A REASON FOR MARRIAGE

Well, she had better make her mind up-and soon-because the three of them couldn’t continue standing in this frozen tableau for much longer.

“Angel?” Bruce prompted dryly, obviously coming to the same conclusion.

Sara gave a pained wince as once again he used the name he had once called her by. A long time ago. A lifetime ago. A different lifetime ago… She drew in a deep breath and finally looked up into Simon’s rigidly set features. He stared past her at the other man with eyes as hard as the emeralds they resembled, his mouth thinned, jaw tight.

His harshly etched features softened slightly as he finally looked down and saw her expression of mute appeal. “Introduce us, will you?” he prompted huskily even as his arm moved possessively about her waist.

The gentleness of Simon’s tone, and that supportive arm about her waist, instantly reassured Sara that whatever his inner feelings were about this strange situation Simon was there for her now-even if the warning gleam in his eyes also told her that he would expect answers to his numerous questions once they were alone.

Sara turned slowly to face Bruce, her expression deliberately non-committal as she took in the subtle changes in his appearance since the two of them had last seen each other. He was now in his mid-thirties, and there were touches of gray at his temples that hadn’t been there years ago. His face was thinner too, with lines etched beside his nose and mouth. Other than that he was still as lean and boyishly handsome as he had always been, and looking every inch the wealthy Bennet heir in his tailored black evening suit and snowy white shirt.

“Simon, this is Bruce Bennet,” She made the introduction stiffly. “Bruce-Simon Hamilton.” Sara knew there was just a hint of satisfaction in her clipped tone as she stated Simon’s name. Understandably so, she inwardly defended herself, when the last time she and Bruce had spoken for any length of time he had taken great pleasure in telling her all of her faults.

Bruce’s eyes widened in obvious surprise as the other man’s identity registered. “Mr Hamilton,” he greeted him smoothly as the two men shook hands.

“Mr Bennet,” Simon coolly returned both the handshake and greeting.

“Please call me Bruce,” the other man invited lightly, the smile fading from those narrowed blue eyes as he turned to look critically at Sara. “You’re looking well, angel.”

“Sara looks beautiful,” Simon corrected coldly.

Sara’s continued tension against his encircling arm left him in no doubt that this was the man who had somehow succeeded in convincing Sara that she was neither beautiful nor sexy. The very same man who had once been her fiance.

Simon wondered under what circumstances Bruce Bennet could have made those hurtful and demeaning comments to Sara. Obviously they had not been happy ones, or the two would not now be separated.

“That’s what I meant, of course,” Bruce Bennet agreed, with the same smooth charm as his father.

“I’m afraid Bruce and I are well past the stage of being insincerely polite to each other, Simon,” Sara dismissed with noticeable brittleness. “Speaking of which-shouldn’t you be cosying up to your father’s other guests rather than wasting your practiced charm on the uncharmable?” She raised mocking brows and looked challengingly at her ex-fiance.

The hardening of those deep blue eyes was Bruce’s only noticeable reaction to the taunt.” I believe Mr Hamilton is one of my father’s guests…?”

But Simon was no more inclined to be charmed by this man than Sara was.

Basically because he had never particularly liked men with the smooth and, as Sara had already stated, practiced charm of a politician, but mainly because Simon resented the fact that this man had once been engaged to Sara. Probably lived with her. Known her longer and more intimately than any other man ever had.

Or possibly would again.

The tension between Sara and her ex-fiance went a long way towards explaining her cynicism about men and relationships. Especially if their engagement had ended as badly as their attitude towards each other would seem to imply.

Simon straightened determinedly. “A politeness only,” he clipped. “For obvious reasons Sara and I will not be staying long.” He looked challengingly at the other man.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

“Bruce, darling…” Bruce avoided meeting Simon’s challenge as he turned to smile warmly at the tiny blonde-haired woman who slipped her hand possessively into the crook of his arm as she moved to his side. “Come and say hello to Simon Hamilton and Sara, Emily. Simon, Sara-this is my wife, Emily Wesley.”

Those blue eyes glittered with malice as he deliberately looked at Sara as he made the introduction. If Simon had thought Sara pale before then she now turned an ashen gray, obviously shocked as she looked at the woman who was Bruce Bennet’s wife. Emily was a little over five feet tall, with glowingly lovely features and shoulder-length blonde hair. The rounded swell at her waistline showed that she was also very pregnant.

___________

“If you will all excuse me…” Sara turned and hurried blindly from the crowded drawing room as she felt the nausea rising at the back of her throat, only just managing to make it into the ladies’ powder room down the hallway and lock herself into one of the two marble-tiled cubicles before she was violently ill.

This couldn’t be happening! On top of every other humiliation Sara had suffered at Bruce’s hands, his wife was obviously at least six months pregnant. Something that Sara had wanted so badly… The same thing he’d rejected her for immediately she’d told him about her pregnancy.

“Sara…?”

“Simon…”

She straightened abruptly as she recognised his voice on the other side of the cubicle door…inside the ladies’ powder room!

“Are you all right?”

Was she all right? Of course she wasn’t all right! Not only had her ex-fiance gotten married, but his wife was pregnant with the baby Sara had so longed for herself! The baby he’d made her miscarry. No, she certainly couldn’t claim she was ‘all right’. But what seemed more pressing right now was that Simon shouldn’t be in the ladies’ powder room in Lincoln Bennet’s house!

Simon looked at Sara searchingly when she unlocked and opened the door, her gaze quizzical as she stepped out into the carpeted area where ladies usually freshened up. It was now empty of all but the two of them. Deliberately so, Simon having turned several of those ladies away before he stepped into the room and locked the door behind him to prevent anyone else from entering.