Her Venice Affair (The Albury Affairs) (25 page)

They had always been good
together, but this, this was on an entirely different level.

Allan drove himself into her one last time. He drew
up, his back arching as he was completely seated inside her. The push of his
body against hers felt like he still wanted to go deeper. He shouted his
release, her name on his lips. His tense muscles slacked in relief under his
glistening skin.

Watching him reach his peak inside her, claiming her
as his as his warm seed heated the walls of her empty womb, where his daughter
once grew, made it even more real. It was absolute perfection.

Perfectly
real
, she thought with a content sigh.

She knew it was a weird thought to have at that
moment, but she hoped he had left another gift inside her. And this time,
they’d share the miracle from conception to birth, to its first smile, first
laugh, first steps, first words and all of its firsts. Together.

Allan collapsed on top of her, breathing hard and his
body shaking and jerking as he continued to spurt inside her.

Riana closed her eyes, finally catching her breath.
For a long moment, they simply stayed wrapped around each other, happy about
the second chance they were granted.

* * * *

Allan hugged Riana closer to him. They had spent most
of the night and into the early hours of the morning making love. Now they just
laid together in companionable silence, each of them lost in their thoughts.

But Allan could bet they were thinking of the same
thing—each other and how lucky they were to have this second chance. Many
people begged and prayed for a chance like this and never got it. He was never
going to take her for granted ever again.

Allan moved to hold Riana more comfortably against him
as he battled sleep. He smiled at Riana’s declaration to never ever go to sleep
again in fear he might disappear. Silly, yes, but he understood her perfectly.

He loved the feel of her warm skin against his, her
fingers trailing lazily on his chest as she made small content sighs and
mumbled incoherent words under her breathe. Two and a half years he’d gone
without this. He was learning to appreciate the saying ‘you don’t know what you
have until you lose it’.

He wasn’t going to lose her again.

He tightened his grip on her and Riana hugged him
back. He felt her hand snail across his torso, and too late he realized that he
should have stopped her wandering fingers.

She tensed then pushed up onto her elbow and pulled
the covers down.

He wanted to yank them back before she saw them but it
was useless judging by her startled gasp and horrified expression. She sat up,
not caring that she was naked, and pushed the covers further down to his waist.

Allan watched the emotions play on her face silently,
wishing there was a way to avoid explaining. He thought he’d postponed this
discussion when she didn’t notice them when they made love…obviously not.

“Allan, what the hell happened to you?” she shrieked.

Allan didn’t respond. He didn’t know what to say. He
didn’t remember exactly how he got the scars, only that Anthony was responsible
for them. He was focused on saving Riana and had no concern for himself. All he
remembered was the report of the gunshots and the explosion, but his body never
registered the pain.

Dante had come up with a theory, which he was kind
enough to share with the police and Matthew. Allan at the time didn’t care
about anything, let alone a few wounds to trouble himself to provide an
explanation.

“Allan!”

He felt her shaking hand move up to his shoulder—he
had minimal feeling there—and cursed under his breathe. She was going to cry
for hours over this, he just knew.

“Allan!” she cried, a lone tear running down her cheek
from her watered eyes.

He sat up and pulled her into his arms, settling her
against his chest as he leaned back against the headboard of the bed.

“I had an accident, but I’m fine now.” He kissed her
forehead. “There is nothing to stress about. Please don’t cry.”

She tilted her head back and he wanted to kick himself
for not getting the scars removed when the doctors had suggested it, when he
saw her tear stained face. He thought he had deserved them as a reminder of how
he had failed her. Now, she was never going to get over them. They were going
to be a constant reminder of their nightmare.

“Please…tell me what happened?” she whispered.

When he didn’t answer right away, she leaned a little
away from him and touched the round scar on his side that had a twin at his
back. Then she touched the one at his ribs—the unlucky shot as he called it—that
had a twenty-centimeter surgery scar line that ran up across it. It felt weird
when she pressed making contact with…he had no idea.

He hadn’t cared to find out what the piece of rib the
bullet broke off was replaced with. Dante might know. Whatever it was, it felt
foreign, like it wasn’t supposed to be a part of his body.

“Are these bullet wound scars?”

He could tell she was about to get hysterical.

“I know that is a burn scar, but how the hell did you
get torched?” she demanded, laying her hand on his shoulder.

Allan took her hands in one of his the other cuddled
the side of her head and brought it back to his chest.

He felt Riana shake against him as she silently
sobbed. He took a deep breath and began. “I’m not exactly sure. It all felt
like a nightmare. A blur of events of a hellish nightmare.”

She slipped her hands out of his and wrapped her arms
around him. He stroked her back with his free hand, trying to sooth her. She
wasn’t going to take what he was about to say well.

He told her about Anthony threatening to harm her if
he went through with the takeover, also explaining the reason for a bodyguard—not
for himself, but for her. Then, with great difficulty, he told her what Anthony
had said about what he’d done to her. He felt her tremble then, her hold on him
tightening. Then he finished with what Dante had described as what could have
happened to him on the yacht, ending with the explosion.

“I’m sorry I left you alone. I knew the danger but I
was too much of a damn coward—”

Riana pressed her fingers on his lips then lightly
brushed his lower lip with her thumb. “Tonight, you said you love me more times
than I thought you possibly would, so the past—that fight—doesn’t matter
anymore.”

Then she swallowed visibly and a worried look crossed
her face. “Allan, remember when you asked me how I got away and I had no idea
what you meant?”

