Dante's Marriage Pact by Day Leclaire

felt the tautness. Knew the baby had dropped low in her womb, eager to escape the safety of its nest. “This cake is just about baked.”
    She felt his chuckle against her cheek. “Did you just call our baby a cake?”
    A reluctant laugh sighed from her. “I guess I did.”
    He bent down and kissed her. Maybe if the kiss had been like before, hard and hungry and filled with a desperate edge, she’d have been able to resist. But it wasn’t. He soothed her with his taking, calmed her with gentleness, roused her with tenderness, branded her with a kiss that caused all others to pale in comparison.
    â€œWell, that got her heart rate and blood pressure up,” Dr. Dorling observed. “You might want to save that until after we land.”
    Reluctantly, Draco pulled back. His tawny eyes glittered like antique gold, filled with a want that echoed her own. “You think there’s a lot we need to resolve,” he told her in an intimate undertone, low enough that the doctor couldn’t overhear. “But that kiss tells me there isn’t as much to discuss as you might think.”
    When she opened her mouth to argue, he shook his head. “Close your eyes, Shayla. Let go and sleep. We’ll worry about the future later.”
    â€œWe?” she murmured.
    Naturally, he got the last word, something that she was beginning to realize he excelled at. “Since it’s our future, it concerns the both of us.”
    The quiet beep of the machines joined in tempo with the reassuring beat of Draco’s heart. It proved the perfect sedative, sending her off into an easy sleep filled with the most romantic of dreams about a dragon and a princess and sweet rescue. But it vanished like fairy dust the instant the pitch of the jet engines changed. She opened her eyes, blinking in confusion.
    â€œWe’re starting our descent,” Draco informed her. “We should be home in a little over an hour, depending on traffic.”
    Home .
    She assumed he meant his home and wondered how she’dfeel about staying there. Like a guest? Like an intruder? She’d wanted her own place for more years than she could count, a nest she could burrow into and feather with the bits and pieces that would make it distinctly hers. Now that possibility grew less and less likely.
    The minute they touched down at a small regional airport outside of the city, Dr. Dorling gave her a final examination. As soon as he cleared her, she thanked him for all his time and assistance. He gave her the name of a colleague who agreed to take over her care from this point forward and was expecting her visit bright and early the next morning.
    Draco handed the obstetrician a first-class ticket that would return him to Atlanta on a commercial flight and they all exited the plane. While the doctor headed off to San Francisco International Airport in one car, another car, complete with driver, awaited to take them home—wherever that was.
    â€œSausalito,” Draco said, as though reading her mind. “Not far from Primo and Nonna.”
    â€œI thought you lived in the suite where we—”
    She broke off abruptly. Where they’d made love. Where she’d conceived their child, though she hadn’t known it at the time. Where she’d created a connection that continued even after all this time, gaining in strength with each passing day. But she couldn’t say any of those things aloud, not when the driver might overhear them.
    â€œI don’t live at the suite,” he explained. “I just stayed at Dantes while my house was under construction. The designer put the last few touches on the place yesterday, so I haven’t seen the final product.” He smiled at her. “We’ll get to do that together.”
    â€œI’ll enjoy that.” She hesitated. “Do they know about me?” she whispered, sparing the driver another uneasy glance.
    Draco must have picked up on