Read The Scent of His Woman Online
Authors: Maggie Pritchard
When they’d had their fill of heated kisses, they unpacked lunch from the bike
panniers and ate in companionable silence. Soft muffins filled with cream cheese, crispy
bacon and spiced with peppery green rocket, followed by juicy red apples and crumbling
blueberry muffins.
The return ride had been every bit as demanding, the descent was rocky and steep
enough in places to warrant extreme care. Lexie felt her back and arms begin to ache as
she pulled the bike around obstacles fighting to keep it upright. Then thankfully they were
back on the lower trails and it was an easy ride back to the cabin. Now all she could think
of was how wonderful this hot tub was, how ravenous she was and how sexy the man sat
opposite her was.
Geth leant back in the tub, eyes closed letting the heat of the water soothe away the
day’s exertions. Soon they’d eat and then he’d take her to bed, a perfect ending. For soon
it would end, it had to, he was getting too comfortable having her around. He didn’t want to
do comfortable. He’d spent a lifetime fighting comfortable, staid, respectable, all those
things had been left back on the farm. Neatly labelled “family”, always there, available
when he needed a dose of it, but not who or what he was about.
He felt the wash of warm, moving water, the soft glide of her lips over his. With unerring
instinct his hands moved to her waist, guiding as she slipped onto his lap and all thought
was obliterated by her.
The following morning dawned bright and clear. They spent the morning walking by
the lake and enjoying a light lunch, it was the work of a few minutes to pack and get back
on the road. Again the pleasant companionable silence, each relaxed, enjoying the
moment, not looking too far ahead.
He looked over with a smile, ‘ we’re scheduled to take off at eight tonight, so it will
be best if we sleep during the flight to minimize the jet-lag. We’ll be in Cardiff around 8 am
UK time, so we can freshen up at the apartment and start out for Cardigan about mid
morning and get there for lunch.’
‘No, safe to say Mared is unique. Mam and Dad still live on the farm, though Rhys,
my older brother runs it now. He’s always been a farmer, never wanted anything else. Dad
helps out a bit but spends more time on the golf course now. Mam on the other hand is
probably busier than before they retired. She’s on a whole load of committees, and she
has enough to do running the house still. Though when Rhys and Becca get married she’ll
take over and Mam and Dad will move into one of the cottages.’
‘Yes, well sort of, there’s going to be a marquee on the lawn too and one of the
barns has been cleared for the Twmpath, with room for a band and dancing.’
‘I’ve never been to a Twmpath, what’s it like, will it matter that I don’t know the
dances?’
‘It’s great fun, and no you don’t need to know much in advance. It’s quite like a
Scottish Ceilidh, most country dances are quite similar and there will be a caller too. All
you need to do is listen to his instructions and follow me, don’t worry.’
‘I’m not worried about the dancing, well not much, I’m more concerned with lying to
your family. I’ve never been a pretend fiancée before. What if they aren't convinced?’
‘They will be, stop worrying, we’ll be staying in a farm cottage, not in the main
house, so if you need a break you can bolt there to hide, but they’ll love you, and all you
ned to do is hang on my arm and be sweet. You can mange sweet if you try hard enough, I
know you can.’
His laughing tease eased the niggling worries out of her mind, and she relaxed back
in her seat, and watched the Canadian vista pass by, determined to stamp every precious
memory into her brain. All too soon they were taking off, as she prepared to settle down for
the flight Lexie felt strangely saddened, the holiday was over, she was heading back to
reality and in all probability would never make it back to this wonderful country. As soon as
the party was over, Geth and she would part company, privately and publicly and her
glimpse of how the other half live would be over too. She would get back to normal,
working the allotment, the shop, her life would be hers again. Rolling that thought around
her brain she waited for the sense of relief it should have brought with it, and when it didn’t
come she found she couldn’t make any sense of the feelings that did.
Chapter 8
They flew into Cardiff airport and were wrapped in a damp blanket of soft warm summer
rain. Lexie had slept fitfully despite the luxury and space and the short journey to Geth’s
apartment felt like the last tedious straw. She was she thought afterwards, unusually
grumpy and ungracious, but on reaching the apartment all she could think of was how
badly she needed to sleep. As Geth dropped their bags in the hallway and headed to the
kitchen and coffee, Lexie’s leaden feet seemed to head for the bedroom of their own
accord. She was sitting on the edge of the bed half undressed when he found her, hair all
mussed, feet and legs bare as she tugged at the buttons of her shirt, frowning as each
seemed to resist being pulled open. A flood of emotion, a moment of clarity, and a shot of
pure terror floored him. The emotion was love, not lust, love and he realised it was what
had driven him this past week. Love at first sight, something found in romance novels with
pink covers, or so he’d thought. No wonder it had taken a while to recognise it, but now
that he had it was terrifying. It came with all the things he’s been avoiding all his adult life.
