Modern Romance Collection July 2024 Books 1-4

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘I’LLSEEYOU tonight when you arrive and I’ll probably rip your clothes off in the first hour,’ Raj warned her on the back of a groan. ‘It’s been a very long few days.’

Flushed and with helpless heat coiling in her pelvis like a welcome party, Sunny came off the phone again and walked back into the kitchen where Gemma was pouring tea.

‘Was that Raj?’ her neighbour asked.

‘And you’ll be seeing him tonight,’ Gemma remarked. ‘But it’ll still be a challenge conducting a long-distance relationship. He seems to travel all over the place.’

‘Yes, I’ll learn as I go,’ Sunny said lightly. ‘And thanks again for stepping into the breach with the animals this evening. I don’t mind asking you occasionally, but I don’t plan to do it as regularly as this. I’ll make other arrangements.’

Gemma assured her that it wasn’t a problem but Sunny knew the difference between an occasional favour and a regular demand on someone’s time and was determined not to continue putting the other woman out. She had acquired her animals. Her two dogs—Bert was beginning to look more and more like a permanent member of the household—and her cat and her horse, not to mention the ducks saved from certain death when they were dropped off in a box at her gate. She had taken them all in when she was a regular stay-at-home, who rarely went anywhere. They remained her responsibility, nobody else’s.

She wondered what her friend would say once she realised that Sunny was pregnant. There would be a lot of gossip and curious looks and she would simply have to deal with it. There was no need to justify a baby she was over the moon to be carrying or defend herself when it was no longer unusual for a woman to choose to have a baby alone. It was, as Raj would say, merely ‘a development’.

She drove herself down to London, singing nursery rhymes to Pansy and pointing out animals when the little girl got bored. Raj’s London base was a massive house on the Thames. Even getting into the grounds past the security meant being checked off a list and having her car boot searched. Pansy began to grizzle, tired and hungry and fed up.

‘Miss Barker...’ An older woman dressed in black awaited her at the front door. ‘I’m Beth, Mr Belanger’s housekeeper.’

She was ushered in like visiting royalty to find that Maria was already waiting for their arrival. The nanny pounced on Pansy and grinned when Sunny told her that her niece needed food and possibly a nap. As Pansy was carried off, Sunny was shown upstairs to the master bedroom suite where she knew all her new clothes would be stored. She flicked through them, finally extracting a long gown in the finest dark blue lace. It was neatly tailored to allow a little more space over the tummy while shaping her other curves. Having previewed the dress online, she had already decided that she would wear it for Raj’s event and, rummaging through her new shoe collection, she extracted a navy pair of heels in triumph.

Raj stalked in. ‘You’re here!’ he proclaimed with satisfaction.

‘I was working out what to wear tonight,’ she told him while wondering how he could look so good with his black hair tousled and his jawline darkly shadowed by stubble. He looked what he was: a very powerful masculine tycoon, awash with volatile energy and buckets of raw sex appeal. Studying him, a visceral tug clenching at the heart of her, she stilled a shiver that had nothing to do with being cold.

‘It’s been a long week.’ He raked long brown fingers through his unruly black hair. ‘I didn’t expect to miss you.’

Raj almost made that sound like an accusation, as if she should’ve been with him rather than away from him.

‘I’m here now,’ she parried lightly. ‘Have you seen Pansy yet?’

‘She waved her toast at me. She was too busy eating to give me much attention. I’ll spend time with her tomorrow.’

‘I’m afraid we have to leave early tomorrow morning. I have a painting commission and the buyer’s in a hurry.’

Raj lifted an imperious brow. ‘The buyer will have to wait.’

‘No, I agreed to work with his time limit,’ Sunny broke in.’ It’s his mother’s favourite flower and it’s for her birthday. I need to make a start on it tomorrow. I’m delighted that it will be finding a home with someone who will truly appreciate it.’

His shapely sexy mouth tightened. ‘I’m already a keen convert. I’ve got a glorified weed hanging above my bed. I truly appreciate it too for all that intricate detail.’

And she finally noticed that it was her painting hanging there on the wall and she smiled with pleasure that he had given it a place in his bedroom. She moved closer, almost mesmerised by the pulsing masculine energy and charisma of him that close and the way that aura pulled her in. ‘I missed you too but I can’t keep on taking so much time away from home. I have to work. I have to look after my animals.’

