'And on our wedding night I needed you, ached for you so badly. I could not believe it when you mentioned Anna and the painting. And if Diego had been there I would have flattened him on the spot for putting the idea in your mind. I had long since given up any idea of revenge—it was a spur-of-the-moment, stupid idea in the first place. And I wanted nothing to spoil our night though even then I could not admit why.'
Charlie's lips parted in a soft, tremulous smile. 'Diego'srevelation gave me a bit of a shock,' she murmured, lifting a hand to weave it through his soft black hair, and saw the expression on the face only inches from hers become slightly hooded.
'Not as shocked as I was when you mentioned the portrait in the bedroom, at the very moment I held you in my arms and kissed you. You have no idea how much it hurt me to see the doubt, the lack of trust in your eyes. I was furious and I lashed out at you.'
'You said you married me only for the baby,' Charlotte reminded him, but the hope in her heart was growing.
'I lied. I didn't marry you because you were pregnant. I didn't marry you for any other reason than I had to because I needed you and only you,' Jake said quietly, and brushed his finger across her cheek and round the contours of her lips. 'The baby is a marvellous bonus. But I was angry with you because it was my own guilt I could not face. Not only thinking badly of you but, if I am honest, because of Anna. You were wrong earlier when you said I was like your father and would be fiercely protective of any child. I never protected my child who was aborted, and I never protected Anna the way a real brother should. I never paid her enough attention—a lunch occasionally, and that was it. I had no right to be angry with you or your father. Anna was a grown woman and made her own mistakes. But I never learnt from mine. I never protected you, my wife, as Dr Bruno so succinctly pointed out.' To see her proud, indomitable husband so chastened, so vulnerable was a shock to Charlie.
'But if you will just give me a second chance, Charlotte, I swear I will protect you and our child with my life. You are the love I never thought existed,' he said huskily. 'And I want you so much.' He groaned, his eyes darkening as his gaze flickered over where the sheet had slipped and exposed the soft curve of her breasts barely covered by her satin nightgown, and then he fastened his mouth on hers in a kiss that was so piercingly sweet it melted her bones.
'You are so exquisite I can't think straight, let alone talk sensibly about anything, but, please, just say you will stay,' Jake pleaded. 'You said you loved me once, let me try to persuade you to love me again.' With a smothered groan he began kissing her again, until she started to tremble with emotion.
'Jake...' she murmured, her hand splaying across his broad chest, feeling the heat of his satin-smooth skin, the tickle of body hair on her palms. But still she pushed him away, and it was the hardest thing she had ever done. 'Please, I need to know,' she faltered. 'I need to know you truly mean this. The very first time we made love,' she said in a rush as Jake tensed, his dark gaze fixed warily on her face as though expecting some knockout blow, 'you turned your back on me and walked away in anger. Why? Was it something I did or didn't do?' She had to know she wasn't opening herself up to get left again afterwards.
'Oh, cara.' He paused to take a brief, hard kiss that left her breathless. 'That wasn't your fault, it was mine. You made me angrier than I could ever remember being before. I felt quite savage simply looking at you, because I had just made love to you and I wanted you again so badly. I could not understand the totally overwhelming sensations I felt just kissing you. And to be brutally honest I was still reeling from the shock of discovering the portrait of Anna. I'd only learned of its existence a few hours before I met you, and I felt terribly guilty. I could not understand myself. I had to walk away or reveal my desperation for you, and I was not prepared to do that.'
'You wanted me that badly.' Charlie was thrilled.
'Oh, yes, and I still do, always will,' he said huskily.
But she wasn't totally convinced, if that's true, then why after our wedding day, when we finally made love, did you never touch me again? I hardly saw you. You never came to bed until the early hours and when you did you made a jolly good job of ignoring me,' Charlie protested, his coolness still looming large in her mind. 'Then when we did make love after the party, you stormed off in anger again.'
'That bothered you, hmm?' And his smile had a hint of passion intermingled with a touch of humour. 'You wanted me to make love to you.'
'No—well, yes.' She was sure he was laughing at her.
'Ah, Charlott-a-a. You really will have to learn my language.' He kissed her again, his tongue curling and probing her mouth, and she felt the breath catch in her throat when he lifted his head and smiled down at her, his dark eyes gleaming with love and emotion.
