Free The Pleasure King's Bride by Emma Darcy Page A

through his teeth.
    “It was not my place to stop her, Jared.”
    He shook his head, stating the bleak truth, “She would not have been stopped anyway.”
    The night was over at dawn. That was when she’d left him. First light. Nothing had changed for her. Nothing!
    “It’s Monday, Jared. A school day for the child,” Vikki reminded him.
    “If that was all Christabel had on her mind, she would have told me.”
    Vikki nodded, not arguing the case, accepting he knew better. “She carries many burdens, that one. She does not know what freedom is.”
    She did last night. For a little while. The need to hold onto that had Jared clenching his hands.
    “You cannot fight her sense of responsibility, Jared,” Vikki quietly advised. “You must lift it from her shoulders if you are to win.”
    “I don’t know what it is! If I did...”
    “She did not talk?”
    “Not of that. In all the time I’ve known her...”
    “She remains one step removed,” Vikki finished for him. “Yes, I saw that last night. I was wrong about her playing woman games with you. She wants you but...”
    “But what?” Jared pushed as she paused, frowning.
    She shrugged. “It is for you to find out. All I know is this. The goodness in the child comes from the mother. There is a strong wall of integrity in Christabel Valdez which will not be broken. I think she does, and will always do, what she believes is right.”
    It was right for them to be together. How could she turn her back on what they had shared last night? How could she let it go?
    Maybe she hadn’t. It was a school day. And she was supposed to come in to the office this morning. He’d arranged the meeting with her before going to Hong Kong, ostensibly to show her photographs of the special jewellery display—her designs for the Picard pearls—and hopefully discuss a further set of designs, a career with him.
    She’d vetoed any idea of a career yesterday afternoon but there were still the photographs. He hadn’t brought them out last night. If Christabel was still planning to see him at work once Alicia was off at school...he could be misinterpreting her departure at first light.
    He gave himself a mental shake. Last night had meant so much to him, it had been a shock finding Christabel gone. Nevertheless, there was no need to go overboard on that action as yet. Vikki Chan was a shrewd judge of character. Christabel would do what she believed was right, bypassing any fuss over taking Alicia home, keeping the child uninvolved in their relationship until more was sorted out between them.
    “I’m blowing this out of proportion,” he muttered.
    Vikki raised her eyebrows queryingly.
    He gave her an ironic smile. “You’re right. It is a school day. And a workday for me.”
    “Breakfast as usual?”
    “Yes. Thank you.” He turned to go, heading for the bathroom again.
    “Your mother comes back today,” Vikki called after him.
    “So she does,” he tossed back without pausing.
    He didn’t care what his mother knew about Christabel. She and Vikki could speculate all they liked about the relationship. He knew his mother would keep her own counsel unless he asked for it and he had no intention of asking for it.
    Vikki hadn’t told him anything he hadn’t known. His mother had no better information. The only person who could tell him what he needed to know was Christabel herself, and it was well past time she started talking to him about the burdens she carried.
    The long shadow cast by her dead husband.
    Her fear of a man in a suit.
    Had either of those burdens been diminished during their long night of loving?
    Surely she would be more ready to be open with him when they met this morning. He had won her trust last night. More than her trust. They had made love for hours. It had to mean more to her than one night of sex with him.
     
    The eleven o’clock appointment time they had agreed upon came and went. The photographs were spread across his desk, ready for Christabel to