Allan felt his own body shake with both dread and
relief. Dread that Anthony would have hurt her if he had found her on the yacht
and relief that she had left before he had a chance to. “That doesn’t matter
either. You are here and you are safe. That’s all I care about.”

“Allan, Anthony got his driver to take me to the
airport. I didn’t know he was planning to…” Her voice trailed away as tears
flowed down her face.

The first thing that came to mind was to be suspicious
of her and her relationship with Anthony. But he didn’t dwell on it long,
refusing to allow the thought that they had plotted against him. There had to
be a reasonable explanation for this.

“Why?”

She shrugged, crying harder. “I don’t know. I told him
we broke up and he got this scary look on his face as he came toward me. For a
moment I thought he was going to hurt me and I started wishing you hadn’t left
me alone. But then he stopped a foot away from me, picked up my bags and said
he’d have his personal driver take me to the airport. Since I had no other means,
I took the offer. When I got back home, Theresa—”

“Hold up,” he blurted out, raising his hand. “What
does Theresa have to do with this?”

“She’s the one who told me you were dead. She said it
was my fault and I should be the one who died.”

Allan felt his temper flare. “You mean to tell me that
Theresa knew you were alive and said nothing about it!”

Riana stopped crying. “Why would she think I was
dead?”

“Because before Dante corrected the media, the report
was that there were two casualties in the yacht. You and me,” he bit out
through clenched teeth.

The moment he saw Theresa he was going to ring her
neck!

All this time, she could have ended his suffering.
True, he’d asked Dante not to tell the media he was still alive until he felt
he was ready to face the world—which was supposed to be never—but Matthew and
Melody knew he was alive. And somehow Theresa had found out, too. She had tried
to go to Italy to be with him just a month after the explosion and that’s when
he bought a new yacht and sailed as far away from everyone as he possibly
could.

Then the media found out that he was still in the land
of the living, but since they couldn’t find him, they labeled it a rumor and he
a ghost. Over a year of being called a ghost and Riana didn’t know?

“Where have you been, Riana?”

She blinked a few times like Allan had just pulled her
out of her thoughts.

“I was in New Providence. After she told me, and I saw
the news…I had to escape. I thought if I ran away it would turn out not to be
true and I wouldn’t be forced to face that you died. So I ran to my brother.”
She stared into his eyes. “Allan, that’s the second time in over two years I’ve
admitted aloud that you died.”

Allan hugged her tight against him. Talking about this
wasn’t going to help either of them. It was time to move on, begin a new
chapter…

“Riana, what happened to the baby?” He held his
breath, afraid of what she’d say.

Allan could feel her lips stretch into a smile as she
pressed them against his chest. He let go of the breath, taking that as a good
sign. She moved to straddle him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“You have a beautiful little girl. With brown eyes, a
smile that lights up a room, and expressions that make her look like her daddy more
every day,” she said sweetly, and with such love in her voice it made him tear
up.

“A daughter?” he said hoarsely.

Riana nodded with a grin. “Loraine calls her a
hellion! She is justified. That girl can tear up a room within seconds of
entering it!” Riana playfully punched him in the shoulder. “She certainly
doesn’t get that from me. Reno says I was a peaceful, loveable baby. My poor
big brother was her constant target. It’s a wonder he didn’t ship us back to
the States after she wreaked havoc at his hotel!”

Allan tossed his head back and barked out a laugh.
Riana was right. His daughter got her destructive nature from him. He can remember
his mother calling him a hellion more than one time.

My
daughter.

It felt wonderful to know their baby survived, that he
was a father. He couldn’t wait to meet her. And like a tornado, all his
insecurities came crushing down on him.

“Allan, what’s wrong?”

“What if she doesn’t like me? She doesn’t even know
me! How am I going to introduce myself to her? What if I suck at being a dad?”

Riana chuckled, pressing a feather-light kiss on his
lips. “Aurora loves you because she already knows you. I told her all about you
and your family. And you are not going to
suck
at being a dad, so stop freaking out!”

Allan felt an overwhelming emotion fill him. “You
named her after my mother?”

She smiled and nodded. “Aurora Cora Sinclair.”

Allan went quiet. He was trying to soak in all this
information. He was also trying to understand this feeling that consumed him
knowing he had a child, a daughter.

“You are not disappointed that…that she’s a girl? Most
fathers want to have sons first then—”

Allan laughed. Oh how he’d missed her rambling. “You
gave me a gift. A child. Girl or boy, I’ll love that child more than my own
life!”

“And…and…I know you didn’t want me to get pregnant
because you thought I’d—”

Allan groaned, wishing she hadn’t reminded him of
that. One of the things he was thinking about was demanding—not asking, they
were past that—she marry him immediately. But now she’d just think he was doing
it for their daughter more than for love. He’d have to wait and show her he
wasn’t feeling trapped.

“Don’t even think about that. All I want is to be a
family, and raise our daughter together.”

Riana sighed with relief. “Good.”

She squealed bouncing on his lap excitedly. Allan
groaned, grabbing hold of her hips and stilling her. Watching her bounce on him
turned him on, wishing he were inside her while she was doing that.

“I’m so excited! Aurora is going to be so happy to see
you!”

And flat!
Who knew talking about your daughter was a major turn
off—unless they were discussing giving her siblings. Now that he’d have fun doing.
But meeting his daughter for the first time did make him anxious.