The Billionaire's Bride of Convenience(40)

‘Gosh, it’s really hard to explain to someone like you.’





‘I don’t see why.’





‘You wouldn’t appreciate what it meant to me to live in a clean house with someone who was prepared to play games with you and to listen to you. Every evening we used to sit out on the verandah and eat ice cream together, after which we’d play I-spy. I’d never had that kind of attention before.’





‘You probably won’t believe me,’ Hugh said, ‘but I suffered from a lack of that kind of personal attention too. My father was always too busy to play with me. He never came to sports day or awards day at school. He certainly never listened to anything I had to say.’





‘But you still had your mother,’ Kathryn pointed out. ‘I would imagine she was a very good mother.’





‘Then you’d imagine wrong. After the divorce, my mother suffered depression for years. She often didn’t get out of bed all day, just like your mother. And she drank too much. But you’re right, I didn’t have to tolerate a dirty house, or wearing unwashed clothes. There was always paid staff to tend to such matters. The housekeeper used to check that I’d cleaned behind my ears and brushed my teeth every night.’





‘Would you believe that before I went to Val’s I’d never cleaned my teeth?’





‘My God, Kathryn, that’s deplorable!’





‘Val was horrified too. She whipped me off to the dentist and had them properly checked out and cleaned. The dentist said I was very lucky that I had naturally good teeth and hadn’t eaten too many lollies. After that, Val took me to the dentist every Christmas holidays and paid for it herself.’





‘What a wonderful woman,’ Hugh said.





‘She was. Yet she wasn’t a pushover. She didn’t do everything for me. She made me do things for myself. Val had a list of rules up on the kitchen wall which every kid who went there had to adhere to. We had to make our own beds, clean our rooms, help clean the rest of the house, do the washing-up. Things like that. But I didn’t mind. I loved it all. She gave me the tools to survive when I went home. She taught me how to clean and how to cook, and how to look after myself. I couldn’t do much about the mess Mum kept making when I was out of the house, but I kept my own room spotlessly clean. Each time Val used to send me home with a big supply of cleaning products and toiletries which I stashed under my bed and eked out till I went back to her place the next time. Trust me when I say that I have never, ever missed one night brushing my teeth since.’





Hugh smiled over at her. ‘I believe you.’





She sighed. ‘I know I’m a pain in the neck when it comes to being organised and disciplined. But maybe now you understand why. I have to have order in my life, Hugh. I have to have goals and plans.’





‘And you have to have Val’s house,’ he finished up for her.





‘I guess I would have survived without it.’





‘But not as happily.’





‘No.’





They both fell silent for a minute or two.





‘I have a confession to make,’ Hugh finally piped up.





Kathryn glanced over at him. ‘What?’





‘Remember earlier when you said you didn’t think I could make you my friend and not have sex with you today?’





‘Yes,’ she said warily.





‘You were right. I am going to go to bed with you. Right now,’ he added, and put his champagne glass down.





‘Oh ’ She swallowed, her stomach instantly tight.





He stood up and walked around to her chair. ‘If I learned one thing from watching Gone with the Wind,’ he growled, twisting the chair away from the table then scooping her up into his arms, ‘it’s never to ask for sex. Much better to just take. And take. And take ’





CHAPTER THIRTEEN





‘I REALLY should be going home soon,’ Kathryn said.





Hugh leant further back into his corner of the triangular-shaped spa bath, his arms stretching out along the blue-tiled surrounds.





‘Why?’ he asked.





‘It’s getting late.’





‘Not that late.’ Hugh wasn’t exactly sure of the time but the sun had only just gone down. They’d spent most of Saturday night and a good percentage of Sunday having the most incredible sex, till an exhausted Kathryn had finally fallen asleep on top of his bed a couple of hours back.





Hugh had spent the time she’d been unconscious watching her and wanting her still. It was weird, he’d thought, that he couldn’t seem to get enough of her. Normally, once he’d had a woman as much as he’d already had Kathryn, he would begin to grow bored with her.