“Excellent,” Mike approved. “But you must take it easy from now on, young lady. You need to eat properly and rest. No work for a week and be careful after that.” He glanced at Flynn. “You can continue intimate relations. That shouldn’t be a problem.”
Flynn inclined his head. “Good.”
Sharp anxiety was twisting inside Danielle, so she didn’t pay much attention to the rest of the conversation. Then something occurred to her.
She waited until the doctor left before sending Flynn an accusing stare. “You two planned this, didn’t you?”
Surprise, then annoyance crossed Flynn’s face. “Perhaps I should call Mike back? I’m sure he’d love to hear his integrity being questioned like this.” He paused. “Not to mention my own.”
She grimaced. “Okay, so I got it wrong.”
“You’re moving in with me. You’re sick and not well enough to look after yourself. And you need to move out of this penthouse permanently.”
She could feel herself being swallowed up again by him and his tactics. “I won’t be your mistress, Flynn. I have my child to think about. No. I’ll find another place.”
His eyes flashed at her. “And then what? I leave you alone so you could possibly die?”
The breath caught in her throat. “Don’t exaggerate. I’m fine. Mike just said so.”
All at once, the anger seemed to leave him. His eyes clouded over. “Allow me to do this for you and the baby, Danielle.”
She realized he still felt guilty. She swallowed the lump in her throat. Seeing this side to him softened her, made her admit to herself that he was in an awkward position.
But she was torn whichever way she went. If she stayed at her apartment it would only be temporary. And she would still have to look for a new apartment as well as go to work. She’d probably make herself sicker, perhaps even risk having a miscarriage.
But if she went to Flynn’s place, would he see it as a sign that she was weakening toward marriage? Perhaps they could come to a temporary truce.
“Okay, I’ll move in, Flynn, but only until I have the baby.” Then she’d go back to work full-time and get her own place, away from Monica and definitely away from Flynn.
Deep satisfaction showed in his eyes, but it was the barely perceptible easing of his shoulders that somehow reassured her in her decision.
“You’re doing the right thing,” he said.
“For who, Flynn? You or me?”
“For your baby.”
Eight
W hen Danielle stepped inside Flynn’s mansion, she was introduced to Louise and Thomas, the older couple she’d seen there earlier in the day. They’d known Flynn a long time and looked after him and his house, and Danielle had no doubt she was included in the package now.
But when she found that Flynn had hired a nurse to keep an eye on her, she almost turned around and walked out the door. It was too much. Everything was happening too fast. Suddenly the enormity of the day overwhelmed her and she felt tears sting her eyes.
The middle-aged nurse took in the situation quickly. “Come on, pet. Let’s get you to bed.”
Thankfully Flynn didn’t follow them up the sweeping staircase and into a superbly furnished bedroom, and once she was in bed Danielle began to relax under Jean’s professional but sympathetic eyes. She fell asleep thinking how much the nurse reminded her of her mother. The two women had that same caring attitude.
She woke a few hours later thinking about Monica and what she would say about all this, and her stomach clenched with tension. Her mother-in-law had flown south to stay at her sister’s place inAlice Springs for a few days, so at least she had a reprieve until the next day when Monica was due to call. Then there would be hell to pay.
She mentioned it to Flynn when he came into her bedroom later that evening. “I’ll have to tell Monica where I am,” she said, once he’d finished inquiring if she felt better.
“I’ll deal with Monica,” he said, his tone telling her the issue wasn’t open to negotiation.
“No.” She had to stand her ground with him. “I’ll speak to her.”
“I won’t have you getting upset.”
Not for the first time today, she saw past his arrogance to his concern. It warmed her. “She needs to know, Flynn. And she needs to hear it from me.”
“Then I insist on being with you when you tell her.”
“Fine,” she agreed, but if she could help it, she had no intention of letting him be around when she broke the news to Monica. Her mother-in-law was going to be very upset as it was.
“You didn’t eat much dinner,” he said, cutting across her thoughts, obviously having spoken to Jean.
“I wasn’t really hungry.” A light soup had been all she could manage.
“You’ve got to eat.”
That’s when she realized he looked tired. It had been a long day for him, too. “Have you eaten?”
He appeared surprised by her question. “No. I thought I’d dine in here and keep you company.”
She moistened her lips. “Er…in here?”
“This is our bedroom, Danielle.”
She swallowed as her heart started to beat fast. “I don’t remember saying I would share a bedroom with you.”
“I don’t remember asking.”
“Flynn, I—”
His gaze locked with hers. “We start as we intend to go on.”
“All of a sudden it’s we?” She could feel herself being suffocated. Just as Robert had smothered her.
“Forget about him,” he said harshly, reading her thoughts.
She took a shaky breath. “I can’t.”
“Face the facts, Danielle. He only wanted you physically because he couldn’t have you emotionally. That’s why he wouldn’t let you go.”
She knew he was right but it still hurt to know she’d been used in such a way by the man who’d been her husband. “And your reasons are different?”
“My reasons are my own, but I’ll tell you one thing. They’re a damn sight more noble than his ever were.” With that he stormed off into the bathroom.
