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THE WRETCHED WEDDING was here. In the thrill of being with Sergio she had forgotten about it, even though her mother and her sister had made sure to remind her at frequent intervals, had quizzed her as to whether she had bought a dress.

Susie wondered whether they expected her to show up in an artist’s smock with a paintbrush stuck behind her ear. Or maybe wearing a pair of jeans and a tee shirt and trainers, because she always left the ‘looking smart’ stuff to Alex, who did it so much better. Alex was tall, leggy, brunette, sophisticated. Clothes just always seemed to hang better on her.

Being five foot four, prone to looking round, with wild blonde hair that strenuously resisted the call of straighteners was always going to be a challenge to smart outfits.

But she had bought a dress and now, sitting cross-legged on her bed, she stared at it without really seeing it at all.

Of course Sergio wouldn’t be going with her. Even though they had now been seeing one another for nearly two months—two blissful, sexy, passionate months.

She felt a lump in her throat and tears begin to gather at the back of her eyes, because soon it was all going to have to draw to a painful close. Painful for her, at any rate.

She had only gone and disobeyed his orders not to get involved, not to see what they had as anything more than what it was—fantastic sex. It was the lynchpin of their relationship. They couldn’t keep their hands off one another. He had confessed that he was surprised, because he had expected it to fizzle out after a couple of weeks, and she had taken that to mean that however good the sex was she really didn’t have what it took to hold his interest.

Not the way he held hers. The way that made her want more…the way that made her think of commitment and permanence…the way that made her crave a future and plans that went further than what they were going to do the following evening.

She wouldn’t be seeing him tonight because he was in New York, clinching a big deal. He had been gone two days and he would be gone two more, conveniently over the wedding weekend, so she hadn’t even had to skirt round the issue.

Not that he would have volunteered to come anyway. She had grudgingly confessed that the reason she had been so idiotically tempted into online dating had been to see whether the love of her life might have materialised out there, so that she could show him off at her cousin’s wedding and kill all those muted whispers about when she was going to find herself a decent guy.

He had grinned and told her that he had never heard such a crazy reason for dating losers who went online to see what they could catch.

She lay down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, considering her options.

Next to her was the little stick with the bright blue lines announcing that her life as she knew it was over.

Pregnant!

He had been beyond careful every single time they had made love except for that very first time, when he had moved inside her and then withdrawn almost immediately—but not fast enough, because he had left behind enough of himself to create the little tiny life that was beating away inside her now.

He was going to go mad.

He was going to run faster than a speeding bullet.

Oh, yes, he would do the decent thing by her financially, but he didn’t do long-term relationships.

She was facing a sea change and there would be no one by her side. Her parents were going to be disappointed. Her mother would shake her head and try to find a silver lining somewhere. Her father would make noises about her moving back home to live with them—although they spent most of their time out of the country anyway, so it wasn’t as though they would be around for babysitting duties. She and Alex had had nannies from birth, so it was unlikely that a surprise grandchild would suddenly convert her parents into the sort of people who would enjoy pushing a pram in the park and feeding the ducks.

And Alex would be disappointed as well. How could you have been so careless? Contraception is free, Susie! So that this sort of thing can be prevented! She could almost hear her sister’s voice ringing in her ears.

Disappointment all round.

A wave of self-pity washed over her. Just when she was beginning to build up a steady base with her freelance work, just when she was on the verge of getting a commission from one of the museums to illustrate the natural history section for a book to be brought out the following year…

Her cell phone buzzed and she glanced at Sergio’s number and debated whether she should just let it ring. He had called her at least twice a day since he had been in New York.

‘Hi.’

She couldn’t resist hearing the deep drawl of his sexy voice. Even from across the Atlantic it still managed to do weird and wonderful things to her tummy.

But she knew that she sounded flat, and she decided that she didn’t care because soon there would be no more of him anyway.

She wasn’t quite sure when she would break the news. No rush. She had to take time out to get her head round it herself before she started trying to cope with his horror.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Nothing.’ She tried to inject her usual ready laugh into her voice, but it petered out into a sigh and she lacked the energy to take it up a notch.

