A Convenient Husband

Tess gave a sigh of relief. That was Ben’s physical well-being sorted. There were other traumas. ‘He must have seen me in bed with you!’ she wailed.

‘What has got your knickers in a twist—the fact Ben saw you in bed with someone, or the fact that he saw you in bed with me?’

Tess recognised immediately that there was some merit in what he said, only she’d have died before she admitted it to him or herself.

‘Like I said,’ Rafe continued, a shade of impatience creeping into his languid tone, ‘I hardly think the sight will have seriously corrupted his morals.’

‘That’s not the point, you should have woken me. Routine is very important for children.’

‘Remember to tell Chloe that, won’t you?’ Tess flinched and looked so stricken that he instantly regretted his cheap wisecrack. ‘I would have woken you if he’d seemed distressed. What are you going to do about Chloe?’ he asked her gently.

He swung his long legs over the side of the bed and stretched. The light material of his shirt stretched taut across his broad chest and Tess looked hastily away.

‘What can I do?’ She did her best to resist the tide of helplessness that washed over her. ‘I’m going to remind Chloe that this thing has to be done slowly, sensitively, with as little disruption as possible. In fact, at Ben’s pace. It’s not like I won’t still be seeing him…’ There was a tell-tale little tremor in her voice as she lifted her chin defiantly. ‘He’ll visit, I’ll visit…I’ll be his favourite aunt…’ It wouldn’t get her very far if she let herself wallow in self-pity; being an aunt would have to be enough.

‘And you think she’ll agree to the cautious approach…?’

Rafe watched as Tess’s delicate heart-shaped little face screwed up into a mask of iron determination.

‘She’ll agree, all right,’ she intoned grimly. Stern-faced, she picked up the bundle of clothes she’d selected en masse from the bed. ‘I take it you can find your own way out.’ Distractions she didn’t need and Rafe could now be safely categorised under that heading.

‘Shower…?’

Tess gave a snort of exasperation. It was a mistake to try the pathetic Spaniel look when you resembled more closely a sleekly muscled Doberman.

‘I suppose so,’ she conceded ungraciously. Halfway to the door she paused and turned back. ‘I don’t need to say that I’d prefer it if you didn’t mention to everyone just yet about…about what I said…Ben not being mine. I got a bit silly…’ Not to mention deeply embarrassing. She winced inwardly as she recalled sobbing pathetically on his chest.

Another memory attached itself to the coat-tails of this recollection: the masculine scent of warm skin was so real it unnerved her totally. ‘T-To be honest, Chloe’s phone call out of the blue…it was all a bit of a sh-shock,’ she stammered.

A nerve in Rafe’s lean jaw clenched and his nostrils flared. So much for supposed friendship! This little display of trust was just charming!

‘You mean I can’t run around the village with my loudspeaker…?’ Rafe knew a lot of people, but he was pretty selective about the people he called friends, he always had been, and he trusted that select band implicitly. It didn’t seem too much to expect them to return that trust.

Tess sighed. Perhaps he did have a right to act a bit miffed—she probably could have made her request a bit more tactfully. But the fact was she had more to worry about just now than Rafe’s feelings.

‘All right, all right…there’s no need to get all huffy, I was just checking.’

‘It may have escaped your notice, but you’re not the only one that feels a little emotionally exposed after last night. Perhaps I should be asking you to sign the Official Secret Act, too.’

‘Oh, I forgot about that,’ she lied fluently. She wasn’t quite sure why the idea of being the recipient of further confidences concerning Rafe’s love life should make her want to run and hide. It had been easy to mock and be mildly contemptuous, even laugh in her more tolerant moments, about Rafe’s numerous, shallow affairs. She couldn’t see the funny side for some reason of Rafe in love, Rafe talking marriage…

‘You make it sound so easy.’ The flicker of torment in his dark eyes made her look quickly away. ‘Forgetting…’

Tess decided at that moment she definitely didn’t want to know anything more about the woman who had discovered Rafe’s heart only to comprehensively break it.

‘I didn’t mean to be insensitive, but…’ An intriguing thought occurred to her and she made a tentative effort to explore the idea further. ‘Didn’t you want to be alone last night? Is that why you didn’t leave?’

‘Regressing to behaviour patterns laid down in childhood?’ He rubbed a hand thoughtfully over the short dark growth over his jaw. Tess had never been kissed by a man who was other than smoothly shaven; she found herself idly wondering…‘Sanctuary? I wondered about that myself…’

Tess, her cheeks a little flushed, brought her own line of wondering to an abrupt halt.

‘Wouldn’t it be something if I headed for your bed every time I needed a bit of TLC?’ he mused, lifting his dark eyes to her face thoughtfully.

The thud of her heart sounded odd and echoey in her ears. ‘Very funny!’ she responded hoarsely.

‘Yeah, hilarious,’ he confirmed without a trace of humour.

When Rafe emerged from his shower Tess was in the kitchen having produced breakfast for Ben, who as usual was in no hurry to finish it. There was as much porridge on the floor as was in his stomach. She had stopped trying to tempt the baby to another mouthful and had returned to her frenzied task of refilling the cupboards when Rafe strolled in.

‘Morning, mate.’ Rafe, who could deal with the wiliest of politicians, felt distinctly unsure of how you were meant to speak to a one-year-old. He winked at the solemn-faced youngster.

Ben responded with a grin that suggested he wasn’t quite as angelic as he looked. ‘Seed man!’ he cried, poking his chubby finger in Rafe’s direction.

‘Saw, Ben,’ Tess responded automatically. At least Ben’s limited vocabulary meant she was spared any embarrassing elaboration on this theme.

‘Seed,’ the toddler responded immediately. Eyes bright, he waited expectantly for Tess to praise him.

‘Well done, darling.’ When she looked away she saw Rafe was watching her with a curiously intense expression on his lean hungry features, which faded as he turned to the baby.

‘I don’t expect you remember me, but my name’s Rafe. Or should that be Uncle Rafe?’ he enquired, turning his attention once more to Tess. ‘Can he talk?’

‘After a fashion, but you might need the aid of an interpreter,’ she admitted. ‘You and Ben can decide between you what he calls you. My money’s on complete nuisance…’ she added softly.

‘I heard that.’

‘You were meant to.’ She reached up on tiptoe to replace a casserole dish in a high cupboard.

Rafe found himself unexpectedly noticing the way stretching pulled her already neat, high behind extremely taut. Despite the fact that her clothes could have been designed specifically to conceal the fact, it was hard to miss the fact she had a good—no, better than good body. Dark brows almost meeting above the bridge of his masterful nose, Rafe reached over her head and took the item from her extended hand.