The Mistress Bride

'No, Harry.' It was Evie who stopped him, Evie who knew that if it came to a hands-on battle Harry would lose out on all counts, and that included his pride. Without thinking what she was doing, she stepped up to him and touched his cheek with gentle fingertips to gain his attention then sent him a sad, apologetic smile. 'You've done enough,' she told him softly.

'But he-'

This time Evie stopped the words by placing her lips against his. It startled him enough to render him silent. Behind her she could feel Raschid's anger reaching out towards her like tentacles that wanted to rip her apart for daring to kiss another man in front of him like this. She ignored the sensation. Ignored the man.

'I am very grateful for what you've done, but it really is best that you leave now. Please, Harry.' She pleaded with him when she saw the stubbornness still setting his jaw.

Indecision began to cloud his grey eyes. 'You will be okay?' he asked, ignoring the way Raschid stiffened at the question.

Evie smiled reassuringly and nodded. 'I'll call you,' she promised as an added incentive. 'Later on today.'

Another few moments of high-tension silence, then Harry reluctantly gave in. His hands came up to cup Evie's shoulders, his head lowering so he could place a brief kiss against her mouth, then he was letting her go and with a cold nod of his head in Raschid's direction he stepped out of the cottage and walked off towards his car.

Evie's sense of relief was very short-lived. She glanced at Raschid who was looking back at her with narrowed eyes that were not pleasant. Alarm went tingling down her backbone.

'Very touching,' he drawled, holding her defiant gaze captive as he stepped into the cottage and closed the door behind him. 'Little scenes like that force me to wonder if I asked all the wrong questions last night.'

'I don't recall you asking any questions,' Evie replied with tight derision.

'No?' As threatening as hell, he took a step towards her, mouth thin, eyes as hard as pebbles. 'Then allow me to ask this one,' he requested. 'Is the baby mine?'

It took several moments for the question to sink in, and even when it did Evie continued to stand there staring at him in stunned disbelief. Then they came the anger, the sense of personal offence; they swam up from the very depths of her loins to course like fire through her blood.

'How dare you?' she breathed in shimmering fury. 'Answer the question,' he demanded thinly. His eyes were glittering, his bared teeth gleaming white between the taut stretch of his lips. Evie stared into those threatening gold eyes,

and saw the word traitor blazing from them.

'It's not yours,' she said, turned her back on him and walked away, leaving him standing there with his arrogant guns most satisfyingly spiked for once.

The cottage wasn't big, just one long room really, split into two by a breakfast bar that separated the kitchen from the living room. The living-room window looked out on the cobbled street at the front of the cottage, the rear window on a tiny walled garden. It was nothing more than an old-fashioned back yard, alive at the moment with summer blooms planted by herself in hanging baskets and an array of terracotta tubs.

It was to that rear window that Evie went, leaning her slender hips against the built-in unit and folding her arms across her front while she stared out at the flower-filled little garden with absolutely no pleasure whatsoever.

The reason why she was feeling no pleasure in what was on show outside was that she was feeling no pleasure in anything right now.

'Liar.' Raschid's smooth voice dripped with a dry lazy confidence.

Evie grimaced, not in the least bit surprised that it had taken him mere seconds to work that one out. Turning round, she found him standing in the opening between the kitchen and living room.

His jacket had gone, his casual stance as he leaned a broad shoulder against the wall beside him a masterpiece in long, fluid, muscular lines. Nothing about him was left wanting. Not the cut of his silky dark hair or the colour of his beautiful skin or even the casual clothes that covered a body built to god-like proportions.

He was Man personified, to Evie at least. And the real point here was that he knew it. Which was why he could call her a liar so confidently.

'Rumour has it,' she continued, 'that marriage to the cousin of a cousin looms large upon your horizon.'

That made his eyes narrow slightly, fixed his attention on her cool expression that was challenging him to dare deny the charge.

Of course, he didn't deny it. 'Marriage to Aisha has always loomed large on my horizon, Evie; you know that,' he answered levelly. 'I have never tried to hide it from you.'

'Until last night,' Evie said bitterly.

'Is that why you ran away with the Marquis this morning?' he demanded. 'Because you heard a rumour that may or may not have been true?'

He wasn't denying it, though. 'I ran away because I didn't want another ugly scene with you.'

He sighed which was something, she supposed, and at last began to look as weary as she felt. 'But we have to talk this through, and you know that, Evie.'

Oh, yes, she thought heavily. She knew that. But Raschid's idea of talking was to give orders that she was supposed to obey.