‘Of course.’

The next few minutes were taken up as the Major and her father greeted the pair of them, and then, with a determined smile, Conan said, ‘Excuse us,’ and with his arm around Josie’s waist he almost carried her up the wide staircase.

‘Why on earth did you tell Mrs M. I was pregnant?’ she demanded angrily, when they reached the first-floor landing. ‘It—’

‘Because, my sweet wife, it is becoming rather obvious,’ Conan drawled, his long arm reaching right around her waist to splay across her slightly swollen belly. ‘And it’s about time you stopped trying to play the martyr and started buying some clothes that fit you.’

‘Thanks for the compliment; every girl likes to be told she’s fat,’ she shot back sarcastically.

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, Josie, will you stop carping for once, and tell me what you think of the decor?’ Exasperation laced his tone as he stopped in the middle of the bedroom.

Silently fuming, she looked around and the first thing she noticed was the elegant ambience, and the second thing she noticed was an enormous bed. There was the door they had entered, and one other on the right-hand side. Slowly she crossed the room and opened the door. It was a magnificent bathroom in Italian marble with a double shower, and a huge circular bath on a raised dais. She closed the door again and turned to Conan.

‘Where is your bedroom?’ She had a horrible suspi

cion this was it.

He strolled across to her. One hand came down on her tense shoulders, and she froze. His other hand snaked around her back as he drew her firmly up against him. ‘This is my bedroom—yours and mine. Make the most of it for the next few days, because when I return you’re sharing it with me.’

‘No way!’ Josie cried, shoving at his broad chest, and, deliberately taking advantage of her angrily parted lips, he covered her mouth with his own.

Josie stopped breathing, fighting to withhold her response, but he was far too experienced. He chuckled with masculine enjoyment and increased the pressure, his arm wrapping tightly around her, until, with a sigh, she gave in. She trembled violently in his arms as he seduced her with his mouth and tongue, her body on fire for him. Then Conan swung her off her feet, and with a wicked grin he slowly lowered her down his rock-hard body, before freeing her.

He stepped back, his smile triumphant. ‘You’re not cut out for the celibate life, Josie, however much you try to pretend otherwise,’ he observed with ironic amusement. ‘That was just a little taste to remember me by. Unfortunately I do have to leave, or I would give you the whole meal.’

‘Why, you conceited jerk!’ Josie raised her hand, but he caught her wrist when she would have hit him.

‘No, simply a husband trying to please his wife,’ he mocked ‘Hence the new master suite.’ He gestured around the room. ‘The rest of the renovations on the house will be completed in about three months.’

‘So the Major has signed the estate over to you?’ she asked angrily, pulling her wrist free. ‘You’ve got what you wanted!’ she almost spat.

‘As far as the estate is concerned, yes. A trip to Cheltenham, to sign a few papers, and that was it.’ His dark face sardonic, he added, ‘As for getting what I want, I’m still working on that, as I think you know, Josie.’

‘I am not sleeping with you, Conan,’ she blurted out.

‘That wasn’t part of our bargain.’

‘You will,’ he asserted arrogantly. ‘But for now we’ll go downstairs and you’ll behave as a loving wife until I leave.’

‘It can’t be soon enough for me.’

‘Liar, Josie—you want me almost as much as I want you.’ His dark eyes roamed with explicit sensual knowledge from her tense face to the wild mass of blue-black curls falling to her slender shoulders. ‘When I return I will prove it to you.’ His gaze shifted to focus on one single curl falling down over her breast. ‘And that’s a promise,’ he averred softly, before turning and walking to the door.

A trembling sigh escaped Josie. She was trapped by circumstance, but, even more frightening, she was trapped by passion. Conan, with his dark Celtic ancestry, added to his experience of life, could read her like a book. He knew she wanted him, however much she denied it.

‘Come on, Josie,’ he commanded from the door, and she had no choice but to follow him.

She said very little over the tea and sandwiches they shared with the two old men in the drawing room. The living arrangements had already been decided. Her agreement was a foregone conclusion. Only when Conan got up to leave and demanded that she see him to the door did she stir herself.

‘As you’re driving past the Low Beeches, you can drop me off there,’ she told Conan, walking out to the car. She might as well check it out now, and she could do with the walk back to clear her head.

‘Yes, okay,’ Conan agreed, and ten minutes later he stopped the car outside her former home.

‘Do you want me to come in with you, Josie? I can wait and drive you back to the Manor—I’m not in that much of a rush.’

She looked out of the car window at the mellow stone building. Her home. Ten years of her life gone, and all because of the man beside her. Schooling her face into a careful blankness, she turned and said, ‘No, Conan. I would prefer to do this alone, and I know Angela won’t appreciate you being late.’

His dark eyes narrowed and for a fleeting instant she thought he was going to object. ‘You’re right.’ He leaned towards her and she thought he was going to kiss her, but he simply opened the passenger door. ‘I’ll see you soon.’ Before she could slide out of the car, he folded his arms around her waist and leaned forward to rub his cheek against hers in the gentlest caress. ‘Go, but be careful.’

Tags: Jacqueline Baird Billionaire Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net