The Secret Love-Child

'I knew I was right to ring you,' Rachel said with a not so distressed-sounding sigh.

'If you hadn't, I'd have been very annoyed. Now, I must go. Loads to do. See you soon, sweetie. Take care.'

Isabel hung up with a weary sigh. Rachel was right about one thing. Her mother was not going to be pleased with her little deception over this holiday.

But that was just too bad. Squaring her shoulders, Isabel swept the receiver up again, and asked Reception for an outside line.

'I gather the honeymoon's over.'

Isabel spun round to find Rafe standing in the doorway.

'How much did you hear?'

'All of it.'

'Then you know I have to go home. You can stay for the rest of the fortnight if you want to.'

He stared at her as though she were mad. 'Now, why would I want to do that? Without you here with me, Isabel, it would just be a waste of time. No, I'll be coming back to Sydney with you. If you find there aren't any available seats going back this afternoon, you could have Reception offer the rest of this pre-paid jaunt to all the couples on the island whose holiday ends today. Someone is sure to take you up on it.'

"That's an excellent idea, Rafe. Thank you.'

'I am good for some things besides sex, you know.'

Isabel frowned at the slightly bitter edge in his voice. What had got into him? Did he think she was happy about having to leave?

'Look, I'm sorry, Rafe. I hardly planned this. I'd rather be staying here with you than going back home to a heartbroken friend. But fate has decided otherwise. Rachel needs me and she needs me now. I'm not going to let her down.'

'I appreciate that. Honest I do. I admire people who are there for their friends when they're needed. I guess that's the crux of my discontent. The fact you didn't consider I'd be there for you during the next few undeniably difficult days. You just dismissed me like some hired gigolo whose services were no longer required. I thought we'd moved beyond that. I thought you genuinely liked me.'

'I...I do like you. But what we've had together here... We both knew it was just a fantasy trip, Rafe. It's been fantastic but it's not real life. Come on the plane with me by all means, but once we get back to Sydney I think we should go our separate ways.'

'Do you, now?' he bit out. 'Well, I don't.'

'You don't?'

'No. As far as what we've had here... Yes, it has been fantastic, but I think we can have something better once we get back to Sydney. And we can be good friends as well.'

'But...'

'But nothing. You like me. I like you. A lot. On top of that, we are very sexually compatible. Face it, Isabel, you're not the sort of woman who's ever going to live the life of a nun. You like sex far too much. So don't look a gift-horse in the mouth. Where else are you going to find a man who's prepared to be your friend as well as your lover? A man, moreover, who knows how to turn you on just like that.' And he snapped his fingers. 'You'll go a long way before you come across that combination again.'

He was right, of course. He was ideal.

Too ideal. She was sure to fall hopelessly in love with him. Sure to. But she hadn't as yet. She could still walk away.

But then she thought of what Rachel had said about being so lonely that she'd sleep with anyone, and she knew she wouldn't be able to walk away for ever. One night, when she was alone in that town house at Turramurra, she'd pick up the phone and call Rafe and ask him to come over.

Take what he's offering you now, came the voice of temptation. And if you fall in love with him?

She would cross that bridge when she came to it.

'So you want to be my day-time friend and night-time lover, is that it?'

'No. I want to be your friend and lover all the time. I see no reason to relegate our sex life just to night.'

An erotic quiver rippled down her spine. She didn't stand a chance of resisting this man. Why damage her pride by trying? But that same pride insisted she keep some control over the relationship. She could do that, surely.

'You're so right, Rafe,' she said, adopting what she hoped was a suitably firm woman-in-control expression. "Things have worked out between us far better than I ever imagined they would. You're exactly what I need in my life. But please don't presume that my agreeing to continue with our relationship gives you any rights to tell me how to ran my life. I know you don't agree with my decision to have a baby on my own, but I aim to do just that, and nothing and no one is going to stop me!'

CHAPTER TWELVE

RAFE sat silently beside Isabel on the flight to Sydney late that afternoon, planning and plotting his next move.

He'd been furious with fate at first for interrupting them. But, in the end, things hadn't worked out too badly. Isabel had at least agreed to go on seeing him. As for her declaration that nothing and no one was going to stop her from having a baby...little did she know but he was her best ally in that quest. He hoped to have her pregnant well before she got round to doing that artificial insemination rubbish.