by Valerie Parv
She was having too much trouble getting past the part about celebrating their engagement. A chill rippled through her. He had been unusually determined to take her to dinner at the restaurant. Was he about to propose when the fire started? If so, she would have been forced to refuse him, despite every instinct urging her to accept. How could she agree to become his wife, knowing it would mean the end of his plans to have a family of his own?
She forced her attention back to the interview. It seemed that the photographer had been in the area at the time of the fire and had taken a candid shot of Nicholas as he carried Stella to safety. He frowned when they showed him the print. “Just don’t make a big deal out of something anyone would have done,” he grumbled.
“We plan to use this as the main picture, but we’d also like a shot of the two of you together,” the journalist urged. “Can we take one in here?”
Nicholas got to his feet and pulled Bethany up with him. “I have a better idea. Come see what brought the two of us together. Have you heard of a dollhouse called the Frakes Baby House?”
Bethany could hardly believe her ears. Surely he didn’t mean to turn the house into front-page news? She had intended to be discreet in her handling of the story, withholding exact details of the house’s whereabouts to protect Nicholas’s privacy. Now it sounded as if he no longer cared about keeping the house’s location quiet.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” she asked him in lowered tones as he led the group to the loft above his office.
He misread her concern. “I won’t preempt your story. They’ll see just enough to whet their appetite for your feature,” he promised her. “But I’m doing what my father should have done long ago. It’s time the past was laid to rest. After your article appears, I intend to let the house be shown, perhaps at a children’s museum, to raise funds for children like those in the shelter.” He threw aside the dust cover, revealing the beautiful antique, and turned to the photographer. “You can photograph us in front of this provided you mention that the house will be revealed in full details in the next issue of Bethany’s newsletter.”
The journalist scribbled frantically while the photographer snapped away, photographing them in different poses, with what Bethany knew would be tantalizing glimpses of the dollhouse behind them.
Finally, the journalist snapped her notebook shut. “What a story. A national treasure turns up on Melbourne’s doorstep, tracked down by the determination of one woman, who happens to catch the eye of the house’s owner. Then the two of you plunge into a burning building, save the life of its director and provide shelter for five homeless babies. Somebody should make a movie out of this.”
Nicholas laughed. “The rights are all yours.”
The newspaper people went back inside to take more pictures with the babies in their improvised nursery. The children couldn’t be publicly identified, but the photographer wanted general shots of them in their cribs and playing with Georgina and Maree, who seemed to relish her job as junior host.
Watching Nicholas with the children, Bethany felt frozen inside. He acted as if everything the journalist wanted to write was true, when they both knew it wasn’t. There was no eternal love story, only a tale destined to end in heartbreak from the moment she had discovered his heart’s desire.
But Nicholas was on top of the world as he saw the press people to their car. Bethany would gladly have gone inside, but his hold forced her to maintain the fiction of being his loving fiancée until the visitors drove off down the coach road.
When they were finally out of sight she pulled her hand free. Hurt vibrated in her voice as she demanded, “What are you doing, pretending that we’re engaged?”
He looked unrepentant. “You must admit, it makes a great story.”
“What happens when the truth comes out?”
He cracked a huge grin. “You have to marry me and make it true.”
It was her greatest dream and worst nightmare. She threw herself into a swing seat on the verandah, and it swayed beneath her. “I can’t marry you, Nicholas.”
He swung himself onto the verandah, and threaded his fingers around the chain supporting the swing. “Why not?”
How could she tell him the truth and face the rejection she was certain would follow? He was so committed to having children that he was bound to change his mind once he knew. Even if by some miracle he still wanted to marry her, she couldn’t ask him to make such a sacrifice for her sake. “I can’t marry you because...it wouldn’t work,” she stated.
He stopped the swing and regarded her so intensely that she wondered if he could see all the way to her soul. “Because you can’t be the mother of my children, Bethany? Is that the reason why you can’t marry me?”
Time stood still. She was glad to be sitting down because her legs wouldn’t have supported her at that moment. “How did you know?”
“I’ve known since yesterday morning when someone at the Southgate Clinic called here to give you some test results. They were all negative. I promised I’d be there to support you when I gave you the news.”
“It isn’t news to me,” she said dully. “Theirs was a second opinion.”
“The same as the first?” he anticipated.
She nodded. “Exactly the same. As a teenager, I had a ruptured appendix. It left scar tissue, which makes it impossible for me to have children.”
“So that’s what the woman meant when she mentioned surgery,” he said. “She didn’t give it much chance of success.”
Bethany shook her head. “The first doctor didn’t recommend it, either.” She didn’t add that Alexander had been the only person to urge her to have the operation. It had been another nail in the coffin of their relationship.
Nicholas surprised her by saying, “You’d need better odds than the clinic quoted to make it worth putting yourself through such an ordeal. Unless it’s what you want, of course.”
She gave a small shake of her head, her spirits lifting fractionally as she realized Nicholas only supported the surgical option if she wanted it, otherwise he was prepared to agree with the doctors. Then another thought occurred to her. “How did you convince the clinic to give you my test results? They’re usually fanatical about privacy.”
He grinned. “I told them I was your fiancé. It’s becoming a habit.”
A habit which couldn’t continue. “Even so...”
“I also said we were going overseas as soon as you returned home. Once they knew they were talking to Dr. Frakes, they gave me the results right away.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “Do you always play so fast and loose with the truth?”
His eyes darkened. “Only when it concerns someone I love. When they started talking about test results, I panicked. I thought you had some illness you hadn’t told me about. I thought—” His voice broke and he looked away. “I knew then I couldn’t bear to lose you. I came to Melbourne to tell you so.”
