Tall, Dark... Collection. Carole Mortimer

mouth quirked into a smile. ‘There would have been no point; my mother has always been able to tell when I’m lying!’

      Laura raised startled lids, those different coloured eyes, one blue and one green, shining brightly with confusion.

      Liam shrugged. ‘Of course, she doesn’t realise you’re the same Laura from eight years ago yet, but—’

      ‘Your mother knew about me then?’ Laura gasped, her eyes wide.

      ‘Oh, yes, she knew.’ He nodded slowly.

      ‘But—’

      ‘Here we are.’ A happy Bobby bounced back into the room with his kite. ‘Can Liam and I go outside for a while Mummy?’

      Almost as if Liam were Bobby’s own age, and the two of them were going out to play in the garden!

      ‘If Liam wants to,’ she answered non-committally.

      Liam stood up, grinning. ‘I’ve thought of doing nothing else the last three days!’

      Somehow Laura found that hard to believe, but if it made Bobby happy—which it most assuredly did, as his face lit with excitement when he and Liam went outside—then who was she to question the statement?

      Besides, she was glad of this brief respite. Too much seemed to be happening too soon. And once Liam learnt how she had deceived him about Robert and Bobby it might just be going nowhere!

      Liam had told his mother about her eight years ago…

      Laura found that incredible. Admittedly their relationship had lasted over six months, but for most of that time Liam had treated her like another one of his sisters—someone to be patted on the head when she did something right, or shouted at when she did something wrong.

      Why on earth would Liam have told his mother about her?

      Yet another fact from the past that needed explaining. By the time the two of them had finished explaining themselves, there would be nothing left!

      ‘That was absolutely delicious, Amy,’ Liam told the housekeeper warmly as she took away their used plates before putting cheese and a pot of coffee on the table.

      ‘Thank you, Mr O’Reilly,’ Amy accepted before turning to Laura. ‘I’ll clear away in the kitchen, check on Bobby, and then call it a night, if that’s okay with you, Mrs Shipley?’

      It wasn’t okay with her, it meant she would be left on her own with Liam, but, like her, Amy had had a long and tiring day and deserved some time to herself.

      Bobby had been bathed and in bed for over an hour now, having insisted Liam join them for his story. Just as if they were a real family, Laura had realised. This situation was definitely getting out of hand!

      And maybe the sooner it was settled—in whatever way!—the better it would be for all of them.

      Nevertheless, Laura felt her stomach give a nervous lurch as Amy closed the dining room door softly behind her as she left.

      ‘You should know me well enough by now, Laura, to know that I don’t bite!’

      She looked up at Liam, instantly looking away again as she saw from his teasing expression that he had meant the remark in a double-edged way; he wasn’t about to verbally attack her just because they were now alone, but at the same time he was reminding her of the fact that he had been a passionate but gentle lover eight years ago…!

      ‘It never occurred to me to think you might,’ she lied—having no idea how the rest of this evening was going to go!

      ‘No?’ he mocked lightly. ‘I don’t know about you, but I don’t care for any cheese…Shall we take the coffee through to the sitting room, then?’ he suggested after she confirmed she wanted nothing else to eat either.

      Why not? It might only delay the dreaded moment for a couple of minutes, but it would delay it…

      Liam didn’t sit down once they were ensconced in the sitting room, but prowled around the room, as if he were reluctant to begin this conversation too.

      He came to a halt beside the dresser at the back of the room, lifting one of the many photographs from its surface, looking down to study the picture intently.

      Laura squeezed her eyes shut, knowing exactly which photograph he was looking at; it had been taken shortly after Bobby was born. Laura was sitting on the arm of one of the chairs in this room, Robert was seated in the chair and Bobby nestled contentedly in his arms.

      ‘You look a happy family.’ Liam spoke gruffly.

      Laura opened her eyes to look across at him, but found herself unable to read anything from Liam’s closed expression. ‘We were,’ she confirmed quietly.

      Liam gave an abrupt inclination of his head. ‘Robert was a good father?’

      She swallowed hard. ‘He was,’ she confirmed, aware they were both talking around the real point at issue. But at least they were talking.

      ‘And a good husband?’

      Her head rose challengingly. ‘I’ve already told you that he was,’ she answered.

      Liam nodded slowly, replacing the photograph. ‘I’m glad.’

      Her eyes widened. ‘You are?’

      His gaze was shuttered as he gave her a considering look. ‘Didn’t you think I would be?’

      Laura shook her head. ‘I don’t know,’ she told him truthfully.

      He gave a rueful smile. ‘I’ve never wished you anything but happiness, Laura. Never. Do you believe me?’

      How could she? He had become the sole reason for her happiness eight years ago, and six months later he had cruelly walked out of her life!

      ‘Obviously not,’ Liam acknowledged at her silence. ‘Laura, eight years ago you were still a child—’

      ‘I was over twenty-one,’ she protested.

      ‘Sixteen going on twenty-one,’ Liam corrected softly. ‘When your parents died they left you in an emotional time-warp of the age you were when they died—’

      ‘That’s utter nonsense, Liam, and you know it,’ Laura declared.

      ‘No, I don’t?’ He gave a firm shake of his head. ‘Sixteen is a terrible age to lose both your parents. Admittedly you had a guardian who could take over the financial side of your life, but emotionally you had been left in wilderness.’ He gave another shake of his head. ‘I had no idea of any of this when I first met you; how could I? But it rapidly became obvious to me that you were badly in need of someone to love. And for someone to love you.’

      ‘And that wasn’t part of your immediate plans, was it?’

      ‘Laura,’ he began patiently, ‘you have no idea how I felt eight years ago. You weren’t mature enough—’

      ‘Oh, please!’ She stood up impatiently. ‘Don’t try and blame any of what happened then on my so-called immaturity. I didn’t see that stopping you when you made love to me!’

      Liam drew in a harsh breath. ‘Nothing could have stopped me the night—that one and only night!—I made love to you,’ he admitted ‘You had been in my life, every part of it, for almost six months. There, with your sensual allure, your undoubted beauty, your complete acceptance of who and what I was. Once I began to touch you that night, kiss you, I could no more have stopped either of those things than I could have stopped breathing!’

      ‘You said it had been a mistake.’ Laura shakily recalled his words of rejection the following morning. ‘That it must never happen again.’

      And it hadn’t. It hadn’t needed to. Bobby had been conceived from that single night of physical love between Liam and herself.

      And Liam had left her life before she had even had a chance