Dark Demands 04: Bound to Him by Nell Henderson

Chapter 1
     
    “I’m huge, in fact I look more like an elephant than a woman ,” Gina Deverell howled at her step mum who was watch ing her attempt a sexy pose in front of a full length mirror. 
    Grace shook her head and sighed .  Gina was entirely wrong – the truth was she’d never looked more ‘womanly’ before in her life.  She was positively radiant – glowing in that special way that seemed to be the preserve of mothers to be.
    “There’s no way I should be going anywhere looking like this and particularly not to a party,” she added flopping onto her be d and stroking the large bump on her belly.  “He’s moving again – see he doesn’t want to go either,” she pouted .
    “You’re six months pregnant, Gina – what do you imagine you should look like?”   Grace Deverell shook her head and began to pick up the clothes Gina had left scattered over her bedroom floor.  “Are you quite happy with the emerald green you’re wearing – are you sure you don’t want to change again ?”  She asked holding up a silk gown in a delicate pale blue.
    “I’ll have to be – it’s all I can fit into,” she moaned.  “I’d love to wear that ,” she said nodding at the other gown, “ but given my size it’ll be some time yet before I can.”
    “Pregnancy doesn’t last forever, Gina, ” Grace reminded her patiently.   “A nd once the baby is born you’ll soon get your figure back.”
    “ Perhaps I will but in the meantime why do I have to pile it on all over – I mean just look at the size of these,” she said lifting up her large breasts through the fabric of her dress.  “They ’re obscenely big so big in fact that I doubt I’ll ever be normal again.”
    “ Nevertheless y ou’re still gorgeous, Gina and a very lucky young woman,” Grace reminded her, “ You’ve got yourself a wonderful man – who adores you and now the cherry on the top – you’re having his baby.”  Grace smiled benignly and stroked her long, blonde hair.  “Three months , that’s all you’ve got left , so stop moaning and finish getting ready – Kyle will here to pick you up any minute.”
    Kyle, Gina thought with a shiver of pleasure.  Her wonderful Kyle .   Well he was and much, much more , wonderful, handsome and talented.   So much so he was literally speeding up the corporate ladder of the vast ‘Planet Electronics’ organisation and had earned the respect and friendship of its CEO – Benito Carlotti . 
    Mrs Kyle Hastings , she said the words to herself and stroked her bump again.  Next week that’s what she’d be.   No longer plain Miss Gina Deverell instead she’d be married and to her hero – the man who’d rescued her from herself and worse , she thought with a shudder .  The man who’d taught her to love again.   To love properly, gently and with care – and like Kyle was often fond of telling her - to love the way men and women are meant to.
    Gina f elt the icy flare as it shot down her spine chilling her to the bone .  I t was that shadow again – the one that had a habit of creeping up behind her – the one that wouldn’t leave her be .  She frowned, she hated feeling like this .  On one hand she was grateful - thankful for Kyle’s intervention but on the other she wished that events had panned out differently.  But if she’d ignored all the warnings and stayed what would have happened – emotionally, where would she be now? 
    She’d lie in her bed at night and think about him – the man she’d thought she loved, the man who now haunted her thoughts and had changed her life forever - Matthew Dark.  She’d re - live her time with him – re - run in her mind the way he’d taken her , dominated her and, of course, she’d think about the frenzied, exquisite sex they’d shared – running ever y detail through her mind over and over again .  It could never be like that with Kyle.  T he shadow – the memory of Matthew Dark had seeped into her very soul