The Blackmailed Bride

by Kim Lawrence

  Javier nodded ruefully. `That would have been a total disaster,' he confessed, shaking his head. `Her vulnerabil­ity, it touched me deeply. Please do not laugh,' he added, an uncomfortable slash of embarrassed colour appearing along his cheekbones. `I think I saw myself as some sort of gallant white knight. She didn't need a knight or a social worker, just a man who loved her, and she was wise enough to recognise him straight away.'

  Kate felt a lot happier with the nagging Sarah question disposed of-there was now only one unresolved issue... and how he was going to take that she didn't know.

  `I might need saving occasionally, and if not I've heard that role-playing can be very stimulating,' she observed cheekily.

  Javier's rich laughter rang out. `Meeting you has taught me that it is very much more exciting to have a mate who can constantly surprise me. Of course you must continue your work,' he insisted. `It will require some adjust­ments...' he continued absently as he began to nuzzle her sensitive earlobe. `You have no idea how much I've missed you...' he rasped throatily. `So many times something hap­pened and I thought, I must tell Kate, only to remember you were hundreds of miles away. I picked up the phone so many times, when desperate to hear your voice…it was only stubborn pride that stopped me dialling your num­ber...'

  Despite the delicious shivers chasing up and down her spine and the desire coursing sweetly through her blood, Kate gently pulled away. It wasn't easy; she was so sen­sitive to him, all he had to do was look at her and she melted.

  She had to tell him now.

  She cleared her throat; Javier was looking at her warily. Her love for him was like an aching knot behind her breast bone. She wondered how he was going to be looking at her in a few minutes.

  `Actually, Javier...'

  Vi esposa... ?'He cupped her chin in his hand and stud­ied her troubled face. `What is worrying you?

  'Those adjustments you were talking about, it might require a few more than you think,' she admitted apologeti­cally.

  `How so...?

  'Well, you know how I wasn't superstitious...'

  The colour drained dramatically from his face. He shook his, head. `You don't mean...?' he gasped.

  Kate nodded. 'Yup!' she breezed with a levity she was far from feeling. `I did two tests just in case I was wrong, but yes, I'm definitely pregnant.'

  Worryingly, his expression didn't alter at all. `And you feel...?

  'Sick as a dog in this morning,' she admitted. `And I can't stand the smell of coffee, but other than that...' `I mean, how do you feel?'

  `Well, I've never actually fancied myself as the maternal type...' Looking down at her flat belly with an expression of wonder, she didn't see the flicker of despair cross his face. `But once the shock wore off I danced around the bedroom like an idiot,' she revealed, pressing a protective hand across her tummy. `I'm tickled pink, over the moon and prone to violent tearful outbursts, one of which I feel coming on now,' she confessed. `Of course, I don't expect you to feel the same way...'

  'Feel the same way?' he exclaimed, running his hands down her bare arms before taking both her hands in his. He lifted them to his lips. `There was never any question of how I feel. How could I not be delighted that the woman I love is carrying my child?' he asked her incredulously. `It was your feelings that I was worried about. I thought you might resent having motherhood thrust upon you be­cause of my carelessness.' His stern frown held self ­reproach. `It was criminally irresponsible.'

  `Hey, I was there too, remember! I don't recall fighting you off with a stick. I enjoyed making this baby...'

  Her defiance brought an amused glitter to his eyes. `I think someone in the outer Hebrides might not have heard that, querida.' His eyes softened tenderly. `I enjoyed mak­ing him too.'

  `As far as I'm concerned, Javier, this is a very wanted pregnancy. In fact, there's only one more thing worrying me...'

  `What is that?'

  A little encouragement, she decided, looking lovingly into the face of her husband, would not go amiss. `When are you going to get criminally irresponsible again?

  'I am yours to command,' he told her with a smile.

  Now that opened up all sorts of interesting possibilities. `Are you sure you know what you're letting yourself in for...?

  'Forty years of being under your delicious thumb?' he suggested hopefully as he drew the digit under discussion into his mouth.

  `I wouldn't mind too terribly if you were on top occa­sionally,' she admitted, darting him a sultry look from un­der the shade of her lashes.

  `Well, variety, so I hear, is the spice of life.'

  Kate, giving herself up wholeheartedly to his kiss, was smugly confident she'd have plenty of that with Javier!