Bestseller Collection 2010

by Carole Mortimer

  But why? Their marriage was a polite façade at best, and at worst it had been a mistake, for both of them. At the time she’d accepted Nick’s proposal she hadn’t really thought further than saving their faces; over a year later she could see that they couldn’t live the rest of their lives together in this same way…

  ‘I thought I heard you, Mrs Drummond!’ Rachel James greeted her warmly, putting down the pot of fresh coffee. ‘What can I get you for breakfast this morning?’

  The thought of any food, let alone the hearty breakfast their Scottish housekeeper thought Gemini ought to eat every morning in order to ‘keep up her strength’, made her feel ill after this most recent disturbing conversation with Nick!

  ‘I’ll probably have some toast later,’ she said, smiling to dissipate the other woman’s disappointment in her reply. ‘I really do have to go upstairs and get dressed. You—’ The baby, probably sensing that Nick was no longer as relaxed as he had been, began to stir in his arms, giving a little whimper of protest at having her sleep disturbed.

  ‘Away with you and get yourself dressed,’ Mrs James dismissed, taking the baby from Nick’s arms. ‘I’ll take care of this little darling until you come down. We may as well get used to each other if I’m to look after her this evening while the two of you are out,’ she assured them lightly, beginning to talk softly to Jessica as she left the room with her in her arms.

  Gemini glanced awkwardly at Nick, knowing by his grim expression that he was still thinking about their last conversation. Well, so was she, and she hadn’t liked the tone of his voice at all. She never questioned his private life—much as she might like to!—and she found his warning about hers more than a little arrogant. ‘I see you’ve already spoken to Mrs James about this evening?’ she said coolly, wondering how, with the tension that seemed to have sprung up between them, they were going to spend the evening in each other’s company at all!

  He nodded tersely. ‘Apparently she loves children,’ he bit out. ‘She says she can’t wait for us to have some of our own!’ he added scornfully.

  As the housekeeper, Rachel James must be well aware of the fact that they occupied separate bedrooms. Unless the older woman presumed that was only after they had made love…!

  Gemini could imagine nothing worse than having her husband visit her in her bed and then return to his own room to go to sleep! She would rather leave the arrangement exactly as it was!

  Her mouth twisted mockingly. ‘Perhaps someone should tell her that isn’t even a remote possibility!’ she taunted.

  Nick stood up abruptly, that very suddenness of movement meaning that his height and breadth seemed to dominate the room. ‘You’ll tell her no such thing!’ he rasped furiously, his expression so ferocious Gemini took a step backwards, coming up against the partly open door.

  She swallowed hard. ‘I wasn’t necessarily referring to me,’ she told him irritably.

  ‘Well, I certainly don’t go around telling people my wife doesn’t share my bed—or vice versa!’ His green eyes blazed with fury.

  Because not too many people would believe it, Gemini was sure. They were both fit and healthy, and obviously found the opposite sex attractive. Nick was a very handsome man, and she’d been told that she was beautiful; who would ever believe they’d lived together as husband and wife for over a year and never made love with each other?

  She gave a weary sigh. ‘We seem to have got off on the wrong foot this morning, Nick; I think we should start today all over again.’ She shook her head. ‘We’re both tired from a disturbed night’s sleep—’

  ‘For the wrong reason—unfortunately!’ he snapped scathingly, moving past her out of the doorway, brushing lightly against her before going out into the hallway and ascending the stairs two at a time on his way to his bedroom.

  Gemini watched him go, a perplexed frown marring her creamy brow. What had happened to that easy, if polite friendship that had once existed between them? Because it was no longer there. It had been replaced by… She wasn’t sure what it had been replaced by, but it wasn’t comfortable, whatever it was.

  As proved by the arousal of her nipples beneath the silk of her pyjama top! Nick had barely touched her on his way out of the room, and yet she had responded instantly to that brief touch, and still ached even now.

  Tears sprang up into her eyes as she acknowledged that the situation between herself and Nick was becoming unbearable. And it had become so with the arrival of Jemima’s baby…!

