Pure delight lit up Jennifer’s face and she flung her arms around his neck and pulled him towards her.
‘I thought when you dropped all talk about getting married that you were relieved to have been let off the hook… Most men would have been if they found themselves landed with an unwanted pregnancy…’
‘Relieved to have been let off the hook?’ James laughed and stroked her hair. ‘All I could think was that you wanted out, you wanted to be free to find this perfect guy of yours and all I could think was that I needed to put a stop to that, needed to show you that I was that perfect guy… I knew that the thought of marriage had sent you into a tailspin. You didn’t want to marry me and I wasn’t going to try and force your hand and risk you pulling back completely.’
‘But I did want to marry you. You don’t know how much. I just didn’t want to be married for the wrong reasons. I hated the thought that you would put a ring on my finger because you couldn’t see any other way round the situation. I didn’t want to be your lifelong obligation.’
‘So now I’m asking you to be the lifelong love of my life. Will you marry me…?’
The wedding was a quiet affair, with family and friends, and, after the scare with the pregnancy, baby Emily was born without any fuss at all. She was plump and pink, with a mop of dark hair, and for both Jennifer and James it was love at first sight.
For a commitment-shy guy determined never to be tamed, James was home promptly every evening. It was very important to delegate, he told her—delegation ensured that employees were kept on their toes and it motivated them in their careers, and if he had taken to working from home now and again, then it was simply because modern technology made it so simple, virtually mandatory in fact.
She would have to get used to having him under her feet because, he further informed her, he was tiring of the concrete jungle. It was no place to bring up all the children he planned on them having. It was a cut-throat world and, besides, there was just so much money a man could use in a lifetime and, that being the case, why waste time pursuing more when there were so many other, more rewarding things to do with one’s time?
And there was no doubt what those other things were.
Jennifer teased him about the man he had become and she knew that she would spend a lifetime ensuring that the happiness he gave her was returned to him a thousandfold…
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 BV/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 2012
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited.
Harlequin (UK) Limited, Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road,
Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
© Cathy Williams 2012
ISBN: 978-1-408-97431-5
Table of Contents
Excerpt
About the Author
Title Page
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Copyright
The Girl He'd Overlooked Page 17
