Pregnancy of Revenge (19 page)

Charlie felt her whole body blush, heat racing through her. Her eyes skated helplessly over his handsome face, noting the sensuous curve to his full lips, and on down to the broad expanse of his muscular chest, the curling black body hair, down past his navel, and back to his face. She was totally mesmerized by the sheer masculine perfection of him, as she had always been.

Jake lifted one long finger and, with a feather-light touch, traced the curve of her cheek, her lips, her throat, and lower to her breast. 'Exquisite,' he said huskily. 'I want to taste you.'

His dark head lowered, his firm lips following the trail
his finger had taken, lingering on her lips, more tempting than demanding, and then lower, to draw the aching peak of her breast into the heat of his mouth.

Her slender body arched involuntarily to the source of its pleasure, even as his fingers slid tantalizingly between her thighs. The musky male scent of him, his exquisite touch, had ignited a fire inside her only his full possession could douse.

'Dio,
I need you, Charlotte,' he groaned, his sensuous mouth claiming hers once more. She felt it in the hunger of his kiss, and the pressure of his fiercely aroused flesh against her thigh. The fact he had said
need
rather than
want
somehow inflamed her senses to fever pitch. Her fingers tangled in the silken hair of his head as he broke the kiss to trail a tongue of flame down her throat and lave the rigid peaks of her breast with tongue and teeth. And all the while his hands continued to caress her quivering flesh.

'You want me, Charlotte.' His dark head lifted from her breast, his glittering gaze seeking hers. 'And,
Dio,
I want you. I always have,' he groaned.

He was right. There was no point in denial. She loved him and her body ached for his, while he only lusted after hers, she knew. But she no longer cared as, driven by an unstoppable passion, she pressed her mouth to his throat. She bit his satin-smooth skin, felt his body tighten, and exulted in his husky groan. Her hands roamed feverishly over his powerful muscled body. She caressed and teased with mouth and teeth, using all the skills he had taught her, and he returned the
favour
. Pacing her pleasure with his own, he led her with a skilful, erotic ease to the very brink of ecstasy over and over again, until she almost wept from the sheer wonder of it.

He raised himself away from her, his night-black eyes molten with desire burning down into hers as he lifted her
hips and surged into her, and the cry that rose in her throat was stilled as his mouth closed over hers.

She felt the quivering tension in his great frame as he thrust deeper and faster, her body instinctively picking up his rhythm. Her fingers dug into his bronzed skin and she was conscious only of Jake and the incredible joy of his possession, until the pleasure was almost too exquisite to bear. The fusion of their two bodies was mystical in its intensity, and she bit her lip to stop from screaming his name even as her body convulsed in a shattering climax that met and absorbed Jake's pulsating release.

His head fell to her shoulder, his harsh groan of masculine satisfaction echoing in her ears. She felt the heavy pounding of his heart against her own, their sweat-slicked bodies still shuddering in the aftershock of passion. She let her hands rove possessively over his damp skin, knowing that Jake had proved once again on a physical level they were in perfect accord.

Had it ever been that profound before?
she
thought dazedly. Her own aggression had sparked a fierce reaction in Jake, raw in its intensity, but with a phenomenal control he had excited her almost to the edge of oblivion and the final incredible climax had been the deepest, most potent fulfillment of all.

Maybe their marriage could work after all...

'Now you are truly my wife,
mia amore,''
Jake said huskily, burying his face in her mass of hair. But his last words struck a jarring note in her mind.

'Don't call me that,' Charlotte said sharply.

'Why not?
You are my wife.' Jake raised his head, his dark eyes smiling lazily down at her. 'I seem to remember we got married yesterday.'

She saw the amusement in his gaze and the sense of betrayal came flooding back.
'As if I could forget.'
She turned
her head away. It was not the
wife
she was objecting to, but the
mia amore
—my love.
But she had no intention of telling him so. That he should use the term of endearment now, when he never had before, was like a knife to the heart. Their lovemaking had been so perfect, but remembering what he had revealed earlier made her want to weep.

She was not his love, never had been, and never would be. She meant no more to Jake than any of the other women who had shared his bed. Less! Because he had as good as admitted he thought she was a greedy bitch, and he had only taken her out to get revenge.

'Charlotte.' He lifted up on one elbow, and looked down at her, his dark eyes gleaming with gentle amusement. 'I know what
is the matter
. You never ate your breakfast.' He reached out and smoothed the tangled mass of blonde hair from her brow in a gentle gesture.
'My fault again.
In your condition you need food at regular intervals.'

'And who made you a doctor?' Charlie sniped back, his tenderness more than she could bear right now. But his reaction stunned her.

'Oh, hell!'
He glanced at his watch, the only thing he was wearing, and leapt off the bed. 'I have a meeting later this morning, but first you and I have an appointment with a doctor in exactly forty-five minutes. It won't take me ten minutes to get ready next door, and I'll make you a sandwich—you can eat it in the car, because allowing for travelling time, you only have thirty minutes to get ready.'

