold him.
The kiss wakened Lilah’s body, sending little tingles into her tender breasts and down into her pelvis. The sound of a doorbell could not have been less welcome to either of them.
Bastien lifted his head. ‘I’d better see who that is... Don’t get up.’
Lilah slid her legs off the mattress as soon as he had left the room and sped back to the main reception room to reclaim her bag. On her return she passed through the hall, and realised that their visitor was Leo.
When Bastien frowned at her, for being out of bed without permission, Lilah smiled valiantly at both men and muttered, ‘I’m going back to lie down, Bastien.’
In fact, she took her bag straight into the en-suite bathroom and removed the pregnancy test she had purchased some days earlier. She had to know one way or the other, she reflected ruefully. Had she not been so fearful that their relationship would be damaged by a negative result she believed she would have done the test sooner. But Bastien’s assurances had removed that worry. Furthermore, that fainting fit had roused Lilah’s suspicions, because she had never fainted before.
The couple of minutes she had to wait for the result of the test seemed to last an unnaturally long time. When she finally straightened from her seat on the side of the bath she froze, because she saw the result straight away. It had an electrifying effect on her and she wrenched open the bathroom door to yell.
‘Bastien? Bastien? We’re pregnant!’ she gasped from the bedroom doorway, reddening in dismay when she registered Leo’s presence, because she had totally forgotten that Bastien was not alone.
Leo was startled enough by her announcement to break into a grin. He gave Bastien a very masculine punch on the arm and wrenched open the front door for himself, departing at speed to leave them alone.
