First-Class Seduction
Page 16
‘Everything pointed to it having been done by a trained accountant, which convinced me your father was in the clear. I didn’t want to show my hand, so I suggested to Hargreaves at the bank that it might be a good idea for him to take a look at the company’s books. Your father’s response to his request, and also to meeting Conrad’s son, only went to prove his complete innocence.
‘That left Harmen. As company secretary he was the obvious suspect. I guessed he was rattled, and might make a run for it, so while you were taking off your wedding dress I told your father briefly what I’ve just told you, and left him to take whatever action he decided was necessary. I understand that after we’d gone he intended to inform the police.’
‘You told Dad everything?’ Bel demanded hoarsely.
‘Not everything. I omitted the part about your stepmother’s shares.’
Feeling as though a giant fist was squeezing her heart, she asked, ‘Does he know why you married me?’
‘Oh, yes, he knows.’
Bel closed her eyes. That was the one thing she’d been hoping to keep from him. Despite all her efforts bitter tears squeezed themselves from beneath her lids and trickled down her cheeks.
‘Don’t cry, my love.’
The empty endearment was her undoing. Covering her face with her hands, she began to sob.
When Andrew tried to draw her into his arms she pulled away, crying, ‘How could you be so cruel? You knew before the wedding that Dad wasn’t to blame. Why did you go ahead with it?’
‘Because I wanted to marry you. When I was first planning it, I gathered all the information I could about you. You seemed to be the kind of woman I could like, and from the description I’d been given I guessed that marrying you would be no hardship.
‘Then Bentinck showed me some photographs of you and your face haunted me. I knew that even if your father was as guilty as hell I still wanted you. And when I met you I was utterly bowled over, like some callow schoolboy. I thought you were the most enchanting creature I’d ever set eyes on.
‘Do you believe in love at first sight? Your father does. I told him how I felt about you and he said, “I felt the same way about her mother.’“
When Bel merely stared at him, heartbeat and breathing suspended, Andrew put his hand against her wet cheek and said quietly, ‘Please stay. If we try, we can make our marriage work. I know you still think about Bentinck, but in time you’ll be able to forget him and-’
But Bel was shaking her head.
She saw Andrew grow pale beneath his tan. ‘I suppose I deserve to lose you after all I’ve done. But, Bel, if your feelings ever change-’
‘They won’t.’ She interrupted him in her turn, and at his look of anguish put her hand over his and turned her mouth into his palm. In a muffled voice she went on, ‘I don’t still think about Roderick. I know now that all I ever felt for him was liking and affection.’
Andrew stared at her with dawning hope, but not willing to let him off the hook too easily, she added, ‘But that doesn’t mean I’m prepared to stay with you.’
He reached to open the bedside cabinet and took out a small carefully wrapped package and handed it to her. ‘Whether you decide to stay or not, I have a wedding present for you.’
Hands unsteady, she opened the package and caught her breath. The papers relating to the acquisition of Ellen’s shares now bore Bel’s name, and they were wrapped around a Jesse Harland porcelain figurine of a young girl in jeans, the head tilted slightly, the gaze shy but steady.
Bel lifted eyes brimming with tears to Andrew’s face. ‘Thank you. I have nothing to give you.’ a single bright tear slid down her cheek ‘.except my love. And I do believe in love at first sight. I have to, since it happened to me.’
He muttered something that sounded like, ‘Thank God,’ and his arms closed round her in an embrace that threatened to bruise her ribs.
‘Will you stay?’ His voice was hoarse.
She pretended to consider. ‘I might, on one condition.’
‘Name it.’
‘That on the way back to London we make love on the plane. I’ve always wanted to join the Mile-High Club.’
His little choke of laughter held relief. ‘I’m sure that can be arranged.’
Nestling against him, she said seriously, ‘I’ll let you into a secret Even if it can’t, I don’t think I could leave you if I tried’
His face alight with happiness, he urged, ‘Don’t try. Stay with me until we’re both old and grey and till death us do part. But until then we’ve a lot of living to do. How shall we start our first full day of married life?’
‘What about bacon and eggs for breakfast?’
He kissed the tip of her small straight nose. ‘Before or after?’
‘Oh, after, I think. But first perhaps you’d better put this somewhere safe.’ She handed him the figurine.
When he’d put it on the cabinet, he turned and took her in his arms, and with kisses and caresses that held an added dimension of tenderness drew her down into the wild, sweet vortex of passion.
Now, at last, she knew not just how it felt to be made love to, but how it felt to be loved.
And it was a wonderful feeling!
eISBN 978-14592-5244-8
FIRST-CLASS SEDUCTION
First North American Publication 1999.
Copyright © 1997 by Lee Wilkinson
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