Husband by Arrangement

by Sara Wood

  The dazzling breadth of her smile bemused him. He passed a shaky hand over his fevered brow, trying to bring his mind to order. It could explain how mild-as-milk, bullied little Maddy had suddenly emerged as a man-eating hoyden.

  ‘This…plan,’ he said, huskily.

  ‘Yes, Dex.’

  She drew back, her eyes shining with a tenderness he’d never known before. Not since… He frowned ferociously. Luisa, he thought guiltily. But with Maddy there had been more. A depth he’d never experienced. Had it ever been that good with Luisa? Had he ever lost himself so completely and wondered if he’d died and gone to heaven?

  He went cold. Because he hadn’t.

  ‘Plan,’ he jerked, unable to say much more.

  She let out a rich giggle. ‘It was wonderful! I had so much fun, Dex! I bought some shocking clothes in charity shops, changed my hair colour and practised using make-up and walking with a wiggle. All I had to do then was be outrageous so that you and your grandmother would find me totally unsuitable. I practised on the rugby team and…’ her eyes slanted to his ‘…and a particularly gorgeous truck driver I met.’

  He cleared his throat and sipped frantically at his wine.

  ‘You played the part brilliantly,’ he muttered, unsure.

  ‘Did I?’ she asked eagerly.

  ‘Unusually well.’

  ‘You’re not convinced, are you?’ she said gently.

  ‘Is it any wonder? It would take quite an actress to pull that off.’

  ‘No. Just desperation. Dex, I promise you, it wasn’t that hard once I’d got a bit of confidence. Clothes make a difference, I promise you. People respond to you in a different way and you’re halfway there. And…I do believe that inside me there’s been this saucy minx waiting to get out all these years. I didn’t like upsetting people, but it was a revelation to discover how enjoyable life could be. I really was Miss Meek-and-Drab until I set off for the airport. Ask my grandfather—anyone who knows me in England. Ring my friends. Ask for a description. You’ll get “quiet”, “reserved”, “not interested in fashion”. And probably, if any of my friends are honest enough, “downright dull, but harmless”!’

  His glance shot sideways at her and he could feel a smile beginning to tip up the corners of his mouth. She’d been fabulous at that dinner. His body was leaping into life at the very memory of it.

  ‘Do you mean to say,’ he murmured, ‘that all that slurping your soup and going on and on about shopping and money…that was an act?’

  ‘Absolutely,’ she said firmly. ‘Cross my heart.’

  ‘The wriggling snake?’

  She blushed and giggled. ‘A masterpiece, I’d say!’

  He grinned, remembering.

  ‘Mesmeric,’ he agreed. ‘That corset thing—’

  ‘Basque.’ Her eyes twinkled. ‘I could hardly breathe in it. And I almost chickened out of wearing it, but I knew I had to make an impact of the wrong kind.’

  ‘And how!’ he breathed, lifting his eyes to heaven. ‘Lap dancer, indeed!’

  Maddy laughed in delight.

  ‘To this day, I don’t know how I came up with some of that stuff!’

  ‘Well,’ he murmured, ‘at least I know that you haven’t had any part of your body pierced.’

  She went pink. ‘I was treading on very thin ice sometimes,’ she admitted shyly.

  ‘I had a ball, skating along with you,’ he drawled. He took her hand. ‘Maddy, I believe you. And I’m glad you’re not a money-grabbing little minx.’

  Her beatific smile made his heart thump.

  ‘It was fun pretending to be, though. Oh! That reminds me!’ she cried, looking alarmed. ‘I owe you a stack of money.’ Before he could say anything, she was racing across the room towards the corridor. Returning, she pushed the wad of notes towards him, her face wreathed in smiles again. ‘Thanks,’ she said, sitting down again. ‘It was a wonderful moment.’

  ‘Why?’ he asked wryly, putting it on the arm of the sofa.

  ‘Seeing your horrified face and realising that I’d convinced you I was after you for your riches! And while we’re about it,’ she went on, mock-indignation in her tone, ‘were you taking the mickey when you said I had hair the colour of rhubarb wine and the directness of a Roman road?’

  He roared with laughter.

