Married Again to the Millionaire

by Margaret Mayo

  The smell of scones fresh from the oven filled the air. Ethan had helped her make them and they had been looking forward to a tasting session. Her mother had already taken a couple to her stepfather in his studio.

  She saw Ethan chattering away to his father, saw his animated face, his arms linked around Adam’s neck. And she closed her eyes. It was a scene that would remain etched in her mind for ever—no matter what the future held.

  She moved to the doorway and her eyes met Adam’s. She watched as he slowly walked towards her, Ethan still clinging happily to him. Her heartbeat accelerated and she felt a prickly heat all over her body.

  This was a defining moment.

  It was make-or-break time.

  What the outcome would be she did not know. There would need to be a lot of changes before she went back to Adam. Even knowing that Ethan was the hub of their relationship, she could not see herself living happily as a family unless there was also love on Adam’s side.

  She needed to know whether he had come to take Ethan away from her, or whether he wanted her as well.

  Her eyes remained on his face as he walked slowly up the narrow path. His expression was unreadable. He gave her no clue whatsoever as to what was going through his mind.

  ‘Mummy, Daddy says he’s come to take me home.’

  Sienna’s heart grew heavy. So he had come for Ethan alone! Her chin immediately lifted, her eyes hardening as they met Adam’s. And she waited for him to qualify Ethan’s statement. But not a word was spoken. His eyes locked with hers but they told her nothing.

  He came to a halt in front of her and finally spoke. ‘Aren’t you going to ask me in?’

  ‘How did you find us?’ she asked, uncaring that her voice was sharp.

  Adam shrugged. ‘That’s not important now. What is important is that we need to talk.’

  Sienna reluctantly stepped back and allowed him entry. Then she walked through to the sitting room with its view down the garden to the sea beyond. It was normally peaceful sitting here but right at this moment everything inside her churned sickeningly.

  She could see Niall’s studio and her mother standing talking to him. What would her mother say, she wondered, if she knew that Adam was right here in her house?

  ‘Ethan,’ she said gently, ‘why don’t you go down and see Grandma and Grandad?’

  ‘But—’

  ‘Daddy and I need to talk.’

  ‘I want to talk too. I’ve missed my daddy.’

  ‘Ethan!’ she warned, and he took one look at her face and fled.

  Sienna knew that her mother would keep Ethan with them, giving her time to sort things out with Adam.

  ‘You’ve been baking.’

  Sienna nodded.

  ‘It smells good.’

  Such banal talk when she knew he must be dying to lash out at her, give her hell for running away, taking his son away from him.

  ‘And you’re looking good too, Sienna.’

  That was a lie, she looked anything but. Her face was pale and drawn without a scrap of make-up and she looked nothing like the vibrant woman with whom he had once enjoyed mind-blowing sex.

  Sex! It’s all it had been. All it had ever been. She was a mad fool to still be in love with him. Simply looking at him drained the energy from her and she sat down.

  Adam, on the other hand, remained standing, his eyes fiercely dark, almost black, thick brows beetling over them. ‘Why did you run away?’

  ‘Isn’t it obvious?’

  ‘You promised you would stay.’

  Her eyes met his defiantly. ‘What woman would want to live with a man who had married her for all the wrong reasons?’ Only a woman who still loved him despite what he had done!

  She watched the conflicting emotions cross his face. She saw grimness and doubt, she saw sadness, but she did not see what she wanted to see. There was no love, no tenderness.

  What she would have liked was for him to say that he could not live without her. That he wanted to give their marriage another go. Actually, what she would have really liked was for him to say that he loved her.

  ‘Were you being fair on Ethan?’ Adam dropped down on the settee opposite, his knees apart, his elbows resting on them as he leaned towards her. His hands loosely linked.

  He looked relaxed now and yet she knew that he wasn’t. He was wired for an argument. He was damned angry with her and he was here to take Ethan home.

  Over her dead body!

  ‘Ethan hadn’t seen my mother for a long time.’ She tried to keep her voice reasonable. ‘He’s enjoying himself. He’s not cried himself to sleep at night because he’s missing his father, if that’s what you’re thinking.’ She didn’t tell him that Ethan constantly asked when he was going to see him again. No way was she going to put herself back in the firing line.

  ‘And how about you? Have you cried yourself to sleep?’

  His eyes locked with hers and Sienna felt a tingle run through her as though she had touched an electric wire. Damn! How could she still feel like this? Here was a man who did not love her. A man who enjoyed her body but nothing else. The fact that he was the father of her child was incidental.

  ‘That will be the day,’ she declared, hiding her feelings behind a strong contemptuous voice. ‘I really don’t know why we ever married. It was a disaster waiting to happen. You conned me, Adam. It’s not something I can easily forgive you for. In fact, I might never forgive you.’

  ‘You don’t think that for Ethan’s sake we—’

  ‘Let’s leave Ethan out of this.’ Fire lit her eyes now, filled her belly. ‘He is the innocent party. And I wish with all of my heart that he wasn’t stuck in the middle.’

  ‘We could make our marriage work.’

  Sienna stared at him for several long seconds. ‘You’re kidding!’

  ‘We’d both need to work at it, of course, but—’

  ‘But what, Adam? We both know that you do not love me. You took my love and threw it back in my face. How are we supposed to ignore that? How are we supposed to live happily in front of Ethan if we hate the sight of each other?’ She watched the play of shadows on Adam’s face, could almost hear his brain ticking away.

  ‘I do not hate you, Sienna.’

  His voice was nothing more than a low growl now, coming from somewhere deep inside him. He was filled with an emotion that she did not understand.

