Lynne Graham's Brides of L'Amour Bundle

Ignoring her evasive step back from him, Roel closed long fingers round her wrist to halt her steady retreat. ‘I don’t understand—’

Tears clogged her throat, for doing what she accepted was right was the hardest thing she had ever had to do in her life. ‘Look, it’s not important and certainly nothing for you to worry about. But just take it from me, I’m really not a big deal in your life and when you get your memory back you’ll remember that and be glad I put you on your guard—’

Roel had stilled. Brilliant eyes shimmering down at her, his questioning gaze narrowed with suspicion. ‘What have you done that I should treat you in such a way?’

Taken aback by his reaction, Hilary paled in consternation. ‘I haven’t done anything!’

Roel appeared to have forgotten his own strength, for his fierce grip was threatening to crush the narrow bones of her wrist and she was provoked into a gasp of discomfort. ‘You’re hurting me…’

Instantly he released her and his concern and his apology were immediate but his next words made it clear that the issue under discussion was not to be so easily set aside. ‘Explain what you meant by describing yourself as not being a big deal in my life.’

‘All I meant was that you’re so busy working you hardly notice I’m around,’ Hilary mumbled weakly.

‘If you’ve been unfaithful don’t make a mystery of it,’ Roel drawled with stinging softness. ‘Just pack and get out of my life again.’

Hilary realised that she had stirred up a hornet’s nest. Instead of prompting Roel to exercise greater reserve around her she had made the mistake of rousing more stressful concerns. Dismayed, she spluttered, ‘Don’t be ridiculous…of course I haven’t been unfaithful to you!’

‘Sabatino men have a habit of marrying flighty women,’ Roel derided with a brooding roughness of pitch that was entirely new to her, but which carried an impressive note of foreboding. ‘But we waste no time in divorcing them.’

‘I’ll consider myself warned,’ Hilary told him, striving in vain to come up with a light-hearted smile before she vanished back into the bathroom.

In bewilderment, Roel fell back a step. His keen mind was seething with fast and furious questions.

We don’t have this sort of relationship.

I’m not a big deal in your life.

You’re so busy working you hardly notice I’m around.

What kind of a marriage was it where, young though they both were, they were already occupying separate bedrooms? Had that been his choice? She had implied that their relationship was as he wanted it to be. He was angry at the conclusions he was being forced to draw. Failure was anathema to him. Instinct had always made him strive for perfection in every facet of his life. Yet it seemed his marriage was in trouble. Without any apparent desire to rebuke or challenge him, his wife had given him a picture of himself as a workaholic husband indifferent to her needs. He could barely bring himself to credit that he rarely slept with her either. But what else was he to think? Now he could look back and recognise that her initial response to being kissed in the limo had been shock and surprise. Shock and surprise followed by an undeniably eager and encouraging response, he reminded himself. So what was wrong could be fixed…easily!

Hilary got dressed. She put on a stretchy black skirt that ended four inches above the knee and teamed it with a fitted green top that had ribbon ties. Having checked the time, she called her sister’s mobile phone.

‘I’ve been thinking about you all day…how’s Roel doing?’ Emma demanded anxiously.

‘Basically he’s all right but that head injury is still causing him some problems. He’s not quite himself yet.’

‘Meaning?’ her sister probed.

‘That, right now, I can make myself useful over here…purely as a friend,’ Hilary hastened to add.

Almost four years ago, she had not told her sister the truth about her marriage of convenience. She had been afraid that if she did Emma would lose respect both for her and for the institution of marriage. What had then seemed to be a harmless fib couched for the sensitive ears of a girl of thirteen, however, now seemed rather more dishonest and less forgivable. When the emergency with Roel was over, Hilary knew that it would only be fair if she told Emma the whole story. She wasn’t looking forward to the challenge but she knew she could not allow the younger woman to go on believing that she herself might have contributed in some way to the demise of her big sister’s marriage.

‘Exactly what is wrong with him?’

Hilary took a deep breath and explained in a few words.

‘You know what all this means?’ Emma exclaimed. ‘This is going to give you and Roel the chance to make a completely fresh start!’

‘There’s no question of anything like that.’ Hilary sighed, her face clouding with unease. ‘I just want to help him out…that’s all.’

When she went downstairs, Umberto ushered her into the candle-lit dining room where the table glittered with crystal, gleaming china and heavy silver cutlery. Fresh lilies with petals as pale and perfect as snow ornamented the polished wood.

‘This is just so beautiful,’ Hilary was telling the older man when Roel entered.

Roel almost groaned out loud when he saw the embellished table arrangements. Inferno! What was the special occasion? Was it her birthday or their anniversary?

‘Are we celebrating something?’ he enquired.