To Mend A Marriage

‘I’ll have a talk to her in the morning,’ Gemini assured Nick dismissively. ‘But I don’t think Mrs James will mind.’

‘No,’ he acknowledged dryly. ‘I had visions of there being problems with Mrs James when you came to live here as my wife,’ he explained at Gemini’s questioning look, ‘but in fact it’s turned out to be the opposite! Mrs James always comes to you for instructions,’ he murmured ruefully. ‘Fills the house with daffodils at all times of the year because she knows they’re your favourite flower, prepares the meals she knows you like—’

‘If any of that is a problem for you, Nick, you should have said,’ Gemini put in uncomfortably; she hadn’t even realised he had noticed those slight but subtle changes in the household.

She’d only mentioned once in passing to the housekeeper that she loved daffodils, that their golden colour always made her feel in a cheerful mood—and before she knew it the house was ablaze with the beautiful blooms. Just as she had once mentioned that she preferred to eat fish and chicken to red meat—only to find that red meat all but disappeared from their dining table!

‘Oh, it isn’t a problem, Gemini,’ Nick assured her derisively. ‘I merely look on in admiration at the charm you’ve exerted over our formerly austere housekeeper.’

It wasn’t a question of charming the older woman; she merely treated Rachel James like a person. She hadn’t grown up in a household that had had employees in the house of any kind. She’d lived on her own in a flat before marrying Nick. She wasn’t accustomed to having staff in her home. Rachel had somehow sensed that in her, and had helped her all she could, forging a bond of understanding between the two women that Nick probably couldn’t understand.

Nick raised dark brows. ‘How is it you’ve never attempted to exert that charm over me…?’ he prompted huskily.

Gemini gave him a sharp look. Was he flirting with her?

For the most part, Gemini and her husband lived together quite comfortably, with a friendly politeness between them. And Nick rarely, if ever, made any sort of remark that stepped over that line of friendship, that could be taken as being in the least flirtatious. And yet this evening he’d done so more than once…

Don’t overreact, Gemini, she inwardly warned herself, her pulse beating fast, totally aware of every muscle and sinew of Nick’s near-naked body, able to smell the aftershave that was such a part of him as he stood only feet away from her.

But it was very late, that time of the night when nothing seemed quite as it usually was, and Nick probably didn’t mean anything at all by the remark he had just made. In fact, it was probably all the talk of Jemima that had prompted it!

She gave a self-deprecating smile. ‘Probably because I know I would be wasting my time!’

‘I wouldn’t be too sure of that,’ he murmured throatily.

‘I would,’ she assured him flatly, all too aware of how he felt about her sister.

‘Why don’t you try it and see?’ he encouraged softly, seeming suddenly closer now, although Gemini hadn’t been aware of him moving.

Gemini was more sure than ever that he was confusing her with Jemima. ‘You don’t really—’ She broke off as she heard the sound of Jessica’s whimpering cry coming from upstairs.

‘Saved by the bell—or in this case the baby,’ Nick drawled. ‘I think Jessica has decided it’s time for a feed, after all,’ he muttered dryly.

And Gemini, for one, didn’t know if she was relieved or disappointed at the interruption!

There was something different about Nick tonight, on his return from this business trip. He was exerting a sensuality over her that she would have to be totally uninterested not to be aware of—and she was far from being that!

‘You warm a bottle and take it up to her; I’ll turn the lights off down here when I come up,’ Nick told Gemini briskly as he turned away, and that air of intimacy that had briefly been between them was totally dispelled at the return of his usual terseness.

Gemini grabbed the bottle from the kitchen and hurried up the stairs, all the time aware that Nick was still in the sitting-room, where she’d left him.

What had happened between them just now? she wondered as she fed the baby. And had it really happened between them, or had Nick briefly allowed her similarity to Jemima in looks to deceive him…?

Somehow—sadly—she had the feeling the latter was the true explanation…!

CHAPTER THREE

GEMINI couldn’t believe it; her bedside clock read ten o’clock in the morning!

