Marriage: To Claim His Twins by Penny Jordan Read Free Book Online Page A

but Sander still had that unmistakable air about him that said he wasa man other men looked up to and women wanted to be close to, Ruby was forced to admit unwillingly. It wasn’t just that he was good-looking—many men were that. No, Sander had something else—something that was a mixture of an aura of power blended with raw male sexuality. She had sensed it as a naive teenager and been drawn to him because of it, and even now, when she was old enough and wise enough to know better, she still felt the pull of his sexual magnetism, its threat to suck her into treacherous waters.
    A shiver that was almost a mocking caress stroked over her, making her hug her arms around her body to conceal the sudden unwanted peaking of her nipples. Not because of Sander, she assured herself. No, it was the cold from the open door that was causing her body’s sensitive reactions.
    Sander’s brooding gaze swept over Ruby and rested momentarily on her breasts. Like a leashed cougar, the desire inside him surged against its restraint, leaping and clawing against its imprisonment, the force of its power straining the muscles he had locked against it.
    These last couple of weeks he had spent more hours than he wanted to count wrestling with the ache for her that burned in his groin—possessed by it, driven by it, and half maddened by it in equal parts.
    No woman had ever been allowed to control him through his desire for her, and for the space of a handful of seconds he was torn—tempted to listen to the inner voice that was warning him to walk away from her,from the desire that had erupted out of nowhere when he had kissed her. A desire like that couldn’t be controlled, it could only be appeased. Like some ancient mythical god it demanded sacrifice and self-immolation on its altar.
    And then he saw the twins running towards him, and any thought of protecting himself vanished, overwhelmed by the surge of love that flooded him. He hunkered down and held out his arms to them.
    Watching the small scene, Ruby felt her throat threaten to close up on a huge lump of emotion. A father with his sons, holding them, protecting them, loving them. There was nothing she would not risk to give her sons that, she acknowledged fiercely.
    Holding his sons, Sander knew that there was nothing more important to him than they were—no matter how much he mistrusted their mother.
    â€˜Mummy says that we can call you Daddy if we want to.’
    That was Freddie, Sander recognised. He had always thought of himself as someone who could control and conceal his emotions, but right now they were definitely threatening to overwhelm him.
    â€˜And do you want to?’ he asked them, his hold tightening.
    â€˜Luke at school has a daddy. He bought him a new bicycle.’
    He was being tested, Sander recognised, unable to stop himself from looking towards Ruby.
    â€˜Apparently Luke’s father also takes him to footballmatches and to McDonalds.’ She managed to answer Sander’s unspoken question.
    Sander looked at the twins.
    â€˜The bicycles are a maybe—once we’ve found bikes that are the right size for you—and the football is a definite yes. As for McDonalds—well, I think we should leave it to your mother to decide about that.’
    Ruby was torn between relief and resentment. Anyone would think he’d been dealing with the twins from birth. He couldn’t have given them a better answer if she had scripted it herself.
    â€˜Are you ready?’ Sander asked Ruby, in the cold, distant voice he always used when he spoke to her.
    Ruby looked down at the jeans and loose-fitting sweater she was wearing, the jeans tucked into the boots her sister had given her for Christmas. No doubt Sander was more used to the company of stunning-looking women dressed in designer clothes and jewels—women who had probably spent hours primping and preening themselves to impress him. A small forlorn ache came from