Does that mean youve already decided what it is you want to do?
He looked at her levelly, his gray eyes fixed on her. I want a son, he stated. I would prefer not to marry, but since I need to protect my parental rights, Im prepared to make a temporary marriage. You have reasons, too, for wanting a marriage certificate. A brief marriage to each other would, I believe, suit us both.
Elexa swallowed. There it was. Noah Peverelle had just offered to marry her. She wasnt ready to say yes, she knew she wasnt. You mentioned giving me time to think everything through.
He was already getting to his feet, prepared to leave, when he asked, If theres nothing further you want to know?
I wouldnt have to live with you? she blurted out.
To her astonishment, he stated, Beautiful though you undoubtedly are, Elexa, Id prefer that you didnt.
To have and to hold
Their marriage was meant to lastand they have the gold rings to prove it!
To love and to cherish
But what happens when their promise to love, honor and cherish is put to the test?
From this day forward
Emotions run high as husbands and wives discover how preciousand fragiletheir wedding vows are. Will true love keep them togetherforever?
Marriages meant to last!
Part-Time Marriage
Jessica Steele
www.millsandboon.co.uk
MILLS & BOON
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER ONE
THERE were too many complications in her life! Elexas mood to complete the work shed brought home was sorely shattered as she stared at the phone after her mothers call and felt on the brink of doing something drastic.
Life should have been something of a breeze, and would be, were it not for her family and, to a lesser degree, men, well-meaning in the main though they meant to beonly she wished that they wouldnt.
Why couldnt they see that she was happy and contented with her lot? She had an excellent job with Colman and Fisher, a name well known in the marketing world, and at twenty-five she was already a team leader in the market planning division, with every chance of going higher. So who needed a boyfriend, a lover, a husband?
Jamie Hodges was forever hoping to fill the position of her steady boyfriend. She was running out of excuses not to go out with him. With Des Reynolds she hadnt bothered making excuses when, in his sexiest voice, hed suggested that one night with him and shed never be the same again. In your dreams! shed told him bluntlybut that hadnt stopped him.
But although she found both mens persistence wearing, it was her mothers dogged insistence that at her age she should by now be settled that was the most wearing of all.
I am settled! shed attempted to get through to her mother. Ive got a good job, a job I love. A job with endless opportunities for promo
Im not talking that kind of settled, her mother had interrupted.
Elexa knew exactly what kind of settled her mother meant. Married, nice house in the country, childrenparticularly children; even before her cousin Joanna had produced an offspring Elexas mother had been desperate to become a grandmother. Since the arrival of baby Betsy, Kaye Aston had been ten times worse. Elexa had tried explaining matters to her, explaining how she already had her own home. So, okay, it was a flat and not a house, and it was in London and not in the country, but, given that she rented her flat, she had made it her own. She had tried explaining that she was enjoying her career too much to even want to think of marriage, much less settle down to that state.
The result of this heart-to-heart had been that, ignoring the possibility that any daughter of herseven as academically bright as her daughter had shown herself to becould be so totally dedicated to a career, her mother had grown terribly anxious and was now certain that Elexa must have suffered some extremely painful experience. An experience which she had kept quiet about, but which must have put her off men. Kaye Aston had refused to believe otherwise and had since taken to introducing Elexa to gentle menwho invariably turned out to be drippy men!
Elexa had moved from her old home and into her present flat a few years ago. But, apart from some family gathering or othermore frequent of lateshe was expected to return and visit her parents on average every three weeks. Because she loved her parents, Elexa willingly complied, and had been happy to do so.
But that had been then, before her cousin Joanna had firstly become engaged and subsequently had married; that Elexas younger cousin had married first had not gone down well. Kaye Aston had not lost the opportunity to tell Elexa of her disappointment, and since Joanna and David had produced baby Betsy Elexas mother seemed to have only one topic of conversation.
Elexa had started to dread her mothers phone calls. But she had begun to dread even more her once-every-three-weeks visits to her old home, never knowing what man it would be this time. Where her mother found them from was a mystery to Elexashe must have her scouts out searching!
Kaye Astons phone call just now had been to remind her, at length, that it was baby Betsys christening this coming Sunday. You remember Thomas Fielding? her mother had asked. Now isnt it kind? shed rushed on. Joanna has invited him to the party afterwards.
Tommy Fielding was a man Elexa had known for years, a man who was about the same age as herself and was another gentle soul. No need to ask why her mother had wangled an invitation for him. Worse, Elexa saw Aunt Celias hand in this. Aunt Celia, one of her mothers two sisters, was Joannas mother. Quite clearly Aunt Celia had been roped in to cajole Joanna into issuing the invitation. Which, in turn, Elexa suddenly realised, must mean that Joanna as well as Aunt Celia had joined in the Lets get Elexa married campaign.
Feeling at her wits end, Elexa knew all too well that to try again to explain that she had not endured any painful experience would be like banging her head against a brick wall. Countless were the times she had tried to get through that she found her work far more interesting than any man she had come across. She had lost count of the times she had explained that she just did not want to be married, and that she had no desire to leave her well-paid career to set up home with some gentle soul like Tommy Fielding who, nice, sweet as he wasas they all werewould want her to play wife, and would be unbearably hurt to discover that she had a career she preferred to staying home and playing house.