Instead, she asked him what he was doing, how his deal was going, whether he had sorted it out. They never talked about his work. She knew he did high-powered stuff involving complicated finance and tricky acquisitions. And she now had a better idea of just how much he owned. Enormous amounts of money. Companies all over the place—from restaurants to a publishing house.

However, she just didn’t have it in her to get detailed when it came to showing her interest—which, she guessed, was just one of those chasms between them. His future would include a woman who understood the ins and outs of what he did and could fully follow if he chose to discuss the details.

Thinking about that brought her right back to a future he certainly wouldn’t want—and that would be one with a child he hadn’t banked on and a woman he fundamentally didn’t see as having a lasting place in his life.

‘Huh?’ She surfaced to realise that he had asked her something.

‘Spit it out, Susie. What’s bugging you? You’ve just asked me about my deal, which is something you never do, and you haven’t said a word about what you’ve been doing. Where’s my sexy chatterbox disappeared to?’

Susie stiffened. Sexy. Chatterbox. That was what she represented to him, she thought with unusual bitterness. She was someone to get into bed with who talked a lot. She bored him with inane chatter about her work, her illustrations, conversations she’d had with random people during the course of the day, gossip she’d shared with her friends, all their escapades and little adventures. He always listened, but that wasn’t to say that he listened with interest, was it? He listened because it came as part of the package deal that included the sex he was always reminding her was the best he’d ever had.

‘You’re not angsting over that wedding, are you?’ Sergio drawled drily.

Should he tell her that he had decided to surprise her there with his presence? He really didn’t want her getting the wrong idea, and weddings were occasions when wrong ideas could easily start taking shape, but he wanted to fill in some missing pieces. He wasn’t into meeting the family members of the women he slept with, but for someone so open she was reticent when it came to family stories.

What was she hiding? He might not be in it for the long haul but he didn’t like secrets. Secrets made him uneasy. He liked knowing the layout of the land around him. He liked control, and if that meant meeting her relatives, then so be it. He wanted a complete picture. The picture might throw up all the suspicions he had had of her in the beginning again, and then it would be a shame but he would have to get rid of her.

And, on a more fundamental level, he was missing the feel of her responsive little body.

‘Er…yes, I guess so…’ Susie clung to this lifeline. ‘You know…there’ll be so many people there…relatives I haven’t seen for a million years…all that small talk…’

‘You’re good at small talk.’ He shook off the uncomfortable thought that he wanted to believe what she told him.

She gritted her teeth. ‘And I’m beginning to think that I should have got the blue dress instead of this brown one. Brown’s such a drab colour.’

So he thought she was only good for sex and small talk? Well, she might just as well live down to his expectations! She droned about the dress with suitable enthusiasm until she began boring herself.

‘You looked sexy as hell when you tried it on for me…’ Sergio murmured, thinking ahead to ripping it off her. Or maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe he would just push the flimsy fabric up and take her while she was still dressed to kill. Maybe he would insist that she left on the high stilettos…

He relaxed, comfortable with thoughts of the fantastic sex they would have. A quiet place somewhere…assuming there would be a quiet place…because he had no idea where the venue was.

He only knew that the wedding was being held in the country somewhere. Berkshire. Probably a town hall…or a village pub… He had the address, but it meant nothing to him because he rarely saw fit to venture outside London.

‘In fact…’ He dropped his voice a couple of levels, ‘I’ve been having some rather interesting fantasies involving that dress…’

Susie didn’t want to hear. She didn’t want to be reminded that she was just all about the sex and the small talk. She also didn’t want to feel the liquid she was now feeling pooling between her legs, making her want to touch herself right here, right now.

‘Shouldn’t you be focusing on your work…and…er…not having…fantasies about me in a drab brown dress…?’

‘You’re cute when you fish for compliments, Susie…’

‘I was doing no such thing!’

‘Of course you were. You want me to tell you that the dress isn’t brown…and it isn’t drab—at least not on you. You want me to tell you that those chiffon layers give just enough of a hint of what’s underneath to drive any sane man crazy with desire… You want me to tell you that if you were wearing that dress for me and me alone I’d insist you don’t wear a bra. But, considering you won’t be, then you’re under orders to wear your sturdiest, least attractive bra—because I don’t want any other man’s eyes lingering too long on your breasts…those breasts are for my eyes only…’

‘Stop…’ She hated the way he could make her blood run hot in her veins, the way he could make her blush and giggle and could drive every coherent thought from her head.

