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BOOK 3
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Being Yours BOOK 3
'You can't,' he said. 'Veronica has resigned. I need a housekeeper. You're my wife, as you've pointed out to me on more than one occasion. So for once, instead of causing me a problem, you can solve one for me.'Just as if I'm some interchangeable cog in his well-oiled housekeeping machine, Isabella thought disbelievingly. Yet, in a way, she wished she could stay. Brand would manage without her very well. But it would please her to run his house for him, to act as if she were his wife in more than name . . .No. She mustn't even think it. Brand didn't want her as his wife. He had made that abysmally clear.'I'm sorry. Brand,' she said with quiet resolution. 'But you'll have to solve your problem some other way.'When he only looked at her with his head lowered, as if he were a bull about to charge, she turned her back on him and started to leave the room.'Stay where you are,' he said.Isabella stopped, too startled to ignore him. Did he honestly think he had the right to tell her wha
Being Yours BOOK 3
'I'm sorry you won't change your mind,' she said, hiding her true feelings behind a gracious, lady-of-the-manor smile. 'But naturally I respect your decision. Goodnight, Veronica. I'll see you in the morning.'Veronica didn't answer, but as Isabella turned to leave from the corner of her eye she saw a change come over the other woman's face. One minute it had been composed and a little derisive. The next it was splotched with angry colour. Isabella hastened her pace and hurried out into the corridor.She wasn't fast enough. As she turned to close the door, a tube of lipstick hit her in the face. She gasped, put a hand to her cheek and started angrily back into the bedroom. But she had only taken a step when a voice behind her said, 'Hell,' and a pair of muscular arms closed around her waist. She kicked out frantically as her back was clamped against a man's solid body—a body that was all too familiar, even though, at this moment, she couldn't see it.'Brand!' Isabella exclaimed. 'What
Being Yours BOOK 3
'Yes/ replied Felix, holding his ground. 'I hope Belle will do me that honour.''Belle.' Brand managed to make Felix's nickname for her sound obscene.'That's what I call her.' Felix puffed out his chest, looking pleased with himself.Brand's mouth curved down as he turned to Isabella and drawled, 'Your suitor is obviously a man of imagination. I do see the appeal, of course, but don't you think he's a little old for you. Belle?''Now, listen . . .' Felix began to bend his knees in a boxer's crouch. 'I'll have you know—''No,' said Brand. 'I'll have you know that Isabella is still my wife and, as such, my responsibility—''I am not your responsibility,' Isabella interrupted hotly. 'I'm a grown woman and I'm responsible for myself.'Just for a second. Brand looked almost nonplussed. Then he laughed softly and said, 'So you are. Sometimes I forget.'When he turned back to Felix there was a look in his eye that Isabella had only seen there once before and when she saw a fist begin to bun
Being Yours BOOK 3
'What reason have you given me to trust you? You want it all, don't you, Isabella?' Brand's voice vibrating across the room was low, gravelly, giving her no hint that she had ever touched his heart.She closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to see the scorn she was certain would be written all over his face. When she opened them again he was standing up, and on the television a moon-faced cowboy was wailing a lament for lost love. As usual. Brand's body seemed much too big for the small room.'Yes.' She kept her voice level with a superhuman effort. 'Yes, I want it all. Brand.''Well, you're not going to get it,' he, said, almost conversationally. 'You ask too much of me, Isabella.'She didn't answer, but went on gazing at the point where his belt buckle bulged slightly beneath his sweater. The next thing she knew, his hands had closed over her wrists.'What's this?' he asked, his voice suddenly distorted, as if there was some further obstruction in his throat.'What's—oh.' She followe
Being Yours BOOK 3
In spite of her determination not to give Brand an inch, Isabella caught herself smiling too.'Daddy,' said Connie, frowning, 'you don't have a cat. And what's—what's ul—uliginous?''Growing in muddy and swampy places. Which would have described you nicely if I hadn't caught you. Now see here, Miss Ryder—'But Connie wasn't listening. Instead her big dark eyes were fixed on a fluffy white puffball nestled in an inside pocket of Brand's jacket. When the puffball started to squirm, and extended a black button nose, she let out a howl of delight that caused a passing and presumably deaf old gentleman to smile benignly, and his female companion to wince.'You've got a puppy!' she cried. 'Oh, he's so cute. Daddy, is he for me? Is he really?'Isabella's heart sank, and she felt a familiar urge to give Brand a good hard kick. Not that it was entirely his fault. She had meant to tell him a dog was impossible the first time the subject came up. But she hadn't done so because so much had happen
Being Yours BOOK 3
Brand eyed her sardonically. 'You already have my attention,' he assured her. 'As for the ducks—they aren't likely to relish the competition if you were thinking of going for a swim.'Isabella glared. Did he really imagine she had stumbled on purpose, in a bid to attract his attention? Just because, in the old days, it was exactly the sort of trick she might have pulled ...He responded to her glare with a grin so complacent it continued to irritate her all the way home.The two days of the weekend seemed longer than usual, and lonely, and when Brand brought Connie back on Sunday night Isabella looked at him as if he'd brought her a priceless gift. As indeed, in a way, he had.To her surprise he turned his head away, and she saw him clench his jaw as if he was in some kind of pain.'Toothache?' she asked sympathetically.He swung round to glare at her as if she had suggested he had fleas.'I promised Fluffy I'd go back to visit him next weekend,' Connie announced, happily oblivious to
Being Yours BOOK 3
Instinctively she tried to press closer. Brand wouldn't let her. 'No,' he said drily. 'I asked you to come as my partner. Not as inspirational copy for the morning papers. Behave yourself, Isabella.'How dared he? When she knew from the smouldering intensity of his eyes and the tension straining every muscle of his body that he too was aching with need. But then she had sensed from the moment he arrived at her apartment that his control was held in place by only the very finest of threads.'You don't have to take out your frustrations on me,' she said, not caring much if the thread snapped right here on the dance floor. If it did, then she too could let go.Brand's nostrils flared. 'Frustrations?' He spun her into a turn. 'What makes you think I'm frustrated?'She gave him a sugar-coated smile. 'Aren't you?''Damn you, Isabella.' The words were a roughly growled caress, and in the same moment the band brought the number to a close. When it started up again with a faster, more overtly
Being Yours BOOK 3
Of course she had wronged Brand by keeping his daughter's birth a secret. But his suspicions about Gary and Fehx had been without foundation. And how could he accuse her of blackmail?'Brand,' she said, not bothering to hide her resentment, 'I am not the juvenile idiot you seem to think me. I am well aware that affection, trust, love—whatever you want to call it—can't be won by blackmail or threats.''Good. In that case, don't ask for the impossible.'A beetle ran over her foot. She kept her eyes on it because she couldn't bear to look at Brand. If she did, she knew she would see his mouth flattened into that familiarly adamant line. She had no wish to confirm that the bond forged between them by last night's loving had faded with the unforgiving light of morning.'I'm not asking for anything,' she said.She wasn't either. She would love Brand to the end of her days, but it looked as though her love had finally defeated her. Coming back had been a mistake. What she ought to do now was
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