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BOOK 3
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Being Yours BOOK 3
'He has offered for you^ Isabella, and he is our neighbour. When you marry him, our family holdings will be joined. Your children will inherit a great deal of land.'*I don't have any children. And we don't need any more land.' Isabella heard her voice rising in panic. Her father had an obsession with expanding his estates. In his youth, he had been a middle-class salesman, but over the years he had gradually built up his holdings until now he was a very wealthy man—a man the country's leading families could no longer ignore. He didn't need more land, but he thought he did. He said it was to provide security for his wife and six daughters, but Isabella knew that he was the one who needed to feel secure.'You will have children with Jose,' Diego explained, as if he were talking to a child who thought babies were mailed special delivery from the baby factory.'Ugh! But I can't bear him near me. Father, please. I don't love him. I don't even like him—''Enough.' Diego held up his hand. 'L
Being Yours BOOK 3
'Nothing.' He detached her quite gently, dumped a brown paper bag onto the table and pulled out a bottle of rye whisky.'But there must be something. Please—let me help you.''You? Help me?' It wasn't the unconscious cruelty of his words but the parody of a laugh that followed which chilled her bones.'I'd like to,' she whispered. 'If you would please tell me what's the matter . . .''You want to know what's the matter? All right, I'll tell you what's the matter. I lost my pilot's licence, that's all.' He unscrewed the top of the bottle and stood up. 'And that, my privileged little wife, apart from depriving me of the only work I know, means that you and I may soon be unable to live in this luxury to which we've become accustomed.'He waved an arm at the cracked walls and the dilapidated fixtures and went to the cupboard to pull out a glass.Isabella moved slowly across to the table and sat down. What was he talking about, this man who was her rock of security in a strange land? He co
Being Yours BOOK 3
Her mother-in-law was different in every way from her own quietly traditional mother. But it didn't matter. In no time at all the two of them had developed a mutual and very real affection.Once Mairead left, the basement felt even quieter and emptier than it had before. Deeply involved in his new venture. Brand still had little time left over for his wife.Often she visited Judy, who had started to teach her cooking as well as English, but she couldn't spend all her time upstairs. Judy had a baby, a family and her own circle of friends. Isabella, used to being surrounded by people, often found her own company desperately hard to endure.Then one day she bumped into Gary in the narrow passage between their doors.'Haven't seen much of Brand lately,' he remarked.'No. He's been very busy,' she agreed. 'I haven't seen much of him either.'After that, Gary began to appear at her door almost every day on one pretext or another. When Isabella found herself looking forward to his visits she
Being Yours BOOK 3
She returned the smile warily. 'Women have more freedom here. In my country we have to do exactly as men tell us. Well—most of the time. If I went back now, my father would think I'd given in to him. He'd still want me to marry Jose Velasquez once my marriage to you was annulled.''Annulled?' The fridge stopped humming abruptly.'It would be arranged.''I see. Therefore, mean and boring as I am, I'm the lesser of two evils? Is that it?'Did he think this situation was funny? And no, that wasn't it. Wouldn't he ever understand that her feelings for him were anything but shallow? That they were not merely the feelings of a child who was used to getting her own way? She sighed. Probably her constant complaints about his lateness and lack of attention hadn't helped much to change his opinion. But it was too late to do anything about that now. Somehow she would have to think of a way to make him see her as a woman. A desirable woman.But first she must convince him not to send her home. He
Being Yours BOOK 3
Isabella looked up. 'What did you say?''Nothing. I—' Whatever he had meant to say was cut off by a brisk tap on the door.'Judy!' Isabella, with obvious relief, jumped up to hand a gurgling Billy back to his apologetic mother.'Oh, dear. I was sure he wouldn't wake up,' exclaimed Judy when she saw the green towel wrapped around her son. 'I can't think what happened. He always sleeps in the afternoon.''Gary happened, I expect,' Brand murmured. 'He usually does.'Judy giggled uncomfortably, and Isabella gave him a sharp look and asked her friend if she had managed to get the job.'Yes! I did. Isn't it great? Just entering data, but it's a start. Listen, thanks again, Bella. I have to run. Mom's waiting to hear how I made out.'Isabella nodded. 'Of course.''I notice you didn't say, "Drop him off any time," ' Brand observed as his wife shut the door behind Judy.Isabella tossed her head. 'No. You said yourself that babies aren't my specialty.''So I did.''You seemed to know what you w
Being Yours BOOK 3
Isabella didn't answer him, only smiled wistfully and got up to stir the big pot bubbling on the stove.Was her plan working? she wondered. It was impossible to tell. Brand hadn't seemed to mind her flirting with Gary. Next time she would have to be more obvious. Then maybe he would remember she was his wife and do something to make sure she remained his. In her country no man would stand by and allow his wife to make eyes at another man. Isabella squashed a potato viciously against the side of the pot. The problem was^ this wasn^t her country—and Brand hadn't seemed to notice she was flirting. It was very puzzling.Over the next five days the temperature outside rose steadily, and one afternoon, when the heat in the basement became unbearable, Gary knocked on the door and asked if Isabella would like to come out for a drive.'We could go to Queen Elizabeth Park,' he suggested. 'It'll be cooler on the grass under the trees. Smell a lot better too. It's stuffy down here.'He was right.
Being Yours BOOK 3
'Get — up/Brand said through his teeth.Isabella gave him what he could only suppose she imagined was her best Delilah smile. 'Brand, darling,' she drawled, 'that's not very loving. Come to bed. You look tired.''That,' Brand said, 'is very possibly because I am tired. Now, are you going to do as you're told, or do I have to—?''Come and get me?' Isabella suggested, giggling and holding out her hand.Lord, give him patience—and a double dose of self-control. Brand swallowed the unexpected surge of bile that rose up in his throat.A sudden burst of wind rattled the small window above the beds. Isabella jumped.Ah. So she wasn't as sure of herself as she wanted him to think. And she was nervous. Good. Damn it, couldn't the beautiful little idiot get it into her head that he had no taste for silly games, no time for her juvenile manipulations?'I'll come and get you,' he said. 'But if I have to, you may not like it.''But I'm tired too.' Isabella pouted.Anger, as well as the frustration
Being Yours BOOK 3
Abruptly the room came into focus, and Isabella looked up to see the wide, black-coated shoulders of the man whose existence had lured her back to Vancouver as inevitably as the swallows returned to Capistrano. She raised her eyes higher, and her gaze fastened on full lips that exposed a bare glimpse of white teeth. From the corners of those well-remembered lips thin grooves made a line to flared nostrils. Finally she tilted her head back to stare boldly into deep, furious black eyes.Brand had changed. He looked older, and maturity made him even more savagely attractive than she remembered.His dark hair was longer now too, hiding the unusual shape of his ears and curling enticingly on the back of his neck. But from the rage she could see him battling to control Isabella knew that enticing her was not what the president of Ryder Airlines had in mind.Nor had it ever been, really, she remembered with a sharp pang of regret.'I have changed. Brand,' she said quietly.'I doubt it.' The
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