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Now it was her turn to cry out with pleasure and to experience the fierce shudder of pleasure slamming through Blake’s body as he responded to that cry. His fingers stroked circles of fire along the inside of her thigh her body aching with the intensity of her need. He touched her intimately and she melted, twisting and turning, breathing in short, muffled gasps.
‘It’s no good, I can’t wait any longer.’ Blake’s groaned admission echoed her own thoughts, her body wildly exulting in his swift possession and frenziedly responding to it. The world seemed to explode around them Sapphire crying out with pleasure at each powerful thrust of his body, her nails scoring heatedly along his back as she sought to prolong the contact her body craved even after the climax had been reached and the deep ache inside her soothed.
She felt Blake move away slightly and murmured an incoherent protest. ‘Hush …’ His mouth covered hers briefly, warm and moist and she was shocked to feel the light spiral of desire twist through her so quickly after she thought it had been sated. She tried to move away when Blake bent his head to suck lightly on her swollen and slightly sore nipples, but the pleasure of his touch seduced her into staying where she was, dreamily contemplating the smooth warmth of his skin, reaching out lazy fingers to stroke idly along the ridge of his shoulder.
When his lips grazed across her stom
ach she felt too indolent to protest, simply looking down at the thick darkness of his hair and wondering awedly that one person could be so vitally important to her happiness.
Blake’s fingers touched her thigh, and she tensed as his tongue touched her so intimately that she almost recoiled from the shock of it, trying to pull away and yet at the same time consumed by the molten heat his intimacy engendered until she was giving herself up to it, abandoning herself completely to the sensual spell he was weaving around her, unaware that she was crying out his name.
This time their coming together was less tumultuous, more leisurely and prolonged; Blake’s fierce cry of exultation muffled by her kiss, her arms holding him locked against her body as she savoured the sweet aftermath of their pleasure. She fell asleep still holding him, waking during the night to discover that their positions were reversed and that he was now the one holding her, the heavy weight of one leg thrown across her body, pinning her close against him. Sleepily content she nestled closer to him gloating over the pleasure of being able to do so; of being free to reach out and touch the matted hair on his chest; to place her lips to the pulse thudding slowly in his throat. Maybe he only wanted her, but she loved him and hopefully, God willing, they could yet build a relationship; a marriage that could last.
She fell asleep on that thought waking to find herself alone. Downstairs in the kitchen she found a note propped up against the teapot and a small smile tugged at her lips as she read it.
‘Market Day,’ Blake had written. ‘Don’t expect me back until late—suggest you catch up on your sleep!’
She spent the morning in a blissful daze, knowing that she was walking around with a smile on her face like a cat fed on cream, but unable to do a thing about it.
After a light lunch she contemplated going for a walk, and was just about to set out when she heard the sound of a car driving into the yard. From her vantage point in the kitchen she watched Miranda uncurl her slender body from the driver’s seat, her face disdainful as she picked her way over the cobbled yard in spike heeled shoes. Her cream wool suit and expensive shoes were beautiful but surely completely unsuitable for farm visiting Sapphire reflected waspishly as Miranda knocked on the back door.
‘If you want Blake, I’m afraid he isn’t here,’ she told her curtly, knowing she was being ungracious but unable to stop herself. It still hurt bitterly to think of Blake and this woman being lovers; to know that if Miranda hadn’t married they still would be lovers. It did nothing to endear Miranda to her to know that at least some of Blake’s desire for her must have been fuelled by the fact that he was missing her and Sapphire knew some of her feelings must be reflected in her face.
‘It isn’t Blake I wanted to see,’ Miranda surprised her by saying smugly, ‘Of course I knew he wouldn’t be here. It’s market day—we normally meet for lunch but of course since I got married …’ She shrugged dainty shoulders. ‘I’ve told Blake he can’t have his cake and eat it. It’s much pleasanter being a married woman than being a single one …’
‘Despite the fact that you had to settle for second best,’ Sapphire threw at her, regretting her impulsive comment the moment she saw the pale blue eyes harden.
