A
Billionaire’s Obsession Summer
Handling
Simon
Simon Hudson paced his home office, scowling
as he stared down at his iPhone.
I’m
running a little late. Be home
soon.
Kara had sent the text a half hour ago, and
she still wasn’t home. Like the day hasn't been fucking long
enough? Logically, he knew she was probably safe, on her way home from
work. But when it came to Kara, he didn’t
exactly operate with reason. Never
had. Never would. His analytical mind took a vacation when it came
to his wife. She was his entire world,
and the thought of anything harming her turned him into a dominant beast that
wanted to do nothing except keep her by his side every minute of every
day.
“Why the hell does she have to work? It’s not like I can’t support her.” His voice was husky, bewildered. His wife was six months pregnant, and still
working full-time as a nurse at the hospital.
And every time she left in the morning for what he knew had to be a
grueling twelve-hour shift, he panicked, his anxiety level on overdrive until
she arrived safely at home in the evening.
“Because she likes to work. Because she’d be bored if she didn’t. Because she worked hard for her education and
wants to use it?” The amused, feminine reply sounded from the doorway of his
computer lab.
Kara’s husky, teasing voice flowed over him
like silk, the tension draining from his body as he stopped pacing, his eyes
raking over her figure in the doorway with a covetous, possessive gaze.
Mine.
My wife.
That thought hit him like a sucker punch
with a baseball bat to his chest—one delivered by a major leaguer. Would there ever come a day where he didn’t
find Kara more fascinating and beautiful than he did the day before? He highly doubted it. He was a lucky bastard, and he knew it.
Smiling, she moved toward him, and his
heart thundered as she glided closer, his dominant genes urging him to seize and
conquer her. Those desires warred with his need to protect her, to keep her
safe. It was always like that with Kara,
but now that she was pregnant, his protective instincts always won.
She must have showered at the hospital, and
she looked beautiful in a light, floral, loose-fitting sundress that nearly hid
the swell of her abdomen. Not for the first time, Simon swore his wife was
sexiest pregnant woman on earth. His cock stood at attention as he caught her enticing
scent, stepping forward to seize her around the waist and hold her tightly against
his body, drowning in her essence, forgetting for just a moment that he was
pissed off at her for coming home late and scaring the shit out of him.
“You’re never leaving this house again,” he
growled, pulling the clip from her hair and letting the silky waves flow over
his fingers.
“You say that every time I come home,” Kara
answered casually, winding her arms around his neck.
“I mean it this time.” And he did.
Completely. He was so not letting
her go to work again. His heart couldn’t take it. “Why were you late? Bad shift?” he asked curiously, slightly mollified
by her nearness and the way she wrapped herself around him.
“You always mean it, but you’ll let me go
again next time,” she answered confidently.
“Because you love me and you know working makes me happy.”
Dammit. Why did she always play that card? It was exactly how she got to him every
time. “I’m not weakening this time.” He wasn’t.
Absolutely not.
“Simon…you have enough security on me to
protect the entire country. And you will
let me go,” she answered softly, her lips grazing over his temple, the warmth
of her breath wafting over his ear. “We
had a deal and you’re not breaking it.”
Oh, hell.
What the fuck had possessed him to agree to any deal that entailed her
being even the tiniest bit vulnerable?
Her hands wandered over his chest,
meandering around to his back, her nails lightly raking over the cotton of his
old t-shirt. He shuddered and closed his
eyes as her tongue lightly traced the contours of his ear and cupped his
jean-clad ass in her hands, rubbing her lush body sensually against his, urging
his groin against her.
Oh,
yeah…..that.
Damn it. “It’s not working this
time, sweetheart,” he answered gruffly, hating himself for the lack of
conviction in his voice.
“I missed you,” she whispered softly in his
ear.
Okay…fucking
deflated. Demolished. Destroyed.
The
woman in his arms was diabolical when it came to persuasion. Kara was his greatest joy…and his biggest
weakness.
Swinging her up in his arms, he told her
unhappily, “I want to renegotiate by telephone with at least one room between
us.”
She laughed lightly and wrapped her arms
around his neck as he plunked down on a comfortable leather sofa with Kara
sprawled on his lap. “No deal. You already agreed to let me work as long as
the baby and I are healthy. And we
are. I stopped at the doctor for my
check-up. We’re both fine,” she told him
in a placating voice.
“Why didn’t you tell me? I would have come with you.” He always went with her. Being in awe of her
pregnancy, he never wanted to miss a thing.
Kara rolled her eyes and gently smoothed
back a lock of unruly hair from his forehead.
“It was just a quick check and you grill poor Dr. Shapiro every time you
go with me. Last time we were there for hours.”
“I had a few questions,” Simon answered
defensively.
“A few?” She gave him a sharp, disbelieving
look. “It was like you were a
prosecuting attorney interrogating a murder suspect. I’m lucky the poor woman still wants to
deliver our baby.”