  Damn Jemima!

  ‘Mrs James can manage,’ Nick drawled mockingly beside her in the car later that evening as they drove to have dinner with the Crawfords.

  Gemini turned to him blankly, having been lost in thought. She’d been distracted all day, if she were honest, looking for ways to return her relationship with Nick to being something she could at least feel comfortable with. Not that she’d come up with any answers, but she had decided her silence might at least not provoke the situation.

  ‘Jessica,’ Nick prompted impatiently at Gemini’s blank expression. ‘Mrs James seems more than capable of managing with her this evening,’ he repeated tersely.

  ‘I’m sure she’ll be fine.’ Gemini nodded confidently.

  The housekeeper had been wonderful today, spending every moment she had free either talking to the baby or feeding and changing her. And Gemini had to admit that with two other adults in the house who obviously knew what they were doing she didn’t feel so nervous about caring for Jessica herself now.

  ‘My sister hasn’t bothered to telephone yet, though, has she?’ she added hardly.

  And considering that Janey Reynolds, with all that she must have had to do on her wedding day, had still found the time to call in for a few minutes on her way to the hairdresser’s, made the lack of even a telephone call from Jemima even more noticeable!

  It really was too bad of Jemima not to have at least made sure the baby had been safely delivered to her. But that was typical Jemima; she expected everyone else to fall in with what she arranged, never dreaming for a moment that someone wouldn’t do it. The thing was, she was usually right…

  Nick stared grimly ahead. ‘I thought we had agreed not to discuss your sister,’ he bit out harshly.

  They hadn’t agreed any such thing, but if she wanted this evening to be anywhere near a success perhaps it would be better if they didn’t! Besides, whether Jemima telephoned or not, it wouldn’t make any difference to the fact Jessica would be staying with them until her mother returned.

  ‘Sorry,’ she mumbled dismissively. ‘You’re looking very nice this evening,’ she added lightly.

  ‘You’ve seen me in a dinner suit dozens of times before,’ Nick returned shortly, glancing at her with narrowed eyes.

  So she had, but the fact that he looked devastatingly attractive in a black dinner suit and snowy white shirt had become more and more apparent to her in recent months! As had everything else about this man who was her husband…

  He was tall and slender, with not an ounce of superfluous flesh on his body, but at the same time muscularly powerful. And his harshly hewn features—piercing green eyes, aquiline nose, sculptured lips, squarely determined jaw—were all mesmerisingly attractive.

  Nick didn’t just have an air of being arrogantly confident, he actually was, and women—all women, it seemed—reacted to that combination of self-confidence and good looks. Including Gemini!

  Why hadn’t she been aware of all these things before she married him? If she had been she might not have accepted his proposal! But the truth of the matter was at the time Nick had been Jemima’s fiancé, and so of no romantic interest to Gemini. And, of course, there had been Danny…

  After being with Nick over a year, and having come to know and appreciate his quiet strength and success, she couldn’t understand how she’d ever found his reprehensible younger brother of any interest whatsoever.

  Novelty, probably, she’d finally decided. Whatever it was, time had shown her that the infatuation—bec
ause that was exactly what it had been!—would never have lasted. Involved in the world of fashion as she was, Gemini had glamour and excitement in her life already, but she also liked a certain amount of structure, and Danny hadn’t had any of that in his life, had never intended having any, either.

  ‘You don’t have to make polite conversation with me, Gemini,’ Nick rasped at her lengthy silence following his earlier remark.

  ‘But—’ Gemini bit off her protest; what was the point in telling him there had been nothing polite about her comment, that she really did find him heart-stoppingly attractive in the dark evening clothes? None whatsoever, she assured herself; she’d already made enough an idiot of herself for one weekend.

  ‘Whereas I can safely tell you that you look absolutely stunning this evening,’ he added with dry mockery.

  Her brows rose. ‘Double standards, Nick?’

  He shrugged. ‘I don’t think so. A dinner suit on a man rarely looks any different from the first time a woman sees him in it, whereas a woman can wear any number of different outfits for the same occasions. And that blue shimmering dress is the exact colour of your eyes; you look wonderful!’

