The Marriage Secret Read Free Page A

lay against his nape. “What would you like, a boy or girl?”
    â€œSurprise me.”
    She gave a contented sigh. “Earlier, when you said something about a coincidence, what did you mean?” she wondered idly.
    â€œYou’re not the only one who’s pregnant.”
    â€œI’m not? Who else…?” It would be nice to have someone else to compare pregnancy notes with, she thought, burrowing into his shoulder.
    â€œMaeve told me tonight that Adam is going to have a little brother or sister, hence the champagne.” He felt Emily stiffen in his embrace before she pushed away.
    â€œ Maeve is having a baby?” Please don’t let it be….
    â€œApparently.”
    â€œAnd who is the father?”
    Finn regarded the signs of tension and hostility in his wife’s rigid figure with deepening misgivings and growing incomprehension.
    â€œActually, Maeve isn’t too keen on anyone knowing—”
    The shifty look could mean only one thing. “How could you, Finn?”
    â€œHow could I what?” He got no reply; Emily was gone.
    By the time Finn emerged from the lift into reception he had worked out what Emily had meant. This accounted for the red haze of fury dancing before his eyes.
    â€œAnything I can do, sir?” The youthful figure behind the desk asked, trying hard not to look at the boss’s bare feet.
    Another button came off and Finn gave up on fastening his shirt. “Which way did my wife go?” he barked unsmilingly.
    â€œWhich one, sir?”
    The savage expression on his employer’s lean face as the laser blue eyes slid over him convinced the young man he was about to lose his job or maybe even his teeth.
    He let out a silent sigh of relief as the rigid tall figure stalked wordlessly past him.

Chapter Seven
    Finn recalled again the expression of tearful reproach in Emily’s eyes and ground his teeth. She thought—the woman he loved, the soon-to-be mother of his child actually thought…He pressed his foot to the car floor, felt the powerful engine respond, and reflected bitterly on the sheer perversity of females in general, and his wife in particular.
    â€œI wish I’d never seen the damned woman!” he snarled out loud.
    His grim expression lightened fractionally as his mind drifted back to the first moment he’d ever seen Emily. A tiny thing with a cloud of wayward burnished curls, melting brown eyes, and a wide kissable mouth. The combination had stopped him in his tracks. Finn had felt physical attraction before, but nothing had ever approached the exultant sense of recognition he’d experienced at that moment. She was his —it was that simple!
    â€œAdam’s very artistic, Mr. Lynch,” she’d said gravely as she handed him the childish daub. “You must be very proud of him.”
    Adam, clearly besotted by his new nursery teacher, had only reluctantly relinquished her slim hand to take his father’s. Finn had understood the boy’s reluctance totally.
    Finn had gone straight back to the house he shared with Maeve and asked her for a divorce. It was something they’d both agreed should happen if one of them eventually met someone that mattered. There would be no bitter recriminations, and all arrangements would have to disrupt Adam as little as possible.
    Despite this agreement Finn could tell Maeve had been taken aback by his request. He didn’t blame her; he was pretty taken aback himself, as their unconventional arrangement had worked pretty well for five years.
    â€œWho is she?” Maeve had asked.
    â€œI don’t know her name, but she’s not wearing a ring.”
    Maeve had regarded the man she thought she knew so well with growing fascination. “You looked?”
    Finn nodded. “Definitely no ring.”
    â€œDon’t you think, Finn, that it might be an idea to get to know this woman-without-a-ring a little before you do anything