Restless Billionaire (23 page)

 
          
She
knew he was awake next to her and she sighed deeply. There was really no point
in pretending anymore.

 
          
‘Thank
you for taking Akash to the hotel to meet with your Michelin-starred chef
today. It’s possibly the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to him. I
think you’ve become his number-one hero for ever.’

 
          
Aneesa
could feel Sebastian’s shrug in the bed beside her.

 
          
‘It
was nothing.’

 
          
The
silence dragged out but unlike the previous nights when Aneesa had rolled over
and gone to sleep after long torturous minutes, tonight it seemed to be an
impossible dream.

 
          
Sensation
skated over her skin and she was acutely aware of everything. The warm night
air swirled around them with the motion of the fan in the ceiling; the scent
from the fruit trees outside the window was heavy and luxurious. But worst of
all was the mosquito net around the bed which cocooned them in what felt to
Aneesa like a sensual prison.

 
          
And
itching inside her was this awful ravening need to touch Sebastian, to have him
touch her. The tension reached screaming point for Aneesa and suddenly
terrified that she wouldn’t have the strength not to give herself away, she sat
up and put on the light.

 
          
‘Look,
I know this is awkward for both of us. You don’t want to be here. I’ll go to
another room. I’ll sleep with Amrita.’

 
          
She
was getting out of the bed when Sebastian snaked out a hand and took her wrist.
His touch seared her skin like a brand. ‘I thought you didn’t want to embarrass
your parents. The whole of Mumbai will know by morning if you go to Amrita’s
room.’

 
          
Aneesa
tried to yank her wrist away but his grip was too strong. She was crying out
inside. ‘Well, then, I’ll sleep on the floor, or something.’

 
          
‘Why?’
he asked silkily. ‘I thought you didn’t have a problem with
this
.’

 
          
Aneesa
all but groaned, kicking herself for having faked such insouciance on that
first day.
This
was Sebastian half
sitting up, naked from the waist up, his skin burnished gold in the soft light,
eyes glittering. Her breasts felt heavy, the peaks tight and tingling
painfully. How could she ever not have had a problem with
this
?

 
          
Her
pride was in tatters as it was. She gritted her teeth and said defiantly, ‘So
what if I do?’

 
          
Inexorably
he started to pull her back towards him. ‘I never said I didn’t want you,
Aneesa. I never stopped wanting you.’

 
          
She
frowned minutely, still resisting his pull. ‘But you never tried to …’ She
trailed off ineffectually, giving herself away spectacularly. Even though she’d
struggled to maintain the moral high ground and not give into the excoriating
need to have Sebastian make love to her, she’d hungered for him desperately.

 
          
‘Because
I thought you didn’t want it, and I thought it was for the best.’

 
          
Because they were meant to be
going their separate ways
.

 
          
‘But
now,’ he continued with a glint in his eye that sent a spiral of desire through
Aneesa, ‘I can see that that reasoning was very flawed. I’ve been going through
torture—wanting you and trying not to touch you.’

 
          
Aneesa
felt a whole host of conflicting emotions take flight in her chest. On the one
hand she wanted to say stop! That he’d been right to do the honourable thing
because it would kill her to know the exquisite pleasure of his lovemaking
again, but on the other hand … she couldn’t imagine going to her death without
knowing that pleasure one more time.

 
          
Hating
herself for her weakness she let him pull her back until she was lying down on
her back and he hovered over her. His head dipped but she stopped him with a
finger against his lips.

 
          
‘Wait
… when are you going home, Sebastian?’
I
need to know so I can start to get over you
. ‘I need to know. I can’t …’
She
stopped. She was so close to showing him how hard it was
for her to have him here and see him interacting with her family. ‘I just need
to get on with things here, my life …’

 
          
Something
in his face hardened and Aneesa couldn’t understand it. Surely he should be
looking relieved?

 
          
His
jaw clenched. ‘I have business to attend to at the hotel tomorrow and then I’ll
be leaving the next day. I’ll stay at the hotel tomorrow night.’

 
          
Aneesa
felt her heart break. ‘Good. That’s good, then.’

 
          
With
an almost savage intensity Sebastian slanted his mouth over hers and kissed
her. Passion blazed up around them so fierce that Aneesa wondered how the bed
didn’t catch fire. Her vest top was pulled off. She yanked down her knickers
herself, and emitted a gasp of pure pleasure when she felt Sebastian’s hot
naked body next to hers.

 
          
He
palmed her breasts, making the peaks tighten into sharp points, and she drew
his head down so that he could take a nipple into his mouth. Her belly
tightened with pleasure as he suckled her roughly. She met him head-on, biting
the skin on his shoulder, and then licking where she’d bitten, revelling in his
unique musky taste.

 
          
Neither
of them could wait, desperation fuelling their movements as Sebastian pushed
her legs apart and settled between them. Just before he thrust, with Aneesa’s
hands on his hips, her legs drawn back, he said with a guttural moan that
seemed to be pulled out of him, ‘I need this … I need you.’

