‘Try me.’
Carli took a shallow breath on account of the lingering smoke and said, ‘Xavier.’
Eliza’s eyes positively bulged with shock. ‘You’re having me on…aren’t you?’
Carli shook her head.
‘Christ.’
‘That’s exactly what Xavier said when I told him,’ Carli said wryly.
‘How the hell did it happen?’
‘The usual way.’
‘You know what I mean,’ Eliza said. ‘How the blazes did you two end up in bed together after, what is it now…five years since the divorce?’
Carli found it hard to hold her friend’s questioning look.
‘It just happened…it shouldn’t have…but it did.’
‘I thought you hated his guts.’ Eliza reached for another cigarette. ‘You’ve been head girl of the all-men-are-bastards school of thought ever since the divorce.’
‘I did hate him…or at least I thought I did.’
‘You still love him, don’t you?’
Carli sat on the chair nearest the window before she answered. ‘Love isn’t an emotion you can switch on and off whenever you feel like it.’
‘Tell me about it.’ Eliza took another drag.
‘You feel the same way about Aidan?’ Carli guessed.
Eliza inspected the burning tip of her cigarette, the line of her mouth sad. ‘You don’t need me to tell you I’m not the woman he married. It’s no wonder he’s found someone else.’
Carli felt a lump constrict her throat. ‘He’s having an affair?’
Eliza tossed the cigarette into the sink, the tiny hiss of it extinguishing suddenly loud in the quiet room.
‘Who could blame him?’ she asked. ‘I’m not exactly wife of the year, am I?
‘You’re run-down,’ Carli said. ‘You’ve not long had a baby; it’s not fair to expect a new mother to have everything in perfect order all the time.’
Tears sprouted in Eliza’s eyes and she brushed at them with a shaky hand. ‘I can’t go on like this, Carli, I just can’t.’
Carli came over and enveloped her in a hug, stroking the back of her head in comfort, fighting back her own tears. ‘You’ll get through this…I know you will.’
Eliza wriggled out of Carli’s embrace and stood some distance from her. ‘How am I going to get through this? You’re damn well sleeping with the enemy, for God’s sake!’
Carli frowned at the venom in her friend’s tone. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘You said you’d speak to Xavier about dropping the case. Little did I know you’d be doing so side by side in his bed.’
‘I’m not sleeping with Xavier.’
Eliza’s eyes flicked to the mound of Carli’s belly. ‘Are you telling me you had a one-night stand with your ex-husband?’
‘It’s complicated…but we have a sort of…arrangement.’
‘What sort of arrangement?’
‘I’m living with him but we’re not…you know…’
Eliza let her breath out from between her teeth. ‘And how long do you think that will last? What’s wrong with you, Carli? Have you forgotten what happened five years ago? He broke your heart.’
‘I can look after myself,’ she said with far more conviction than she felt.
‘Yeah, well, I used to say that too, and look what happened to me.’
‘What has happened to you, Eliza?’ Carli asked gently.
Eliza’s thin shoulders slumped as she sat back down in her chair. ‘I don’t know…I used to be so organised, so happy and carefree, then bit by bit I started losing the plot…I’d scream at Amelia—I even hit her once—and Brody drives me nuts when he cries.’ She put her head in her hands. ‘I hate myself. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat…I feel so edgy all the time, I have panic attacks just going to the supermarket, and my heart feels like it’s going to burst through my chest at times.’
‘Have you seen a doctor?’
Eliza lifted her head to look at her. ‘I’m not going to a psychiatrist.’
‘I meant your GP. Have you considered there might be something wrong? You could have postnatal depression or even a hormonal imbalance.’
‘A diagnosis isn’t going to save my marriage, Carli, especially with Xavier Knightly acting for Aidan.’
‘Xavier isn’t acting for Aidan,’ she said. ‘He told me so.’
