their marriage was over and had run like a scared cat.
Not only that, though, she’d had visions of her mother’s unhappy marriage—of a husband who neglected her, who was absent far more often than he was at home. Maybe for different reasons than Hunter’s, but even so it would almost have been like history repeating itself. It had ruined her mother’s health, and Keisha had been afraid that her own sanity would be at risk if she continued in her marriage any longer.
Hunter took one sip of his coffee and then put the cup back down. ‘Maybe I will go. Maybe tomorrow would be a better time to talk—when you’re in a more receptive frame of mind. I’ll pick you up at ten.’
And with that sweeping statement, before she could even say a word, he grabbed his jacket and walked out of the house.
Keisha was left feeling utterly inadequate. Why hadn’t she spoken? Why hadn’t she told him that she never wanted to see him again? Now she would be compelled to face him in the morning—and what was the betting that he wouldn’t take no for an answer a second time?
Sleep evaded her that night. Instead her mind went back to her first date with Hunter…
At twenty-nine, Hunter Donahue had been much older and far more sophisticated than Keisha, and when he’d turned up at her house looking suave and elegant, in dark trousers and a white shirt, she had felt sudden panic.
‘Wh-where are we going?’ she asked huskily as he escorted her out to his car.
‘The world’s our oyster. Where would you like to go?’
‘I don’t know,’ she whispered. ‘I’ll leave it up to you.’ Heavens, she was so nervous.
Hunter smiled, a lovely warm smile that began to melt the fear in her heart. ‘I know a nice quiet little restaurant by the river. Would that suit?’
Keisha nodded.
It was the beginning of a whirlwind affair. His kisses were to die for and his lovemaking out of this world. And when he proposed to her after they’d been going out for only a few weeks she could hardly believe it.
‘Are you serious?’ she asked. She wanted to say yes, she wanted to shout it from the rooftops, but she had to be sure first. This was a tremendous step.
‘Extremely serious,’ he answered, and his eyes told her that it was true. They were the most intense blue she had ever seen them, and he looked at her with so much love that she felt she would die.
Their wedding was a fairytale dream, and their honeymoon in Madeira out of this world, but what she hadn’t realised was that Hunter was obsessed with making money, and over the following months he spent so many hours at his office that she hardly saw him.
She felt distinctly lonely and neglected. She tried to keep herself busy, but there was a limit to what she could do, and even going to the gym didn’t help. She began to wonder whether he had tired of her, whether it was an affair that was keeping him away. He was sometimes too exhausted to make love, which was such a change from the rampant male he’d been in the early weeks of their marriage that there had to be something different happening in his life.
And when one night he returned home and she smelled another woman’s perfume on him her heart fell with a thud into the pit of her stomach.
‘Have you been with another woman?’ she asked fiercely, pulling away from his kiss and staring into the blueness of his eyes.
‘God, no!’ he exclaimed at once. ‘As if I’d do that.’
‘I can smell perfume on you.’
‘Maybe,’ he acknowledged with a shrug. ‘I’ve been entertaining a female client.’
‘And you got so close that her perfume is lingering on your clothes?’
Hunter pursed his lips wryly. ‘Actually, she—’
But Keisha didn’t want to listen to excuses. ‘Did you take her to bed?’ she asked swiftly.
Hunter stiffened, his blue eyes suddenly fierce and condemning. ‘Are you questioning my integrity? Don’t you love me enough to trust me?’
‘Of course I love you,’ she replied, noticing that he hadn’t actually answered her question. ‘The trouble is I love you too much. I miss you.’ It was a plea from her heart. ‘I want you, Hunter, so badly. I don’t want any other woman to have you.’
‘And none shall,’ he declared gruffly, folding her in his arms and kissing her soundly. That night his lovemaking was better than ever. And when he began to keep more reasonable hours Keisha knew that she had been mistaken.
But after a few weeks the late nights started all over again, and her insecurity grew to such an extent that she couldn’t help tackling him. ‘Who is it this time that’s keeping you away from me?’ she demanded to know. She had waited up for him and began her attack the moment he entered the house. ‘The same woman or someone else?’
Hunter frowned harshly. ‘Keisha, I will not allow these ridiculous accusations. What the hell’s the matter with you? Have I ever given you reason to think that I’m having an affair?’
‘Yes—you had perfume on you,’ she riposted quickly.
‘And do I have a woman’s perfume on me now?’ he asked, pulling her close. ‘Go on, smell me! Do I?’
Keisha had to confess that he didn’t. ‘I can’t think of any other reason why you keep such ridiculous hours if it’s not a woman,’ she retorted. ‘It’s not as though you need the money. Your company’s doing very well.’
‘And why is it doing well?’ he asked fiercely. ‘Because I put in all the hours God gives to make it that way. It’s my driving force—haven’t you realised that yet? And while we’re on the subject of infidelity, perhaps I should be the one questioning you?’
Keisha head jerked and she frowned. What was he talking about?
‘Do you realise how often you mention Marc Collins these days?’
‘Do I?’ she asked. She wasn’t aware of it.
‘Yes, you do,’ he answered, his voice abrasive, his eyes accusing. ‘And you seem to be going to the gym far more frequently. Maybe I’m the one who has reason to be suspicious?’
Keisha laughed. ‘Really, Hunter, he’s just a friend. I told you that. Don’t you believe that a woman can have a male friend?’ Hunter was never around long enough for her to have a decent conversation. She needed someone to talk to, and Marc was always willing to lend an ear.
‘Not a woman as sexy as you,’ he growled, and he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. Hot, passionate kisses, punishing kisses. And soon Marc was forgotten. Everything was forgotten—except the heady excitement of exploring each other’s bodies.
Somehow they seesawed their way through marriage for almost twelve months. There were times when everything went along smoothly and she was the happiest woman alive, and others when her uncertainties reared their ugly heads and they had unholy rows.
Finally Keisha was forced to accept that enough
