Tempting Taine (9 page)

She was caught
between a rock and a hard place
.
 
Nothing she could think of to do
made
any sense to her.

Maybe the best plan of action was to do nothing at all and pretend that it had never happened, she decided, as she leaned back and settled herself as comfortably as she could for remainder of the drive to the Hunter homestead.
 
That way she could pretend that the relationship she and Taine shared was a professional one and nothing more – and that it had never been anything more.
 

Ignoring their past relationship, and his blatant attempt to revive the sexual side of it, seemed like the only possible thing to do.
 
She could tell herself that she tolerated his presence only because his father was her patient, and that his nearness did not make her heart beat wildly in her chest, her face flush and her breath catch in her throat.
 

If she simply ignored everything they had once been to each other, she could pretend they had nothing in common, that they shared nothing.
 

Especially not a child.

Her eyes misted over as she thought of Aroha, the joy of her life.
 
How close she had come to not having her.
 
How close she had come to giving away the happiness and the light that Aroha had brought into her life.

She and Taine had never intended to have a child together.
 
As young and in love as they had been, they had never planned
on becoming
parents.
 
They talked endlessly about college, careers, even building a future together, but never about parenthood.
 

Falling pregnant had certainly been the last thing on her mind, or she might have had the good sense to take better precautions.

She shivered, despite the warmth in the Jeep.
 
The day she discovered she was carrying a child
was vividly imprinted
on her mind...

The summer holidays were
drawing to a close
, but the weather was still bright and warm.
 
She lay in her narrow truckle bed, a light cotton sheet pulled over her to discourage mosquitoes, lightly dozing in the early morning sunshine.
 
There were so few days of summer left and she needed to
savor
every moment of every day that remained.
 
If she could have one wish here and now, it would be that this glorious summer would never end.
 

Three more days of heaven, and she had to leave for Wellington to start her university course, while Taine would be heading off down south to finish his agricultural studies.
 

She knew that she had to leave, for his sake as much as for hers, but that did not stop the hurt or the wanting.

She smiled as she thought of Taine, her beautiful Taine, with his golden brown body and the way his face crinkled when he laughed.
 
She adored every inch of him more than she could ever say.
 
He was so good to her, so kind and loving, that she would do anything for him.
 
Anything at all.
 
She loved him so much that sometimes it made her stomach hurt just from loving him.

And
for his sake, she had to make him go and complete his last year of study.
 
He had a great career in front of him.
 
He was the smartest and most capable person she had ever met.
 
He could do anything he wanted to do, and be anything he wanted to be.
 
It would not be fair to him to keep hold of him, to drag him back from achieving whatever he wanted to achieve.
 

She sighed as she thought how willing he was to give up so much for her.
 
He had tried to convince her that he should give up his studies at Lincoln College and transfer to the university in Wellington to be near her, but she had talked him out of it.

She would have followed him to Lincoln if she could have, but it was out of the question.
 
Competition for places there was fierce and she had left it too late to apply, even if her less than stellar marks at school might have won her entry.
 
She would go to Victoria University, get her degree and make him proud of her that way.
 
Her ambitions did not stretch any further than that.

Three more days.
 
How she hated to count down the hours they had left until they had to go their separate ways.
 
The three months they had spent together suddenly seemed like no time at all.

The three months they had spent
together?
 
An uneasy feeling prickled at the base of her spine, and she rolled over,
wide awake
all of a sudden.
 
She could only remember having her period once during that time.
 
In fact, now she thought about it, she could not remember the last time it had arrived.
 
Not for some weeks, she was sure of that much.

In a sudden fit of concern, she raced out of bed, cycled down to the local shopping mall and searched the shelves of the first pharmacy she came to for a pregnancy kit.
 

She looked all over the store, but she could not find one.
  
A sales clerk hovered at her shoulder ready to help, but her mouth was too dry to frame the words to ask for what she wanted.
 
After ten minutes of fruitless searching, she left empty-handed.

Finally, at the third pharmacy she visited, she saw what she was looking for on a high shelf behind the counter.

The sales clerk glanced up from the filing of her nails.
 
“Can I help you?” she asked in a stentorian voice.

“I want one of those,” she said quietly, pointing.

The sales clerk looked in the direction she was indicating.
 
“You want a pregnancy test kit?”
 
Her voice bellowed like thunder through the quiet shop.

Verity winced at the noise, and turned her head to scan the space behind her nervously, hoping no other customers had heard.
 
It was not her lucky day.
 
An old
lady
waiting behind her shot her an evil look and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like ‘silly little slut’ under her breath.
 

The loud-voiced sales clerk was holding up the kit in plain sight, and drumming her fingernails loudly against the counter as she waited for an answer.

