Lynne Graham's Brides of L'Amour Bundle

‘Looks like they’re headed for the nearest bed!’ she heard someone laugh.

Forty seconds later, Pippa was horribly sick in the cloakroom. She reeled dizzily back from the cubicle wall and struggled to get a grip on herself. But indelibly etched on her mind’s eye was Andreo and his girlfriend. Two very beautiful human beings perfectly matched. Dear heaven, how could she have believed in him, trusted him? Pippa Plain…just when had she allowed herself to forget that that was her nickname?

Feeling like a robot, she freshened up as best she could and went off to clear her desk.

‘Is it true that Ricky and Cheryl have been sacked?’ Jonelle gushed.

‘Yes.’

‘So you’ll be the new manager, then,’ Jonelle assumed.

‘I don’t want the job any more.’

‘Of course…you’re seeing Mr D’Alessio,’ the blonde murmured soft and low and admiring.

Pippa froze.

‘We worked out it was you at the party by the second bunch of flowers,’ Jonelle confided with an appreciative giggle. ‘You really know how to surprise people, don’t you?’

‘Yeah…I just dumped him,’ Pippa responded, wondering how long it would take for word of Lili’s existence to work back to the finance section.

She went home and phoned HR to tell them that no, sorry, do what they will, she wasn’t coming back ever. Then she undressed and put the designer suit, the shoes and all the dripping flowers and the cards she had saved into a bin bag. Pulling out a couple of suitcases, she began to pack. Unable to tolerate even the minor risk of Andreo trying to see her again, she decided to check into a hotel for the night. But before she left her home, she had the bin-bag collected for delivery to Andreo’s apartment. Not that she imagined that either he or Lili would get out of bed to answer the doorbell.

CHAPTER SEVEN

PIPPA leant on the ancient stone balustrade bounding the shaded terrace at Duvernay and tried to suppress all her unhappy and self-pitying thoughts in appreciation of the wonderful views stretching in every direction.

The château’s glorious formal gardens were surrounded by rolling green fields that in turn gave way to apple orchards said to produce some of the best cider in the world. The remainder of the vast Duvernay estate, the ancestral home of Tabby’s husband, Christien Laroche, was the equivalent of a densely wooded nature reserve. But only a few miles to the west lay the jagged Breton coastline of rocky cliffs, sandy coves and picturesque fishing ports.

Her fabulous bedroom suite was worthy of a five star hotel and she had been royally entertained. For two long weeks she had done her best to put on a cheerful front for her hosts’ benefit, for who wanted to entertain a miserable, weepy guest? Unfortunately, being in the company of a very happy married couple had only made her feel more betrayed, more alone and more depressed.

Christien Laroche had been incredibly nice to her. In fact Tabby’s husband had been so much kinder than the rather arrogant character whom Pippa had recalled from the past that she had honestly wondered whether Christien had guessed that his wife’s childhood friend was suffering from a broken heart.

Yes, Pippa was no longer kidding herself: she had fallen madly in love with Andreo. She had pretended she was in control when she was not. But common sense told her why she had never actually got around to making arrangements to let her London home and why she had been waiting to the last possible minute to hand in her notice at Venstar. It would only have taken one encouraging word from Andreo to persuade her to drop any idea of making a permanent move to France. Neither her pride nor her intelligence had got a look-in when it came to Andreo D’Alessio.

While his lovely girlfriend had been abroad and unavailable, Andreo had used Pippa to fill the vacancy in his bed and satisfy his sexual needs. She despised herself for having surrendered her body so easily. What had seemed so very special now seemed cheap and tawdry. Andreo had lied about being free of other entanglements but then as she was well aware many otherwise upright men thought nothing of the lies that went hand in hand with infidelity. And she could not accuse Andreo of having promised her love or any kind of a future.

So why on earth had Andreo repeatedly attempted to contact her since she had left London? Surely he had guessed that she had found out about Lili? Yet he had initially texted her innumerable times. When that had failed to draw a response he had left half a dozen messages on her mobile phone. Messages that had sounded genuinely anxious about her a

pparent vanishing act. What on earth had he been playing at? Had the dustbin bag she sent him not been explanation enough? She had changed her phone number but had reluctantly passed on her new one to Marco when he had begged as hard as a fourteen-year-old boy could beg not to be made to pay for his big brother’s sins.

Tabby wandered out onto the terrace with a pretty toddler maternally anchored to one hip. While her five-year-old son, Jake, bore a close resemblance to his darkly handsome father, Jolie, her one-year-old daughter, had her mother’s toffee-coloured hair and lively green eyes.

‘I love this dress.’ Tabby smoothed an appreciative hand over the garment chosen by her friend from her favourite maternity shop, for it was styled to flatter the rounded shape of a woman more than four months pregnant. ‘I’m so grateful you went shopping with Christien. Left to himself, he always goes for fancy formal stuff and in this climate I prefer casual and comfortable.’

‘The summers here are warm.’ Pippa tossed her damp hair with her hand to cool the nape of her neck. In the act of tilting her head back, she was assailed by a sudden giddiness that forced her to steady herself on the balustrade with both hands.

Oh, dear, she thought fearfully, lashes lowering to conceal the anxious look clouding her eyes. More than a week had already passed since she had first noted that her period was late in arriving, an event unusual enough to rouse her concern. In addition, she had felt rather queasy on several occasions. Now she had had a minor dizzy spell. She knew the most common signs of pregnancy as well as most young women. However, she also suspected that her emotional highs and lows and even worry might well be making her imagine symptoms and could also have interfered with her system.

‘You like Christien better than you used to, don’t you?’ Tabby prompted with amused satisfaction.

Dredging herself from her uneasy thoughts, Pippa smiled. ‘I’ve only really got the chance to get to know him properly since I came to stay.’

‘He’s so confident that he used to set your teeth on edge and I can understand that after the way your dad treated your mum and you.’ Tabby sighed with sympathy. ‘I don’t blame you for distrusting men with strong characters.’

Pippa was disconcerted because Tabby seemed to be alluding to an issue that Pippa had believed was a Stevenson family secret.

Reading her friend’s expression, Tabby winced. ‘Oh, no, you didn’t realise I knew about—’