Danielle bit her lip, then lay back against the pillows, knowing Flynn was right. Despite his arrogance, he had an honor code about him that Robert would never have understood. It gave her a strange comfort and seemed to fill an empty void inside her that had never been filled.
Not by Robert.
Nor Monica.
As for the older woman, Danielle had the opportunity to talk to her sooner rather than later when Monica rang while Flynn was eating dinner.
There was a knock at the bedroom door and Jean opened it at Flynn’s command. “Excuse me, Mr. Donovan, I know you don’t want Dani…I mean, Mrs. Ford to be disturbed, but there’s a very irate lady on the telephone demanding that she speak with her.” The nurse glanced at Danielle. “She said she’s your mother-in-law.”
Trepidation filled Danielle as she looked across the room at Flynn sitting at the small table near the window. “How does she know I’m here?”
“I had your phone calls forwarded,” he said, giving no excuse for not mentioning it previously. He glanced back at the nurse. “Danielle will call her back tomorrow.”
“But—”
“No,” Danielle refuted. “I can’t do that to her, Flynn. She’ll worry herself sick all night.”
“Better than her making you sick.”
“But I’ll worry all night, too.” Danielle looked at Jean’s concerned face. “I’ll take the call.”
The older woman hesitated, then nodded at the phone on the bedside table. “Line one,” she said, and closed the door behind herself, leaving her and Flynn alone again.
Danielle glanced at the phone, then at Flynn. “I’d like some privacy please.”
“I’m not leaving,” he said, leaning back in the chair and picking up his wineglass.
“Flynn—”
“Monica’s waiting,” he pointed out, and took a sip of wine as he watched her through narrowed eyes. Danielle gri
tted her teeth, then reached for the phone.
She took a deep breath and lifted the receiver. “Monica, it’s Danielle.”
“Danielle?” the other woman said anxiously. “What’s going on? I come back from my sister’s early and call you at home and now I’m being put through to you at someone’s house.”
“Monica, I have something to tell you. I’m er…staying at a friend’s house for a while.”
A gasp came down the line. “A friend? What friend?”
As briefly as she could, Danielle explained about being kicked out of her apartment. She deliberately didn’t say anything about feeling faint.
“Why are you staying there instead of with me?” Monica demanded, her voice turning colder. “This has something to do with that Flynn Donovan. I knew he was up to something when I met him. His eyes were all over you.”
As they are now, Danielle thought, suppressing a shiver. “You’re being ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous, am I? I bet he’s had you kicked out of your apartment so you would move in with him.”
“That’s not true. Flynn had nothing to do with me having to move.” She saw his glance sharpen, but Monica soon demanded the attention back on her.
“Aah! So you have gone to live with him. Oh, my God.”
“It’s only for a short while,” Danielle tried to placate. “Just until I find another apartment.”
“He’s brainwashed you, hasn’t he?” And then the tears started and once again Danielle was thrown back into the past. The other woman wouldn’t let up, wouldn’t even listen. Danielle was in the middle of trying to speak when the phone was suddenly taken out of her hands.
Flynn spoke into the receiver. “Monica, this is Flynn Donovan. Danielle is staying here with me. Get over it.” He hung up the phone, then stood looking down at her, his eyes banked with displeasure. “Don’t let her manipulate you, Danielle.”
She gasped with hurt. He knew what she’d been through yet he made it sound so easy. “Are you calling me weak willed?”
He sat down beside her, his hard mouth visibly relaxing. “Not at all. You’re very strong willed, in fact. But you’re just too nice to people at your own detriment.” He reached out and touched her ear, his finger lightly tracing the shell-like feature. “Of course, I notice you don’t seem to have a problem standing up to me.” His finger stopped moving, his eyes trapped her. “Why?”
Her heart skipped a beat. “I don’t like arrogant men.”
“As opposed to self-centered, manipulative women like your mother-in-law?” he mocked, his finger on the move again, sliding along her chin toward her mouth.
He had a point, but that point was being reduced by his smooth touch. “You don’t know what you’re up against, Flynn,” she said huskily.
“The only person I care to be up against is you, sweetheart,” he murmured, his finger sliding onto her lower lip, stroking it. She was sinking fast. She knew it as well as he did.
“Flynn…” The tip of her tongue escaped to lick her suddenly dry lips, but instead brushed against his finger. She froze at the same time he did. His eyes darkened. He was going to kiss her.
But in one swift movement he pushed himself to his feet and stood looking down at her, his tension a tangible thing. “I want you again so much my gut aches,” he said, his voice simmering with barely checked passion.
She couldn’t look away.
Couldn’t breathe.
She couldn’t think past wanting him.
“But I can wait,” he rasped, and strode out of the room.
An hour later, Danielle was flicking nervously through a magazine waiting for Flynn to return, when she heard voices coming from downstairs. Then one voice rose above the rest and her heart slammed against her ribs. Monica!
Swallowing hard, she slipped into her blue silk robe and hurried from the room, rushing to look over the balcony to the front entrance below. She stiffened in shock.
“I don’t believe you,” her mother-in-law was saying wildly to Flynn. “You’ve kidnapped her.”