  ‘Guilty! What an evening it was!’

  ‘Oh, Dex!’ she sighed. ‘It’s lovely to hear you laugh.’

  ‘It feels good,’ he admitted huskily. ‘Thanks. Today was hell. You’ve made it bearable.’

  ‘I’m so glad!’ she whispered, and her hand tightened in his.

  ‘You’ll be going home soon, then?’ he croaked.

  Her gaze dropped and she seemed to be staring at her knees with unusual intensity. Then she looked at him and his heart began to pound furiously in his chest.

  ‘In a little while. But I’m not sorry I came. All these years, Dex, I’ve been a timid mouse. I’ve let Grandpa have his own way too often. By wearing wacky clothes and being assertive I’ve found another person inside me. Oh, I’m still soft, and I’ll probably still weep at old movies, but I’ve learnt the benefits of being more assertive. I have respect for myself now.’ The warmth of her eyes intensified. ‘And I’ll never regret seeing Portugal again, or knowing you.’

  ‘Is that…as in “knowing”, or in the biblical sense?’ he asked quietly.

  Her smile made his heart leap.

  ‘Both. Now,’ she said with a patently false lightness of tone, ‘time I rang Grandpa to say I’m on my way home.’

  His hand stayed her.

  ‘Don’t go. Not yet,’ he murmured softly.

  ‘Why?’ she breathed, not looking at him.

  But her hands were shaking and he could feel the passion pouring from her voluptuous body. ‘Because of this,’ he whispered, bringing his mouth down on hers.

  CHAPTER TEN

  THEY made slow and languid love through the night, taking a delight in giving one another pleasure. Maddy didn’t hold back. With Dexter she felt that she could do anything, say anything.

  When she talked of her life with her grandfather he listened intently, as if he was fascinated, asking dozens of questions about the minutiae of her daily existence.

  And so she told him in more detail about her work in the children’s home and the sadness she felt when children arrived looking miserable and wary, then the joy that came when they began to laugh and fool around.

  It was a night she would never forget. During it she realised with absolute certainty that she had fallen irrevocably in love with Dexter, every bone in her body and every ounce of flesh and blood alive and throbbing because of him.

  Now and then, when she surfaced from his arms, a nagging little voice reminded her that this would only be a brief interlude in their lives. But she didn’t care. An interlude was better than nothing at all. And so she pushed the little voice out of her mind and concentrated on more selfish, hedonistic needs for the first time ever.

  ‘I rang my manager to tell him I’m taking the day off,’ he told her eagerly, when they were eating an enormous breakfast late the next morning. ‘What would you like to do?’

  ‘Anything,’ she said softly, ‘if we can be together.’

  He leant over and kissed her lingeringly on the lips. ‘I gave Manuel and the men the day off too,’ he said. ‘There’s a rugby match on that they’d like to see—’

  ‘Oh!’ she cried in delight. ‘Me too, if it’s my friends from the plane! Can we?’

  ‘If you promise to wear something outrageous and prance about knocking everyone dead,’ he murmured. ‘Can’t disappoint them.’

  Her eyes sparkled. ‘I’ve got that outfit with the marabou trim—’

  ‘Don’t even think of it!’ he growled in mock-anger.

  She laughed, overjoyed that he should be jealous, even as a joke. ‘You choose, then.’

  His hungry glance fired her body. ‘It’ll take hours,’ he said throatily. ‘I’ll take your cl
othes off and make love to you, then I’ll dress you in some violently coloured piece of nonsense and take that off and make love to you, and then—’

  ‘Talk!’ she sniffed. ‘Is that all you can do?’

  She skipped away when he made a grab for her and she ended up being chased around the table and laughing so hard that she was an easy catch.

  ‘You pay a forfeit,’ he husked, nuzzling her neck.

  ‘Oh, good!’

  Her happy face lifted to his. Dexter’s amused expression slowly melted and became serious.

  ‘Maddy,’ he said shakily. ‘Did you tease all your boyfriends like this? Those social workers and doctors you spoke about?’

  Her finger touched his anxious mouth and she stared at him solemnly.