But it couldn’t be. She’d last fed Jessica at two o’clock, and although she knew very little about babies, surely Jessica was too young yet to have gone through the eight hours from her last feed?

Oh, no. Was there something wrong with the baby?

Gemini’s expression was frantic as she jumped out of bed and rushed to the spare bedroom—only to find the carrycot was empty!

But where was Jessica?

She felt sick as she rushed down the stairs. If anything had happened to the baby she would never forgive herself—

‘Where’s the fire?’

She turned sharply at the sound of Nick’s mocking voice coming from the doorway of the breakfast-room, coming to an abrupt halt as she saw the sleeping baby in his arms, her tension leaving her so suddenly she felt like a deflated balloon.

She groaned, putting a shaky hand to her forehead. ‘I thought Jessica had gone,’ she admitted breathlessly, that sick feeling still in the pit of her stomach.

‘She’s a little young to have just walked out of here, don’t you think?’ Nick mocked.

‘Very funny!’ She raised her head to glare at him with angry blue eyes. ‘I had no idea where she could have gone!’

‘And now you can see that she’s perfectly safe down here with me,’ he taunted, turning back into the breakfast-room, looking comfortable and relaxed in faded denims and a black shirt this morning. ‘Come in here and have a cup of coffee; you know you aren’t even halfway human until you’ve had your first cup of coffee of the morning!’

Living in such close proximity with this man meant he knew altogether too much about her, Gemini decided grumpily as she followed him into the breakfast-room and poured herself a cup of coffee. Because he was right, of course—when wasn’t he?

Her first gulps of the rich brew were bringing back some feeling of equilibrium. She frowned as she looked up to find him watching her with an amused smile on his arrogant face as he sat opposite her at the table. ‘It isn’t funny, Nick,’ she complained irritably.

‘I wasn’t laughing at you, Gemini—I was just thinking how sexy you look in pyjamas! And you blush delightfully, too!’ he added teasingly as her cheeks coloured fiery red at the intimacy of the compliment.

Because it was no longer two o’clock in the morning—and Nick was still making flirtatious remarks!

She’d changed out of the grey milk-stained pyjamas when she’d finally got to bed last night, and was wearing another silk pair now, the same cobalt-blue as her eyes this time. And once again she hadn’t had time to put a robe on over their silkiness!

Oh, damn it, after a year of being what she hoped was the perfect wife, always perfectly groomed and dressed, in the last twenty-four hours Nick had seen her not once, but twice, wearing only the pyjamas she favoured for sleeping in. It wasn’t fair!

She pushed some of her hair impatiently back behind her ears as the silky softness fell about her face. ‘I can’t believe I slept until this time of the morning!’ She couldn’t remember the last time she had slept in later than eight o’clock.

Nick shrugged. ‘Jessica woke at seven for a feed, and when I looked in on you you were sleeping so peacefully I just left you to it and fed her myself. It wasn’t a problem.’

Nothing ever was with Nick; he always seemed able to cope with any situation that was thrown at him—including crying babies that needed feeding.

Strange, because when Gemini had first met him, albeit as Jemima’s fiancé, her one worry about the relationship had been how Nick would cope if the two of them had children. He’d already been thirty-eight, his lifestyle firmly in place, and the arrival of children would definitely throw that routine out of the window! It hadn’t been something she’d particularly thought about when the two of them had married instead—children weren’t even a possibility when they occupied separate bedrooms!

But if the situation warranted it, as Jessica’s needing a feed had this morning, Nick obviously felt no qualms about entering her bedroom…

She looked at the sleeping baby nestled in his arms, her expression softening as she saw the total vulnerability of such a tiny creature. She admired the way Nick held Jessica, so capably that the baby couldn’t help but feel secure and loved.

Would she feel the same way if Nick held her like that…?

Gemini looked away abruptly, swallowing hard. ‘You certainly do seem to have a way with babies—’ She looked up questioningly at Nick as he began to chuckle softly.

‘I thought you were going to say with females.’ He dryly explained the reason for his humour.

‘And just how would I know that?’ Gemini came back waspishly, stung by the reference to other women.