‘Hardly that,’ Miranda drawled tauntingly. ‘As a lover Blake is first-rate, but as a husband?’ Her eyebrows lifted. ‘Hardly. For one thing Jim is an extremely wealthy man, whereas Blake …’ She glanced round the large kitchen disparagingly. ‘Being a working farmer’s wife is hardly my métier …’
‘No, I can see that,’ Sapphire agreed drily, ‘But if you haven’t come to see Blake why have you come here?’
Settling herself comfortably in a chair Miranda raised calculating blue eyes to Sapphire’s darker ones. ‘Oh I thought it was time you and I had a little talk—that er, shall we say … certain ground rules were laid down. You know of course that Blake and I are lovers?’
‘I know you were,’ Sapphire agreed coolly, hoping that Miranda would never guess how much the admission cost her.
‘Were?’ The thin eyebrows lifted tauntingly, ‘Oh dear is that what he told you? And you believed him? Poor Sapphire,’ she mocked. ‘Blake is far too virile a man to give up what he and I have between us. Oh I grant you, you’ve grown up from the awkward adolescent he married, but Blake loves me, Sapphire, and all you’ll ever be is a pale substitute. Your marriage to him won’t last. Blake will tire of you again just like he did before.’
Her taunting words, the look in her eyes, and her own inner insecurities all combined to goad Sapphire into saying with desperate intensity, ‘You’re wrong; Blake wants our marriage to last.’
‘You mean he wants to keep your father sweet to make sure he doesn’t lose out on Flaws Farm,’ Miranda derided. ‘Oh come on Sapphire you know it’s true. That’s the only reason Blake ever married you, and the reason he wanted you back. Your father threatened to sell his farm elsewhere if he didn’t. You’d better pray that he lives a long time if you’re counting on seeing more than one wedding anniversary, just as Blake must be hoping that he doesn’t.’
The cruelty of her gibe took Sapphire’s breath away for a moment. With tears in her eyes she cried fiercely, ‘That’s not true, Blake knows that my father only has a matter of months to live … I …’
‘What? What on earth are you talking about?’ Miranda snapped obviously disbelieving her. ‘Why only last month Jim was telling me how amazed he is by your father’s stamina. It must come of coming from sturdy farming stock,’ she added, her lip curling fastidiously.
‘Oh I know he was seriously ill with pneumonia, but Jim told me he’d never seen anyone recover so quickly from it, never mind a man well into his mid-sixties. If he’s told you he’s at death’s door, he’s lying,’ she told Sapphire positively. A gleam of suspicion darkened her eyes momentarily, her gaze narrowing as she studied Sapphire with insolent appraisal. ‘So that’s how he got Blake to take you back,’ she breathed triumphantly at last, ‘by telling him that he’s close to death. Of course! It would work perfectly. Poor Blake, I wonder what he’s going to say when he knows he’s been deceived. I can’t wait to see his face,’ she purred viciously. ‘I don’t think he’s going to be too pleased about the way you’ve trapped him into taking you back. Oh I grant you he’s single-minded enough to stay with you until he’s got what he wants, but that doesn’t mean he’ll ever really be yours or that he cares about you.’
She turned and left before Sapphire could retaliate. Not that she had anything left to retaliate with, she thought despairingly, staring helplessly out of the window. Everything fitted together too neatly for Miranda to be wrong. She had thought herself, the last time she saw him, that her father looked better. He had even been out of bed, she remembered. Dear God how could he have done this to her? How could he have put her in this position?
Perhaps Miranda was wrong, she though feverishly … after all she had only the other woman’s word for it that her father had only had pneumonia. Frantically pacing the kitchen Sapphire knew there was only one way to find out. She was already dressed for walking, so pulling on her boots she stepped out into the yard closing the kitchen door behind her.
If Miranda was right Blake would have to be told. She shivered in the cold breeze. What would his reaction be? He had never made any secret of the fact that he wanted Flaws Farm, but there was a big difference in expecting to inherit in say six months’ time and waiting perhaps sixteen years? After all her grandfather had lived to his mid-eighties and so had his father before him. Walking quickly to try and blot out her jumbled thoughts, Sapphire headed for Flaws Farm.
CHAPTER TEN
‘YOUR FATHER?’ Mary responded in answer to Sapphire’s query. ‘Yes, he’s in his room.’
‘How is he today?’ Sapphire watched closely as she waited for Mary’s response.