‘I wouldn’t stop,’ he murmured huskily, glancing down at his watch and realising that in under fifteen minutes someone would tap him on the shoulder and tell him that he was ready to board, ‘but I’ve got to run. And…’

‘Time is money. Yes. I know.’ It was what he always said, in that teasing voice of his, and it had become their private mantra—which was just one of the stupid little things that had lulled her into falling in love with him. One of the shared jokes which made their relationship feel so intimate to her but which really didn’t mean anything to him at all.

She remembered the pregnancy test stick, temporarily forgotten, which was on the bed next to her.

‘I’m not sure I can see you on Sunday evening when you get back,’ she said flatly. ‘Things aren’t going to end until quite late Saturday night…probably not until the early hours of Sunday morning…and I’m thinking I might just hang around for the rest of Sunday there…catch up with all those relatives I haven’t seen in such a long time…’

‘I thought catching up with the relatives you haven’t seen in a long time was one of the things bugging you about going in the first place…?’

‘There are quite a few I do actually want to see…so… Maybe next week we can…er…meet up…?’

Normally she would be hopping up and down at the thought of seeing him, not politely putting him off, but these weren’t normal times, were they? Normal times were at an end, and she had to start laying the foundations for her eventual withdrawal. She had to train herself to get used to not having him around—and widening the gaps between the times when they saw one another was step one on that road.

Her mind fogged over. Because there were now so many steps on this new road that she wasn’t sure where to put the first one.

‘No problem,’ Sergio said easily, thinking that she would be seeing him a whole lot sooner than she anticipated.

‘No problem?’

‘I’ll call you.’

‘Right. Yes. Call me.’

‘Really have to go now… I’ll see you when I see you…’

He disconnected. Susie stared at her mobile phone, heart thudding. He hadn’t expressed any disappointment at the thought that he wouldn’t be seeing her the weekend when he returned from New York.

Was he tiring of her? Had she reached her sell-by date? She had always known that it existed, but now that it was staring her in the face she felt sick, desperate with longing, panicked at the thought that he might be in the process of dumping her, and angry with herself for not being stronger when it was going to happen anyway—just as soon as she detonated her bomb under his carefully organised life.

She barely slept at all, woke the following morning far later than she had planned, and then spent the remainder of the morning rushing around, trying to do clever things with her hair, looking at the clock, and frantically wrapping the present she had bought in paper she had designed herself but unfortunately not in quite the right size, so that she had to camouflage the gap with ordinary brown paper and very wide ribbon.

In between all of this she kept stopping in front of the mirror, gazing at her still flat stomach and wondering what was going on inside.

The wedding ceremony kicked off at three, at the small church in the village where her aunt and uncle lived. It was the sort of picture-postcard-perfect place that only the super-rich could afford. No one would ever guess that it was a thriving commuter hub for many of those top businessmen who had to get into the City, where they could earn sufficient money to install their families in the rolling mansions and quaint cottages that dotted that part of Berkshire.

As a child, she and Alex had always enjoyed making the trip down to see Clarissa. Their own parents, Louise and Robert Sadler, had lived further north, and being close to London had seemed like a grand adventure whenever they had ventured south.

Clarissa and her husband-to-be, Thomas, at twenty-two and twenty-eight respectively, were good candidates for the Berkshire lifestyle. He was an up-and-coming barrister and she was destined to be the perfect stay-at-home wife.

On the way out of her flat Susie paused to look at her reflection in the mirror again and thought to herself that Clarissa might have beaten both she and Alex up the aisle, much to her mother’s dismay, but she would be the first to deliver a grandchild.

Even if, she thought with a grimace, the standing ovation might be a little muted.

She had planned on taking the train and then a taxi to the church, but on the spur of the moment she threw parsimony to the winds and decided on a taxi for the entire trip.

It meant dipping into the trust fund which she had always refused to touch, because it was there for when she decided to find somewhere to buy, but she honestly couldn’t face the hassle of the train station in her wedding outfit.

Not when her thoughts were all over the place. Not when she felt sick with tension at the unexpected future in front of her. Definitely not when she thought of Sergio and the way he had casually dismissed her.