Nick tilted his head questioningly to one side as he looked across at her, the intensity of that gaze making Gemini feel suddenly uncomfortable.

She’d said too much again! She seemed to have been doing rather a lot of that the last twenty-four hours, too. But the arrival of Jessica into their well-ordered existence seemed to have broken down those barriers of politeness that had separated them. Besides, it was very difficult to maintain a polite front when dressed only in revealing silk pyjamas—especially when Nick had already remarked that she looked sexy in them!

She stood up, pushing her chair back noisily. ‘I think I’ll go back upstairs and get dressed—’

‘Gemini.’ Nick softly cut across her rushed words of departure. ‘If you ever want to change the terms of our marriage, you only have to say the words…’

She stood stricken to the spot, staring down at him. What words? He didn’t seriously expect her to just blurt out that when she wasn’t feverishly working, to keep her mind and body busy, she thought of little else but being in Nick’s arms, of the two of them making love together?

If he did, then she really had said too much! And the last thing she wanted from Nick was his sympathy—or, even worse, that he should decide second best, in Jemima’s twin, was better than nothing!

Gemini deliberately adopted a derisive expression. ‘Really, Nick, if I ever feel the need of a man in that way there are dozens of available ones out there who would do just as well—and who’d cause far less complication!’ she told him tauntingly.

His mouth tightened grimly, his eyes taking on a cold brilliance as he looked at her through a frown. ‘I wouldn’t recommend you try it, Gemini,’ he warned softly.

She stiffened resentfully at his tone, drawing herself up to her full height of five feet eight inches in her bare feet. ‘Would that be because you’ve already tried it yourself?’ she challenged caustically.

‘I—’ His lips clamped together angrily as the housekeeper bustled into the room with a fresh pot of coffee. Nick continued to hold Gemini’s gaze for several seconds more before allowing her to turn and look at Mrs James.

But those few seconds had been long enough for Gemini to know there had been more than advice in Nick’s words; he had meant them as a warning.

But why? Their marriage was a polite façade at best, and at worst it had been a mistake, for both of them. At the time she’d accepted Nick’s proposal she hadn’t really thought further than saving their faces; over a year later she could see that they couldn’t live the rest of their lives together in this same way…

‘I thought I heard you, Mrs Drummond!’ Rachel James greeted her warmly, putting down the pot of fresh coffee. ‘What can I get you for breakfast this morning?’

The thought of any food, let alone the hearty breakfast their Scottish housekeeper thought Gemini ought to eat every morning in order to ‘keep up her strength’, made her feel ill after this most recent disturbing conversation with Nick!

‘I’ll probably have some toast later,’ she said, smiling to dissipate the other woman’s disappointment in her reply. ‘I really do have to go upstairs and get dressed. You—’ The baby, probably sensing that Nick was no longer as relaxed as he had been, began to stir in his arms, giving a little whimper of protest at having her sleep disturbed.

‘Away with you and get yourself dressed,’ Mrs James dismissed, taking the baby from Nick’s arms. ‘I’ll take care of this little darling until you come down. We may as well get used to each other if I’m to look after her this evening while the two of you are out,’ she assured them lightly, beginning to talk softly to Jessica as she left the room with her in her arms.

Gemini glanced awkwardly at Nick, knowing by his grim expression that he was still thinking about their last conversation. Well, so was she, and she hadn’t liked the tone of his voice at all. She never questioned his private life—much as she might like to!—and she found his warning about hers more than a little arrogant. ‘I see you’ve already spoken to Mrs James about this evening?’ she said coolly, wondering how, with the tension that seemed to have sprung up between them, they were going to spend the evening in each other’s company at all!

He nodded tersely. ‘Apparently she loves children,’ he bit out. ‘She says she can’t wait for us to have some of our own!’ he added scornfully.

As the housekeeper, Rachel James must be well aware of the fact that they occupied separate bedrooms. Unless the older woman presumed that was only after they had made love…!

Gemini could imagine nothing worse than having her husband visit her in her bed and then return to his own room to go to sleep! She would rather leave the arrangement exactly as it was!

