The Billionaire’s Baby by Nicola Marsh Page A

terrified her, and her stomach backflipped with dread that she might be silly enough to make the same mistake twice.
    But she wasn’t silly. She wasn’t the same person anymore. This time, maybe she’d get to have her tiramisu and eat it, too.
    Leaping up from the sofa, she pulled him up with her. ‘Come on, let’s go have that dinner I owe you.’
    He laughed. ‘Why the rush?’
    ‘The sooner we eat the sooner you get to convince me why I should let you take me out on a date.’
    Smiling, he picked her up and whirled her around, and she flung her head back and laughed, relishing this amazing, carefree feeling.
    He’d done the same thing when she’d agreed to marry him, though back then he’d spun her around so fast and for so long they’d both tumbled onto the cushiony moss at the foot of the old cedar tree, breathless and laughing and kissing, enchantedby the moment, so wrapped up in each other the world around them had ceased to exist.
    He’d been her everything…before vanishing into nothing, and she’d be foolish to forget that, no matter how good it felt to laugh with him again.
    He stopped, and she slid down his body, slowly and deliberately, soft cotton slithering against smooth silk, her skin tingling, yearning for full body contact, the shift from playful to lustful clear as his gaze riveted to hers.
    ‘How about next weekend for this date I’m going to persuade you to go on?’
    ‘I do the rosters quarterly, so I’m tied up every weekend for the next three months. The earliest weekend I’m free is June.’
    ‘That should give you plenty of time to get used to the idea.’
    ‘If you convince me, that is,’ she said, giving in to an impulsive, crazy urge to entwine her hands around his neck and drag his head down for a swift, passionate kiss, pulling away before she found herself in bed with him before the first date. Though technically that was probably allowed, considering it wouldn’t be the first time for either of them! ‘And believe me, I’m going to be a very hard sell.’
    Resting his forehead against hers, he murmured, ‘I think you know how persuasive I can be,’ before stepping away, offering her his hand and gesturing towards the door with the other.
    As she slipped her hand into his, Camryn knew whatever he had in store for her, she didn’t stand a chance of refusing.

CHAPTER FIVE

    C AMRYN sighed with relief as she sank into the plush suede sofa, curled her legs under her, and propped the giant plastic bowl filled with popcorn on her lap.
    It had been too long since she’d had a night off, let alone the freedom to watch a chick-flick, and, what with Blane called out for an emergency meeting, this had been too good an opportunity to pass up.
    Not that he hadn’t made her feel welcome or not told her to make herself at home. In fact, he’d gone out of his way to ensure she treated the penthouse as her own for however long she needed to be here.
    Not long, if she had any say it.
    Quite simply, living with Blane was pure and utter torture. Oh, not in the rooming sense, for he was the perfect housemate: own bathroom, clean kitchen, stocked fridge where he didn’t touch her stuff, toilet seat always thoughtfully down.
    Throw in the fact he respected her privacy, didn’t expect her to make small talk in the morning when she was at her grumpiest, and didn’t hound her for leaving a trail of magazines around the place, and he was nigh on perfect in her eyes.
    But therein lay the problem.
    Blane was perfect, from the top of his mussed hair to the bottom of his sexy bare feet as he padded from his bedroom to the kitchen in the middle of the night for a drink of water.
    She’d lie awake in bed, listening to his soft footfall against the polished boards, holding her breath as he passed her room, the small, traitorous part of her wishing he’d enter on some flimsy excuse.
    Pathetic.
    Considering she’d been the one to reinforce the ‘just friends’ mantra when she moved in, it