Free Desire Unmatched: 4 (Coded for Love) by Lynne Silver

said.
    “And snacks,” Samara added. She’d recently passed the
morning sickness part of her pregnancy and had moved on to the
eat-everything-in-sight mode. Last night, Emma had gone to a bar with some of
her new friends. When she’d arrived back at midnight, she’d seen Chase
scurrying across the campus toward the cafeteria, no doubt to feed his hungry
woman.
    “Are you going crazy yet?” Loren asked with sympathy.
    “Of course not, I’m fine. I was working on a paper for
school.” She swung a hand in the direction of the round table where several
pens and the open notepad lay.
    The look both women threw her told her they didn’t buy her
false bravado. They’d know it’d be impossible to get any work done when Xander
was returning to campus imminently.
    “Yes, I’m going crazy,” she said, walking over to the futon
and sinking into a ball on one end of it.
    Samara followed her over. “It’s to be expected. Since you
and Xander are connected, your hormones shift slightly if he’s in danger.”
    It made no sense to her, but since Samara was the world’s
leading expert, she’d buy it. “Adam didn’t tell me if he’s hurt.” She directed
her statement at Loren, who was on her haunches in front of the television,
fiddling with the DVD player.
    Loren swiveled her blonde head. “Adam didn’t tell me
specifically, but I think the fact Xander orchestrated his own escape and made
it to the US consulate is a really good sign.”
    “Which city was he in?” she asked, picturing the glamorous
long avenues of Paris.
    “Marseille,” Loren answered. As a journalist, she always
seemed to know everything that happened around here.
    “Marseille?” she whispered. She’d been to France before, on
holiday with a bunch of school chums. It was a lovely place. Perfectly
romantic. Not the kind of place she imagined when she thought of Xander
kidnapped and held hostage. “Was it Paulson?” She wrapped her arms around her
body to stave off the shivers that came with the name of the man who’d
kidnapped her for three months.
    Loren shrugged and stepped away from the telly. “They don’t
know much of anything. I’m sure Xander will tell us more when he gets here.”
    All three sets of eyes looked to the clock on the wall, then
back to the screen. “ Love Actually ,” Loren said firmly.
    “What, you think ’cause I’m a Brit, I naturally like that
movie?” Emma protested by nudging Loren with her bare big toe.
    “Well, don’t you?” Loren asked.
    “I do,” she admitted.
    They settled back to watch, wiping away tears at the funeral
and giggling at Hugh Grant’s confused genial smarminess. They all sat back
against the futon cushions and sighed when Colin Firth admitted his love in
halting Portuguese.
    “I love that movie,” Loren said as the credits flashed on
screen.
    Samara wrinkled her brow. “I never realized before how
depressing a movie it is.”
    She and Loren turned on her. “What do you mean?” she asked.
    “It’s romantic,” Loren said.
    Samara pointed at the screen. “But the Alan Rickman
character…he crushed his wife. And Laura Linney, she’ll never find love if she
always puts her brother first. Depressing.”
    Emma saw her point.
    Loren wasn’t ready to let it go, however. “But Hugh Grant as
prime minister and his assistant, and the little boy…he learned to drum for a
girl!” She reclined back against the futon. “So sweet.”
    “Another movie?” Emma asked, trying not to convey her
desperation they not leave her alone.
    Samara stood, shaking crumbs off her distended belly. “I
have to head back. Luca loves Chase, but still needs me to tuck him in.” She
made it to the door, then turned to Emma. Her dark gaze seemed to penetrate
below her skin. “Don’t let Xander push you away. He’s going to need you more
than ever.”
    She shifted in her spot on the futon. “What do you mean?”
    Samara curled a hand onto her belly. “Chase has given me a
few bits and pieces