Outside, it was the perfect day for an early spring wedding. The skies were blue and cloudless, and the air was crisp rather than cold. Coats were needed, but thin ones, and there was no mud anywhere for delicate high heels to subside into.

Clarissa would be thrilled to bits. She had always had an uncanny ability to make people and things in general fall in line with what she wanted, and lo and behold the weather was being obedient.

Susie grinned, relaxing as she was driven to the church and only tensing once more when she was deposited outside, to join the two-hundred-strong throng of people piled in front.

Immediately her parents descended, followed by her sister, and for the next two hours there was blessed reprieve from her thoughts.

With all the romance in her soul she was tearful during the ceremony, and proud as punch at the stunning picture her cousin made in her meringue of a wedding dress, befitting a girl who had spent the first eight years of her life believing that she was a fairy princess.

There were hundreds of photos outside the church, and then the bride and groom left for Clarissa’s parents’ house in a white Bentley. Everyone else made their way the five miles or so in assorted cars.

Susie, sandwiched between her mother and her sister, half listened to Alex telling them about her new promotion, which would see her in line to become the youngest ever neurosurgeon at one of the leading hospitals in London. When there was eventually a lull in the conversation she half-heartedly told them that she was finally beginning to see some light in trying to track down clients for her illustrations.

At least her mother had steered clear of talking about guys so far.

‘Susannah, darling, what’s happening on the man front with you? I thought you might have surprised us by bringing a nice young man with you to the wedding…’

‘Er…they’re thin on the ground, Mother…all getting snapped up by beauty queens like Clarissa…’

‘Darling, you look perfectly charming today…’

‘What about all the other days?’ Susie asked wryly.

Louise Sadler gave her a fond pat on the arm. ‘You could add to your wardrobe of jeans with some more feminine clothes…you look an absolute dream in dresses…’

‘A bad dream.’

Up ahead, the mansion that was Kate and Richard Princeton’s house rose splendidly into view.

‘The house looks nice. I like the lanterns lining the sides of the drive…’

‘It’s all a bit much, if you ask me, but you know my sister…she’s never been able to resist the lure of trying to impress everyone… Still, I suppose Clarissa is the first in the Thornton line to get married. Hopefully you’ll be next…’

‘Or Alex.’ She poked her sister in the ribs and Alex instantly chipped in that there was no time even to think about marriage—not when she was building a demanding career that ate up most of her leisure time.

Alex was just the sort of woman Sergio was drawn to. She, Susie, was the exception that proved the rule. Wasn’t that why she had never mentioned her high-achieving family? Because she didn’t want any comparisons? Because she wanted to keep living in a little bubble where she was appreciated in her own right? If he never met her family then he would never take a step back and wonder what the heck he was doing with her.

It was a mortifying thought, tapping into her own silly insecurities, and she fought against it, knowing that it wasn’t fair.

In the bigger scheme of things, silly insecurities were the least of her problems.

‘I myself am not a believer in marriage,’ she declared, to the astonishment of both her mother and her sister, and also her father, who craned back and looked at her with raised bushy eyebrows.

‘Since when?’ he demanded.

‘Since…er…living in London…’ she said airily. ‘I guess I finally see that it’s perfect for an independent woman to live her life without a guy in the background, nagging about when the dinner’s going to be put on the table while he watches the footie…’

‘You really do need to get rid of those young men you seem to like hanging around with…’ Louise Sadler gave a little moue of distaste.

‘And just for the record…’ this as her father’s driver was pulling into the courtyard, making a graceful turn before pulling to a stop and rushing round to open doors ‘…I think in this day and age it’s absolutely acceptable for a woman to bring a child up on her own! You could say I’m a changed person—forging ahead…pretty much a feminist… It took me a while to get there, but better late than never!’

She leapt out of the car and immediately immersed herself in the nearest group of guests hovering by the front door. But she was nervously perspiring, relieved that neither of her parents had had the chance to follow up on that remark.

No drinking. Just one measly glass of champagne. She wondered how on earth she would make it stretch until one in the morning.

She knew a huge amount of the invited guests. There were relatives from all corners of the globe. But she’d barely had a chance to chat to the bride and groom—just a few snatched words of congratulation.

