Page 52 of Bound By Her Shocking Secret

Mia’s voice was a hissed whisper across the aisle of the private plane that was taking them from San José to New York.

Daniel didn’t like the look of sheer panic mixed with horror on her face. He shrugged. ‘Why not?’

Her mouth opened and closed a few times.

She looked...amazing. She was wearing a light green silk shirt dress. Casual but sexy. Her skin was even more golden after their time in Costa Rica, and more freckles were liberally dotted across her nose. Her hair, too, had turned lighter, and she’d plaited it today. It hung over one shoulder, enticing Daniel to wrap his hand around it and pull her over to him so he could take that look off her face by kissing her.

He needed her.

She’d been packing last night, and by the time he’d wrapped up his own work she’d been in bed, with Lexi asleep too. He dragged his gaze back to her face. She was still looking stunned.

Finally she said, ‘I thought we might have a period of engagement. To get used to the idea.’

Something curdled in Daniel’s gut at that suggestion. The need to make Mia his wife ASAP was a compulsion he didn’t want to analyse too deeply.

He reached across and took her hand. ‘I want us to be a family, Mia. Why wait?’

Her eyes were huge. She bit her lip. ‘Can it even happen that quickly?’

Daniel nodded. ‘Once we obtain a licence, we can marry in twenty-four hours.’

She glanced behind, to where Odile was occupying Lexi with a game, the little girl chattering happily. Daniel saw Mia’s expression soften and felt a spike of jealousy—at his own daughter! But then Mia looked back, and Daniel knew he didn’t want that softness to go out of her expression.

He said, ‘I want everyone to know you’re my wife and that we’re a family.’

Mia looked a little pale. ‘I guess there’s no reason why we should wait. Things aren’t going to change, are they?’

There was a quality to her voice he couldn’t quite decipher, but the rush of triumph drowned out the need to analyse it.

He took her hand and pressed a kiss to the palm, her scent filling his nostrils and heating his blood. ‘I’ll let my office know to obtain the licence.’

At that moment Lexi’s voice rang out. ‘Mama!’

Mia took her hand from his and made her way to their daughter.

It was the strangest sensation, but even though Mia had just agreed to marry him within the next few days, and Daniel had exactly what he wanted, he felt inexplicably as if something was slipping out of his grasp.

Later that afternoon, after they’d arrived at JFK and then taken a helicopter ride into Manhattan, during which Lexi had stayed wide-eyed and silent, they’d landed on a tall building which turned out to be owned by Daniel. It housed the North American offices of Devilliers, plus his private apartment and a shop on the ground level.

They were greeted by staff and taken down to the apartment—a vast, elegant, luxurious space with a terrace overlooking Fifth Avenue and the greenery of Central Park visible just a few blocks away.

Mia was looking around the fully stocked nursery which was across the hall from the master bedroom suite. She felt Daniel’s presence behind her, and all the little hairs on her body stood up.

She didn’t turn around, afraid he’d see something of the emotion she’d been feeling since earlier, when he’d told her he wanted to marry her as soon as possible.

‘You really didn’t have to kit out an entire closet full of clothes,’ she said. ‘She’ll have outgrown most of them within a couple of weeks, she’s growing so fast.’

‘I’ll ensure anything that isn’t used is donated to charity.’

‘That’d be good.’

‘Mia.’

She turned around, careful to shield her expression. She felt too raw at that moment, as the enormity of their impending nuptials sank in.

Daniel was leaning against the doorframe, impossibly tall and broad. He said, ‘My staff have obtained the marriage licence, and someone will come up with the paperwork you need to fill out shortly. They’ll also have a pre-nuptial agreement for you to look at. All going well, we’ll be getting married tomorrow afternoon.’

So it really was happening.

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