I were you, I’d spend the rest of the day in bed and I’ll arrange for your meals to be brought to you.’
Freya didn’t have the strength to argue. It felt strange to be mothered after the years of indifference from her grandmother, she mused after she had played with Aimee for a while before Jean Lewis had taken the little girl off to explore the roof-garden. She had warmed to Jean’s kindness instantly and for the first time since Aimee’s birth she felt she could relax and trust that her baby would be well cared for.
Over the next two days she began to appreciate Jean’s advice. The accident had taken its toll and she was shocked at how tired and emotional she felt. The sound of laughter from the nursery indicated that Aimee was perfectly happy with the nanny, and it made a welcome change to have a temporary reprieve from her responsibilities.
To her relief she saw little of Zac. He had left for his office before she woke in the mornings and did not return until late in the evening. Some things hadn’t changed, she mused wryly as she recalled the long, lonely days she had spent when she had lived with him, waiting for him to return from his office or one of his frequent business trips.
A few times he had taken her abroad with him. Deverell’s owned stores in several European cities as well as New York, Rio de Janeiro and Dubai, but although the scenery was different her life had followed a similar pattern that had revolved around Zac and his hectic schedule.
She had been nothing more than a sex slave, she thought dismally, but innate honesty forced her to admit that she had taken on the role willingly. Zac had been like an addiction and at the time she had believed that she loved him. But had she confused love with lust? He had let her down so badly she could not possibly still be in love with him now, she reassured herself. The feelings he stirred in her were purely sexual. Although she hated herself, she wanted him with the same urgency that had consumed her when she had been his mistress. But she no longer believed in fairy tales, she would not mistake her physical awareness of him for a deeper emotion, and she certainly would not give in to this feverish need to allow him to make love to her.
Buoyed up by her newfound confidence that she could deal with Zac Deverell and his magnetic charm, Freya wandered through the lounge and out onto the wide balcony. Monaco was truly a billionaire’s paradise, she mused as she stared down at the rows of luxury yachts and motor cruisers moored in the harbour. Zac enjoyed a glamorous lifestyle exclusive to the super-rich, but she had never felt comfortable with his wealth or fitted in with his friends.
In her heart she had always known that he was not the kind of man who would settle for a life of domestic bliss. Zac was an adventurer who lived life close to the edge with his love of extreme sports like sky-diving or power-boat racing. He got a buzz from pushing himself to the limits and playing happy families wasn’t part of his game plan, as his rejection of her and their baby had demonstrated. In a few days he would learn that Aimee was his daughter, but she doubted he would sacrifice any part of his life for a child he didn’t want.
With a heavy sigh she lifted her face to the sky and closed her eyes as the late-afternoon sunshine warmed her skin. After weeks of rain back in England, it felt wonderful, but her relaxed mood was shattered by a familiar voice from behind her.
‘There you are. I’ve been looking everywhere for you,’ Zac said, unable to disguise his impatience that she hadn’t been instantly at his beck and call. ‘I see you’re keeping busy.’
Freya’s eyes flew open and she glared at him indignantly. ‘Aimee’s having a nap and I had nothing to do for five minutes. You insisted that I should stay here,’ she continued crossly when he said nothing. ‘It’s not my fault that there’s nothing for me to do.’ Her words were an eerie echo of the rows they used to have in the past, brought on by her loneliness and boredom and his refusal to cut down on his work schedule to spend time with her. Back then their arguments had ended with him sweeping her off to the bedroom to make love to her—and her capitulating at the first touch of his hands on her body, Freya thought grimly. But then she had given in too easily and now things were very different.
‘Laurent informs me that you seem better today,’ Zac murmured as his eyes skimmed over her in blatant appreciation of her tight-fitting jeans and tee shirt. ‘You certainly look good, chérie, although I can see that your injured wrist still prevents you from putting on your underwear,’ he added silkily.
Blushing furiously, Freya followed his gaze to the firm line of her breasts revealed beneath her thin cotton shirt and felt a tingling sensation as her nipples peaked provocatively beneath his stare. Electricity zinged between them and, despite the warmth of the sun, she shivered as each of her nerve endings flared into urgent life. With an angry murmur she swung away from him and stared out at the endless expanse of cobalt-blue sea.
‘I am feeling better, and my wrist is already less painful—so much so that there’s really no reason for me to stay here any longer. I’ve decided to take Aimee back to England while we wait for the test results,’ she said.
‘I’m afraid I can’t allow that,’ Zac said pleasantly, but she caught the underlying note of steel in his voice and her temper flared.
‘Can’t allow it? Who do you think you are, Zac? I’m not your prisoner.’
‘Certainly not.’ He sounded insulted at the idea. ‘You are my guest, although I admit that I took the liberty of locking your and Aimee’s passports in my desk—in case you should lose them,’ he added when she looked as though she were going to explode.
The breeze lifted her hair and blew the soft strands across his face, leaving behind the faint scent of lemons. Desire coiled low in his gut, but he resisted the urge to slide his fingers into her hair and carefully moved away from her. ‘It suits me to keep you here until I have the results of the test,’ he continued harshly, ‘and then I shall personally escort you out of Monaco and out of my life, chérie. Until then I have a job for you, which should keep you occupied for a few hours at least.’
‘You know what you can do with your damn job,’ Freya choked, desperate to hide her devastation that he still had the ability to hurt her. Angry tears stung her eyes and she dashed them away with the back of her hand before swinging round to face him. ‘You may have forced me to stay here, but you can’t make me spend my time with you, let alone work for you.’
His mocking smile sent a frisson of alarm down her spine and she stepped back until she was jammed up against the balcony railings when he walked purposefully towards her. ‘You should know by now that I can do whatever I like,’ he said with breathtaking arrogance. ‘And I’m not setting you to work down a salt mine. I’m having dinner tonight with an American businessman, Chester Warren, and his wife, followed by an evening at the Opera House to watch a performance by the Monte Carlo Ballet Company. My PA was supposed to be accompanying me but she’s unwell. Francine is pregnant,’ he told her with a grimace, ‘and it seems that she suffers from morning sickness in the evenings.’
‘Poor thing.’ Freya nodded, forgetting her anger for a moment as she sympathised with Zac’s PA. ‘I was sick morning, noon and night for weeks when I was pregnant with Aimee.’ She tailed to a halt beneath Zac’s hard stare and a surge of bitterness flooded through her. Those first weeks after she had returned to England, pregnant, penniless and alone, had been the worst of her life as she had struggled with constant nausea and faced up to her future as a single mother. She had missed Zac desperately and begun every day hoping that he would realise he had made a mistake, and every night crying herself to sleep because he hadn’t come for her. How dared he look at her with that faintly bored expression that told her he was completely disinterested in reminiscences about her pregnancy, when she had been carrying his child! ‘I still don’t understand what your PA’s problems have to do with me,’ she muttered stiffly.
