The Passionate Lover

by Carole Mortimer

  'That was when I thought—I owe you an apology,' he sighed. 'The way your friends said you were behaving, working too hard, playing too hard, I felt sure you were trying to abort the baby.'

  She gasped at that. 'I haven't—have I?' she added in desperation.

  'No, you haven't, so just calm down,' he told her kindly. 'Your blood pressure is high enough already without that,' he informed her dryly.

  'How—' she moistened dry lips. 'How long? I mean, how many weeks am I?'

  He shrugged. 'About six or seven I would think. I was hoping you might be able to help me out a little on that,' he teased.

  'Seven,' she said with certainty, somehow knowing the baby had been conceived the night at the cabin, her instincts telling her it was so.

  'Then seven it is,' the doctor nodded with a smile. 'My name is Stephen Green, by the way, if you feel like hurling abuse at me for my erroneous assumption earlier.'

  Shelby looked up at him with tear-wet green eyes. 'I'm too happy at this moment to want to hurl abuse at anyone, least of all you. You are sure there is a baby?' she added uncertainly.

  'Very sure,' he confirmed softly. 'But if you weren't trying to lose the baby by your excessive behaviour what were you trying to do?' he frowned.

  'Forget its father,' she told him truthfully.

  'Your own husband?' His brows rose in surprise at her answer.

  She shook her head. 'I'm not married.'

  He glanced down at the notes on his desk. 'It says Mrs O'Neal here…?'

  'My husband has been dead for almost two years.'

  'Oh.'

  She laughed lightly. 'Don't look so worried, Dr Green,' she teased. 'I'm certainly not.'

  He looked at her closely, at her flushed and happy cheeks, and sparkling green eyes. 'No, you aren't, are you? Well perhaps you ought to be,' he told her sternly. 'I mentioned the fact that your blood pressure is too high a moment ago, now that is something to worry about.'

  She sobered at his expression. 'Is it serious?' she asked softly.

  'It can be.' He didn't spare her. 'Unless you take care of yourself and slow down.'

  She smiled her relief, having imagined something much worse. 'I intend to—'

  'And I mean to see that you do,' he nodded. 'A few days in hospital should—'

  'Is that really necessary?' she gasped her dismay at the thought of it. 'Couldn't I rest just as easily at home?' she added pleadingly.

  'You tell me,' he smiled. 'Could you? And I do mean complete rest, for several days at least.'

  As she told him of her circumstances she could see he was going to agree to her going home.

  'What about the salon?' he probed slowly. 'Rest includes no worries.'

  'I have a very able assistant who can take over,' she hastened to assure him.

  'Then there appear to be no problems, do there,' he said lightly. 'Although I'll have to make arrangements for someone to come in and check your blood pressure.'

  Shelby chewed on her lower lip as he helped her sit up. 'Does this mean I'll have to give up work for the whole of the pregnancy?' she frowned.

  'That's what this rest will tell us. Could you do it if you had to?'

  She nodded. 'I told you, I have a very good assistant. I'm just not sure I could sit about for the next seven months doing nothing,' she grimaced.

  Stephen Green smiled. 'You would be surprised at the things you would find to amuse you. Most women react the same way when told to rest like this, but somehow they manage to muddle through it all.'

  Maybe 'they' did, and she knew she would too, if it meant keeping Kyle's baby, but she also knew it wouldn't be easy. She had no family to visit her, to help pass the hours, and in the circumstances she knew she couldn't ask Gavin's sisters to visit her. They would be most disgusted!

  Her own doctor called on her the next morning, his examination even more complete than Stephen Green's had been, although thankfully her blood pressure was going down. The next thing she had to do was call Jenny and ask her to come round as soon as she had the salon organised.

  'I knew something like this would happen,' Jenny fussed as she came into Shelby's bedroom after being let in by the maid. 'I should have made you slow down.'

  'Do you think you could have?' she smiled, wondering what Jenny would say when she knew what actually had happened.

  'Probably not,' the other woman grimaced. 'So how long do you expect to be confined to bed?'

  She shrugged. 'They aren't sure about that yet.'

