To Mend A Marriage. Carole Mortimer

Because it was no longer there. It had been replaced by… She wasn’t sure what it had been replaced by, but it wasn’t comfortable, whatever it was.

      As proved by the arousal of her nipples beneath the silk of her pyjama top! Nick had barely touched her on his way out of the room, and yet she had responded instantly to that brief touch, and still ached even now.

      Tears sprang up into her eyes as she acknowledged that the situation between herself and Nick was becoming unbearable. And it had become so with the arrival of Jemima’s baby…!

      Damn Jemima!

      ‘Mrs James can manage,’ Nick drawled mockingly beside her in the car later that evening as they drove to have dinner with the Crawfords.

      Gemini turned to him blankly, having been lost in thought. She’d been distracted all day, if she were honest, looking for ways to return her relationship with Nick to being something she could at least feel comfortable with. Not that she’d come up with any answers, but she had decided her silence might at least not provoke the situation.

      ‘Jessica,’ Nick prompted impatiently at Gemini’s blank expression. ‘Mrs James seems more than capable of managing with her this evening,’ he repeated tersely.

      ‘I’m sure she’ll be fine.’ Gemini nodded confidently.

      The housekeeper had been wonderful today, spending every moment she had free either talking to the baby or feeding and changing her. And Gemini had to admit that with two other adults in the house who obviously knew what they were doing she didn’t feel so nervous about caring for Jessica herself now.

      ‘My sister hasn’t bothered to telephone yet, though, has she?’ she added hardly.

      And considering that Janey Reynolds, with all that she must have had to do on her wedding day, had still found the time to call in for a few minutes on her way to the hairdresser’s, made the lack of even a telephone call from Jemima even more noticeable!

      It really was too bad of Jemima not to have at least made sure the baby had been safely delivered to her. But that was typical Jemima; she expected everyone else to fall in with what she arranged, never dreaming for a moment that someone wouldn’t do it. The thing was, she was usually right…

      Nick stared grimly ahead. ‘I thought we had agreed not to discuss your sister,’ he bit out harshly.

      They hadn’t agreed any such thing, but if she wanted this evening to be anywhere near a success perhaps it would be better if they didn’t! Besides, whether Jemima telephoned or not, it wouldn’t make any difference to the fact Jessica would be staying with them until her mother returned.

      ‘Sorry,’ she mumbled dismissively. ‘You’re looking very nice this evening,’ she added lightly.

      ‘You’ve seen me in a dinner suit dozens of times before,’ Nick returned shortly, glancing at her with narrowed eyes.

      So she had, but the fact that he looked devastatingly attractive in a black dinner suit and snowy white shirt had become more and more apparent to her in recent months! As had everything else about this man who was her husband…

      He was tall and slender, with not an ounce of superfluous flesh on his body, but at the same time muscularly powerful. And his harshly hewn features—piercing green eyes, aquiline nose, sculptured lips, squarely determined jaw—were all mesmerisingly attractive.

      Nick didn’t just have an air of being arrogantly confident, he actually was, and women—all women, it seemed—reacted to that combination of self-confidence and good looks. Including Gemini!

      Why hadn’t she been aware of all these things before she married him? If she had been she might not have accepted his proposal! But the truth of the matter was at the time Nick had been Jemima’s fiancé, and so of no romantic interest to Gemini. And, of course, there had been Danny…

      After being with Nick over a year, and having come to know and appreciate his quiet strength and success, she couldn’t understand how she’d ever found his reprehensible younger brother of any interest whatsoever.

      Novelty, probably, she’d finally decided. Whatever it was, time had shown her that the infatuation—because that was exactly what it had been!—would never have lasted. Involved in the world of fashion as she was, Gemini had glamour and excitement in her life already, but she also liked a certain amount of structure, and Danny hadn’t had any of that in his life, had never intended having any, either.

      ‘You don’t have to make polite conversation with me, Gemini,’ Nick rasped at her lengthy silence following his earlier remark.

      ‘But—’ Gemini bit off her protest; what was the point in telling him there had been nothing polite about her comment, that she really did find him heart-stoppingly attractive in the dark evening clothes? None whatsoever, she assured herself; she’d already made enough an idiot of herself for one weekend.

      ‘Whereas I can safely tell you that you look absolutely stunning this evening,’ he added with dry mockery.

      Her brows rose. ‘Double standards, Nick?’

      He shrugged. ‘I don’t think so. A dinner suit on a man rarely looks any different from the first time a woman sees him in it, whereas a woman can wear any number of different outfits for the same occasions. And that blue shimmering dress is the exact colour of your eyes; you look wonderful!’

      ‘Thank you,’ Gemini accepted, deciding to leave the conversation on that positive note and relaxing back in her car seat, wallowing in Nick’s compliment.

      She hoped that last part of their conversation would set the tone for the evening ahead, and both of them were relaxed as they arrived at their hosts’ home, chatting easily as they lounged in the sitting-room with the elderly couple before dinner.

      John Crawford was a business acquaintance of Nick’s, and his wife Mary an extremely welcoming hostess, and whether or not it was because both Gemini and Nick were parentless themselves Gemini wasn’t sure, but they both got along with the elderly couple in a pleasantly relaxed way.

      John and Mary were more than usually talkative this evening, having returned from a holiday in Florida several days earlier.

      ‘I love the golf out there,’ John confided happily.

      ‘And I love the food.’ Mary looked down pointedly at her rounded but curvaceous figure. ‘Are the two of you planning any holidays shortly?’ she enquired interestedly.

      Gemini and Nick didn’t plan holidays—for the simple reason they never went away anywhere together! Nick had his business trips, as did she, and the suggestion of them going away together had never come up. She’d never thought about it before, but Gemini realised now that fact probably appeared a little odd to friends like John and Mary…

      She looked to Nick, as he sat beside her on the sofa, to make a suitable reply to the question.

      ‘As I recall,’ John put in teasingly, brown eyes twinkling merrily, ‘the two of you never went away on honeymoon!’

      Because in their case there had been no reason for one! They had married in the morning, with Nick returning to work in his office in the afternoon while Gemini moved her things into the house. It had been efficiently, if not romantically, carried out!

      ‘Nick was far too busy to spare the time,’ Gemini dismissed lightly.

      ‘Not too busy for a honeymoon, surely?’ Mary said affectionately.

      What was wrong with everyone this weekend? Gemini wondered irritably. Suddenly, it seemed to her, their private life had come under the spotlight. And she wasn’t at all comfortable with it.

      ‘Every day is a honeymoon for us, isn’t it, Gemini?’ Nick murmured huskily, reaching across to grasp her hand in his.

      A little too painfully, it seemed to Gemini! ‘It certainly is,’ she murmured lightly, turning her own hand so that she might clasp his in return—at the same time briefly