  ‘As I said, I had a few boyfriends,’ she said quietly. ‘But I was too reserved to tease them and they were intimidated by Grandpa. I…’ She bit her lip. ‘I never let the relationships get very far anyway.’

  It hadn’t been fair, either to herself or her boyfriends. How could she fall in love—and risk someone loving her—when she was barren?

  She hesitated. Then decided to trust him. Not about her private secret, because there wasn’t any point, but her experience. Her hand caressed his face lovingly.

  ‘You haven’t realised, have you?’ she mused. ‘My forays into sex only got as far as being kissed and slapping away the rare, occasional groping hand.’

  ‘But…you’re so good—’

  ‘Am I?’ She beamed. ‘Learnt entirely from TV. Plus my instinctive responses. Until you, I was ignorant of lovemaking.’ She smiled gently. ‘I’m glad I was a virgin for you. I have the feeling that few men could have given me such pleasure.’

  His eyes were moist. For a moment he gazed in bewilderment at her and then slowly his head lowered. She closed her eyes, surrendering to the extraordinary tenderness of his kiss.

  How could she ever leave him? she wondered, as they walked hand in hand to the bedroom. He had her entire heart. Something had been awoken in her that would never be surpassed. A profound, undying love.

  It was precious, she thought, blindly kissing him with a desperate frenzy. To be enjoyed to the full. For soon they would part.

  And the hectic, fevered quality of their lovemaking suggested to her afterwards that he, too, knew it would be only a short episode in their lives. And he had every intention of living for the moment as well.

  ‘The pink.’

  ‘No!’ she gurgled, sitting half-naked amid a sea of gaudy clothes. ‘The tangerine cropped top and scarlet ra-ra skirt. I intend to be seen across the entire rugby pitch and blind the opposition!’

  ‘You’ll do that all right,’ he said with a grin. ‘I’m wearing two pairs of sunglasses and carrying a riot shield if you go out in that.’

  ‘Help me on with it,’ she enticed, her eyes wickedly bright.

  Dexter groaned. ‘No,’ he moaned, collapsing onto the much-used bed. ‘Not again! Spare me, you insatiable wench!’

  ‘I just like to feel your hands on my body,’ she purred, stretching lazily.

  He held her then. Very close, as if loath to ever let her go. It was a sublime moment for her. The whole world seemed to be on her side for a change, and determined that she should have her share of happiness.

  Gently he kissed her neck and along a tingling line to her shoulder.

  ‘Maddy,’ he said huskily.

  The breath caught in her throat. There was something about his tone that made her certain he was about to say something special. Like…stay forever. She bit her lip. Of course she couldn’t. There was Grandpa, for a start.

  ‘Yes, I know,’ she breathed. ‘Time to get dressed and go. Right,’ she went on briskly. ‘Find your own glad rags and I’ll dive into mine. Race you.’

  A flicker of disappointment briefly tightened the muscles of his face and then he was smiling.

  ‘The winner gets to drive,’ he said, and catapulted himself towards his own room.

  With a squeal, Maddy flung on her top and skirt, pushed her feet into a pair of luminous pink trainers and got to the car keys on their hook in the kitchen a fraction of a second before he did.

  Flushed and laughing, they tussled for a moment and then melted together in a long, warm kiss.

  ‘You’re wonderful,’ Dex said in an appealingly husky croak.

  Her rapturous face lifted to his. ‘I know,’ she agreed with a happy giggle.

  Like two kids, they fooled around on their way to the car, arms around one another, doing a silly little dance.

  Delighted to be driving such a beautiful car, she burst into song as they bowled along the road. Dexter sat with his arm around the back of her seat, his body relaxed with contentment.

  She kept giving him rapid little glances, because she couldn’t believe that they had become lovers—and friends. She sighed with the bliss of it all.

  ‘Concentrate, sweetheart,’ he said softly, his fingers lightly toying with a curl at the nape of her neck.

  How could she? Though of course she must. But that term of affection meant everything to her.

  ‘Dad used to call me sweetheart,’ she said shakily.

  A firm and comforting hand rested on her shoulder. Although Dex said nothing, she knew he understood how badly she missed her beloved father.

