In spite of herself, Cally found some of the tension seeping out of her, her lips curving with pleasure.
She said, half to herself, 'It's just so beautiful here.'
'Would you like to stay the night?' Nick asked quietly. 'They have rooms, and it's early in the season, so there are probably vacancies.' His smile touched her skin, warming it in spite of herself. 'We could have a mini-honey moon.'#p#分页标题#e#
Cally stiffened, her heart thudding. 'No,' she stated with cool clarity. 'I don't want to stay. Thank you.'
'As you wish,' he said equably. 'I just wanted to demonstrate that force isn't an essential element of our time together.'
There was an odd silence that Cally hastened to fill. 'Anyway, I thought you were desperate to get back to Wylstone.'
'Not that desperate,' he said softly. 'After all, my love, you seem to have an affinity with the banks of rivers that might be worth exploiting.'
Her flush deepened. 'An isolated incident,' she said grittily, 'that I'd prefer to forget.'
'And one of my most treasured memories,' he murmured. 'I've often thought since that I should have taken you then— when I had the chance.'
Cally sent him a fulminating glance, and was relieved to turn her attention to the arrival of their coffee.
As she filled their cups from the cafetiere, she said stiltedly, 'Is your mother well?'
'According to her last letter, she's bursting with health,' Nick returned drily. 'She's also planning to pay us a visit.'
Cally digested this piece of news uneasily as she passed Nick his coffee. She had never met Cecily Tempest, who was a distinguished archaeologist, whose working life was concentrated in the jungles of Central America. She'd thought that she never would.
She said, 'I thought she was in Guatemala.'
'It seems the present excavations need a new injection of funding. She's coming back to do a series of lectures, and raise some more cash.' He paused. 'And, at some point, meet her new daughter-in-law.'
'I see,' Cally said slowly. 'Yet another reason for you to need my urgent return.' She swallowed some hot coffee. 'Have you told her that we've been living apart?'
'I decided against that. After all, I'd only just told her that we were getting married. The news that I was a bachelor again so soon might have aroused her latent maternal instinct and brought her hurrying home to investigate, so I thought it best not to burden her.'
'Of course.' Her voice was tight. 'And now there's no necessity for embarrassing explanations. Because I'm back.' She paused. 'I presume I'm required to play the part of the loving and dutiful wife?'
'I certainly hope so,' he said silkily. 'But she's not arriving immediately, so you'll have plenty of time to rehearse. And you'll need it. When it comes to digging, my mother isn't solely interested in Mayan artefacts.'
Cally bit her lip. 'You certainly have everything worked out in advance.'
'If I had,' Nick said tersely, 'I would not have spent my wedding night alone last year.'
'I've only your word for it that you did,' Cally fired back
without thinking, and paused, appalled at her own indiscretion. Remembering too late that she'd forbidden herself any reference to Nick's infidelity with Vanessa Layton.
Oh, God, she groaned inwardly. I've just broken my own taboo. Now he's going to ask what I mean—and I don't know what to say. How to find an explanation that doesn't make me sound like some pathetic, jealous idiot.
'Are you crazy?' The grey eyes were like steel. 'My attention was fully occupied in looking for you, darling, not choosing a substitute bedmate. Besides, you're going to atone fully for any previous disappointment you caused me,' he added harshly.
Cally drank the rest of her coffee and put down the cup. She said, 'I—really don't need any further reminders.'#p#分页标题#e#
His smile was as hard as his gaze. 'In that case, shall we be leaving?'
As he pushed back his chair and rose she said bitterly, 'And let's not pretend I have a choice.'
She was aware of the envious glances following her as she walked at his side back to the inn to pay the bill.
She thought if you knew—if you only knew... And could have wept.
They travelled in silence. Cally sat with her hands folded in her lap, staring sightlessly through the windscreen, her thoughts caught on the same weary treadmill.
The car was her cage. The motorway her path to her own personal hell. And there was nothing more she could do. No argument—no appeal she could offer—carried any weight with him, as he'd made mockingly clear from the beginning.
Nick had bought her, and now he expected to see a return on his investment—however temporary.
She leaned back in her seat, closing her eyes, listening to the smooth hum of the motor, images from the past dissolving and reforming as the edges of her consciousness started to blur.