  ‘Thank you,’ Gemini accepted, deciding to leave the conversation on that positive note and relaxing back in her car seat, wallowing in Nick’s compliment.

  She hoped that last part of their conversation would set the tone for the evening ahead, and both of them were relaxed as they arrived at their hosts’ home, chatting easily as they lounged in the sitting-room with the elderly couple before dinner.

  John Crawford was a business acquaintance of Nick’s, and his wife Mary an extremely welcoming hostess, and whether or not it was because both Gemini and Nick were parentless themselves Gemini wasn’t sure, but they both got along with the elderly couple in a pleasantly relaxed way.

  John and Mary were more than usually talkative this evening, having returned from a holiday in Florida several days earlier.

  ‘I love the golf out there,’ John confided happily.

  ‘And I love the food.’ Mary looked down pointedly at her rounded but curvaceous figure. ‘Are the two of you planning any holidays shortly?’ she enquired interestedly.

  Gemini and Nick didn’t plan holidays—for the simple reason they never went away anywhere together! Nick had his business trips, as did she, and the suggestion of them going away together had never come up. She’d never thought about it before, but Gemini realised now that fact probably appeared a little odd to friends like John and Mary…

  She looked to Nick, as he sat beside her on the sofa, to make a suitable reply to the question.

  ‘As I recall,’ John put in teasingly, brown eyes twinkling merrily, ‘the two of you never went away on honeymoon!’

  Because in their case there had been no reason for one! They had married in the morning, with Nick returning to work in his office in the afternoon while Gemini moved her things into the house. It had been efficiently, if not romantically, carried out!

  ‘Nick was far too busy to spare the time,’ Gemini dismissed lightly.

  ‘Not too busy for a honeymoon, surely?’ Mary said affectionately.

  What was wrong with everyone this weekend? Gemini wondered irritably. Suddenly, it seemed to her, their private life had come under the spotlight. And she wasn’t at all comfortable with it.

  ‘Every day is a honeymoon for us, isn’t it, Gemini?’ Nick murmured huskily, reaching across to grasp her hand in his.

  A little too painfully, it seemed to Gemini! ‘It certainly is,’ she murmured lightly, turning her own hand so that she might clasp his in return—at the same time briefly digging one of her nails into his palm!

  But to give him his due, apart from a slight flicker of his eyes, he didn’t show any reaction to the move. In fact, his hand tightened about hers, lightly crushing her fingers.

  ‘I still think the two of you should have a honeymoon.’ John frowned. ‘Mary and I were married not long after the war, when money and time were tight, so we didn’t have the chance of one, but it’s something we’ve always regretted. Isn’t it, my dear?’ He turned to look at his wife affectionately.

  Mary nodded. ‘And before you know it there will be children on the way, and then no chance to be off on your own.’

  Gemini pulled her hand abruptly away from Nick’s, uncaring now if it should annoy him. ‘That’s years away yet.’ She smiled at Mary to take any sting out of her words.

  ‘Gemini has been too busy with her own career for us to think about having children,’ Nick put in brusquely.

  ‘And Nick is away from home so much, anyway,’ she couldn’t resist adding. ‘Besides,’ she continued hastily as he frowned across at her darkly, ‘we have my sister’s baby daughter staying with us at the moment—which will probably put us off ever having children of our own!’ Gemini had meant to defuse the subject, but she could see by the sudden interest in the older couple’s faces that she had done the opposite! And Nick looked positively furious at her talk of the baby.

  Or was it the mention of her sister that bothered him…?

  ‘How lovely!’ Mary said excitedly. ‘You must tell us all about her,’ she prompted warmly.

  Doting grandparents themselves, to five grandchildren, Mary and John were extremely interested to hear about Jessica. Indeed, the conversation about the baby continued even after they had all gone through to the dining-room.

  Nick’s expression became blacker and blacker as the conversation went on, his prolonged silence evidence of his disapproval.

  But the conversation did eventually move on to other things, and the subject of the two of them having a honeymoon had thankfully been forgotten by this time.