Settling down, respectability, responsibility. Responsibility, the word raced around his brain
increasing his heart rate as it did so. He couldn’t be responsible for her in that way. Oh he
could look after her physically, keep the press at bay, keep her well looked after, showered
with the luxury his money could buy, but be responsible for her happiness, open himself to
let her do the same for him? He flinched as remembered pain hit him, he saw her again,
Ruth, smiling at him, making his heart swell, Ruth riding towards the jump, then flying
through the air as it all went wrong, and his whole world plunged into pain and sorrow. No
it was beyond him, way beyond him. He wouldn’t go there again, ever.
Lexie gave up, let the damn shirt stay where it was, she drew her legs up, rolled
over into the bed and drew the duvet over with a sigh of relief. Geth moved closer to stand
looking down at the tumble of copper curls which was all of her he could see. Stood there
for a long moment before turning on his heel and leaving her to sleep. Coffee, he needed
coffee and lots of it, that would clear his brain and help him work out what to do.
He let her sleep well into the morning while he sat on the balcony overlooking the
man-made lagoon, drinking coffee and trying to come up with a plan. For crying out loud,
he ran a multi-million pound operation, made deals with some of the biggest players on the
current construction scene, what was so difficult about this? Ok so he loved her, it didn’t
mean she loved him, didn’t mean it was meant to be a permanent thing. People fell in and
out of ‘love’ all the time, that was common knowledge. So how to fall ‘out of love’ that was
what he needed to work out, simple! An hour later he gave up, the truth was he couldn’t
come up with one constructive idea. He’d have to wing it, just stick to the plan and in a few
days they’d part and maybe then, without her around, he’d be able to start the process of
falling out of love. Making his way into the bedroom to wake her he admitted to himself that
as a plan it was weak, no denying that but it might just work. Then he saw that she’d
tossed and tumbled in the bed and thrown the duvet off. She lay with her back to him, shirt
rucked up to reveal the curve of her waist, her round little bottom barely covered by the
black silk of her panties made the breath hitch in his throat. He moved forward, sat on the
edge of the bed and buried his face in her hair and breathed in her perfume, that scent
that was unique to her and he was lost.
It was a lovely way to wake, his breath on her neck, his hand cool as it stroked her
thigh, the promise of more. Lexie turned into his arms, seeking his mouth, sighing as he
came to meet her and her world dissolved into the kiss. Geth was a good lover, inventive,
gentle, sometimes not so gentle, but always considerate and plain damn great at it, but
this slow, tender loving was on a whole different level. Touching, tasting, kissing, all of
those elements were familiar, but there was none of that frenetic building of need, none of
that desperate search for fulfillment. This was fulfillment, being together, not only making
love, but giving love, knowing that together they would arrive at heaven.
She slept in his arms and just as sleep claimed him too Geth realised just how weak
his plan was.
The drive to the farm had been uneventful, if you could call rattling along for nearly
a hundred miles in Belinda uneventful. By the time Lexie pulled her little green rattletrap to
a halt beside the cottage Geth was in actual pain. His long legs cramped as he stretched
them out, and he felt ever so slightly disorientated from the strange swaying movement of
the car in motion. Lexie had insisted on driving to Cardigan.
‘Belinda hates being left standing, she may not even start for me now after being
here for days. I need to give her a good run to charge everything up and so I might as well
drive to your farm. You give me instructions and I’ll find it ok.’
‘Look it’s too far, we’ll take my car and I’ll get that thing sorted out for you when we
get back.’
‘No, I’m taking Belinda, I might need a car while were there anyway.’
‘If you do there are plenty you can borrow, there’s no need to take that thing.’
Geth had tried but there was not changing her mind, and rather than let her drive all
that way alone, he’d left the Porsche in Cardiff and endured the journey at her side. She
drove well, not fast obviously, but with care and just a touch of panache. It wasn’t the
driver, it was the damn car. It swayed around corners, seemed to leap over bumps and
made enough noise to give him a headache. Add to that a complete lack of any comfort,
heavens there was even a draught from the windows, and it added up to the worst
nightmare of a car. Lexie however seemed to love it. He’d never understand women.
‘Well at least we made it in one piece.’ It was said with little grace and Lexie smiled,
it made a change for her to be able to rattle him.
‘Oh stop moaning, it makes a change for you to step out of your gilded luxury once
in a while and remember how ordinary people live.’
‘Huh, take my word for it, ordinary people don’t drive 2CVs!’
‘OMG, you live in a castle? It’s, it’s...’