  'The longer the better,' Jenny said firmly. 'You need a good rest.'

  'You may not feel the same way about this if you have to stay in charge of the salon for the next seven months!' she warned seriously.

  'Seven months?' Jenny blinked at the approximated time. 'Why seven months?'

  She gave a rueful smile. 'Because that's how much of my pregnancy there is left,' she explained softly, knowing the news would be a shock for her friend. As it had been for her at the time, she hadn't even thought of pregnancy when she was in Kyle's arms. And she felt sure he assumed she was the one taking the precautions to prevent such a thing. After all, he had believed she slept with Kenny.

  'Pregnancy…?' Jenny echoed dazedly. 'Are you—You're saying that you're—'

  'Yes,' she confirmed gently.

  'Oh God.' Jenny sat down abruptly in the bedroom chair, obviously badly shaken. 'And Kenny's married to someone else,' she groaned her dismay.

  Shelby knew that it was natural, in the circumstances, for her friend to assume the baby was Kenny's, and she felt very uncomfortable as she told Jenny that it wasn't.

  'Then who—? No, don't answer that,' she shook her head. 'I, of all people, have no right to pry. Just tell me, are you happy about it?' she looked at Shelby searchingly.

  'Ecstatic!' she answered truthfully.

  Once the shock had worn off the night before she had been able to realise just how lucky she was to be having Kyle's child. Not many women could know the same happiness when they had lost the man they loved. Yes, she was ecstatic, and she intended to safeguard the baby's welfare no matter what she had to do.

  'Then that's all that matters,' Jenny said briskly.

  Shelby wasn't so sure that it was, she had a feeling Kyle would be deeply interested in the growing existence of his child. But she had already weighed up the possibilities of telling him, knew that he would either insist on marrying her, which when he didn't love her would be a disaster, or he would demand equal rights to the child and it would be tugged backwards and forwards across the Atlantic until it didn't know where it belonged. In the end she had decided silence was the best course of action. Maybe when the child was older things would be different, but for the moment she intended being its sole parent, would love and cherish it as she had its father.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  In the end she was kept confined to her flat for a month before the doctor decided her blood pressure was stable enough to allow her to spend the mornings working at the salon, although she had strict instructions to spend each afternoon resting, and her social life had been curtailed indefinitely.

  She was 'blooming nicely' as her doctor put it, was slowly putting on weight, and had turned out to be one of those lucky pregnant ladies whose complexion and hair radiated health. Whether she would still feel this good by the end of the pregnancy she didn't know, but for the moment she glowed.

  After her first week back at work she was just tidying up her desk on Friday lunchtime to leave for the day when Jenny came into the room, a worried frown on her face. 'What is it?' Shelby prompted with a smile, all problems washing over her in her ecstatic state of self-satisfaction, none of them seeming serious enough to warrant getting excited about.

  'There's a man in the salon—'

  'Wow!' she quipped.

  'You don't understand,' Jenny glared at her for her levity.

  'He doesn't think this is a high-class massage-parlour like the last one, does he?' Her mouth quirked with amusement as she remembere
d the slightly inebriated man who had come in about six months ago expecting O'Neal's for Women to be able to give him the entertainment he was looking for. Shelby had taken him aside and spoken clearly and softly to him for a few minutes, and he had left a sadder and slightly less inebriated man. 'Because if he does you'll have to handle this one,' she told Jenny. 'I'm on my way to lunch, and then I have an important appointment to go to this afternoon.'

  'You're supposed to be resting then, putting your feet up,' Jenny admonished.

  'I do usually,' she nodded. 'It's just that this particular appointment can't be put off any longer.' She wasn't looking forward to the meeting with Gavin's lawyers, but it had to be done.

  'If you say so,' her friend still looked disapproving. 'But you've only been back at work a week and already you're breaking the doctor's orders.'

  'But it's for a good reason,' she smiled.

  'That's what they all say,' Jenny frowned. 'I hope you don't intend—'

  'The man, Jenny,' she reminded pointedly. 'I doubt if he appreciates being left out there with a salon full of women—unless he is another drunk?'

  'He isn't, and he looked as if he could handle the attention,' Jenny said dryly. 'He didn't look as if much could ever disconcert him.'