The marquee, which dominated much of the enormous back garden, was a thing of splendour, with lots of white swirling drapes and chandeliers. The flower arrangements on the tables were so huge that they would struggle to get through her front door, and they would take up more space in her sitting room than…

Than a hundred assorted roses.

She and Sergio had transported most of them back to his place the morning after he had brought them for her, had laughed and then fallen into bed—and had kept falling into bed because they couldn’t not.

She felt a lump in her throat, and was on the verge of pinning a bright smile on her face to cover the moment of sadness when a voice behind her drawled, ‘Don’t burst into tears. It’ll look like sour grapes…’

Susie swung round, shocked to her very core, scarcely believing her eyes.

She’d been standing at the very edge of the garden, half concealed by dense shrubbery, nursing her single glass of champagne. He had crept up on her, unobserved, and for a few breathless seconds she was lost for words.

‘Surprised?’ Sergio asked softly.

If she was, then she couldn’t be more surprised than he was. He had had no reason to question his assumption that she came from humble origins. So she had a couple of expensive things in her flat…? Certainly not enough to make him think that she was anything but a girl venturing out in a fairly hazardous profession. He had assumed that whilst she might have moral support from her family, that was pretty much it on the support front.

In fact he had dared to question Stanley’s map-reading skills, only realising that he was, indeed, at the right place when the car drove up the lantern-lined drive.

And now here he was.

And there she was. Staring at him as though she expected him to disappear in a puff of smoke.

‘What are you doing here?’ Susie demanded.

He looked perfect. Every inch the drop-dead gorgeous, brooding alpha male who had stolen her heart.

‘I couldn’t resist the prospect of pulling you behind the bushes and having my wicked way. Something about that dress…’

‘You’re supposed to be wrapping up a deal in New York.’

‘I like breaking with the expected now and again. Where’s the radiant bride and the lucky groom? I have to say…this isn’t what I was anticipating…’

Susie flushed guiltily. She knew why she hadn’t breathed a word about her family—knew that if she had he would have seen her as just another little rich kid, all caught up in doing nothing much because she knew that she could be bailed out of her discomfort if she got bored or fed up. Why would someone like him want to go out with someone like that?

‘What did you anticipate?’

‘Why did you let me assume that you were penniless?’

‘I didn’t let you assume anything. Did you decide to come here so that you could check out my background?’

‘Comes with the terrain,’ he answered coolly. ‘We’ve been lovers for over two months. I like to know exactly what I’m getting into.’

‘And what if you’d found that you’d “got into” someone from a council house background? Or worse…a criminal background…? Would you have got out of it pronto?’

‘I don’t deal in hypothetical situations. At any rate, I never took you for someone from a long line of train robbers…’

That said it all, she thought.

Suddenly everything seemed very complicated. Her parents would adore him. He was just the kind of guy they’d been hoping she would bring home one day. But what was the point of introducing them to someone who wasn’t going to be around for very long? And when she broke the news to them that she was pregnant…

Susie blanched. They would immediately know the identity of the father. Did she want that? Would her parents make it their duty to confront him? They were very traditional.

She felt that she hadn’t thought anything through—but then how could she? She’d barely had time to digest the revelation herself.

‘You shouldn’t have come,’ she told him flatly.

Sergio looked at her through narrowed eyes. ‘Not the response I was expecting…’

‘This isn’t a normal relationship, Sergio. This is…sex—and meeting my family isn’t part of the deal…’ She had to say it because she needed to start distancing herself.

‘But I’m here now…’

‘Not because you wanted to come as my partner.’ She looked up at him steadily. ‘In a normal relationship we would have travelled here together. You would have wanted to meet my parents, wanted to take that next step into the future…a future of getting to know one another’s family and friends…’

‘Where has this come from?’

‘Does it matter? I’m just telling it like it is. You showed up here to do a background check on me… I suppose now that you’re here and my family has passed muster it’s all right for you to meet them?’

‘You’ve managed to blow all this out of proportion and I’m wondering why…’

Dark eyes that saw far too much rested on her flushed face and Susie did her best to get her breathing under control.

‘I’m a little stressed,’ she muttered, looking down. ‘It’s not every day the guy you’re going out with decides to check up on your family to make sure they’re not escaped convicts.’