  Nevertheless, Gemini was deeply aware of the continued grimness of Nick’s mood as the evening progressed. So much so that by the time the two of them left, several hours later, Gemini wasn’t at all looking forward to the drive home alone in the car with him.

  But Nick was surprisingly silent in the dark quietness of the car, driving with his usual competence—until Gemini couldn’t stand the silence any longer.

  ‘Just say what you have to say, Nick, and get it over with!’ she told him agitatedly. ‘I feel like a naughty little girl sitting here waiting for chastisement!’ she added disgustedly.

  He glanced at her, a glimmer of amusement showing on his harsh features in the light given off by the street-lamps that lined the road they drove down. ‘The sort of chastisement I would like to administer couldn’t possibly be carried out in a moving car—especially as I’m the one driving it!’ he finally drawled wryly.

  Gemini looked at him sharply; what on earth did he mean?

  ‘Why the hell have you never said you would have liked to have gone away on honeymoon?’ he suddenly rasped, that humour of a few moments ago quickly evaporating.

  She swallowed hard, frowning. That wasn’t what she’d said earlier—was it…? She couldn’t remember exactly what she had said now. Besides, that wasn’t the part of the conversation that had upset Nick!

  ‘Stop changing the subject, Nick,’ she snapped impatiently. ‘We both know that isn’t why you’re so annoyed with me.’

  ‘Do we?’ His tone was mild—too mild.

  But the last twenty-four hours had been some of the most difficult Gemini had had to deal with in their marriage, and she wasn’t in the mood for word games. ‘I only mentioned Jessica earlier as a way of distracting John and Mary’s attention away from our relationship—or lack of it!’ she defended, her blue eyes flashing her irritation.

  ‘Well, you certainly succeeded,’ Nick drawled sarcastically. ‘An evening talking about babies—especially other people’s!—is not my idea of relaxation!’

  Her cheeks burnt hotly. ‘Why don’t you say it, Nick? An evening talking about Jemima’s baby isn’t your idea of relaxation!’ Her eyes glowed angrily across at him in the gloom.

  ‘As it happens—no, it damn well isn’t!’ he acknowledged harshly. ‘Your sister is one of the most
irresponsible women I have ever had the misfortune to meet; the last thing I want is for people to imagine you are in the least like her!’

  And yet he had loved Jemima. And he didn’t seem to love her…

  ‘Or to know that you were once engaged to marry her,’ Gemini reminded him, desperately trying to keep control of the hurt that was welling up inside. It would be positively the last straw if she were to burst into tears! ‘And you have no need to worry on my account, Nick,’ she assured him bleakly. ‘I’ll never let you down as your social hostess again.’

  He gave her an impatient glance. ‘I never said you had let me down, damn it,’ he rasped. ‘Only that the conversation this evening left a lot to be desired.’

  ‘John and Mary seemed quite happy with it,’ she said dully, knowing that she was very close to letting those unwanted tears fall.

  It had all just been too much since Jessica’s arrival in their life the evening before. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Nick had continued to stay away on business.

  Damn it, she usually couldn’t wait for him to return home, and now she was cursing the fact that this time he had come home too soon!

  Nick gave a heavy sigh. ‘I think the best thing to do about this evening is to just forget it ever happened,’ he snapped. ‘Except for one part of it, it’s been a very forgettable evening,’ he added grimly.

  Gemini looked at him warily, blinking back the tears. ‘And which part would that be?’

  ‘Stay and have a nightcap with me when we get in, Gemini.’ Nick reached out and briefly squeezed her hand in his before returning his hand to the steering-wheel. ‘I think there are some things we need to talk about.’

  She swallowed hard. Things they needed to talk about…? Such as what?

  Thirty-six hours ago Gemini had known exactly who she was, and hopefully where she was going. She was Gemini Stone, founder of GemStone, a fashion label that was fast making a name for itself. She was also the wife of Nick Drummond. Maybe in name only, but she had felt secure and cared for, if not loved, as Nick’s wife.