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‘This is our wedding day. That’s a fact just as it’s a fact that you are experiencing last-minute doubts the same as dozens of other women before you. What’s so strange about that?’
‘Nothing. But this marriage is hardly the norm, is it?’ She glared at him, close to tears at his deliberate refusal to understand what she meant.
‘Perhaps not, but that doesn’t make it wrong. What is really troubling you, Beth? The fact that we aren’t in love? I’d say that was a plus factor. Love doesn’t guarantee happiness as you very well know.’
He was never cruel and that he should be so now devastated her. Tears shone like diamonds on her lashes as she faced him across the room. ‘That was a horrible thing to say. How could you, David? Do you imagine this is easy? I loved Andrew and the fact that it didn’t work out for us was just a tragic mistake.’
‘A mistake?’ He smiled harshly as he came towards her. ‘It might have been a mistake on your behalf, Beth, but it was hardly a mistake on his! He knew exactly what he was doing and the risks he was taking right from the start. The trouble is that he wasn’t the one to get hurt. Andrew used you all along the line and don’t ever forget it!’
‘No!’ She backed away from him, her face going pale. ‘He couldn’t have foreseen that I would get pregnant. Andrew loved me…he did!’
‘So he loved you, did he? Loved you so much that he was willing to risk your unhappiness by asking you out when he knew he was married? Loved you so much that he took no precautions to ensure you didn’t get pregnant? It doesn’t sound like love to me. It sounds like lust. Don’t confuse the two.’
‘How can you say that? You know nothing about our relationship. It wasn’t lust! He…oh!’ She stopped abruptly, her breath catching as he caught her to him and held her tightly, his hand splayed across the hollow of her back so that she was brought into abrupt contact with his muscled body. Just for a second shock kept her immobile, then she began to struggle, pushing wildly at the steely strength of his arms.
‘Let me go! What do you think you’re doing?’
‘Attempting to show you the difference between those two emotions.’ He slid a hand behind her head, tugging gently but insistently at her hair so that she was forced to tilt her head back. ‘You’re old enough to realise that there is a difference, Beth.’
His mouth came down as he took her lips in a kiss which sent a shiver of pure hot fire sliding along her veins. Beth stilled at once, her whole body going rigid with shock. Nothing had prepared her for this, forewarned her that just the touch of David’s mouth on hers could make her burn with a heat she’d never felt before. When his hand slid up to tilt her face so that he could deepen the kiss, Beth made no move to break away. She felt boneless, melting under the warmth of his mouth and the strange curling sensations rippling hotly along her veins.
When his mouth slid away from hers, she moaned softly, turning her head to recapture his lips then shuddering as he began to skim a shower of kisses along the curve of her jaw to the hollow of her neck. Slowly, gently, he traced the delicate hollow with his tongue before moving on to nibble at the lobe of her ear in a way which stole what little remaining strength she had from her so that she trembled against him. He caught her even closer, steadying her against his strength as he continued the assault on her senses by taking her mouth again in a long, drugging kiss, and everything ceased to exist apart from the feel of his mouth on hers and the hot, delicious magic they were creating together.
Slowly he drew back, holding her steady as he felt the shudders which racked her, his hand smoothing the silky disarray he’d made of her hair. ‘Do you see now, Beth, how easily desire can spring up between a man and a woman, but it isn’t love? The two don’t always have to go together.’
Beth pulled away, her face pale as she turned her back on him so that he wouldn’t see the shock in her eyes. She loved Andrew so how could she feel this way about another man? How could the touch of David’s mouth on hers make her feel as though she’d never been kissed before.
