The Silver Bride

'Only if you come as part of the package.' 'What's that supposed to mean?' "That the way you've been behaving I don't know what to expect any more. You don't want to be pregnant. You don't want to be with me...except hi bed,' Dior outlined with a sardonic look of challenge.

An unexpected surge of tears stung the backs of Stella's eyes. She blinked furiously. "That's not true...I do want the baby...' she sniffed. 'Oh, for heaven's sake, why am I crying?' Dior reached for her coiled fingers. 'Your hormones are all over the place right now.

It's making you very emotional.' Stella reddened furiously and yanked her hand out of his, no longer touched by the prospect of the knowledge he had imbibed on her behalf. 'Did your book tell you I was a brick short of a full load?' 'No, it told me to be understanding and supportive,' Dior imparted piously.

'You haven't got the tact,' Stella informed nun dulcetly. A slashing smile of amus.e.m.e.nt curved Dior's beautiful mouth. Her heart skipped an entire beat. He was so gorgeous she couldn't take her eyes off him. 'I still want to marry you,' Dior delivered. 'But if you've got a better solution, run it by me...just as long as it doesn't entail my baby in a basket behind a shop counter.' 'No, it won't entail that.'

'Leaving him or her to go out to work?' Stella squirmed. 'Well—' 'Denying my financial support?' 'Dior, I—' 'No, you listen to me,' Dior asserted forcefully. 'If we don't marry, this child will be an outsider to my family. He won't be a secret.

But he's not likely to thank you for making him different from the children I will eventually have within marriage with someone else.' Stella subsided like a burst balloon. For someone else read Aria. Aria, who would loathe Stella's child if he or she came visiting.

Aria, who would be the ultimate wicked stepmother, determined to humiliate and denigrate the illegitimate outsider. Stella's tummy curdled, all appetite vanishing. She reckoned even the baby was taking a panic attack at the threat of such a future. 'Something I said finally clicked with you?' Dior whispered silkily.

Dredging herself from that nightmare series of visions, pressing a trembling, apologetic hand to her tummy in newly maternal protectiveness, Stella muttered between gritted teeth, 'Maybe I was a bit hasty saying I wouldn't have you as a gift.'

"That was beautifully put, Yinka Mou. So we're getting married again, are we?' Dior enquired smoothly. Stella swallowed hard, humble pie beckoning, and took off defensively on another tack. 'You won't believe what I told you about Aria Bailey .'

'No,' Dior conceded levelly. 'I could lie to you for the sake of peace, but I won't. Naturally, I understand that you were pretty upset that day. You didn't know about Aria but she didn't realize that. Had she been aware of it, she would never have approached you.' Stella compressed her wobbly mouth.

It was obvious he was never going to believe her version. He had known Aria all his rife and his trust was absolute. How would she live with that? 'Stella...the night before you found out that you were pregnant, I made the wrong decision. I didn't think it would be a good idea to start telling you about Aria .'

'You might never have had to tell me.' Dior left that speaking comment alone, hazel green eyes semi-screened. 'You were under sufficient strain. In any case, Aria was an issue I had to deal with alone.' 'You feel very guilty about her,' Stella breathed tautly. Dior frowned. '

How else could I feel?' Stella averted her eyes. 'Do...do you love her?' she dared in a driven whisper, and then sat there in mute terror of his response. 'What does love have to do with it?' That silenced Stella.

It told her so much and yet it told her nothing. Whether he loved Aria or not, he would marry Stella because she was expecting his child. But how long would he stay with her? Would Aria be proved right? But what did she have to lose? She would be Dior's wife, for a while at least.

Their child would be born legitimate. These days a lot of people didn't seem to set many stores by that, but it meant a great deal to Stella, whose own father had refused to own up to her very existence.

'We put the baby first. Then we worry about us,' Dior spelled out then, with finality. It sounded like a leading recipe for disaster to Stella. But the bottom line for her at that moment was that she loved him, and when he got that brooding darkness hi his eyes scared her and made her feel shut out. ''I'd like to get married hi a church,' she announced breezily. '

In an over-the-top dress. So if you're planning on a registered office, you've got no hope!' Dior's wide, sensual mouth eased into a smile. She felt like a performing clown, but that smile warmed her like the sunshine and she was defenseless against it