  And she wished for the millionth time that she’d been able to build an affectionate relationship with her mother before she died.

  ‘Not far now,’ he said gently. ‘Next turning left.’

  Carefully she pulled off the main road and drove the sleek silver car to the pitch where the teams were already warming up.

  ‘This is so exciting!’ she cried eagerly, as they headed towards the players. ‘Look! That’s the boys! I wonder if they’ll see me—’

  ‘Are you kidding?’ Dexter said ruefully, when a whoop went up as ‘the boys’ recognised Maddy. ‘No holding, no funny goings-on in the scrum, mind,’ he warned with a grin.

  ‘Maddy! You came!’

  ‘Maddy!’

  ‘Hi, gorgeous…’

  She was surrounded. Hugged breathless, lifted in the air, kissed soundly on the cheek. Laughing and joshing, the players talked nineteen to the dozen to her, demanding to know what she’d been doing.

  Even they’d be astonished if she said casually that she’d been busy falling in love, so she just said that she’d been having a cracking time.

  ‘And this is Dexter—Dex! Where are you?’ she cried, unable to see beyond the mass of men pressing in on her.

  Without much difficulty, Dex shouldered his way through. Her eyes shone to see him. He was as tall as most of the men there. And, although he wasn’t as beefy, his charismatic presence ensured that he looked stronger and more powerful than all of them.

  He was clapped on the back and recognised as the Meeter and Greeter at the airport, a fact which made everyone chuckle and wink a lot. Dex began to talk with great interest about rugby and they all became engrossed in a discussion on tactics until the coach interrupted them and reminded them why they were there. Maddy tucked her arm in Dexter’s and they settled to watch the match.

  That evening Dex took Maddy and the team out to dinner in Luz. For her it was a bonus that the friendly, kindhearted players should like and respect Dexter. Watching his manner with waiters and his staff, she realised that he was truly a good and considerate man. And he was her lover.

  Gazing around at the table of laughing, chattering men, Maddy felt so happy she could cry. Good food, good company, someone you love. What more could anyone want?

  Perhaps a womb that worked, she reminded herself. And took a sip of wine to divert her mind. This brief encounter was enough for her. It really was. She would cherish it till the day she died.

  For the rest of the week she and Dexter hardly left one another. They both rose early and set off together for the site, where she—at her own suggestion—began to organise the transport of seed and plants from his suppliers all around the world.<
br />
  A small portable site office had been delivered, and it soon became the centre of all activity. Spread on a large map table in the office were the blueprints for the new Quinta, which was to be rebuilt with reclaimed old stone and roof tiles and traditionally carved arches over the doors and windows.

  There were to be landscaped gardens and a huge new client car park, beautifully screened with palms and oleander. The nurseries would be watered with state-of-the-art technology and warehouses would store the pots and compost required for such an enormous undertaking. The concept took her breath away.

  It worried her that he must be spiralling deeply into debt and facing financial ruin. Several times she began to bring the subject up, to suggest that he begin in a less ambitious way, but he always stopped her from expressing her doubts.

  Everyone worked long hours, not least herself and Dexter. More and more she recognised the devotion of the men towards him. And her admiration for his even temper and his capacity for hard work and problem-solving grew day by day.

  In his arms each night, she marvelled at his patience and passion. It was as if no one else in the world existed for him but her. Every now and then she felt a pang of fear. She was getting in too deep. He had become the be-all and end-all of her life and parting would be an agony.

  ‘I’m going to church this morning,’ he confided when Sunday came around and they were lazing in bed. ‘And then to my grandmother’s for lunch. Would you like to come, or stay here?’

  ‘What does she know about us?’ she asked hesitantly.

  He gave a short laugh. ‘Only that we’re here together. That was her idea, remember.’

  ‘I imagine she’s worried, wondering what’s been happening,’ she said, her face creased in an anxious frown. It wasn’t nice deceiving Sofia, however unkind the woman had been to her.

  ‘Possibly.’ He kissed the tip of her nose and trailed a finger across her breast. ‘On the other hand she might think I’m making use of you before I send you back home. You know the kind of girl you are,’ he said with a grin.