Free The Spanish Tycoon's Temptress by Elizabeth Lennox

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    “And…” she swallowed painfully, blinking back the tears in her eyes.  “Are you seeing anyone special?”  Her whole body braced for the answer, wondering if she could take it if he said he was seeing someone significant.  It was bound to happen, she told herself.  She might as well get that out there and face up to the reality.  He was a man who would want an heir.  Since he was now in his mid-thirties, he would naturally start to gravitate towards someone who would be interested in marriage. 
    It didn’t matter that they’d talked about marriage and kids, discussing their futures together as if they were set in stone together.  Both of them had been deliriously happy about the idea of spending the rest of their lives together, but apparently, that hadn’t been the case.  At least not in his mind. 
    “I’m not seeing anyone special,” he replied and he noticed that every muscle in her body seemed to relax with that reassurance.  Interesting, he thought.  “What about you?  Or should I already assume the answer based on your lack of sleep?” 
    She laughed, thinking he was referring to Tom’s comment that she’d been in the laboratory pretty often lately and her lack of sleep was apparent with the dark circles under her eyes.  “I think I’m just getting used to sleep deprivation,” she joked.  “It will help once I decide to have kids, right?” she laughed, but the sound came out harsh.  Fake. 
    He hated the idea of another man keeping her up late each night, making love to her and touching her beautiful body like he wanted to do.  Pushing the image of another man in her arms out of his mind, he focused on the conversation and his ultimate goal.  “Is there a prospective father on the horizon?”
    She laughed again.  It was a pretty pathetic reality that no man had kissed her since Gaston.  “No.  No prospective groom or father.”
    “Aren’t those the same thing?” he asked harshly.
    She glanced up, surprise by the vehemence in his voice.  “Of course,” she confirmed, not sure where this bout of anger came from.   “I spend a great deal of time in the lab so it isn’t as if there’s a large social network of prospective candidates among the other lab geeks.”
    He raised his eyebrows, but didn’t have a chance to comment because their meal arrived at that point.  He was relieved when she dug into the chicken.  At least she wasn’t averse to eating.  She just didn’t think of it, he realized. 
    “So how are the experiments coming along?” he asked, thinking to change the subject to something less controversial and with a few less explosive possibilities.
    She smiled and nodded her head.  “They are going extremely well, thank you.”  She was genuinely grateful for his assistance here.  “You were right.  The original bacteria samples I was using were contaminated but because of that, I was able to isolate several different strains and….” She went on talking about the bacteria and her progress, answering all of his questions eagerly and with enthusiasm.  This was her baby and although the previous tampering was a setback, it had provided her with new ideas and greater insight which she was now applying to her work.  The last six months hadn’t been a waste at all, but had possibly spurred greater success.
    By the time they finished their conversation, she’d eaten all of her meal and felt enormously better.  “Thank you for lunch,” she said shyly, glancing up at him through her lashes.  “I didn’t realize how hungry I was.”
    He shook his head.  “It’s one of those issues that not many people suffer from.  The bigger problem in the world is stopping people from eating but you have this problem with remembering to eat.”
    She laughed, feeling energized and ready to take on the world.  “I guess I get a little too enthusiastic about my work.”
    “A little?” he teased as he passed the waiter his credit card.