‘We’ll discuss all that later,’ Raj asserted. ‘Right now I only want—’

‘To rip my clothes off? Please don’t rip anything,’ she said very seriously. ‘Until I take possession of my new wardrobe...thank you, by the way...I’m low on clothes that fit and most of the stuff in the new wardrobe is fancy stuff for when I’m with you.’

His big hands framed her cheekbones. ‘Stop fussing. I promise there will be no ripping of any kind,’ he swore very seriously as he whipped her top over her head and dropped it on the floor and went looking for the zip on her jeans.

‘Why are your jeans so big?’

‘To allow for expansion,’ she muttered in embarrassment, rolling the elasticated waist of her maternity jeans down over her hips, mortified by his question. She might not have expanded quite enough to need actual maternity wear but her own clothing was already too tight for comfort.

He tipped up her chin and his mouth came crashing down with passionate force on hers, his tongue darting deep into the sensitive interior of her mouth, and a long shudder racked her, heat and craving infiltrating her with fresh energy.

Raj lifted her off her feet and laid her on the bed, flipping off her shoes and yanking off her jeans with scant ceremony. He surveyed her with maddening intensity. ‘You are fit for this, aren’t you? Maybe you’re too tired or not well?’ he suggested awkwardly, and it was an endearing awkwardness, as if he was unaccustomed to making such personal enquiries.

Sunny stretched up and yanked him by his tie down to her level. ‘I’m ready and willing and you promised me.’

A smile slashed Raj’s stubborn, wilful mouth. ‘I did, didn’t I?’

His hands found hers and pinned them to the bed while he kissed her with fiery hunger. The whole time she was conscious of the mobile phone buzzing in his pocket. Finally, he wrenched his lips from hers, sucked in oxygen and answered the call, speaking in brief sentences as he levered himself back off the bed. He dug the phone back in his pocket.

‘I’ve overbooked you,’ he groaned. ‘We have no time for this no matter how much I want you.’

‘You’ve overbooked me?’ As Sunny sat up tense with incomprehension, Raj lifted her discarded garments, shook them out and set them carefully beside her. ‘Get dressed,’ he urged.

‘Are you joking?’

‘Only wish I were but you need time to dress for our guests and I also need you to come downstairs right now to look at something,’ he told her ruefully.

Sunny stole a doubtful glance at the arousal tenting the fine fabric of his tailored trousers and reddened. ‘You’d better close your jacket.’

‘I’m sorry. I got carried away.’ He sighed, shooting her a burnished dark look of hungry regret.

Sunny got dressed again in a hurry and then gasped in horror when she saw her reflection. Having tidied her mussed hair, she followed him back downstairs into an imposing drawing room. Raj settled her down in a seat. Two men lugging a chained metal security box entered and settled it at his feet before beginning to unlock it.

‘It’s a rare blue diamond. I wanted to see if it suited you.’

A pendant was lifted out of another internal box with reverent care and Raj swept it up to thread it round her neck. Sunny squinted down at the glittering stone.

‘Look at me,’ he urged.

And she did.

‘I’ll take it,’ Raj pronounced with satisfaction.

‘I can’t accept this...’ she hissed at him, stretching up to his ear as she began to unclasp the item.

‘It’s an investment,’ Raj declared.

Sunny cradled the magnificent diamond nervously in the palm of her hand. ‘It’s the most amazing blue.’

‘The boron atoms in the carbon atoms,’ he explained. ‘It reflects your eyes.’

‘I can’t accept something this valuable as a gift.’

‘I want you to wear it this evening.’

‘OK, but I’m not keeping it. Be warned...it’ll only be round my neck on loan and as a favour to you.’

Troubled by the appearance of so evidently expensive a jewel, Sunny checked on Pansy, who was in her bath with Maria looking after her, before heading for the shower and working on her own presentation. Fully dressed and feeling very fancy, she picked her passage down the stairs in her high heels, the glorious diamond glittering below her collarbone like a breathtaking statement of wealth and exclusivity.

Raj strolled towards her, brilliant dark eyes radiating satisfaction. ‘You look magnificent.’

‘Thank you, but I’m starting to feel just a little too like a dress-up doll,’ she confided in a low voice. ‘Like I’m not really allowed to be me any more.’

