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Authors: Susan Stevens

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BOOK: Ivory Innocence
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His head came up and he looked at her dazedly, as if he didn't follow what she was saying. "What truth?"

"About your uncle. Old Mrs. Mead told me. I know the whole village has misjudged your uncle all these years because he was too much of a gentleman—maybe too loving—to come out in public and call my grandmother a liar. But she did it because she loved my grandfather. I can't blame her for that."

"For heaven's sake, all that was ages ago. It doesn't matter."

"But it does!" she insisted. "It made you hate me. I realize now I ought to have thought of talking to Mrs. Mead before I ever came to the Hall, but it never occurred to me. Besides, if I'd done that we—we might never have met."

"You make it sound as though that would have been a tragedy," he said bitterly.

Her eyes filled with warm tears as she muttered, "It would have been, for me."

"Ivory." He reached out and caught her hands, pulling her closer to him, his face lifted to hers. "How can you say that? I punished you with all the bitterness I felt for Andrea. I made myself believe you were like her. But Andrea wouldn't have stuck with me the way you've done, putting up with my moods this past month—and before, when there was less excuse. I know how I must have hurt you. Don't you want to be free of me?"

She shook her head, choking, "It was
you
who was going to leave
me
."

"I was out of my mind," he said.

Sobbing, she threw her arms round his neck and held him tightly, feeling his arms close round her. She rubbed her face against his mist-damp hair. And as he lifted his head, she bent to kiss his mouth feverishly, her tears wetting his face.

He pulled her onto his lap, cradling her as if she were a child, wrapping her securely with his arms and his body while he kissed the tears from her eyes, his lips hard and warm against her skin. "Ivory, Ivory, Ivory," he murmured. "You must take after your grandmother."

"How do you mean?" she asked, blinking in bewilderment.

"You've done what you've done," he said in a low voice, "because you love your husband."

Her sight blurred through a fresh scald of tears. "Yes, I have. If only you would believe me!"

"I do believe you," he muttered against her mouth. "Darling love, you've proved it a dozen times over."

Joy surged through her as she gave herself up to his kisses, returning them with equal passion until her head was spinning and her blood singing through her veins.

"And I love you," he said hoarsely. "Love you, want you, need you. Darling Ivory, don't you know that? Hasn't it been obvious to you?"

She buried her face in the warmth of his throat, her lips touching the pulse that beat beneath his skin. She wondered why she was still crying when she was so happy.

"Ever since we met I've been fighting a battle with my own feelings," he told her gruffly. "I was so jealous of Rob Garth I could have killed him. When he told me about your grandparents, it seemed to confirm all my worst suspicions. I think I must have gone slightly mad. Forgive me."

"There's nothing to forgive," she whispered. "If you love me, nothing else matters."

"Then will you do something for me?" he breathed in her ear.

"Anything!"

A finger beneath her chin made her look at him, and she saw his eyes gleam with rueful amusement. "Will you please get up? My leg's going to sleep."

Biting her lip against a bubble of giddy laughter, Ivory pushed herself unsteadily to her feet, not caring that her hair was tousled and her face tear-streaked. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize. I ought to have chosen somewhere more comfortable." Holding her hand, he eased himself off the wall and stamped his foot to get the blood flowing again.

"Matthew," she said thoughtfully. "When Carla was here just now, you did know who she was. You deliberately sent her packing."

His eyebrow quirked, no longer maddening, but endearing. "Yes, I did. It seemed the simplest way of dealing with her. Damn the woman, I'm sick of having her chasing after me."

"Then—I'm sorry, but I've got to know. Why did you go to her that night after you found out I was a Meldrum?"

A heavy sigh escaped him as he grimaced. "I didn't, actually. I called her, in a fit of pique, but I didn't meet her. When it came to it, she was the last person I wanted to see. It would have been cheap revenge, with a woman I can't stand. I went drinking, and came in very late, so I slept in the dressing room. Believe me?"

"Yes, and I'm glad. I was so jealous you wouldn't believe it."

