Her Impossible Baby Bombshell, page 15
“What did you do?” she asked with a trace of apprehension.
“Nothing drastic. I canceled the aeronautics expansion and restructured so my cousin will take a large chunk of responsibility off my plate.”
“Oh, is that all,” she said with a bewildered laugh.
“I wanted you to know how much you and our son mean to me. Then I wasn’t here when you needed me. It will be a long time before I forgive myself for that.”
“I don’t remember any of it,” she assured him. “I’m guessing you wouldn’t have been able to do anything. I needed a doctor.” She gently palpated her belly through the bandages, discovering the tender spots. Her head was spinning as she tried to absorb all he was saying. “But... Jun Li, I don’t need gestures. I mean, I love that you’ll have more time with us, but words are enough. I know you wouldn’t say them unless they were true.”
“They are true, but they’re not enough.” He gave his head a solemn shake. “I love you in ways that are so new, so complex, I didn’t know what I was feeling. I fought examining it.” He caressed her cheek with the backs of his fingers. “As if I could avoid the potential for pain if I didn’t acknowledge how much you meant to me. But these last hours... The thought of losing you is beyond what I can bear, Ivy. I love you with all my heart.” He leaned forward and kissed her in a soft benediction. A seal of the words scrolled across their hearts.
“I love you, too,” she said when he lifted his head. She set her hand against his unshaven cheek. His eyes were deeply set and bruised with lack of sleep. Lines of stress were scored next to his mouth. He was still preposterously beautiful. “I would like to circle back to this and kiss you a few thousand more times, but... Can I see our son first?”
* * *
Six weeks later, Ivy was about to rise and take Li Qiang back to his room when Jun Li came into their darkened bedroom.
“You’re home.” She hadn’t expected him until tomorrow afternoon.
“We finished early.” He spoke quietly as he came to steal Li Qiang. “And I missed you. Both of you,” he whispered and kissed the baby. “Were you taking him back to bed? I’ll do it.”
Ivy snuggled under the covers, drowsy since it was after midnight, but listening on the baby monitor as Jun Li briefly spoke to the nanny and settled their son with tender words for the boy.
When he came back, he dragged off his tie and shirt, throwing all his clothes to the floor as he undressed for bed. He’d been in Beijing for three days, finalizing the restructuring.
Ivy had stayed home because she had had a doctor’s appointment and a million other things to organize. They had spoken daily, mostly about Li Qiang and the various details for their upcoming travel and move. With Jun Li’s cousin taking over most of the operations based here in Shanghai, she and Jun Li were spending Christmas with Ivy’s father, who had put off his wedding until she could attend. Afterward, they would decamp to Singapore, where Jun Li would be closer to the port construction and other projects he would oversee for the next few years.
Ivy had agreed to chair the committee that organized the annual strategy meeting there. It was a good way to get to know more about the company and see where she might fit at some future point. She had also reached out to some of her contacts asking if there was work she might do piecemeal. She wasn’t in a hurry to go back to work, especially not full-time, but she wanted to keep her hand in.
Jun Li lifted the blankets and slid in, gathering her to his naked body.
“Oh,” she said with disappointment.
“I only want a kiss,” he said, drawing back. They had fooled around a little in the last few weeks but hadn’t made love since she’d been put on bed rest three months ago.
“No, um, I bought something. I should have changed into it while you were putting Li Qiang down. I didn’t think of it until I realized what I was wearing.”
“Something?” he prompted.
“Something better than a nursing nightgown and sleep bra. Something I was going to put on when we got to Vancouver, to see if I could improve your opinion of my hometown.” She lightly pinched his flat stomach, and he caught her hand.
“Describe it.” He brought her hand to his mouth and scraped his teeth against the heel of her palm. “In detail.”
“I should start with the price, because it was outrageous considering what little I got.”
“Less is more. Everyone knows that. Expense approved. Keep talking.”
“There’s no garter belt. I hope that doesn’t upset you. I got the kind of stockings that stay up on their own so I could keep them on... Mmm.”
He rolled her beneath him as he covered her mouth, kissing her hungrily.
Oh, it felt good to feel his weight, his skin, his hardness. She scraped her nails lightly against his buttocks, and he groaned and nibbled at her chin.
“Color?” he asked against her throat.
“Purple. I got the size wrong and the bra cup is too small.”
“An understandable mistake to make.” He gathered her breast, gently massaging through the layers of cotton she wore. “You’re forgiven.”
“The panties are barely a fig leaf on a satin thread.”
“Maybe better suited to tangling around your wrists?” He caught her hands and swept them under the pillow.
A streak of excitement hit her belly, thrilling and hot.
“Tell me there are slippers with a four-inch heel and feathery pom-poms on the toe.”
“I’ll buy some,” she assured him. “There’s a sheer nightgown that goes over it. It’s very short.”
“Good, because this one is too long and has to come off.” He gathered a handful and started to tug it up.
She wiggled to help, and he flung it away while she wrestled herself free of her bra and plain cotton underpants.