Raj frowned and a photographer stepped forward to take photos of them as well as record the arrival of the most important guests. The evening was aimed at raising funds for Raj’s charitable foundation and, in particular, a chain of children’s hospices. Sunny recognised occasional well-known faces from the media and strove not to get self-conscious when Raj introduced her to everyone as his hostess. She saw the curiosity roused by that label and the attention commanded by the guiding hand he kept clamped to her spine. Drinks were served in the ballroom, all the catering handled by uniformed professionals. Speeches were made before the buffet was opened and it turned into a glitzy social occasion.

Raj was constantly mobbed. Beautiful women in over-the-top revealing dresses endeavoured to catch his eye and sparkle with jokes and one-liners, touching his arms, any part of him they could decently reach, striving to make a connection with him. Meanwhile, Sunny felt as though she was on display like a show pony. Her diamond pendant was repeatedly oohed and aahed over and she learned that it was a famous diamond, mined in Australia. The superb pendant began to feel like an albatross weighing down her neck. Whenever sheer curiosity prompted someone to try and get into closer conversation with her, Raj whisked her away, shielding her from everybody.

‘It’s nobody’s business who you are,’ he pointed out. ‘That’s private.’

‘I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to hide,’ Sunny told him gently. ‘And it’s not a private event, because official photos are being taken at every turn.’

‘It’s my role to protect you,’ Raj informed her with finality.

Sunny pictured a coffin lid slamming down on top of her. Raj would be happiest to lock her in a box and it would be his box, kept locked and accessible only to him. He needed to learn that she had spent a lot of time tied to home by her grandmother’s declining health and, although she would willingly make that same sacrifice again, she would not make that same sacrifice of freedom or independence for any man alive. She valued her ability to do as she liked, wear what she liked, speak to whom she liked and no way would Raj be allowed to deprive her of those choices. She had been willing to make adjustments to fit in with his lifestyle but she wasn’t prepared to give way to every demand and expectation.

‘I’ve been thinking about your idea of leaving early tomorrow,’ Raj mused later that evening when the last guests had departed.

‘It wasn’t an idea,’ Sunny pointed out on the way upstairs, where she paused on the landing to step out of her shoes and carry them, flexing her pinched toes. ‘It was a decision and it’s already done and dusted.’

‘There are other options,’ Raj imparted as he thrust open the door of their bedroom. ‘Don’t close your mind to the alternatives or the solution.’

‘No, there aren’t any other options, not when it comes to my commissions and taking care of Pansy and my animals,’ Sunny replied briskly, refusing to be drawn into a dialogue when she had no intention of changing her stance. ‘I can only do those things at home.’

‘I have a file for you to look over...a property file,’ Raj told her, level dark eyes resting on her bemused gaze with a curious air of expectancy.

‘I’m not moving anywhere. I’m staying put where I am.’ Disconcerted by that new mystifying turn to the conversation, Sunny became even more tense.

‘I think I could change your mind about that.’ Raj swept a fat file off a nearby table and extended it to her. ‘Skim over it and see. I own a lot of property and I can staff any one of them for you.’

‘Well, you would think that you could change my mind, but you’d be wrong in this instance. My goodness, Raj, you could talk your way out of your allotted place in heaven and end up in the depths of hell out of pure obstinacy. You don’t take a hint, you’re relentless...quit while you’re ahead!’ she advised, moving her hand out of range of the file and walking into the bathroom she had been using.

She was letting herself get worked up and she told herself off for not hanging onto her cool, but Raj had the capacity to make her feel cornered and she had no intention of letting him get away with that. Grabbing up her toiletries bag, she gathered up her necessities and then paused to detach the diamond at her throat. She set it down on the dresser top and padded on into the dressing room, where she retrieved her own clothes and nightwear and fresh underwear for the next morning.

‘What on earth are you doing?’ Raj demanded fiercely. ‘What are we arguing about?’

‘You’re clever enough to know the answer to that question,’ Sunny replied, wrapping her possessions together into a bundle, toiletries bag clutched awkwardly below one arm as she tried to sidestep him. ‘I’m not sleeping in here with you.’

‘Sunny!’ As she opened the door to leave, he stalked after her. ‘If you walk out of here right now, I will be angry with you.’

‘And if I don’t walk out, I’ll be guilty of murder,’ she confided tightly, hurrying down the corridor to the room she had used before.