‘That’s not the only reason I came.’

Sergio was willing to let this go. What they had was good—better than good. He didn’t want her to start getting ideas about his place in her life because she was at her cousin’s wedding. He didn’t need long, intense conversations about normal relationships, where boyfriends couldn’t wait to meet the family and have friends over for Sunday lunch.

‘Isn’t it? What, then?’

‘I missed you.’ He smiled slowly.

‘Why is it all about sex for you?’

She could read that smile as easily as she could read a book, and it still had the power to turn her legs to jelly even though her mind was doing its best to resist.

‘It’s not. Making money ranks highly as well. Ah. I spot curious eyes and a few people descending… Looks like you’re going to have to do a round of introductions whether you like it or not.’

So he’d wanted to show up unannounced…? He couldn’t see what the big deal was. When he had started this fling with her he had not expected it to last longer than a week or two. She didn’t fit his profile, and he was smart enough to work out that if the women who did fit his profile were done and dusted within a month or two then there was no chance that her novelty value would outlast a night in the sack, maybe two.

But she was still around, and he wasn’t sick of her yet… And, that being the case, it had made sense to see her in her own surroundings—the surroundings she had always made sure to keep quiet about. He had wanted to know exactly what he was dealing with instead of taking her at face value. That was just the man he was. Where was the problem?

She was still looking at him with wounded, accusing, angry eyes.

‘You know where I’m coming from,’ he said flatly. ‘I don’t need you getting weepy and hysterical. I came here to make sure you weren’t playing some kind of long game. But, like I said, that wasn’t the only reason. And now that I’m here there will be questions asked if you’re sour and defiant about introducing your boyfriend to your family. So relax, Susie.’

She’d forgotten just how inherently suspicious he was, but it had been brought back to her now. She had fallen in love with a man who would only ever let her get so far and no further. There would always be part of him that was locked away. He was a charming, seductive lover, but a proper relationship would always threaten his self-control so he would never allow it. She’d conveniently managed to forget that part of him, and it hurt now to have been reminded of it.

‘I’m relaxed!’

‘You could have fooled me,’ Sergio murmured. ‘I think I know how to relax you, though…’

He kissed her on her mouth, felt a whisper of protest, and then she melted into him until he drew back and looked down at her with a sexy smile.

‘Much better.’

‘Mum! Alex…’

It wasn’t much better. She might have been able to hide away in their private little bubble before, but now she had to stand up and be counted—because there was a third party on the scene: a baby. She couldn’t keep going weak at the knees every time he glanced in her direction, pretending that the future was something that would take care of itself in due course.

‘This is… This is…’

‘I know who you are…’

Alex had moved into charming mode, and Susie sighed as she watched her older sister do what most women did when those deep, dark eyes fastened on them. Her brilliant, sharp, independent and undeniably striking sister blushed.

‘Mother, this is only Sergio Burzi. I might be a neurosurgeon,’ she added coyly, ‘but even I know who you are. How on earth did you meet Suze?’

‘You naughty little thing!’ Louise Sadler was smiling, her beautiful aristocratic face creased with delight as she looked at Susie. ‘You kept this one well hidden under your hat. I expect you were hoping to surprise us…?’

‘Or maybe,’ Alex inserted, ‘you didn’t want to say anything just in case your date didn’t turn up. You must have your diary filled to overflowing, Mr Burzi…’

‘Sergio, please…’

‘You probably don’t remember me at all, but we were at the same art gallery opening a few months ago…’

‘Sergio…’ Louise stepped forward, still thrilled to bits, and took his arm. ‘You must come and meet the rest of the family. Your father is going to be delighted,’ she whispered to Susie, who had reluctantly fallen into step as they moved towards the main party, ‘that you’ve brought along such a gorgeous chap…’

‘Mum…’

Too late. Events had been taken out of her hands. Or rather transferred from her hands into her family’s hands—and now, as the evening progressed, everyone else’s hands.

So many people had heard of him. She hadn’t known him from Adam when she had plonked herself next to him uninvited because she had been on the run from her dinner companion. She hoped to God that he didn’t breathe a word about that.

