Читать книгу Tall, Dark... Collection - Кэрол Мортимер, Carole Mortimer - Страница 26

‘YOUR parents are hiding something.’

Hebe gave Nick a frowning glance as he drove them back to London later that evening.

He was right, of course, though she was loath to admit it. Her parents were hiding something. Her mother’s accident with her cup and saucer after hearing Jacob Gardner’s name mentioned had to be indicative of something.

Hebe just had no idea what it was!

Her father had changed the subject once her parents had returned to the sitting room a few minutes later, going back to talking of the forthcoming wedding—a subject guaranteed to put Hebe herself on edge.

‘Of course they aren’t,’ she defended now, having already decided she would talk to her parents in private about this—probably when they came down to London. No concrete plans had been made on that suggestion, though, and wouldn’t be until they all knew the date and time of the wedding. ‘You’re just imagining things, Nick,’ she said airily, not wanting him to pursue this particular subject. ‘Now, tell me exactly what paperwork it is that your lawyers are working on?’ she added scathingly.

She hadn’t forgotten that remark, even if he had hoped she had!

‘It wouldn’t happen to be a pre-nuptial agreement, would it?’ she prompted angrily.

Nick raised dark brows. ‘Would you sign it if it were?’

‘Absolutely not!’ she snapped.

‘I didn’t think so,’ he mused.

‘They’re an insult to everyone involved,’ Hebe told him caustically.

‘Most of them aren’t worth the paper they’re written on, either,’ he drawled.

‘Oh, I have no doubt that any pre-nuptial agreement your lawyers prepared would be watertight!’ she replied with disgust.

‘Probably,’ Nick conceded dryly. ‘But that isn’t what they’re doing, and you wouldn’t sign it if they were. The paperwork they’re dealing with has to do with the fact that I’m an American getting married in England, so this conversation is rather pointless, wouldn’t you say?’

Completely, it seemed, and Hebe turned so Nick couldn’t see the embarrassment flooding her cheeks. But she felt happier knowing it was only the legal details of their marriage that Nick’s lawyers were dealing with, but now she had nothing to distract her thoughts from slipping back to her parents’ odd reaction earlier.

That conversation at her parents’ house hadn’t gone at all as she had expected. She had thought to get Jacob Gardner’s name from Nick, but not the response she had from her parents.

‘I guess that was probably the intention,’ Nick drawled knowingly.

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ she snapped resentfully. He was far too astute for comfort, this man she was marrying…

‘No?’He quirked dark, sceptical brows over questioning blue eyes. ‘Your parents obviously know of your involvement with Jacob Gardner, and they would rather I didn’t know about it too—is that what all the mystery is about?’

‘I have never been involved with a man called Jacob Gardner!’ she protested heatedly. ‘I had never even heard his name until you mentioned it!’

‘Oh, please, Hebe—your parents had,’ he said quietly. ‘So you must have told them!’

She’d realized her parents knew the name, but she had no idea how.

Neither did she understand how Nick had jumped to the conclusion that she had known Jacob Gardner in that way. A man who Nick himself said had been quite old when he died.

She shook her head. ‘I have no idea why you should think I was ever involved with him!’

‘It’s quite simple—logical, really, if you think about it.’ Nick shrugged, his expression grim. ‘Andrew Southern painted that portrait. A portrait that was in Jacob Gardner’s possession when he died. In the portrait you’re wearing an engagement ring. Emeralds and diamonds, as I recall,’ he added hardly. ‘Which is why you didn’t get emeralds and diamonds from me!’

Hebe had noticed the ring, of course. She just hadn’t realised that Nick had…

‘I’m not asking you for emeralds and diamonds!’ she came back tartly.

‘Just as well,’ Nick rasped dismissively, knowing that the thought of Hebe wearing any man’s ring but his filled him with jealous fury. She was his, damn it. His!