Since she had taken off her shoes, her dress was trailing and she tripped up on the hem. She went sprawling with a gasp of fright, her belongings flying everywhere. Tears of frustration burned the backs of her eyes as she began to pick herself up again, grateful she hadn’t hurt herself. A hand at her elbow, Raj levered her upright with care and crouched down to snatch up some of the stuff she had dropped as she did the same.

‘This is crazy. I don’t do scenes like this,’ he censured.

‘That’s why I left your room,’ Sunny said with as much dignity as she could muster, bundling everything up again.

‘You could’ve fallen down the stairs.’

‘But I didn’t.’ Sunny thrust open the door of the room she was determined to use.

Raj watched her lift her nose in the air, her chin at an angle, her spine rigid. What the hell was he supposed to have done? Frustration and impatience combined inside him, making him feel explosive.

He settled the property file down at the foot of the bed where she could browse through it once she had calmed down. Sunny dropped her clothing on the bed and carted the toiletries bag into the en suite bathroom.

‘Tell me what I did,’ he gritted, lounging back against the door to close it with a push of his big shoulders. ‘Shouldn’t I at least know what I’m supposed to have done?’

‘You warned me that you hadn’t been in a relationship before. I should have listened more, expected less. I feel like you’re trying to take me over by stealth,’ Sunny admitted unhappily. ‘I’m not a business acquisition, Raj. I’m not a problem you have to cure, a breakage you have to fix. I’ll never be perfect and that’s fine with me but maybe it’s not fine with you. Maybe you’re only able to be satisfied with a sophisticate in a fancy designer dress with a whopping great diamond round her throat.’

‘It was a business event and you wore a normal evening outfit. I wanted you to feel that you fitted in to improve your confidence.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with my confidence,’ Sunny lied, unwilling to cede that she had felt more at ease during the evening because she had blended in with the other guests. ‘But I have a life and I like my life as it is. I knew I would have to make allowances to fit into your life and I’ve done that. I’m travelling. I’m leaving my animals. I’m cutting my working hours back. I’m wearing the clothes you insisted on buying me. I even wore that diamond tonight to please you. But I’m not moving house for your benefit. I’m not prepared to keep on handing Pansy to a nanny for your benefit either!’

‘Be fair, Sunny,’ Raj urged. ‘Maria has generally only looked after Pansy at bedtime and when you’re in bed yourself. You’re entitled to use an occasional babysitter when you’re with her the rest of the time.’

‘But when will you make compromises for my benefit?’ Sunny asked boldly. ‘You see, you expect me to do all the compromising. When I’m difficult, it’s like a chess game with you in which you make moves to corner me.’

Raj elevated an ebony brow. ‘A little dramatic...?’

‘No, I’m not being dramatic!’ Sunny shot back at him, her hands on her hips. ‘You make everything sound so logical! The clothes, the stupid diamond, the nanny! But I don’t want to change and I don’t want to move house either.’

‘Do you want me?’ Raj asked with lethal composure. ‘Let’s face it, it all comes down to how much you want me. I’ve already changed my habits and routine for you, which is something I’ve never done for a woman before. This is all new for me as well. So, you don’t wish to move house? If I accept that, how could I ever visit you in your current home? Where would my security team stay? How would they guard the property?’

Sunny threw up a silencing hand. ‘Don’t say anything more!’ she gasped, stricken.

‘Are you aware that Pansy, as my niece, should have a bodyguard as well?’ Raj continued inexorably. ‘And what about you, since you have conceived my child? Don’t you realise that your security in your little rural nest could be targeted by people who would want to access my money through you? Those are harsh truths, Sunny. They may not be what you want to hear but they are reality all the same.’

Sunny had turned bone white as he spelled out those hard facts. No, she hadn’t thought about security needs for any of them. But Raj had said something that had cut her in two and made it almost impossible to maintain her concentration.

Do you want me? Let’s face it, it all comes down to how much you want me.

She wanted him way too much for her own peace of mind. Way too much for sanity. He already had her craving him like an addictive drug. It was too much, the way she was feeling was too much. All her emotions were jangling inside her and rising up in a flood from a tumultuous base.

She breathed in deep, pale and stiff as board. ‘I think we should break up.’

‘We’re not travelling in that direction. We haven’t been together long enough for you to make a logical decision on that score,’ Raj decreed without hesitation.

