One Night with His Wife (22 page)

‘Star…I’ve already sent Emilie a cheque in full repayment of that loan.’

‘How on earth have you managed to do that?’ Star asked weakly. ‘Have you borrowed the money from someone—?’

‘When will you be back from this honeymoon?’ her mother cut in impatiently.

‘In two weeks.’

‘Well, if you’re prepared to wait another two weeks to meet my new husband, I expect I can wait another two weeks to meet my son-in-law again…Luc’s got more lives than a cat with you, hasn’t he?’

‘Mum…did you say what I think you just said?’

‘You’re just going to have to wait for the exciting details,’ Juno pointed out with satisfaction. ‘But I can tell you that I am blissfully happy. So I’ll see you in a fortnight and you can meet Bruno then too. Bye, darling!’

Star sank down on the bed in shock while the twins crawled round her feet.

She was still staring into space when Luc emerged from the bathroom, just a towel between him and six foot three inches of immodest but gorgeous display. But for once Star had something to deflect her attention from his devastating presence, and couldn’t even raise a smile when at first glimpse of Venus and Mars Luc yanked up a dressing robe and hurriedly pulled it round him.

‘What’s wrong?’ Luc demanded the instant he saw her face.

‘Mum phoned. She’s gone off and got married to some guy she could only have known about two weeks.’ Star gazed at Luc in weary apology, her eyes anxious. ‘Well, you know it’s sure to end in tears.’

Star went on to add that Juno had sent Emilie a cheque in full repayment of the loan.

‘This new husband has money…either that or he’s parted with his life savings. Not much we can do about this in the short term. Stop being such a pessimist!’ His lean, dark features concerned, Luc tugged her up into his arms. ‘Why should it be a disaster?’

Star sighed ruefully and rested her troubled brow against his warm bare chest. The tenderness of her mother’s too often broken heart did not bear thinking of. ‘Luc, you know as well as I do that maybe one man in a thousand could stand Juno’s fits and starts…and to get married so quickly she must’ve fallen head over heels, and she’ll be devastated if this Bruno character lets her down—’

‘Bruno…and Juno?’ Luc strung the two names together and a slight shudder rippled through his powerful frame. ‘Seriously?’

‘He sounds like a big thug.’

‘Mon ange…’
Luc pushed up her chin, dark eyes bold and level. ‘Whatever happens, we will both support her. It’s just a little unfortunate that she hates the sight of me.’

‘Mostly because she too thinks you went off to Gabrielle on our wedding night,’ Star admitted reluctantly.

Luc dealt her a riveted glance.

‘And Emilie thinks that too, which is the only reason why she agreed not to tell you about Venus and Mars being born,’ Star added in a craven undertone. ‘Now I don’t have a
single
secret left that you don’t know about…isn’t that good?’

Luc had the appearance of a male being torn in two different directions. Between strangling her fast and strangling her slowly. Then a muscle jerked at the corner of his hard, compressed mouth and suddenly he gave vent to a grudging groan of grim appreciation.

‘You vented your grief liberally…every where with every possible person?’

She nodded apologetically. ‘Talking helped.’

‘But from now on you have to be discreet…you only allow your feelings to overflow in my direction.’

‘Of course,’ Star hastened to assure him, very grateful to have got over that last embarrassing revelation without an explosion.

‘You talk to me about personal things.
Only
me,’ he stressed.

‘I get the message,’ she swore. ‘I’ll try—’

‘Trying isn’t good enough.
J’insiste
,’ Luc laid down with awesome authority.

* * *

‘How much do you know about your real father?’ Luc enquired casually that evening as they strolled back to the car after dining at a quayside restaurant in Calvi.

Star glanced up at him in surprise. ‘Not much, but he really broke Mum’s heart. Even eighteen months ago, when I finally got the chance to ask about him, she dissolved into floods of tears. She met him when she was working as a chalet girl in Gstaad. She was only nineteen. He asked her to marry him while neglecting to admit that he was already engaged,’ she shared with a grimace. ‘Then his fiancée turned
up and Juno fled back to London without ever seeing him again.’

‘What was his name?’ Luc drawled lazily.

