The first thingthat struck Violet when she walked back into her rooms in Tore’s massive London home was the silence and the knowledge that he was no longer nearby in the way she had grown accustomed to him being. He was on the other side of the house and he had mentioned that he had to check in with the London office, so had undoubtedly already gone out. Stella was chattering away to Tore’s housekeeper about her plans to explore London, and Belle was muttering with excitement as she toddled across her old nursery to a reunion with familiar toys.
In fact, everyone was on a high over their return to London and she gave herself a mental kick. Buck up, straighten up, stop acting like the world is over because you had a difference of opinion with Tore. Had she been too hasty in telling him she wanted to go back to being platonic married strangers? Wasn’t it a little too late in the day to make such a change? And what did it matter anyway when she was already madly in love with him? The damage was done. She had little time to consider her doubts once she headed over to the bakery to catch up with her sister.
‘You’ve totally fallen for him!’ Tabitha condemned the minute Violet had brought her up-to-date. ‘I suspected it when you were talking about him on the phone but now you’ve thrown him out of the bedroom, haven’t even spent one night alone and you’re already miserable. Violet, this guy is planning to walk away from you in just thirty months’ time and he’ll forget that you’re alive…wasn’t that the deal? Have you forgotten that? Howcouldyou forget that?’
‘I know the situation and I’m not miserable, really I’m not,’ Violet argued defensively.
‘Put you and Belle first,’ her exasperated twin encouraged. ‘Regrettably, barring Tore from your bedroom may not have been the wisest move when you’re on the brink of asking him to adopt Belle with you. I mean, things were great with the two of you while you were in Italy but now you’ve chucked all that down the drain…and I really don’t understand why.’
‘I was trying to protect myself.’
‘Much good it’s doing you. Anyway, you were a goner for him from the start when you said he reminded you of one of the Lord of the Rings’ elves!’ Tabitha began to giggle. ‘I bet you haven’t toldhimthat. He sounds like such a serious type. In fact, I bet he’d be offended.’
‘He’s never going to know,’ Violet swore, her face burning. ‘What about your baby daddy?’
Tabitha went rigid. ‘Don’t call him that! He’s never going to be my kid’s dad. He’s an obnoxious playboy who thinks every woman is out to rip him off!’
‘That’s horrible,’ Violet agreed. ‘But you have to tell him you’re pregnant eventually, no matter how challenging it might be. He has legal rights.’
‘I know that but he has toknowthereisa child to do anything about it.’
‘Agreed but you’re entitled to his financial support and you will need it. Also…’ Violet hesitated before pressing on. ‘You need to think about your child wanting to know who his father is when he’s older, so it’s best to bite the bullet now.’
‘So practical, Violet,’ Tabitha commented tongue-in-cheek. ‘Unless you’re throwing your billionaire out of your bed! That wasnotpractical.’
Violet thought about that exchange over her solitary supper with Belle. With Tore at the table there would’ve been adult conversation, and Belle would not have dared to throw her toast off her tray. Belle had a healthy respect for Tore when he spoke in a certain tone. Violet just couldn’t stop thinking about him. Other possible elements of her decision were currently crossing her troubled mind. Would Tore now take some other woman to bed? Could she expect him to stay celibate for the sake of a marriage that wasn’t a true marriage?
Fidelity was nowhere mentioned in his side of the marriage contract although it was referred to in hers. Evidently, he and his legal team had been afraid that his bride might be some wild woman, engaging in affairs and causing scandals and potentially even producing a child that was not his. Every possibility had been explored and covered in that contract but there had not been a single reference to Tore staying faithful. All of a sudden that inequality infuriated her. Was he even now planning to go out and find another woman to satisfy his needs? Was he even at home?
Violet could not contain her curiosity and she slid quietly out of bed, determined to find out. She was unlikely to bump into any staff at midnight, so she didn’t bother with a robe. She padded on bare feet down the long corridor that separated her wing of the house from his. She hadn’t been in that wing before, hadn’t been in the house long enough to stray there before they left London for Italy. Now she was on a quiet voyage of exploration in unfamiliar territory.
She found an office, no surprise there. A meeting room, various empty guest rooms and then she reached the very foot of the corridor where a single door awaited her. She wasted no time in slipping through that door because her curiosity, her search, had reached its peak and it was insatiable in its need to know where he was, what he was doing and who he might be doing it with.
A light illuminated the big bed and there he was, alone, working on a laptop, his phone in one hand in spite of the lateness of the hour. ‘Violet…?’
He was naked apart from a pair of black boxers. He was totally relaxed, comfortable. He wasn’t visibly missing her. She didn’t know what she had expected to see or what visible signs of missing her he could’ve offered, but he looked happier than she felt and that could only be a source of annoyance. ‘I just wondered where you were,’ she said tightly.
Tore focused on his wife, who had made it clear that she was not a wife and not prepared to explore being his wife in reality, either. She was clad in a diaphanous lilac silk nightdress that clung to her sinuous curves in the most revealing way. ‘Well, now you know,’ he said ungenerously because he had been silently smouldering over her stubborn attitude. Every time he wondered what he would do about it, he was exasperated that his usual disciplined concentration was absent.
‘Tell me,’ she muttered daringly. ‘Did you ever intend to be faithful in this marriage?’
‘No,’ Tore admitted without hesitation. ‘But that changed for me the moment we consummated our marriage. I intended to be faithful then…at least until you changed the game today.’
‘It’s not a game. It was never a game for me,’ Violet protested, disconcerted by his honesty, a shiver filtering through her body because he had the air-conditioning on and the nightdress provided no insulation whatsoever.
In a silent gesture, Tore flipped back the duvet in invitation.
‘Definitely not a game,’ she reiterated, goose bumps rising on her arms before she accepted the invitation and took a flying leap on to the bed, shooting below the duvet at speed.
‘But you changed the rules and now I don’t know where I am with you,’ Tore imparted, setting his laptop and phone down on the cabinet by the bed.
‘I thought you liked rules,’ she mumbled.
‘Not one that drives us apart.’
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, switch the air-conditioning off before I turn into an icicle!’ she launched back at him.
With a chuckle of appreciation, he stretched up a lean, muscular arm and switched it off and then pushed back the duvet to uncurl her coiled limbs and tug her gently into his arms. ‘It’s probably against the rules but I missed you and Belle at dinner. My home life was very colourless and flat until you came along.’
