In Need of a Wife

He tore his mouth away. ‘Sasha...’ It was a hoarse breath of need. ‘Sasha...’ An acknowledgement of what she did to him.

She found the strength to rock with him as he frenziedly sought the fulfilment of release. It came with a great shuddering cry from him, and again it was ‘Sasha...’ like a bursting dam of feeling that could not be contained any more.

She did not know if it was a moment of truth. She wrapped her arms around him and held him close. She didn’t speak. Her feelings went beyond words. But her heart beat its own refrain... Nathan... Nathan...

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

A LOUD rap on her door stirred Sasha from deep sleep. She found herself half sprawled over Nathan whose eyes were closed, but, as she started to move, his arm instinctively curled more firmly around her.

‘Sasha, are you awake?’

Marion Bennet’s raised voice was a clear call to attention. The thought of Bonnie jerked Sasha up with a guilty start. How late was it?

‘Whass wrong?’ Nathan slurred sleepily.

‘Hush!’ She clamped a hand over his mouth, her heart galloping at the thought of Marion walking in on them.

‘Sasha?’ Another louder knock.

Sasha managed a reply. ‘Yes. Hold on a moment. I’m coming.’

Nathan heaved himself up on one elbow as she hurtled out of bed and ran to the wardrobe. He watched with a smile as she quickly wrapped herself in the turquoise silk robe. She frowned a warning at him, and he kept a discreet silence as she went to the door.

Mindful of the chaos of clothes on the floor, not to mention the man in her bed, Sasha squeezed around the door, carefully blocking any view past her as she addressed Nathan’s housekeeper.

‘Sorry I slept late, Mrs Bennet. I’ll come and get Bonnie now.’

‘She’s fine, dear. Harry and Matt are playing with her out in the back garden. It’s your visitors. I wasn’t sure what to do about them. So I’m checking with you first

.’

‘Visitors?’ Sasha hadn’t expected anyone to call on her, except perhaps her parents, and they would telephone first. ‘Who are they?’

‘A Mr Cullum and a Mr McDougal.’

Tyler and Joshua! What did they want? ‘I’d better get dressed.’

‘Will I ask them in?’

‘No!’ Her emphatic refusal startled Marion. Sasha quickly tempered her voice. ‘I’ll go and talk to them, Mrs Bennet. Did you leave them waiting on the portico?’

Marion nodded. ‘It wasn’t polite but I had orders not to let anyone harass you.’

Sasha didn’t have to ask where the orders came from. He was in her bed. ‘I’ll get dressed and go down to them straight away.’

‘Take your time and don’t worry about Bonnie. When you’re ready is soon enough,’ Marion assured her.

Sasha whirled back into her room as the housekeeper headed for the back staircase. She shut the door, took a deep breath, then met Nathan’s acute blue gaze.

‘Who’s McDougal?’ he asked.

‘Tyler’s partner. They share a photographic studio.’

‘What do they want?’

She shrugged to express her lack of knowledge.

‘Is this trouble, Sasha?’