Suddenly, and as abruptly, Elexa all at once knew she had had enough. She was aware that her mother worried about her, but, feeling backed into a corner with no way out, Elexa just knew she could not take any more of it. She had tried, endlessly tried, explaining to her mother that she was not interested in settling down, and that her career had priority over everything. What had been the result? Even more pressure, and with back-up forces.
Well, she wasnt having it. Elexa pushed distraught fingers through her pale gold-lit blonde hair. But what could she do about it? All she craved was a year free of the relentless pressurethere was chance of promotion in the not-too-distant future. She just wanted time to concentrate all her spare energies on that.
She sighed and stared unseeing across the room, and thenperhaps born of utter desperation, but entirely un-biddenshe was suddenly recalling again the conversation she had overheard about a month ago. It had been one lunchtime and she had been waiting for her friend Lois Crosby to join her. Lois was always late.
She and Lois were meeting to have lunch at the Montgomery, and, as busy as Elexa always was, she had been first there. The head waiter had led her to a series of sectioned-off booths, designed so that business people could lunch in the smart restaurant and be able to converse in relative privacy to discuss their business.
Elexa sometimes entertained clients at the Montgomery and, her nameor possibly her facerecognised, she had been left with a menu and the drink she had ordered to wait for her guest.
Shed had her back to the adjoining booth, but whatever she had been thinking abouteither work, or Lois and, it was not unlikely, family pressureshad gone from her head when she had become aware that the previous lone occupant of the booth behind had company.
Noah! greeted one.
Marcus, answered the other.
She guessed they had shaken hands, and glanced to the large mirror facing her and saw reflected that a tallish fair-haired man had risen to greet a taller dark-haired man. They were both somewhere in their middle thirties, both immaculately suited, and businessmen. They exchanged a few comments with two distinct voices, one low and well modulated, the other lighter. Then they were sitting down out of her viewbut not out of her hearing.
We dont seem to have seen anything of you in the two years since you became international chairman. That was the lighter voiceMarcuss voice, she thought.
I hear youre doing well at Stantons. Noah? Noah obviously felt no need to boast about being international chairman, but was interested to hear how his lunch companion was getting on.
Not without cost, Marcus replied.
Silencemaybe they were studying menus. What cost would that be? Noah asked idly.
Family. I hardly ever see my children, Marcus stated.
Elexa supposed she must have nipped out of their conversation to occupy herself with her own thoughts for a while, because when she had next become aware of their conversation she had been able to gather that they were obviously good friends who hadnt seen each other in an age and were still catching up, with Marcus accusing Noah of being the same old workaholic.
Not without cost. She heard Noah bounce back the same phrase Marcus had used earlier.
How so?
She guessed at that point that Noah must have given a shrug or something of the sort. There had been a pause anyway for a few moments, before, Theres a price you pay for everything, Marcus, he said. With me its not having time to have a family.
You want a family? Marcus sounded incredulous. You want a wife and
I dont particularly want a wife, Noah cut him off. In fact, to be frank, a wife is an appendage I can well do without. A pause, then, Though I have been wondering just lately what it is Im striving for.
You cant get much higher than international chairman.
There was a second or twos silence, and she visualised Noah giving another shrug. Then he was saying, Dont get me wrong. I enjoy my work, the challenges it brings day to day. But
But somethings lacking? Marcus put in.
There was a short silence, then Noah was saying something about having been taking stock, something about more to life than being successful in business, and admitting, A son. Ive been thinking for a month or two now that I would quite like to have a son.
You, with children? Marcus seemed surprised.
One would be sufficient.
I thought you were a confirmed bachelor?
I am, but Id be prepared to give up that statusbriefly, he qualified.
This time it was Marcus who paused. You never cease to amaze me, Noah! At university you were always able to think on a different planet from the rest of us. Elexa heard a smile in Marcuss voice. Now you want a part-time wife!
I dont want a wife at all! Noah put him straight without delay. But to have a son Id have to get temporarily tied to some woman. Marcus made some kind of ribbing statement, then Noah was proclaiming, Find me a woman whos willing to marry, produce and then divorce, and I might think about it.
Youre serious? Marcus wanted to know. You think she existsthis woman whos going to produce your heir and then cheerfully disappear?
Ive neither space for emotional entanglements nor time to go hunting, Noah answered.
Youre still constantly on the move?
Elexa guessed Noah had given some affirmative kind of nod, for he was then going on, According to my work schedule I land round about three years next Palm Sunday. There was the sound of male laughter.
Then Marcus was suggesting, Why not sort a temporary wife out from your own stable?
Like some brood mare! Elexa was not amused.
But apparently the up-to-his-eyes-in-work Noah knew quite a number of willing females. He admitted as much when he answered, Youve met some of them. Can you honestly see any of them being content to present me with Peverelle junior and then, regardless of any financial settlement we agreed in advance, going quietly?
Whooh! Very shaky ground, Marcus conceded, but at that point, glancing in the huge mirror in front, Elexa saw that her friend had arrived and was being directed her way.