An Exception to His Rule by Lindsay Armstrong Page B

me all...’ She trailed off frustratedly.
    ‘Het up about nothing?’ he suggested mildly.
    She cast him a speaking look. ‘Do you want to hear this or not?’ she asked acerbically.
    ‘Go ahead.’
    ‘I fell in love. I...’ She paused. ‘I guess you could say I gave it my all. And we had...we did have some wonderful times. But then he noticed another woman and I could literally feel him slipping away from me. That’s why...’ She stopped.
    ‘That’s a fairly common thing to happen,’ he said slowly. ‘How long ago was this?’
    ‘A year or so ago.’ She shrugged.
    ‘That’s all?’ he queried with a frown.
    No, it’s not all, Damien Wyatt, Harriet thought, but that’s all you’re getting, well...
    ‘Well, I’ve wondered ever since whether I brought it on myself. I guess...’ she twined her fingers together ‘...I may have been looking for someone to take over my life. No...’ she frowned ‘...not that exactly, but someone I could depend on to make the right decisions for us. Rather than me having to, as I seemed to have grown up doing.
    ‘But when it started to fall apart I couldn’t help thinking I may have come across as too “needy” and it was probably a relief for him to get away,’ she said with a wave of her hand. ‘I still don’t know the answer to that but, whatever, I’m not prepared to go through all that again. I thought...I should explain, though.’ She hesitated because, of course, there was more but telling anyone was something she’d never been able to do yet...
    Their gazes caught and held.
    ‘But you don’t seem to have that problem,’ she said at last. ‘I mean I get the feeling you’d be quite happy to “start something”.’ Her glance was very blue and tinged with irony.
    He crossed his arms and studied her thoughtfully. ‘Yes, but, to be perfectly honest, if there is such a thing as...’ he paused as if searching for the right phrase ‘... love ever after , I don’t think it’s going to exist for me.’
    Harriet’s eyes widened. ‘Your marriage...’ She trailed off awkwardly.
    He raised an eyebrow at her. ‘Isabel?’
    ‘No. Charlie.’
    He looked heavenward. ‘I might have known.’ Then, ‘Well, you probably don’t need me to elaborate.’
    ‘All he told me was her name—and that he’d got firmly put in his place for merely mentioning it a little while back.’
    Damien grimaced. ‘Sounds like Charlie.’
    ‘Sounds like you, actually.’ A faint smile twisted her lips. ‘So, it left you disillusioned?’
    ‘It did a lot more damage.’ He looked across the room and his dark eyes were cold. ‘But, yep, it certainly left me unwilling to repeat the experience—I know!’ He raised his hand as Harriet opened her mouth. ‘You’re going to say with another woman it could be different. Perhaps. But not for me. I don’t part easily from my grudges, be they personal or embracing an institution like marriage.’
    Something like a shiver ran down Harriet’s spine because she had a feeling his estimation of his character was correct...
    ‘In a way, we’re a bit alike,’ he said then, drumming his fingers on the table. ‘Too much responsibility at an early age, only it took us differently.’ He paused, looking briefly humorous. ‘You wanted someone to take over; I got too used to being in command to be able to bend at all.’
    ‘How come?’
    He shrugged. ‘I was twenty-two when my father died. And we were about to be taken over so I had to stave that off and get us up and running again. That’s when I made the dicey decision to expand into mining machinery when we’d always concentrated on agriculture and its machinery.
    ‘Plus,’ he said rather wryly, ‘I think I was born with an “ornery” streak. Arthur agrees with me.’
    ‘Talking of Arthur,’ Harriet said with a smile, ‘Penny is pregnant.’
    Damien grimaced.
    ‘You don’t approve of her, do you?’
    ‘I think she manipulates him shamelessly,’ he said dryly, then