Their Baby Bargain

by Marion Lennox

  ‘You’ve been prawning here before?’

  ‘Grandpa brought me here years ago-before the resort was built.’

  ‘Maybe they don’t like tourists.’

  ‘Prawns don’t have such good taste.’ He glowered into the dark. ‘Where are the damned things?’

  ‘There.’ Wendy pointed a finger as a shadow crossed beneath her. ‘Oh, I’m sure that’s one. But it’s practically translucent.’

  ‘We need an underwater lantern,’ Luke growled, trying to see what she was seeing, and the look of disgust on his face made Wendy chuckle.

  ‘Oil lanterns and candelabra aren’t all that effective underwater. Oh, there’s another one. They’re almost invisible.’

  ‘Got it. No, it’s gone. You’re right about them being transparent. I’d forgotten.’

  ‘It’s a defense mechanism.’

  ‘Great. And they’re here to mate. How the heck do they do that?’

  ‘Pardon?’ Wendy blinked.

  ‘They’re supposed to come into the estuaries to spawn,’ he said, puzzled. ‘So they come when there’s no moon and they’re practically transparent. Now, if you were a boy prawn, looking for a girl prawn…’

  ‘It must make it very difficult,’ Wendy agreed. Still there were tingles going up and down her spine. Damn, she needed cold water here. She needed cooling down. Like her, Luke had ditched his shoes. He’d rolled up his trousers; he was standing knee-deep in the water in his gorgeous dinner jacket and bow tie, and the lantern was playing light beams over his face. Now he was staring intently into the water, talking of girl prawns and boy prawns. And suddenly it was as if the sand was shifting under Wendy’s feet. Leaving her dizzy…

  ‘How do you think he’d find her-the boy prawn and the girl prawn, I mean?’ Luke was asking, and she concentrated fiercely on being sensible. On not being dizzy.

  ‘Maybe they just bump into each other in the dark,’ she said unsteadily. ‘And cling.’

  ‘It might work,’ he agreed, still staring down into the water. ‘But it shows a sad lack of discrimination on the part of the individual prawns. What if the boy prawn named Jake specifically wants a girl prawn called Maud?’

  ‘She’d have to wear a distinctive perfume,’ Wendy ventured. ‘I don’t know what, though. Eau-de-fish or something?’

  ‘So then he’d be able to find her?’ Luke said thoughtfully, turning his attention from prawn-hunting to the girl by his side. ‘In the dark?’

  ‘If…he wanted her badly enough.’ Why? Why was she breathless?

  ‘He does.’ Luke took a deep breath and seemed to come to a decision. He raised his lantern, and turned the wick down. The light flickered off. Then, deliberately, he walked back to the shore, set his lantern down on the dry sand and splashed back to her. The look in his eyes was different now. As if a decision had been made, and there was no going back.

  And Wendy could hardly breathe…

  ‘He wants her very badly indeed,’ Luke said, and he lifted a hand to run his fingers through her curls. ‘So badly he can hardly bear it.’

  ‘Are we…?’ Good grief, how to make herself breathe in and out? He was so close. This was so…inevitable. So right…

  It must be the champagne, she told herself desperately, but she knew it was no such thing. ‘Are we talking about prawns here, Luke Grey?’

  ‘We were,’ he said softly, and his hand lifted her hair and twisted it away from her face. There was so little light-just a sliver of silver from the crescent moon-but it was enough for him to see what he needed. His Wendy. His love. ‘We’ve moved on,’ he told her.

  ‘Luke…’

  ‘No.’ He touched her lips, ever so lightly with his fingers. ‘You are not to internalise here. You’re not to think “what if?” What if I’m like Adam? What if this doesn’t work out? What even of tomorrow? For now…for now, I want you to tell me what you’re feeling. Right now.’

  ‘I can’t.’ It was as if she was frozen solid, standing still in the shallows while his hands sent currents of fire right through her entire body.

  ‘Then I’ll tell you what I’m feeling,’ he answered. His hands cupped her face, forcing her to meet his eyes. ‘I’m feeling just like our prawn, Jake, who’s probably zooming around our ankles as we speak, desperately searching for his lady love. Only I’ve found mine. And you know the stupid thing? It seems I’ve been searching all my life, and I didn’t even know I was searching until I found her.’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Let me speak,’ he said forcibly, so forcibly that her eyes widened in shock. ‘I’ve taken a great deal of trouble to have you standing here, and the least you can do is listen for a bit. It’s common courtesy.’

