The Secret That Can't Be Hidden by Caitlin Crews

Author:Caitlin Crews
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-01-08T14:50:31+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

IT WAS ALMOST worth the fact that Balthazar was marrying her against his will, if at his command, to see that stunned look on Kendra’s face.

Better still, a flash of temper besides, proving she wasn’t nearly as calm or collected as she sometimes acted.

Balthazar almost slipped and showed her how much her reaction pleased him, but caught himself just in time. She didn’t deserve to see his own responses, but why should he be the only person dreading the inevitable? She was a Connolly, she had conspired against him from the start with her vile father and brother, and this was her fault.

He ignored the voice inside him that reminded him that her conspiracies could not have gained any ground had he not lost his head completely and sampled her without protecting himself. The way he’d been ignoring that voice for weeks.

But he didn’t like to think about that. He was appalled that he’d lost control of himself so utterly, when his father had spent long years teaching him how to strip any and all emotions out of every last moment and situation. Even sex was meant to be a release, nothing more.

Nothing...overwhelming.

He wrestled himself back under control. As he should have done from the start.

“I will not be marrying you,” she shot back at him, predictably. She bristled in her hanging chair and he watched dispassionately as she struggled to pull herself out of its embrace, then stood. Rather rounder than the last time he’d seen her, though he refused to focus on that. On what her fuller figure meant. “Not tomorrow. Not ever.”

“You’re beginning to bore me,” he replied, almost idly, and knew he sounded sterner than perhaps he’d intended when she stiffened. “You will not do this, you will not do that. I suggest you come up with a new song. In the meantime, the doctor is waiting.”

“What magical powers I must possess that I can bore you in six seconds after your absence of six weeks. Maybe the problem is your attention span.”

Balthazar did not lower himself to sniping with her, especially because he wanted to do just that. He gestured toward the archway that led into the house and waited for her to obey him.

For a moment, he wasn’t sure what she would do. Refuse? Fight him? Worse, he wasn’t entirely sure what he planned to do if she did either of those things. Nor could he read the expressions that chased each other across her lovely, flushed face when she swept past him, though he got the overall impression of feminine fury.

She would be his wife come the morning. She was carrying his child.

She was his enemy.

All good reasons not to want her with that greedy, driving need that had gotten him into this mess in the first place. And yet Balthazar had to order himself to stand down. To keep his hands to himself. To stop himself before he made this unfortunate situation worse.

He, who could stare down the most powerful men

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.