  Shelby felt the first shiver of apprehension down her spine, and her back stiffened. 'Who is he, Jenny?' she asked between tight lips.

  'I was hoping you would be able to tell me that,' her friend grimaced. 'I've never seen him before, but he asked to see you. The suit he's wearing was obviously made at an exclusive tailors—with the width of those shoulders it would have had to be!' she added appreciatively. 'And he's as handsome as the devil, very dark and moody looking. The only thing I can fault about him is that he has that same drawling accent as Kenny,' she said with displeasure.

  It seemed impossible and yet it had to be! 'Kyle…!' she breathed dazedly.

  Jenny shrugged. 'He didn't give his name, just asked to see you. I wasn't sure you would want to see him, though, so I asked him to wait. Shelby, is he—'

  'The baby's father?' she finished raggedly. 'Yes,' she swallowed hard. 'Yes, he is.'

  'Then I don't blame you at all for preferring him over Kenny,' her friend said gently.

  'He is also Kenny's cousin, Jenny,' she told her softly.

  'Oh dear,' she frowned at this added complication.

  'That's one way of putting it,' she acknowledged shakily, glad she was already sitting down. No traumas or upsets her doctor had warned her when he had let her resume work, and so far there hadn't been any. But no one could have foreseen the possibility of Kyle coming here. She looked down at the rounded softness of her body. At twelve weeks pregnant she definitely had a slight bulge to her tummy, but as she had put a little weight on the rest of her body too, perhaps it wouldn't be quite so noticeable to an unsuspecting man. The last thing she had envisaged had been Kyle coming here and possibly seeing her pregnant.

  'Shall I show him in or shall I try and divert him while you get away?' Jenny asked worriedly.

  'Do you think the latter is possible?' she gently teased, some of the shock leaving her now. She had no idea what Kyle was doing in London so soon after saying he rarely visited here, or why he had come to see her when she had been sure it had just been an empty promise, but she would see him now that he was here, knew that she had to.

  'I see what you mean,' Jenny grimaced. 'His jaw does have a very determined look to it.'

  'That's because he is,' she sighed. 'And I'd rather speak to him here than at my apartment. Give me a few minutes, and then show him in, hm?'

  'Okay,' her friend nodded, turning at the door. 'And let me say I think you showed infinitely more taste in him than I would have given you credit for after you dated Kenny.'

  'Thanks—I think!'

  Jenny grinned. 'And if you ever feel in the mood to talk about it I would love to hear how you became involved with that handsome devil.' Shelby grimaced. 'I'm not too sure how that came about myself.'

  Once she was alone she stood up to check her appearance in the mirror. The silky green dress she wore was loose enough not to emphasise her condition while still remaining fashionable, the weight she had gained adding to her attractiveness. Her hair was as long and silky as ever, her make-up impeccable. Kyle wouldn't be able to fault her appearance, for all that he had appeared so unexpectedly.

  She was seated back behind the desk when the knock sounded on the door, the flushed and smiling Jenny showing Kyle into the room before making herself scarce again.

  Shelby looked at him with hungry eyes, finding he looked every bit as handsome as Jenny had said he did. But his eyes were cold, and there was no smile to the firm mouth. 'Kyle,' she greeted huskily. 'This is a surprise.'

  'Just how much of an annual income does this place have?' he rasped without preamble.

  She blinked her surprise at this unexpected attack. Whatever she had been expecting from him it wasn't this! 'I don't—'

  He came to stand in front of her desk. 'You knew all the time that Kenny had given his family the wrong impression about what sort of establishment you ran,' he accused harshly. 'Why the hell didn't you tell me the truth?'

  'Kyle—'

  'And I accused you of being a fortune-hunter,' he added disgustedly. 'You're almost as rich as I am!'

  Richer, if he took into account Gavin's millions. But she didn't intend him to know about them, knew that O'Neal's had been enough of a shock for him.

  'I thought the cab driver had come to the wrong building when he stopped outside a few minutes ago.' His expression was bitter with anger. 'Why didn't you tell me just how exclusive this place is. Shelby?'

