Delicious Desires (20 page)

Chapter Twenty-four

“I still don’t understand why we couldn’t have moved over here weeks ago.” Caroline frowned slightly as they drove through the huge gates that fronted Adam’s beautiful house. “It’s been a nightmare living in my flat.” She complained.

Adam shook his head.

“I told you I wanted to get Toby’s room set up for him and he’s only been out of hospital for a fortnight. It’s not as though I had time to plan beforehand.”

Caroline had th
e grace to lower her eyes to her hands.

“Please don’t make me feel any worse Adam.” She spoke quietly, the guilt swamping her.

“I didn’t mean to. I was only explaining about the wait.” He looked up at the front of the beautiful building. “It was my first project.” Adam explained. “I couldn’t bear to sell it after all the effort it took. Cost a bomb. At one stage I thought I was going to go bankrupt, but then suddenly everything changed. Some chap just happened to pass by. He saw this and asked to come in for a look around. He commissioned me to design and build his family something similar. I never looked back.”

He pulled up at the front of the house but was suddenly strangely hesitant as he helped Caroline and Toby out of the car. He took hold of her arm as he opened the front door and gave a small apologetic cough as they walked in through the heavy glass doors.

She almost choked at the change inside. It was barely recognizable as the fabulous art filled room she had seen once before. The room was nearly completely empty. There were no sculptures or paintings, the odd bits of furniture didn’t appear to have been matched and where the glass gallery had been there was now a rough wooden barrier. She looked around, shocked to the core.

Adam took a deep breath.

“And this is the other reason why I didn’t want to bring you back here. It still needs sorting out.” He waited quietly while Caroline turned in a full circle, her mouth hanging open in shock.

“What happened here?” She eventually spluttered. “Where is everything? Has there been a fire or some sort of accident?” Her voice echoed back at her in the vast emptiness.

Adam dropped his eyes and looked horribly ashamed.

“It’s nothing that can’t be fixed. Don’t worry about it. Damien has already promised me another Angel.” He tried to be flippant but then caved in at Caroline’s dark look. “I thought I’d lost you.” He said simply. “When I arrived back from Dubai, I went straight from the airport to your flat. I saw you with David and I didn’t even consider that there could be any explanation other than he was the new man in your life. As soon as I was back here, I got rid of Trish and Alf for the weekend.” He looked down at her confused face.

“Why?” She asked him, eyes wide with curiosity now.

His tone darkened.

“If they’d been here, or if they’d tried to stop me, I might have killed them.” He paused and sighed at her appalled expression. “I was so hurt and angry Caroline, you can’t imagine how I felt. I went completely berserk and trashed the place.” He confessed to her quietly. “I mean completely trashed it. Everything. I didn’t leave a thing unbroken down here. Not one single thing. I made sure of that.” His voice was a hollow whisper as he remembered the all-consuming rage that had swept over him. He shuddered once and then shook himself and smiled at her shocked expression. “Don’t worry. I was too tired to wreck too much of the upstairs. You wouldn’t believe how hard granite and oak is to smash with your bare hands. It’s mostly all fine up there.” He nodded towards the floating stairs. “Daniel came and rescued me from my own self-pity about four or five days later.”

Caroline began to breathe again.

“For goodness’ sake Adam! What am I going to do with you?” She exclaimed, trembling slightly at the thought of the power it would have taken to smash the huge oak table that had sat in the kitchen. “Don’t you ever do anything so stupid again!” Caroline admonished him. “I’m not worth it.”

Adam gave a gruff laugh.

“You are to me.” He caught hold of her hand and brought it tenderly to his lips. “You are everything to me, my whole world. I don’t care about anything else and I won’t care about anything else ever. I am nothing without you.” He leaned over and kissed the top of her head.

She ducked away from him, still unhappy with his explanation.

“But that happened months ago and you obviously haven’t done much since to put it right.” Her face was still aghast as she thought of all the beautiful, priceless art that had been destroyed because of her.

Adam shrugged.

“I didn’t think there was any point to sorting it all out. We’ve given it a coat of paint where the walls were all scraped, but to be honest, I kind of lost interest in everything.” He looked down at the sleeping Toby crooked in his other arm. “That’s all changed now. We can put it all right together. You can choose the art if you want to.” He smiled contentedly his voice now warm. “Come on, let’s go and see if you like what I’ve done in Toby’s room.”

They walked up the stairs together, Caroline frowning as she noticed deep gouges in some of the treads. At the top of the stairs they turned along the gallery and went into the room that Caroline had once slept in.

Adam had changed everything in it. There was a beautiful blue cot with soft ivory drapes. The walls were now a rich cream with pale blue stripes and there were pictures of the sea all around. Curtains floated at the windows and an enormous pile of toys were heaped in the corner.

“Oh Adam. It’s lovely.” Caroline whispered. Adam walked to the cot and gently laid the sleeping Toby in it. He settled down immediately and Adam leaned over and kissed his son’s head.

“I knew he’d like it straight away… Do you want to come and see our room?” Adam asked as he linked her arm and started pulling her out of Toby’s room. Caroline was reluctant and she hesitated at the door, almost embarrassed.

“Adam, I can’t sleep with you yet. It’s only been three weeks, I’m not ready.” She mumbled into her chest. He lifted her head with a gentle hand and kissed her lightly on her trembling lips.

“I know that, silly. Don’t worry, I have read some books about pregnancy and all that stuff, you know. And I asked David. Daniel knows all the theory but he doesn’t have any kids yet. David is the most experienced bloke I know with this sort of thing. I’m not completely clueless… I won’t put you under any pressure at all. I just want to be close to you, that’s all. I want to lay in bed with you and hold you against me and feel your warm body next to mine.” He looked deeply into her eyes, his sincerity obvious.

