Read Online Second Best Wife by Isobel Chace - Free Book Online

that follows the sun's going down in the tropics? That'll be one thing you can look forward to without any fear of the consequences.'
    She wanted to put up her hand to his, but she had no right to do so. Instead she turned on her back and looked steadily up at him.
    'I'm not afraid of you, William Ayres. I'll never be afraid of you! So don't flatter yourself that I am!'
    He smiled. 'If you were, you'd die sooner than admit it, wouldn't you, Georgie Porgie? What a strange girl you are! I'm glad I brought you with me if I couldn't have Jennifer. Life with you is unlikely to be dull, whatever else it may be!'
    Her eyes followed him as he walked away from her and went into the bathroom in his turn. Would she be second best for ever and ever? she wondered. As far as he was concerned it seemed likely.
    What a fool Jennifer had been to want someone else when she could have had him and his love as well! How could anyone prefer a man like Duncan when they could have had all that? Georgina fingered her cheek where she could still feel the sensation of his touch and marvelled at the painful surge of emotion that engulfed her. She didn't even like him! She must concentrate on that and on all the things about him that had never failed to irritate her in the past. But she could still feel the gentleness of his skin against hers when she fell into an uneasy slumber, and it was of him that she dreamed until his hand on her shoulder shook her awake many hours later.
    'Is it time to get up already?' she asked, confused.
    'If you want that cup of tea it is.' He shook her again. 'No going back to sleep again now! You didn't even wake up when the suitcases arrived. Do you always sleep like one dead?'
    She blinked, her dreams merging into real life for a delicious, uncertain moment. But then she saw that he was already dressed and that his expression was one of impatience rather than tenderness.
    'You should have woken me sooner,' she said. 'Why don't you go down and order the tea and I'll follow as soon as I'm dressed?'
    But still he lingered. 'How long will you be?'
    She glanced at her watch. 'Ten minutes?'
    He smiled at that. 'That'll be the day! If you're much over half an hour there won't be any tea for you; an hour and I'll come up and get you!'
    'I'll be ready in ten minutes!' she claimed. She screwed up her eyes, watching him through her lashes to see what his reaction would be to that. It was impossible to tell. She hoped that her own racing pulses were as invisible to him. She had been so sure that he had been about to lean over and kiss her, which was ridiculous in itself, but what was worse was that she had wanted him to do exactly that and she had wanted it in every fibre of her being. 'You'd have made a good slave master,' she added, 'only slaves are self-made, you know. I read an article about it. If you think free, you are free!'
    'Stone walls do not a prison make — and all that? I shouldn't rely on the theory too heavily if I were you,' he advised.
    'But you're not me! Will you kindly stop standing over me in that impossible way and go away! I'll never get dressed with you looking
    on. I'm entitled to my privacy and I mean to have it!'
    His eyebrows rose, a gleam of amusement entering the gold of his eyes. 'My dear girl, if you carry oh like this often I shall begin to think I've disappointed you in some way. What were you dreaming of when I woke you, or would that be telling?'
    She cast her gaze down to his neatly polished shoes. 'You'd find it a dead bore if I did tell you,' she said. 'There's nothing more boring than other people's dreams. Besides, I can never remember mine.'
    'Pity. They might tell you something interesting about yourself—'
    'Am I so difficult to understand?'
    'You'd best ask yourself that. Do you understand yourself?' His lips twitched. 'Do you begin to know what it is you want out of life?'
    'Oh yes,' she answered gravely. 'I've always known that. William—'
    'Uh-huh.'
    'Go away.'
    But when he had gone