But that ring on her finger in the portrait, the fact that Jacob Gardner had owned the portrait, and Hebe’s mother’s reaction to the man’s name—it was enough to convince him that what he had suspected all along was, in fact, true. Hebe had to have been engaged to Jacob Gardner when she’d had an affair with Andrew Southern!

And the thought of her involved with either man was enough to fill him with a blinding rage!

‘You were engaged to Jacob Gardner and you had an affair with Andrew Southern. Just admit it, and then get past it,’ he rasped furiously, his hands tight on the steering wheel.

‘Let me see if I’ve got this right?’ Hebe turned to him, frowning. ‘I was engaged to Jacob Gardner—an obviously wealthy man if he could commission an Andrew Southern portrait of me—and then when I met Andrew Southern I changed my allegiance to him—probably because I discovered he was the wealthier of the two men?’ she prompted. ‘And when my relationship with both men didn’t work out I obviously set out to entrap the owner of the Cavendish Galleries instead! Tell me if I’ve got any of that wrong, Nick?’ she prompted with impatient anger.

No, that sounded about right to him!

He was so angry he wanted to hate her, and yet all he could think about was making love to her instead.

‘Where are we going?’ Hebe prompted frowningly, as she realised they weren’t heading in the direction of her flat.

‘My apartment.’ Nick tersely confirmed her suspicions.

She swallowed hard, not liking his mood at all. It was too dark and dangerous for her to feel in the least comfortable with him in the privacy of his apartment. This conversation about Andrew Southern and Jacob Gardner had made him seem almost a stranger.

Which, she accepted resignedly, was precisely what he still was!

‘Why?’ she prompted softly.

Nick shot her a brief, sardonic sideways glance. ‘Maybe I just want to be alone with my fiancée for a while?’

Hebe drew in a ragged breath, knowing exactly what that meant; and Nick making love to her in anger was not something she wanted. ‘I don’t think so, Nick.’

‘Why the hell not?’ he bit out roughly.

‘You don’t need me to tell you that,’ she said quietly.

He inhaled and exhaled noisily before answering her. ‘I’m not going to hurt you, Hebe,’ he finally murmured, self-derisively.

Maybe not physically—after all, he had the baby’s welfare to think of!—but emotionally this man would rip her to shreds.

But he didn’t need to be in the privacy of his apartment to do that. He could do it with just a glance!

‘The opposite, in fact,’ he added huskily. ‘I’m going to make love to you until you cry out for mercy!’

Hebe knew he could do it too, and there was a melting warmth inside her just at the thought of making love with him again. ‘I would rather just go straight home, Nick,’ she told him determinedly.

His mouth thinned. ‘Am I not to get to spend any time alone with you today?’

‘We’re alone now,’ she pointed out ruefully. ‘We just don’t seem to be communicating too well!’

‘We communicate better when we’re in bed together, I agree!’ he rasped.

Which was exactly where Nick wanted to be right now—in bed with Hebe, breathing in her perfume, touching her, caressing her, feeling her response to him as he buried himself deep in the engulfing warmth of her body.

He ached with wanting her!

In fact, he couldn’t ever remember wanting any woman as much as he wanted Hebe. All the time. Able to think of nothing but her when they were apart. Just wanting to kiss and caress her when they were together.

It was like a heated madness, one from which he could find no respite even in sleep. Lying awake most of the previous night as he thought only of the time when he would be with Hebe again.

He had fallen in love with her, he had finally admitted that to himself some time around dawn this morning.

Fallen in love with a woman whose motives he still couldn’t trust.

Madness.

But it was a madness that he knew he could do nothing about. He loved Hebe. And even if she hadn’t been expecting his baby he knew that he would still have had to make her his own—that he couldn’t bear the thought of any other man near her, let alone sharing the intimacies that they had together.

Although he was still unsure why, even though Hebe might have wanted to confirm that Jacob Gardner had still owned the portrait when he died, she had done so in front of her parents.

