by Anne Hampson
He stopped for a moment, giving Jill the chance to speak, but all she said was, 'Please go on, Adam. What did you do then?'
'I phoned Charon to ask if anything unusual had happened on the morning of your departure, and he said no, but he did mention that you'd had a visitor the previous day.' Adam stopped, and Jill shivered at the change in his expression. 'I came to Athens, arriving very late last night, and saw Julia this morning.' His voice had sharpened, his eyes taken on a metallic glint. 'I very soon got it all out of her,' he gritted savagely. 'I could have killed her! She'd already had a hint from me that I was no longer sure about the merger—'
'She had?' Jill looked interrogatingly at him. 'She never mentioned anything like that.'
'She wouldn't, naturally, because she still hoped it would go through eventually.'
'You told her the engagement was off?'
'She broke it off said she knew she had done wrong and that I'd never forgive her if I found out. She saw it was hopeless at that point anyway. She knew what I barely knew myself, that I love you.'
'I feel sorry for her,' murmured Jill, but she could not let herself dwell for long on Julia, who, with a dowry like that, would soon find a husband. Besides, Adam was speaking again, saying that he had known for some time that Jill was affecting him more than any other woman he had ever known. 'I was falling in love with you, obviously,' he went on, and now his voice was edged with a tender quality that made Jill forget everything except the fact that he cared, that he was hers for always. 'I had felt for some time that you were beginning to feel something for me, too, and on the yacht I came very near to telling you of my feelings. Then you shattered me by saying you'd rather be with Gilbert—'
'I lied,' she broke in regretfully, 'but of course you know that now. You see, darling, I was afraid you might guess at my feelings for you, and as I never thought you'd ever return my love, I had to do something to help my pride, and so when you asked if I'd rather be with Gilbert, I said yes.' She looked at him through a mist of tears, and he kissed her then and dried her eyes.
'It was all my fault right from the start,' he offered freely. 'I was unwilling to admit to what seemed at that time to be a weakness. I had been set on the merger for a long time; I was engaged to Julia, and you don't need me to tell you just how binding a betrothal is in Greece. There seemed so much against my falling in love with you that I was determined to fight it. After all,' he added with a wry smile, 'I've had affectionate feelings for women before, many times, but this. ..' He broke off, shaking his head. 'It was too strong for me, dearest. I really don't know why I didn't realise it sooner.' He paused in thought. 'I knew it for certain that evening when we came from the wedding and had the meal at the taverna on the beach.'
'I remember that evening so well,' she murmured reflectively, then went on to mention the impression she had had earlier, when they were strolling along the lanes in the village. 'I had a strange feeling that you were fighting something that was difficult to fight,' she ended, and sent him a sidelong glance and saw him nod his head.
'I was fighting my love for you at that time, too,' he confessed with a wry expression on his handsome face. 'So when you asked if anything was wrong, I snapped at you, didn't I?' Jill let that pass, because it was no longer of the slightest importance to her. 'But it was becoming too strong for me,' he admitted wryly again. 'Yet I managed to maintain an attitude of indifference, if you remember?' Again Jill let his words pass, and Adam added with a smile, 'But when the heart dictates, the head doesn't really stand much chance, does it?' Jill was silent a moment, digesting all he had told her. 'How could you have been so very sure I'd want to come back to you?' she asked curiously at length, and again her husband smiled, this time a little crookedly and most attractively. 'A man usually knows if his wife's in love with him or not. And I finally saw what I should have seen before, that you did love me, and that I had made you afraid to say so.'
'But I wasn't supposed to fall in love with you,' she broke in, without quite knowing why.
'Shall we leave any arguments for a later date?' he suggested. 'For the present, love, all I want to do is kiss you and hold you close to my heart.' And suiting the action to the words, he held her quivering body to him, enfolding it lovingly with hands that were infinitely gentle. His eyes on her face were filled with tender emotion, and Jill, her arms sliding into his coat to encircle his waist, lifted her face willingly, all the love and adoration she felt for him shining in her eyes. 'Is it true?' she was asking a long while later, when, flushed and dishevelled, she was being held at arm's length, her husband's dark face registering faint amusement at her appearance.
'It's true, my beloved,' he answered in tones vibrant with meaning. 'I adore you and I always will.' Jill tried to speak, but as emotion blocked her throat, she merely nestled close in her husband's arms, finding a resting place for her head against his wildly beating heart.
The end
First Edition
© Anne Hampson, 1981
Silhouette Romance # 52
ISBN: 9780340267417
Hodder & Stoughton
About author,
Anne Hampson grew up in England with little money. So she didn't get a real education until she was middle aged and divorced. She graduated from Manchester University and decided to fulfill a lifelong ambition and write a book.
Anne Hampson started writing for Mills and Boon in the late 1960's. Her Harlequin Romance and Harlequin Presents books were very popular. Anne Hampson was actually the person who came up with the books series title Harlequin Presents and she did some of her best writing for that line. But in 1980 Anne Hampson stopped writing for her old publisher and became the star author for Silhouette Romances. She wrote over 25 titles from Silhouette.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine