Billionaire Games Boxed Set 1-3 (30 page)

As his tongue played with hers, she fisted his hair in her hands. She let out a moan and he responded with a much more demanding kiss.

This was Tasha’s downfall. She was a fool for this man. A simple look, a soft smile, the slightest touch left her wanting more and more of Andre.

“Now that’s a hell of a welcome,” he whispered against her lips.

She giggled. “I’m glad you came early. I’ve missed you.”

“That’s why you need to come to France with me,” he said, blazing a fiery trail of kisses across her cheek and to her neck. “Just imagine…” he whispered, “I would make love to you every day.”

Tasha let out a deep sigh. “You sure know how to tempt a girl.”

“Then come with me.”

“Maybe I could get a job in France.” Tasha laughed.

Andre pulled away, and Tasha moaned, tugging at him to come back. “Do my ears deceive me?” he asked. “Are you caving?” Looking at her, his smile reached all the way to his eyes. “Hold that thought. Or better yet…” He winked at her. “Meet me in the bedroom.”

Andre pushed himself up and held out his hand.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“To the restroom,” he said, still holding out his hand.

“Go ahead, I’ll be right there.” Tasha gave him a smile. “I just need to catch my breath. You have that effect on me, you know.”

Andre’s ego puffed out his chest and straightened his shoulders. He watched her as he rounded the couch and she looked over her shoulder until he’d disappeared into the bedroom.

She turned back around and blew out a soft sigh.
Geez
. Her head was spinning with desire. But she couldn’t let that carry her away. She still had a secret—a huge one—that she had to share with Andre, sooner rather than later.

What would he say? Would he still want her to come with him to France? She hadn’t even dared to hope that far ahead.

Tasha would love to go to France with Andre, and not for just a few days. There was a fair chance he’d ask her to come with him once she told him about the baby. But she wanted to be more than just an obligation.

She wanted—

“Tasha?” A powerful voice, one she’d never heard from Andre, yelled her name from inside her bedroom.

Oh, shit
. She’d forgotten about the pregnancy test she’d left laying on the back on the toilet.

S
till holding the stick in his hand, apprehension fogged Andre’s brain and turned his knees to jelly.

Pregnant?

Tasha appeared in his peripheral vision. He cut his gaze toward her and saw the fear stiffen her face.

“Are you pregnant with my child?” he asked.

She sucked in a breath and nodded.

Andre’s hand trembled as he dragged his fingers through his hair. He inhaled deeply, but it did nothing to calm his jitters or tell him what he should do next. What he really wanted to do was sit down.

As if sensing his need, Tasha stepped back, out of the doorway. He stumbled past her, handing her the stick as he passed by her on the way to her bed. His knees gave out a couple of feet short.

Tasha rushed to his side and fell to the bed with him. Instantly, Andre felt bad about that. He should be assisting her, not the other way around.

Her tears were still flowing and suggested she must have just found out herself, which is why the pregnancy test was still on the back of the toilet. She wasn’t expecting him today, after all.

“This wasn’t exactly the way I wanted you to find out,” she said, looking at the stick. He suspected she was still trying to process the news herself.

Andre didn’t want to push her, but he had a million questions. “When did this happen?” he asked one of them.

“July.” She used the back of her hand to wipe away her flowing tears. Andre had spent the entire month of July with her. When he’d arrived in California at the beginning of the month, her period was just finishing up. “I haven’t had a period since then,” she added.

Andre ran the numbers through his head. That meant she was about nine or ten weeks along—and definitely with his child.

He looked at her. “What do you want to do?”

“Well…” She shrugged and hesitated. “I’m not exactly in a position to have and raise a child.” She stopped long enough to look at him. “But when I think about aborting our baby—” Her tears fell harder. Andre pulled into his loving embrace. She leaned on him, and said in a somewhat strangled voice, “I just can’t do it.”

“Don’t trouble yourself about it.” He stood, picked her up and carried her to the head of the bed and the pillow, and laid her down. “Right now, I just want you to get some rest.”

She reached for his hand. “Will you stay with me? I’m not feeling all that well.” She patted her stomach and laughed. “I guess I know why now.”