‘I never asked…it didn’t seem important, not when talking about him was upsetting her so much. He really did mess up her life.’ Star sighed. ‘Mum was brought up by her grandparents, and when they died she inherited nearly half a million pounds—’

‘I never knew that.’ Luc lifted her up into the four-wheel drive as if she couldn’t possibly manage to clamber up on that big step all on her own. But Star was smiling, revelling in the manner in which Luc had been treating her since their first night in Corsica. As if she was spun glass, and so precious. She just loved it.

‘Why should you have done? Phillipe had gambled away the lot by the time I was three years old. Mum only married him because she was pregnant with me, and I expect he was tempted by her inheritance.’

‘I’m starting to see why Emilie believes your mother has had more than her fair share of bad luck.’

Delighted by that new tolerance, Star gave him a glowing smile in reward.

* * *

Two weeks later, Star lay in Luc’s arms at dawn.

She was wide awake. They were flying home in a few hours. Wherever Luc was would be home, she acknowledged with complete contentment. Corsica was where they had grown closer than she had ever dreamt possible. It was a gorgeous island, full of spectacular scenery and forests and picturesque villages. This villa would always be a very special place for them.

Deciding to surprise him with breakfast in bed, she eased out of Luc’s embrace. She watched his hand move across the bed, as if he was seeking her, as if he could feel her absence even when he was asleep. He would sleep late. He deserved to, she conceded with a grin, admiring the long sweep of his
golden back in the soft light filtering through the curtains. He was a wonderful lover, a fabulous father, and shaping up really well as a soulmate. And last night he had spoken heresy…he was planning to
cut
his working hours and reorganise his schedule so that he travelled less.

Over dinner last night she had shared with him the details of the twins’ premature birth and the subsequent months of frantic worry and stress. He had been so shocked. He honestly hadn’t realised how at risk Venus and Mars had once been. He wished very much that he had been there to support them all, but he didn’t blame her for not contacting him. He accepted that what he had said the morning after their son and daughter’s conception had convinced Star that he really wouldn’t want to know that he was a father.

I love him, I love him, I love him, Star reflected as she thought of that generous understanding and acceptance which had so relieved her. Perhaps tonight she would tell him that she loved him again. While she waited for the kettle in the kitchen, she lifted a glossy magazine which the maid must have been skimming through the evening before. On the front page she saw Luc’s distinctive script. A note he had jotted down? Naturally nosy, she turned it upside down to read what he had written. A name and a date. A name that still had the power to drain Star of oxygen and turn her pale.

It
had
to be an old magazine. Not that that quite wiped out the huge sense of hurt she was experiencing. Naturally it was a smack in the face to appreciate that Gabrielle Joly must also have shared a bed here with Luc at one time. Suddenly all her own memories began feeling soiled. She turned the magazine round, just to check the date of it. Only then did she realise in sick dismay that the spoiling of sentimental memories was the
least
she had to worry about!

The magazine was only two months old, so when Luc had jotted down ‘Gabrielle arriving’ it had been barely a
month
before Star had come back into his life. Star hugged herself,
suddenly chilled to the marrow. How could she now have faith in
anything
Luc had told her about Gabrielle Joly?

Luc had allowed her to believe that Gabrielle had been out of his life for a long time. And yet Gabrielle had still been his mistress as recently as two months ago! Star was shattered. Was Luc planning to keep both a wife and a mistress? What else could she believe? If Gabrielle Joly still held his interest after what Star now estimated to be a relationship of several years’ duration, the beautiful blonde had to be very important to him. Far more important than Star had
ever
been prepared to consider…

CHAPTER TEN

S
TAR
was gutted by misery.

She would have to wait until they got back to the chateau to confront Luc with her suspicions; it would be sheer madness to embark on what was likely to be a very distressing scene at the outset of a journey home.

So Luc had to make his own breakfast. He had never had to do that before, and it was not an entirely successful operation. When he tried to kiss Star good morning, he got pushed away and snapped at. By the time they boarded the jet, the atmosphere was explosive. Ignoring Luc’s repeated demands to know what was wrong, Star concentrated her attention on Venus and Mars.

