Ruthless Tycoon, Innocent Wife by Helen Brooks

Author:Helen Brooks [Brooks, Helen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2008-12-22T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

RAFE left the house twenty minutes later. Crystal had agreed she would consider the possibility of becoming temporary live-in housekeeper for a while for his father, but stressed this would depend on both Andrew’s wishes in the matter and how she felt she would fit into the household when she met him again. She had also suggested the issue should be raised naturally in conversation rather than Rafe mentioning it beforehand. It was the best he was going to get and a great deal more than he had expected.

When the taxi he’d called dropped him outside the picturesque thatched cottage he didn’t immediately go inside in spite of the drizzling rain. He stood in the shadows, cursing the fact he’d let his heart—no, not his heart, he corrected himself grimly, but a part of his anatomy situated somewhat lower—rule his head back there at Seacrest. It had been stupid and he was not a stupid man. Usually. Normally, having learnt a lesson once, he did not need to repeat it. And what he had learnt regarding the fairer sex was that they could be enjoyed, pampered, even worshipped as long as you took them at face value. You didn’t trust women or expect anything from them and then you were not disappointed.

He pulled the collar of his jacket more tightly round his neck but still drops of rain trickled down his back.

Of course he hadn’t given up on women, far from it. As a species they had a lot going for them and he thoroughly enjoyed sharing his bed and even his life with a beautiful woman for a while. But he always set out the rules of engagement before an affair began. When the time came for goodbye, as it inevitably would, it had to be quick and clean. No feminine manoeuvres, no bickering or name-calling, no regrets. He didn’t want happy-ever-after and if a woman did, then regretfully he wasn’t the man for her. Simple.

Why was he reminding himself of all this right now? And in the rain? One corner of his mouth twisted in a cynical smile. Because he’d let Marianne get under his skin, that was why. The thing was, she hadn’t conformed to the mental image he’d had of her before he had come to England, apart from being lovely enough to addle a man’s brains, that was.

Shaking himself, physically and mentally, he opened the front door of the cottage and walked into the hall. It was the very essence of a quaint English cottage. Because the previous owners had been emigrating to join their son and his family in Australia they had accepted an offer for all the furniture, which had been a bonus in the circumstances. Mary came bustling out of the door which led to the kitchen at the far end of the hall as he stood there taking off his jacket. She beckoned to him, motioning with a finger on her lips to remain silent.

‘What’s the matter now?’ he asked

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