“Sweetheart, I’m not going anywhere.” He gave her a reassuring smile. “I am going to make you some tea, though.” He’d heard Claudette say there was nothing better to soothe morning sickness than hot tea.

Andre trotted into the kitchen and stood there looking around. Tea.
It can’t be that hard
. He just needed some hot water, a tea bag and some cream and sugar.

He could always heat the water up in the microwave. But for how long?

Well, there was only one thing to do. He reached for his cell phone in his inner blazer pocket and hit the speed dial. Instantly, he heard his valet’s voice.

“Simon…” Andre said just above a whisper, so he didn’t disturb Tasha. “I need a cup of hot water. For tea. How long should I microwave it?”

After receiving instructions from Simon, Andre laid out tea for two on a tray he found in one of the cabinets. He would take it in to Tasha’s room, they would have some nice, soothing tea, and then they’d decide how to proceed.

CHAPTER EIGHT

TWO DAYS LATER, TASHA WAS FEELING MUCH BETTER. Andre invited her to come with him to see a house that he’d said Papa and Claudette were anxious for him to sell—on Lecie’s behalf. Tasha happily accepted.

The Spanish-styled hacienda had great beach access and a gorgeous view of the Pacific Ocean. But Tasha couldn’t understand why the family had gotten Lecie the house in the first place if they just wanted to turn around and sell it out from under her.

A wall of three sets of French doors flanked the western side of the massive living area. The realtor had opened the doors and now Tasha leaned against the middle doorjamb, gazing out at the blue ocean behind the green grass.

Andre stepped up beside her. “Denise says,” he said of the realtor, “there’s a terrace just beyond the lawn on the way down to the beach. She says it’s just a few steps down to get to it. Want to take a look?”

Tasha glanced at Andre. “Sure.” She pushed off the doorway and kicked her shoes off before stepping onto the soft, supple grass.

Andre reached for her hand. They strolled together toward a wooden walkway that dropped down a few steps to the terrace, then twisted and turned all the way down to the Pacific.

Cozy beige and tan chairs circled a round table on the patio. Andre waited until Tasha sat, then he did the same.

“God, it’s beautiful here,” she said, her eyes still glued to the Pacific. A slight hint of salt wafted in on the sea air.

“That it is.”

Tasha could feel his eyes on her. She pulled her gaze away from the ocean to look at him. The wind tousled his dark hair about his face. Even though Andre was smiling, his blue eyes weren’t successful in shielding the torment hiding behind them. He hadn’t said much about the baby since he’d discovered the pregnancy test stick in the bathroom yesterday.

She knew he wasn’t keen on marriage. Until recently she hadn’t been a fan of it herself. But now, with a baby on the way, her opinion was changing. She wanted the baby, but she also wanted Andre to raise it with her.

“So…will you be selling the house?” she asked.

“To Papa and Claudette’s dismay…” He shook his head. “Unfortunately not. With the current state of the economy, the market is just too unstable. Lecie would lose millions on the deal. Papa and Claudette aren’t going to like it, but I’m going to recommend that Lecie retain ownership for now.”

“I don’t get it.” Tasha twisted sideways in the chair to face Andre. “If they don’t want her to have this property, why’d they buy it for her in the first place?”

“Oh, they didn’t. My sister inherited it from my lately deceased uncle, Edouard Renault.”

“Something Maurice can’t control.” Tasha chuckled. “I’ll bet that’s driving him mad.”

“More than you can imagine.” Andre shrugged a little, then his whole demeanor changed, growing serious. “Have you given any more thought to what you want to do? About the baby?”

“I know this is crazy, but I want to keep it.” She waited until his gaze came back around to meet hers again. “You’re welcome to as little or as much involvement as you want. No pressure.”

Andre sucked in a breath, then said, “How do you feel about me?”

“Huh?”

“It’s a simple question. Do you have feelings for me?” While Andre waited for her answer, sensuous thoughts of them played in her head. He must have seen the mischievous smile that touched her lips because he followed his inquiry with, “I don’t mean like that.” He hesitated, then added, “Do you love me?”

Her head began nodding before she said, “Yes.” And that, she realized, was why she couldn’t consider aborting their child. “Of course, you know I do. If I don’t say it enough…I love you, Andre.”