Verity nodded briefly, wishing the ground would open her up and swallow her whole.

Her face was burning and her fingers shook as she handed over the money to the sales clerk and slunk out of the store again.

Not that she was particularly worried about the possibility of being pregnant.
 
There was most likely a perfectly benign reason why her period was late – stress or something
,
she would like to bet
.
 
After all, they had used condoms nearly every time
they’d
made love.
 
Still, she just wanted to put her mind at rest by eliminating the nagging doubt.
 

Once the kit
was safely tucked
away in her backpack, she cycled home again and tucked the uneasy feeling away in the back of her mind.
 
The worst part was over now that she had dealt with the embarrassment of buying the kit.
 
She would get around to testing herself sometime later today, once her mother and grandmother were safely out of the way.
 
Some things she just did not feel comfortable sharing with her mother – like the fact that she and Taine were making out like rabbits whenever they got a chance.

Her mother was still pottering around the kitchen when Taine drove up in his truck and tooted a short blast on the horn.

She gave her mother a quick peck on the cheek.
 
“Bye, Mum.
 
I’ll be back for dinner.”
  
And
she was off.

Three more days of summer left.
 
She felt tears prick the back of her eyelids as she climbed into the truck next to the man she loved with all her heart, and she willed herself firmly not to cry.
 
There would be plenty of time for tears when they were apart.
 
She would not spoil the moment by being melancholy now.

Taine leaned over and kissed her deeply on the mouth.
 
She welcomed his touch, clinging on to him with desperate longing.
 
She was not sure she could do this after all.
 
She was not sure she could let him walk away from her.

They were both breathing hard when he finally pulled away.
 
“Mom asked if you want to come round and have lunch with her and Dad today.”
 
For the first time she had known him, he almost sounded a bit uncertain of himself.
 
“If you don’t have anything else you’d rather do.”

“Lunch?
 
With your parents?”
 
The invitation was
not unwelcome
, just unexpected.
 
Taine had met her mother and grandmother several times when he had come by to pick her up in his truck, but she had not met any of Taine’s family yet.

Taine’s face reddened slightly.
 
“We don’t have to go if you’d rather not.
 
Mom’s
just curious about the girl I’ve been spending all summer with.
 
She wants to meet you.”

“Of course I’m happy to go,” she reassured him quickly.
 
It was not a complete lie.
 
Though she would rather have spent these last few days alone with Taine, she was curious about meeting his family.
 
“It was nice of your parents to invite me.”
 

The first inkling she had that maybe she had made a mistake in accepting the invitation came as they pulled up into the circular driveway in front of the house.
 
She had known that the Hunters were wealthy farmers, the local aristocracy, but the sight of their mansion brought home to her just how different were the lifestyles that she and Taine came from.
 
The tiny railways cottage that she shared with her mother and grandmother was little more than a tumbledown shack, especially compared to the grandeur and sophistication of the turn of the century villa and elegant gardens where the Hunters lived.

As they walked over the pebbled driveway up to the front door, she pulled uncomfortably at her short shorts and her skimpy
halter top
.
 
They were just the thing for picnicking by the lake, but in this
setting
she felt terribly out of place.

Sensing her unease, Taine reached for her hand and squeezed it gently.
 
“You look beautiful.
 
I’m sure my parents will love you as much as I do.”

She gripped his hand tightly for courage as she flip-flopped across the marble entryway in her jandals.
 
It was colder inside than out, and she shivered a little in her sleeveless top.

Her worst fears were realized when the dining room door opened onto his parents; his mother, despite the heat, was dressed in a twinset and pearls, and his father in a smoking jacket.
 
The air conditioning
was turned way up,
and she felt as though she had walked into a freezer.

Taine pulled her forward.
 
“Mum, Dad, this is Verity.”

Mr. Hunter strode forward and shook her heartily by the hand.
 
“Pleased to meet you at last.”

She smiled at him, relieved that he, at least, was as friendly and unstuffy as his son.

Mrs. Hunter, however, looked patently unimpressed.
 
“So, you’re Verity.”
 
She looked her up and down, making Verity horribly aware of the ragged hem of her shorts and the way her cheap top had faded in the summer sun.
 
“You’re very...suntanned.”
 
Her greeting was colder than the overly air-conditioned room.

Verity shrugged, feeling uneasy under the other woman’s scrutiny.
 
“I’m Maori.
 
My family, my
iwi
, are
Tainui
.”
 
She might be poor, but she was proud of her ancient heritage and the way she could trace her ancestors back to respected Maori elders and chieftains.

The lines around Mrs. Hunter’s mouth tightened.
 
“Maori.
 
I see.
 
And where did you and Taine meet?”