because, if you do, your marriage will be over and you’ll be back home with Mother again.
It really was a no-brainer, not the way she was feeling right at this moment. She had to experience his lovemaking at least one more time, or go crazy.
‘That sounds…nice,’ she heard herself saying.
‘Darling,’ he murmured, reaching over to take her hand in his. ‘I can’t tell you how happy you’ve just made me. I’ve missed you terribly in bed,’ he said, stroking her fingers all the while. ‘You must know that.’
Suddenly, and perhaps perversely, she found the courage to at least give voice to one of her concerns. ‘Actually no, James,’ she choked out, even as her stomach contracted into a savage knot of desire. ‘I don’t know that.’
His eyes betrayed true surprise, his fingers stilling on hers.
‘What do you mean?’
‘You are the big boss of Images; a very rich, very powerful man. If you’d wanted sex these past few months, you’d have had no trouble getting it.’
There was no doubting his shock. Either that, or he was the best actor in the world.
‘I have never been unfaithful to you, Megan. Never! I want you and only you,’ he insisted, lifting her curled-over hand to his lips and kissing her knuckles.
It was probably a lie, Megan thought dazedly. But a brilliant one. She could perhaps live with lies like that, if he kept delivering them with such seeming sincerity, along with some of his exquisite lovemaking.
‘I’ll get right on to booking a place on Dream Island as soon as I get to work,’ he continued with his usual decisiveness. ‘But before I leave, can I tempt you with some cereal? Or a croissant?’
‘Not just now,’ she said tersely, and pulled her hand out of his hold.
James frowned as only James could, his thick dark brows beetling together, his black eyes glittering with instant disapproval. ‘As much as you’re looking incredibly lovely today, my darling, you don’t want to lose any more weight. Not if we’re going to try for another baby.’
Her nostrils sucked in sharply before she could stop them.
‘Is there a problem with that?’ he demanded to know straight away. ‘Is it still too soon for you?’
A hundred years would be too soon, she wanted to scream at him. Oh, God, what if she never wanted to have another baby? What if this fear never passed?
‘The doctor said there was no physical reason for you to have another miscarriage,’ James went on before she could find the right reply. ‘Look, you said when we married that you wanted a big family.’
‘Yes, I know I did,’ she said tightly. And she still did!
It was all so impossible, Megan realised despairingly.
‘Tell me what’s bothering you,’ he persisted.
‘I can’t.’
‘You can, you know,’ he said, reaching over and touching her hand again. ‘You can tell me anything. Would it help if I said I already know what it is?’
Megan snatched her hand away from under his. He knew she didn’t want to have a baby? Knew she was on the Pill?
‘You think you don’t want sex any more,’ he pronounced baldly as he sat back in his chair.
Megan almost laughed, just managing to hide her reaction by looking away and picking up her orange juice.
Any secret amusement—however perverse—was soon squashed when he rose abruptly from his chair and strode round to hers. Megan froze whilst he swept the glass of juice from her hand and banged it back onto the tray. Two seconds later, her chair had been twisted away from the table and he was pulling her up into his arms.
‘I should have done this last night,’ he growled as his mouth swooped.
Megan didn’t want him to kiss her, not right now!
But there was no stopping him.
She tried not to respond but it was a futile struggle from the start. Her mind quickly dissolved, along with her body. There was no thought of resistance. There was nothing but blind acceptance that this was where she wanted to be. In his arms. She forgot, in the heat of the moment, that her period had arrived just before dawn that morning…
Chapter Four
YES!
A wild elation swept through James when Megan finally responded. For a moment there, he’d thought she was going to reject him again.
But there was no rejection in the way she was suddenly pressing herself against him.
God, but he’d really missed her. Missed this.
She was so sweet, he thought as his mouth softened against hers. Delicious, really. His mind was already racing ahead of his actions, thinking of how for once he would make love to her out of a bed and in broad daylight. Soon he’d pick her up and carry her over to the red leather sofa under the window. Soon he’d be inside her.
First, however, he would have to get her a little more excited, or she might object. She really was incredibly shy.
He lifted his mouth from hers but he didn’t let her go, turning her round in his arms so that her back was against him. His left arm wound tightly around her waist, his right hand left free. Free to slide into the neckline of her robe and cup her breast, playing with her nipple through the thin silk of her nightie.
It was larger than he remembered. Larger and more responsive. Megan moaned softly as he played with it.
James was stunned when she wrenched herself out of his arms and whirled away.
‘You…you have to stop,’ she said, her voice shaking.
‘But why?’ he snapped. ‘You want it. I know you do.’
‘Yes, I do,’ she admitted, her face flushing. ‘I’m sorry, but we…we can’t do anything right now. I have my period.’
James almost swore. But just as well he hadn’t: Megan was not the sort of girl one used words like that with.
‘For how long?’ he asked, still a little sharply. But, hell on earth, he was in agony.
‘Till Friday at least,’ she said.
That was five whole days away! For a few seconds James struggled with his frustration before realising that those five days would eventually pass. After which…
‘Will your period definitely be finished by Saturday?’
‘Saturday should be fine,’ she said, and blushed prettily.
His eyes raked over her, noting that her eyes were sparkling and her nipples hard as rocks. It was going to be difficult
