Practically Married by Rimmer Christine

Author:Rimmer, Christine
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-06-10T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Tess gave a cry and put her hand against her mouth. Her eyes went wide and wounded. She couldn’t have looked more shocked if he had slapped her hard across the face.

For a long, gruesome moment, they stared at each other. Then she dropped her hand. She whispered raggedly, “How did you know?”

Zach had a sinking, weary feeling, then. Until that moment, somewhere deep inside him, he had hoped that just maybe he’d been mistaken about this.

Her lower lip trembled. “It was that night, wasn’t it? The night we moved our things out here. The night of the engagement party. You came up the basement stairs and you...” She seemed unable to finish.

So he finished for her. “I saw the look you gave Cash.”

She wrapped her arms around herself and murmured numbly, “I thought so. But I didn’t want to believe it. And then, when you didn’t say anything...” She closed her eyes, drew in a breath and then looked at him once more. “So. That means, on our wedding night, it wasn’t just time you were talking about. It was...what you knew. You didn’t want me, because of what you knew.” She started shaking her head, her face pale as death through the shadows on the porch.

He took a step toward her. “Tess—”

She backed up, still shaking her head. “You don’t understand. Nobody knows. Nobody was ever going to know....”

“Well. I know.”

“Oh, dear Lord.” She turned away, went to the porch rail, looked out across the yard again, into darkness, into someplace he couldn’t see.

He said, “I guess I’ve made a mistake, to come looking for you in the evenings, to think we could make more of this marriage than it is.”

She said nothing. Her slim back was very straight.

He spoke again. “Look. I meant what I said. We have a good thing. A practical arrangement. I think we should just keep it that way.”

Still, she didn’t speak, only wrapped an arm around the pillar next to her and leaned her cheek against it. He felt alarm, then. Concern for her.

“Tess. Are you all right?”

She waved the hand that wasn’t wrapped around the pillar. “Fine. Just...it’s hard to think that all this time, you’ve known. But I’ll be okay. Really.”

He pushed his concern for her aside. After all, she said she would be okay.

And he wanted to get a few things settled. His desire had died with her admission that she loved his cousin. He wanted it to stay dead. He wanted things back on an even keel. He wanted an understanding between them. And he wanted distance.

“Are you agreed, then? We’ll keep things as they are. We won’t go...stirring things up.” He waited for her reply. When none came, he prompted, “Well?”

She seemed to shake herself. “Yes. Of course. Whatever you say.”

“Good.” As he said the word, he found he hated it. It wasn’t good. Not good at all. But they would manage. It would be...bearable. She would take care of him and the hands and the house.

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