To Mend A Marriage. Carole Mortimer
Nick’s wife, that it was a courtesy title only, useful in the profession she had chosen for herself, but that she’d never actually been married.
Which meant she’d probably never had to deal much with children, either, and in particularly not a very young baby!
‘I’ll have a talk to her in the morning,’ Gemini assured Nick dismissively. ‘But I don’t think Mrs James will mind.’
‘No,’ he acknowledged dryly. ‘I had visions of there being problems with Mrs James when you came to live here as my wife,’ he explained at Gemini’s questioning look, ‘but in fact it’s turned out to be the opposite! Mrs James always comes to you for instructions,’ he murmured ruefully. ‘Fills the house with daffodils at all times of the year because she knows they’re your favourite flower, prepares the meals she knows you like—’
‘If any of that is a problem for you, Nick, you should have said,’ Gemini put in uncomfortably; she hadn’t even realised he had noticed those slight but subtle changes in the household.
She’d only mentioned once in passing to the housekeeper that she loved daffodils, that their golden colour always made her feel in a cheerful mood—and before she knew it the house was ablaze with the beautiful blooms. Just as she had once mentioned that she preferred to eat fish and chicken to red meat—only to find that red meat all but disappeared from their dining table!
‘Oh, it isn’t a problem, Gemini,’ Nick assured her derisively. ‘I merely look on in admiration at the charm you’ve exerted over our formerly austere housekeeper.’
It wasn’t a question of charming the older woman; she merely treated Rachel James like a person. She hadn’t grown up in a household that had had employees in the house of any kind. She’d lived on her own in a flat before marrying Nick. She wasn’t accustomed to having staff in her home. Rachel had somehow sensed that in her, and had helped her all she could, forging a bond of understanding between the two women that Nick probably couldn’t understand.
Nick raised dark brows. ‘How is it you’ve never attempted to exert that charm over me…?’ he prompted huskily.
Gemini gave him a sharp look. Was he flirting with her?
For the most part, Gemini and her husband lived together quite comfortably, with a friendly politeness between them. And Nick rarely, if ever, made any sort of remark that stepped over that line of friendship, that could be taken as being in the least flirtatious. And yet this evening he’d done so more than once…
Don’t overreact, Gemini, she inwardly warned herself, her pulse beating fast, totally aware of every muscle and sinew of Nick’s near-naked body, able to smell the aftershave that was such a part of him as he stood only feet away from her.
But it was very late, that time of the night when nothing seemed quite as it usually was, and Nick probably didn’t mean anything at all by the remark he had just made. In fact, it was probably all the talk of Jemima that had prompted it!
She gave a self-deprecating smile. ‘Probably because I know I would be wasting my time!’
‘I wouldn’t be too sure of that,’ he murmured throatily.
‘I would,’ she assured him flatly, all too aware of how he felt about her sister.
‘Why don’t you try it and see?’ he encouraged softly, seeming suddenly closer now, although Gemini hadn’t been aware of him moving.
Gemini was more sure than ever that he was confusing her with Jemima. ‘You don’t really—’ She broke off as she heard the sound of Jessica’s whimpering cry coming from upstairs.
‘Saved by the bell—or in this case the baby,’ Nick drawled. ‘I think Jessica has decided it’s time for a feed, after all,’ he muttered dryly.
And Gemini, for one, didn’t know if she was relieved or disappointed at the interruption!
There was something different about Nick tonight, on his return from this business trip. He was exerting a sensuality over her that she would have to be totally uninterested not to be aware of—and she was far from being that!
‘You warm a bottle and take it up to her; I’ll turn the lights off down here when I come up,’ Nick told Gemini briskly as he turned away, and that air of intimacy that had briefly been between them was totally dispelled at the return of his usual terseness.
Gemini grabbed the bottle from the kitchen and hurried up the stairs, all the time aware that Nick was still in the sitting-room, where she’d left him.
What had happened between them just now? she wondered as she fed the baby. And had it really happened between them, or had Nick briefly allowed her similarity to Jemima in looks to deceive him…?
Somehow—sadly—she had the feeling the latter was the true explanation…!
CHAPTER THREE
GEMINI couldn’t believe it; her bedside clock read ten o’clock in the morning!
But it couldn’t be. She’d last fed Jessica at two o’clock, and although she knew very little about babies, surely Jessica was too young yet to have gone through the eight hours from her last feed?
Oh, no. Was there something wrong with the baby?
Gemini’s expression was frantic as she jumped out of bed and rushed to the spare bedroom—only to find the carrycot was empty!
But where was Jessica?
She felt sick as she rushed down the stairs. If anything had happened to the baby she would never forgive herself—
‘Where’s the fire?’
She turned sharply at the sound of Nick’s mocking voice coming from the doorway of the breakfast-room, coming to an abrupt halt as she saw the sleeping baby in his arms, her tension leaving her so suddenly she felt like a deflated balloon.
She groaned, putting a shaky hand to her forehead. ‘I thought Jessica had gone,’ she admitted breathlessly, that sick feeling still in the pit of her stomach.
‘She’s a little young to have just walked out of here, don’t you think?’ Nick mocked.
‘Very funny!’ She raised her head to glare at him with angry blue eyes. ‘I had no idea where she could have gone!’
‘And now you can see that she’s perfectly safe down here with me,’ he taunted, turning back into the breakfast-room, looking comfortable and relaxed in faded denims and a black shirt this morning. ‘Come in here and have a cup of coffee; you know you aren’t even halfway human until you’ve had your first cup of coffee of the morning!’
Living in such close proximity with this man meant he knew altogether too much about her, Gemini decided grumpily as she followed him into the breakfast-room and poured herself a cup of coffee. Because he was right, of course—when wasn’t he?
Her first gulps of the rich brew were bringing back some feeling of equilibrium. She frowned as she looked up to find him watching her with an amused smile on his arrogant face as he sat opposite her at the table. ‘It isn’t funny, Nick,’ she complained irritably.
‘I wasn’t laughing at you, Gemini—I was just thinking how sexy you look in pyjamas! And you blush delightfully, too!’ he added teasingly as her cheeks coloured fiery red at the intimacy of the compliment.
Because it was no longer two o’clock in the morning—and Nick was still making flirtatious remarks!
She’d changed out of the grey milk-stained pyjamas when she’d finally got to bed last night, and was wearing another silk pair now, the same cobalt-blue as her eyes this time. And once again she hadn’t had time to put a robe on over their silkiness!
Oh, damn it, after a year of being what she hoped was the perfect wife, always perfectly groomed and dressed, in the last twenty-four hours Nick had seen her not once, but twice, wearing only the pyjamas she