Читать книгу The Holiday Escapes Collection - Сандра Мартон - Страница 51

‘YOU should see the hordes of people coming in,’ Diane said three weeks later. ‘This is going down as one of the highlights of the museum’s year.’

Charlotte wondered what her colleague would say if she told her it had been one of the worst periods of her life. She had gone from highs to lows within the space of seconds each day as she had juggled work and her tricky relationship with Damon. Her only consolation had been Emily’s rapid acceptance of her father. Her little face had beamed from ear to ear each day as he had taken her out to entertain her. Charlotte had had to bite her tongue to stop herself from commenting on the expensive toys he had bought, for she realised he was doing his best to make up for lost time.

Stacey had left a message on her mobile saying she was finally getting help but Charlotte found it hard to feel confident that she would in fact do so. She had heard nothing from her since, even though she had left countless messages on her answering service.

The flat had been cleaned out and Charlotte’s and Emily’s things transferred to the hotel but she still didn’t feel as if she belonged there.

Damon was polite to her but he seemed intent on avoiding her at every opportunity. He would insist on putting Emily to bed each night but he would go out afterwards and it would be the early hours of the morning before Charlotte would hear him return to his makeshift bed on the sofa. She had put her pride aside one night and suggested he share the bed with her, but he had declined the offer with what she could only describe as cold disdain.

‘You must be excited about your wedding this weekend,’ Diane said. ‘Everyone’s talking about it.’

‘It’s to be a very quiet affair.’

‘It’s so romantic—Damon Latousakis being Emily’s father and all. Mind you, I knew it from the moment I saw him.’

Charlotte gave her a weak smile without responding.

‘This trip to Greece is just what you need,’ Diane continued. ‘You look like you need a holiday. This has been a huge workload for you, but Julian is well on the mend and champing at the bit to get back. By the time you return he’ll be back on board.’

‘I’m only going to be away for two weeks.’

‘You should be taking longer; after all, this is your honeymoon. You won’t even have to work any more if you don’t want to. Why not lie back and enjoy it?’

Why not, indeed? Charlotte thought. The only trouble was her husband couldn’t bear to be in the same room as her.

For some reason Charlotte couldn’t quite fathom, Damon had insisted on a church wedding. The ceremony, though brief, was traditional and Emily proudly attended them as a flower girl, her little floral basket adorned with ribbons swinging from her hands as she walked up the aisle with a solemn look on her tiny face.

Damon winked at her and her little face instantly split into a broad smile and Charlotte felt her heart begin to crack. He had done so much in such a short time to build a bridge with his daughter. They had the sort of relationship she had never had with her own father—loving, playful and totally accepting.

The only slight hitch in the proceedings was the kiss during the ceremony. Charlotte told herself it was more or less a formal procedure that the congregation expected, but it didn’t stop her lips from clinging to Damon’s with escalating need.

He was the first to move away, which hurt her, but she disguised it behind a forced smile as they moved to sign the register.

Emily was bouncing up and down with excitement as the reception drew to a close. ‘Are we going on the aeropwane yet?’

‘Soon, darling,’ Charlotte said as she gathered her close to her side. ‘One more sleep.’

‘I’m going to meet my granny, aren’t I? Daddy told me.’

‘Yes, you are, precious.’

‘Can I take all of my toys to show her?’

‘Only your very special ones,’ she said.

‘She can take whatever she wants,’ Damon said, putting his hand on Emily’s silky head in a proprietary manner.

Charlotte’s blue gaze tussled with his coal-black one before she finally gave in. ‘I’m sure Daddy will help you pack everything you need.’

‘Are you mad at Daddy?’ Emily asked as her thumb slid towards her mouth.

‘No, of course not,’ she lied, shooting Damon a blistering glare over the top of Emily’s head.

‘I don’t want you to be mad at Daddy. I love him.’

Charlotte felt her throat tighten and bent down to her daughter’s level. ‘I know you do, darling, and I…I…I er…love him too. I’ve just had a lot to deal with lately with the wedding and the exhibition and all.’

‘Do you weally love him?’ Emily looked at her entreatingly.

Charlotte pasted a bright smile on her face. ‘How could I not love the father of my little girl?’

Damon took his daughter’s hand. ‘Come on, little one. We have to say goodbye to some guests.’

Charlotte let out her breath once they had gone and turned to face another guest who wanted to congratulate her. She comforted herself with the thought that Damon thought her a consummate liar. How would he know she was this time actually telling the truth?

Once Emily had settled for the night Damon came out to the main suite where Charlotte was flicking idly through a magazine. She was aware of him standing there watching her but kept her head down, pretending an absorption in an article on home improvement hints.

‘I would like to speak to you,’ he said.

She turned over to another page without looking up. ‘What about?’

He closed the distance between them and removed the magazine from her hands.

‘Hey, I was reading that!’ She scowled at him.

He tossed the magazine to the floor, his dark features etched with anger. ‘You are so determined to ignore me but I will not tolerate it, Charlotte.’

