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Authors: Sara Craven

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BOOK: Fugitive Wife
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She opened the living room door and went in. Logan was sitting by the fire, his head buried in his hands.

At the sound of her entrance he looked up sharply, his brows snapping together in disbelief as he looked at her.

He demanded, ‘What the hel are you doing here? I thought you’d be in London by now.’

‘I bet you did.’ She slipped off her jacket and let it fal to the floor. She said simply, ‘Oh, darling, why didn’t you ask me if I’d rather be a rich man’s daughter than a poor man’s wife?’

She took one step, and she was in his arms, and he was kissing her as he’d kissed her the previous night, with passion and

tenderness―and love. She knew it now with a deep and radiant certainty, and her heart sang joyously as she clung to him.

Presently he lifted her into his arms and sat with her by the fire, holding her close against him as if he would never let her go.

He said, ‘I’ve got something for you.’ Briony looked down wonderingly at the little circle of gold he was holding out to her.

‘My ring!’ she exclaimed. ‘Where did you find it?’

‘Under the dresser first thing this morning. I was curious to know what you’d been looking for the other day, so I poked about a little bit. It had roled almost to the back,’ he said, sliding it on to her finger. ‘I intended to give it to you when you woke up. Then I spoke to your father, and everything changed.’

‘Why didn’t you tel me that he’d tried to bribe you to leave me and then threatened to cut me out of his wil instead?’ She put a caressing hand against his cheek.

‘I think I was afraid to.’ he said after a pause. ‘In a way, I felt your father had a point, even though I didn’t like the way in which he expressed it. You would be giving up a great deal if you stayed with me. I can’t guarantee the book wil be a success, and I have no other job at the moment. Besides, the thing between us was so new, so fragile, I didn’t know whether it would be strong enough to withstand an open breach with your father.’

‘You didn’t trust me.’ She wound her fingers in his hair and tugged at it.

‘You didn’t trust me.’ He kissed her parted lips lingeringly. ‘Why did you drag poor Karen into the conversation? Though I must admit it was useful, as I was trying to drive you away. And I had phoned her, as it happened, to ask if I could take over the tenancy of the flat again once she’d departed to join Tony.’

‘So that’s why she was on her way there that day.’ said Briony, thinking aloud, and blushed fierily when she met his questioning glance. ‘It doesn’t matter.’ she mumbled.

‘I think it does.’ he said gravely. ‘Al right, Karen and I were―involved for a time, but it had finished even before I started going out with you. What made you think she was stil part of my life? ’

‘She did.’ Briony said unhappily. ‘I went round to see you after I discovered that my father had bribed Marina Chapman―oh! Of course, you didn’t know about that.’

‘I guessed.’ he said. ‘Her appearance on the scene was just too damned convenient, and the effect it would have on you had been gauged by someone who knew you very wel. But go on. You came round to see me―when and why?’

‘It wasn’t very long after we’d got back from here.’ she said. ‘Perhaps a fortnight or less. I wanted to tel you that I was sorry for the hysterical way I’d behaved. I wanted to tel you what my father had done, and ask if we could begin again. ‘But Karen answered the door.

She ―she wasn‘t dressed, and she said―things which made me think you were sleeping with her again. She wouldn’t let me see you, or

talk to you.’

‘She couldn’t,’ Logan said drily. ‘I was down in Cornwal for most of the fortnight that we should have been on our honeymoon. I was

pretty broken up when I got back to the flat, and Tony saw it. I couldn’t go into work because that would have set tongues wagging, and I was drinking too much, so Tony sent me down to stay with a cousin of his who runs a smal hotel near Fowey. I walked a lot, and went out in their boat, and gradualy I began to get my head together again.’ He took her hand and lifted it to his lips. ‘You weren’t the only one who had things to apologise for, you know. I loathed myself for the way I’d treated you that night. You were so sweet, so responsive―God!’

He shook his head. ‘The hardest thing I ever did was turn away from you.’ His mouth found hers. ‘Almost as hard as sending you away

today,’ he murmured against her lips.

‘But why was Karen at the flat?’ Briony persisted when she was alowed to speak again. ‘And why did she pretend there was stil

something between you?’

Logan shrugged. ‘She was at the flat because she’d asked if she could borrow it as Tony was abroad and I was away while her own was

being redecorated. As for why she said what she did’―he was silent for a moment ― ‘perhaps, for a while, it was more finished for me than it was for her. She didn’t like you, and perhaps she saw a chance to get back at you.’ He puled her close to him.

‘Anyway, she’s married to Tony now and they’re blissfuly happy, so let sleeping dogs lie.’ His exploring hand found the soft curve of her breast, and lingered. ‘And what about you, Mrs Adair? Are you going to make me blissfuly happy?’

Briony was oddly shy and a little breathless as he began to unfasten the buttons on the velvet shirt.

‘Logan, what wil we do if my father comes chasing me?’

‘Exactly what we’re doing now.’ He eased the velvet from her shoulders and let it drop to the floor. ‘God, but you’re lovely,’ he said huskily. ‘And the imminent arrival of al the fathers in the world isn’t going to make the slightest difference to my plans for the next few hours. I love you, Briony, and this is going to be the honeymoon we never had. Sure you don’t want to run away again while you stil have the chance?’

‘I stopped running a long time ago,’ she whispered, sliding her arms round his neck and drawing him down to her.

His kiss was warm and possessive and increasingly urgent, ending only as he rose to his feet, stil holding her cradled against him. His eyes were tender as he smiled down into her flushed face.

‘You’l never be rid of me, then,’ he said softly, and in his voice Briony heard the promise of future joys as yet undreamed of.

BOOK: Fugitive Wife
12.09Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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