Dark Demands 04: Bound to Him

“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
and from there it tormented ruthlessly
.

“She far more tetchy than normal – so be gentle with her,” Grace was telling Kyle as Gina swept into the
sitting
room and they both turned to look at her.

Her long, blonde hair fell in soft wave
s over
her shoulders
then
down her back and the gown she wore flared to the floor in soft pleats from under her ample bosom
softening her baby bump
.  She
literally
glowed
,
her creamy coloured skin
radiated both her
good health and
the
peaceful
happiness
she’d found with Kyle.

“I’m grumpy ‘cos I’m so fat,” she explained.  “I know I shouldn’t be but just this once I’d really like to look good,” she frowned.  “
And y
ou
know why –
don’t you, Kyle,” she pouted?
“I know it’s silly but she
’s
always so competitive, so
superior –
and she notices everything
.”

“Lisa will be fine,” Kyle reassured her with a dismissive wave of his hand.   “She won’t
say or
do
anything
to upset you.  Come on,” he grinned.  “Since
Italy
she hasn’t put a foot wrong – has she?”

“I know
but somehow each time I see her that just makes it worse.  I can’t help feeling that she’s saving herself – saving all that spite for something really big.”

Kyle shook his head.  He’d only ever seen one side of Lisa Carlotti – the lovely,
the
kind and
the
eager to please her brother side.  The Lisa that Gina seemed to know was very different.

“
I
know I
should be grateful to that woman but she still riles me somehow.  She’s so, so …
superior with that ‘I’m
stinking
rich and
very
beautiful’ attitude I just loath,” she told him then started to giggle.  “Oh Kyle, you must think I’m such a bitch,” she said throwing her arms around him.

Kyle Hastings nuzzled her cheek then kissed her mouth lightly.  “I think nothing of the sort,” he reassured her.  “I love you, Gina, pure and simple and
I’m sure
Lisa will be fine, so don’t worry.”

Kyle knew that
whatever might be going on in Lisa’s head
Benito Carlotti
would have primed his sister well. 
Whenever they met there was never ever any mention of
Dark
. 
Despite having once been married to him t
he
Italian had practically banned Lisa from speaking his name such was the
pure hatred
he felt towards
the Scotsman.

Gina climbed into the taxi next to Kyle and snuggled close to him placing his hand on her belly.

“He’s at it again, it’s the same every night, round and round he goes.  I hope he’s not this active at this time once he’s born.”

Kyle felt the movements inside her and smiled.  He’d never been happier.  Since the first time he set eyes on Gina he’d wanted to know her better
and
now
he could hardly b
elieve his luck.  She was his - soon
she
’d
be his wife and they were having a child together
. 
He kissed her gently and stroked her hair.  She was so beautiful and he could so easily have lost her.

The silence – the lack of
any
contact from Matthew Dark was surprising. 
After
all that
Gina had
said about him
Kyle had fully expected Dark to come after her but instead he just seemed to have disappeared. 
No one had heard anything from him since that fateful day. 
Not that Kyle was complaining because
once out of Dark’s control Gina had been easy to love and now, he truly believed that she loved him back. 

Kyle tried not to return to that time – that day when he’d snatched Gina from Dark’s clutches
but it was hard not to
. 
After hearing some of what
Dark had put her through he got so angry and wanted to go after him – extract some sort of revenge.
B
ut
Gina would never allow that
– or forgive him if he did.  But still
it just wouldn’t rest
- that
whole Dark thing
was always there
-
bubbling around in his consciousness
.  He
worried that
one day
he’d return and
somehow
entice her back and he
knew
th
is
unease was down to his jealousy. 
He looked at her – if he did return would she go with him? 
Gina had been obsessed with
Dark
and perhaps he
with her
so
there was always that possibility.  And the venue for the party tonight wasn’t helping.  It was being held at that same hotel – the one where Dar
k had first forced Gina into his
bed.