Ten minutes into the flight, Luc rose from his seat. ‘Look at me, Star—’

‘I don’t want to look at you right now,’ she admitted tightly, and lifted her magazine higher.

Luc snatched it out of her hands with a suddenness that shook her into looking up.

‘Stand up,’ he told her, dark eyes glittering with anger. ‘We’ll talk in private.’

‘No, I—’

‘D’accord…’
Without warning, Luc simply bent down, scooped her out of her seat and carried her down the plane. ‘We are not going to fight in front of the children.’

‘Put me down this minute…’ she hissed furiously.

Luc dumped her down into another seat and lounged back across the aisle from her.

‘We’re flying home to a very big party.’

That startling announcement took the wind from Star’s angry sails. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Being such a romantic guy,’ Luc drawled with withering derision, ‘I decided to stage the wedding reception we never had as a surprise. Three hundred guests will be waiting to greet us, including your mother and her seriously rich new husband, Bruno Vence. Be warned, Bruno is very small, and he has hair and eyes that are an exact match of yours. And now for the best bit of all. Your wedding dress is waiting for you in the main sleeping compartment.’

‘My…my
what
?’ Star gasped, already sufficiently thrown by the announcement of the reception and utterly bewildered by the apparent fact that he seemed to know more about Juno’s husband than she did.

‘You never had the wedding you wanted. Since that was my fault, I have arranged for a church blessing, and this time you get to wear a wedding dress.’

‘I can’t…I just can’t.’

Luc lowered his arrogant dark head. Shimmering dark eyes alight with outrage locked onto hers. ‘Oh, yes, you
will
!’ he growled. ‘You will not embarrass me in front of three hundred people. So ship out, dress up and join the grown-ups. Being in a bad, bad sulky mood is not an excuse for your behaviour since you got up this morning!’

‘How about…Gabrielle?’ Star whispered raggedly.

Luc stared at her, a pleat forming between his winged ebony brows. ‘I don’t see the connection.’

‘I’ll show you…wait a minute.’ Star hurried back to her original seat to lift her bag and dig out the magazine cover she had brought from the villa as evidence. Her hands shook. Now the moment had come, she didn’t want to confront Luc. Her head was spinning. He had organised these wonderful, wonderful events for her as a surprise, she was now appreciating in shock. They were to have a church blessing and she was to wear a wedding dress and finally be officially introduced to loads of relatives and guests as his wife. And if it hadn’t been for the magazine cover she was crumpling
between her hands, right now she would have been ecstatically happy.

Luc was poised exactly where she had left him. His darkly handsome face still as glass, he watched her approach. It was a long time since she had seen Luc wear that chilling expression and her skin crawled with foreboding; he had his defences back up. He was guilty; he had to be guilty. He was just waiting to see how much she knew.

In silence, Star extended the magazine cover.

‘High drama,’ Luc breathed with licking scorn. ‘But I don’t read this sort of rubbish.’

‘It’s something you’ve written on the cover…’

Luc perused his own handwriting. His hard jawline squared.
‘So?’

That undeniably aggressive demand for further clarification wasn’t quite the reaction Star had expected. ‘Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it?’ she said shakily.

‘On the basis of two words and a date I scribbled down the last weekend I spent in Corsica, you decided…what?’

Having to spell it all out somehow made it even more humiliating. A burst of anger pierced the fog of pain and despair which had enveloped Star throughout the morning. ‘You’re still sleeping with her…you never got rid of her…
all this time
that we’ve been married, she’s continued to be your mistress!’ she condemned rawly.

‘Are you finished?’ Dark eyes as glacial and dangerous as black ice rested on her. ‘My relationship with Gabrielle died a natural death several weeks before I even married you! Late last year she got married—’

‘Married?’
Star stressed in shock.

‘During their honeymoon, her husband, Marc, was seriously injured in a road accident. He was only recently released from hospital. When a mutual friend told me of their situation, and of Marc’s need for rest and recuperation, I offered them the use of the villa for a holiday.’

Shaken by what he was telling her, Star blinked rapidly. ‘But—’

‘I haven’t seen Gabrielle since she moved to Dijon last year. I was invited to her wedding but was unable to attend.’ Luc scanned Star’s drawn face with ice-cool eyes.