Welcome to Mills & Boon. Jennifer Rae

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СКАЧАТЬ week he hadn’t known this woman—not really. He knew Helena, Thea’s sister, or Helena, Thomas’s daughter. But he had no idea of the wonder, the humour, the warmth and the beauty that lay beyond those labels.

      ‘I can’t believe I came so close to marrying the wrong woman,’ he murmured against her lips, and felt rather than saw her smile in response. ‘This is it. This is exactly how it was meant to be all along.’

      ‘I know,’ Helena said, and he could hear her happiness in the words. ‘I know. And we so almost didn’t...’

      ‘But we did. We have each other now.’ It might not be love yet, Flynn thought, but he could see the pathway there. Could see every step between here and their future.

      Helena pulled back a little, still smiling, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. ‘You haven’t even put the ring on me yet.’

      ‘I haven’t?’ Flynn blinked, and saw it sitting on the table beside them. Pulling it free of its velvet box, he lifted Helena’s left hand and slipped it on next to her wedding ring. ‘There.’

      ‘There,’ Helena echoed, staring down at her hand. ‘It really is the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen.’

      ‘For the most beautiful woman,’ Flynn said, knowing it was corny and not even caring. Somehow this moment, alone on the terrace, felt more permanent, more official than the big church ceremony and the signed register. This was the moment he’d remember as their true wedding. The moment they understood each other and committed to their future.

      Helena smiled up at him, then caught her lip between her teeth, the way he already knew she always did when she was deciding whether or not to say something.

      ‘Go on,’ he said. ‘You may as well say whatever it is. After your response to my initial proposal, it’s unlikely you can come up with anything worse.’

      ‘True. And I do think you’ll like this one more.’ Swaying closer, she wrapped herself tighter around his body, pressing herself against him until it felt as if even air couldn’t squeeze between them. His body began to react immediately, even before Helena rose up on her tiptoes, brushing against him every slow inch of the way, and whispered in his ear, ‘So, do you want tiramisu for dessert? Or me?’

      He swallowed, trying to cling on to the composure he was so famed for in the boardroom. The plan was to wait. He’d already pushed so far up against every line he’d drawn for himself. And there was more than business on the line here, he admitted to himself, more than money. He had to be sure he could risk his heart. ‘Are you sure? The contract—’

      ‘Paperwork’s a formality,’ she murmured against the skin of his neck, placing kisses between each word. ‘I’m yours now, whatever happens. So take me.’

      The words ripped through the last of his self-control and Flynn hauled her up his body into another kiss, this one harder, more desperate, more wanting.

      ‘Upstairs,’ he managed, just, as her hands clutched at his back. ‘Now.’

      He didn’t need to say it twice.

      * * *

      It was several hours later, with the sky dark outside the bedroom window, that Flynn tugged her closer against his naked body and said, ‘We never did get that tiramisu.’

      Helena laughed against his skin, her hands still roaming over his chest. ‘You never got me in that negligee, either.’

      ‘Maybe tomorrow night,’ Flynn said, yawning.

      ‘Maybe,’ Helena agreed, although she knew they’d never make it that far. By tomorrow night they’d be too desperate for each other again, too consumed with want that they’d forget all about her fancy nightie. Just as they had done tonight.

      It had been more than she’d dreamt it could be. The way he moved against her, within her...the way he touched her, with a sort of reverence she’d never imagined a man could have for her body. As if he were drinking in every detail of her, and each one intoxicated him.

      She should never have worried about them being compatible, and she almost laughed when she thought that, until a couple of hours ago, she’d honestly been afraid he hadn’t wanted her.

      She’d been scared, she admitted to herself, lying in the darkness in her husband’s arms. She’d not wanted to think about it, but there had been very few men since she’d fallen pregnant at sixteen, and none that made Helena feel the way that Flynn did. She’d worried whether she’d be enough for him, worried more about protection until he’d pulled a condom from his wallet, and worried most that he’d be able to tell her secrets with one glance at her body.

      He hadn’t, though. And since his eyes and hands and mouth had covered every inch of her, she didn’t imagine he would now.

      Her past was locked away until she chose to share it with him. He’d be hurt, she knew, that she’d kept it from him, but she liked to think he’d understand. Especially now—they were already so close, and after so little time. By the time it mattered, when they talked again about children, they’d be a proper unit. A family, even. He’d understand.

      And he’d understand, she thought, if she told him she wanted to adopt. He might even welcome it. As long as she got the timing right, they would make it work, she was sure of it.

      They had to. She’d committed now, and so had he. There wasn’t any room to step back any more.

      ‘What are you thinking about?’ Flynn asked, his voice sleepy as he kissed the top of her head. ‘You’re keeping me awake with all those thoughts.’

      ‘I’m just thinking how happy I am,’ Helena replied, and hoped he didn’t know her well enough yet to tell when she was lying.

      He didn’t. ‘Good,’ he said, turning on to his side and pulling her back against his chest. Soon, his breathing evened out and she knew he was asleep.

      But Helena lay awake almost until the sun crept over the window ledge, thinking about the things she’d done and the choices she’d made.

      * * *

      When Flynn awoke the next morning he knew instinctively that it wasn’t six a.m. The sun sat too high in the sky, sending beams of warmth and light that cut across the bed. They hadn’t shut the curtains the night before, he realised, and still he’d slept in well past his normal waking hour.

      It had to be the exercise, he thought, stretching out aching muscles as far as he could without waking the woman sleeping in his arms.

      His wife.

      She’d been everything he’d dreamt she could be, and more. If he’d needed any extra proof that things had worked out for the best, he had it. As the mid-morning sun glinted off the sapphire on her finger, he knew that Helena was the one for him, for life. Whatever happened next—with his father, the company, even with Zeke and Thea—it would be him and Helena against the world. They had their own family. His hand slipped down to rest against her stomach for a moment. And one day, not yet, but once things were settled with the CEO role, that family would grow a little bigger.

      He couldn’t wait.

      Flynn toyed with the idea of waking Helena to remind her again just how good they were together, СКАЧАТЬ