‘You’ve ignored me for the past three weeks,’ she threw back resentfully. ‘You’ve barely addressed a single word to me unless Emily’s been present. Then of course you’re all sweetness and charm. What a hypocrite.’

‘You are just as guilty of pretending something you do not feel. Emily is going to be confused by your mixed messages if you do not control your propensity to insult me at every opportunity. She is an intelligent and highly sensitive child, who is already picking up on the antagonistic atmosphere between us. She shows signs of deep insecurity. I have noticed when you and I are together she sucks her thumb much more than when she is alone with me.’

‘So what are you suggesting?’ Her eyes challenged his. ‘That we kiss and make up?’

‘That would be a very good start.’

She sprang off the sofa in agitation. ‘You can go to hell.’

He caught her by the arm and turned her around to face him. ‘We are husband and wife now, Charlotte. We are travelling to Santorini tomorrow, where it will be expected we will share a bed. I do not want anyone, particularly my mother, to think there is anything amiss in our relationship.’

‘You mean you haven’t told her the truth?’

‘No, of course not,’ he said, dropping his hand from her arm. ‘I wanted her to enjoy her first grandchild without worrying there may be no others for her to look forward to in the not so distant future.’

She stared at him in shock, her stomach turning over itself. ‘You want another child?’ She swallowed deeply. ‘With me?’

‘You find the notion unsettling?’

‘I find the notion outrageous!’

His jaw tensed and a hardened look came into his dark eyes. ‘I do not see the problem. We already have one child. It is only natural to want to add to our family a little brother or sister for Emily to grow up with.’

‘Our family, as you call it, is a sham! You’re making me out to be some sort of breeding machine. How can you possibly think of bringing another child into this mess?’

‘It will only be a mess if you do not agree to cooperate in an adult and mature fashion.’

‘I fail to see what is adult and mature about your behaviour,’ she said. ‘You’ve held me to ransom from the word go.’

‘I do have some regrets over the way I handled our relationship,’ he confessed with a small frown disturbing his forehead. ‘I should not have treated you the way I did that first night.’

‘Oh, wow, is that an apology I hear?’ she scoffed. ‘Does “some regrets” mean you’re actually admitting to having made a mistake? How on earth will you cope with having put a black mark on your pristine copybook?’

‘Actually it is an apology of sorts,’ he said, meeting her eyes once more. ‘I had underestimated your commitment to your sister. Your devotion to her is remarkable considering what she has put you through. It shows you have a forgiving side to your nature.’

‘Unlike you,’ she couldn’t resist throwing back at him.

‘No, perhaps you are right,’ he said with another regretful frown. ‘I do find it hard to let go of resentment. I tend to brood on things, which has a tendency over time to blow everything out of proportion.’

Charlotte had to fight the urge to be mollified by his grudging confession. She wanted to be angry with him. She needed to be angry with him to keep herself safe from further hurt.

‘I want this to work, not just for Emily, but for us,’ he said into the taut silence. ‘She is a beautiful little girl. I cannot tell you what it means to me to have her in my life. I do not know how to thank you for choosing to go ahead with the pregnancy. So many young women, given the circumstances, would not have done so.’

Charlotte had to clamp her bottom lip between her teeth to hold back her emotion. She had agonised over what to do in those first few weeks, especially when her mother had become so desperately ill and her sister so obviously in need of her support. But she had not been able to bring herself to rid herself of the one thing that still connected her to Damon.

‘I loved her from the moment I knew I was carrying her…’

Damon stepped forward and brushed a gentle hand across her cheek, the gesture so poignant and unexpected she had trouble keeping the moisture from spilling from her eyes as she raised them to his.

‘I love her too,’ he said, his voice unmistakably husky. ‘I would do anything for her.’

She gave him a twisted look. ‘You’ve certainly demonstrated that by marrying me—the woman you hate more than any other.’

He held her gaze for interminable seconds, his dark, unfathomable eyes boring into hers until she was sure he was seeing her soul laid bare.

‘Perhaps in time we will not be so fervent in our distrust of each other,’ he remarked. ‘After all, we desire one another, so there is hope that somewhere amongst all the ill feeling there is something that could be more lasting.’

Charlotte wanted to believe him but her only hope was for her name to be cleared. How could he ever develop the feelings he’d had for her before while he still believed her guilty of betraying him in such a despicable way?

Damon brushed a strand of her hair away from her mouth, the touch of his fingers sending a wave of deep longing through her.

‘Come to bed, agape mou,’ he said gently. ‘This is the first night of our new life together. We should start it as we mean to go on.’

She moistened her dry lips, her stomach giving a little kick of excitement deep inside. ‘Y-you mean…sleep together?’

His eyes darkened as he outlined the curve of her mouth with his fingertip. ‘Is that not what husbands and wives do?’

‘Yes…but…’

He moved closer, half a step, but it was enough to bring his body into intimate contact with hers. She felt the heat emanating off him, scorching her from the waist down as his desire for her became apparent. She could feel his swollen thickness pressing against her, making her heart begin to race at the thought of feeling him moving inside her.

