Modern Romance Collection: January Books 5 - 8. Jane Porter

as she dressed and went in search of Max. He loved her and as soon as he’d wrestled the demons of his past into submission he would tell her as well as show her.

      ‘How are you this morning?’ he asked when she looked into his study, to find him busy with paperwork as usual. The concern in his voice touched her and pushed the hope a little higher as she walked in and stood by the window, looking out at London nestling beneath a toneless grey sky, where the promise of snow still lingered.

      ‘Good, thank you. I seem to be escaping the sickness now.’ It was the first time she’d thought about it, noticing that it was only when things weren’t good between them that she felt ill.

      ‘That’s good to hear, because I’m looking forward to seeing you in that black dress at Angelina’s party tonight.’ He smiled wickedly at her, stood up and walked over to join her. Standing behind her, his arms winding round her, he pulled her against him, kissing her neck. ‘And to taking it off again when we get home.’

      ‘Maximiliano Martinez, you are unbelievably bad.’ She wriggled round in his embrace and wound her arms around his neck, loving the intimacy of the moment.

      He kissed her lightly on the lips, pushing her hair from her face until it fell behind her shoulders. ‘Would you prefer I don’t say things like that?’

      She shook her head and he kissed her again, but this time the shrill ring of her mobile phone cut dead the rise of passion. ‘That, I think, is your phone.’

      ‘I will be back to finish this in a moment.’ She slipped from his embrace with a smile on her lips.

      ‘Promises, promises,’ he called after her as she rushed to retrieve her phone from her bag.

      The word mother flashed on the screen and with a sinking heart she answered the call.

      ‘So you are back with Max.’ Her mother’s harsh voice shattered all the soft, gentle emotions the exchange with Max had just created. The warm sensation his words had stirred in her froze.

      ‘Yes, Mother, I am.’ Lisa bristled with indignation. Why couldn’t her mother ever be happy for her? Why did every achievement she made, every choice she followed, have to be questioned and torn apart?

      ‘I saw it all in the papers. He’s now a very wealthy man, heir to an impressively large fortune—no wonder you went back to him.’

      ‘Mother,’ Lisa snapped, and wished now her mother had had the nerve to say this to her face, to stand in front of her and accuse her daughter of being as shallow and mercenary as she herself was. ‘I’m not like you.’

      ‘No?’

      ‘No.’ Lisa walked to the windows that looked out over the dark, fast-moving waters of the Thames, not wanting Max to hear their exchange. After last night’s discussion as they’d walked, the last thing he needed to hear was her cold anger toward her mother.

      ‘Pregnant, then?’

      Lisa couldn’t answer and rested her forehead against the cool of the glass as the nausea she’d just thought she was avoiding came back at her with a vengeance. Her mother’s vengeance.

      ‘So, you are pregnant.’ Her mother’s jubilant righteousness echoed out of the phone.

      ‘I haven’t even answered you.’ Lisa defended herself just as she’d always had to do when her mother was in one of these moods. The kind that usually ended up destroying everything she’d wanted or worked for. Well, it wasn’t going to happen this time. This time she wouldn’t try and keep anything a secret from her mother; this time she would tell her everything and hope that satisfied her.

      ‘Your silence says it all, darling.’ The endearment was said in a sickly tone, reminding Lisa of the wicked witches in the children’s films she’d always loved to watch when she was younger. She’d never thought her own mother would take on that role though.

      ‘Yes, I’m pregnant. Max and I are back together. I’ve got what you have never had, Mother, or should I say what you’ve never respected yourself enough to hang around for.’

      ‘So you still think a man like Max can love you, give you all those foolish dreams of happy ever afters, like those silly films you used to watch?’ Lisa blinked in shock. Her mother had noticed that she had always been consumed by them as a child, before home life had got so tough, so miserable she’d been forced to roam the streets with a gang of well-known troublemakers.

      ‘I love Max and that’s enough for me. I’m not the same as you.’ Behind her she heard a noise and turned, phone held to her ear, and looked at Max. She saw his armour reinforcing itself, saw him retreating from the place she’d finally made him reach, the place where her love could reach him. How long had he been standing there and how much had he heard?

      She watched Max walk away, heard her mother’s voice. ‘Then I shall leave you to make the most of your love nest, because it won’t last.’

      ‘Goodbye, Mother.’ Lisa ended the call and dropped the phone onto the smoked glass of the coffee table, the clattering noise an ominous sound. She wanted to go after him, wanted to find out what he’d heard, because a one-sided conversation would have sounded pretty damning. It would have made her seem as calculating as, only last night, she’d confessed her mother was.

      She was walking after him even before she realised she was doing it and stood once more on the threshold of his domain.

      ‘Save it, Lisa.’ He glared at her and she knew he’d heard it all. ‘I’m not in the mood.’

      ‘No, Max, I won’t.’

      He drew in a deep, angry breath. ‘Stop trying to force me to love you.’

      ‘I’m not,’ she said softly, knowing the last part of the conversation he’d overheard would have sounded exactly like that.

      He stood taller, his glitteringly angry eyes fixing her to the spot. ‘There will be no happy ever after here, Lisa, so stop looking for something that doesn’t exist.’

      ‘Damn you, Max,’ Lisa hurled at him as the pain of his words spiked her anger. ‘I already know there isn’t such a thing, at least not with you. All I want is what is best for my child. And maybe that is not you.’

      He moved from behind his desk and came so close she could smell his aftershave, but this time she fought hard not to let it unbalance her, to set off the sparks of desire. ‘Then I suggest you leave.’

      ‘Oh, I intend to.’ She turned to walk away, anything to prevent the sting of tears from falling, but Max caught her arm.

      ‘But not until our deal is over, Lisa. Not until midnight on New Year’s Eve.’

      ‘I’m leaving now. Right now.’ She defiantly glared up at him.

      ‘Angelina is expecting us at her twenty-first birthday party this evening and we will be there, Lisa—together.’

       CHAPTER TEN

      MAX STOOD AND watched Angelina and her friends as they laughed, toasting his sister with champagne. Tall and slender, with sleek dark hair just like her mother, Angelina looked exquisite in the cream silk dress Lydia had personally selected for him to give her as part of her gift. The other part, a central London apartment in one of the best areas, would give him peace of mind that she always had a place to go, a place to call home.

      It was hard to believe his little sister was so grown up now and didn’t need him any more. Now his child needed him and despite Lisa’s act of loving him, the words she’d said as they’d enjoyed the most amazing sex, he wasn’t at all sure his wife needed him. Her angry defiance just hours ago proved that.

      ‘Angelina looks happy,’ Lisa said as she came to join him, the black dress fitting her to perfection. The very same dress, before trouble had blown up between them once more, he’d envisaged