“There is one more thing we have to talk about,” she said as their naked bodies brushed deliciously against one another’s.
“If you tell me there’s some sort of elbow-length gloves, I may not last to finish what we’re starting. I have really missed this, blossom. Really. Really.”
She could tell. She smiled into the dark and opened her legs so he nestled his erection against her soft, damp folds. She draped her arms around his shoulders and caressed the back of his neck.
“I made a decision without your input,” she informed him. And she was aware he could make his own decisions without her having a say, but she hoped he agreed with hers. “I asked the doctor to give me an IUD. I know you said you would have another vasectomy and didn’t want to put me through another pregnancy, but I don’t want to close the door on having another baby. Not yet.”
“Your body, your choice,” he said promptly. Then kissed her. “I wasn’t ready to close that door, either. Thank you for leaving it open for both of us.”
“For all we know, it’s wide-open.” She twined her legs up to his waist. “Does birth control even work for us?”
“I guess we’ll see.”
“I guess we will.”
EPILOGUE
“PLEASE, MAMA?” LI Qiang placed a hand on her knee and tilted his head appealingly. “I really want a sleepover.”
He had only learned the word three seconds ago, but he was deeply sincere and, unbeknownst to him, breaking his parents’ hearts by appearing so willing to have a night apart from them.
“I think we’ll play until bedtime, then go back to our hotel.” Ivy stroked his hair to cushion the blow. “You and Mimi have time to finish your puzzle.” She nodded at the giant floor puzzle Li Qiang was assembling with Kevin and Carla’s daughter.
Mimi had been conceived on the couple’s honeymoon and had been born only a few months after Li Qiang. The pair got on like a house on fire.
“But why?” He turned to his father and tilted his head. “Bàba, please?”
Why was Li Qiang’s favorite word these days, but that wasn’t what made Carla and Kevin bite back grins. Li Qiang, their late talker, had spent a full three years pointing and grunting and only using a handful of words. As a preemie, certain delays were to be expected, but the speech therapist had said he was also probably confused.
Initially, Ivy and Jun Li had made the decision that Ivy would read to him in English while Jun Li read the stories in Mandarin. They spoke to each other in whichever language the words came to them but decided to focus strictly on Mandarin until he started to speak.
The day Ivy had picked up a Mandarin book, Li Qiang had said clear as day, in English, “That one is Bàba’s. I get Goodnight Moon.”
From then on, he had been speaking nonstop. The funny part was, he spoke to Ivy in English and Jun Li in Mandarin. Her father always greeted Li Qiang in Cantonese over the tablet, so now that was “their talk.”
Kevin was highly amused by it and had tried to confuse Li Qiang by throwing out the little Hokkien he knew. The joke was on him—that was the nanny’s first language, and Li Qiang knew more than Kevin did.
“Come.” Jun Li invited Li Qiang into his lap. “What happens if you need us in the night? We don’t want to be so far away.” To the adults, Jun Li added, “I’ve never understood the North American obsession with sleepovers.”
Kevin barked out a laugh. “This from the man who let me sleep over for two years?”
“It was your home,” Jun Li corrected with a small frown of annoyance. “We were roommates.”
“Well, my home is your home, and we’ll always have a bed for you here. You can all stay the night. How’s that?” Kevin asked. “We could do calculus homework like old times.”
“Tempting,” Jun Li said dryly and looked to Ivy.
“The children are playing so nicely,” she pointed out.
Jun Li put Li Qiang onto his feet and said, “We will all have a sleepover, then.”
Li Qiang and Mimi ran back to their puzzle, giddy with excitement.
“The appeal of sleepovers,” Kevin said as though explaining it to a simpleton, “is that you get your child out of your bed for a night so you can make another one.”
“I’ll take that under advisement,” Jun Li said blandly while Ivy looked into her soda water with lime.
They were ahead of the curve on that one. A month ago, after much discussion, she’d had her device removed. She’d fallen pregnant laughably fast, so they’d booked this trip. Hopefully there wouldn’t be any complications this time around, but they were putting a plan in place in case she was put on bed rest again and were getting all their overseas visiting done early.
Some hours later, when Ivy was spooned into her husband’s body, replete from their lovemaking, she sensed a lingering tension that wasn’t allowing him to fall asleep.
“He’s across the hall,” she murmured. “Go check on him if it will make you feel better.”
“I just want to hear him if he calls out.”
Just then, little feet padded up to the door and the latch rattled. “Mama?”
Jun Li rose before she could and stepped into his boxers while she sat up to pull on her nightgown. He unlocked the door and picked up Li Qiang.
“What’s wrong? Bad dream?”
“I missed you.”
“You did? Well, it’s a good thing we’re here, then.” He closed the door and brought their son to bed. “Your feet are freezing. You missed putting them on me, didn’t you?”
There was some giggling and wiggling as they all made themselves comfortable.
Jun Li reached across their son to set his hand on her hip. “Now I can sleep,” he said around a big yawn.