  This unlover-like speech made her blink, but she was a girl of spirit. ‘It’s my birthday,’ she said with asperity. ‘If I don’t want to listen to speeches on my birthday I don’t have to.’

  ‘It’s eleven forty-five. If we’re quibbling then we’ll wait for another fifteen minutes until it’s not your birthday.’ He gripped her hands, like it or not, and went right on where he’d left off. ‘Wendy, I never thought I would fall in love-’

  ‘Love!’

  ‘Shut up,’ he told her kindly. ‘Yes. Love. You know what it is. I know what it is. It’s what’s between us.’

  ‘It’s not!’

  ‘Don’t quibble,’ he ordered. ‘I just have to look at the way you react to me to know you feel this. This…bond. Like we’re two halves of a whole and we’re not right unless we’re together. I’ve spent the last ten years or so searching for the most beautiful woman. The wittiest. The most influential. I’ve gone out with one beautiful dingbat or intellectual wit after another.’

  ‘I don’t need to hear about your past love life,’ she said faintly, trying unsuccessfully to drag her hands away.

  ‘Yes, you do,’ he said, and his voice was suddenly savage. ‘Like I need to know about Adam. We need to acknowledge it and then move on. Because it’s different. What’s between us is so different it’s like we’ve been transported to another life. I want you, Wendy. I need you. I want to marry you, live with you, cherish you. Have more babies with you. Buy a few more puppies, even. But most of all…’

  She was powerless to say a word. She could only listen.

  His eyes gleamed down at her in the silvering moonlight. ‘Most of all,’ he said softly. ‘Right now…right now all I want is to make love to you. I want to take you to me and hold you and feel the warmth of your body, and I want it before you have time for any of your precious qualms. I love you so much, my beautiful Wendy, and I can’t see how you can stand here and not feel this thing I’m feeling…’

  ‘Luke, stop,’ she begged. ‘I can’t.’

  ‘You can’t?’ He smiled down at her, so tenderly that she thought she must surely melt into him. ‘You can’t? You didn’t say: you don’t.’

  ‘I…’

  ‘Can you say it, my love? Can you look at me and say, “I don’t love you”?’

  She must! But Luke’s hands were holding hers, he was drawing her in so her breasts were moulding to his chest, and what she was feeling…

  She’d never felt like this, she thought wildly. Not with Adam. With no one.

  And Luke was looking down at her, then his face was buried in her hair, and she could feel his breath warm on her skin and his heart was beating in time with hers. They were still standing knee-deep in the warm outgoing tide; the night was black velvet around them and there was no room for anything but the truth.

  Don’t think of tomorrow…

  There was only this night. This night and then…nothing?

  There’d been nothing for ever, she thought bleakly. Since Adam’s death there’d been nothing, or even before that, when she knew she’d made such a mistake with her marriage. And now…safe in this man’s arms, with his hold on her tightening by the minute. It was so sweet… So seductive…

  Don’t think of tomorrow…

  She lifted her face, just a little,
but it was enough.

  ‘Let me love you, Wendy,’ he said in a voice that was none too steady. ‘Let me love you, my love. Now and for ever.’

  And who could resist? A girl would have to be less than human to resist.

  She closed her eyes, and when she opened then the decision had been taken out of her hands. Luke was kissing her, so deeply she thought she’d drown. His hands were claiming her and she was being lifted into his arms and carried back to the waiting sandhills.

  And she knew, whatever came tomorrow, for now there was only this night, this man…

  And joy.

  CHAPTER NINE

  DAWN.

  As the sun slipped over the horizon, Luke stirred with Wendy in his arms. He held her close, savouring this last, long moment of wonder, and then he kissed the nape of her neck to make her stir. Needs must…

  ‘Love?’

  She woke, wondering, and, as she saw that it was daylight her eyes flew wide in panic. ‘No!’

