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‘I haven’t even told you thewholestory yet,’ Ari admitted heavily. ‘There was a baby found with my brother and his girlfriend, a baby girl on the brink of starving, whose birth hadn’t even been registered. She may be their child... She may not be. DNA tests are being done to identify her and to establish whether or not she is of my blood. She’s still in hospital and then destined for foster care—’
‘A baby?’ Cleo repeated, with frowning eyes of concern. ‘It breaks my heart to think of a poor little baby suffering like that...but, all the same, it’sgoodnews—’
‘Good?’ Ari repeated rawly as a warm smile chased the shadows from her face. ‘How can it be good news?’
‘If she’s your brother’s child, she’s your niece and you should have a say in what happens to her, unless there are other, closer relatives involved—’
‘I have given a DNA sample and requested a meeting with the child,’ Ari admitted. ‘But what do I know about babies? What would I do with her even if she does prove to be my brother’s kid?’
‘That’s for you to decide in the future. One step at a time. Don’t waste energy even thinking about what hasn’t happened yet,’ Cleo murmured calmly.
Ari locked stunning dark eyes highlighted with flecks of gold on her and studied her from below his curling black lashes.
Cleo flushed. ‘What?’ she pressed uncomfortably.
‘You’re a remarkably soothing woman in a crisis,’ Ari murmured with frank appreciation.
‘My mum used to flip at the smallest thing going wrong. I learned to be quieter, more practical,’ she muttered defensively. ‘It’s just how I react when there’s trouble.’
‘It helps,’ Ari breathed, his rich drawl dark and deep in tone as he closed a hand round the small fingers still engaged in stroking the back of his hand. She was very touchy-feely and he wasn’t used to that, because in his family they had all been of a stand-offish bent, rarely touching and certainly not embracing. There was no denying that her natural warmth and sympathy attracted him in some bizarre way.
Cleo gazed down uncertainly at the hand gripping hers. Ari tugged on it and she glanced up warily to be engulfed in smouldering dark golden eyes. ‘Come here...’ he murmured, soft and low and intense.
Something dangerously hot curling low in her pelvis, Cleo half stood up and hovered nearby rather than immediately accepting his invitation. ‘Not a good idea,’ she muttered shakily, inwardly fighting herself to keep her distance from him.
‘Stay with me tonight,’ Ari urged.
And that fast, she thought, where was the harm? That ship had already sailed and she no longer worked for him. It was the most freeing thought she had had in days, and the weight of her guilt, regret and insecurity fell away even faster, leaving a wonderful lightness in its place.
‘Yes,’ she murmured with a sudden shy smile of agreement.
With a flashing smile, Ari tumbled her down on top of him and claimed her readily parted lips with raw, breath-stealing hunger. Her fingers speared into his thick black hair and held him fast. A rush of heat surged at the heart of her and she swallowed back a moan as he groaned into her hair. ‘Upstairs before I shock my housekeeper...’
‘I assumed that you would be living in a modern apartment,’ Cleo confided, feeling the heat rise in her face as he led her up the imposing main staircase, and she hoped like hell that nobody would see them. For goodness’ sake, she wasn’t a misbehaving teenager breaking rules, she told herself, irritated by that sneaking-around sensation and her adolescent lack of confidence.
‘I was and then my father died. I didn’t want this place lying empty and I didn’t want to sell it, so I put the apartment on the market instead.’ Ari thrust open a door and drew her into a very large bedroom, splendidly decorated with gleaming inlaid furniture. ‘Tomorrow evening, we’ll go out to dinner—’
Cleo swivelled startled eyes in his direction, taken aback by that announcement. ‘No,’ she told him without hesitation.
‘No...to dinner?’ Ari prompted in wonderment, suddenly falling still.
‘No to dinner... Yes to everything else,’ Cleo qualified with hot cheeks.
‘Why no?’ Ari pressed for further clarification even as he scooped her off her feet and settled her on the side of the bed before crouching down to loosen the ankle straps on her shoes.
‘I don’t want to be seen out with you!’ Cleo told him in a rush. ‘This...us...it’s a crazy fling. Let’s keep it under the radar.’
His flaring black brows elevated. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever met a woman who was ashamed of me before—’
‘For goodness’ sake, it’s not like that!’ Cleo protested. ‘I just don’t think this is a relationship meant for public consumption. You know that you and me won’t last for five minutes, so why bother? I don’t want the media attention either. When I go for another office job, it wouldn’t do me any favours if I’ve been labelled as one of your cast-offs on the internet.’
‘Why am I the one feeling like a cast-off right now?’ Ari enquired drily.
‘Because you’re so used to being marched out and shown off like a trophy by women that you now think you’re being slighted,’ Cleo told him squarely. ‘But no insult was intended.’
Ari laughed, helplessly amused by her blunt and irreverent outlook. Cleo was new and fresh in a way that consistently grabbed his interest. And his desire for her and hers for him were off-the-charts hot. Her careless designation of their intimacy as being a fling had sharply disconcerted him, but, in truth, he was probably in agreement with that sentiment. Presumably, what they had would burn out and die as quickly as it had started, and in the short term, why should they need to complicate that? He lifted her small curvy body up to him and ravished her parted lips with his, his tongue delving deep.
Cleo shuddered in his grasp, her nipples tightening, damp infiltrating the heat building between her thighs. He came down on the bed with her, reaching behind himself to haul off the sweater he wore in a very masculine movement. Muscles flexing, he cast it aside and studied her, tawny eyes ablaze with hunger, and her tummy flipped as if she were on a big dipper.