Ivy smiled in the dark. “I love you, you know.”
“I love you, too.”
“And me,” Li Qiang said.
“And you too.”
Life wasn’t perfect. Both she and Jun Li knew that. He was off his medication, but he might need it again sometime. Her pregnancy could be difficult, and any of their parents could suffer a downturn in health.
That’s why they had agreed that when a moment was as blissfully perfect as this one, they had to acknowledge and treasure it.
“Thank you for what we have,” she said, searching out his face in the dark so she could caress his cheek. “I’m really happy right now.”
“Me too, blossom.” He kissed the inside of her wrist. “Me too.”
* * *
Lost in the magic of Her Impossible Baby Bombshell? Why not explore these other Dani Collins stories?
Beauty and Her One-Night Baby
Confessions of an Italian Marriage
Innocent in the Sheikh’s Palace
What the Greek’s Wife Needs
Ways to Ruin a Royal Reputation
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Keep reading for an excerpt from Pregnant in the King’s Palace by Kelly Hunter.
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Pregnant in the King’s Palace
by Kelly Hunter
PROLOGUE
‘YOU’RE NOT FOOLING ANYONE, you know.’
Prince Valentine of Thallasia was eighteen years old, heir to an age-old kingdom and accountable to very few. His father ruled supreme and expected instant obedience and got it. His mother was long dead. His twin sister was the only other person he listened to, on occasion, and she’d definitely upped her scolding of late. Granted, her scolding often served to burst his bubble of entitlement and superiority—and theoretically this was a good thing. Kept him grounded or modest or some such. But he didn’t have to like it.
His sister matched him stride for stride as they headed across manicured lawns towards the sprawling stone stable complex. The royal palace employed over a dozen stable hands alongside a dedicated stable master. They currently had over six strings of polo ponies in training at the palace, not to mention a dozen or so racehorses. Their father was a horse-riding fanatic and, until recently, Valentine had remained happily free of that particular bug. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
‘This sudden interest you have in horses and riding them every chance you get.’
‘What can I say? It’s spring. I want to be outdoors.’
‘It’s spring and you want into the new stable girl’s pants,’ Vala replied dryly. ‘Everyone sees it, everyone knows it. You have the subtlety of a stallion around a mare in heat. Not that you’ve ever seen a stallion around a mare in heat because until recently your interest in our royal horseflesh has been non-existent.’
‘And now I’m rectifying that lack.’ He smirked because he knew it would irritate her. ‘You should be praising me.’
‘I’m trying to warn you, you dolt. Father’s not going to approve of your choice of plaything.’
‘She has a name.’
‘And that’s exactly the attitude that’s going to get you into more trouble than either you or Angelique Cordova can deal with. Yes, I know her name. Don’t look so surprised. I like her, she’s smart and outspoken and far too beautiful for anyone’s good, and if you take things further with her and Father finds out he’ll break her and he’ll do it in front of you.’
‘Just because he hasn’t found anyone to replace our mother—’
‘Oh, don’t even go there!’ His sister had a temper and she wasn’t shy about showing it. ‘Father lost interest in our dear departed mother as soon as he bred her and got us. He goes through mistresses faster than most people go through tissues and there are never any complications. No fuss, no noise, no royal bastards. Ever. Do you want to know what happens to those women foolish enough to try and trap him? Because I hear rumours and they are ugly and I believe them.’
They were almost at the stables, a centuries-old stone building buttressing the palace walls. The palace had been built to withstand sieges, way back when, and although the walls had come down to the east to make way for a grand entry road and gardens, far grimmer sections of the building existed, tucked in behind the beautiful façade. One of the reasons he hadn’t liked coming to the stables before now was that he could feel the weight of oppression and ugliness bearing down on him there—no matter how beautiful and expensive the horses. Not that he had any intention of telling his sister he was afraid of ghosts.
Or that, no matter how much he didn’t want to believe her savage assessment of his father, she might be right.
He wanted this conversation to be over so he could get on with the business of admiring Angelique, but his twin put her hand to his forearm and forced him to turn and stop. ‘Valentine, whatever’s wrong with Father, it’s getting worse. The rages. The cruelty. And even you: Crown Prince, heir apparent, God’s anointed...you’re not immune any more, the way you were as a child when you thought he walked on water and wanted to be just like him. He sees you as competition now and nothing good is going to come of it. He will envy you, pull rank on you, and crush her. I can see it coming, plain as day, even if you can’t.’
He didn’t want to hear it. ‘Look, I know he can be hard to please. He’s not...good...with women. With you. I see that.’
His sister laughed, bright and bitter. ‘I am the prettiest dress-up doll in the room, and as long as I stay that way, he will adore me. I aim to marry early and get gone from here just as soon as I can. Better still if I can make it seem like his idea.’ She held his gaze, her dark eyes imploring. ‘But you...you need to be careful who you take up with, okay? And how you go about it. Don’t play with your pretty toys in front of him. Don’t ever let your infatuation with Angelique turn into something else. Above all, practise safe sex.’
