The Alpha Male. Madeleine Ker

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      She felt an icy hand close around her heart. ‘Our child? What are you talking about?’

      ‘The child you bore,’ he said sharply. ‘The baby we made together. Where is he? Or is it a she?’

      Her knees were so weak that she almost had to sit down. ‘Don’t pretend you don’t know what happened, Ryan! That is cruel, even by your standards!’

      His face became like stone. ‘What happened? Tell me.’

      She looked into his eyes. Could it really be that he didn’t know? It was unlike him to play such cruel tricks, though he was capable of being very devious.

      ‘There is no child, Ryan,’ she said in a quiet voice. ‘I miscarried.’

      For a moment it seemed he did not understand. ‘What?’

      ‘I had a miscarriage at three months. I lost the baby.’

      His complexion was usually tanned, with ruddy touches on the harsh cheekbones and in his full mouth. But now she saw the blood drain from his face, leaving him white. ‘I don’t believe you.’

      She turned away wearily. ‘I got sick. Encephalitis. I was in hospital for two weeks. One of the side-effects was the miscarriage. It happened while I was in a coma, so I knew nothing about it until days afterwards.’

      His fingers bit into her shoulders, pulling her round to face his blazing eyes. ‘Is this true?’

      ‘I would not lie about this,’ she said bitterly. ‘Didn’t you get my letter?’

      ‘What letter?’

      ‘I wrote you a letter. When I was discharged from hospital.’ She saw by his face that he didn’t know what she was talking about. He had never received her letter. ‘I don’t know why you didn’t get it. I just assumed you had received it and didn’t want to reply. I’m sorry you had to hear it like this.’

      He covered his face with his hands. There was no doubting his emotion.

      For a moment, pity for him almost melted her own heart. She felt her eyes mist over, and the familiar hot lump of grief filled her throat. She lifted one hand to reach out to him. Her shaking fingers hesitated in the air, not quite having the courage to make that journey across so much space.

      At last, his hands dropped away from his face. ‘Tell me the truth,’ he said. ‘Did you end the pregnancy?’

      She was so shocked that she felt herself go limp for a moment. ‘No, Ryan!’

      ‘Did you get rid of our baby because you had no further use for me?’ Pain and anger had brought his dark brows down, and his mouth was harsh.

      ‘No!’

      He grasped her arms so tightly that she knew there would be marks on her delicate skin. But far more painful was the expression in his eyes, which tore her very soul in half. ‘Promise me!’

      She opened her mouth to speak, not knowing what words she could use that would persuade him she had not done the terrible thing he accused her of.

      But just then, the shop seemed to fill up with people.

      Ariadne came in from the workshop, calling out, ‘Pen, they didn’t have near enough yellow gladioli, so I got cream, is that OK?’

      And the shop door opened to admit Miles Clampett, carrying his carpenter’s tool kit in one hand and two cartons in the other.

      ‘I brought in your milk,’ he said, his alert eyes flickering from Ryan to Penny and back again. ‘Hello, earthlings! Hope I’m not interrupting anything?’

      CHAPTER TWO

      RYAN’S grip on her arms relaxed, and Penny stepped back.

      ‘Cream gladioli are fine, Ariadne,’ she said in a flat voice. ‘Thanks for coming, Miles. The damage is out at the back. Ariadne will show you.’

      Taking the hint, Ariadne led Miles through to the workshop. Both of them were clearly bursting with curiosity about their strange visitor and the palpable air of tension in the shop. Ariadne, who could be guaranteed never to let an eligible male pass unnoticed, gave Ryan an alluring smile as she passed by.

      Ryan gave her a curt nod by way of reply, and as soon as they were alone, he turned on Penny with burning eyes. ‘Penny, please swear that you are telling me the truth!’

      ‘I refuse to swear anything,’ she said, her lips numb. ‘Why shouldn’t you believe me?’

      ‘You threatened you would end the pregnancy!’

      ‘Yes, I know I said I would, but—’

      ‘I didn’t for a moment think you meant it.’

      ‘I didn’t mean it,’ she said passionately. ‘It was one of those crazy things people say when they’re desperate.’

      ‘You threatened to abort the pregnancy if I followed you,’ Ryan reminded her brutally. ‘Did I ever do anything to make you that desperate?’

      ‘I’ll say it once more,’ Penny said with a sensation like an iron band around her heart. ‘I contracted encephalitis. I almost died in that hospital. And when I was finally myself again, I had to deal with the loss of my baby. I would have done anything to avoid that. But there was nothing I could do!’

      ‘Everything OK, love?’ Ariadne asked, returning from the workshop, where Miles had started hammering industriously.

      ‘Everything’s fine,’ Penny said in a dull voice.

      Ariadne was staring at Ryan Wolfe with unabashed interest. In the few moments she had been in the back, Penny noticed ironically, she had found time to apply lipstick, brush her hair, lose the army greatcoat and unfasten the top button of her blouse to reveal the luscious curves of her breasts. In the absence of any inclination on Penny’s part to offer introductions, she waltzed in where angels would have feared to tread.

      ‘And this good-looking gentleman is…?’

      Penny had no idea how best to answer that innocent question. My ex-lover. My nemesis. The phrases flitted through her head, but it was Ryan who answered.

      ‘I’m a prospective client,’ he said levelly.

      ‘Oh, goody,’ Ariadne purred. ‘Do you live locally?’

      ‘Yes.’ He glanced at Ariadne. A peony to Penny’s rosebud, Ariadne had curves that Penny would never match, and a coquettish manner to go with them. ‘I’m staying in Northcote Hall, on the Dover Road.’

      ‘Northcote?’ Ariadne repeated with interest. ‘Oh, we know it well, don’t we, Penny? Such a beautiful old place. Do you know the family?’

      ‘I’m renting the house for the moment,’ he replied. ‘I may buy it if it turns out to suit my purpose.’ He made it sound as though buying that beautiful country house was a mere bagatelle to him, and Ariadne positively glowed.

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