The Marriage Renewal

by Maggie Cox

  ‘Then why the hell couldn’t you ask me to take you dancing?’

  ‘Would you have?’

  ‘I’d take you anywhere you wanted so long as I knew you were safe.’

  ‘Right.’ She bit her lip, her eyes sliding away from the full force of his penetrating gaze. ‘Maybe next time I will. But you’ve got to trust me. You’ve got to stop being so damn controlling!’

  ‘Controlling, am I?’ Mac released her arm, watching her flex it a little to get the blood pumping properly again. Instantly he regretted holding on to her so tightly.

  ‘If the cap fits…’

  ‘So be it.’ Blue eyes pinning her to the spot, Mac tilted his jaw towards her.

  Why couldn’t she have just kept quiet? Tara thought unhappily. But it wasn’t right that men thought they had the monopoly on sexual frustration. Her breathing shallow, she raised her gaze defiantly to his. ‘What the hell is that supposed to mean?’

  ‘That’s for me to know and you to find out.’ Giving her no warning, Mac reached for her, lifted her into his arms and carried her towards the stairs. Tara felt his steely strength enfold her and was torn between tearing him off a strip for his high-handedness and simply acquiescing to myriad deliciously seductive sensations that were rippling through her body.

  ‘Put me down!’ she ordered, but even to her own ears her demand lacked conviction.

  Blue eyes glinting, Mac laughed deep in his throat. ‘You think I’m controlling? Sweetheart, I’ll show you controlling!’

  ‘This is a game, baby, just a game. You can free yourself any time you want to…see?’ With deft movements Mac demonstrated how easy it was to loosen the silk scarves he’d tied her wrists to the bedpost with. Eyes wide, almost luminous, Tara nodded. Her whole body burned for him and he was being deliberately slow, languid, taunting her with sizzling little glances from beneath those outrageous golden lashes of his. He’d stripped off his T-shirt and the sight of that muscular, lean torso with his powerful shoulders and slightly bulging biceps made her clench her thighs in hungry anticipation. Already she was damp for him, more than ready. But tonight Mac’s seduction wasn’t going to be hard and fast. Tonight he was purposefully taking his time, drawing out the tension between them with every velvet stroke of his fingers, every hot touch of his mouth against her heated flesh. Sliding her dress up to her thighs, he eased down the silky black scrap of underwear along with her tights and discarded them. Then, as Tara strove to keep her legs together, he coaxed them apart with sensuous little nips of his teeth up the inside of her thigh. Finally, when she relaxed, he opened her with his finger, sliding in and out of her wetness as she writhed on the bed and tugged on her binds as if to free herself. But she didn’t want to be free. Right now she wanted this slow, sweet torment more than she wanted her next breath. Gasping with pleasure, she felt herself dissolve when Mac positioned himself right between her legs and kissed her intimately. The ceiling spun, her head throbbed and the blood in her veins simmered with scorching heat. The air around them grew cloying and damp, musky with the scent of desire. Tara cried out his name when the tension reached fever pitch and finally spilt over in a heated rush all through her body. Convulsing, she felt herself grow limp, her skin moist and her heart beating like some wild bird’s suddenly rescued from captivity.

  Inexplicably her eyes filled with tears. As they spilled hotly onto her cheeks, Mac was immediately at her side. Reaching up to untie the scarves that held her willing prisoner, he gathered her urgently into his arms. ‘What is it, baby? What’s wrong?’

  ‘Oh, Mac,’ she cried against his bare shoulder, secretly loving the sensation of clean, smooth, taut flesh, breathing in his deliciously sexy masculine scent until every sense she possessed was filled with it. ‘That was wonderful.’

  Her words broke down the last barrier Mac had erected in his heart. Blue eyes crinkling, he pushed back her hair from her forehead to gaze tenderly into her face—the face he loved more than any other in the whole wide world. ‘I love that I can give you pleasure. I love you, Tara. I don’t think I’ve told you that since I came back. It’s the reason I wanted us to try again. As soon as I saw you at the museum it was like turning back the clock. My heart was beating so fast I swear I thought I was having a seizure.’

  ‘I felt the same,’ she admitted urgently, joy spilling over at the final confirmation that Mac really did love her; that he hadn’t just wanted a reconciliation to make up for past mistakes. ‘I never stopped loving you, Mac, not in all the years we were apart. I know I helped to drive you away with my constant complaints about you working all the time. I should have been more understanding but all I knew was that you weren’t there when I wanted you to be. In future we’ll talk about the things that are important to us both, I promise. Do you know that in all the time we were apart I couldn’t even look at another man, let alone contemplate another relationship?’

  Her husband heard her passionate statement and knew there were no more recriminations. The slate was well and truly clean. Now they could have the kind of marriage that they’d both dreamed about when they first met and the coming baby would make things just about as perfect as they could get. He would never forget the baby they had lost—Gabriel—but their son hadn’t been born in vain because learning of his existence had helped Mac realise that he didn’t want to lose Tara ever again. And right now a brighter future than he could possibly have envisaged for himself just a mere month ago was more than possible. Together, he and Tara would make it a reality.

  ‘I can’t say I’m not happy about that part. Just the thought of you with someone else…’

  ‘You shouldn’t be so jealous. I would never betray you.’

  ‘I know that now. I guess I’ve always known it, if the truth be told.’

  ‘A little jealousy can be OK but I don’t want you to give Raj a hard time when you see him next. He’s a good friend and I bullied him into taking me dancing. He spent the whole night utterly miserable because he was worried about what you might say if you found out.’