Eliza gave her a cynical look. ‘And I suppose he also told you he’s going to stick around once the baby’s born? Don’t be a fool, Carli. I had a phone call from Aidan this morning before you arrived. He told me Xavier is going to take the kids off me. It’s as good as done. I don’t stand a chance.’
Carli felt her throat close over in shock. Xavier had lied to her! He’d made her think he was going to hand over the case to someone else when all the time he had no intention of doing so. It had all been a ploy, a clever, devious, despicable ploy to get her to live with him once more.
Anger pumped through her veins so heavily she had trouble disguising her reaction from Eliza, who was quite clearly in no fit state to deal with her own emotions let alone someone else’s.
‘Look…’ She took a calming breath and began picking up the dirty dishes off the table. ‘Let’s do a bit of a tidy-up around here while I think about this.’
‘What’s to think about?’ Eliza scowled as she got to her feet and stacked three glasses on top of each other. ‘It’s over.’
Carli wished she could think of something reassuring to say but nothing came to mind. Instead she gave her friend a quick hug on the way past to the sink and began washing up as if her life depended on it.
Several hours later Eliza’s house was as near to spotless as it had ever been. Carli drove home in tired satisfaction, her greatest achievement of the day being to secure a promise from Eliza to attend an appointment scheduled with a local GP for the following day.
Later that evening she paced the lounge-room floor, waiting for Xavier to return, her temper rising with each passing minute.
Finally she heard his car pull into the garage and soon after the sound of his footsteps coming into the house.
She stalked across the room and, leaning on the door jamb in an imitation of his customary indolent pose, asked, ‘Nice day at work, Xavier?’
His eyes ran over her briefly before returning to her face, his expression slightly guarded. ‘I wouldn’t have described it as such but it was no worse than any other. How about yours?’
‘I had a very interesting day.’ She gave him a pointed look. ‘Very interesting indeed.’
He compressed his lips together for a moment. ‘I get the distinct impression there’s some sort of hidden agenda to this conversation. Why don’t you save me the mental task of figuring it out and tell me for yourself?’
‘It shouldn’t be too hard to work out,’ she said. ‘After all, you’re supposed to be the hot-shot lawyer who can spot a fake a mile off.’
‘Look, Carli, I’ve had a long and trying day. Why not cut with the games and tell me what’s got you all hot under the collar?’
‘You lied to me!’
He frowned as he shrugged himself out of his jacket. ‘On which occasion was this?’
‘You mean there was more than one?’ She glared at him.
‘Don’t twist my words. I simply want to know what’s upset you.’
‘You said you were going to drop the Dangar case and pass it to someone else. You used that promise as a lure to get me here and now I’m here you’ve reneged on the deal.’
‘You seem very sure about that.’
‘Of course I’m sure! You lied as surely as you’re standing there. Don’t tell me you’re going to deny it? Are you or are you not still acting for Aidan Dangar?’
His eyes moved away from the flashing anger in hers.
‘It is customary to consult with the client before changing anything to do with the case.’
‘You’re evading the question.’
‘I have no need to evade the
question. I haven’t as yet been in personal contact with Aidan. I had it on my list of things to do but I’ve been in court for most of the day and I left it with my secretary to make the necessary arrangements. Whether she has done so or not is something I can’t answer right at this moment.’
Carli swung away in fury. ‘I don’t believe you.’
‘That is entirely your affair, of course,’ he answered smoothly.
‘What was your plan?’ She turned back to glare at him. ‘To get me back into your house preparatory to getting me back in your bed?’
His eyes met the fiery heat of hers with consummate ease.
‘That would really be a case of locking the stable door after the horse had already bolted, don’t you think?’ His eyes dipped to the slight swell of her abdomen before returning to her pink-tinged face.
She gave him a blistering look. ‘You think I would consent to making the same mistake twice?’
He had the gall to smile at her. ‘I think it wouldn’t take too much of an effort to get you to do so.’
She clenched her fists by her sides to stop herself from lifting one to the side of his arrogant face.
