Falling for His Proper Mistress(20)
Author: Tessa Radley

A ball whizzed past him.

“Great ace,” he yelled, hoping flattery would distract his brother from his moment of inattention.

“Ace? My eye.” Gavin was laughing as he crossed to the other side and lined up for the final serve of the match.

This time the delivery was indeed an ace. No doubt about it. Guy shook Gavin’s hand over the net and took the ribbing about where his thoughts had been for the duration of the game.

“You must be in love, brother.”

Guy chuckled loudly. “Me? Not going to happen. I was thinking about what to do to keep you busy. Can’t have you going insane with boredom.”

He shifted under the unerring focus of Gavin’s gaze.

“I always thought that when you fell for a woman you would fall hard,” Gavin said finally. “Looks like it has happened at last.”

“Don’t kid yourself,” Guy growled.

“Who’s kidding whom?”

Guy had a sinking feeling that despite his wide-eyed mock innocence Gavin might be right, that he was indeed teetering on the edge of the precipice yawning ahead of him.

The vision was not comforting.

Guy paused for a moment at the door of the premier spa room that Melissa had told him Avery was using.

Avery was sitting on a ledge in a long pool. Water lapped at the top of her bikini-clad br**sts in little waves. It rushed over an angled sheet of granite into the pool, sluicing over Avery below. Guy knew from experience that the water was hot—but not as hot as the next waterfall along.

Below the lime green triangles of her bikini top, her hands were touching her tummy with long, slow strokes that he found incredibly arousing. She wore a dreamy expression he’d never seen before.

“What are you thinking about?”

At the sound of his voice Avery started. Her gaze shot to his…then away. “Guy.”

She didn’t sound delighted by his presence.

A feeling of déjà vu crept over him as he stepped into the room and closed the door.

Avery gave him an uncertain smile.

“How are you feeling?” he asked coming closer.

Her face cleared a little, and she laced her fingers together. “A lot better, thank you. Joanie has magic hands and Melissa made sure she pampered me to death.”

His face softened at the mention of his sister. “Melissa has always been the nurturer in the family. I’ve just organized for you to stay with her for the night.”

“But I can’t just descend on her!”

“Of course you can—she’s looking forward to the company.”

“I’ll consider it.” Avery sank deeper into the water and her nose tilted up into the air.

He started to grin. Was it possible that his little spitfire was mad at him for doing something for her own good? “It’s already sorted out.”

She glowered at him.

She was cute when she was mad, and he had a feeling she was going to be madder still. Guy pulled his shirt over his head in one, swift movement, revealing a broad, muscled chest.

“What are you doing?” Avery shrieked.

“Easing out my tired muscles.” In two paces he’d reached the door, and locked it. Next he toed off his sneakers. When he shucked off his tennis shorts, Avery closed her eyes.

He slid in behind her and pulled her up against his nak*d body.

“Guy!”

He kissed her nape. The skin was warm and steamy, and her hair was swept up on top of her head. Irresistible. “What?”

“You shouldn’t be in here!”

They’d done this—and more—before. Already his body was hardening at the memory. But this time he had no intention of making love to her. Although Avery didn’t know that. This time he just wanted to hold her.

“Give me one reason why not?”

“We work together—I don’t want anyone to know we’re involved.”

“I’m not going to make love to you. I came to see if you’re all right.” He put on his most innocent expression, but it made no difference—she couldn’t see it at this angle.

“I’m fine. And I sure thought you were making love to me. Because you’re kissing the wrong part of me better.”

His husky laugh caused the soft bits of hair at her neck to dance. “I’ll kiss whatever part you want me to.” He blew lightly onto her neck and felt her quiver. So responsive.

He tightened his arms convulsively around her.

“Thank goodness you’re safe.”

The images that had flashed through his mind when a young woman had called to say that Avery had been involved in a car accident…

Guy shivered. He never wanted to re-live those excruciating moments.

The thirty seconds it had taken to get confirmation that Avery was alive were amongst the longest of his life. The piercing pain had been a thousand times worse than the two hours he’d spent waiting for her at Baratin the night of her birthday. Because now he knew what it felt like to lose her…

He’d spent forty-nine days without her.

After the past three weeks he was starting to feel like he never wanted to let her go.

Avery tilted her head back. “I’m a lot tougher than I look.”

“My mother thought she was, too.” The words came from nowhere. He hadn’t even thought about Mom for days. He usually tried not to talk about her at all. The topic always led to grim silences. But suddenly he couldn’t prevent himself saying, “She promised me and Blake that she would beat the cancer.”