  ‘Then as long as I know he was miserable I can probably afford to be magnanimous towards him.’ Grinning, Mac pinched Tara’s cheek affectionately.

  ‘Anyway,’ she dropped an experimental little kiss on his shoulder, eyeing him teasingly beneath her lashes, ‘I think we seriously need to take another look at those “ground rules” of yours and this time I’m going to have some input.’

  ‘Never let it be said I’m not open to compromise.’

  ‘Can’t prove it by me.’

  ‘So…we really are “home”, Mrs Simmonsen?’ Mac was easing up the duvet around them both as he spoke. ‘Which is wonderful because we do have some unfinished business we need to take care of.’

  Her eyes widening, Tara sucked in an anticipatory breath. ‘We do?’

  Manoeuvring her onto her back, her silky blonde hair spread out behind her on the plump satin pillow, Mac helped her out of her dress then boldly cupped her naked breast. ‘We do, sweetheart, and that’s a fact.’

  EPILOGUE

  FLINGING open the twin doors to the boardroom, Mitch Williams did a quick scan of the faces seated round the long, polished table before bringing his gaze attentively to the immaculately dressed man positioned at its head doing the presentation.

  ‘What is it, Mitch?’ Knowing it had to be something pretty important for his chief colleague to interrupt a meeting with a potentially very lucrative client and his staff, Mac slipped his hand into his jacket pocket to check his mobile phone was in reach. He would never normally leave it switched on during a meeting but, circumstances being what they were, he wasn’t taking any chances.

  ‘It’s Tara,’ was all Mitch got out before Mac strode the length of the boardroom to reach his side, his handsome face sharp with concern.

  ‘What’s happened?’ Blood roared in his ears and he cursed himself for listening to his wife’s admonishments of the morning, when she had all but ordered him to go to work because she couldn’t stand his prowl
ing round the house like a cat on a hot tin roof. She would be perfectly fine, she’d assured him, and he mustn’t worry because the baby wasn’t due for at least another week yet. And anyway she’d be spending the day with Beth in the shop, so she’d have help if she needed it.

  ‘She’s in Reception. Said she’s been having some niggling pains.’ Frowning, Mitch almost looked as if he was the anxious father-to-be and not Mac.

  ‘Reception?’ Mac echoed loudly and every face in the room turned interestedly towards him. ‘What the hell is she doing in Reception?’

  She was helping herself to some water from the cooler, a flotilla of shopping bags at her feet—which incidentally were bare because she’d characteristically kicked off her shoes—and she actually smiled at Mac as he hurried towards her into the swish reception area, as if it were the most natural thing in the world for her to be there. ‘I’m sorry I interrupted your meeting but I’m afraid I was taken by surprise when I was out shopping.’

  Mac shook his head as if to make sure he had all his faculties about him. He was having trouble grasping the fact that his heavily pregnant wife had apparently decided to travel up to London on a shopping spree when she was going to give birth any day now.

  ‘Are you all right? What the hell are you playing at, Tara? You’re meant to be at home, resting. Good God, woman! When are you ever going to do what’s best for you?’

  His words seemed to roll over her like water over the proverbial duck’s back. Shrugging casually, she took a sip of her drink before answering. ‘I suddenly felt restless. I just had to get out of the house.’

  ‘You were supposed to be going to Beth’s. Does she know you came up to London alone?’

  ‘Don’t blame Beth for this. Peter asked her to lunch and I said of course she must go. Anyway, rather than wait for her to come back I thought I’d pop on the train and come to London. I got some lovely things for the baby but then I—’ Her pretty face contorting suddenly, she doubled over, clutching her very pregnant stomach beneath the floaty summer dress she wore. Mac’s heart nearly jumped straight out of his chest. Rushing to her side, he slipped one arm behind her to give support and brushed her hair out of her eyes with the other.

  ‘Tara! Tell me what’s wrong! For God’s sake, talk to me!’

  ‘I think the baby’s coming.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I said I think the baby’s…coming. Phew!’ Recovering herself, she straightened, unbelievably regarding Mac with a happy little smile playing around her lips. Bereft of words, her husband stared at her as if he’d been poleaxed.

  ‘Don’t panic. My contractions are about twenty minutes apart so we have some time to spare before things really start happening.’

  Hardly registering the humour in her voice, Mac swung round to the attractive redhead on the reception desk. ‘Astrid, get on the telephone to the emergency services. I want an ambul—’

  ‘Can’t we take your car?’ Tara interrupted. ‘I’m booked into the Portland, which is only five minutes up the road—hardly worth bothering the ambulance people for.’

  ‘You’re crazy, you know that?’ Cupping her face between his hands, Mac stared into her laughing green eyes and thought, if God blessed him with a hundred lifetimes with this woman, he would never get enough of her.

  ‘You think this is crazy?’ she teased back. ‘Wait till you see me in a couple of hours’ time, screaming my head off and verbally ripping you to shreds.’

  At nine o’clock on a balmy summer’s evening at the end of June, Tara and Mac Simmonsen became the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl. They called her Brigid after the Irish saint who was associated with healing, poetry and learning because already they had high aspirations for their child. Brigid’s mother said she would probably grow up to be a prima ballerina because her legs were long and she already had an imperious air about her which spoke of great things to come, while her father—her father just took one look at her sublime infant perfection and knew he had met the second female in his life who would keep his heart captive. Whatever she did, whatever she became, as long as she was happy it would be all right with him.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-7100-9

  THE MARRIAGE RENEWAL

  First North American Publication 2004.

  Copyright © 2003 by Maggie Cox.

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  All 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 incidents are pure invention.

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