Fiona Lowe – Double Trouble: Pregnancy Surprise: Two Little Miracles / Expecting Royal Twins! / Miracle: Twin Babies (страница 24)
And then he was there, inside her, filling her, and she felt the storm closing round them, the sensation overwhelming her until suddenly everything broke loose and her climax ripped through her.
He caught her scream in his mouth, trapped it against the savage groan that tore from his chest. And then he rolled her to her side and pulled her in close to him, their bodies still locked together, their hearts racing, and, when she finally opened her eyes, he was looking at her with wonder in his eyes, the lashes clumped with tears.
‘I love you,’ he whispered, and, drawing her close again, he tucked her head under his chin and wrapped his arms around her, his hands stroking slowly, rhythmically, against her spine until finally she fell asleep in his arms.
He’d missed her so much.
He’d never told her, hadn’t revealed just how hellish the last year had been. Oh, he’d said a few things, but nothing compared to what was locked up in his heart.
But she was back now, and, if it killed him, he’d make sure he didn’t fail her again.
His arm was going dead, but he didn’t want to disturb her. He was just enjoying the luxury of holding her, and he wasn’t sure how she’d be when she woke up. Distant? Full of regret?
Hell, he hoped not.
And then she stirred, opened her eyes and smiled at him, and he felt the tension ease out of him like a punctured balloon.
‘Hi.’
‘Hi,’ he answered, and feathered a kiss across her lips. ‘You all right?’
‘Mmm. You?’
‘Oh, yes. I’m very all right.’
‘My leg’s dead.’
‘Snap. My arm’s fallen off, I think.’
‘It’s going to hurt.’
‘Uh-huh.’
She grinned. ‘One, two, three—’
He gave a little groan and shifted further out of her way, then laughed and drew her back in to his side, so they lay with fingers intertwined and their heads together on the pillow. ‘Better?’
‘Mmm. Max?’
‘Yes?’
‘I love you.’
‘Oh, Jules.’ He rolled towards her, not caring about the pins and needles in his arm, and kissed her gently. ‘I love you, too.’
‘Good,’ she murmured, and, a second later, he heard a soft, almost imperceptible snore.
He smiled. He’d tease her about that in the morning, he thought, and, shifting closer to her, he curled his hand over her hip and went to sleep.
The babies woke her, and she rolled to her back, opened her eyes and blinked.
It was broad daylight, and she could hear Max’s voice in their room. Getting out of bed and wincing at the unaccustomed aches, she pulled her dressing gown on hastily and went out to them.
‘Hello, my lovelies,’ she said, going into the room, and they beamed at her from their cots.
‘Am I included in that?’ he asked, looking much too sexy for his own good in nothing but a pair of boxers, and she chuckled.
‘You might be. How long have they been awake?’
‘A few minutes. I’ve changed their nappies and given them a bottle of juice, but I think they want their mum and something rather more substantial.’
‘I’m sure they do. Come on, my little ones. Shall we go downstairs and say hello to Murphy?’
She lifted Ava out of her cot and handed her to Max, and then pulled Libby up into her arms and nuzzled her. ‘Hello, tinker. Are you going to be good today?’
‘Probably not, if she’s like her sister,’ he said drily, and carried her downstairs. ‘I’ll do that stairgate this morning.’
‘Mmm. Please. I’d hate anything to happen. Hello, Smurfs! How are you, boy? Find anything nice to eat?’
‘I’m sure he will have given it his best shot,’ Max said wryly. ‘Won’t you, you old rascal?’
Murphy thumped and wagged and grinned at him, and she laughed. ‘He’s such a suck-up. Horrid dog, aren’t you? Horrid. Here, Libby, go to Daddy.’
‘Da-dad,’ she said, and they both stopped in their tracks.
‘Did I dream that?’ she asked, and he laughed and shrugged his shoulders.
‘Only if I did, too. I thought Ava said “Da-da” yesterday, but then I thought she was just babbling.’
‘Da-da!’ Ava chirruped from the playpen, hanging onto the edge and grinning furiously at him, and Julia felt her eyes fill with tears.
‘They said your name,’ she whispered, pressing her hand to her mouth, and he swallowed and grinned, and looked as if he’d crow at any minute.
‘Well, girls. How about that?’ he said, and put the kettle on.
Breakfast was over, they were all washed and dressed, and Max was trying not to think about the fact that he couldn’t take Jules back to bed for hours. Unless the girls had a sleep in the afternoon, of course.
‘Shall we do some house-hunting?’ he suggested to take his mind off it.
‘Sure. If I get the computer we can do it in here. We’ve got wireless.’ And she disappeared and came back a moment later with a laptop. John Blake’s?
‘Shove up,’ she said, and settled herself down on the sofa with the laptop. She keyed in a password, and he hated himself for memorising it without thinking. Hell, she was right not to trust him, he thought.
‘OK. I’m on one of the big property sites. What are we looking for, and how much?’
‘I wouldn’t put an upper limit on it. Start at the top and work down.’
‘Really?’
‘Well—yeah. Why not? Do you want to live in something horrible?’
‘No! I want to live in something normal!’ she retorted, and he sighed.
Wrong again. Two steps forward, three back, he thought, and wondered why he could never seem to get it right for more than a few minutes at a time.
‘Just put in the area you’re interested in, and let’s see what there is.’
Nothing. That was the simple answer. There was nothing that wasn’t either too small or too remote or too pushed-in or just plain wrong.
And nothing, but nothing, matched up to Rose Cottage.
‘I wish I could stay here,’ she said unhappily.
‘He wouldn’t sell it?’
‘Would you want it?’
He smiled at her wryly. ‘It’s not really up to me, is it? We’re talking about your home, your choice, somewhere for you and the babies. And I guess all I’ll do is visit you.’
Her eyes clouded, and she looked hastily away.
‘What—only six days, you mean, instead of seven?’
He sighed. ‘Can we start again?’