‘It’s a monstrosity, that’s what it is, in every way, it’s too big, too difficult to heat and
the upkeep bills are a nightmare, but Caer-hafod is home and we all love it, heavens
knows why. I prefer to stay in the cottage though, it’s more compact and I’m used to my
own space now.’
‘What does it mean, Caer-hafod?’
‘Fortified summer farmstead, it’s one of the old native Welsh refuges, harking back
to when farming was not the static thing it is today, families lived where they needed to be,
lush lowland pastures in the summer, but moving to a more sheltered winter location. And
of course you had to protect what was yours against a whole gamut of would-be raiders,
hence the strange dwelling you see here.’
‘So do you have a winter house too?’
‘No, not any more, it does exist though, it’s about ten miles away, Caer-hendre is a
residential home now I believe.’
Lexie stared open mouthed at the farm, it was something between a large
farmhouse and a small castle. An odd mixture of the two. The central house was a solid
stone farmhouse, big, but still a house. The east end however rose into a tower, topped by
a parapet. The whole was surrounded by a solid wall of outbuildings and high defensive
structures. It looked as if once the house was built, its inhabitants had periodically
responded to some threat or danger by collecting more and more of the local stone to
fortify their home. A tower here, a stretch of wall or a barn there, always with one eye on
farming practicalities.
Geth had not directed her to the farm however, but to a cottage that stood a little
way from the main farmhouse, in its own, well tended garden. It was made of the same
light grey limestone as the bigger house and topped with smooth slate tiles. Geth had lifted
their bags from the car and was making his way up the cottage path as he spoke, so she
followed looking around as she did so. Lexie loved it, everything about this neat little
house appealed to her. She loved the sleepy little windows, and the bright painted front
door, green not red like the many front doors they driven past. She loved the clean lined
simple pine kitchen, and the cozy living room where soft sofa’s sat invitingly in front of a
log burning stove. She explored the narrow wooden staircase, a deep red runner painted
down the centre of it led her to one well lit bedroom, which had obviously been made from
two smaller ones, and a good sized modern bathroom. Geth had dumped their bags on
the king sized bed and was unpacking his, dropping his stuff into the deep drawers of a
pine captain’s chest with confident familiarity.
‘There’s plenty of room, just put your stuff where you like. then we’ll freshen up and
head over to the farm. You can meet everyone and then I’ll show you around.’
As she showered and changed Lexie felt the tension build. This was it, crunch time.
She needed to act the loving fiancée, but how was it possible to fool his family? Surely
they’d know, pick up on the signs of the fraud. Her sisters would, she was sure of it,
knowing her as they did. Geth’s family sounded a close knit one, they’d suss her out for
sure.
‘Hey, don’t look so worried, they’ll love you, I promise.’
‘How do you know? They might not, you said your Mum wants you to marry her
friend’s daughter. Why would she like me? They’ll know we’re pretending, I just know they
will. How can I even pretend to look like a fiancée?’
Geth laughed and before she could utter another word, pulled he into his arms and
kissed her. Kissed her so thoroughly she was rocked to her core. Then he stepped back
and smiled.
‘There, now you look like a fiancée, a well kissed, loved up fiancée, so stop
worrying.’
They left the cottage arm in arm leaving the cottage unlocked, that simple act of not
locking the door brought home to Lexie the differences in them. He’d been surrounded,
cocooned in safety his whole life. First here, growing up surrounded by family, where the
idea of locking of doors did not even register, and as he’d moved on, his wealth, power
and position continued to guarantee freedom and security. He had known nothing else,
how could he even begin to understand her, they were so different. Her life had been
fraught with uncertainty, her parents had been what might be termed ‘new age travelers’,
committed to enjoying what they saw as freedom, but sadly oblivious to their children’s
need for at least a modicum of stability. Not that it had been a bad life most of the time.
They enjoyed a freedom she now knew most children did not. They were always on the
move so schooling was sporadic and in-between they played around whatever camp, or
commune they’d stopped at. her happy memories were of long lazy summer days, and of
evenings spent listening to the music that always accompanied the shared meals, often as
not around a smoking camp fire. It was not even as if she really had ‘bad memories’, it was
more a constant sense of uncertainty. They never knew how long they would be staying, or
where they would go next. The nature of the ‘moving on’ was another unknown,
sometimes their parents just decided to take off, following some nameless wanderlust, but
other times they would be driven off, usually by an irate landowner, and while it was
accepted, at least by the adults as part and parcel of the lifestyle, for Lexie and her sisters
it made for a life that seemed to be forever shifting, changing. Little wonder that the three
had settled down together at the earliest opportunity, leaving their parents to continue the
wandering life they loved. Lexie had been just sixteen, when her sisters, faced with yet
another family move announced the intention of staying put, getting a job and renting a
roof to live under.