With her hands on her waist at her back, she slinked her way across the table to him, her pelvis thrust toward him. Then just as he was about to reach up for her, she playfully retreated. Each successive time she advanced, her hip movements were more provocative, more tantalizing, and she came closer and closer to him. Yet each time he reached for her, his hands found only air.She’d never in her life done such a thing, but she loved Nathan and he appeared to be absolutely poleaxed by her performance. She couldn’t have asked for a better reaction from him, or a better audience. It gave her confidence to take her performance to an even more sensual level.Entwining her arms above her head again and again, she danced in a serpentine manner around the candle, hitching her hips, first one way, then another, a combination of a Gypsy dance and a striptease. Then, in front of him once again, she slowly bent her knees and swiveled her hips from side to side.“Dani . . Her name sounded strangl
“Dani, don’t. Stop.”“What?”“I’m not sure, but I have this feeling you’re withdrawing from me.”An astute observation, she reflected. “No, really, I do understand, Nathan. I understand completely.”He eyed her carefully. “Good. Then I hope you’ll be equally understanding about what I’m going to say next. Dani, I want you to come with me.”There went her reprieve from temptation. She shook her head. “There’s no way I can do that.”“Don’t say no immediately. Think about it.”“I don’t have to. I can’t go. I have classes to give and a spring recital to choreograph.”“I’m talking about three weeks in Europe, Dani. Think of the hm we could have together.”“Fun? You’ll be there to conduct business, right? Where would the fun come into it?”“I won’t be working twenty-four hours a day. And once we get over there. I’ll make sure we have a lot of time to sightsee and shop.” He lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to the sensitive skin of her palm. A shiver of heat ran down her spine. “And then th
She looked so amazed, he almost laughed. “You find that hard to believe?”‘Actually I do. I can’t imagine a Damaron allowing a woman to interfere with his work.”“There was no allowing about it. I couldn’t sit in a meeting, go out to dinner, fall asleep at night, wake up in the morning, or even pick up a pencil, without my mind wandering to you, wondering what you were doing and if you were with someone else.”She looked down at her slippers. “I’m sorry.”“You damn well should be.”Her head came up and fire flashed in her eyes. “Why? Because I had the temerity to stand up to you and say no?”“Because you haven’t been able to explain to my satisfaction why you broke it off with me.”She threw out her hands. “That’s not my problem, Nathan, nor is it my responsibility. I’ve said everything I can on the subject. The rest is up to you.”“I don’t believe you.”Instantly her brows drew together. “What? What don’t you believe?”“I don’t beheve you’ve said everything you can. There has to be s
“It’s all right, Cecilia.” Stacy nodded knowingly at Dani. “You feel like you’re going to throw up, don’t you?”She was having to concentrate on not throwing up and couldn’t answer her.“And you were dizzy, weren’t you?” Stacy went on. “I know all about that. That’s how my mom feels every time she gets pregnant.”Pregnant. The nausea began to subside and Dani waited several beats, then cautiously took her hand away from her mouth. “I am not pregnant, Stacy. I think it’s just a little hot in here.”Elizabeth raced back to her and handed her a glass of water. Gratefully she took it and sipped. She supposed her symptoms did replicate those of early pregnancy, but in her case, it wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true.“Are you sure you’re not pregnant?” Stacy persisted.“Yes.” A cold, sick feeling suddenly gripped her and slowly she turned her head and looked in the mirror. A pale face stared back at her. Her gaze dropped lower to her breasts and stayed. Was she imagining it or were they sligh
She grabbed one of the pillows and threw it as far as she could. It landed in a pot of fringed irises. With a groan she fell back against the remaining pillows. There was no point in putting this off on him. She was the one who had been stupid.And there were more reasons not to tell Nathan she was pregnant.Protectively she laid her hand over her stomach. Dr. Robison had called this pregnancy a miracle, and it was. But there were no guarantees that another miracle could happen, and Nathan had said he wanted kids— plural.Then there was the fact that Dr. Robison had asked her to cut out everything strenuous. To her that meant it was entirely possible she might lose the baby before she could bring it to term.And something else too. Thanks to her, Nathan thought she and John were having an affair. Consequently Nathan would automatically think the baby was John’s. Great. Just great.As for herself, her hormones were running amok, carrying her spirits to dizzying heights of joy about the
“I’m sorry, but I can’t give you that information.”She tried to remain calm—getting upset wouldn’t be good for the baby—but she could feel her frustration climbing, along with nausea and a light-headed feeflng. “Look, I just want to see Nathan.”She was beginning to believe that she shouldn’t have come here after all. But it was the right to do, she reminded herself, and more than anything else, she didn’t want to have to make this trip again. So while she was here, she wanted to try everything possible to see Nathan. Then, if it didn’t work out, she wouldn’t blame herself. She took a deep breath and tried one more time.“If you would just tell Nathan Damaron that Danielle Savourat needs to see him, I would be extremely grateful. I promise I won’t take much of his time.”“Miss Savourat,” the young man said firmly, “I will give your name to Mr. Damaron’s assistant. After that, it will be up to Mr. Damaron as to whether or not he wishes to meet with you. In the meantime, if you don’t w
She set the water on the desk and wrapped her arms around herself. “It might seem incredibly stupid to you now, but at the time I thought I was doing the right thing.”“Stupid doesn’t even come close to what I think about it. Dammit, Dani. What in the hell were you thinking? In the first place, we’d only known each other a short time by then. There was no thought of anything long-term between us, at least not on my part.”“You’re right. There wasn’t.” By then she’d already fallen in love with him, but that was something she didn’t want him to know. “It’s just that I didn’t want to stick around and see what happened. I decided the longer we were together, the more our inevitable parting would hurt.” She swallowed against the rising nausea. “Nathan, try to put yourself in my position. That accident that Gil and I had was the greatest trauma of my life. It not only robbed me of Gil and our future, and the child I was carrying, it also, according to the doctors, robbed me of my chance of
“Much better, diank you, but you didn’t have to hang up on your call.”“My cousin and I were just going over some numbers for a project, but we’d finished.”Yaz—his beautiful cousin Yasmine, she translated to herself, the one she’d seen with him at their charity ball. She remembered wondering what it would be like to be the recipient of such uncensored warmth and genuine, uncomplicated love from him. She still wondered.“Why didn’t you wake me up when we arrived here?”He smiled. “You were out cold. You obviously needed the rest.”There was no disputing that. She’d spent most of the last few nights wrestling over the decision of whether or not to tell him about the baby. “Still, there was no reason for you to stay.”“There was every reason. Earlier today you told me you were having my baby. In my book that means we have a great deal to talk about.”She stifled a sigh. “I don’t want to argue with you again.”“We’re not going to argue. We’re going to discuss. But first, you should try t