The Bridesmaid's Baby Bump by Kandy Shepherd Read Free Book Online Page A

with salt, ginger and the honey-scented white flowers that grew around the pathway.
    This was his second house. No, his third. He’d told her he had a penthouse apartment in one of the most fashionable waterfront developments in Sydney, where his neighbours were celebrities and millionaires. His riverfront mansion in Brisbane was his home base. There were probably other houses too, but she’d realised early on that Jake wasn’t the kind of billionaire to boast about his wealth.
    Then Jake was kissing her again, and she didn’t think about houses or bank balances or anything other than him and the way he was making her feel. He didn’t break the kiss as he used his fingerprints on a sensor to get into the house—nothing so mundane as a key—and pushed open the door. They stumbled into the house, still kissing, laughing at their awkward progress but refusing to let go of each other.
    Once inside, Eliza registered open-plan luxury and an awesome view. Usually she was a sucker for a water view. But nothing could distract her from Jake. She’d never wanted a man more than she wanted him. Many times since the wedding in Montovia she’d wondered if she had been foolish in holding off from him. There would be no regrets this time—no ‘if only’. She didn’t want him to stop...didn’t want second thoughts to sneak into her consciousness.
    In the privacy of the house their kisses got deeper, more demanding. Caresses—she of him and he of her—got progressively more intimate. Desire, warm and urgent, thrilled through her body.
    She remembered when she’d first met Jake. He’d flown down to Sydney to be best man for Dominic at the surprise wedding Dominic had organised for Andie. Eliza had been expecting a geek. The athletic, handsome best man had been the furthest from her image of a geek as he could possibly have been. She’d been instantly smitten—then plunged into intense disappointment to find he was married.
    Now she had the green light to touch him, kiss him, undress him. No holds barred.
    ‘Bedroom?’ he murmured.
    He didn’t really have to ask. There had been no need for words for her to come to her decision of where to take this mutually explosive passion. Their kisses, their caresses, their sighs had communicated everything he needed to know.
    She had always enjoyed those scenes in movies where a kissing couple left a trail of discarded clothing behind them as they staggered together towards the bedroom. To be taking part in such a scene with Jake was like a fantasy fulfilled. A fantasy that had commenced in the ballroom of a fairytale castle in Europe and culminated in an ultra-modern house overlooking a tropical beach in far north Australia.
    They reached his bedroom, the bed set in front of a panoramic view that stretched out over the pool to the sea. Then she was on the bed with Jake, rejoicing in the intimacy, the closeness, the confidence—the wonderful new entity that was them .
    Eliza and Jake.

CHAPTER FIVE
    E LIZA DIDN ’ T KNOW where she was when she woke up some time later. In a super-sized bed and not alone. She blinked against the late-afternoon sunlight streaming through floor-to-ceiling windows with a view of palm trees, impossibly blue sky, the turquoise sea beyond.
    Jake’s bedroom.
    She smiled to herself with satisfaction. Remembered the trail of discarded clothes that had led to this bed. The passion. The fun. The ultimate pleasure. Again and again.
    He lay beside her on his back, long muscular limbs sprawled across the bed and taking up much of the space. The sheets were tangled around his thighs. He seemed to be in a deep sleep, his broad chest rhythmically rising and falling.
    She gazed at him for a long moment and caught her breath when she remembered what a skilled, passionate lover he’d proved to be. Her body ached in a thoroughly satisfied way.
    Beautiful wasn’t a word she would normally choose to describe a man. But he was beautiful—in an intensely masculine way. The