He's My Husband! - Lindsay Armstrong [17]
He was silent
Nicola moved restlessly, then said, ‘What’s wrong with Richard Holloway? Unless you imagine he’s liable to run off with me?’
Brett stood up and prowled over to the edge of the pool with his hands shoved into his pockets. ‘Nothing,’ he said at last. ‘Nothing that I know of at this stage.’ He turned and looked down at her. ‘Would you like to get to know him better, Nicola?’
She was sitting sideways on the lounger, with her hands on her knees, and it was a moment before she raised her eyes to his. ‘I would like to be gainfully employed, Brett, if for no other reason than to see if it raises me in your estimation at all. And, yes, he seems rather nice.’
Her gaze was steady, but his lingered on the locket at her throat, her slim, bare shoulders and slender arms before he looked into her eyes. ‘So,’ he said, ‘the period of being turned off men has ended?’
If only you knew, she thought, and her hands tightened on her knees briefly. ‘Perhaps. You surely can’t object?’ she added huskily.
He looked at her dryly. ‘No. All the same, I think we should employ some discretion.’
‘Oh, I’d be quite discreet,’ she responded. ‘But I have to tell you I find your attitude inexplicable. This has blown up out of nothing. I only met the man today, and so far my only intention is to see if I’m a good enough potter to be commercial.’
‘So you’ll have a career to go to when our marriage ends?’
‘Brett.’ She discovered her heart was beating strangely. ‘I can’t spend the rest of my life looking after your children. Can I?’
He didn’t answer, but continued to watch her thoughtfully. In fact, the way he looked at her was curiously as if he was summing her up, judging her on a scale of one to ten, trying to see her as other men might see her.
She swallowed and looked away. She felt her nerve-ends tingle, and she wondered whether her filmy dress was any barrier to those probing hazel eyes. Would Brett do that to her? Undress her with his eyes, even if only to assess what her level of desirability would be to other men?
The thought that followed was worse, as she wondered whether she was giving off any unconscious indication that she sometimes yearned for his touch on her skin—when she wasn’t hating him, that was. Such as now, with his dispassionate survey of her.
I can’t go on like this, she thought torturedly. Hating him, loving him, wanting him, and now this ridiculous ploy of trying to make him jealous. Not that I’ve done anything except agree to show my work to a man who could be interested—until I was goaded into saying I’d like to get to know him better. But why is he goading me...?
She sat up suddenly, and clasped her hands.
‘What?’ Brett said quietly. He’d changed back into his brown and white T-shirt and cotton jeans, but it didn’t matter what he wore. There was always the attraction of that strong, lean body, those clever eyes, but...
No, she thought chaotically, he couldn’t be jealous. Surely he’d have given some indication by now—surely he would have. So why was he so disapproving? And why, this morning in the car, had he sounded different, almost as if he was giving some thought to ending this marriage?
‘I don’t understand, that’s all,’ she said, barely audibly.
‘Your father,’ he said abruptly, ‘would have been just as—cautious, Nicola, about granting or withholding his appmval.’
Her eyes widened.
‘So, perhaps I should just say this. You’re going to inherit an estate worth a couple of million dollars, you’re extremely attractive, but...’ he paused, and their eyes locked ‘...but you’re still very young. Don’t rush into anything. Not even to get away from me.’
Her breath escaped with a sibilant little sound. So that was it—he was still standing in for her father. She said expressionlessly, ‘And when do you think you’ll be able to stop acting in loco parentis, Brett?’
He was silent for so long she thought he wasn’t going to answer. She listened to the waves breaking at the base of the Knob and heard a fruit bat chitter in a mango tree. Then he said, with a slight shrug, ‘We could have a re-evaluation after your