The Failed Marriage (Presents Plus)

by Carole Mortimer

  For a brief moment irritation flared in his eyes, then he nodded, opening the door wider. ‘You’d better come in.’

  Not exactly the most eager invitation she had ever received, but she accepted anyway, instantly feeling the warmth of the cabin, a gentle snow falling outside, the temperature well below freezing. She gave a pleasurable shiver as the warmth invaded her chilled body.

  She bent down to take her boots off, taking care not to use her right hand too much, knowing piercing grey eyes were watching her every move. Almost as if he suspected the whole thing was a ruse!

  But of course he couldn’t know that. A strained wrist could only really be felt by the injured person, this man couldn’t possibly know that the bandage she wore was completely unnecessary.

  ‘Ooh, what a lovely fire!’ Her face glowed as she followed him into the lounge, warming her hands in front of the blazing logs.

  His dark brows rose. ‘Don’t you have one in your own cabin?’

  She had said the first thing that came into her head as she entered the room, realising now how stupid it had been. He would only have to look out of the window to see the smoke billowing out of her chimney to know she did indeed have a fire. ‘Oh yes,’ she nodded. ‘But it isn’t as nice as this one,’ she added lamely.

  ‘Indeed?’ He looked sceptical. ‘Well, you’d better let me take a look at it.’

  She frowned. ‘The fire?’

  ‘Your wrist,’ he derided.

  Hot colour flooded her cheeks. ‘Oh yes.’ She held it put to him to examine.

  Joshua’s mouth twisted. ‘Perhaps you would like to take your coat off and make yourself comfortable on the sofa. If your wrist still hurts that badly after all this time I’d better take a thorough look at it. Maybe I missed a fracture last time.’

  Joanna unzipped her anorak, slipping her arms out of it with his help, pulling off the woollen hat she had pulled down over her ears, knowing the navy blue jumper and matching cords suited her slenderness, the jumper making her hair appear blonder than ever.

  This time when he probed her wrist he did so with a concentration that left her gasping.

  ‘That hurts?’ He looked up sharply as he heard her indrawn breath.

  She swallowed hard. It hadn’t hurt at all; his touch on her flesh had fired her senses, and she hadn’t been able to hold back her gasp of pleasure. ‘Just a little.’ She moistened her dry lips, this time unable to meet his gaze.

  He placed her hand gently down on her thigh and stood up. ‘I’m sure it’s just a sprain,’ he said tersely. ‘It will hurt for a while.’

  She nodded, her nose wrinkling enchantingly as she looked up at him. ‘I just thought I would make sure. What’s that delicious smell?’ she asked eagerly, her mouth watering at the lovely aroma wafting over from the kitchen area.

  ‘Spare ribs,’ he supplied the answer with a dark frown.

  She smiled. ‘They smell lovely.’

  Joshua seemed to hesitate, a hundred different emotions flickering across his face at the same time, and none of them definitely discernible. ‘Would you like to join me for dinner?’ he asked abruptly.

  ‘Oh, I couldn’t—’

  ‘You could,’ he drawled derisively. ‘Please. I have more than enough for two.’

  Her eyes glowed her pleasure. ‘Well, if you’re sure…’

  ‘I am,’ he nodded. ‘You can make the salad dressing while I finish cooking the ribs.’

  She couldn’t have been happier, and if they should happen to touch by accident as they finished preparing the dinner together in the kitchen area then she didn’t mind at all. Joshua’s expression remained enigmatic, but he didn’t seem to mind too much either.

  ‘Will your parents be wondering where you are?’ he asked as they served the meal.

  She shook her head. ‘They’re out.’

  ‘I see,’ he frowned. ‘You seem to have been on your own a lot the last few weeks.’

  She shrugged, carrying the plates over to the breakfast-bar. ‘I’m hardly a child that they feel they have to entertain me.’

  ‘No,’ he sat down next to her, his thigh briefly touching hers before he moved slightly away. ‘How old did you say you were?’ he quirked dark brows.

  ‘Er—twenty,’ she suddenly remembered. God, she was hopeless at lying—she could never remember what she had said! And she had a feeling this man knew that. His next words confirmed it.

