Needed: One Convenient Husband(26)

       
           



       

She hung up and considered the threat Ferris had made. She knew he  would carry through and go to the press, which meant she was out of  time.

Her heart squeezed tight as she considered what the disclosure of her  dysfunctional background and her genetic disorder would do to her  relationships with her adoptive family and with Kyle. Kyle wanted her  sexually, and they had shared tender moments, but he had just not had  enough time to fall for her. She had hoped they would have time, but if  she was pregnant, her time had run out.

When she replaced the phone in her bag, her fingers brushed the pregnancy test kit she had bought.

As much as she needed to know if she was pregnant or not, she couldn't  do the test right now, because to do so was to know the truth. And if  she was pregnant, she would be honor bound to tell Kyle.

In retrospect, her decision to veto sex had been a huge mistake.

She loved Kyle; she had loved him for years. It was a depressing  thought, but she had to wonder if she would ever fall for anyone else,  or if Kyle was it for her. If that was the case, and she was beginning  to think it was, then she couldn't let him go without a fight.

She was out of time. She needed to try one last time with Kyle, no  matter how exposing or hurtful it was. She needed to change the rules  and exploit the one power she did hold in the hope that Kyle would,  finally, fall for her.

She needed to make love to her husband on their wedding night.





Thirteen

Kyle would have followed Eva if one of the aunts hadn't buttonholed  him. After frustrating minutes of listening to a genealogy that went  back to some obscure coastal village in Phoenicia, now modern-day  Lebanon, his younger brother, Damian, took pity on him, clapped him on  the shoulder and insisted he help him with the marquee.

Snagging a couple of bottles frosted with condensation, Damian handed  one to Kyle and jerked his head in the direction of the tent, which was  flapping gently in the evening breeze. "Aunt Emilia and the family  tree," Damian's expression took on a hunted cast. "How far back did she  get? The First Crusade?"

"Not quite. You interrupted her during the Third."

"Cool. You owe me one."

Damian bypassed the marquee entirely and stopped where the edge of the  lawn dropped away to the small crescent beach below. "Although, strictly  speaking, I'm in your debt."

Beginning to be annoyed, because he was certain Damian was referring to  his marriage, Kyle watched the sun as it sank by slow increments into  the sea, casting a brassy glow across the water. "You are not in my  debt."

Damian gave him an, are-you-for-real look. "You did the deed," he said  mildly. "I didn't think you'd let Mario pressure you into marrying Eva."

Kyle's jaw tightened. "Don't talk about my wife like that," he said  softly. He met Damian's gaze. Damian, for all his youth, was something  of a hard-ass, but Kyle had lived and fought with tougher men. "Mario  applied pressure on all of us, but that wasn't why I married Eva."

"I don't believe it-you're in love with her."

Kyle frowned at the conclusion Damian had reached. What he felt for Eva  was deep and turbulent. When other attractions had faded, somehow the  fiery sexual connection that sparked between them when they were  teenagers had held. For reasons he could not fathom, Eva was different  for him. But he did not think the difference was about love.

For a start, because he'd spent so many years staying away from Eva, he  didn't know about large chunks of her life. Come to that, he didn't  know about almost any aspect of her life until Mario had adopted her.

His lack of knowledge about Eva made him frown. He had already engaged a  security firm to put together a file for him. It was too late in the  day to check with them now, but he would make it his business to check  on progress in the morning.

Damian finished his beer, checked his watch and indicated they should  walk back to the house. "I forgot that you once had a thing for Eva.  After you lost Nicola and the baby, I guess I didn't think you'd marry  again."

The mention of Nicola and Evan made Kyle's chest tighten, although,  like the conversation he'd had with Eva in the car the night they'd made  love, he was actually able to think of them again without reliving the  horror of the explosion. Somehow, the one thing he hadn't thought would  happen had: he was finally beginning to heal.

Kyle let the still-full bottle of beer dangle from his fingers. "I miss  Nicola and Evan," he said flatly. He and Nicola had had a good life  together. She had come from a military family and had understood the  life. They had traveled together and eventually made a baby together.  "But they're gone."                       
       
           



       

He frowned as the conversation referenced the thought that had not been  far from his mind for a couple of weeks now, the possibility, even if  it was remote, that he could be a father again despite what Eva had  said.

He examined how he would feel if she was pregnant and hit the same  blank wall he had lived with for years. The raw fact was he just  couldn't go there again. He couldn't be a father again.

Damian strolled onto the patio. "Nice piece of real estate."

Kyle scanned the guests, although he couldn't spot Eva. "The twins told me about it."

"I didn't know Sophie and Francesca were in the market for a house."

"They weren't," he said deliberately. "Eva was."

Damian shook his head. "I don't know why I was so worried." Shaking his  head, he clapped Kyle on the shoulder and strolled off to join his  girlfriend. Sky was a lean blonde, with ultrashort hair and dark eyes  and who could ride a stock horse almost as well as Damian.

Kyle dragged at his tie, loosening it. Damian thought he had fallen for  Eva and had bought her the house as a gift. He should correct him, but  there was no way he could lay bare the truth that he had used the house  as leverage in order to convince Eva that she should move in with him.

The whole business had involved a ruthless streak he had not known he  possessed, although it was a fact that ruthless male behavior ran in the  family. Constantine had kidnapped Sienna, and Lucas had decided not to  mess with a successful formula and had done the same with his wife,  Carla. Kyle's oldest brother, Gabriel, had proposed a fake engagement to  keep his wife Gemma in his bed, and Nick had not been much better,  luring Elena to the Dolphin Bay Resort under false pretenses then  cheating on a bet to get her in his bed.

Frowning when he didn't immediately see Eva, Kyle deposited the beer he  hadn't bothered to drink on a table and went to find her, but instead  got caught up in a flurry of goodbyes as Constantine, Lucas and Zane,  all with arms full of sleepy kids, made their way to their cars. The  caterer had finished packing up his equipment and had left while he'd  been talking to Damian and, thankfully, so had the bevy of aunts.

Damian, his jacket slung over one shoulder, his arm wrapped securely  around Sky, lifted a hand in farewell. He was followed by the twins, who  grinned, kissed and hugged him, signifying that the conclusion Damian  had jumped to had spread through the family like wildfire.

By the time Kyle stepped back inside, the house seemed eerily empty,  except for the kitchen staff who were busily tidying up glasses and  bottles in the sitting room.

Jerking his tie from his shirt, Kyle walked to the French doors and  began closing the house up for the night. As he locked the last door, he  checked his watch. It had been a good thirty minutes since he and Eva  had argued on the dance floor.

His stomach tightened at the thought that Eva might have been upset  enough to walk out. And in that moment he realized that, despite his  attempts to control the way he felt about her, he hadn't succeeded. It  had been evident in his knee-jerk reaction when Damian had spoken about  Eva and the way he had claimed her as his wife.

It was evident in the way he felt now. Tension coursed through him at  the thought that Eva might have been upset enough after their  conversation to leave him, then a footfall registered and he turned to  see her walking down the stairs.

A van door sliding closed then the roar of the caterer's van heading down the drive sounded.

Kyle noticed the test kit in her hands and went still inside. "What's the result?"

Eva reached the bottom of the stairs, her face oddly pale. "I haven't  used it yet. I guess I'm a coward, but the plain fact is I don't want to  know until tomorrow."

She slipped the tube back into its box and placed it on a hall table  and walked toward him. "There's just one other thing. I've changed my  mind."

She stopped close enough that she could feel the heat emanating from  Kyle's skin. She ran a finger down his chest. The heady masculine scents  of clean skin and the subtle spice of sandalwood made her head spin.