WIFE BY AGREEMENT Read online

  As she'd stretched she was reminded of the previous night. Her body ached from the vigour of his possession. A possession that she could only view with a slightly detached sense of wonder this morning.'

  'I should get up and warn Mrs Turner we have guests.'

  'How could I forget?' he remarked drily. He didn't turn away as she clumsily struggled to cover her nudity with a thick, shapeless robe.

  Hannah was relieved when he didn't comment on her self-consciousness. 'You must be pleased to see your mother.' Didn't he realise how lucky he was to have one? She was constantly amazed at how people took their families for granted.

  'Do I detect a hint of disapproval?'

  'Well, you weren't very welcoming to her.'

  'I didn't feel very welcoming, and under the circum­stances I think I was a paragon of restraint. Marriage!' he snorted. 'She must be insane.'

  'She didn't want you to marry me either,' she re­minded him. 'I overheard something she said,' she added as his brows shot up in surprise.

  'But I did, didn't I?' he said softly, an indecipherable expression flickering briefly into his eyes. 'Don't worry, my mother isn't going to lose any sleep over my dis­approval—any more than I do over hers, Hannah. She makes her own rules up and changes them when they don't suit her any more,' he said with disgruntled dis­approval.

  Hannah couldn't help smiling.

  'What are you thinking about when you smile so se­cretively?' he asked, lifting an arm over his head and rubbing his tousled hair. He hardly looked like the same person as the sleekly suited sophisticated animal who left the house every morning. She loved him so much she wanted to yell it out loud; being a cautious girl, she didn't.

  'You don't want to know.'

  'Try me.'

  Oh, I'd like to, she thought, watching the muscles of his shoulders tighten and relax as he moved his head to a more comfortable position. Rather boldly, she let her eyes drop lower to where the sheet skimmed his narrow hips. She was mildly shocked, and much more than mildly aroused by the direction of her thoughts!

  'I was thinking genetics have a lot to answer for. You seem to be developing a talent for making rules and then changing them too,' she elaborated.

  He got the message and an answering gleam of wry humour shone in his eyes. 'Is that the only talent you think I've got?'

  'Everyone says you're an excellent barrister,' she re­marked rather primly.

  'I wasn't thinking professionally.'

  'I don't know how to flirt,' she admitted as frustrated confusion closed in. It was hard to know where jokes ended and the serious stuff began. If she got caught up in this intimate repartee, she might just confess more than she wanted to. More importantly, more than he wanted to hear.

  I’m quite good at repairing gaps in education, if you'll let me.'

  He wasn't laughing at her any more. Looking into his compassionate, warm eyes, she wanted to blurt out the truth.

  'I think you're very good,' she replied in a breathy, intense voice. 'I'd better go and catch Mrs Turner. Come along, Tom.' She caught the little boy by both hands and swung him off the bed. Sometimes, she reflected, it wasn't just what you said, it was the way you said it. No wonder Ethan was staring at her in that peculiar way!

  'I'm sorry about that.'

  Hannah started, and twisted around as the deep voice close beside her abruptly broke into her reverie. She in­advertently sent a shower of water over the front of Ethan's pale chinos.

  'Sorry.' Flustered, she reached forward and dabbed at the damp spots with her wet hands, making matters worse.

  'It doesn't matter,' Ethan choked hoarsely. Seeing her kneeling there had brought a vivid image of her sweet mouth...! He caught his breath as his body automatically responded to the provocative mental picture. He smiled in a strained manner as she looked up. If he answered the puzzled question in her eyes, she'd be shocked. Although she hadn't seemed shocked last night. Recalling the wanton eagerness of her responses wasn't the best way to dampen his arousal, he decided wryly.

  'You should change them—not here,' she added hur­riedly. Even if I am in a perfect position to assist you... What devilish imp planted that naughty idea in her head? It could have been worse—she might have said it out loud! 'I mean, you could if you wanted to, but I wasn't suggesting...' She took a deep breath. Best stop before she sounded like a total idiot. Who am I kidding? she thought. There's no before about it.

  Ethan got down on his knees beside her. 'It might be simpler if I got down as you're so interested in the floor.'

  'I lost something.'

  'What?'

  She eyed him rather resentfully; he wasn't being very helpful.

  'Dog, Daddy,' Tom said, throwing a large duck at his father. Ethan ably caught it.

  'Duck.'

  'Dog,' Tom repeated with a grin.

  'I get the impression Tom's vocabulary is a bit re­stricted.'

  'He's very intelligent,' Hannah said, automatically de­fensive at any implied criticism. 'All animals are dogs and all men are Daddy.'

  'I noticed he's indiscriminate with his favours when he attached himself like a limpet to Drew this morning,' Ethan observed drily.

  'You're determined to dislike him, aren't you?'

  Ethan was being so unfair. She could appreciate that the idea of your mother with a younger—a very much younger—man might be hard to take, but he wasn't even trying. 'Why can't a woman fall in love with a younger man? People don't have any control over these things,' she said indignantly.