Turning over, Avery looked up at him, her eyes luminous. “I’m sure she wanted to more than anything in the world. A woman with five young children would not want to leave them.”

“I was foolish enough to believe her, in the way a six-year-old does. I thought she’d get better.” How could he explain the devastation that he’d felt returning from a night at a friend’s home to discover that his mother had been taken into the hospital, that she’d passed away? “She refused to have chemotherapy, you know. She chose to die, to leave us all. How can a six-year-old ever be expected to understand that?”

Avery slid up and pressed a kiss against his lips. “You poor little boy.”

Hell. He didn’t feel very much like a little boy right now. Not with her lying breast to hip along his body, her legs tangling with his. He gave a groan. “Avery, I got in here to hold you, to comfort you, not to make love. But you’re making it very hard.”

A wicked sparkle lit her eyes and she moved her body against his. “Am I?”

The little witch.

Guy groaned again. “Have mercy…and don’t move.”

“Why not?”

He swallowed. “You might jolt your ankle.”

“My ankle is already feeling a lot better.”

But she shifted and slid onto the seat beside him. Guy wished she’d stayed where she was. Yet if she had, the temptation would’ve been too great to resist. Instead he placed an arm around her shoulders, marveling at the tenderness that welled up inside him, the contentment that merely holding her brought. It wasn’t something he’d experienced before.

Placing his index finger under her chin he raised it, and sealed her mouth with his kiss. Guy let himself sink into her…into the soft femininity that was Avery. Sweet. Feminine. Unique.

His.

When the kiss was over, he stared down into her blue eyes, stunned by how she’d inveigled her way into every crevice of his life in such a short space of time.

She blinked, and the spell was broken.

“There’s something I have to tell you.” She sounded subdued.

Guy wanted to shout “No.” He didn’t want to hear anything that might break this accord that lay like a golden thread between them, joining them in a way that was somehow special.

Yet he found himself saying, “What is it?” while he hoped furiously that there were no further revelations about Jeff, or anyone else in her life, to follow.

The deep breath that she took warned him that he wasn’t going to like it. But what she did murmur knocked the guts out of him.

“What did you say?”

She shifted in his arms, and Guy realized he was gripping her uncomfortably. He instantly slackened his hold.

“I’m pregnant,” she repeated more loudly, edging away from him.

“How?” His head spinning, he asked, “Forget that. Have you known all this time?”

She blinked. “What do you mean ‘all this time’?”

“Since being at Jarrod Ridge.”

“Are you asking if this is the reason I came to Jarrod Ridge?”

He hadn’t quite thought that far ahead. Now he considered it. Was this why she’d come? Guy shifted in the hot water. Had it been nothing to do with her Uncle Art at all?

Maybe it was what his subconscious mind was asking.

“Yes.” His tone was terser than he intended as he tried to process the information that Avery was going to have his baby.

She slowly shook her head, and he could’ve sworn that the divide between them grew—even though she didn’t move. “I only discovered today at the hospital.”

“You’ve had symptoms?” And she hadn’t bothered to reveal anything to him by word or action? He felt unaccountably put out.

“Nothing obvious. In fact, you started me worrying when you asked whether there’d been any repercussions after our time in New York. I hadn’t even thought about it. I bought a test from the drugstore—”

“So you had a suspicion that you were pregnant.” Guy found himself glaring through the water to the pale skin of her stomach just visible through the swirling water. He couldn’t see any sign that made her look remotely pregnant. “Thanks for letting me in on the secret.”

“Hey, hear me out.” She turned her head so that he looked square into her face. Her skin was dewy from the steam, and her eyes had darkened. She’d never looked more beautiful. “The test was negative—I took it twice. I wasn’t pregnant then—”

“But you’re pregnant now? How does that work?” Guy’s brows shot up. “That is what you’re trying to tell me?”

“Yes!” She was breathing quickly, her br**sts rising and falling. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. And before you even think of accusing me of trying to fob off someone else’s baby on you—”

“That never occurred to me,” Guy said heatedly, forgetting all about her br**sts at the accusation. “Whatever gave you the idea I’d think that?”

“Your reaction to seeing me with Matt?”

Well, she had him there. He couldn’t precisely argue without revealing his gut-grinding jealousy before he’d discovered Matt was her cousin.

“Your idiocy over Todd.” She raised an eyebrow. “Warning me away from Louis? Need I go on?”

Guy started to feel very foolish. “Are you sure you’re pregnant? It could be a mistake.”

“Stop clutching at straws, Guy. I’m probably pregnant.”

“Probably pregnant?”

But she didn’t laugh as he’d intended at his emphasis on the absurd way she’d put it.