His mouth descended as she tipped hers upwards, somehow meeting in the middle with an explosion of feeling. His tongue drove through the shield of her lips in search of hers, calling it into a tantalising dance that mimicked the stroke and sensual glide of his physical possession. Her body strained to get closer, her breasts swelling with need as his hands moved over them to shape them possessively.

His kiss deepened with urgency, her lips crushed beneath his as his mouth fed hungrily off hers as if the past three weeks without touching her had driven him to the very limit of his control.

He lifted his mouth from hers as he backed her towards the bed, his eyes glazed with passion. ‘It is always this way with you,’ he said, his tone rough and deep. ‘I only have to touch you and I want to drive myself into you and explode.’

His words fuelled her need of him to fever pitch. She clung to him, her mouth searching for his in desperation as he pressed her to the bed, his long legs entrapping hers. She fought with his clothes in her quest to find his naked skin, her mouth anointing him with hot little kisses as soon as his shirt and trousers were dispensed with.

Damon drew in a sharp-edged little breath as she moved her way down his body to taste him, her tongue a tormenting pleasure as it licked and stroked in turn. He dug his hands into the cloud of her tousled hair as she drew on him, the sucking motion of her mouth lifting every single hair on his scalp in exquisite delight.

He could stand it no longer and pushed her away, his hands taking control of hers by holding them above her head. She squirmed and writhed beneath him as he used his other hand to remove her top so he could caress her breasts, his mouth taking each one in turn until she was whimpering with pleasure.

‘Oh, please…’ she panted and grabbed at him impatiently as he took his time removing the rest of her clothes.

‘Be patient, agape mou,’ he growled playfully as he kissed his way past her cleavage to her belly button, lingering there a moment to insert the tip of his tongue into the tiny sensitive cave.

She felt him momentarily tense as he came to her Caesarian scar, his eyes coming back to hers with a question in their dark depths. ‘You had a difficult birth?’ he asked, his tone deep and huskier than normal.

‘Yes…I was in labour for twelve hours and Emily was getting distressed…I had to have an emergency Caesarian.’

A shadow of regret flicked in and out of his gaze. ‘Was anyone there with you to support you?’

Her breath caught in her throat as his fingers splayed over her belly where his child had lain for nine months. How she had longed for him to be have been present on that day. To encourage her to keep going, to mop her brow and hold her hand through every contraction as it marched back through her abdomen. Hearing that first mewing cry had been one of the happiest and yet loneliest moments of Charlotte’s life. She had held that sticky, wriggling little body to her chest and grieved that Damon had not been there to share in the joy and relief of Emily’s birth.

‘No…’ she said, unable to hold his gaze. ‘My mother had died three weeks earlier and Stacey…Well, I’m not sure to this day where she was…She’d promised to be with me, but…’

He tipped up her chin to bring her eyes back to his. ‘Charlotte…’ He seemed to be having trouble speaking, his throat was moving up and down but no further sound came out.

‘It’s all right,’ she said with a tight little smile. ‘I had a good midwife and the doctor was wonderful.’

His eyes moved back to her scar and his fingers traced over it gently. ‘Did it hurt?’ he asked.

‘Not as much as the thought of losing her,’ she said. ‘I would have gone through any pain to avoid that. I still would.’

His expression was thoughtful as he looked deep into her eyes, as if he was seeing her for the very first time.

‘You have done well to raise her alone,’ he said.

‘Thank you…’

He bent his head to reclaim her mouth, the passion rekindling in the first movement of his tongue against hers as his hand moved from her belly to the secret treasure below.

Charlotte let out a tiny gasp as his fingers separated her, her back arching as he stroked the tender nub of aroused flesh that pulsed and flickered with longing.

He lifted his mouth from hers and moved down her body, the intimate invasion of his lips and tongue sending her out of control. She sobbed with the sheer force of her response as it rocketed throughout her body like a thousand miniature earthquakes.

Her breathing was still nowhere near normal when he moved back over her, his weight stabilised by his arms as he entered her with a deep, gliding thrust, his low grunt of satisfaction sending a shivery feeling over her skin.

He drove harder and deeper, carrying her along with him on a fast ride to paradise, the tension building all over again as she matched his rhythm.

His skin was hot and damp on hers, his chest hair an erotic abrasion on the tender swell of her breasts. His strong legs were like a vice holding hers apart for the next deep surge and retreat of his body.

She could feel him approaching the ultimate moment, his breathing beginning to get harder and faster and his body tensing all over, as if poised on a precipitous edge. She lifted her hips slightly but it was enough to tip him over. He gave a deep shuddering groan and spilled himself, the pumping movements against her swollen femininity sending her into oblivion with him.

Charlotte let out a sigh of total relaxation as her body gradually floated back to earth, her eyelids feeling as if they were weighted with anvils as she snuggled into the warmth of his collapsed weight above hers.

‘Am I too heavy for you?’ he asked against the creamy softness of her neck.

‘No…’ She gave another little sigh and wrapped her arms around his waist. ‘No, you feel wonderful…’

It was a while before Damon realised she had fallen asleep. Her breathing was relaxed and even and her body totally pliant, all except for her arms.

They were holding him as if they never wanted to let him go…