Make-Over Marriage. Sharon Kendrick

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СКАЧАТЬ there was to say on the subject,’ she objected, hooking the clasp of her bra behind her back,

      Todd shook his head. ‘Oh, no, sweetheart,’ came his emphatic reply. ‘I think that you said everything you had to say on the subject—namely, that you didn’t want to move.’

      ‘Oh!’ Her mouth trembled as she listened to Todd riding roughshod over her objections. ‘So my opinion counts for nothing, does it?’

      Todd sighed. ‘Of course it does! In fact, if it hadn’t been for the fact that you so patently wanted to stay put, I would have brought up the subject of moving out to the country years ago!’

      ‘And I would have had the same objections then as I do now!’ she retorted.

      Trying a different tack, he put his hands behind his head, and, leaning back against the pillows, gave her a slow smile. ‘What exactly do you do in the city that you won’t be able to do in the country?’

      Anna looked at him assessingly. So he was treating her to the logical approach, was he? She wondered if he realised just how patronising he sounded. ‘Go to the theatre,’ she said immediately. ‘And to concerts. Then there are the art galleries and the parks—oh, and all the specialist shops.’

      ‘And if we lived close enough to another city? How would that be? So that you could still do all those things.’

      ‘But why would we want to? We’re settled here, Todd,’ she prevaricated. ‘You know we are.’

      ‘Yes,’ he conceded. ‘But we can just as easily settle somewhere else.’ He saw her mutinous expression, and decided that it might be prudent to backtrack. ‘Oh, I’m not being naive, sweetheart. I know it won’t be easy to just pack up our things and—’

      ‘Then why do it?’ Anna demanded, angry that Todd seemed contented to turn their world upside down on what sounded like little more than a whim.

      ‘For all the reasons we discussed earlier—more space around the place, and a better quality of life for the triplets—’

      ‘But not for me?’

      ‘For all of us,’ he corrected her gently. ‘You know that in your heart, sweetheart.’

      Any minute now and she would burst into tears.

      Anna pulled her crumpled tee-shirt violently down over her head, emerging with her blonde hair flattened like golden skin against her scalp. She shook it free. ‘And what’s brought this on all of a sudden?’ she asked him. ‘Is it just Tally complaining that she can’t have a horse?’

      He shook his head. ‘Not at all. That was coincidental.’

      ‘What, then?’

      He shrugged his broad shoulders. ‘Because I needed to take a long-term view of my affairs, and I realised that there was absolutely no need for me to be based in London any more. Communication systems today mean that I can work from almost anywhere. Plus you know how long it takes me to get to work.’

      Anna nodded. He did have a point. The traffic was so heavy in the mornings that Todd had taken to leaving for the office at the crack of dawn, and often he didn’t arrive home until she was putting the triplets to bed. Sometimes even later. No wonder he was always so tired.

      And it was no earthly good telling him to cut back on his hours, either, even though he had earned enough to keep them all for several lifetimes. Because the work ethic was deeply ingrained in Todd’s nature, the habit of a lifetime hard to break. Todd worked hard because he was a driven man, and like so many driven men he needed to work hard. Circumstances in his youth had seen to that.

      ‘Surely we could come to some sort of compromise?’ she suggested, before adding rather irritably, ‘And for goodness’ sake can’t you get up and put some clothes on, Todd? The girls will be back any minute now.’

      He grinned as he slid off the side of the bed and pulled on a pair of jeans, and Anna found that she couldn’t tear her eyes away from him. He was like a sumptuous feast she couldn’t get enough of, and her fingers were just itching to caress the broad, tanned satin of his bare skin once again.

      He looked up from buttoning up his shirt and gave her a tender smile. ‘You want us to climb straight back into that bed over there, don’t you, Anna Travers?’

      Anna coloured. ‘No, I don’t.’

      He came over to stand in front of her, and gently lifted her chin with his finger. ‘Don’t be shy, sweetheart. You certainly weren’t being shy a little while back! I wondered what had got into you, until I realised that I had!’

      ‘Todd!’ Anna bit her lip as she remembered how ruthlessly he had dealt with her clothes, stripping them from her body like a man on fire.

      ‘There’s nothing wrong with admitting that we still want and need each other, you know,’ he continued softly. ‘I hope that our mutual desire might even escalate as the years go by! And that’s another reason for wanting to move. We may have space here, but we don’t have many rooms. And rooms equal privacy.’

      ‘Don’t we have enough privacy?’

      He shook his head emphatically. ‘Heck, Anna,’ he continued, with the fluency of someone who had thought an argument right through. ‘The girls are right next door to us as it is—so what do you suppose is going to happen as they become teenagers and realise why Mummy is moaning such a lot?’

      ‘Todd!’ She blushed hotly.

      ‘Quite apart from having to keep quiet—’ he frowned ‘—I should think our chances of making spontaneous love will continue to be infinitesimally small—that is, unless we decide to do something positive about it!

      Anna finished pulling on her leggings and turned on him. ‘And what’s got into you all of a sudden, Todd Travers?’ she demanded. ‘Do you suppose that other men would attempt to uproot their wives and families just so that they could get more sex?’

      He had been as tolerant and as understanding as he knew how, but now Todd went pale with anger at her insult. ‘So you think that’s what this is all about?’ he asked, in a voice which was dangerously quiet. ‘Sex?’

      ‘I don’t know,’ she answered wearily. ‘You tell me. What else could it be? A mid-life crisis? In which case, at thirty-three aren’t you a little young to be experiencing that?’

      ‘Damned right I am!’ he agreed heatedly. ‘But maybe you’re right. Maybe it is some kind of crisis, only you just haven’t had the time or the inclination to notice it before—’

      ‘Todd—’ she cut in, as shocked at the brutal look of anger on his face as by the fact that they seemed to be having a pretty significant row. ‘You don’t mean that!’

      ‘Don’t I?’ he demanded, as fiercely as she’d ever heard him speak. ‘How do you know what I mean? You never listen if it doesn’t happen to correspond with what you want, do you? And it’s about time you heard me out, Anna Travers!’

      ‘Go on, then,’ she responded, in a shocked, low voice.

      He drew in a great breath of air. СКАЧАТЬ