'You have some nerve!' He was standing there, unashamedly naked, ordering her around, and Charlie was incensed. 'I am not going anywhere with you.' Her blue eyes blazed defiance. 'Just because we had sex, it does not mean you can tell me what to do.'

'We did not
just
have sex, and we do not have time to
argue yet again. And you are going to the doctor if I have to carry you there.'

A naked man should not be able to look arrogant and threatening, but somehow Jake managed it, Charlie thought helplessly. 'What on earth for? I'm fine,' she asked, curbing her temper.

Jake gave her a hard look, and lashed out, 'What do you think?
To confirm the state of your pregnancy, of course.
After all, that is why I married you.' He knew he was speaking in a moment of anger, but he had thought everything was back on track between them. Now, looking at Charlotte, he doubted it. 'You have twenty-five minutes,' he flung over his shoulder as he left the room.

He could not have spelt out more clearly why he had married her if he had carved it in stone. And with that knowledge Charlie's heart turned to ice in her breast.

Twenty minutes later, wearing a blue and white patterned chiffon slip dress that effectively skimmed the slight thickening of her waistline and ended just above her knee, teamed with kitten-heeled white pumps and a matching purse, she descended the glass staircase into the hall, where Jake was waiting.

'A punctual woman.'
Jake walked towards her and stopped at her side. 'And a very attractive one,' he complimented, subjecting her to a blatant masculine appraisal that made her tummy knot with tension. She hoped it was tension and nothing more primitive.

'If I have to see your doctor, can we go?' she said edgily.

'Sure. Take this.' He handed her a baguette stuffed full of meat and wrapped in cling film. Then a strong hand spread across her back and ushered her out into the brilliant morning sun.

A black limousine was waiting, and a man she had never
seen before was holding open the rear door. Jake said something in rapid-fire Italian and the driver responded, and gave Charlie a long assessing look.

'Charlotte,
cara,
this is Marco.' Jake made the introduction, and Charlie politely shook the man's hand—a hand that was the size of a gorilla's. 'He will take care of you when
Tomas
is not available.'

'I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I don't need a minder.' She shot Jake a fulminating glance.

'
Humour
me, hmm?' His hand at her waist urged her into the rear seat of the car and he slid in beside her. 'And eat.'

At least it gave her something to do instead of having to talk to Jake, and surprisingly the sandwich was quite good.

The consultant gynecologist,
Dr
Bruno, whom Jake took her to
see
was a small, friendly old man with twinkling eyes. He spoke fluent English and Charlie liked him on sight. He told her he had known Jake for years, from the time his son Paulo and Jake were at school together. Jake was the godfather to Paulo's son and daughter, his much-loved only grandchildren.

But she did not like him quite so much when the examination was over and Jake proceeded to question him on her and the baby's state of health, and he answered in a great deal of detail Charlie could have done without.

'Will you shut up?' Charlie hissed in exasperation and embarrassment as the older man turned to his desk to extract some booklets on pregnancy. 'It has nothing to do with you.'

'The child has everything to do with me,' Jake commented with a sardonic lift of an ebony brow, and continued his conversation with
Dr
Bruno in Italian, which did nothing for Charlie's temper. At least before she'd known what they were saying, but now she had no idea.

She heaved a sigh of relief when she finally stepped onto
the pavement again, but her relief was short-lived as Jake caught her hand and led her towards the limousine waiting by the
kerb
.

'I know you have a meeting, so I think I'll have a look around the town, do some shopping,' she said lightly, banking on the fact Jake would not argue with her on the busy pavement. She pulled her hand free.

A muscular arm wrapped around her shoulders and Jake, his strong face taut, studied her with dark serious eyes. 'My home is not your prison, Charlotte, and I don't believe you will leave. Dave was right—you are an all-or-nothing kind of woman, and with you and I it cannot be
nothing
, as we will always have our child between us. So I am banking on the
all
when you get over the argument we had last night. Go shopping if you like.' His dark head bent and he brushed his lips against her hair. 'Marco will take you—and before you object, it's to make sure you don't get lost. This is a big city and you don't know your way around.'

'That sounds like a jailer to me,' she said stiffly, but in her heart she knew Jake was right.

Scornful dark eyes skimmed over her mutinous face. 'I thought we had reached an understanding this morning, but obviously I was wrong. Think what you like, you will anyway. But Marco stays.' Turning, he walked down the street.

Charlie inwardly cringed at the scorn in his expression. It was painful to have to admit, but she no longer wanted to leave Jake. Knowing he had only married her because she was pregnant did not stop her loving him and she watched his departing figure with a mixture of anger and sorrow in her suddenly moist eyes.

She didn't go shopping. She went back to the house— whether she would one day think of it as home, she didn't know.

CHAPTER TEN

CHARLIE
ate a breakfast of fruit and cereal in the kitchen with young
Aldo
and grinned at his excellent attempts to speak English. When he left for school her smile vanished. It was a sad reflection on her marriage that her best friend and the person she spent most time with was an eight-year- old boy. He finished school at one and after lunch they had taken to exploring the extensive grounds together. He had shown her his
favourite
place, a cave set in the cliffs at the rear of the house, and she had told him about the fun she had rock climbing at her home in England.