“It was cruel to Marissa.”
“Marissa is quite capable of taking care of herself. Besides, I found out recently that she is responsible for much of your father’s recent bitterness towards you. In the early days of our relationship she fed him stories about you that were totally untrue because she was jealous. I’m not saying he’d have acted any differently to your pregnancy given your history with him but she never gave him the chance to think well of you. Instead she just fuelled his bitterness about your mother’s behavior by making out you were free with your sexual favors too.”
“How do you know that? Surely Marissa didn’t tell you herself.”
“Of course not. I telephoned your father a couple of days before we got married because I wanted to put the record straight.”
“Why?”
“I felt guilty. By then I knew he’d thrown you out but I was so sure it was all my fault that I had some grand notion of effecting a reunion. Needless to say your father didn’t play ball although he did let a few skeletons out of the family closet during our stormy telephone conversation, including all the things Marissa had told him. He didn’t even ask why I was phoning him. I guess he just thought I was still looking for you. So in the end I didn’t tell him you were back in my life or that we were getting married. I didn’t tell Marissa either. By then I’d got the measure of both of them and I didn’t want either of them upsetting you.”
She slipped her arms around his neck and rested her forehead against his cheek, at last understanding most of his recent behavior. “And I thought you hated me for destroying your plans. I thought you wanted Marissa in your life and that I had spoiled everything for you. It’s why I wouldn’t let you make love to me. I couldn’t bear the thought of sharing you.”
He buried his face in her hair and groaned. “Sharing me! My god, what books have you been reading Kerry? You have no idea what I was going through; how difficult it was to look as if I didn’t care, particularly when I woke up this morning and discovered you and the children were missing. I went to hell and back in the few minutes I was alone before you returned with my birthday presents.”
She remembered his dark despair with shame. All that love and need had been for her after all and she hadn’t understood. In fact she had never really understood him at all because she’d always been too full of her own hang ups, too insecure to believe anyone could love her just for herself.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you so unhappy,” she whispered the words into his neck as he held her tightly.
“I’m sorry too,” his breath was warm against her cheek as he ducked his head downwards, searching for her mouth. “If I’d given you more of myself at the beginning of our relationship then none of this would have happened. You’d have known how much I loved you and never run away.”
With an effort she resisted his kiss as she asked her final question. “And you really can live without tennis?”
He caught her bottom lip between his teeth as he replied. “I’ve already done so for two years, so why should finding you make a difference?”
“Because you said you left the circuit to look for me.”
“So I did,” he ran his tongue along the inside of her mouth, sending a quiver of anticipation down her spine. “It was why I bought Greenleas too. I thought if I lived close to your father then one day I might see you again. But none of that is the entire truth. The thing is, without you everything lost its sparkle. When every tennis match became just another slog and every tournament just another meaningless journey, I knew my sporting days were over. I’d hit too many balls in too many places for too long and it was time to get out. I even hoped I might hear from you when I announced my retirement. I wanted to let you know how I felt about you and how your disappearance had made me grow up to the things that really mattered in my life.”
She gave a sad little sigh. “And all the time I was living without a television or a computer. I didn’t even have time to read a newspaper, so the news about your retirement never filtered through.”
He continued to drop butterfly kisses onto her lips. “So much for modern technology. Next time I’ll use a carrier pigeon.”
She opened her mouth to protest. “There won’t be a next time. This is the only double fault we’re allowed.”
He chuckled as he caught her tongue between his teeth and guided it into his mouth. “It’s the only one we need. We’re not going to make the same mistake twice.”
Chapter Twelve
Much later, with Mary and George dispatched after a cup of coffee that seemed to take an eternity, they faced one another again but this time the width of the sitting room was between them. Nervously Kerry began to collect the dirty mugs. Pierce’s hand on her arm made her jump.
“Leave them until tomorrow,” he said as he removed a mug from her hand and gently turned her around to face him. “I can think of something much better to do than clear up the sitting room.”
“Can you?” she began to tremble as his hand slipped across her back to the zipper on her dress.
“Mmm, and so can you,” the nylon clasp snaked downwards taking the dress with it and leaving her neck and shoulders bare. Deliberately he pushed the straps of her lacy bra aside and began a slow assault on her senses, his lips whispering across her skin while his hands dealt deftly with the rest of her clothes. Then he picked her up and carried her through to the bedroom, pausing only long enough to lock the door behind him.
“That will take care of tiny unexpected visitors,” he smiled against her mouth “My children are going to have to learn to share you.”
She flicked her tongue erotically against his teeth and felt his body tense on an indrawn breath as he lowered her onto the bed. A wild exultation raced through her as she realized how much power she had. He saw the knowledge in her eyes and smiled as he started to unfasten the buttons of his shirt with shaking fingers.
“Don’t ever doubt it again my darling. I couldn’t bear to lose you twice.”
She knelt up on the bed and finished unbuttoning his shirt. Then she loosened his belt and helped him with the rest of his clothes, stroking the muscular contours of his body with the same three-year hunger that soon had him covering every inch of her skin with kisses.
She melted into his embrace with a sigh, her fingers tangling in his hair as he gathered her up into his arms and began to kiss her all over again, slowly at first and then with a wild savagery as he slowly lost control and drowned them both in a passion that said far more than words. Finally he lifted her over onto her back and she welcomed the crushing weight of his body as his chest grazed her swollen nipples. When he saw her little secret smile and he paused and looked down at her, poised agonizingly on the brink of consummation.
“You really have been celibate for three years haven’t you?” she said. Her smile widened and then became part of his kiss as he took them both to forgotten heights. And just before they got there he murmured his answer into her mouth with all the love she was ever going to need.
“Angel, you’d better believe it!”
About The Author
Sheila Claydon lives with her husband on the northwest coast of England. Although her family is central to her life, she still finds the time to read, to write and to travel, and many of the places she has visited feature in her books. Cruising through New Zealand’s fjords, visiting Paris, seeing the glory of Florence, enjoying the everlasting sunshine of the Canary Islands: eventually all of her experiences find their way into her books. Reading them is like buying a ticket to romance.
Sheila’s early Romances were published under the pseudonym Anne Beverley. Now that she is considerably older and no longer shy, she writes under her own name.
She can be contacted at http://sheilaclaydon.com where her books are listed, and where she also writes a blog.
From The Publisher
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Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
About The Author
Double Fault Page 16