‘I’d like to see you try,’ she bit out furiously.
‘Is that an invitation?’ He closed the short distance between them, effectively trapping her between a full-sized marble statue and the hall table. ‘I know I promised not to, but if you’ve changed your mind?’
‘Don’t touch me, Xavier.’ Her voice sounded rusty and out of use and not half as insistent as she’d intended.
‘You’re the only person I know who can say one thing with their mouth while their eyes communicate something completely different,’ he mused as he lifted a hand to her hair, trailing his fingers through the silky strands so gently she could scarcely breathe.
‘You’re imagining it,’ she croaked.
‘You keep giving me that look,’ he said. ‘And you know I can’t resist that look.’
‘W…what look?’ She tried to pull away but he still had her tethered to him by a single tendril of her hair.
‘That come-and-get-me look,’ he said, releasing her hair to concentrate his gaze on her mouth. ‘And then your lips go all soft and tremble slightly as if you can already feel my mouth on them.’
‘I do no such thing!’ she insisted, trying to clamp her lips together and speak at the same time.
He gave a soft chuckle of amusement. ‘Stop fighting it, Carli. What’s the point in struggling against what is really inevitable?’
‘Please, Xavier…’ She didn’t know what she was asking for, the words just slipping past the guard of her lips as if they had a mind of their own. ‘Please…’
CHAPTER SIX
XAVIER pressed a barely there kiss to the side of her mouth and she sucked in a prickly breath. He moved down to the jut of her bottom lip and took it between his warm lips, holding her captive with bone-melting tenderness.
She felt desire leap inside her like a forest fire, its hot tongues of need consuming all of her determination to resist him. He released her lip and pressed his mouth over hers, the smooth slide of his tongue into her mouth destroying all of her plans to push him away.
She felt the wall at her back and his hard body at her front, his masculine shape leaving her in no doubt of his arousal. The swell of her tummy between them only seemed to heighten her need to get closer to him, and the arms she’d pinned to her sides earlier now lifted to link around his neck, her fingers already threading their way through his thick dark hair.
He deepened the kiss even further, leaving her breathless as he pressed against her, his body searching for hers with burning intent. She felt his hand at her breast, his fingers gentle over her swollen tenderness, his lazy thumb rolling over her taut nipple, sending waves of desire to her quivering core.
His mouth left hers to trail a hot blaze from her neck, down over the smooth swell of her décolletage, his tongue dipping tantalisingly into the shadow between her breasts. When his mouth closed over her nipple she felt the graze of his teeth through the fabric of her blouse, and then as he lifted his head she saw the dampness of his mouth-print and the nectar of her need spilled inside her, melting her from the inside out.
As he lifted her into his arms she knew she should be making some sort of protest but the words didn’t make it through the scrambled disorder of her desire-enfeebled brain. Her body was on automatic drive, its course set so determinedly there was nothing she could do to turn it about.
He carried her effortlessly upstairs and his mouth was still on hers as he laid her on his bed, his weight over her a delicious pressure as he positioned himself between her spreading thighs.
With an orchestration of movement which had its choreography set in the past he removed her clothes while her trembling fingers dealt with his. Her fingertips fluttered over his maleness and she heard him draw in a harsh breath as she revisited his pleasure points time and time again.
She let her hand fall away and slid down the bed to take him in her mouth, delighting in the flinch of his body as she captured him, his hands clawing through her hair, looking for an anchor against the spiralling pleasure she was giving him. She gloried in the power she had over him, his strength and potency totally under her control as he struggled to hold back his response to the ministrations of her lips and tongue.
At last he could stand no more and, hauling her upwards, claimed her mouth once more, pressing her back into the mattress with the urgency of his desire burning into her where his skin brushed along hers.
She was aflame with her need of him, each and every pore of her skin lifting as if to draw him closer. Her breasts were swollen against his chest, the masculine hairs of his body tickling her flesh from chest to thigh.