  'Don't mistake your own unrequited passion for Mother's affairs of the heart. She's never settled for un­requited in her life!' Ethan's lips formed into a hard line of disapproval.

  'Oh!' she said without thinking. 'I forgot I told you that.'

  'Well, I haven't forgotten,' he replied rather grimly. 'I've been thinking—it might be better, considering Emma's comment, if we stopped having separate rooms.'

  Hannah wiped her hands carefully on a towel. 'In the interests of keeping up appearances,' she said carefully.

  'That's one reason,' he agreed blandly.

  'There's another?'

  'I want to make love to you every night and every morning and occasionally in between.'

  The towel slipped unnoticed to the floor and Hannah continued to wring her hands, oblivious to the loss. 'Is that being a bit ambitious?' she asked huskily. In her widest dreams she'd never imagined such an outspoken avowal of desire.

  'Worried that I'm not up to it?'

  'Well, there is a worrying age gap...'

  'You minx!' he said, a hard light glinting in his eyes as he took her by the shoulders. "There's no comparison and you know it. I'm really sorry if you were embar­rassed downstairs, Hannah. Are you happy about last night?'

  'I'm glad about last night, Ethan,' she admitted hus­kily.

  'Out, Daddy, now!'

  Ethan closed his eyes in exasperated defeat. 'That child has inherited his timing from his grandmother and her domineering disposition. I never seem to see you without the children being around.'

  Hannah, who was feeling equally frustrated, tugged the chain on the bath plug with unwanted viciousness. 'What do you expect when you marry the nanny?'

  Ethan didn't look too happy at being reminded about this. 'You're not the nanny now—don't you ever have any free time?'

  'Nannies have free time, Ethan; I'm the wife. We don't have a nanny,' She wrapped a fleecy towel around Tom, who, giggling, ran into the nursery.

  'My wife.' The words emerged with a proprietorial vigour that stopped him short. Dear God, if he went on like this he'd be acting as if he was jealous of his own son. The idea of such pitiable behaviour made his nos­trils flare in distaste.

  Hannah saw his expression and immediately misinter­preted it.

  'A fact that seems to make you ecstatic,' she flashed sarcastically. There was a real danger here that she would forget the simple fact of the situation. Ethan didn't love her.

  'Last night...' he began
.

  'Oh, last night,' she said bitterly. 'I might be flavour of the month right now, but how long is that likely to last?' She voiced the fear mat lurked uppermost in her mind.

  'I can see you have high expectations.'

  'Realistic expectations,' she returned, folding a dis­carded towel. She began to rise, but Ethan's fingers closed around her upper arm to prevent her.

  'You expect boredom to set in?' he suggested, his jaw clenched in a fixed, humourless smile.

  Hannah refused to meet his eyes. Of course he was going to get bored with her—it hurt, but she had to face facts and be practical. 'It's possible,' she muttered mo­rosely.

  'I think you'll find my imagination is up to the task of holding your attention for the foreseeable future,' he predicted arrogantly.

  She let out a tiny startled shriek as she found herself suddenly flat on her back with Ethan kneeling over her. He thinks I'm saying I'm likely to be bored with him!

  In a less tense situation this might have made her laugh, but laughter wasn't really appropriate.

  As his arms slowly slid further away from her head his body dropped lower—so low that his chest almost touched the upthrust of her breasts, which rose in har­mony with her erratic breaths.

  'What are you doing, Ethan?' The sensual lethargy that was insidiously robbing her limbs of power had re­duced her voice to a throaty whisper.

  'Your comments seem to imply you have a low bore­dom threshold. I'm just trying my humble best to vary my technique.' His features were taut with barely re­pressed emotion.

  "There's no need to take it personally,' she murmured, as he applied his mouth to the extended length of her throat. Her damp flesh where his tongue had touched burned and tingled. A reckless light blazed in the depths of his eyes and, hypnotised by the glow, Hannah couldn't look away. How had she missed the lethal, in­solent sensuality in this man she'd married?

  "Then I'm sure you won't take this personally, will you?' he drawled, placing a kiss on the tip of her nose. 'Or this?' This time he caught her chin. 'As for this...'

  As his teeth nipped her full lips Hannah's mouth opened, and he took immediate advantage of the fact, plunging deeper into the warm, moist sweetness within. All Hannah was conscious of in that moment was the skilful thrust of his tongue and the hard pressure of his lips; nothing else existed. Her fingers sank into the lush thickness of his dark hair and she moaned softly as her body stirred restlessly.

  'I can vary it, and I do detached and objective as well as impersonal.'

  Hannah blinked, unable quite to bring his face into focus. 'No, thank you. I think you've proved your point. Will you let me up? I have to go to Tom.'

  She felt somewhat ambivalent when he immediately rolled away from her and stretched out beside her on the floor. 'I know, but do you want to?'

  With trembling fingers, Hannah refastened the two top buttons of her shirt. 'I want...' she said, sitting up and looking down at his prone body. 'I want to...' Tongue caught between her teeth, she placed her palm flat on his chest. 'I want to carry on kissing you.'