  ‘It’s fine.’ His grip tightened. He wasn’t letting her go for the world, but it said a lot for his instinctive understanding of this woman that he knew what her first thought would be. Her children. ‘Nick and Shanni are staying at the farm for the night. You knew that. They’re not expecting us back until breakfast.’

  She thought about this, panic subsiding. She grimaced-but then it was hard to grimace very much when she was feeling so light and so loved and so incredibly wonderful.

  ‘I’ve been set up,’ she said, and he chuckled.

  ‘You have. But soon…’ he glanced at his watch ‘…soon the staff from the resort above will come down and clear the remnants of last night’s debauchery, and we’re not exactly in a position to receive them.’

  They weren’t. She blushed bright crimson at that. Good grief! If anyone had ever told her she’d sleep naked on a beach, wrapped only in a picnic rug, and not very securely at that…

  ‘A swim and dress, I think,’ Luke said ruefully. ‘Before we have visitors. What do you think, my love?’

  What did she think? There was only one thing she wanted to do more than swim. But Luke was right, they had to be sensible-or a little bit sensible.

  So she didn’t argue-and who could argue when he was lifting her and carrying her across to the river which was now deep and cool and wonderful with the incoming tide-and he was lowering her down into the water and she was gasping and laughing and holding him and devouring his wonderful body with her eyes.

  And she was so far in love that she felt she could float not just in the water but anywhere. As long as Luke was beside her.

  But…

  This was tomorrow.

  It was okay for a start. It was fine, even. Dressed-after a fashion, though they did look a whole lot less respectable than the two gorgeous diners who’d entered the restaurant the night before-they crept hand in hand up the track, skirted the resort buildings and made their getaway without sighting anyone.

  ‘Great.’ Luke grinned as he nosed his lovely little car out onto the highway. He looked across at his love and his grin intensified. ‘Though if we’d been seen they never would have recognised us from last night. You look like a mermaid, my love.’

  ‘You mean there’s seaweed in my hair.’ She lifted a strand of sea-soaked curls and regarded it ruefully. ‘Just as long as we can sneak inside at the other end.’

  ‘It’s still before seven. We have every chance.’

  ‘We have children and puppies,’ Wendy said. ‘We have no chance at all. Nick and Shanni will jump to all sorts of conclusions.’

  ‘Let them.’ Luke glanced sideways at her again, and the look on his face made her warm from the toes up. ‘They’ll all be right. Unless they figure we’re already married and even that-’

  ‘Luke…’ She faltered.

  ‘Yes, love?’

  ‘You’re going too fast.’

  He eased off the accelerator and she gave a sideways smile. ‘I didn’t mean that.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I mean…marriage.’

  ‘It’s what I want,’ he said steadily. ‘I want you, Wendy. For ever. Can you handle that?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘You knew last night.’

  ‘Yes, but…’ She faltered again and shook her head. ‘Luke, it’s happened so fast. I met Adam and married him fast, and it was such a mistake.’

  His brow darkened. ‘I’m not Adam.’

  ‘No, but…’

  ‘But what?’

  She stared across at him for a long, long minute, trouble written on her face. Then…

  ‘Will you sell this car?’ she burst out.

  Silence.

  Would he sell this car? Luke faced the road again, and unconsciously his foot pressed more firmly on the accelerator. Sell…

  He didn’t love this car, he acknowledged, frowning into the silence. Not like he loved Wendy and the kids. But…

  ‘Why do you want me to sell it?’

  ‘Because it’s foolish.’

  ‘Because it’s like Adam?’

  ‘Yes,’ she burst out before she could stop herself. ‘To have a car that’s so powerful is so stupid!’

  ‘It’s not a stupid car, Wendy,’ he said carefully. ‘It’s a beautiful car. Sure, it’s expensive, but it’s a craftsman-made piece of engineering that gives me real pleasure. I have never used it unwisely. I have never driven faster than is safe, and I’ve never been stupid in it. But if you think that me owning it makes me like Adam…’

  ‘I’m sorry, but-’

  ‘I’m not like Adam,’ he told her, the frown still in his voice. ‘I’m me. And what else will you want me to do if we go down that road? Get rid of any suits that might make me look like Adam? Sleep on the other side of the bed to the one he did? Eat different brands of toast spread?’

