by Susan Napier
‘Y-you’re talking about a sort of—marriage of convenience—?’
He looked thunderstruck. ‘The hell I am! I’m obviously not doing this right…’ He drew a breath, trying to curb his savage frustration. ‘You told me once that I can be very overwhelming, so I’ve been trying to hold back, to give you a chance to feel comfortable with me, rather than helpless or overpowered—’
‘Liar!’ she said, exultation battling her disbelief. ‘You’ve done your best to overwhelm me since the day we met!’
‘Only because I was so overwhelmed myself,’ he admitted with devastating sincerity. ‘You always gave as good as you got.’ His mouth quirked reminiscently. ‘Better, sometimes…I admire that.’ His voice dropped to a quiet, almost boyish, awkwardness. ‘I admire you.’
The simple declaration was unbearably moving. ‘Oh, Blake—’
His jaw clenched, as if she was daring to disagree. ‘Life happens, Nora. Sometimes when you’re least expecting it, fate throws a fantastic opportunity your way and you have to grab it with both hands, or risk losing it for ever.’ He turned his hands over, interlacing his fingers with hers. ‘I know you think I don’t trust you, but it was myself I didn’t trust, my own judgement that I had to question. I rarely act on impulse and yet with you I’ve been nothing but impulsive. But then, that’s what love is, isn’t it? Meeting someone you feel an instinctive connection with, someone who excites and surprises you, someone who rouses you to passion and makes you laugh, someone who makes you feel good about them and about yourself, who convinces you that the world is actually a wonderful place….’
Nora made a soft, inarticulate sound which he was quick to interpret as assent. He tucked her hands against his heart, a slight edge entering his voice as he talked fast, his face close to hers as he ruthlessly worked the most important deal of his life. ‘Some people go through their whole lives never having that feeling about another person. I thought I would, too. Until I met you, Nora….’
‘But we hardly know each other,’ she murmured weakly.
He cupped her cheek, strong yet tender. ‘Do you love me?’
‘It’s been less than two weeks—’ she said, drowning in his eyes.
‘And we’ve been lovers for almost as long. Do you want me?’
Her lips turned to his palm. ‘You know I do,’ she relented.
‘Then take the jump with me, Nora. Marry me.’
‘Because you told your boss this morning that you were going to ask?’ she said, from behind the last flimsy barrier of resistance.
Steel melted into a green-flecked tenderness. ‘Actually I told him that day I came back from the beach that I’d met the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with…. He’s been champing at the bit to meet you ever since, but I didn’t want him to scare you off. I told my mother, too, when I asked her to pick you up. Thank God she kept that titbit from that bigmouthed sister of mine.’
‘Blake, you didn’t!’ Her retrospective embarrassment was huge.
‘If you take me, you get it all—my love, my children, my ever-loving, ever-annoying family, my interfering boss…I’ll admit I come with plenty of extra baggage, but you need a lot of baggage for a long haul, Nora. And that’s what it’s going to be for us.’
‘But still—’ Her freckled face crinkled anxiously as she strove to be sensible in a world gone deliciously mad. ‘A week and a half…. We can’t really know if we’re compatible after such a short time….’
‘That’s what long engagements are for,’ he said persuasively. ‘With my ring on your finger we can have a proper courtship. You can move in with me when you’re ready. Live with me for weeks, months, years—however long you need to feel safe in your choice of husband.’
His tone of martyred self-sacrifice made her want to laugh. ‘As long as that ultimate choice is you,’ she said wryly. He was so very big on offering her choices that had only one outcome!
‘Yes…’ He began to toy with the knot of the robe in a cunning way that made it suddenly fall apart. ‘And, having said that, I’d naturally prefer that we married before our first baby is born,’ he added, unable to resist the urge to negotiate better terms for himself. ‘My mother is very tolerant of modern morality but Scotty would have fifty fits if his god-children were illegitimate.’
With a little giggle and a sly shimmy, Nora let the robe fall open. ‘I suppose I can accept those terms.’
‘You mean it?’ he murmured, looking both delighted and indecently smug at his success.
‘I love you; why wouldn’t I love the idea of being your wife?’ She laughed joyously as he whirled her into his extravagant embrace. ‘And I especially love the idea that my indulgent new husband is going to let me drive his super-cool sports car whenever I want!’
Fortunately the champagne-fuelled celebrations had already begun down the hall and nobody heard the shrieks and growls that gradually dissolved in the sound of pure joy.
ISBN: 978-1-5525-4594-2
MISTRESS FOR A WEEKEND
First North American Publication 2006.
Copyright © 2006 by Susan Napier.
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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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