  ‘What does that mean?’ he derided. ‘That you’re one month over nineteen?’

  At least he hadn’t guessed the real truth! ‘Something like that,’ she smiled her relief. ‘You’re a good cook, Joshua,’ she changed the subject.

  ‘And you make a good salad dressing,’ he said lightly. ‘I’m roasting marshmallows for dessert,’ he grinned, instantly looking younger.

  It sounded revolting, but Joanna found it delicious when she tried it later, the inside of the marshmallow all soft, the outside crisper, with a slightly burnt taste. ‘Mm, they’re lovely.’ She ate another one off the end of her fork, about her fifth, she thought.

  Joshua sat at her side in front of the fire, both their faces glowing from sitting so close to the flames, Joshua sitting cross-legged on the floor, his bare feet under his legs. ‘Here, have this one,’ he held out his fork to her. ‘I’ve had enough.’

  There was something very intimate about him feeding her, and as she bent forward to take the marshmallow her gaze locked and held with his, the pulse beating erratically in his cheek telling her that he too was affected by the provocation of the moment.

  ‘Joshua—’

  ‘Let’s go and load the dishwasher,’ he stood up, pulling her to her feet, ‘and then I think you’d better go back to your own cabin.’

  She didn’t want to leave yet, had no intention of going yet, not until she had known the fulfilment of that promise in his eyes during that unguarded look. He couldn’t look at her like that, with naked desire one minute, and then treat her like a child the next.

  ‘Could I have a coffee first?’ she asked huskily once they had loaded the dishwasher in silence. ‘My parents won’t be back yet and—’

  ‘All right, a coffee,’ he agreed abruptly. ‘Go and sit down and I’ll make us some.’

  ‘No, let me—’ She broke off as her body collided

  with his, the tension between them a tangible force now, Joshua’s hands rough on her arms as he steadied her.

  He looked down at her in silence for several long minutes, his breathing deep and ragged, his gaze locked on the parted pinkness of her mouth. Finally he thrust her away from him. ‘All right,’ he bit out, ‘you make it. I like mine strong,’ he added abruptly.

  ‘So do I.’ She sounded almost timid, aware that this had stopped being a challenge, that Joshua was now as deeply aware of her as she was of him, and that he knew much more about appeasing that sudden flare of desire than she did. Suddenly this was no longer a game.

  It was relatively easy for her to find the makings for coffee, and apprehensive glances at Joshua as he sat in the lounge revealed a stony expression. His face remained grim as she carried in the tray of coffee, although he sat forward on the sofa to make room for the tray on the table as she came through with it.

  ‘Black and sweet,’ he responded tersely to her query. ‘It’s as good as a cold shower,’ he added derisively.

  Joanna sat down beside him, her eyes downcast as she poured his coffee, adding a liberal amount of sugar before pouring her own unsweetened brew.

  ‘Why me, Joanna?’ he asked suddenly.

  Her lids flew open in surprise, then she quickly lowered them again as she saw the mockery in his gaze.

  ‘Why not the young ski-instructor who can’t take his eyes off you?’ he continued softly. ‘Or one of the other young men here who only needed a word or look of encouragement for you?’

  She tentatively moistened her lips, her lashes fanning her cheeks. ‘I don’t know what you mean—’

  ‘Oh yes, you do,’ he taunted h
uskily. ‘Ever since that first day you saw me with Mari you’ve—’

  ‘Mari?’ she echoed in a puzzled voice.

  ‘My young American friend with the red hair,’ he drawled derisively. ‘Every since that first day I’ve been aware of you watching me, of always being where I am.’

  She was stricken that he had noticed so much. ‘And laughing at me, I suppose,’ she choked. ‘With her!’

  His face darkened, his mouth tautening to a thin line. ‘Neither of us laughed at you, Joanna. I doubt Mari was even aware of your interest.’

  Tears glistened in her eyes as she realised what a fool she had made of herself in his eyes. He probably even knew there had never been any injury to her wrist. God, she wanted to die!

  ‘Joanna—’

  She sprang to her feet, so embarrassed she wanted to just go away and hide—at the very least to be alone to lick her wounds of humiliation!

