Modern Romance November Books 1-4. Sharon Kendrick

function smoothly. You had to be both efficient yet invisible, because people didn’t really see you—only the service you provided.

      Did Salvio see her? she wondered. Or was she simply a vessel to bear his child? The woman he had transformed with his vast fortune, so that she could lie in a Barbadian paradise, looking out over an azure sea as if she’d been born to this life?

      The chink of ice made her glance towards the entrance to their villa, where Salvio was standing holding two tall, frosted glasses. As he began to walk towards her she wondered how a man could look so utterly at ease, completely naked save for his sunhat.

      Handing her a glass, he joined her on the lounger and for a while they sipped their drinks in silence.

      ‘Salvio,’ she said eventually, watching the ice melt in the fruity cocktail.

      He turned his face towards her. ‘Mmm...?’

      ‘What am I actually going to do? I mean, once we get back to England and you go back to work.’

      He swirled the ice around in his glass, his fingers dark against the sunlit condensation. ‘Weren’t we planning to have a baby?’

      ‘Yes, we were. Are,’ she corrected. ‘But that might not happen straight away, might it? And I can’t just sit around all the time just...waiting.’

      There was a pause. ‘You want me to find you something to do?’ He studied her carefully. ‘There’s a charitable arm belonging to my company. Do you think you’d like to get involved in that?’

      She hesitated, genuine surprise tearing through her at the realisation he must think her good enough to be a part of his organisation. But it wasn’t his validation which pleased her as much as the thought that this would make her a more integral part of his life—and wasn’t that what marriage was all about? ‘I’d like that very much.’ She smiled, but his next words killed her pleasure stone dead.

      ‘You know your brother tapped me for a loan at the wedding?’

      The glass she was holding almost slipped from her suddenly nerveless fingers and quickly Molly put it down, her cheeks flaming. ‘What?’

      ‘He said he had an idea for a new business venture and asked if I’d like to invest in it.’

      ‘You didn’t say yes?’

      ‘You think I’m in the habit of throwing money away? I asked him how much he had already raised, and how—but he seemed reluctant to answer.’ Beneath the shadowed brim of his hat, she saw that his eyes were now as hard and as cold as jet. ‘Did you know about this, Molly?’

      It hurt that he should ask but, when she thought about it afterwards, why wouldn’t he ask? Salvio had been a target for women during his playing days and had fallen for someone who saw him as nothing but a trophy husband. He made no secret of not trusting women—so why should he feel any differently about her?

      ‘Of course I didn’t know he was going to ask you,’ she said in a low voice. ‘And if he’d sought my opinion I would have told him not to even think about it.’

      He nodded as he stared out at the bright blue horizon and the subject was closed. But Molly’s determination not to let his silky accusation ruin the rest of the day only went so far, and suddenly she was aware of the aching disappointment which made the sunny day feel as if it had been darkened by a cloud.