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RELUCTANT WIFE 25
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YOUR LOVE (ROMANTIC SERIES) RELUCTANT WIFE 26
‘Witch, when are you going to learn that I will only be pushed so far. This wasn’t meant to happen here!’‘Where was it supposed to happen?’He laughed. ‘Not on a chaise longue in the study.’Carrie stood, naked in the semi-darkness of the room and was aware of his intent gaze upon her breasts, she smiled, murmuring softly as she bent her lips to his, ‘I liked it in the study.’ Then she laughed wickedly, and rekindling a special time when he’d embarrassed her, she said, ‘Mr Stephanides did it in the study, with his lead pipe!’‘Why, you cheeky little baggage.’ He leant forward and caught her nipple in his teeth, making her breath catch in her throat. ‘So you do remember playing Cluedo with me?’‘Maybe we should play it in the ballroom?’ she asked with an arch of her brow.He shook his head. ‘Dress, now! Ple-a-se!’They returned to the party, hand in hand. Alexis left her in the hallway for mere seconds to retrieve two glasses of pink champagne. He handed her one, and clinked her glass
YOUR LOVE (ROMANTIC SERIES) RELUCTANT WIFE 27
‘I had a go with the sandblaster.’ His grip tightened. ‘I was bored. B.O.R.E.D! Bored! You wouldn t let me come to you. I was going crazy, Alexis.’His grip slackened. ‘Come here and sit on the bed. We need to talk.’They sat down on the bed, facing each other. Firstly, the sandblaster is too heavy for you.’Carrie boiled inside. What did he think she was, some weak little waif? ‘Too heavy? The sandblaster is not too heavy for me.’‘Not even if you’re pregnant?’Large blue eyes shot to his. He raised his dark eyebrows. ‘I heard you this morning in thebathroom. If I’m not mistaken I think this is morning sickness?’‘Yes, well,’ she coloured. ‘So what if it is!’‘If it is?’ he said slowly, ‘I think the sandblaster is too heavy.’ Then he grinned, boyishly. ‘Just how much of the bakery have you done?’Carrie relaxed; he wasn’t going to make an issue of her not telling him about her pregnancy. ‘Not much. Just finished the downstairs room.’ She clasped her hands in her lap. ‘Look, it’s onl
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‘What’s wrong with that, Stephan?’ Carrie interrupted, suddenly infuriated by the man’s attitude.‘Wrong, why - why it’s immoral,’ he cried outraged at the idea of living together.Carrie sighed, the deep scepticism visible in her voice. ‘Oh here we go. It’s OK to have an affair withher, but then when it suits you, you want marriage. Typical man!’‘Of course I want marriage, especially before we have children. I can’t see what’s wrong with that!’‘You can’t?’‘No! This is entirely different, and I can see nothing wrong with it.’‘You men never can!’ Carrie abruptly shot out of the chair, throwing a look which could have killed at Alexis. ‘And you’ve no need to look so pleased with yourself. You’re all the same. When it suits you, that’s when things should happen. When it suits the darned men!’ With the last remark she marched off in search of solitude.Stephan looked astounded. ‘Her too! It seems the whole female force have it in for us today. What with Maria in a foul mood this morn
YOUR LOVE (ROMANTIC SERIES) RELUCTANT WIFE 29
‘Lost what?’‘Your control! I realized then that you might care about me. So I let you believe Peter was a man. I never actually lied to you. I just wanted you to care, not just for the body that’s carrying your child, butfor we, Carrie O’Riordan.’ She pulled herself free of his touch. ‘I just needed to know you were jealous. The mention of Peter has a way of getting a response out of you, a reaction.’'It does?’‘Oh yes, your face contorts, like this . . .’ As she copied his face for one illuminating second he nearly succumbed to laughter. As it was, he suppressed the urge, he was still angry with her. Wasn’t he? Well maybe not.‘Just like that?’‘Yes, and when you’re angry, like this . . .’ She pulled another face, this one quite frightening.He pushed an irritable hand through his hair, relaxing a little. ‘I guess I’ve been pretty tough on you. Demanding that you marry me, forcing you to have my baby all in the name of a shipping fleet.’The jet engines revved loudly, they were no