  ‘Whatever,’ she snapped. ‘It’s not enough for me to move back in with you.’

  ‘I love you.’

  The whole world came to a standstill. Had Adam actually said that he loved her? And if he had, did he mean it? Or was it simply a ruse to get her back on side? He wanted Ethan and he knew that she would never be parted from him so he had to say something drastic.

  Like he loved her!

  ‘Yes, and the world’s going to end tomorrow.’ Her eyes flared magnificently. ‘I’m not a fool, Adam, I know what your game is.’ Love wasn’t even a part of his vocabulary.

  ‘I mean it, Sienna.’

  His eyes met and held hers and a faint shudder ran down her spine. If only!

  ‘I’ve not always loved you, I freely admit it. Though I was damned attracted to you.’

  Yes, he had certainly proved that. He had invited her into his bed with the swiftness of a sparrowhawk catching its prey. And she had enjoyed every minute! But marriage wasn’t totally about sex, it was about love and trust and honesty. They had been dismally absent.

  ‘Asking you to marry me was an irresponsible thing to do. I wanted to get back at my grandfather and I’ve regretted it ever since. I’ve lived with that guilt. Every day of my life I’ve lived with it. Inevitably I pushed myself hard to become a success. I needed to prove to the old bastard that I could do it. And you took the brunt, I’m afraid. I’m sorry, Sienna. From the bottom of my heart I’m sorry.’

  To give him his due he did look repentant, but Sienna wasn’t fooled. ‘It’s not enough, Adam. Anyone can say they’re sorry. I was in love with you. Rea
lly in love. Have you any idea how it makes me feel, knowing that I’ve been used?’

  ‘Rock bottom, I guess.’

  ‘To put it mildly.’ Her eyes flashed into his. ‘And when I found out that I was having your child, I wanted to kill myself.’

  Adam groaned and she saw pain in his eyes but she did not care. He deserved it.

  ‘Thank God you didn’t,’ he said hoarsely.

  ‘I would never have gone through with it, I didn’t have the courage,’ she confessed, ‘but it was how I felt at the time. Now Ethan is the biggest joy in my life. I love him to bits and when he was so poorly I nearly went out of my mind.’

  ‘You shouldn’t have had to suffer alone.’

  ‘But I did, didn’t I, Adam?’ Her blue eyes blazed into his much darker ones. ‘I’ve had years alone. And God knows why I ever thought I was doing the right thing in introducing you to your son. Because it’s him you want now, isn’t it? It’s not me. You’re saying you love me but—’

  ‘Sienna!’

  He spoke with such force that her words dried up in her mouth.

  ‘Sienna, I do love you.’

  Her eyes flashed strong disbelief. ‘So what’s happened to this afraid-to-love thing that you told me about?’

  ‘I was afraid, because of my father, the way he reacted to my mother’s death.’ His voice was fierce and urgent, wanting her to believe in what he had to say. ‘But I realise now that if you love someone, you love them no matter what.’

  ‘You didn’t love me when you married me.’

  ‘No, that’s true.’ He winced as he said it. ‘But I do now. I can’t face the future without you, Sienna.’

  Sienna saw the plea in his eyes, but still something held her back. How could she be sure? He could be saying all this just to get Ethan. His son had made such a difference to him. It had turned him into a different man. And that man she loved. But was he the true Adam? How would she ever know?

  ‘I know I’ll have to change. I know I need to regulate my working hours in order to spend time with my family. Actually,’ he admitted with a wry grimace, ‘my business can run perfectly well without me. I’m just a figurehead these days. My directors even tell me I put too much time in. But I enjoyed doing what I did. I had nothing else to do. But now I do have something, Sienna. I have a whole beautiful new life in front of me, with a son I adore and a wife I’m deeply in love with.’

  There was such pain and honesty in his eyes that she finally accepted that he was speaking the truth. New life breathed into her body, she felt it creep up from her toes and fill every bone, every sinew, every vein, every artery. It heated her blood and threatened to engulf her.

  ‘You really mean that?’ Even her voice had grown stronger and she could not take her eyes away from his.

  ‘More than you’ll ever know.’

  She heard sincerity, she saw clear truth in his eyes, and her heart felt like bursting.

  Adam loved her!

  He truly loved her!

  A miracle had happened today, here in this beautiful corner of Ireland where the air was soft and the desolate beauty blew your mind away.

  ‘I know that you don’t love me any more, but—’

  ‘Adam, I do love you.’ She leaned forward and pressed the tips of her fingers to his lips. ‘I’ve never stopped loving you.’ Maybe she had told herself that she had but in truth her love for Adam had never gone away. There had always been a part of him in Ethan. And she loved her boy. ‘ You’ve made me laugh and you’ve made me cry, but I love you still.’

  The look in his eyes, the incredulous look, made her smile.

  ‘I don’t deserve you,’ he groaned.

  His arms slid around her, pulling her gently against him where she could feel the frantic beat of his heart echoing the thud inside her own body.

  ‘Tell me I’m not dreaming this.’

  ‘You’re not dreaming it.’ Neither was she. There was fierce honesty in Adam’s eyes, humility too, which was something she had never expected to see. Adam had been brought to his knees by love. She too was bowled over. It was as if a fairy godmother had waved her magic wand over them. The past was swiftly forgotten, all the pain and heartache. Their future was rosy.

  Together, the three of them—and the new little life that was already forming inside her…

  All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.

  All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises II B.V./S.à.r.l. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the prior consent of the publisher in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

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  First published in Great Britain 2009

  Harlequin Mills & Boon Limited,

  Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR

  © Margaret Mayo 2010

  ISBN: 978-1-4089-1875-3