He leaned toward her and wrapped his hands around hers. “I’m glad you said that because you know I feel the same way. I love you.” He hesitated again, squeezing her hands this time. “Why don’t we get married?”

“Married?” Seriously?

“Sure, why not? We love each other. We should get married and give our child a proper family.”

“A baby isn’t a good enough reason to get married.”

“Sure it is, if the parents love each other.” His eye contact with her was powerful, even more intense than when they were making love. It was a look that turned her inside out and made her want to say,
yes
.

The need to cry, born from somewhere deep down in her gut, clawed its way up her chest and into her throat. She inhaled sharply, trying to crush it.

“Tasha…” Andre continued his bid to win her over. “All the baby does is prompt me to do what I should’ve done a long time ago.” And then he did it. Andre de Laurent went down on one knee. “Marry me. Spend the rest of your life with me and make me the happiest man on Earth.”

Her voice broke as she said, “Are you sure?”

Andre stood and pulled her into his arms. “Never more sure of anything in my life.”

“But what will your family say?”

“Well, Julian won’t be happy that he wasn’t the one to deliver the first grandchild, but Papa is going to be over the moon. And Claudette…we may have to fight her for that baby.”

Andre pulled Tasha’s mouth to his and kissed her long and hard and convincing.

T
wo days later, Tasha leaned back against the plush couch on the de Laurent jet. Andre and Simon were huddled together on the other side of the cabin near the wet bar. They had to be up to something, but what she couldn’t guess.

Andre turned toward her with a mischievous grin tipping the corners of his mouth. He looked at her and something in his manner soothed her. She smiled, and he went to her and cuddled up next to her on the couch.

“So we’re headed to Tahoe, right?” she asked. It had to be Tahoe because that’s where her parents lived.

“Yes.” Andre caressed her face. “Are you feeling all right?”

She nodded. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not nervous about telling your parents?”

“You’re not?”

“Of course I’m not.” Andre grinned. “They love me.”

“That they do.”

Tasha had taken a page from Camille’s play book, insisting that she and Andre marry before leaving the States. And since they were going to marry before heading to France, she wanted do it in Tahoe, with her parents at her side.

The way Tasha saw it, Andre didn’t have anything to lose if they got to France and he was talked out of the marriage. If she was going to give up her apartment and quit her job, she wanted some reassurance that when they got to France she wouldn’t be shown the door by the de Laurent faction.

Not that she thought Andre would do that to her. He’d never do anything to hurt her, not on purpose anyway. But emotions were running high, what with the baby and all.

Andre was an honorable man. She knew that. She also knew he was trying to do the right thing. In the light of day, Maurice—who might not be as on board with this baby adventure as Andre thought—stood a pretty good chance of talking Andre out of marrying Tasha. It was, after all, something that until now Andre himself hadn’t been in favor of doing with anyone. Ever.

That’s why Tasha had asked that they marry before leaving America. In her mind, it would be a lot harder to show a wife the door rather than a fiancé.

“Mon trésor…” Andre fingered her bangs back out of her face. “Why the long face? Are you unhappy?”

Tasha closed her eyes and shook her head. “Oh, no. I’m very happy.” She opened her eyes back up and looked at him. “I’m just a little nervous.”

“But why?” Andre fiddled with his tie. “I know you think you’re giving up your dream to marry me and have our baby, but that’s just not true.”

“My dream?” She narrowed her eyes.

“You want to be an actress.”

“Well, yeah…I did.”

“If you want to be an actress,” he said. “I will make that happen.”

“I don’t know, Andre.” She dragged her fingers through her hair. “It just doesn’t seem that important anymore.” She shrugged and tilted her head to one side. “People’s dreams can change right along with the circumstances.”

She supposed that’s what happened to Andre, too. He’d gotten a new dream, just like she had. And that’s why she was on this plane about to head to Tahoe to marry him.

“There’s something I want to tell you.” His demeanor became quieter, less animated. He reached for her hand and cut his gaze away from her.

This was starting to sound an awful lot like a confession. And confessions were rarely good. Fear knotted in Tasha’s gut. “If you’ve changed your mind,” she said behind jittery nerves, “you’d better talk to the pilot before he takes off.”