“I believed you did, and I don’t think I want details.”
“I wasn't about to give you any.” She dragged herself up and propped her head on her hand as she looked at him. “What I was trying to say was that it was nothing compared to what we do, and I thought it was damned good. This—” she gestured to him “This is beyond words and I want to continue doing it. I don’t know what the future holds as far as we're both concerned but the sex doesn't have to stop.”
“What if you meet someone?”
“Dude, are you forgetting that I'm going to be pregnant? For at least another nine months, I'm going to be stuck with you and you'll be stuck with me.” She squinted at him. “Unless you meet someone else while I'm an elephant with your child inside me. Should I have to worry about that?”
“You don’t.”
“Look, I know we aren't in a relationship per se, but we're going to be connected by a child and that's something we're going to have to seriously think about. This isn't the dark ages where we're required to put a ring on it when I'm big with your child—and I have to tell you honey, I am so not that kind of woman. I don’t live my life with some old-fashioned set of rules, but I do draw the line at an open relationship. I know! I know!” She threw her hands up into the air. “I'm old-fashioned where that's concerned. I refuse to see a man who is seeing another woman at the same time.” She tilted her head to look at him. “You're very sexy, very rich, and did I mention very sexy?”
“You did,” he said in amusement. “But go on.”
“Let’s see.” She played with the ends of her hair for a moment. “You're also educated—because I remember reading somewhere that you went to Princeton. And you're a great rancher.”
“That I am.”
“So women tend to flock to those kinds of men.”
“I'll be busy running the ranch and becoming a dad, so no time for a relationship with someone else.”
“Are you just saying that?”
“No.” He tugged at her hair, loving the way it fell over her breast and curled on the sheets. “I actually mean it.”
“Good.” She leaned over and kissed him hard on the lips. He curled his fingers into her hair and kept her there, exploring her lips and making her breathless. She pushed him away and took deep breaths. “I'm officially going to miss you.”
“You're going to miss the sex.”
“Maybe. But right now, we aren't going to talk about the past or the future.”
“What are we going to do?”
“My new favorite thing to do.” She pulled him on top of her.
“Should I guess?”
“No need,” she whispered as he entered her. “You'll get it right the first time.”
*****
Missing her was like a deep hole inside his belly. She'd spent the last few days at the ranch and had left from there to go to the airport. “I'll call you as soon as I feel queasy or can't take the scent of my perfume,” she'd told him as he dropped her off at the airport. She'd taken his hands and placed them on her belly. “Hopefully I have your bun in my oven.”
All the way from the airport he'd felt like going back to grab hold of her and tell her that he wanted her to stay, that she shouldn't leave but instead stay with him—but that was ridiculous because they weren't exactly in a relationship. She'd made that very clear.
“Lance, I'm very sorry if I'm boring you with this meeting,” Mason told him stiffly as he shuffled the papers in his hands.
“What?” He shook his head as he focused on the man in front of him. He'd finally sat down to a meeting with, Mason who wanted to go over some figures with him. Paperwork and meetings weren't his thing; he would much prefer to be out there with his men rounding up the cattle and securing the fences before the real cold and the rain set in, which they were expecting in a couple of days.
“You haven't heard one word I just said. Am I boring you?”
“As a matter of fact you are,” Lance told him sardonically. “And you're wasting both our times. You already sent me the emails with the projections and all you're doing is repeating everything in that document. I have things to do, Mason, important things which don't require me sitting on my ass at a desk, listening to you.”
“You think you're all that, don’t you?” Mason said bitterly as he stared at the younger man. “You have all this money and women dying to be with you. All the power in the world and you don't even deserve it. You treat me and Mother like we're your glorified servants, giving us handouts so that you can look good to other people—”
He stopped as Lance got to his feet abruptly, sending the chair back against the wall. “What the hell is your problem? Do you want me to give you my inheritance? Is that it? Do you want more money than you're getting right now, Mason? I've done everything in my power to make sure that you don't feel left out. I've treated you and my aunt with the utmost respect, but one thing I'm not going to do is feel guilty over something that's entirely out of my control. I have no problem giving you money—”
“You think I would accept charity from you?” Mason’s blue eyes blazed as he got to his feet. “You must be out of your mind! So that what, you can go around bragging that you had to save your poor old cousin yet again?”
“Get out!” Lance told him wearily, the fight going out of him. “Just get the hell out of my office and make sure I don't see you for the rest of the day.”
Mason turned around and walked out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him. Lance slid down into the chair, his shoulders hunched over. Suddenly the longing for Amy was so strong that he couldn't help himself. A glance at his watch showed that it was almost noon so that would make it like about five p.m. in the UK. She'd called as soon as she'd landed and told him that she was going to crash as soon as she reached the hotel as she was jet-lagged from the long flight, but he had to talk to her.
“Don’t tell me you're missing me already?” she asked as soon as she answered the phone.
“I woke you,” he apologized.
“I slept for two minutes before the annoying writer called me, so I'm up. What’s going on? You sound a little tense.”
“I had a blow-out with Mason.”
“That prick of a cousin. Did you punch him out?”
He laughed at that, feeling the tension and anger dissolving. “I told him to get the hell out of my office.”
“Next time sock him one. Sometimes fists are more effective when you want to get a message across.”
“I'll remember that. How are you?” he asked softly.
“I actually miss you and the great sex.”
“You do? Are you sure it's not just the sex?”
“Definitely not just the sex. You're okay for a white guy.”
“Complexion matters to you?” He leaned back in his chair, a smile on his face.
“Most definitely.” she responded. “I'm all about black power, dude.”
“What will that mean when we have our interracial child?”