  What reckless, self-destructive impulse had induced her to say anything so stupid? She didn't wait around to see what Ethan made of this confession—she scrambled hurriedly to her feet and fled into the nursery.

  When, a few minutes later, Ethan followed her, he just stood silently watching her dress the squirming young­ster.

  'Aren't you neglecting your guests?' she asked, when his silent presence had stretched her nerves to breaking-point.

  'I didn't invite them,' he reminded her caustically.

  "That's no excuse for bad manners,' she snapped, as he dropped in her lap a sock Tom had flung across the room.

  'Not trying to get rid of me, are you?'

  'Whatever gave you that idea?'

  She gave a sigh of relief and buried her head in Tom's hair when Ethan decided quite unexpectedly to leave. What had she started? she wondered with apprehension. And, more importantly, where was it going to lead?

  'Where's Emma?' Ethan asked as he walked into his study to find his mother calmly leafing through his ad­dress book. 'Anything I can help you with?'

  'No, I've got what I want, thank you, Ethan,' she said, untouched by his sarcasm. 'And Drew has taken Emma down to the river to feed the ducks. Now I come to think of it, I think she took him,' she mused. 'A forceful child.'

  'It didn't occur to you I might not want my daughter to wander around in the company of a total stranger?'

  'Drew is not a total stranger.'

  'To me he is. You'll have to pardon me if I don't find your character reference comforting. You can be as ir­responsible as you like about your choice of friends, Mother, but when it comes to my children—' He drew a sharp breath of displeasure. 'It's bad enough that I have to stomach the man under my roof. Which way did they go?'

  'I wouldn't know, darling. Before you go,' she said, picking up the telephone, 'you didn't have any plans for tonight, did you?'

  Ethan paused in the act of leaving, a suspicious frown on his face. 'Why?'

  'I thought it might be nice to invite a few old friends round tonight.'

  'I was hoping for a quiet night—'

  'Don't be such a bore, darling!' she chided briskly. 'You'll be old before your time. I've already spoken to Delia,' she expanded.

  'Who is Delia?' he asked in confusion.

  'Your housekeeper.' She shook her head at her off­spring's obtuseness. 'And she's quite happy with the idea. She's recommended some caterers. Naturally I'll invite some of your friends too.'

  "That won't be necessary, Mother.'

  'It's no trouble,' she assured him. 'I've already spoken to that nice secretary of yours and she's ringing round for me.'

  'You rang her at home?' He shook his head in dis­belief. 'You're impossible!" he growled. 'Do as you like,' he said, wiping his hands of the whole affair. 'I knew you'd like the idea,' she said imperturbably.

  'Just a small party—forty or so.'

  Hannah blinked as her mother-in-law placed a friendly arm around her shoulders. 'Tonight? Isn't that short no­tice? Perhaps some people won't be able to come,' she suggested hopefully.

  'Oh, everyone accepted.'

  'I'm not sure Ethan—'

  'Oh, Ethan was very enthusiastic about it.'

  'He was?' Maybe it was his lack of confidence in her own abilities as a hostess that made Ethan normally veto any large gatherings. 'What shall I do?'

  'Don't worry about that; everything is in hand. What are you going to wear? That red dress you had on last night was quite charming. I hope you've got a few more like that in your wardrobe. I want to show you off to my friends.'

  'Hannah, whose head was spinning, thought it was time to get a few things straight. This was the same woman who had begged her son not to marry her; Hannah had heard her with her own ears.

  'I thought you didn't like me. You didn't want me to marry Ethan.'

  'Quite right, but that wasn't because I didn't like you.'

  "Then why...?'

  'I knew Ethan didn't love you, and in my view mar­riage with love is hard enough, but without it...' She lifted her shoulders expressively. 'I could also see you loved him.' Her blue eyes grew compassionate as she watched the colour flee dramatically from Hannah's face. 'I didn't want to see you hurt.'

  'Did you tell Ethan?' Hannah asked, as her heart con­tinued to hammer sickeningly. She couldn't bear the hu­miliation if he'd known all along. No, he couldn't have, she reasoned. If he'd even suspected how much her heart had been involved in her decision to accept his proposal, he'd have run^a mile.

  'What a silly"question!' Faith's clear, amazingly youthful laughter rang out. 'I knew he was acting out of concern for the children. Catherine's death was a terrible blow for him; he hadn't recovered. I know he didn't turn to the bottle or neglect his work, but he was hurting more than anyone guessed.'

  Not more than I guessed, Hannah thought sombrely. She didn't need anyone to explain to her how unem
o­tional Ethan's motivation for marrying her had been. It was something she was reminded of in a hundred little ways every day.

  'I can see now that you've helped him recover.'

  'I haven't done anything!' Hannah protested, embar­rassed by the warmth of the other woman. Faith was in danger of overestimating Hannah's influence—she'd probably read all sorts of things into that embarrassing but unrepresentative scene she'd witnessed the previous night. Ethan's recovery had more to do with the resil­ience of his character than anything Hannah had done. Whilst he might be inexplicably sexually attracted to her, she hadn't heard, or expected to hear, a single word of love on his lips.