‘You can’t tell me what I can and cannot do,’ Sunny flung at him angrily.

‘I’m not trying to do that. I’m asking you to take a deep breath and calm down.’

‘Calm down? Isn’t that what men always say when a woman disagrees with them?’ Sunny flared, trying to thrust him out of her path to enable her to open the door behind him.

He was too big and he was as solid as a rock but once she’d registered her intent he flung up his expressive hands in exasperation and stepped out of her path. ‘Think about this. Think about what you’re doing and why.’

Sunny yanked open the door with positive violence and scrutinised him with fierce violet-blue eyes. ‘You’re dumped.’

‘Seriously?’Raj elevated another expressive black brow as if she were throwing a strop about nothing.

‘Just because it hasn’t happened to you before doesn’t mean it can’t happen,’ Sunny hissed and, marching back from the door, she scooped up the property file and walked back to plant it into his reluctant arms.

‘Adults talk problems through, sort things out,’ Raj informed her.

And she wanted to hit him. The violence coursing through her terrified her. She had a mental image of pushing him out of the door and pushing until he fell down the stairs. And then that image crumpled at the picture of him being physically hurt because that was more than she could bear in the highly emotional mood she was in. No, she didn’t want to hurt him, she wanted to shut him up, bounce him out of his inhuman calm and control and make him leave.

‘We can’t be sorted. We’re a hellish mess together.’

‘We could do better than this,’ Raj conceded with pronounced reluctance. ‘It’s a question of cooperation. Why are you so angry with me?’

Sunny gritted her teeth. ‘You’re trying to move me into one of your mansions!’

‘Some women would be reasonably happy about that,’ Raj dared to declare.

‘I’m not!’ she almost shrieked at him in her ire, scared of listening or believing lest he begin to talk her round.

‘I could buy up all the land round you and extend your house,’ Raj remarked. ‘You see, I can compromise in a sensible way, but, admittedly, only when I’m forced. I am a challenging character. I acknowledge that.’

‘You didn’t even allow me the freedom to speak to your guests this evening!’ Sunny accused, heading off on a new tack.

‘My guests were too curious about you and I didn’t want you to put yourself in a position where you might drop too many private facts, which could later cause you embarrassment or hurt. You are very innocent and trusting with the people that you meet. I admire that quality in you. But it makes you very vulnerable. You take an optimistic view of life, a view that is directly opposed to my own. I am more cynical, and my motivation this evening was to look after you, not to clip your wings or to stifle your natural friendliness.’

‘Don’t talk down to me! Go back to your own room,’ Sunny hurled at him, because she already knew that Raj could undoubtedly reason himself out of anything short of murder.

‘We’ll talk tomorrow,’ Raj breathed with finality, and he walked out, shoulders squared, back straight as a board.

No, they wouldn’t be talking tomorrow, Sunny decided fiercely. She would leave at the crack of dawn, go home, move on with her life, rediscover the pleasures she had neglected since Raj had entered her life and thrown everything up in the air. Of course, she would still have to maintain his connection to Pansy and make those visits every month. And eventually the baby would presumably enter that arrangement as well, she thought abstractedly. For the first time, he had referred to the baby other than as a ‘development’. And he had referred to the baby as being his child. Well, her baby wasn’t his child, it was hers.

Every just bone in her body was jarred by that unkind thought and she winced for herself and got ready for bed. But some of what Raj had told her about their security needs lingered heavily with her. Were she, Pansy and their unborn child at risk because of their connection to the richest man in the world? Why had she not foreseen that danger for herself? Why had she been so blind about that harsh reality? Raj was right, she didn’t like stuff of that nature, always shut out such frightening possibilities. Guilt folded round her that she had forced Raj to spell out the obvious. Suddenly she was appreciating that she had never been in full control of her relationship with Raj, nor would she ever be. Not when their baby’s very safety could be compromised by some ghastly threat.

Seriously shaken by such thoughts but unable to see what she could possibly do to remedy the situation other than distance them all from Raj, she set her alarm for an ungodly early hour. Life without Raj, life without the excitement and the host of other responses he sparked in her. For goodness’ sake, she had been on her own and perfectly happy that way for years and she would be again, she promised herself. She would bury herself in her work. She would have two children to raise. She still had the house to finish. Exhaustion finally plunged her into sleep.