To Be A Husband. Carole Mortimer

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      ‘You shouldn’t believe everything you read, you know,’ he told her.

      She turned to give him a startled look, those deep green eyes wide. ‘I beg your pardon?’

      ‘The newspapers and gossip-mongers have had a field day with my two brothers and me over the last few years, and since Jarrett married Abbie a couple of years ago the pressure has been placed on Jordan and myself. If we so much as look at a woman the marriage speculation begins,’ he explained. ‘I just wanted to reassure you that I don’t have anyone special in my life already.’ The woman he should have been seeing this evening wasn’t anyone serious, just someone he spent the occasional night with when they were both free. And went to bed with, he inwardly confessed. But it certainly wasn’t serious, its very casualness suiting both parties.

      Gaye gave a shrug. ‘That’s nice to know.’

      ‘But it still makes no difference to your answer,’ Jonathan guessed frustratedly. He had never wanted any woman to go out with him as much as he wanted Gaye to. But he knew by her body language that she wasn’t going to do so.

      ‘Turn left,’ she suddenly instructed at a junction. ‘You can drop me off here,’ she told him once he had turned the car.

      ‘Here’ was the corner of the street, and, although there were several houses close by, if he stopped the car now, they wouldn’t actually be parked outside any of them; Gaye didn’t even want him to know where she lived, Jonathan realised.

      ‘I’ll take you to your door,’ he told her grimly. He had never felt so unwanted by a woman in his life. What was wrong with him, for goodness’ sake? Because Gaye certainly found something about him unacceptable!

      ‘There’s no need—’

      ‘There’s every need, damn it,’ he told her forcefully. ‘I said I would drive you home—and that’s exactly what I intend doing!’

      He was angry, he suddenly realised. That was an emotion he very rarely felt. But at the moment he was intensely angry. And this woman, with her cool rebuff, was making him feel that way.

      Was he really so arrogant that he couldn’t take no for an answer?

      It wasn’t a question of arrogance, he knew; he just couldn’t accept that he wouldn’t see Gaye again...

      ‘I’m sorry,’ he said softly. ‘I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that. But I still don’t have any intention,’ he continued determinedly as she would have spoken, ‘of just dropping you off in the middle of nowhere!’ Or of not knowing exactly where she lived, he decided.

      Her green eyes sparkled now as she looked across at him. Jonathan had a feeling anger was as much an alien emotion to Gaye as it was to him. But, he decided, any emotion was better than none!

      ‘The second house on the left,’ she bit out, looking away so that he could no longer see her expression.

      Although he could guess!

      The second house on the left was much further along the road than it sounded, the houses in this quiet suburb obviously exclusive, each set within its own grounds. The buildings themselves, although Victorian in style, were very large and grand. As Jonathan parked the car and looked down the long driveway, he knew Gaye couldn’t possibly live in such a large house on her own...

      ‘I—’

      ‘Thank you for the lift home,’ she told him politely, the door of the car open even as she spoke.

      ‘Gaye...?’ Jonathan moved just as quickly, out of the car, and was standing on the pavement beside her as she got out. ‘I don’t suppose there’s any chance of being invited in for a cup of tea?’ he said affably. ‘After all, I was almost an expectant father today!’

      Her mouth twisted wryly. ‘How could I possibly forget?’ She grimaced. ‘I’ll make doubly sure I have the right man in future. I don’t want to go dragging some poor unsuspecting male into Theatre to witness the birth of a child!’

      He chuckled. ‘You should have seen your face when Jarrett walked in!’

      ‘I can imagine.’ She groaned her embarrassment. ‘Hopefully everyone will have forgotten about it by the time I go back on duty!’

      ‘You won’t be at the clinic tomorrow?’

      Gaye shook her head, her hair moving silkily about her shoulders. ‘I have two days off now.’

      Damn! He had thought, had depended on the fact that he would at least be able to see her at the clinic when he visited Abbie. And Gaye had very neatly avoided answering him about the cup of tea!

      He gave a frustrated sigh, lightly grasping the tops of her arms. ‘You’re an infuriating woman, Gaye Royal.’

      She gave a rueful quirk of her lips. ‘So I’ve been told—Jonathan Hunter.’ She released herself, turning and walking down the gravel driveway to the large, imposing house, without so much as glancing back at him to see if he still watched her.

      Somehow Jonathan sensed a reluctance there, felt that this was the last place she wanted to be. Who waited for her behind that huge oak front door?

      And who else had told her she was an infuriating woman...? It sounded like something a lover might say. Yet she had told him she didn’t have one...

      There was so much about Gaye Royal that he either didn’t know or didn’t understand.

      But, whether she liked it or not, he intended finding out!

      CHAPTER THREE

      JONATHAN HUNTER made Gaye nervous.

      Her two days off duty had been more fraught than they usually were, mainly because she had lived in dread of the doorbell ringing, and opening the door to find him standing on the doorstep. He hadn’t seemed to her like a man who would accept no for an answer, especially where a woman was concerned. She doubted he had had to very often!

      But the doorbell had remained silent. As had the telephone. No one came to the house any more; the telephone calls had ceased long ago. The fickleness of humanity. But, for all his lazy charm, she hadn’t received the impression that Jonathan Hunter was a fickle man...

      Which made his silence over the last two days doubly nerve-racking! He had been so persistent in trying to get her to go out with him that the silence that had followed her refusal seemed alive with tension.

      However, the doorbell hadn’t rung, and she hadn’t opened the door to find Jonathan Hunter standing there, and by the time she left the house for work this morning she was feeling strangely irritable. It didn’t help that the first patient she had to attend to was Abbie Hunter. Or that her arrogant husband was with her.

      The other woman was beautiful. Not only that, but she was warm and friendly too. She was also so obviously happy in her marriage. Frankly, Jarrett’s aloof manner made Gaye feel as nervous as his brother did, but for different reasons. The golden eyes, which all of the Hunter brothers had, seemed to look at her and see beyond her own cool veneer to the vulnerable woman beneath.

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