The Secret Love-Child

"The refrigerator and cupboards are well stocked with more food and wine. The bar in the corner over there has every drink on its shelves you could possibly imagine. As I'm sure you are aware, all drink and food is included in the tariff here, so please don't stint yourself. Each day, you can either eat in the various restaurants in the hotel on the main beach or have something sent over. You only have to ring for service. Cigarettes are included also, if you smoke.'

'We don't smoke,' Isabel said for both of them, before frowning up at Rafe. 'You don't, do you?' she whispered and he shook his head.

'I'll be going, then,' Tom said crisply. "There are brochures on the coffee-table explaining all the resort's facilities. You have your own little runabout attached to the jetty which I will show you how to operate before I leave. You must understand, however, that you can't walk to anywhere from here, except up to the top of the hill we are on. The path is quite steep from this point, but the view's pretty spectacular, especially at sunrise. Worth the effort at least once. I think that's all, but if you have any questions you only have to pick up the phone and ring Reception. Now, if you'd like to come with me, sir, I'll show you how to; start the runabout's motor and how to steer.'

Isabel watched them leave, then walked over and sat down on the side of the bed, testing it for comfort. It was firm. Luke's bed had been firm, she recalled.

Luke...

He'd rung her yesterday and told her he and Celia were getting married in a couple of months. For a honeymoon, he was going to take her around the world. For a whole year. After that, they were going to start trying for a baby.

Isabel didn't envy Celia the trip. She'd travelled a lot herself. Saved up during her twenties and gone to those places she'd always thought exotic and romantic. Paris. Rome. Hawaii.

But she envied her that baby. And Luke as its father. He was going to make a truly wonderful father.

Suddenly, all her earlier excitement faded and she wanted to cry. Before she knew it she was crying, tears flooding her eyes and overflowing down her cheeks.

Isabel dashed them away with the back of her hands, angry with herself. If only she hadn't let Luke go racing off to Lake Macquarie that Friday. If only she hadn't been so darned reasonable she would have been here tonight, with him. They would have been married, and she would have been making a baby tonight here or least trying to.

Instead, she was here with Rafe!

Throwing herself onto the bed, Isabel buried her face in the mountain of pillows and wept.

Rafe was taken aback when he walked back in and found Isabel crying on the bed. He hated hearing women cry. His mother had cried for a long time after his Dad had been killed. It had upset Rafe terribly, listening to her sob into her pillows every night.

'Hey,' he said softly, and touched Isabel's trembling shoulder.

With a sob, she turned her back to him and curled up into a ball on the green-printed quilt. 'Go away,' she cried piteously. 'Just go away.'

Rafe didn't know what to do. He hadn't a clue what was wrong. She'd said she hadn't loved her fiancé'. Had she lied? Had she taken one look at this place and this bed and wanted not him, but Luke?

Dismayed, Rafe went to leave, but then decided against it. She shouldn't be left alone like this. She needed him, if only to comfort her for now.

He lay down on the bed and wrapped his arms around her from behind. 'It's all right, sweetheart,' he soothed, holding her tightly against him. 'I understand. Honest, I do. I'll bet you've been holding your hurt in this last fortnight, and now that you're here, where you should have been with Luke, his dumping you for that Celia girl has hit you hard. Look, I know what it's like to be thrown over for someone else. And it hurts. So cry all you want to. I did.'

Talking to her and touching her seemed to do the trick. Her weeping subsided to a sniffle and she turned over in his arms to stare up at him. 'You did?'

'Yep. Maybe it's not the done thing for a bloke to blubber, but I was like Niagara Falls for a day or two. Heck, no, longer than that. I was a mess on and off for a week. I didn't dare go out anywhere. It was most embarrassing. I drank like a fish too, but that didn't help at all. Made me even more maudlin.'

'Why did she dump you?'

'Ambition. And money. And influence. Be assured it wasn't because the other chap was better in bed,' Rafe added with a grin, and she laughed. It was a lovely sound.

He took advantage of the moment and kissed her. Not the way he'd kissed her back in Sydney this morning, but slowly, softly, sipping at her lips, showing her with his mouth that he did have a gentle side. He kept on kissing her, nothing more, and gradually he felt her defences lower till finally she began to moan, and move against him. Only then did he start to undress her—and himself—still taking his time, touching and talking to her as he went, reassuring her of how much he admired and desired her.