'It was all Dr Bruno's fault. He told me when you had your examination that the first few months were the most crucial of your pregnancy and it was better to refrain from sex. But after a week of abstinence I could not resist and once again I was angry with myself—not with you—for being so weak-willed. And when I told you about the abortion, and saw the compassion in your eyes, and heard your soft voice telling me I had to trust, I so wanted to lose myself in you. I had to leave. How could I endanger our child after what I had just told you?'
'Oh, Jake, that is an archaic idea,' Charlie said. 'Even I know that.'
'I wish you had told me. It would have saved me a lot of sleepless nights, and cold showers.' He hugged her to him, his breath warm against her cheek. 'Every night I would sit in the study and watch the security videos just to see you relaxed and playing with Aldo, and when I finally dared to slip into bed beside you I used to watch you sleep for hours. I knew then I loved you, but I was still fighting it. But today when you stepped out of that cradle with Aldo, and I yelled at you, I knew I could hide it no longer. I had so nearly lost you and life would not be worth living without you in my world. But then everyone mobbed you and I never got the chance.'
His confession was music to her ears. She looked at him and the love was there for her to see. She doubted anyone had ever seen him so vulnerable or ever would again. He was laying his heart on the line for her, and it moved her overwhelmingly. Wrapping her arms around him, she murmured, 'You have now, and I believe you. I have to because I love you, have done since the day we met.'
'At last.' Jake sighed and she saw the awe, the brilliant gleam of triumph in his smouldering dark eyes, as his head bent. 'You're mine—now, and for all eternity.' And his mouth captured hers in a deeply possessive kiss.
Charlie felt heat spreading through her as his mouth slid to her throat and the soft curve of her breast. Jake raised his head and looked at her, his eyes dark and questioning. She smiled and her arms lifted to tighten around his neck, her body arching beneath him. And with a fraught groan his control went and he showed her just how much she meant to him.
Later he held her possessively against his hard body, and studied her beautiful face, the sultry blue eyes, and her light golden skin on which the aftermath of loving had left a golden glow. 'Are you sure you're all right, Charlotte?'
'For a brilliant, intelligent man you really are a bit of a worrier,' Charlotte teased. 'Frightened because I climbed a few rocks—and as for believing Dr Bruno! For heaven's sake, the man himself is archaic.'
'Oh, Charlotte, you are priceless,' Jake said with a deep throaty laugh.
'You didn't always think that,' Charlotte said soberly.
When she thought of how close she had come to leaving him, losing him...
'Forgive me, Charlotte, for every arrogant assumption, every harsh word,' he said softly. 'And I swear I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you and loving you.'
EPILOGUE
NINE months later Charlie peeped out at the beach from behind the corner of the villa. They had arrived on the Caribbean island last night. It was owned by a friend of Jake's who rented out his fabulous villa to a few selected guests. Absolute privacy guaranteed.
A mischievous smile curved her lush mouth as she spotted Jake wearing a pair of old shorts and stretched out on a lounger, a long arm reaching over the side to rock the carefully shaded cradle where their daughter of three months, Samantha, slept. She was the apple of her father's eye. Jake was totally besotted with her. Once a cynic about women, he was devoted to the brown-eyed cherub.
Charlotte took a last surreptitious look around and strolled down the beach. Some sixth sense must have warned Jake because his dark head turned and he leapt to his feet, the look on his face priceless as she sashayed towards him.
'Give me your opinion.' She gave him a twirl, the grass skirt that hung low on her hips rustling as she moved, and a strategically draped garland of flowers around her neck protecting her modesty. Lifting her head, she met Jake's dark, stunned gaze. 'Is it me?'
Jake reached for her bare shoulders, and placed a possessive, hungry kiss on her smiling lips. 'Definitely you. Stunning and beautiful and better than I could ever have imagined,' he said huskily, and folded her in his arms and held her firmly against his chest. 'As is my deep abiding love for you, and the perfect daughter you have given me.' He kissed her again.
'From a day in Kew Gardens to a real paradise island.' Charlotte smiled. 'I never thought we would make it, but we have. All three of us,' she murmured, her blue eyes brilliant with happiness and love.
Pregnancy of Revenge Page 17
