SUV.”
Chloe craned her neck to see out the tinted windows. “But I thought we were going to discuss what she will be doing in my stead.”
“Didn’t you already cover it in your meeting with the mayor?” he asked with some exasperation.
“Not all of it.”
“You will have plenty of time on the plane.”
The limo started to move and Chloe finally nodded and settled back in her seat.
They rode in silence for several miles, leaving the small town behind. Chloe’s beautiful green eyes never once strayed from the view out the window.
“You will miss your life here,” he realized aloud.
“Yes.”
Her easy agreement with no caveat that she was looking forward to returning to their life together bothered him. Her life here had been short and not where she was supposed to be.
He felt compelled to ask, “Do you regret agreeing to my proposal?”
“Business proposition, you mean,” she said very carefully, her tone tired and tinged with sadness he did not like to hear.
No more did he understand it. He was offering her a life only a minuscule number would ever witness, much less truly experience.
“You will never want for anything,” he promised her. “You will not regret returning to the Spiridakou family.”
“Won’t I?” Her troubled green gaze remained fixed on the view out the window.
A sense of impending doom had him crossing the limo, reaching to close the privacy window between the driver and them as he sat down beside her. “No, you will not. This is my vow to you.”
Finally, she looked up at him, emerald gaze measuring. “It isn’t something you can control, Ariston.”
“We shall see.” He would not argue with her. He would show her.
Then she would believe him and he would not even say, I told you so. In the interim, the time had come to remind her one of the reasons they worked as a couple.
Cupping her cheek, the feel of her soft skin under his hand hitting him deep in his gut, he lowered his head toward hers.
“What are you doing?” she gasped.
He smiled, letting his lips brush hers. “If you have forgotten, then three weeks is definitely too long to be apart.”
Her eyes widened, but her mouth parted, inviting his kiss.
He lost no time accepting the sweet invitation, claiming her mouth with intent. This woman was his and the sooner she realized her life here in Oregon had only been a blip in their life together, the better. By her own admission, she had not wanted their marriage to end.
The time had come for her to remember why.
He took his time relearning her lips after their three weeks apart, tracing their lush bow shape with his tongue.
She made the soft whimpering sound he’d come to know intimately during their marriage, but this time it was laced with a desperation he would never have guessed at as she melted into him. No matter how she said she would miss her life here, she had missed him more.
He mapped her body through the oversized silk top she wore with leggings that disguised her weight loss to the eye. But his touch revealed how much closer to the surface her ribcage was.
He had already hired a personal trainer who would help Chloe gain necessary pounds while strengthening her muscles and preparing her body for the ordeal of pregnancy. No way was he going to allow her to risk herself carrying his child.
Her breasts were smaller than they had been, barely a handful and he did not care. Just touching her already pebble-hard nipples through the double layer of thin silk of her top and bra turned him on to the point of pain.
His sex strained against its confinement, the need to be inside her growing to near unbearable proportions.
He pulled her onto his lap, guiding her to straddle him so the apex of her thighs rubbed against his straining erection, despite their clothing. Pleasure erupted from him in a loud groan and he dove under her blouse to undo the catch on her bra.
It was a frontal closure and he smiled with satisfaction against her lips as he revealed her small but enticing curves to his questing fingers.
Sounds of pleasure and need fell from her lips to his as she rocked against him, clearly enjoying their position as much as he did.
He went to pull her top off and suddenly she went rigid above him, tearing her mouth from his. “You can’t do that.
Not here.”
He laughed, the sound edged by the pain of his arousal. “I assure you,