Welcome to Mills & Boon. Jennifer Rae
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу Welcome to Mills & Boon - Jennifer Rae страница 96
Название: Welcome to Mills & Boon
Автор: Jennifer Rae
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Короткие любовные романы
Серия: Mills & Boon e-Book Collections
isbn: 9781474013673
isbn:
‘I have all the time in the world for you.’ Flynn set his cheek against her hair and Helena sighed. It felt right. She wanted it to be right. And yet...
‘I can’t promise you anything,’ she said. ‘Well, nothing beyond the fact that I’m apparently always going to love you. Can’t seem to shake that one.’
‘Good.’
‘But I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready to have children.’ It hurt to say the words, hurt to think it. She’d been happy, imagining her life without kids, until she’d married Flynn. Now, it stung—not just because she couldn’t give him what she knew he wanted, but because for the first time she wondered if she might want it too.
Flynn loosened his arms from around her waist and took her hands in his instead, rubbing his thumb over the knuckles of the fingers, still wrapped around the object he’d placed in her palm.
‘I promise you this,’ he said, his expression solemn. ‘There is no schedule for our life together, no plan. Not any more. If it happens one day that you turn to me and tell me you’re ready to try for a baby, I’ll be the happiest man on earth. And if it doesn’t?’ He shrugged. ‘I’ll still be the happiest man on earth because I’ll be married to you.’
Slowly, he dropped to his knees and Helena bit back a sob. Could he really be giving her everything she’d ever wanted? And could she forgive herself enough to accept?
Peeling back her fingers, he took her engagement ring from her hand and placed it at the tip of her ring finger. ‘Helena Juliette Ashton. Will you do me the honour of being my wife?’
Through her tears, Helena giggled. ‘Isn’t this where we came in?’ she asked as he slid the ring home.
‘It’s the only place I want to be,’ Flynn said, and tugged her down for a kiss.
THE TUSCAN SUN shone down as bright as ever, and Helena pulled the brim of her straw hat down to shade her eyes as she watched her niece and nephew chase each other through the grapevines, racing after their new friend Casper.
It had been five years since she and Flynn had first visited Gia’s vineyard, but Helena still felt exactly the same sense of home as she had the first time.
Up ahead, Thea and Zeke quizzed Gia about her growing methods, about how the wine was made, and Gia answered patiently the questions she must have been asked a thousand times before.
Helena tuned them out and focused instead on the warm sun on her shoulders, the buzz of summer insects in the air, and her husband’s hand in her own.
‘This is a wonderful place for a family, don’t you think?’ she asked, and Flynn murmured his agreement.
‘I’m so glad we got to bring Thea and the kids here,’ she went on. ‘It’s good to share this place with them.’
‘It’s been a great holiday,’ Flynn agreed, but Helena knew he was barely listening—too languid and lazy in the sun.
‘Maybe we’ll come back again next year with our own child,’ she said as casually as she could.
Flynn stopped walking and Helena grinned, ducking her head so he couldn’t see.
‘Helena. Are you saying...? Do you think you might be ready to maybe...?’ It wasn’t often Flynn fell over his words. It was kind of nice to hear.
She beamed up at him, loving the amazed wonder on his face. ‘I’m saying it’s a little late for that conversation.’
His eyes widened further. ‘You mean you’re already...? And you’re okay? Do you want to talk about it?’
‘I’m fine,’ Helena assured him, taking his hand and placing it on her still flat stomach. ‘We’re fine.’
‘We said we’d talk about this if you ever changed your mind. I don’t want you to feel—’
‘All I feel is happy—’ Helena interrupted ‘—happy and grateful and loved.’
Flynn let out a long breath. ‘You’re sure?’
‘I’m sure.’ She grinned. ‘And you did say you wanted to be more spontaneous.’
‘I couldn’t have planned this any better,’ Flynn said, and kissed her.
* * * * *
Read on for an extract from THE HEIR’S UNEXPECTED RETURN by Jackie Braun.
CHAPTER ONE
FAT THUNDERCLOUDS ROLLED overhead and spat rain like machine gun fire as wave after wave battered Hadley Island’s sandy beachfront. As it was on one of the barrier islands off the South Carolina coast, the sixteen-mile-long stretch of pristine shoreline was used to the abuse. Mother Nature’s fury, however, was no match for the emotions roiling inside Brigit Wright.
Unmindful of the worsening storm, she continued to walk. In the pocket of the yellow rain slicker she wore, she fisted her hand around the already-crumpled piece of paper. Printing out the email hadn’t changed its content.
Miss Wright, I will be arriving home the day after tomorrow for an extended stay. Please have my quarters on the main floor ready.
—KF
Two curt sentences that still had her blood boiling.
Kellen Faust, heir to the Faust fortune, was returning—coming “home” as he’d put it—to continue his recuperation after the skiing accident he’d suffered four months earlier in the Swiss Alps.
If the news reports she’d read about his fall were even remotely accurate, then Brigit supposed she should feel sorry for him. Along with a concussion, dislocated shoulder and broken wrist, he’d snapped his ankle, mangled his knee and shattered the femur in his right leg. Four months out and the man was still in the midst of a long and very painful recovery. Even so, she didn’t want him here while he did his mending, potentially meddling in the day-to-day minutia of running the exclusive Faust Haven resort. Brigit preferred to work without interference.
Kellen’s family had a large home outside Charleston, as well as an assortment of plush real estate holdings sprinkled around Europe. Why hadn’t he picked one of those places to do his recuperating? Surely they would be more accommodating to Kellen’s large entourage and the other assorted sycophants who enabled his Peter Pan–like existence.
Why choose Faust Haven? This wasn’t his home. It was hers, dammit! Just as Faust Haven was her resort, the name on the deed notwithstanding. While he’d spent the past five years hotfooting around Europe, living off what had to be a sizable trust fund and enjoying the life of the idle rich, Brigit had been hard at work turning a tired and nearly forgotten old-money retreat into a fashionable, five-star accommodation that offered СКАЧАТЬ