His hand slid down over the mound of her belly, his fingers splayed in a touch of such poignant intimacy she felt tears prickling at the backs of her eyes. Their baby lay beneath his warm hand, its tiny body still too small to feel, but knowing it was there made her feel closer to Xavier in spite of all that had passed between them.
‘I don’t want to hurt you,’ he breathed against her mouth as he raised his head to look down at her, his dark eyes glazed with passion.
‘You won’t hurt me,’ she whispered back.
‘I won’t go too deep.’ He moved against her carefully, his movements controlled and steady.
‘I want to feel you…’ She sighed with pleasure at the glide of his hard body, her body shivering in reaction to his gentle possession.
She felt him check himself before going deeper, the deepening thrust causing her body to grasp him tightly in remembered pleasure.
It felt so right to have him there. He filled her so completely, her body welcoming him as if he were returning home after a long absence.
He set a leisurely rhythm which was far too slow for her heightened state of arousal. She arched her back to bring him closer to where she wanted him but it still wasn’t enough. She was close to begging when he slipped a hand between their straining bodies and sought the tiny pearl of her desire with devastating accuracy. She leapt at his touch, all the muscles in her body tensing in preparation for the final plunge into paradise.
Suddenly she was there, tipping over the edge of reason into a free-fall of ecstasy where no conscious thought belonged.
She floated back down to reality in time to feel his release pumping with gentle restraint into her still quivering body, his hectic breathing the only clue of how complete his pleasure had been.
It was only as the tide of passion ebbed that she realised how seriously she’d betrayed herself. She had done it again, allowed herself to be used by him when she’d promised herself she wouldn’t. He’d only done it to prove how weak she was where he was concerned. Her reaction to him fuelled his male pride and he’d gone in search of it deliberately. She could barely look at him in case he saw the shame she felt written all over her body, let alone on her face.
She eased herself away from him and, gat
hering what dignity she could, scrambled to her feet and began hunting for her clothes, her emotions in such disarray she could barely get her fingers to respond to the task of picking her skirt up off the floor.
Xavier leaned up on one elbow to watch her, a small smile lurking about the corners of his mouth.
‘What’s the hurry, Carli?’ he asked.
She turned her back and stepped into her skirt and dragged up the zip, muttering a single unprintable word as it snagged and caught on a loose thread.
‘Come here and I’ll help you,’ he offered.
She gave the zip an almighty tug and freed it. ‘No, thank you.’
‘What’s the matter?’ he asked.
‘How can you ask that?’ She rounded on him furiously.
He gave her a guileless look as he linked his arms above his head. ‘Are you ashamed of how you respond to me?’
‘Of course I’m ashamed!’ She thrust her arms through the sleeves of her blouse and began haphazardly rebuttoning it. ‘We’re not married any more and…and…’
‘And we’re expecting a baby,’ he put in.
‘And we hate each other!’ She ignored his insert. ‘It’s not right! It’s…it’s…’
‘It’s natural.’
‘It’s not natural!’ she insisted. ‘You don’t feel anything for me other than the most basic animal lust and I don’t…’
‘Don’t what, Carli?’
She bit her lip and turned away to hunt for her shoes. ‘I don’t want to discuss this any more. You had no right to…to seduce me. You promised you wouldn’t.’
‘Whoa there for a minute.’ He eased himself upright and came to stand in front of her. ‘What’s this talk of seducing? Who had their mouth around my—?’
‘Stop it!’ She pushed against his chest to prevent him from speaking her shame out loud. ‘I’m not myself. I wasn’t thinking.’
‘To be perfectly frank, I prefer it when you don’t think,’ he said with a wry twist to his lips. ‘When you think you start pulling away from me like you’re doing right now. A few minutes ago you were begging me to—’
‘Don’t say it!’ She spun away. ‘Don’t make me feel any worse.’
Back In Her Husband's Bed (Bedded By Blackmail) Page 10