Despite the explanation he had just given for the other men being in Hebe’s life, and the fact that she must have talked to her parents about Jacob Gardner, at least in the past, it just didn’t add up for her to involve her parents in that way…

Oh, to hell with it! He was giving himself a headache just thinking about it. Obviously Hebe had been involved with both men, and that was an end to it.

‘Hebe…?’ he prompted tersely at her continued silence.

‘What do you want me to say?’ she came back wearily, her head resting back on her seat.

‘I don’t want—’ He broke off, drawing in a deep, controlling breath. ‘Oh, just forget it. I’m not going to beg!’ he assured her hardly; he would rather take another cold shower followed by a restless night than do that!

Hebe eyed him frowningly. She didn’t understand him at all. How could he still want to make love to her when he believed she had been involved with one man who had been old enough to be her father and another surely old enough to be her grandfather?

But he obviously did. And he just thought she was being difficult by refusing.

She didn’t want Nick making love to her when he was angry, as if to prove a point of ownership. Even in her inexperience, she knew that wasn’t how two people making love should be.

She sighed. ‘We’ll be married soon, Nick. Can’t you wait until then?’

His jaw clenched tensely. ‘Why the hell should I?’

She gasped. ‘I’m not just an object for you to pick up and put down when you please, Nick!’

His jaw clenched grimly. ‘I have never used you as an object, damn it!’

‘That’s exactly what you’re proposing to do now,’ she came back heatedly.

His eyes glittered dangerously as he gave her a brief scathing glance. ‘I wouldn’t touch you now if you begged me to!’ he snapped.

‘And that isn’t going to happen,’ she assured him, just as angrily. If Nick’s plans worked out—which she was sure they would—the two of them would be married in a few weeks, and then she would be sharing Nick’s bed on a permanent basis.

Oh, God…!

‘This way,’ Nick instructed her abruptly the following evening, as Hebe began to take her things through to his bedroom. Instead, he lead her into the bedroom next to his, also overlooking the river, and put her suitcase down on the bed before turning to look at her.

If anything, she looked in worse shape than he did!

Which was precisely why, on the journey from her apartment, he had actually decided to put her in the bedroom adjoining his, rather than sharing a bedroom with him.

It had been a tough few days for both of them, he had acknowledged last night, after dropping Hebe off at her apartment and returning home alone, to call his parents and then his younger sister to tell them about the wedding. Natalie had been absolutely agog at the speed with which he was contemplating remarrying.

Explaining about the baby—something that had made his mother cry with happiness and his sister exclaim with joy—had helped, of course, but their curiosity about his future bride, the questions he hadn’t been able to answer about Hebe, had made him realise that he and Hebe really did need to take a little time, a step back, in order to get to know each other better before they were married.

Out of bed, that was.

Hebe looked surprised at being put into the spare room.

‘After what you said yesterday, I decided it would be better for both of us if you had your own room until after the wedding,’ he explained quickly as he easily interpreted her questioning look.

Hebe wasn’t sure how she felt about it, she didn’t seem to be able to think straight at all today. She had slept badly after the strain of their parting last night, with Nick driving away as soon as she had stepped out of the car.

It had been no good telling herself it was what she wanted. Of course it was—but at the same time she longed for the closeness of making love with Nick, knowing they could reach each other on that level if no other.

To add to her misery, she was still totally bewildered as to what to do about her parents.

They had obviously recognised Jacob Gardner’s name when Nick had mentioned it, but she couldn’t imagine under what circumstances. The more she thought about it, the more puzzled she became.

She knew what conclusion Nick had come to, but as she knew that certainly wasn’t the correct one, she was left to try and work out for herself what it was. Not wanting to talk about an obviously sensitive subject in a telephone conversation with her parents, she would have to wait to talk to them when they came to London for the wedding.

But that hadn’t stopped her thinking. And wondering.

Jacob Gardner had lived in the north of England, and to her knowledge her parents had never lived anywhere but Cambridgeshire, their lives completely wrapped up in the university there.

