‘I deal with big animals,’ she said.
‘And?’
‘And I had to learn to deal with firearms. The first time I ever needed to…Well, there was an injured bull. There was no way I could get near it, but I couldn’t leave it. The farmer handed me his gun and expected me to use it.’
‘He handed
‘Farmers get attached to their animals. It’s hard to put them down.’
‘So you did.’
‘Not that time,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t. I…Well, the farmer had to do it, and it took him two shots and he cried. I went home that night and said I couldn’t do it, and my father-in-law said he’d take the practice back over for a week while I did a firearms course.’
‘He what?’ Hell. ‘Where was Max in all this?’
‘Ill. He was only well for a short time.’
‘So you had to do the shooting?’
‘Not often.’ But he could hear it in her voice-too often.
‘Did you want to do big-animal stuff?’
‘I’d started vet school wanting to look after dogs,’ she said, and sniffed. ‘And cats and canaries and kids’ tortoises. Cases where sheer strength isn’t an issue when an animal’s in pain.’ She was hugged against him as naturally as if she belonged there. ‘But the family needed me.’
‘Max’s family. And now your family’s trying to kill you,’ he said. ‘You’ve had a rum deal.’
‘No.’ She hugged him a bit closer while she thought about it. Which was fine with him. More than fine. ‘I asked for this,’ she said at last. ‘But it’s been a shock…that Julianna would…’ She hesitated. ‘Maybe she didn’t know.’
‘Maybe she didn’t. Maybe it wasn’t even Jacques.’
‘Do you think whoever it was really meant to kill us?’
‘Yes.’ There was no point in lying to her. The man behind the gun hadn’t hesitated, he had aimed at the figure in the bed with one thought in mind. He’d have been expecting there to be two in the bed. Maybe the far side of the bed had been in shadow, but he’d had six bullets in the chamber. He’d come to kill. He’d even brought a knife as a back-up, to finish the job if he had to.
Rose knew it as well as he did. He felt her shudder and held her tighter.
‘Julianna’s my sister,’ she whispered bleakly. ‘My family. There’s no one else.’
He couldn’t bear it. ‘There is someone else,’ he said, pulling her hard against him so strongly that he could feel her heartbeat against his. ‘You have a husband. As of today. It’s time someone took care of you. It’s time.’
‘You’re only here for four weeks or so.’
‘I’ll stay for as long as you need me.’
‘I don’t…I don’t think…’
‘You don’t need to think. Leave thinking for the morning, sweetheart,’ he told her. ‘You’re done.’
‘I am.’ She hesitated. ‘Hoppy’s asleep on the bed.’
‘So he is. You want me to shift him to the settee?’
‘I…No. It seems a shame to shift him.’
Right. Rose’s suite was the same as his. A living room with fire. Bedroom through the farther door. From where he stood her bed looked vast. Far too big for one. There was plenty of room for Rose to sleep and not disturb the dog. But…
‘Nick?’
‘Mmm?’
‘You wouldn’t like to share the settee with me?’
There was a moment’s pause while he thought about it. Her heartbeat was synchronised with his, he thought, and it felt fine. It felt right.
Share the settee. To sleep. But the way he was thinking of her…‘If we did that,’ he said cautiously, ‘we might just…’
‘Yes,’ she said, and it was an answer to a question he hadn’t asked.
‘Yes?’
‘Yes,’ she said again, and she smiled.
He put her at arm’s length, searching her face in the moonlight. Astounded. ‘Rose, are you sure?’
‘Yes.’
‘But you were so sure we shouldn’t.’
‘Yes, but things have changed,’ she whispered. ‘For tonight, it’s not the same. I don’t want to be an adventurer for tonight. What I’d really like is to be a wife.’
‘You are my wife,’ he said.
‘Yes.’
‘And you’re sure?’
‘Yes.’ And she smiled again.
He kissed her then, softly, sweetly. Wonderously. She melted into his kiss, and her arms wound round his neck and held.
‘Yes,’ she said again. ‘Nick, I need you. Please, I need you in my bed. You’re my husband, Nick, and I want to be your wife.’
And then, suddenly, before any more of these stupid scruples could get in the way, she tugged her chemise over her head. Underneath she was wearing scant lacy knickers. Nothing more. With her eyes not leaving his face, she slipped them down and let them fall, stepping out of them and taking a step back.
Standing before him in the firelight. Gloriously naked.
His wife.
Her auburn curls, loose and floating round her shoulders, almost seemed to be dancing in the firelight. Her eyes were too big in her too-pale face. Yet she smiled, tremulously, as if she wasn’t sure what she was offering was wanted.
How could she doubt that?
He caught her hands and held her out from him, glorying in her nakedness. Glorying in the fact that this could be happening. That such a woman could want him.
That such a woman could be his wife.
The words he’d spoken this afternoon came back to him, and they seemed so right. How could he ever have thought he’d never marry? He hadn’t understood until tonight what it was. Marriage. The joining of man and woman, making one.
But he needed to be sure. He wouldn’t take this woman unless she understood…
‘Rose, there’s the contraceptive thing.’
‘There’s condoms in my toiletries bag,’ she told him, and he almost gasped.
‘But you said…’
‘I know what I said,’ she told him. ‘But I was coming here to be married to the world’s sexiest man, and a girl would have to be crazy not to plan for all eventualities.’
The world’s sexiest man…
He needed to put that aside. ‘But if there’s a baby?’
‘There won’t be.’
‘Rose…’
‘Okay, there might be,’ she said. ‘Slight chance. I’m risking it.’
‘Earlier tonight you wouldn’t.’
‘Earlier tonight I was ten years younger than I am now. Nick, I need you. Are you saying no?’
‘Not just for sex, Rose.’ He shook his head, confused, but at some deep level understanding that he was in uncharted territory. This was important. A voice in the back of his head was hammering with dogged insistence,
He’d never felt like this about a woman, and he wouldn’t mess with it for want of patience, or for want of
