A Convenient Bride by Angela Wells

Author:Angela Wells
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-06-10T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

FAR below her, a river gleamed like a ribbon of molten metal as the rays of the late afternoon sun reflected from its calm surface. No stranger to flying, Aphra relaxed in her luxurious seat, staring out at the passing landscape, recalling her shocked reaction when she’d realised that the small jet primed and ready for take-off at the privately owned airport was intended for just her and her husband.

‘You told Liz you weren’t using a company plane!’ she’d exclaimed in surprise.

‘Neither am I.’ Luc’s tone had been impatient. ‘This one is privately hired, out of my own pocket. There weren’t any scheduled direct flights from the south of England to Corsica, and I wasn’t in the mood to break our journey in Paris. Another time, perhaps—but not now. Is it important, Aphra?’

‘No, of course not,’ she’d said quietly, hurt by the asperity in his tone. She hadn’t expected him to keep up the act of enamoured bridegroom once they were free of the Hall and its happy temporary occupants, but she’d hoped they might find a platform of friendship on which to meet. Instead, all she had been able to sense was Luc’s hostility pricking at her sensitive skin like ice shards.

‘Are you going to pilot it yourself?’ she’d enquired sweetly, directly provocative as her innocent gaze had panned his set face.

‘Sorry to disappoint you, darling. Aviation isn’t amongst my many talents, and, even if it were, as a newly-wed man I’d prefer to spend the flight with my wife rather than at the controls of an aeroplane.’

Many talents indeed! She’d turned her head from his bland expression and without another word ascended the small flight of steps to the main cabin, temporarily forgetting her chagrin as she’d been greeted by a smiling hostess and led into the body of the plane, which had been transformed into a comfortable sitting room.

She’d been suitably impressed, a small smile lifting the corners of her mouth as she’d thought of her parents. No strangers to first-class travel, even they, she’d suspected, had never flown in such luxury!

Luc sat, his long legs stretched out in the comfortable space, his gaze fixed on the pages of the current edition of the Wall Street Journal, which he’d chosen from the on-board selection of newspapers.

He must be finding its contents extraordinarily interesting, she thought bleakly as the coast of France disappeared in the distance beneath her, since it had occupied his attention exclusively from the moment he’d first opened it.

Staring covertly at his stern features as he lounged in the seat opposite her, Aphra felt her apprehension deepen. How had she ever deceived herself into believing that this man had played any role in her earlier life? His presence on the stage during some of the scenes of her adolescence had been purely coincidental; the warmth in her heart from the glow of his personality a mere by-product of a charisma of youth and achievement so powerful that it had reached unwittingly and unknowingly into her innocent soul.

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