Her mouth twisted mockingly. ‘Perhaps someone should tell her that isn’t even a remote possibility!’ she taunted.

Nick stood up abruptly, that very suddenness of movement meaning that his height and breadth seemed to dominate the room. ‘You’ll tell her no such thing!’ he rasped furiously, his expression so ferocious Gemini took a step backwards, coming up against the partly open door.

She swallowed hard. ‘I wasn’t necessarily referring to me,’ she told him irritably.

‘Well, I certainly don’t go around telling people my wife doesn’t share my bed—or vice versa!’ His green eyes blazed with fury.

Because not too many people would believe it, Gemini was sure. They were both fit and healthy, and obviously found the opposite sex attractive. Nick was a very handsome man, and she’d been told that she was beautiful; who would ever believe they’d lived together as husband and wife for over a year and never made love with each other?

She gave a weary sigh. ‘We seem to have got off on the wrong foot this morning, Nick; I think we should start today all over again.’ She shook her head. ‘We’re both tired from a disturbed night’s sleep—’

‘For the wrong reason—unfortunately!’ he snapped scathingly, moving past her out of the doorway, brushing lightly against her before going out into the hallway and ascending the stairs two at a time on his way to his bedroom.

Gemini watched him go, a perplexed frown marring her creamy brow. What had happened to that easy, if polite friendship that had once existed between them? Because it was no longer there. It had been replaced by… She wasn’t sure what it had been replaced by, but it wasn’t comfortable, whatever it was.

As proved by the arousal of her nipples beneath the silk of her pyjama top! Nick had barely touched her on his way out of the room, and yet she had responded instantly to that brief touch, and still ached even now.

Tears sprang up into her eyes as she acknowledged that the situation between herself and Nick was becoming unbearable. And it had become so with the arrival of Jemima’s baby…!

Damn Jemima!

‘Mrs James can manage,’ Nick drawled mockingly beside her in the car later that evening as they drove to have dinner with the Crawfords.

Gemini turned to him blankly, having been lost in thought. She’d been distracted all day, if she were honest, looking for ways to return her relationship with Nick to being something she could at least feel comfortable with. Not that she’d come up with any answers, but she had decided her silence might at least not provoke the situation.

‘Jessica,’ Nick prompted impatiently at Gemini’s blank expression. ‘Mrs James seems more than capable of managing with her this evening,’ he repeated tersely.

‘I’m sure she’ll be fine.’ Gemini nodded confidently.

The housekeeper had been wonderful today, spending every moment she had free either talking to the baby or feeding and changing her. And Gemini had to admit that with two other adults in the house who obviously knew what they were doing she didn’t feel so nervous about caring for Jessica herself now.

‘My sister hasn’t bothered to telephone yet, though, has she?’ she added hardly.

And considering that Janey Reynolds, with all that she must have had to do on her wedding day, had still found the time to call in for a few minutes on her way to the hairdresser’s, made the lack of even a telephone call from Jemima even more noticeable!

It really was too bad of Jemima not to have at least made sure the baby had been safely delivered to her. But that was typical Jemima; she expected everyone else to fall in with what she arranged, never dreaming for a moment that someone wouldn’t do it. The thing was, she was usually right…

Nick stared grimly ahead. ‘I thought we had agreed not to discuss your sister,’ he bit out harshly.

They hadn’t agreed any such thing, but if she wanted this evening to be anywhere near a success perhaps it would be better if they didn’t! Besides, whether Jemima telephoned or not, it wouldn’t make any difference to the fact Jessica would be staying with them until her mother returned.

‘Sorry,’ she mumbled dismissively. ‘You’re looking very nice this evening,’ she added lightly.

‘You’ve seen me in a dinner suit dozens of times before,’ Nick returned shortly, glancing at her with narrowed eyes.

So she had, but the fact that he looked devastatingly attractive in a black dinner suit and snowy white shirt had become more and more apparent to her in recent months! As had everything else about this man who was her husband…

He was tall and slender, with not an ounce of superfluous flesh on his body, but at the same time muscularly powerful. And his harshly hewn features—piercing green eyes, aquiline nose, sculptured lips, squarely determined jaw—were all mesmerisingly attractive.