Having had him all to herself for the past few weeks, she was awestruck at the ease with which he mixed. He knew just what to say to everyone. He charmed. He was witty. He was flatteringly attentive to her. And she couldn’t help but feel a treacherous burst of pride at having his arm slung over her shoulders.

Even Clarissa, who was getting steadily more tipsy as the evening wore on, and who barely had time to talk to anyone because she was so wrapped up with Thomas, dragged her to one side and told her that she wanted to hear everything the very second they were alone together once she’d returned from her honeymoon.

Under any other circumstances, Susie would have been over the moon. Had they been seriously involved, and had their relationship gone beyond sex—had she not now been carrying his baby—she would have been bursting with happiness and daydreaming about being the next one to walk up the aisle.

As things stood…

‘Did Stanley bring you? I guess you’ll be wanting to head off now…’

Most of the guests had left. Only a circle of hard-core friends, all drunk, were swaying inside the marquee with glasses in their hands.

Outside, the temperature had dropped and she hugged her pashmina around her.

Somewhere in the course of the evening Sergio’s bow tie had been discarded, and she wanted to slip possessive fingers under his shirt and feel that hard, roughened chest against her skin. She itched to do it.

‘You’re not drinking?’

‘I…I’ve had a headache all day,’ Susie mumbled.

‘What’s eating you?’

‘Why didn’t you tell me that you were coming?’

‘Not this again. I wanted to introduce the element of surprise—let’s not breathe new life into that particular argument.’

‘You don’t know what you’ve gone and done.’

‘Really? Enlighten me.’

‘Now that my parents have met you…especially in the presence of every single one of my family members on my mother’s side…they’ll all be thinking that what we have is serious—is going somewhere…’

‘I’m not responsible for what other people think.’

The cool detachment in his voice washed over her like freezing sleet, penetrating through every part of her being. ‘I know you’re not.’

‘I’m taking it that you can’t face everyone’s disappointment when this is over and we part company?’ he said, in the same horribly remote voice.

‘My parents have had a very happy marriage. Uncle Richard and Aunt Kate the same. I come from a long line of boring, happily married people…’

‘They surely can’t expect you to marry the first guy you meet?’

‘Of course not.’

‘Then you have nothing to worry about.’

‘It’s not that easy, Sergio. You’ve got the makings of the perfect son-in-law—especially after some of the guys they’ve met in the past. You’ve come here… They’ll be thinking that…’

That we’re in love…because they’ll want someone like you for me…

It occurred to her that she had never told him how she felt about him, never breathed a word, because she had been so sure that she could play by his rules. No wonder he was having a hard time trying to work out why she was so hot and bothered because he had shown up.

‘Stop analysing everything. You’re so keyed up, worrying about what other people might think, that you can’t seem to see that it’s your life at the end of the day. You live it as you see fit. If other people have other plans in mind, then tough.’

‘You’re so black and white.’

‘Like I said, I’ve seen what misplaced emotion can do. I stick to what I know. It makes life a damned sight less complicated.’

‘What…what was that girl like?’

She hadn’t been aware that she was going to ask that question until it left her mouth and Sergio, caught on the back foot, raised his eyebrows in a perplexed, impatient frown.

‘What are you talking about?’

‘You once said that you’re the way you are because you had a learning curve… Who was the woman who provided the learning curve?’

‘What difference does it make?’

‘None. And if you don’t want to talk about it, then forget I asked.’

She shrugged, started making for the kitchen door of the house, which she knew would lead to the spacious ground floor and eventually the front door and her way out—although how she was getting home she had no idea. Her ride, in the form of her parents and Alex, had gone an hour and a half ago. It would have to be another taxi.

‘Where are you staying?’

‘Bed and breakfast. It’s in the village. A bunch of us are booked in there.’

‘And I,’ he said smoothly, ‘am booked into the one and only five-star hotel ten miles away.’

‘I’d rather not come with you…’

‘Sure about that?’

And he swooped to kiss her, his tongue probing into her mouth, enveloping her in a swirl of heated responses that shook her to the core.

He did this every time. She needed to think…not say goodbye to all her thought processes and cling to him like a vine.

Yet of their own volition her arms curled round his neck and she found herself gently but efficiently propelled back until she was pressed against the wall in the deserted hallway.

‘We can’t… Not here…’

‘Then I guess that means you’ll be coming back with me…’