Okay…maybe he had gone a little bit overboard.
But he was concerned, dammit. “I
want to go next time,” he said, disgruntled.
“I won’t leave you out of anything
important,” she promised him sweetly. “It was supposed to be a quick check, but
it took a little longer than I thought it would.”
He looked up at her, his expression
immediately concerned, one hand instinctively covering her distended
abdomen. “Why. Are there problems?”
Her hand covered his, stroking his
fingers. “No. No problems.
But I knew you really wanted to know the sex of the baby and I was being
selfish when I said I didn’t want to know.”
Honestly, Simon didn’t think it was selfish
at all. Kara was absolutely incapable of
being selfish, and although he loved to tease her, the sex of the child she
carried inside her didn’t matter. It was
their child, another miracle for him,
and he couldn’t have cared less if the child born because of the incredible
love he shared with Kara was male or female.
“It’s not selfish. You want to be
surprised. I’m good with that.” Hell, he was good with anything that made his
wife happy. She was the one who had to
go through the pregnancy and childbirth, a whole process that still terrified
the hell out of him.
“It’s a girl,” she said in a hushed voice,
her eyes round and moist as she met his gaze, her smile tremulous. “I asked Dr. Shapiro to tell me. I was being hormonal when I said I didn’t
want to know when I had the ultrasound.
I decided I wanted to know and asked her to tell me before I changed my
mind again. I want to plan. I want to buy baby clothes. We’re moving into our new home next month and
I want to decorate the nursery.”
Tears started to spill from her eyes,
trailing down her cheeks in a seemingly endless stream. “Don’t cry,” he demanded. Damn.
He hated it when she cried, and she seemed to be doing it fairly often
since she’d gotten pregnant. “Are you sure? Are you disappointed?”
Simon’s heart was hammering, slamming
against his chest wall as he wiped the tears from her cheeks and cradled her
head gently against his chest. He
stroked her hair, waiting patiently for her to stop crying. Were her tears good or bad? He would have thought by now he would know,
but her tears destroyed him completely, and he never had figured out how to
tell the difference.
Please
don’t let her be disappointed. She
wanted a boy.
“I’m happy,” she hiccupped against his
chest, the front of his t-shirt saturated.
“Did you really think I cared if it was a boy or a girl?”
She pulled her head back to look at him and his breath seized as he looked into her eyes.
“But it does seem that you’re getting your way,” she mentioned
grumpily.
“About damn time,” he grumbled back,
rubbing her belly with a tenderness that belied his words.
“We’re having a daughter, Simon. A little girl.”
Simon felt the baby kick against his palm
and he started, grinning as Kara smiled down at him, glowing with a happiness
that nearly stopped his heart.
Leaning her head against his shoulder, she
sighed. “I think having a girl will be wonderful. Two females to equal out the testosterone
overload in the house,” she giggled against his shoulder.
Two
females who will have me firmly wrapped around their little fingers. But somehow, Simon
couldn’t bring himself to really care.
Kara had ensnared him completely, and he would happily walk into his
daughter’s net. He’d gladly be captured
if the joy he was feeling was the end result.
“No ganging up on me,” he insisted, pulling Kara tightly against
him.
“No promises.” She straightened, straddling him, her
sundress bunching at her hips as she plastered herself against him, her core
pressed against his burgeoning cock.
He groaned as she ground against him, the
heat of her seeping into the denim of his jeans. Supporting her head, he flipped her gently,
trapping her hands over her head as he gently imprisoned her beneath him. “Promise,” he demanded, keeping Kara at his
mercy.
“Nope,” she answered cheekily. “You wanted a girl and that’s what you’re
getting. Mother and daughter bonding is
a beautiful thing.”
He covered her mouth with his, the flame between
them igniting completely as he tried to tell her everything he felt with his
kiss. It was an embrace of desperate
need and a joy so intense he couldn’t express himself in words. He’d never been good at telling Kara exactly
how he felt—maybe because there truly weren’t any words to explain the intense
emotions.
They both came out the kiss
breathless. “Promise me,” he said
huskily, no longer certain what he wanted her to say. Hell, he’d give her anything she wanted,
everything she desired, as long as she never left him.
“I promise I’ll love you forever,” she
answered huskily, her lips swollen, her love for him shining in her eyes.
“Good enough,” he answered swiftly, knowing
that she was all he’d ever wanted, all he’d ever needed, and those were the exact
words he needed to hear.
Waves of fierce protectiveness washed over
him, but he didn’t allow those emotions to take him over. He could be a dominant asshole tomorrow. And he most likely would be insanely
possessive when the fact that he and Kara were having a little girl really had
a chance to sink in.
But at that moment, as he looked into the
eyes of the woman who had changed his entire life forever, all he wanted to do was love
her.
And he did.