Nick didn’t just have an air of being arrogantly confident, he actually was, and women—all women, it seemed—reacted to that combination of self-confidence and good looks. Including Gemini!

Why hadn’t she been aware of all these things before she married him? If she had been she might not have accepted his proposal! But the truth of the matter was at the time Nick had been Jemima’s fiancé, and so of no romantic interest to Gemini. And, of course, there had been Danny…

After being with Nick over a year, and having come to know and appreciate his quiet strength and success, she couldn’t understand how she’d ever found his reprehensible younger brother of any interest whatsoever.

Novelty, probably, she’d finally decided. Whatever it was, time had shown her that the infatuation—because that was exactly what it had been!—would never have lasted. Involved in the world of fashion as she was, Gemini had glamour and excitement in her life already, but she also liked a certain amount of structure, and Danny hadn’t had any of that in his life, had never intended having any, either.

‘You don’t have to make polite conversation with me, Gemini,’ Nick rasped at her lengthy silence following his earlier remark.

‘But—’ Gemini bit off her protest; what was the point in telling him there had been nothing polite about her comment, that she really did find him heart-stoppingly attractive in the dark evening clothes? None whatsoever, she assured herself; she’d already made enough an idiot of herself for one weekend.

‘Whereas I can safely tell you that you look absolutely stunning this evening,’ he added with dry mockery.

Her brows rose. ‘Double standards, Nick?’

He shrugged. ‘I don’t think so. A dinner suit on a man rarely looks any different from the first time a woman sees him in it, whereas a woman can wear any number of different outfits for the same occasions. And that blue shimmering dress is the exact colour of your eyes; you look wonderful!’

‘Thank you,’ Gemini accepted, deciding to leave the conversation on that positive note and relaxing back in her car seat, wallowing in Nick’s compliment.

She hoped that last part of their conversation would set the tone for the evening ahead, and both of them were relaxed as they arrived at their hosts’ home, chatting easily as they lounged in the sitting-room with the elderly couple before dinner.

John Crawford was a business acquaintance of Nick’s, and his wife Mary an extremely welcoming hostess, and whether or not it was because both Gemini and Nick were parentless themselves Gemini wasn’t sure, but they both got along with the elderly couple in a pleasantly relaxed way.

John and Mary were more than usually talkative this evening, having returned from a holiday in Florida several days earlier.

‘I love the golf out there,’ John confided happily.

‘And I love the food.’ Mary looked down pointedly at her rounded but curvaceous figure. ‘Are the two of you planning any holidays shortly?’ she enquired interestedly.

Gemini and Nick didn’t plan holidays—for the simple reason they never went away anywhere together! Nick had his business trips, as did she, and the suggestion of them going away together had never come up. She’d never thought about it before, but Gemini realised now that fact probably appeared a little odd to friends like John and Mary…

She looked to Nick, as he sat beside her on the sofa, to make a suitable reply to the question.

‘As I recall,’ John put in teasingly, brown eyes twinkling merrily, ‘the two of you never went away on honeymoon!’

Because in their case there had been no reason for one! They had married in the morning, with Nick returning to work in his office in the afternoon while Gemini moved her things into the house. It had been efficiently, if not romantically, carried out!

‘Nick was far too busy to spare the time,’ Gemini dismissed lightly.

‘Not too busy for a honeymoon, surely?’ Mary said affectionately.

What was wrong with everyone this weekend? Gemini wondered irritably. Suddenly, it seemed to her, their private life had come under the spotlight. And she wasn’t at all comfortable with it.

‘Every day is a honeymoon for us, isn’t it, Gemini?’ Nick murmured huskily, reaching across to grasp her hand in his.

A little too painfully, it seemed to Gemini! ‘It certainly is,’ she murmured lightly, turning her own hand so that she might clasp his in return—at the same time briefly digging one of her nails into his palm!

But to give him his due, apart from a slight flicker of his eyes, he didn’t show any reaction to the move. In fact, his hand tightened about hers, lightly crushing her fingers.

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