Caroline almost cried out with need.

“Oh Adam, I want that too. I love you.” She put her hand up to his cheek and felt his hot skin. They walked into their room and Adam moved her to sit on the bed with him. He wrapped his arm tightly around her shoulder.

“We need to discuss wedding plans
too. I thought about a four or five weeks’ time. I don’t want to wait too long. The development should be finished by then and I haven’t got anything else planned that I need to be involved with since I gave up the Dubai thing. We can have our honeymoon in this fantastic place I know in France.” He sounded excited but then stopped as Caroline glanced nervously back towards where Toby was sleeping in his room and Adam guessed the reasons for her worried look. “He’ll come with us of course, don’t worry so much. You didn’t think I’d leave him with someone else did you?” He chided Caroline.

She shook her head.

“I wouldn’t have let you anyway. He’s so adorable, I don’t want to miss a single minute with him. Well not a single awake minute with him at any rate.” She smiled up at Adam. “A month sounds good. But I really don’t want a big do Adam. Do you mind? I just want it to be us.”

“No, I don’t mind at all. I would prefer that myself.” He replied obviously relieved. “Good, that will make it even easier
to arrange. Leave it all to me; you just enjoy being a new mum.”

Chapter T
wenty-five

Caroline gasped in wonder as they drove under the thick avenue of trees and out into the bright evening sunshine. The huge crenellated towers of the fabulous château stood massive and indestructible in front of them. Dark shadows cast by the setting sun behind the walls spilled out over the beautifully manicured lawns as they passed under a huge stone archway and stopped outside impressive wooden doors.

Caroline climbed out of the car, still in her wedding outfit of pale jade green. It set off the
colour of her eyes and the darkness of her hair, which shone over her shoulders.

“Adam, this is unbelievably beautiful, however did you find anywhere so incredible?” She was still looking up as he passed Toby to her. Adam began to unload the cases from the back of the Mercedes they had collected at the airport.

He looked up at the magnificent towers and smiled. Her reaction was just as he had hoped.

“I’ve known it for a while, but I’ve only managed to stay here two or three times. It will be quite
cosy though. Apparently there are only twenty bedrooms.”

There was suddenly a shout and they both looked towards a great wooden door as a small man, babbling in French, rushed down the Ch
âteau steps and grabbed Adam’s arms. He pulled him down and kissed him exuberantly on either side of his face. Adam dropped the cases and embraced the man affectionately. They slapped each other on the back, the Frenchman appearing to be slightly winded afterwards.

“Jean-Paul, let me introduce you to my wife a
nd son.” Adam ignored the man’s temporary fit of wheezing. “Caroline, Toby, this is my friend Jean-Paul Lozac’h.”

“
Enchanté Madame, et felicitations!” Jean-Paul exclaimed breathlessly. “When Monsieur Adam telephoned me to say ‘e was becoming an ‘usband and a father I was stunned, but now that I see ‘is beautiful bride I am not at all surprised. Welcome to the Château.”

Caroline giggled as she was pulled into an embrace and kissed extravagantly too. Toby was fussed over as well, and then Jean-Paul grabbed the bags from the driveway and headed in through the great doors.

“Wow! What a welcome!” She exclaimed as they followed the man. “You obviously made an impression when you stayed here last. I’m so glad we’ve arrived. It’s been such a long day, I feel absolutely shattered. I hope we can check in quickly.” She was looking around inside the vast entrance hall. There didn’t seem to be a reception desk to check in at. Adam pulled off his charcoal grey linen jacket and threw it over the back of a chair standing in the huge hallway, and kicked his shoes off underneath it.

The relief was obvious on his face.

“I’ve been dying to get them off. I think my feet must have grown. I swear they were fine the last time I wore them.” He looked down at his black socks as he wriggled his toes.

Caroline was aghast.

“Adam. Don’t be so sloppy, put them back on. The other guests won’t want to see your clothes lying about all over the place or those.” She scolded him in a whisper as she eyed his huge feet. Her eyes boggled as she spotted one of Adam’s toes fighting to escape from a hole in the end of his sock. Her words echoed around the great hall and she looked about furtively to make sure nobody had seen or heard them.

He just stood there not moving, looking at her intently.

“I’ll dump my clothes wherever I like in my own home.” He stopped to watch her reaction. It was more dramatic than he had anticipated.

Her eyes widened even more as her mouth dropped open and she started to hyperventilate. She gasped, trying to breathe more slowly, but it was no good. The huge hallway started to spin around her and she swayed towards him.

“Caroline!” He called out, suddenly shocked by her reaction. “It’s okay! Don’t pass out on me.” Adam moved quickly to her side and grabbed Toby with one hand as she looked about to fall. He clasped her to his chest with the other. Her eyes suddenly fluttered closed and her legs gave way under her.

Frantic with worry he shouted for Jean-Paul. The Frenchman came running and exclaimed at Caroline’s wilting figure. He took Toby from Adam
’s hand and Adam scooped Caroline up into his arms, cradling her against his shoulder as he carried her towards a chaise. He laid her gently on the soft velvet and, sitting down next to her, he took Toby back from Jean-Paul. He brushed her cheek with his free hand and asked Jean-Paul for some water. Her eyelids began to flutter.

Caroline came round slowly, her head still spinning from the shock. She looked up at Adam, her expression incredulous.

“I didn’t hear that right did I? You can’t mean that you own this place.” She eventually spluttered. “Nobody owns castles like this.”

Adam laughed, relieved that she seemed well again.

“Well, they do in France. And I own this one. Well actually I did own it but I don’t anymore.” He smiled at her confused face. “You own it now. It’s your wedding gift from me. Part of your dream. I hope you approve of my choice.” He examined her startled face carefully. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to faint. I thought it would be a nice little surprise for you.”