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‘I’ve never had one before …’
She reached up and helped him out of his jacket and to her surprise he didn’t resist. She undid his tie and shirt as well, but his hands came down over hers when she reached for the waistband of his trousers.
‘Not tonight, sweetheart,’ he said with another attempt at a wry smile. ‘I’m not feeling up to it, so to speak.’
She shook her head at him reprovingly and asked, ‘Will you be OK in the shower? I’ll wait just outside in case you need me.’
‘Give me ten minutes,’ he said. ‘Then if you don’t get an answer ring my insurance broker and tell him you’ll be in to collect my life insurance in the morning. It should set you up for life.’
She tightened her mouth. ‘Sometimes you can be such a jerk,’ she said. ‘I didn’t marry you for your money and you damn well know it.’
‘Why did you marry me, Hayley?’
‘You know why.’
Jasper’s eyes fell away from hers as he reached for the shower door. ‘Yeah,’ he said, leaning his burning head against the cold pane of glass for a moment. ‘I blackmailed you into it, right?’
But when he opened his eyes to see why she hadn’t answered she had already gone.
CHAPTER NINE
HAYLEY WENT INTO Jasper’s room to pull back the covers of his bed when her eyes came upon the suitcase he had packed in preparation for their flight the next morning. Her own suitcase as well as her belongings had been picked up that morning by one of his staff and brought to the house and placed in one of the spare rooms.
She turned down the covers of the bed and closed the curtains just as Jasper came in with a towel wrapped around his waist. He was still looking as white as the sheets on his bed, his features looking even more chiselled than normal, sharpened by illness.
‘What will we do about tomorrow?’ she asked as he sat down heavily on the bed. ‘Do you think we should cancel?’
He lifted his weary gaze to hers. ‘We don’t leave until lunchtime, but would you be disappointed if we did?’
‘Of course not. You’re hardly well enough to go up and down the stairs let alone fly to a tropical island.’ She touched him on the forehead with the flat of her palm. ‘You?
??re still running a fever. I’ll get you something to bring it down.’
When she came back with some paracetamol and a glass of water he was lying in the bed, the towel he had been wearing tossed on the floor. She sat on the edge of the bed, conscious of his naked body lying with just a sheet of Egyptian cotton separating her from him.
‘Here you go,’ she said, handing him the tablets.
‘Thanks.’ He tipped back his head and swallowed them with a mouthful of water.
‘Can I get you anything else?’ she asked.
‘No.’
‘Are you sure?’
He opened one eye to look at her. ‘Please go away, Hayley. You don’t have to worry. I’m not going to hold you to that in-sickness-and-health routine.’
She screwed up her mouth at him and got up from the bed. ‘I’ll leave the door open so if you need me you can call out. I’ll move my things into the spare room next door.’
‘You’d be better to stay as far away as possible in case it’s contagious.’
‘It’s probably too late for caution,’ she said. ‘You kissed me, don’t forget. Not that it was a very good kiss or anything.’
‘I didn’t want to pass on my germs.’
‘You should have told me you weren’t feeling well,’ she said with a little nibble of her bottom lip.
He cracked one eye open again. ‘What would that have achieved? The church was full of guests, the caterers had prepared the reception food and drinks and the press were jostling about like ants at a picnic.’
