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CHAPTER ONE

‘AUNT BELLE! You look wonderful, positively glowing…’

‘Shouldn’t that be ed her newlydress

‘I’ised ‘But Great-Aunt Alice insisted on helping Mum to write them, and you knohat she’s like’ She pulled a wry face ‘She coot divorced sio, and sent you both joint invitations to his address…’

‘“Luscious Lucius” You still call hi a warm look at Joy’s new husband

‘Oh, Andy doesn’t hed back ‘After all, Luc is his cousin, and besides—’ she gave her new husband a eously sexy—for an older woman…’

As the grooed at his cravat, Isabelle raised her eyebrows She was thirty-four, ale, surely?

At Joy’s age she and Luc had already been married for close on two years They had e had hothoused into a woirl he had irl had become

As she had told Luc at the tirossly unfair that he had refused to acknowledge and appreciate the stresses that her career had placed on her, the anxiety that being the main breadwinner in their household had caused her And then, on top of that anxiety, to have Luc complain that she was never at home, that she valued her job more than she did him, had been just too much for her to endure, and had ultimately caused the series of destructive rohich had eventually led to their divorce

‘Luc, I have hardly any ti one of their arguments ‘When I am at home, I have housework to do, food to buy—this house doesn’t clean itself, you know I’e and keeping the cupboards filled—all you have to worry about is your precious studying Sometimes I think that is all you do think about—care about!’

Belle could still re as he’d turned away fro a little At over six foot he was much, much taller than her, but as he’d moved away from her then he’d looked oddly shrunken and defeated, huer she had felt a sense of anguish and pain, a sharp flash of panic which she’d quickly pushed to one side

If she had thought about the subject at all before they had e would be an idyll, a continuation of the hours, and days, and the very occasional stolen weekends they hadearlier in the year when she, newly graduated and working for the high-powered city firet a job, had been introduced by a friend to the brilliant young mathematician who had turned his back on the profitable world of commerce and finance and who, idealistically, had opted instead to devote himself to further study and ultimately a career as a university lecturer

It had been a private joke between thee salary and the core living on a grant But there had been no doubt in Belle’s s, her love for Luc, and she had admired him intensely for his dedication and his idealism

‘I want to ly a few ether for always But I can barely afford to support myself, never mind a wife…’

‘We could live on my salary,’ Belle had told him sunnily, far too deeply in love with hi as they shared them

If anyone had warned her then that her job, her earnings, which had ether, would one day be the cause of thehed in immediate denial Her love for Luc and his love for her bad been so strong, socould ever make them part

She uard of aon atheir own and their partner’s lives, but striking a blow for equality had been the last thing on Belle’s e, she had persuaded Luc that it made more sense for theo on sharing his crae after all She had just been proood raise

‘You ently, but Belle hadn’t really heard hi the house details she had brought ho already of how she would decorate their new home

And in the end Luc had gone along with her wishes, and they had bought the pretty village property they had both fallen for in the se within reasonably easy coe, where Luc eventually hoped to get a university post

‘I won’t be able to use e any one to see the house

‘You can travel by train, like I do,’ Belle had pointed out ‘We can travel to the station together in my car’

‘What about the days when you leave at six and don’t get back until nine or ten?’ Luc had reminded her, but Belle had been so desperately in love with the house, so sure it was perfect for theiven way—as she had known he would

They had celebrated their first night of owning the house in the big double bedroo on their duvet on the bare floorboards

Luc, always ro a fire in the hearth, and the room had setting the electricity turned on, Belle reone to try to sort it out In her absence Luc had been out and bought candles—hundreds of them, or so it had seemed They had lit her way up the stairs where Luc had carefully and formally ushered her into their bedroom

In their soft glow Luc’s face had taken on a sternness, a maturity which had both startled her a little and thrilled her She’d beco acceptance of whatever plans sheso purposeful and determined had touched a little fe for him

‘This house is our home,’ Luc told her as he started to undress her ‘Our hoether… I know it’s your salary that’s made it possible for us to buy it, but it takes more thanwe’ve both worked for…’

There was a warning there for her to heed, but she neglected to do so, shivering a little in the cool evening

air, despite the war up close to hi her ry passion of his as he started to kiss her

The physical attraction between theht from the start; Luc, three, nearly four years her senior, had technically at least been the more experienced of the two of thely adht to their relationship and to him a sexual intensity and an e he had experienced before, everything he had thought he knew, had been merely a pale shadow of their shared reality

Noith their kisses growing deeper and deeper, and the warer body, Belle forgot how cold it was, how cheerless the eot, too, the hassle she had had over their unconnected electricity supply, the irritation she had experienced with Luc because he had been so engrossed in his studies that he had forgotten to notify the authorities in time to have the supply reconnected before they moved in What did that kind of electricity matter when the variety they created between them was so intense that it could fuel a whole universe?

The duvet was soft and inviting, even if at the back of Belle’s e that it would have to be washed before it could go anywhere near the new bed she intended to persuade Luc to agree to her buying; the glow fros to the soft curves of her body and Luc’s, and the glow in Luc’s eyes washer burn so hotly for hi to blow those candles closest to them out

‘Luc…’

Wantonly she reached for hi her open ht-shadowed body, feeling him tense and shudder in wild reaction to her sensuous caresses

Her tongue-tip teased the dark arrowing of hair that spread with delicious invitation down the length of his torso, a rich, fertile valley all excitinglya harvest that Belle already knew full well more than lived up to its promise There was an idealistic intensity about Luc that he brought to everything he did, but most especially to his love for her

She was his first real true love He had once told her in the early days of their relationship that she would always be his one true love

Belle loved him just as intensely, but there was a practicality about her nature which made her sometimes feel just a little impatient of Luc’s idealis material