Her parents had never, in the twenty-six years Hebe had been alive, mentioned knowing or befriending a man called Jacob Gardner.

Yet their reaction was undeniable. They had heard the man’s name before, if nothing else.

How?

And if they had known him why hadn’t they exclaimed over the coincidence, rather than behaving as they had, with her mother dropping her cup and saucer, and her father going very quiet?

Round and round her thoughts had gone the night before. And her highly-charged feelings about Nick hadn’t helped her relax, either.

Their relationship, precarious at the best of times, looked like standing even less chance of survival if he was going to continue believing she had been intimately involved with two wealthy men she had actually never even met.

‘It’s lovely—thank you,’ she said now, forcing her attention back to her new home.

And it really was a beautiful bedroom, dominated by yet another four-poster bed, with red and gold coverings and drapes. The furniture looked like Louis IV—very ornate, and very different from the more austere furnishings in Nick’s adjoining room.

Had this once been Sally’s room?

She wasn’t sure she could bear it if it had—

‘I didn’t buy and open the London gallery until two years ago, Hebe,’Nick drawled, in answer to her unasked question, his gaze quizzically mocking as she gave him a sharp look. ‘I’m sure you remember the bathroom from your previous—visits,’ he added derisively, as he opened the door that went through to the bathroom, separating the two bedrooms.

Of course she remembered the bathroom. She had showered in it the morning after their first night together. And she had been ill in it six weeks later.

It was a room almost as large as the bedrooms, with a huge glass-doored shower in one corner, a large mirrored vanity and two sinks along the back wall, whilst the other wall was taken up by the hugest cream-coloured bath she had ever seen—Jacuzzi bath that looked as if it could seat four comfortably and six rather more—intimately.

‘Go ahead and take a bath if you want to,’ Nick invited nonchalantly, as he obviously saw her gaze on it and misunderstood the reason for it. ‘I have some papers I need to read anyway.’

Consider yourself dismissed, Hebe, she thought with contempt, when she found herself alone in the bathroom a few seconds later.

But it wasn’t such a bad idea. She hadn’t slept well, and Nick seemed more remote today than he had ever been. She’d also had an emotional parting from Gina an hour or so ago, the two of them having shared the flat for almost a year now, and a nice warm bath would certainly help her to relax.

Wow, she thought admiringly a few minutes later, as she let herself down into the scented, bubbled water, her head resting back against one of the soft waterproof pillows along the edge. Luxury indeed after the cramped bathroom she had shared with Gina. She would fall asleep in here if she wasn’t careful!

Hebe looked asleep to Nick as he quietly opened the bathroom door almost an hour later. He hoped she wouldn’t think he was intruding on her privacy, but he had been genuinely worried that she had been gone so long—although he had to admit that the thought of Hebe lying naked in the bath had been a constant distraction from his papers…

He might be denied her bed, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t kiss her, did it?

Hebe felt the nuzzle of lips against her throat first, tensing in surprise, and then relaxing again as she felt the caress of Nick’s hands as they travelled down the slope of her breasts to cup and hold them. She felt the instant melting of her body as she looked down to watch the touch of his thumbtips against the pouting nipples.

There was something very erotic about watching those long, tanned, almost disembodied hands as they gently stroked and kneaded her breasts, the fingers first flicking against her sensitised nipples and then squeezing gently, those dual sensations sending a warm melting between her thighs. Her legs parted instinctively, the rhythmic movement of Nick’s hands and the added warmth of the water against her sensitivity almost sending her over the edge.

What was Nick doing to her?

One of his hands left her breast to move down the slope of her stomach to the vee between her thighs, unerringly finding the aching nub, caressing her lightly there, all the time with his other hand paying homage to her breast.

Hebe’s neck arched and her head fell back as she felt the excitement building inside her, her eyes wide as she found herself looking up into Nick’s desire-flushed face.