 
          
An
ache lodged in her throat and emotion surged as he thrust deep inside her. And
then they were caught up in the familiar dance, which took them higher and
higher until every sinew was pulled taut, and when an explosion of intense
pleasure gripped her and went on and on, Aneesa wondered how she’d ever be able
to cope knowing she’d never have this again.

 
          
Long
languorous minutes later, sated and lethargic, Aneesa was tucked spoon-like
into Sebastian’s chest. She could feel him harden again against her bottom and
moved sinuously. No matter how tired she might be, she wasn’t ready for it to
be over yet. Reaching behind to caress his buttocks, she heard a throaty dark
chuckle. And then he moved her hair over her shoulder so he could press hot
kisses onto the back of her neck.

 
          
With
a powerful move of his hips, he found where she still ached for him and thrust
up, his arms a tight bind around her, one hand on her breast. Her head fell
back, and as he thrust again and again until she couldn’t breathe or think, he
kissed her so sweetly that she couldn’t stop the tears falling.

 
          
When
the storm was over, Aneesa was replete and exhausted.
Awash
with emotion.
She took his hand from where it was wrapped around her,
entwined in hers, and pressed a kiss to it. And just before she let exhaustion
take her away, she thought of the words that had been trembling on her lips for
days now. ‘I love you.’

 
          
Sebastian
stilled. Had she just said—His mind blanked. Her breaths were already deep and
even. Perhaps he’d imagined it? He couldn’t process the information straight
away, not when he couldn’t think because his brain was mush after two of the
most powerful orgasms he could ever remember having.

 
          
One
hand rested on Aneesa’s rounded belly and just as his head was beginning to whirl
at the implication of her words,
if
she’d even said them, he felt the tiniest most subtle of sensations against his
fingers.
A mere flutter, like a small heartbeat.
Holding his breath, he spread his hand out and it came again, against the palm
of his hand this time.
Tiny, barely noticeable.
But there.
His baby.

 
          
He
lay awake like that for a long time.
Until the rising sun
started to streak the sky outside with the most delicate pink trails.

 
          
And
then he quietly slipped out of the bed and left.

 
          
ANEESA
woke the next morning, her body feeling deliciously weighted down in the bed.
She smiled and stretched and it was only then that she realised that she was
naked and the previous night came back to her. Her eyes flew open.

 
          
She
was alone in the bed and from the feel of where Sebastian would have
lain,
it was cold and had been for some time. They’d made
love, and he’d left. A wrenching pain made Aneesa gasp and pull her legs up so
that she curled in a foetal position. This was it. He was gone.

 
          
For
a couple of minutes she felt so cold that she wondered if she might be sick.
Which was crazy when it would be nearly thirty degrees outside.

 
          
Only
when she was afraid her mother would come to see where she was did she get out
of
bed.
But when she approached the kitchen and dining
area she nearly stumbled. Amrita was exclaiming petulantly, ‘I can’t believe he
would go without saying goodbye to
me
!’

 
          
Aneesa
had to sit on the bottom step of the stairs. Her skin had gone clammy. Until
that moment she hadn’t known for sure that he had gone. She heard her mother’s
placating voice and heard footsteps.

 
          
‘Aneesa,
are you OK?’

 
          
It
was Akash. She smiled and stood, feeling her blood rush southwards, and
suddenly everything was swirling and blackness enfolded her.

 
          
She
woke to a sea of concerned faces and struggled to sit up, finding that she was
on the couch in the sitting room. She was pushed back down firmly.

 
          
‘You,
young lady, are not moving. The doctor is on his way.’

 
          
She
protested but was drowned out. She wanted to cry out that she’d just fainted—she
didn’t need anyone or anything.
Just Sebastian and his undying love
.
That ridiculously
futile thought made her smile slightly and her mother smiled too, with relief,
obviously misinterpreting it.

 
          
She
fussed around Aneesa. ‘You need to be careful, Neesa, you’re taking after me. I
fainted all the time when I was pregnant….’

 
          
The
rest of the family slipped away and Aneesa asked her mother casually, ‘Did you
see Sebastian before he left today?’

 
          
Her
mother shook her head and then said, ‘I think he left something for you—a note.
Let me get it.’

 
          
In
the space of time it took for her mother to come back, Aneesa was nearly
climbing the walls. She all but grabbed the note and when her mother wasn’t
moving she said, ‘I think I need to rest for a bit … I’ll be fine.’

 
          
With
a kiss to her forehead, making her feel as if she was a teenager all over
again, her mother left. Taking a deep breath, Aneesa opened the note and read
the confident scrawl:
Can you meet me at
my suite this evening—7:00 p.m.? Sebastian
.

 
          
Aneesa
crumpled the note into her fist. She refused to acknowledge the treacherous
flutters in her belly. It would only be because he wanted to sort out
arrangements for coming back to see the baby or something like that.

 
          
The
doctor came soon afterwards and declared that everything was fine and that
Aneesa just needed to eat. So she was waited upon and force-fed for the entire
day by her well-meaning family. But nothing could stop the sensation of cold
sneaking into her bloodstream as if some life force was being cut off.