Taming the Bad Girl (14 page)

“You’re not, but I’m doing it anyway.”

“But—”

“But nothing,” I insisted. “I’ll sort
all of this
out for you. You’ll stop feeling guilty, Luce,
because that’s gone now, okay? He made his choice and you made yours and that’s
the way life works. I give you my solemn promise I’ll do everything I can to
help if he helps himself. Beyond that we have to let it, let him, go.”

“But why though?” she asked, her beautiful eyes
finding mine.
“Why Giles?
Why follow me there tonight?
Why go to all this trouble? After everything we’ve been through.”

I shrugged, trying to act far calmer than I was
in reality. Knowing my next words would be setting our life in place. “Because
of everything we’ve been through. Because I’ve fought it for so long and I
simply can’t anymore. The past is the past and we’re going to leave it there.
All of it.
You’re
mine
now, Luce.”

“Giles…”

“Because I love you.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Lucy: And there’s your ending.

I opened my mouth, closed it and opened it
again. Had Giles really just said what I thought he’d said?
Love?
Love?
Wasn’t that my line?

I shivered inside.
So happy.
So fucking pleased.
This was everything I wanted and
then some—it seemed unbelievable. I wanted to say something equally as lovely
back.
To be the creative one, to say something heartfelt.
Only I didn’t, and the words that fell out shocked me as much as him. “I’m
pregnant.”

Giles’ jaw dropped. His eyes widened. “What?”

I moistened my lips, nervous as anything.
Wishing I’d had a bit more finesse.
“
Erm
…yeah.
I found out this morning.”

“
Jesus
Christ
.”

I held my breath. Not sure what he was thinking.
Okay, he loved me, check. He wanted me, check.
But a baby?
Already?
It might be too much….

“That’s what you meant?” he trailed off, shock
flashing across his face.
“To Alex.
You were putting
an end to it for the baby…dear God…”

I
swallowed,
my stomach
raveling in knots, my hands shaky. That this baby was mine was not in doubt. I
would love it and give it everything I had never been given.
But
Giles?
Could he accept it as easily?

“Then we’ll have to get married,” he said
suddenly.

And now it was my turn to gape. “Giles, I know
you’re from
England
,
but this isn’t the seventeen hundreds you know.”

He lifted me in one move, before I’d even had
time to realize, settling me on his lap, the comforter still wrapped around me.
He laid a hand on my belly, which unraveled in one, the tension dissipating,
his
eyes wide. “This is unbelievable, Luce.
Bloody hell.”

“I know!”

“So married then?”

“You don’t need to,” I protested.

He lifted my chin and placed a light kiss on my
lips. I shivered at the contact. “It’s not about need,” he said. “It’s about
want. I want you, Luce. Hell, maybe it is about need. I need you just as much.
You’re mine.”

“Yours,” I whispered.

“Yes.”

“You’re not even going to ask me if
it’s
yours,” I said, laying it right out
there, my worst fear.
Because I knew the truth.
I’d
had my period just before Giles and I
boinked
again
part two. But Giles wouldn’t know that.

He glared. “Of course it is. Don’t be so bloody
stupid.”

“The men from before though,” I said,
hesitantly, because we had to talk about this.
If Giles was serious.
If this was a time for new beginnings the past had to stay in the past. “I was
a total slut, and I don’t mean sexually.
Just mentally.
I felt like a slut because it was all so damn meaningless.”

“My fault,” Giles said, stroking down my hair.
“How can I blame you for something I caused?
That stupid
misunderstanding.
Looking back on it now it all seems so stupid. Even
though back then it was so intense. All that time we wasted…” He shook his
head.
“And besides, Luce.
I wasn’t exactly a saint
before you. I’m pretty sure I’ve still got you beat on the numbers—by quite a
wide margin, in fact.”

I swatted him on the arm and he laughed. “I
don’t doubt it. But I’m not going to
lie
, Giles. I am
very nearly in double digits.”

He threw back his head and roared.
“Bloody hell, Luce.
I’d been thinking a couple of hundred.
Nearly in double digits?
At your age
that’s pretty good going.”

I glared.
“My age?”

“You know what I mean.” He smoothed some hair
out of my face and kissed me again. “A baby
…fucking
hell….”

“You’re pleased then?”

“Shocked,” he replied.
“But of
course pleased.
It means you have to stay with me now. We’ll have to
make some lists. I have no idea what a baby needs though. I can set a
spreadsheet up for you.”

“Spreadsheet, no.
Staying, yes.”
I sighed. “I would have
anyway. I’ve wanted you for so long, Giles.”

Carefully he cupped my face, his big hands once
again making me feel like a delicate flower. “I know sides of you that you
don’t even know are there, Lucy. I’m going to help you discover them all, just
like you’re going to help me.”

“Yes.”

Just as carefully he took my lips in his and
kissed me with a tenderness I didn’t even know was possible. Slow, gentle, like
he…loved me. I gasped.
Because
he does, Luce.
Because he does.

The tension I’d lived with for so long melted
and I leaned into him.
Letting him wrap me up.

“So here we are then,” he said when he finally
pulled away.

“Here we are.”

“The two of us.”

I shook my head, happiness the likes of which I
hadn’t know in like forever cursing through me. “
Nuh
uh, it’s three now.”

“So it is.”

Another kiss, slow and leisurely, because we had
all the time in the world now, didn’t
we
? “I love you,
Giles,” I whispered against him. “Love you so much.”

He shuddered and pulled me as tight as he
dared—that is, not so tight that it would push against my stomach. I sighed,
letting the red lace fantasy float away, for the next several months at least.
Maybe I’d pull it out once baby was born? Or maybe I’d seduce him in my
sweats—each seemed equally as appealing to me right about now.

“Love you, Lucy,” he said.
“So
much.”

And that was that.

The End

www.emmashortt.co.uk

Other Books by Emma
Shortt
:

'
Twas
a
Dark and Delicious Christmas

The Valentine's
Fae

The Kiss

Paying Her Debt

Getting Her Greek

Midnight Seduction

Pleasing the Boss

Ripley's Reaping

Evernight
Publishing

www.evernightpublishing.com