Page 29 of A Nine-Month Deal With Her Husband

Millie glared at the back of his head as he led her down the wood deck path. Just a few yards away was a geothermal pool. Right, she remembered reading something about each room having its own pool. Yes, her toes were about to fall off, but having a midnight swim in a thermal pool was a perfect idea.

Then she remembered that it would be a skinny dip and her swimming costume was back in her room. She tugged on Ben’s hand. ‘Ben, we can’t swim naked,’ she protested.

Ben stopped at the edge of their pool. Millie couldn’t see any of the other pools now, only the wild north Atlantic as it crashed on to the rocks below them. ‘Nobody can see us, and we can’t see them,’ Ben told her. ‘Everyone else is asleep.’

He shrugged out of his dressing gown and Millie thought he’d never seen anything better than Ben standing on the side of the pool, tall and strong and utterly masculine. The night sky was clear, but so dark, and Millie thought it would be amazing to sit in the pool while fat snowflakes fell from the sky.

She heard the hiss of the geothermal spring and watched Ben slide into the water, his eyes closing in sensual delight. She saw a sign attached to the wall and moved to read it, barely able to make out the words in the dim light. It was a request that all the bathers shower before entering the pool. Right, that explained Ben bundling her into the shower.

‘Come on in, Millie,’ Ben told her.

Millie undid the sash, hung her robe alongside Ben’s and tried not to feel embarrassed about being naked. It was no different from when they were in bed, she told herself. She darted a look at Ben and his look of appreciation imbued her with confidence. Using the steps, she slipped into the water...

And in five seconds, she died and went to heaven. The hot water was silky against her skin and her body heated instantly. She bent her knees and the water covered her shoulders. It was official: she might never leave this place.

Ben wrapped his arms around her waist and dropped a kiss on her temple. Millie looked up and took in the black velvet sky and the ice drop stars and felt completely happy, unbelievably content. Right now, right here, with this man, was where she most wanted to be.

‘It’s the most stunning night, cold but so clear,’ Millie whispered, feeling the need to keep her voice down. It felt wrong to talk at normal volume when the air around them was so still.

‘It is,’ Ben agreed. He guided her to a ledge and sat, positioning her back to his front so they could look out to sea. He cupped one breast with one hand and laid the other on her thigh and Millie leaned her head back to rest her head on his collarbone. Hot water, an amazing sky and Ben. What else could she need?

‘Bettina sent me the slideshow they are going to play at the concert, Ben, and a rough draft of the speech detailing her work with the foundation,’ Millie lazily told him after they’d been silent for a few minutes. She could be quiet with Ben and she didn’t feel the need to fill every minute talking.

‘And?’

‘It’s good,’ Millie said. ‘Humorous and lovely without being maudlin. It’ll be so hard to speak without crying, especially knowing you won’t be there. I wish you’d change your plans and do the speech for me—’

‘You need to do it, Millie,’ Ben told her and Millie heard thedon’t go therenote in his voice. A few days ago she’d asked him, again, whether he’d read the speech for her and got a curt, harsh ‘no’ as a reply.

‘But I could delay my trip to St Barth’s and fly out after the concert, if youreallywanted me there.’

She tipped her head back and up so she could, sort of, look at his face. ‘Ireallydo want you there, Ben. And Jacqui loved you and I think your absence would be noticed.’

‘I know,’ he admitted, his voice sounding rough. ‘It’s j-just...’ He hesitated for a few beats, before taking in a deep breath. ‘I still miss her and I thought it would be easier to be somewhere else.’

Millie understood that. Being around people who loved her mum, and who wanted to talk about her, brought a lot of the pain of losing her back and it was a sharper stab than before.

‘I’ll change my plans, Mils, and I’ll attend the gala concert with you. I’ll fly out when it’s done.’

‘Thank you.’ And maybe, somehow, she’d persuade him to do the speech for her. She sighed and tipped her eyes to inspect the bold, brash sky, filled with stars. ‘This land... I’d forgotten how enchanting it is.’

She felt Ben drop a kiss into her hair—it was still in the messy bun she’d pulled it into before she went into the shower. ‘It’s nice to see you enjoying Iceland, Millie,’ he murmured. ‘The last time you were here, you couldn’t wait to leave.’

True enough. She’d desperately wanted to get away from Magnús and start a new life somewhere else. ‘Iceland was too small for both of us,’ she replied.

‘You and me or you and Magnús?’

‘My stepfather and I,’ she clarified. ‘Our relationship was nightmarish.’

Ben took a while to answer her. ‘I now know that you had your problems after your mum died, but I thought that you two got along well before Jacqui died. Icelandic people don’t get hung up about step kids and parentage. They’re pretty welcoming. Why wasn’t Magnús?’

‘He resented me, resented the attention my mum gave me.’

‘Why didn’t Jacqui tell you about your biological father?’

It was a question she’d asked herself a thousand times. ‘I don’t know. She was unbelievably honest, yet she lied to me about Magnús until the day she died.’

Ben’s chest lifted with his sigh. ‘I’ve wondered about that, too, because Jacqui wasn’t secretive.’

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