‘Ask me, Hebe,’ he prompted fiercely. ‘Ask me to keep touching you. Ask me, damn it!’ he groaned throatily.

At that moment, Hebe knew she would have begged if Nick had asked her to, so desperately did she feel the need for the touch of his hands and the release only he could give her.

‘Please, Nick!’ she murmured urgently. ‘Please!’

His head swooped down and his lips captured hers fiercely and possessively. He was seemingly pushed beyond the limit of his control. He raised his head to look down at her again, holding her gaze with his as his head moved lower. Hebe’s back arched, allowing full access for his lips to capture the breast his hand had forsaken to move between her thighs, and his caress there increase its rhythm as pleasure seemed to rip through every particle of her body.

Hebe collapsed back limply against the side of the bath, satiated beyond belief, beyond possibility.

Nick continued to lick and gently suck the rosy nipple between his lips, enjoying Hebe too much to stop yet, wanting to take her over that edge again and again, until he knew she was utterly, completely his.

She reached her second climax quickly, her whole body shaking with the intensity of her release.

‘No more, Nick,’ she gasped weakly. ‘I can’t. Not again!’

‘Oh, yes,’ he murmured gruffly, sliding into the bath fully clothed. ‘You can…!’

And she could, Hebe found, seeing, feeling and knowing nothing but Nick as he took possession of her mouth, his tongue seeking and finding hers, all the time his hands caressing the swell of her breasts and the nipples that were hard and sensitive to the touch.

‘I want you, Nick,’ she finally gasped, when his mouth released hers to travel down to her breast and draw the tip once more inside, his tongue licking slowly across it. ‘I want you inside me. Now!’ she murmured achingly, as the pleasure became unbearable, her hips moving rhythmically against his caressing hand.

It was too late. The power of her release this time completely robbed her of breath, a sob of ecstasy catching in her throat.

‘I need you inside me, Nick,’ she urged, when she finally found breath again to speak. ‘Please!’ The heated ache inside her cried out for his full possession.

God, she looked wonderful like this, Nick acknowledged heatedly as he stood up with her in his arms and carried her through to the bedroom. He just wanted to make love to her all day long. All week long! Damn it, he never wanted to stop!

But Hebe had her own ideas about that, he quickly learnt. She was kneeling up on the bed to slowly divest him of his wet clothes, her lips leaving a trail of fire over his chilled skin as she slipped the wet shirt from his shoulders, kissing across his shoulders and down his chest, looking up at him with smouldering gold-coloured eyes as she ran her tongue across his own hardened nipple before moving lower to dip erotically into his navel.

God…!

Nick had never experienced anything like this before. The throb of his thighs was becoming unbearable as he strained against the wet denim.

Wet denim that Hebe peeled quickly from his body, releasing him, her hands caressing him lightly there, like butterfly wings, as she kissed the inside of his thighs, her mouth hot and moist. A groan low in Nick’s throat escaped as he ached for those lips about him.

‘What do you want, Nick?’ Hebe prompted huskily as she continued to kiss him, her tongue trailing the length of him now, driving him quietly, madly insane. ‘Tell me what you want?’

‘For God’s sake…’ he gasped achingly.

‘Tell me, Nick,’ she urged softly.

‘Take me, Hebe,’ he groaned. ‘For God’s sake—ah…!’ Barely had her lips touched him when he realised he had almost reached the point of his own release, knew he was going over the edge, too aroused to stop himself. ‘What—?’ he cried, as she released him to move above and over him.

Hebe moved slowly, holding Nick’s heated gaze as she gradually took the pulsing length of him inside her, breasts thrust forward for his mouth to reach as she began to move above him. His lips found and took one rosy nipple deep inside his mouth as he moved in the same rhythm beneath her.

They reached their climax together, hot, pulsing and explosive, looking into each other’s eyes as Hebe arched ecstatically above him before collapsing weakly on his chest.