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‘The next morning I realized I was deluding myself. Greece had become my home. I never truly wanted to be a choreographer in London, I did it all for Petros.’ Again he threw her a critical look. ‘Oh I’m not saying I don’t enjoy dance, I do. But I just don’t feel it’s the direction I should be going in. I need something more.’‘So why didn’t you return to Greece immediately?’‘I couldn’t. I was tom, Peter needed my help, as I did his, and then I’d lied to you about those men at the nightclub. You thought I’d bedded each and every one. I was so ashamed that you actually believed me, when I could force myself to think about it, that is,’ she said in a soft voice, remembering how bad she’d felt the next morning.Alexis reached for her hand. ‘That’s all in the past. You really don’t know what you gave me that first afternoon at the bakery.’‘I know what you gave me,’ she said with a grin.‘What?’‘Birds of paradise plastered to my behind!’He laughed so loudly that several hospital visitor
YOUR LOVE (ROMANTIC SERIES) RELUCTANT WIFE 31
What I can’t understand is that Petros won’t even discuss this with me. He knows that I know about this farce, and he won’t even acknowledge the fact,’ commented Carrie as they took breakfast on the terrace.Carrie looked cautiously at Alexis. Over the past ten weeks they had hardly spoken of what they had secretly entered into in London. Their child had grown inside of her, their relationship a steady progressive wonder. But always she was waiting for the bubble of happiness to burst.‘Maybe he’s waiting imtil he’s had the operation. We know that he lied about that. He’s waiting for a heart transplant, not some kind of bypass. If it’s any consolation he lied to me too,’ he returned unsmilingly. He picked up the coffee pot, poured two cups then asked, ‘And what, might I ask, are you doing today?’‘Jonathan has asked me to help with the new donkey. It needs to swim in the sea to strengthen its muscles. Jonathan, Andreas and myself are going to take him out in the boat and swim him back
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‘Yes. I’ve made progress. I’ve foimd out that your friend Marsha is definitely involved. She has been all along: she got into drugs when she was modelling. Not in a big way then, but she knew all the contacts. She knew a few of the high society pimps, they’re all in it too. We’re arresting most of them as soon as we have this side of the operation in the bag. I’m gonna need all your help here, Alexis.’He nodded. ‘It’s yours. I just need to make sure that Carrie is safe.’They got in the Mercedes. ‘Don’t worry, Alexis. I’ve got my best man looking after her this very minute. You know Tate. I put you onto him. He’s my man.’Alexis stared. ‘You mean that son of a bitch who bedded my sister whilst he was working for me? The same one is looking after Carrie?’ He shook his head. ‘Oh no. That is simply not on. I want Carrie at the bakery with me.’‘It could be dangerous, Alexis. This is a very dangerous matter,’ James soothed, ‘And what do you mean Tate bedded your sister? He was on duty.’
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Now was not the right time. He needed time to really talk to her, really sit down at length and make her imderstand. Their future needed sorting out. He didn’t want to keep her within a marriage that was bound to fail. He loved her too much for that. He smiled as he opened the back door; now he knew whatlove was. He knew he’d been in love with idea of loving Carrie for years, but reality was far different from his daydreams, and in truth, he’d been scared when she’d accepted that stupid deal of Petros’s. So why had he gone along with it?Love didn’t mean getting together because of a child, it meant sharing life with someone you wanted to be with, someone who cared, someone who felt the same about the fundamental things. Tonight she’d been so near and yet so far. He’d wanted to hug her to him, but he wasn’t sure she felt the same. Could he salvage the love she had for him? He wasn’t sure, and he hated this vulnerable feeling.If she loved him would she forgive him?He heard a cough f
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