  ‘Joanna!’ Joshua stood up too, grasping her shoulders. ‘I’m not trying to hurt you—’

  ‘Aren’t you?’ she choked. ‘It seems that way to me!’

  ‘And how does this seem?’ he enquired gently, bending his head enough to softly claim her lips with his own. His breathing was very ragged when he finally lifted his head. ‘I’m trying very hard to resist you, Joanna, but you aren’t making it easy for me.’

  Her mouth tingled from the pressure of his, her misery forgotten as her whole body came alive beneath his touch. ‘Did you resist Mari?’ she asked.

  He frowned. ‘What does—’

  ‘Did you?’ she persisted softly.

  ‘No,’ he admitted ruefully. ‘But we were both willing for a holiday—romance.’

  ‘Affair,’ Joanna amended scornfully.

  ‘Affair, then,’ he gave a dismissive shrug. ‘Although it wasn’t even that. We’ll probably never meet again, in fact, I’m sure we won’t.’

  ‘Neither will we after tomorrow.’

  ‘Tomorrow?’ he echoed sharply, suddenly tense. ‘Are you leaving tomorrow?’

  ‘Yes,’ she sighed. ‘Does that make a difference to how you feel about me now?’

  ‘It shouldn’t,’ he said grimly. ‘But somehow it does. I’m going to miss your little heart-shaped face peeping at me from beneath a bright woolly hat. Maybe if we’d had more time together, could have become friends…’

  ‘Maybe what?’ Joanna’s tone showed her exasperation with such an enigmatic statement.

  Joshua shrugged his broad shoulders, moving to thrust his hands in his trouser pockets. ‘Just maybe.’

  For a few brief moments, she had felt as if she were on the brink of some momentous discovery, had felt Joshua being pulled to her in spite of himself. And now he was more or less asking her to leave again.

  ‘Joshua, no one can live on maybes,’ there was pleading in her voice. ‘It’s my last evening here, and—’

  ‘And you want something to remember the holiday by!’ he ground out viciously. ‘A night in a man’s bed—any man, that you can look back on in connection with this holiday?’

  She shook her head in bewilderment. ‘No. I—’

  ‘Because if that’s all you want, Joanna, you can have it!’ He pulled her fiercely against him, his mouth a brutal assault on her unprepared lips. ‘You’ve been asking for this for three weeks now!’ He pushed her down on to the rug in front of the fire, swiftly covering her body with his. ‘Well, now you can damn well have it!’ His hand reached out to switch off the main light, leaving the room bathed in a red glow. ‘By firelight, no less!’ he taunted hardly, throwing off his shirt to reveal his deeply bronzed chest. ‘I hope this proves to be as memorable as you thought it would, Joanna,’ he muttered before his mouth claimed hers again.

  By his tone and manner she had been expecting more aggression; instead she got such tenderness that her very bones seemed to melt. With a confidence she couldn’t deny Joshua touched all the unguarded places no other man had probed, and it wasn’t long before she was naked beneath him, eagerly urging the joining of his body with hers.

  ‘A night to remember, Joanna,’ he slowed down the pace with languorous kisses, ‘for both of us.’

  His lips began to know all of her body now, first one breast, then the other, sliding down to kiss her inner thigh, and Joanna’s gasp of surprise quickly turned to one of pleasure as Joshua’s mouth ignited a flame of passion so overwhelming her body began to shudder as little time-bombs went off inside her. Joshua was not satisfied until she was sated.

  ‘Now me.’ His kissed her on the lips before lying down beside her, an expectant look on his aroused passion-filled face.

  She still felt dizzy from the pleasure that had racked her body, knowing only that he wanted her to make love to him in the same way he had just done to her. With the knowledge of Eve she soon had him gasping his own pleasure, knowing a sense of elation that she could arouse and fulfil him in return, murmuring a protest as he refused to let her take him over the edge.

  But their lovemaking was far from over. Joshua aroused her even more quickly the second time, her body eager for his as he lay between her parted thighs, the probe of his manhood meeting only a little resistance, although it was enough to cause his eyes to widen in surprise.