Amazing.

Incredible.

Unbelievable.

Making love with Nick had to be the most erotic experience of her life!

Nick’s arms were wrapped around Hebe, and the silver-gold of her hair draped across his chest as he held her against him, their breathing steadying, the fierce beat of his heart slowly returning to normal.

But deep inside him Nick knew his life would never be normal again.

He had been married for five years, had known women before and since his marriage, but never before had he ever been with anyone like Hebe.

She was magnificent.

An enchantress.

He had thought to possess and bind her to him with the force of their lovemaking, and instead he found himself possessed and bound to Hebe.

For ever.

His arms tightened about her as he dismissed, expelled, any thought that he might ever lose her. That would never happen. He wanted Hebe. And no matter what her reasons for marrying him, he vowed she would stay with him always.

He could no longer contemplate a life without her!

‘So much for waiting until after we’re married,’ she murmured self-derisively.

‘You said you wanted me. And I can’t keep my hands off you,’ he admitted gruffly. ‘Not that I tried too hard,’ he acknowledged. ‘Hebe—Damn!’ he muttered impatiently as the telephone on the bedside table began to ring.

Hebe raised her head to look at him, deeply resentful of this interruption to their closeness. ‘Leave it, Nick,’ she encouraged throatily.

The longer they stayed here, in their own world, without outside influences, the more she hoped that they would come to know and understand each other. They had to if their marriage was to stand any chance at all.

And physically, she knew, they were perfectly attuned. It was a start.

The telephone kept ringing, and by the tenth ring Hebe could see that Nick was becoming restless.

She moved off his chest, smiling slightly. ‘Go ahead and answer it,’ She nodded. ‘It must be something important to keep ringing like that.’

His expression darkened. ‘If it isn’t, I’m going to wring someone’s neck!’

‘As long as it isn’t mine,’ she teased.

He kissed her lingeringly on the lips to dispel that idea, before turning to pick up the receiver. ‘Yes? What—?’ He sat up in bed, his expression suddenly strained. ‘Could you just hold on a minute?’ he asked the caller gruffly, even as he swung his legs off the bed. ‘I’ll put the call on hold and take it in the other room,’ he told Hebe abruptly.

Hebe watched him go with languid eyes, admiring the hard nakedness of his body as he strolled across the bedroom, feeling too lazy, too satiated to move.

When Nick came back they would talk. Or rather she would talk and Nick would listen. And this time he would believe her. He had to!

When Nick came back…

Ten minutes later he still hadn’t returned to the bedroom, and the bedcovers were feeling slightly damp and uncomfortable beneath Hebe. She smiled as she realised they had been so desperate for each other that they had lain on the bed together still dripping wet from the bath.

Hebe smiled again dreamily as she got up to go in search of dry bedsheets. There had to be some in the apartment somewhere. And if they were to sleep in that bed tonight the covers would have to be changed first. It—

‘That’s wonderful, Sally,’ she heard Nick murmur huskily in the sitting-room, and came to an abrupt halt as she realised the call had to be from his ex-wife.

A call Nick had deliberately chosen not to take in front of Hebe…

But why would his ex-wife, a woman he had been divorced from for two years, be calling him?

‘Yes, of course I’ll come and see you when I get back to New York.’ Nick spoke gruffly. ‘I agree, it’s been too long. It’s past time we put the past behind us and talked. I’m so glad to give it another try. And, Sally…’ Nick paused slightly. ‘I can’t tell you how pleased I am that you called me like this,’ he added warmly.

Hebe beat a hasty retreat—not back to Nick’s bedroom, but to her own, tears blurring her vision as she shut the door firmly behind her.

So much for their lovemaking…!

From the brief part of the conversation Hebe had overheard, Sally obviously wanted the two of them to meet and talk about a reconciliation. At least! And it was a sentiment Nick obviously echoed.

What did that make of their own impending marriage?

And the baby she carried?