  'You had already formed your opinion of me,' she shrugged. 'I couldn't see any reason to try and change it.'

  'Couldn't see any reason—!' His eyes glittered dangerously. 'Don't you see, this changes everything?'

  'I don't understand why,' she dismissed.

  'Damn you, you let me think you wanted to marry Kenny because of his position on the ranch, that you pursued him mercilessly. I formed my opinion of you on that basis,' he added with brutal anger.

  'Are you angry at the truth or because you were wrong about me?' she asked quietly.

  'I'm angry at Kenny for deceiving me in that way, and I'm angry with you for letting him! It was the other way around all the time, wasn't it?' he ground out. 'Kenny thought he would have a meal ticket for life in you.'

  'I—'

  'That's the way it was, wasn't it?' he demanded forcefully.

  'Yes, it was,' she was as angry as he now. 'Does knowing that make any difference?'

  'To what?'

  'To anything?' she snapped. 'Of course it doesn't,' she answered her own question disgustedly. 'But if you must know the finer details of our relationship Kenny finally decided he preferred the lure of working on a ranch that would eventually become his rather than be dependent on his wife's earnings. There, does that satisfy you?'

  He shook his head. 'I knew Kenny was some things, a lousy son being one of them, but I never dreamt he would go that far! Why didn't you just expose him for the callous young bastard that he is?' His eyes were narrowed suspiciously.

  Because it would have meant revealing details about her marriage to Gavin that Kenny had already threatened to distort to suit his own purposes! 'Would you have believed me?' she queried instead.

  Kyle's expression was grim. 'Oh yes, I would have believed anything you told me about him after he left you out in the blizzard. No man with any sense of feeling would have done that if he truly cared for you, even if the two of you had argued.'

  She turned her head away, wishing she could tell him everything, but knowing she wouldn't even if she could. The evidence against her, knowing Kyle's suspicious nature as she did, was too strong. And then there was the baby. She paled at the thought of what construction Kyle would put on the existence of his child. Probably he would decide she was out to catch herself a rich and not-quite-so-young owner of a c
attle ranch!

  'Shelby?' His face darkened with concern at how pale her cheeks had become.

  'I'm all right,' she assured him, although she knew that she wasn't. This was definitely one of the shocks or traumas the doctor had wanted her to avoid! She rang through for Sophie. 'Could you ask Jenny to come in, please?' she requested tightly of her secretary.

  'Shelby, what is it?' Kyle demanded roughly as he sensed something was seriously wrong, coming around the desk to stand beside her, the pleasant smell of his aftershave and the warmth of his body causing her hands to shake. 'Are you ill? Shelby, tell me what's wrong!'

  'Get away from her!' Jenny ordered angrily as she stormed into the office, not at all daunted by the fiercely arrogant glare Kyle gave her at her audacity, intent only on protecting Shelby. 'How dare you come here upsetting her?' She pushed him out of the way, her anger increasing as she saw how ill Shelby looked. 'Just what do you think you're doing?' She turned on him furiously. 'Can't you see she isn't well?'

  'She looked fine to me until a moment ago—'

  'Well look at her now,' she snapped. 'I hope you're proud of yourself.'

  'Now just wait a minute—'

  'No, you just wait a minute,' she bit out between clenched teeth. 'Haven't your family already done enough to her? How dare you come here and upset her again?'

  Shelby knew by the angry glitter in Kyle's icy grey eyes that Jenny had far surpassed the outspoken way in which anyone had spoken to him before. But she silently thanked her friend, knew she didn't have the strength to stand up to him herself.

  Kyle bit back any more angry retorts he might had made after glancing down and seeing Shelby's chalk-white face. 'Maybe you should see to your patient instead of ranting and raving at me,' he rasped, turning away from them to look out of the window, his hands clenched behind his back.

  Jenny shot that broad back a look of pure dislike before bending protectively over Shelby. 'I'll get you home, shall I, love?' she prompted gently.

  She nodded. 'And could you call my three o'clock appointment and tell them I can't make it, you'll find the number in my book.' She looked pleadingly at her friend, not wanting to discuss the identity of that appointment in front of Kyle.