"Wouldn't I?" Head on one side, he smiled wryly at her. "While we're on the subject of third parties: had you arranged to meet Rob Garth in Holly Wood that day you went to see old Mrs. Mead?"

"How can you ask that?" she demanded, wounded afresh. "Of course I didn't arrange it. We ran into each other, that's all. Oh, I knew that must be what sent you off in such a tearing hurry!"

"I saw him kissing you," he informed her.

"He wasn't kissing me! Just a brush on the cheek. A last good-bye, because he knew I was in love with you. Rob was never any more than a friend. It was completely innocent—not like your relationship with Carla Forsythe."

"What relationship? A few kisses in the heat of the moment is all it ever was with Carla."

"But there were others?" She was riven with jealousy, and the leap of laughter in his eyes only incensed her more.

"A few," he said, lips twitching. "Brief physical liaisons, with no strings on either side. I'm not going to apologize for that, since it happened before I knew you. Have I asked about your private life?"

"It wouldn't matter if you had. There's nothing to tell."

"Nothing at all? Not even some passionate clinches? If so, there must have been something wrong with the male students at your college."

"Matthew, it's not funny!" she cried.

"No." He reached for her, drawing her into his arms and holding her tightly against him, the demon glaring covetously at her. "No, it's deadly serious. If some other man had made love to you before me, I'd probably find him and kill him."

He kissed her with a possessive passion that made her heart leap. She had the real Matthew back. His old devilish self, mixed with the gentler man she had known for the past month.

"Let's go in and take these coats off," he said eventually, breathing unevenly. "Can you find Janey something absorbing to do for an hour—or two?"

"Not when there isn't a lock on the bedroom door," she said, laughing. "Besides, she'll be wanting her lunch. You'll just have to be patient."

"Which, as you reminded me, is not one of my virtues. I'm not the easiest of men to live with, I suppose. I won't change, you know. An arrogant brute. Isn't that what you called me?"

"Your memory's back with a vengeance," she said ruefully. "Yes, you can be difficult, but these last few days… It's been heaven, Matthew, except that you weren't well and I was afraid what you'd say when—"

He stopped the words with another kiss, a wicked, lingering kiss that made her knees go weak. "It's been heaven for me, too," he said, his voice deep and tender. "For the first time in my life I've discovered what it can feel like to love someone who really loves me in return."

Clasping her arms round his neck, she rubbed her face against his. "And this is the man who said he was incapable of love."

"Ah, well," he sighed, "I had to protect myself somehow. But it was self-delusion. Good grief, after I'd written that letter I was so wretched. No wonder I wiped it all out. I couldn't live with it."

"So you won't leave me."

His arms hardened round her. "Never. What's mine I keep, remember? And to prove it—You know what I'd really like to do?"

"No, what?"

"Get married again, properly, in church. Have our union blessed, or whatever they call it. Invite all the tenants from the estate. What do you think?"

"It's a wonderful idea!" she breathed. "We'll make them see the Kendrakes in a different light. And if I buy you a wedding ring, will you wear it?"

"With pride," he assured her.

Filled with a warm sense of Tightness, she reached up to kiss him softly. "The only thing is, darling, we shall have to arrange it soon or I'll never fit into a wedding dress. Though I suppose that in this case it won't be too shocking that the bride is pregnant."

He stared down at her incredulously. "What?"

"I'm afraid so," she said, happily snuggling against him. "It must have happened that very first time—after I got lost in the mist, remember? Mist must be lucky for us. Are you pleased?"

"Pleased?" he murmured vibrantly in her ear. "I could jump over the moon! A brother for Janey. Our son. It's got to be a boy."

She wrinkled her nose at him, seeing that the demon hadn't disappeared. It was dancing with delight. It was part of him, and she wouldn't have it any other way. "If you order it to be a boy, it hasn't got much choice, has it?" she teased. "Though if it takes after its father, it will be whatever it pleases."

"Witch!" he retorted, laughing, and bent to sweep her off the ground, into his arms, beginning to carry her with slow, steady steps toward the cottage. "Right, Mrs. Kendrake. This is where
I
start taking care of
you
for a change."

BOOK: Ivory Innocence
11.63Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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