He gave the swing a slight push, and the motion caused her to reach for the nearest support which happened to be Nicholas’s arm. It felt strong enough to support her for the rest of her life if she allowed it. But how could she? He knew her secret and he hadn’t rejected her, but he hadn’t considered what her situation would mean to his own plans.
He saw the indecision on her face and slid his arm around her waist, drawing her up from the swing into his arms. “I told the reporter the truth. I meant to ask you to marry me, but the fire broke out and I never got the chance. So I’m asking you now. I love you, Bethany Dale. Will you marry me?”
Tears worried the backs of her eyes and she blinked hard. His declaration of love was like a dream come true, but it didn’t change the reality. “I can’t,” she said on a voice that threatened to break. “You love me now—” heaven help her, she loved him with every fiber of her being “—but what about the brothers and sisters you want for Maree? How will you feel when it dawns on you that she’ll always be an only child because I can’t give you any more?”
Her head spun. “The children from the shelter? They’re not available for adoption. Most of them have parents living, but they can’t go home because of some family crisis.”
He looked unmoved. “I know what a children’s shelter is for, darling. And I assume all those other rooms at the shelter are usually occupied?”
“Well, yes, but...”
“Then there will always be children in need of the love and care we can provide.” He kissed her again, lingering this time until her lips parted and allowed him to explore her mouth gently but insistently. Sensuous heat coiled all the way to her toes, and she clung to him, not understanding any of this but lacking the will to put a stop to it. In his present, masterful mood she wasn’t sure he would have permitted her to, anyway.
“Nicholas, I—”
He kissed her, silencing her.
“We can’t—”
He kissed her again, hard. When he allowed her to come up for air, his eyes shone. “Any more silly arguments, my love?”
She kept silent, getting the message. If she tried to say anything he would only kiss her again. Come to think of it, it wasn’t a bad idea. “I don’t—”
His lips descended again. Holding the kiss, he swept her down onto the swing seat and leaned across her until the steady beat of his heart merged with her own and his body molded against her. When he finally drew away, she felt as if she had stars in her eyes. She fought the surges of pleasure that threatened to rob her of her last defenses. She had to make him understand. “Please, you must let me say something,” she tried as his mouth hovered tantalizingly above her.
“Only if it isn’t an objection.”
They could go on like this all day. “I don’t object to marrying you,” she said quickly, before he could start kissing her again. Couldn’t he see the heartbreak ahead? “I love you, Nicholas.”
He watched her warily. “Why do I get the feeling there’s a but coming?”
“Because there is,” she said on a deep sigh. “My problem isn’t going to go away. What will happen in the future when you regret not being able to have a family like your aunt’s? How can I take that dream away from you?”
His delighted gaze roved over her. “We’ll still have the dream, my beloved. I didn’t understand your problem so it never occurred to me to tell you the whole story about my aunt’s wonderful family, which became the model for the one I want.” She tensed but he carried on, not releasing his hold on her. “One of my aunt’s sons is Vietnamese, two are Aboriginal, and her daughter is Dutch.”
Bethany’s eyes widened. “You mean they’re all adopted?”
“Every one. My aunt couldn’t have children, either, but it didn’t prevent her from filling her home with children. Most of the time we forget they aren’t her flesh and blood.”
Thinking of what she had so nearly thrown away, she rested her head against his shoulder. “Oh, Nicholas. Are you sure this is what you want?”
He tilted her face up to his. “You are what I want. When I thought you might have some incurable disease it almost killed me, too. I didn’t want to live without you. Say you’ll marry me, or I’ll have to hang myself from the chains of this swing right now.”
It was such an absurd idea that she laughed aloud. The swing was at most five feet off the ground and Nicholas was over six feet tall. But she couldn’t deny his sincerity, nor the love she heard in his voice and saw shining out of his eyes. “I’ll many you to save your life,” she said solemnly as joy and pure physical desire bubbled through every cell in her body.
His look softened and he eased one muscular leg over hers. “You are my life. We’re perfect together, and as soon as we’re married, I intend to show you how perfect.”
She groaned aloud. “Must we wait until then?” It would be the sweetest torment she had ever known. She shivered, lost in the ecstasy of belonging, really belonging, in his arms. His kisses made her ache with wanting more, wanting everything he had to give her, and knowing it would be enough for a lifetime.
From inside the house, a baby cried, then was joined by another until a chorus of wails reached their ears. Nicholas grinned wickedly. “It looks like we’ll have to.”
“We should go in and help Georgina and Kylie,” she said, not moving.
“Soon,” he agreed. He didn’t move, either.
Sometime later he finally allowed her up to tend to their temporary family. But then she was so aroused it was a miracle she could function at all. Somehow she did. So did Nicholas, although the caressing looks he kept giving her didn’t help her to keep her mind on the children. Maree seemed to sense the change in their relationship because her pleased looks darted between them. Then she held out her arms to Bethany. “Ma, ma, ma.”
Nicholas looked thunderstruck. “Do you think she knows?”
Then Maree reached for Nicholas. “Da, da, da. Ma, ma, ma.”
His arm came around Bethany, and he linked the fingers of his other hand with the baby’s. “Sounds like you have Maree’s seal of approval. I know you’ve had mine for a long time.” His lips found hers, and Bethany gave herself up to his embrace, feeling as if she was finally home.
“Here in this room are all my dreams come true,” she murmured against his mouth.
He shook his head. “Not all your dreams, my darling. Some things will be strictly between us.”
Heat pulsated through her and she pretended shock. “What do you mean?”
In blatantly arousing terms he proceeded to whisper his intentions in her ear. If they did even half of what he proposed, they would need a long time, she thought dazedly. It was just as well he had promised her forever.
ISBN : 978-1-4592-6633-9
BABY WISHES AND BACHELOR KISSES
Copyright © 1998 by Valerie Parv
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