The Hungry Heart Fulfilled (The Hunger of the Heart Series Book 3) Read Free Page B

Emer
    suggested quickly,
    as she tugged on the bell pull for Sissy as though her life
    depended on it.
     
     
Dalton's mind was
    teeming with
    shocked suspicions, but he had little choice except to follow
    Emer to the front
    door, where Sissy handed him his hat.
     
     
Emer said, “Thank you so much for stopping in to
    visit us, but as you can
    see....”
     
     
Dalton glowered at
    the maid. “Thank
    you, girl, that will be all.”
     
     
Sissy scurried away
    from him as
    though he was the devil himself.
     
     
As soon as she was gone he hissed,
    “No you don’t,
    Emer. You’re not
    getting rid of me
    that easily."
     
     
He backed her up against the wall
    until his stomach
    and thighs pressed intimately against her own. "I want some answers,
    and I want them
    now.”
     
     

 
CHAPTER THREE
     
     
Emer was sure she
    was going to faint
    from desire and fear as Dalton pressed his huge, fiercely
    aroused body against
    her.
     
     
“I need some
    answers, Emer, and I'm
    not leaving here until I get them. When I last saw you in
    August, you were in
    my bed, a poor governess, making love to me as though it meant
    everything in
    the world to you.
     
     
"Now I find you
    married to your
    fiance Garvan Dillon, whom you swore you never loved, and
    pregnant with
    goodness only knows whose child, living in a mansion with a
    troop of male
    visitors and Dr. Adrian Lovell.
    I
    want to know exactly what the hell you've been up to, and I'm
    not leaving here
    until you tell me the truth,” Dalton threatened.
     
     
Emer shoved against
    his chest
    futilely as she struggled to escape from his tantalising
    nearness. “What
    I’ve done since August ceased to
    be your concern when you left me on Grosse Ile then, and never
    once tried to
    contact me except to....”
     
     
Dalton interrupted
    her before she
    could say the words “bribe me.”
     
     
He shook his head. “But don’t you see, it
    was all a terrible
    mistake. I got
    your note saying
    where you had gone when I was already in Quebec. My ship was
    leaving for
    Ireland, and I boarded it, hoping to stop off at Grosse Ile
    persuade you to
    accept my father’s help for you and your family.
     
     
"But I fell ill
    that afternoon,
    and the boat sailed on into the Atlantic without stopping. My
    father went to
    find you at the end of August as per my instructions, only to
    be told that you
    were all dead,” Dalton said angrily.
     
     
Emer listened in
    horror to Dalton’s
    statements, too shocked to say anything to refute the claims.
     
     
“There must have
    been a mistake with
    the names or something, with so many poor suffering wretches
    on the
    island. But you
    could have
    contacted him. He would have helped, just like I told you.  
    You didn’t
    have to marry
    Garvan! You
    loved me, and yet now
    I find you after all these months carrying his child.
     
     
"But if you're
    married to him,
    then what is Adrian Lovell doing here, marching in and out as
    though he owns
    the place, and kissing you as though you were his, his
    mistress, for pity's
    sake!” Dalton demanded, as he shook Emer by the shoulders to
    get her to look
    him in the eyes.
     
     
Emer went limp and
    stared at the
    floor unseeing, her mind awhirl with what Dalton had just said
    to her.
     
     
Was it some trick
    again, or was
    Dalton really telling the truth?  
    That he really had believed her dead was evident from the
    anguished expression
    on his face.
     
     
She wanted to
    believe he cared, but
    it was all too sudden. Still,
    he
    looked very ill, and she took in his black mourning clothes
    and silver hair
    with a mixture of pity and hope.
     
     
Emer decided that
    the most sensible
    course of action was to stall for time, try to get rid of
    Dalton until she
    could discuss the matter with the Bishop and get his advice. And she
    certainly
    couldn't afford a
    scandal now, not when all the children were counting on her.
     
     
She took a deep
    breath and murmured,
    “Dalton, I can