Free Lifelong Affair by Carole Mortimer

reluctantly.
    'Courtney
is a little young for boarding-school,' she derided.
    There
was no answering smile from Alex, just a renewed tightening of his mouth. 'I
don't plan to send him to boarding-school—ever,' he bit out.
    Morgan's
eyes widened. 'I thought all you Hammonds went to boarding-school?' she
frowned.
    'Wc
did,' he growled. 'Which is precisely the reason I would never send a child of
mine to one.'
    She
stiffened. 'Courtney isn't your child.'
    "Not
yet,' he acknowledged softly. 'But I plan for him to be. And I think you should
be his mother.'
    She
swallowed hard. 'What do you mean?'
    Alex
shrugged, staring into the fire. 'You obviously love the baby very much. And I
think those reporters may have come up with the solution to our problem.' He
turned intense grey eyes on her. 'I think we should get married.'
    Morgan
stared at him with widely shocked eyes, the pupils dilating in her surprise. Marry Alex
Hammond? That wasn't unorthodox, that was ridiculous!
    'I
can see the idea surprises you,' he drawled derisively. 'But I can see no other
solution. I refuse to give Courtney up, and so do you, and unless we want him
to become a child who's tugged from one side of the Atlantic to the other on a
six-monthly basis I don't see what else we can do.'
    'But
my work is in the States.' It was the first objection that came to mind—but
not the only one!
    Alex
looked grim. 'You enjoy your career?'
    'I—Yes.'
    'Then
we'll have to find a way round that.' He frowned thoughtfully. 'I could always
move the Hammond head office to the States so that Courtney and I could be with
you.'
    'No!
I mean—You would really do that?' she asked incredulously, knowing by the
seriousness of the suggestion that he was in deadly earnest about marrying her.
    I
ie nodded. 'If I have no other choice. Courtney has to come first.'
    'And
what about you?' she queried breathlessly. 'Don't you want to marry a woman you
love?' She looked at him with tense curiosity; his answer to this was suddenly
important to her.
    His mouth twisted, the grey eyes cold. 'Love
is a destructive emotion. It tends to leave the people who really love with no
will of their own, completely vulnerable to the other person's whims. No,' he
met her gaze steadily, 'I have no wish to be destroyed in that way. Ours would
be a marriage of convenience         '
    'That
went out with the Victorians!' Morgan snapped, deeply confused by his views on
love. He must have loved—and lost—someone once, someone who took
advantage of his love instead of treasuring it.
    'I
didn't say it would be platonic,' Alex drawled. 'I have no intention of living
the rest of my life celibate. I have had—relationships, in the past. You
didn't find my kisses unpleasant this afternoon, I'm sure you wouldn't find me
unsatisfactory in bed.'
    She knew she must have flushed, despite the veneer of
sophistication she had acquired as an actress. She just didn't expect Alex
Hammond to talk to her in this intimate way. Tm sure I wouldn't,' she
acknowledged quickly, knowing this man would be successful at anything he did—including
making lovet 'But I can't marrv you.'
    Why
not?' That probing grey gaze swept over the confusion of her face. 'You told me
you have no intention of marrying this man Sam you've been eemg. Just think of
me as a lifetime affair rather than a fleeting one. I can assure you I wouldn't
force myself on   you more than
necessary,' he added at her gasp of jdignation. 'I enjoy women, when in the
mood, but if mecessary I can control my sexual urges to a minimum.'
    She
couldn't take this in, couldn't accept what was • calmly being said to her.
'Let me get this straight,' be said tautly. 'I marry you, we live-^wherever,
provide Courtney with parents, and occasionally you mta/kf the trip from your
bedroom to mine?'
    The
latter would be a two-way thing,' he told her arrogantly. 'Women have desires
and needs too, I'm ware of that.'
    'So
if I want a man I just come over to your bedroom?' Her eyes