Flynn’s hard gaze sliced through Monica. “Danielle hasn’t been kidnapped. She’s here of her own free will, though I doubt you understand that particular concept, Monica.”
Her face twisted in anger. “You’re a fine one to talk,” she spat. “Danielle doesn’t even like you. She told me so. She hates you. That’s why I know you’ve kidnapped her.”
Danielle had heard enough. She couldn’t let this go any further. “Flynn is right,” she said, walking down the sweeping staircase as they turned to look up at her. “I am here of my own free will.”
“Danielle!” Monica rushed forward. “You don’t have to say that just because he’s here. I’ll protect you.”
Danielle reached the bottom of the stairs but she kept her distance from the other woman. “From what, Monica? Flynn has been nothing but kind to me.” And when it came down to it, it was the truth of late. Her eyes told him so as she glanced at him and saw the encouragement in those dark depths. She felt an odd flutter in the region of her chest.
Monica paled. “You should have come home to me. I would have looked after you. It’s not too late. Go get dressed and we can leave right now.”
Danielle stood her ground. “There’s no need.”
Monica clutched at Danielle’s wrist, as if she wanted to grab her and run out the door with her. “But can’t you see he only wants one thing.”
Danielle knew she couldn’t deny that charge, but it wasn’t what Monica thought. Flynn wanted marriage, not just sex out of her. Yet if she let her mother-in-law see she had hit a nerve, she would be lost.
Before she could say anything, Flynn stepped forward and extricated Monica’s hand from Danielle’s wrist. Danielle instinctively rubbed the tender skin, only now realizing how painful the other woman’s grip had been. Then she felt Flynn’s arm snake around her waist and pull her against him, hip to hip, providing a united front.
“The only thing I want from Danielle is for her to marry me,” he said, his hand tightening when she froze, silently telling her to remain quiet.
Somehow she held back a groan of despair.
Monica inhaled sharply. “Marry you! You can’t marry her. She’s carrying my son’s child.”
“The baby is a part of Danielle and as my wife, he will be part of my life, too.”
“You could never love another man’s child,” Monica choked.
“On the contrary.”
Something happened to Danielle when she heard those words. She didn’t know why, nor attempt to understand, but for the first time since her parents’ death she felt warm from the inside out.
Monica flashed him a look of disdain. “You don’t care about Danielle or the baby.”
“I’m not the one upsetting her like this.” Flynn’s voice held an undertone of contempt.
As if she knew she was defeated, tears began to well in Monica’s eyes. “Danielle, how can you do this to me? You know that baby is Robbie’s.”
Danielle’s throat turned dry as the feeling of being smothered washed over her. Monica was being manipulative again but how could she not feel sorry for the other woman?
“Bloody hell,” Flynn growled. “Get out of my house. I will not have you pulling these tricks on Danielle.”
Monica’s tears stopped as quickly as they started. “I told you to stay away from Danielle but you wouldn’t listen, would you?” She hissed, but before Danielle could register the words fully, Monica turned on her and flushed an ugly look. “This is all your fault!”
The unfairness of the accusation made Danielle flinch inwardly, but in that instant she knew she’d finally had enough. She’d taken a stand against this woman over moving out of her house, but she now knew that had only been a token step. She had to stand up to Monica as a person in her own right. It was time to show her mother-in-law she would no longer be an extension of her dead husband.
“No, Monica. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s yours. You spoiled Robert so muc
h you turned him into a brat who took everything he could from me.”
Monica gasped. “You were his wife.”
“I was his wife, not his slave to do what he wanted with me. I had rights, too.”
For a split second it looked as if Monica would argue. She opened her mouth…. She tried to speak…. Then before their very eyes she began to crumple to the ground.
“He was my son,” she wailed, falling on her knees. “My son! And now he’s dead. What am I going to do?” She wept aloud, her sobs increasing with intensity.
The sound of her grief brought Jean running. The nurse immediately went to her aid. Louise and Thomas appeared, looking worried, and went to help Jean.
Danielle swallowed past the lump in her throat. No matter what had gone on between them, she felt for the other woman’s heartache. It was deep and genuine. Just as Monica’s love for her son was deep and genuine.
She went to move forward, too, but Flynn stopped her. “No. Let them handle this.”
“But—”
“Jean’s a professional, Danielle. Allow her to do her job.”
He was right, so she let him walk her up the stairs. But she could feel his suppressed anger in every movement of his body. An anger that she knew was directed at Monica but made her shiver all the same. He looked hard and dangerous and ready to do someone harm. He would be a formidable enemy, this man. But then, she’d always known that.
He closed the bedroom door behind them and she walked across the plush carpet to the bed and sank down on the luxurious cover. A heavy silence filled the room.
Then some things fell into place for Danielle.
“Monica was the one who had me kicked out of the apartment, wasn’t she?”
He inclined his head. “I believe so.”
“And she warned you away from me, didn’t she? You wanted to protect me from her.”
He held her gaze. “Yes.”
She swallowed, glad she now knew the reason for his proposal of marriage, yet oddly disappointed.
“But that’s not the only reason,” he added.
She sucked in a sharp breath even as her heart thudded against her ribs. “Um…it isn’t?”
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