well, angel, but I’ve been climbing and hiking long enough over the years to know the drill for how to pack and what to take.’ His smooth brow puckered for a moment. ‘But that’s not it, is it? I mean that’s not the reason you wanted to come in and talk to me? Is everything okay? I know you’ve been feeling a little under par since we came back from our trip to Morocco a few weeks ago. Do you think it’s something you ate that’s caused it?’
‘No, Hal, I don’t think I’ve been under par because of something I ate.’ Apprehensively Kit lifted her gaze to his. ‘I’ve just found out that I’m pregnant.’
‘What?’ His expression was so shocked it was almost comical.
‘I’m pregnant.’
‘How do you know? Have you been to see a doctor?’
Her stomach plunged at the uncertainty in her husband’s tone. ‘Don’t you believe me?’
‘If you tell me it’s true then of course I believe you—but how do you know you haven’t made a mistake? That it’s not just some kind of tummy bug? I’ve heard there’s one going round...’
‘I bought a pregnancy test and it was positive. I’m going to have a baby, Hal. Do you mind? I know the news probably could have come at a more conducive time, seeing as you’re about to make your first mountaineering trip since the accident, but I hoped it might make you determined to be extra careful when you’re up on that mountain and to come home to me just as soon as you can so that we can celebrate.’
‘I’m going to be a father... We’re going to be parents!’
Lifting her high into his arms, Hal hugged her hard and swung her round in a circle with delight. Then he kissed her hungrily and passionately until she had to push against him to let her up for air. Dizzy with relief that he shared her joy that they were going to have a child, Kit cupped Hal’s chiselled jaw and smiled tenderly up into his eyes—eyes she now knew she’d lost her heart to from the very first glance.
‘I’m so glad that you’re pleased about it, Hal. For a moment there I was afraid you might not be.’
He gave her a bemused look. ‘Why on earth would you think that? I told you on the day I asked you to marry me that it was what I wanted most in the world—to marry the woman of my dreams and settle down and have a family. Don’t you remember?’
Kit sighed as Hal delivered her safely to the ground again. ‘I remember. But I don’t want you to settle down, my love. It’s never going to be in your nature to just be content with raising a family—and that’s not a criticism. I know you have to run the estate, but that’s no reason not to do the things you love as well...the sports and the challenges that give you pleasure. As long as you promise not to take too many unnecessary risks—because I want you to come home in one piece to me and our children—then that’s fine by me. You wouldn’t be the adventurous and brave man I married if I tried to change you in any way. I love you just as you are, Hal Treverne.’
‘And I adore you, Katherine Treverne. And I promise that from now on I will never take any dangerous risks that I don’t have to. You and our children will always be the most important things to me in the world. And talking of celebrating our good news...I don’t have to leave for Ben Nevis for a while yet, so why don’t we start our celebrations early?’
He was already lightly pushing her towards the vast king-sized bed that they shared and Kit didn’t have a single thought in her head to protest, no matter how ‘under par’ she felt.
Hal and their marriage meant everything in the world to her, and for as long as they lived she would happily take every opportunity she could to let him know it.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from HIS TEMPORARY MISTRESS by Cathy Williams.
‘Let me be the first to tell you the good news.’
Crossing one bare foot over the other, Finn leaned back with more of the insolence he’d doubtless been born with. ‘Somehow I don’t believe you mean good in the literal sense.’
‘Oh, I don’t know. We could learn a lot from each other, you and I.’
The true meaning of that statement lay between them, gathering momentum with every passing second. It would take time, of course. To get him to talk. To unearth his secrets. To make him crack. Thankfully Serena had all the time in the world.
‘I doubt that.’
The lack of innuendo suffused her with pleasure and a heady sense of power. It seemed she was finally getting somewhere.
‘Why don’t you enlighten me, Miss Scott? Your excitement is palpable and I find I can barely stand the suspense.’
She deflected that sarcasm with a breezy flick of her hair off her shoulder. ‘I would love to enlighten you, Mr St George. Me and you? We’re about to be stuck like glue.’
A shadow of trepidation passed over his face before he cocked an arrogant brow. ‘And the punchline is …?’
Musing that the word babysitter didn’t quite have the right ring to it, she let her impetuous mouth stretch the truth, not really giving a stuff.
‘You’re looking at your new boss.’
VICTORIA PARKER’s first love was a dashing heroic fox named Robin Hood. Then came the powerful, suave Mr Darcy, Lady Chatterley’s rugged Lover—the list goes on. Thinking she must be an unfaithful sort of girl, but ever the optimist, she relentlessly pursued her Mr Literary Right, eventually found him lying between the cool crisp sheets of a Mills & Boon and her obsession was born.
If only real life was just as easy…
Alas, against the advice of her beloved English teacher to cultivate her writer’s muse, she chased the corporate dream and acquired various uninspiring job-titles and a flesh-and-blood hero before she surrendered to that persistent voice and penned her first Mills & Boon romance. Turns out creating havoc for feisty heroines and devilish heroes truly is the best job in the world.
Victoria now lives out her own happy-ever-after in the north-east of England, with her alpha exec and their two children—a masterly charmer in the making and, apparently, the next Disney Princess. Believing sleep is highly overrated, she often writes until three a.m., ignores the housework (much to her husband’s dismay) and still loves nothing more than getting cosy with a romance novel. In her spare time she enjoys dabbling with interior design, discovering far-flung destinations and getting into mischief with her rather wonderful extended family.
For my Dad. Always my anchor in the storm. I love you.
Monte Carlo, May
Hold on to your hearts, ladies, because racing driver Lothario Finn St George is back in the playground of the rich and famous.
After sailing into the Port of Monaco with a bevy of beauties only last eve, the man titled Most Beautiful in the World donned a custom-fit tux and his signature crooked smile and swaggered into the Casino Grand with all the flair of James Bond. Armed with his loaded arsenal of charismatic charm, the six-times World Champion then proceeded to beguile his way through the enamoured throng—despite the owner of Scott Lansing advising the playboy to ‘calm his wild partying and tone down adverse publicity’.
Seems Michael Scott is still battling with threats from sponsors, who are considering pulling out of over forty