Bride On Demand. Kay Thorpe

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ then.’ Regan kept a straight face, resisting the urge to hug the small, sturdy body. With his mop of reddish hair and green eyes, he resembled her rather than his father, but there was a certain something emerging in his facial bone structure, even now, that struck a bell—especially after having seen the man in question so recently. Not that there was any doubt as to his parentage, anyway. Liam had been her first, and only, lover.

      She did a few odd tasks after he was in bed, watched television for an hour or so, then attempted to pass some time reading, though her mind wasn’t on the written word. When the telephone rang at half past ten she was on the verge of retiring for the night. Liam’s voice sounded so close, so intimate.

      ‘I can’t stop thinking about you,’ he said softly. ‘I want you here with me right now, your hair spread across the pillow, your mouth yearning for my kisses, your body vibrating with desire for my touch! You were always so giving—so utterly without artifice!’

      ‘The word you’re looking for is artless,’ she said in an attempt to stem the swift-rising heat.

      His laugh came low. ‘I know what I’m looking for. The girl I knew seven years ago is still there somewhere, lurking under that veneer. I aim to find her again.’

      ‘You’d have a long search.’ Regan was amazed at her surface composure, considering the furore going on inside her. ‘It’s no veneer, Liam. I’m a different person.’

      The one you made me, she might have added.

      ‘We’ll see,’ he said. ‘Goodnight, green eyes.’

      He’d called her that in the past as a term of endearment. Replacing the receiver, Regan did her best to calm her inner tumult. It meant nothing. All he was in need of right now was a warm, responsive female body to share his bed; hers just happened to be the first name to spring to mind.

      She tremored as memory ran riot, forming tangible images in her mind’s eye: that lean hard body stripped of all clothing and fully aroused, the ripple of muscle beneath her fingers, the electric prickle of his chest hair against her nipples. In Liam’s arms she had known no reticence, no inhibition. He had taught her so much about her own bodily needs.

      There had been times during these past years when she had yearned to know that fulfilment again, but she’d still to meet someone who could make her feel even a fraction of what she’d felt for Liam.

      What she still felt for Liam, if she were honest about it, which was all the more reason to keep him at arm’s length. She had made the mistake seven years ago of allowing her emotions to overrule caution. She’d persuaded herself that his ruthless, ambitious, womanising reputation was mostly the product of jealous minds, and look where that had left her. He might have mellowed a little on the surface, but people didn’t change fundamentally. The way he had treated Paula Lambert was proof enough of that.

      In any case, there was Jamie to consider. Better no father at all than a reluctant one—who might deny responsibility to start with.

      More than half anticipating some further approach, she told herself it was all for the best when she heard nothing more from him over the following few days. Life went on much as it had before, with work taking up the greater part of it. After one further, tentative enquiry, Hugh took the hint and let the subject drop. Her business was her business.

      The weekend came round again, this time with no Friday soirée to dress for. Regan took Jamie to the local park to play on the swings and roundabouts for half an hour or so, returning home to a couple of games of Scrabble before tucking him into bed around eight-thirty.

      Sarah came up with a bottle of wine. Don had gone out for a drink with a pal, she said, so why not follow suit? They drank a couple of glasses apiece, and enjoyed an undemanding hour talking about whatever came to mind. By the time they parted, Regan was feeling more than a little elevated.

      It wasn’t yet ten o’clock, she saw in some surprise. The night was still young! So what? asked the voice of reason, bringing her sharply down again from the heights. So what indeed?

      Early as it was, she might as well go to bed, she decided. At least there was the weekend to look forward to, although she’d have to cudgel her brains to find something different to do on Sunday. They’d just about exhausted the affordable pastimes.

      She was about to pull out the sofa bed when the doorbell rang. Sarah must have forgotten something, she thought, going to open the door. A joke about the effects of too much wine ready on her lips, she froze in suspended animation for a moment on seeing who the caller was, catching up with a painful jolt as her heart regained its rhythm.

      ‘How did you get in?’ she demanded.

      ‘The usual way,’ Liam answered. ‘The outside door wasn’t completely closed.’

      Don! she thought. He’d been careless before. Not that it mattered at this particular moment who had left the door open.

      ‘What do you want?’ she asked, knowing it a pretty stupid question.

      His brief smile suggested a similar assessment. ‘I tried staying away. It didn’t work. I had to see you again.’

      ‘So, you’ve seen me,’ she retorted, hardening herself against the sudden temptation to let matters take their own course. ‘You know the way out.’

      He stuck a foot in the door to keep it from closing. ‘Stop playing the hard case. It isn’t the way you feel.’

      ‘You’d know, of course!’ She was fighting to stay in control—reminding herself of the child asleep in the next room. ‘Always so sure!’

      ‘Sure I’m not going to give up on you without a hell of a lot more effort,’ he said. ‘Are you going to let me in, or do I have to apply pressure?’

      ‘It’s late.’ She was beginning to lose her grip on the situation. ‘I—’

      ‘It’s only a little after ten. Having got this far, I don’t intend leaving without having my say, so you may as well reconcile yourself.’

      Her eyes held his for several heart-racing seconds before finally giving way. Jamie had been really tired, Regan reassured herself. He wouldn’t waken up.

      ‘You won’t be here long,’ she said flatly, opening the door wider.

      He made no answer to that. Closing the door as he advanced into the room, she turned to face him, striking the same semi-defensive attitude as on that previous night. ‘So?’

      There was no verbal answer to that either. He simply moved the couple of steps that brought him back to where she stood and pulled her into his arms.

      The kiss blew her away in its emotive power, stripping her mind of everything but the desire for it never to end. She clung to him, lips moving beneath his, body seeking the heat and hardness it remembered so well and had craved for so long. The buttons of her blouse gave easily to the supple fingers; she drew in a shuddering breath at the feel of those same fingers on her bare skin, her nipples springing to vibrant life.

      ‘Lovelier than ever,’ he murmured. ‘So smooth and firm!’ He lowered his head to put his lips where his fingers had been, sending wave after wave of tremoring sensation through her.

      Sanity returned like a stone dropped from СКАЧАТЬ