  ‘It’s ridiculous, I know-’

  ‘It is ridiculous,’ he said. ‘It’s also insulting. You have to know that I’m different. I’m asking you to marry me, Wendy. I am asking you. But if you think for one minute that I’m like Adam then I don’t want a bar of it. So no, I won’t sell this car. Not because I can’t, or because I’m more attached to it than I am to you, but because it’s part of who I am. The whole package. Futures broker, nice car, leather jackets… If you want commitment then you need to love me for me, Wendy, or you don’t love me at all.’

  And that was that.

  What was he saying? he thought bleakly. Luke sat back and clenched his hands on the steering wheel until white bone showed through his knuckles. Had he thrown away his best shot here?

  But somewhere in the back of his brain, he knew he was right. He loved this woman beside him with all his heart, but he couldn’t spend the rest of his life marching behind Adam’s ghost. Always making sure he wasn’t reminding her…

  ‘Luke-’

  ‘It’s your decision, Wendy,’ he said grimly.

  ‘I just…’ And then her eyes widened and her voice changed to panic. ‘Luke!’

  He’d seen it. The wombat was sitting right in the middle of the road as they rounded a blind curve. Sleek and black and fat, it sat immovable as a rock.

  Luke hit the brakes with everything he had. The car veered sideways onto the verge, tyres screaming. The whole vehicle lifted as it hit the gravel, it tottered for one endless moment as though trying to decide whether to go over-and then it settled again blessedly onto four steady wheels.

  Luke and Wendy were left staring straight ahead as the car came to a skidding halt, with Luke blessing brilliant braking systems and fabulous stability-and just a little bit of luck thrown in for good measure.

  Whew! They hadn’t even hurt the wombat!

  ‘Are you okay?’ He looked across at Wendy and she was as white as a sheet. She’d closed her eyes, and her whole body was trembling. ‘Hey, it’s okay, love,’ he said gently. ‘We didn’t hit it.’

  ‘We could have.’ Her voice was hardly a whisper. ‘Luke, it could have been a child.’
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  ‘We didn’t and it wasn’t.’ He gave her a worried glance, but if she was uninjured he had other urgent priorities. Another car might come around the curve at any minute and the stupid great creature hadn’t moved. He sighed and lifted his travel rug from the back seat. Wombats weighed a ton, but another glance at Wendy’s white face told him he was on his own.

  Five minutes later, with one wombat safely carried a couple of hundred yards into the bush-over a creek-bed so it couldn’t easily get back again-and given a solid lecture about road safety, he returned to the car to find Wendy still staring straight ahead and her pale face white with strain.

  It had brought back the accident from all those years ago, he thought. Hell! This was just what he didn’t need.

  ‘Wendy, we’re fine,’ he told her. ‘The wombat’s fine too, not that it deserves to be.’

  ‘It mightn’t have been.’

  ‘It is.’

  ‘It’s this car,’ she whispered, and that brought him up short.

  He wheeled to face her, putting his hands out to grasp her shoulders and forcing her around so she had to meet his eyes. There was anger blazing in his face-hell, he’d had a shock, too, and to blame this car…

  ‘No, Wendy, it was not this car,’ he told her. ‘We were going at a sensible speed on a country road. Yes, sure if I’d had a four-wheel drive vehicle with a bullbar in front we might have gone straight over the top of the wombat without any damage, but we would have killed it. And if we’d hit him in a nice, sensible station wagon-a lump like that weighing half a ton-then we may very well have overturned and been hurt.’

  ‘We were going too fast.’

  ‘You mean-I was going too fast.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I was going at far less than the speed limit,’ he said icily. ‘Will you get it into your head that I’m not Adam?’

  But she was past logical thought. ‘If we’d hit him-if we’d gone over and been killed-Grace and Gabbie would be alone.’

  ‘Wendy-’

  ‘I should never have come,’ she said, and her hands went up to her face in horror. ‘Of all the crazy, irresponsible things to do… I’m all Gabbie has, Luke.’ She took a deep, searing breath, searching for steadiness, and with it came some measure of calm. But also determination. ‘Take me home, please,’ she said, and by the sound of her voice there was no argument possible. ‘I’ve been really, really stupid. I’ve been a fool for the second time, and it has to be the last.’