  Joanna allowed him no time for questions, moving against him in a rhythm that he soon had to follow, the explosion of their bodies as they reached a simultaneous climax making Joanna wonder if they had both died and gone to heaven.

  Joshua was heavy above her, although his caresses soothed the sporadic trembling of her body, the pleasure having been almost too much to bear, her whole body bathed in a flow of ecstasy still.

  Finally he raised his head to look down at her, a question in the icy grey depths of his eyes as his body left her, leaning on his elbow to gaze down at her flushed face.

  ‘It was mine to give,’ she told him heatedly before he could say anything.

  He sighed, swallowing convulsively. ‘That’s true. But—’

  ‘And I gave it to the man I wanted to!’

  ‘Joanna—’

  She pushed away from him, standing up, like a young goddess as she stood naked in front of him, her body having all the allure of the woman she had just become, the firelight picking out every contour and curve. ‘I don’t regret what just happened,’ her voice shook with emotion. ‘Not for an instant!’

  Joshua closed his eyes for a moment, a fire burning in their depths as he opened them again. ‘Neither do I.’ He slowly stood up, his body tanned and glistening with sweat from their lovemaking in front of the fire. He gave a slow smile. ‘Let’s go and take a bath together in the king-size tub.’ His arm came about her waist.

  Joanna moistened her lips nervously. ‘And afterwards?’

  He laughed softly. ‘Afterwards—or during—we can make love again.’

  They did manage to wait until they reached the bedroom, although not until they had dried themselves, their wet gleaming bodies soon drying under the heat of their passion.

  Joanna had never felt so happy in her entire life, and she fell asleep in Joshua’s arms, her head resting on his shoulder, more sure than ever that she loved this man.

  She woke with a start, unsure of her surroundings for a moment, or the solid wall of chest beneath her cheek. Joshua murmured in his sleep, pulling her closer to the hard arousal of his body.

  ‘Want you,’ he murmured drowsily, his eyes opening wide as he too came fully awake. ‘God, Joanna, I want you again,’ he groaned.

  ‘I have to leave,’ she told him softly. ‘It’s after eleven, my parents are expecting me to be at home when they get back.’

  ‘Not yet.’ The storm-tossed eyes pleaded with her. ‘Just a little while longer, Joanna. Please!’

  His hands were already caressing her body with an intimacy that she didn’t have the willpower to resist, and she was weak to the pleading in his voice, groaning her capitulation.

  It was over an hour later before she left him, hurrying back to her parents’ cabin, carr
ying the warm glow of Joshua’s lovemaking with her.

  That wasn’t all she had carried with her from that night! Just six weeks later, on their return from their stay in Florida, Joanna knew she carried his child too.

  She had woken the morning after their lovemaking with the knowledge that she was leaving Canada today, as her parents were longing for the sunshine of a Florida holiday after all this snow.

  They were due to leave for the airport at ten o’clock, and Joanna waited anxiously for Joshua to come and say goodbye to her. He hadn’t said he would, but she felt sure he would do so.

  By ten she knew he wasn’t coming, and burying her pride she ran over to his cabin. Her urgent knock received no reply, and the door was locked when she tried it. Joshua wasn’t even here; he had probably just gone skiing as he usually did!

  She felt as if the bottom had dropped out of her world. And worst of all, she felt used, just another holiday affair to Joshua, like Mari had been. The most humiliating part was knowing that she had been responsible for what happened, that without her determined chasing of him Joshua probably wouldn’t have given her a second glance.

  The six weeks in Florida had been miserable for her, although her parents had a wonderful time and were unable to understand their daughter’s unhappiness. Joanna’s heart felt as if a cold weight had settled on it, and she knew that the night that had meant so little to Joshua that he hadn’t even taken the trouble to say goodbye to her was the night she had given him her heart.

  She completely panicked when she realised she was pregnant, terrified of the reprisals of such a mistake. At first she had tried to deny it to herself, but when she missed yet another period she knew that she was indeed carrying Joshua’s child, was just over two months pregnant.

  That was it! It was his child, not just hers, but his too, and she couldn’t go through this alone, didn’t want to go through it at all. Joshua was a doctor, he would know what to do for the best.