Lifelong Affair Read Online Free PDF Page B

nothing ever
deterred or upset him.
    It
came as a surprise to her when she was shown into the first class section of
the plane, to the seat next to Alex Hammond. She had been booked into a scat
much farther down the plane, had been told that there were no other seats
available.
    'I
already had a scat reserved for you,' Alex told her at her qustioning look.
    Her
eyes widened. 'You knew I would be coming with you?'
    'I
told you, Glenna talked of you a lot, I was able to assess what your reaction
would be.'
    But
you flew over here yourself anyway?
    'It
was worth a try,' he shrugged.
    'Never,'
she shook her head firmly. 'I'll never give Courtney up.'
    Alex
sighed. 'I suggest we save any further talk of the baby until a less emotional
time.'
    Morgan instantly felt guilty. This man had
another long flight in front of him—he was likely to meet himself on the
way back!—and what he needed at the moment was to rest. She deliberately
stopped talking, although
her tension began to rise as the engines of the plane roared for take-off.
Everything had happened so suddenly, so quickly, that until this moment she
hadn't given a thought to the flight itself. Glenna and Mark had
just died in an aircraft very similar to this one, what if
    'It
won't happen, Morgan.' Strong fingers clasped about hers, gently reassuring.
    She
had never thought of herself as a weak or dependent woman, and yet at that
moment she was petrified, turning into the comfortable width of shoulder at her
side, clinging on to Alex Hammond as if they were lovers.
    Only
when the plane was safely in the air did she move away from him. 'I'm sorry,
her lashes were downcast in her embarrassment at breaking down in that way.
'I'm not usually—well, I don't nor mally—'
    'Forget
it,' he dismissed abrupdy. 'I already have. v
    It
wasn't the normal reaction a man had to holding her in his arms, and it irked
her somewhat that this man was so immune to the female form. The man was a
damned robot!
    It
didn't in the least surprise her when he fell asleep shortly after take-off,
and she remained quietly at his side, guessing that he needed the rest. And if
the truth were known she needed a little time to herself, to think quietly, to
realise that she and the man at her side had sole responsibility for a tiny
baby who would never know his real parents, who would be denied a mother's
love. Morgan vowed on that long flight that she would be the mother to Courtney
that Glenna had intended her to be—no matter what the Hammonds said or
did!
    Alex
had left his Mercedes parked at the airport, and with the ease with which she
was coming to expect from him he saw them through Customs and into the car,
driving them to the Hammond house in Surrey himself.
    'Courtney -- '
    'I'll
drive you to see him tomorrow,' Alex interrupted abruptly. 'I believe we may be
able to bring him home then.'
    Morgan
couldn't help the sudden rush of colour in her cheeks. It sounded curiously
intimate for the two of them to be bringing home a baby. Obviously Alex thought
so too.
    'A nanny will be engaged for him,' he added harshly.               
    'No!'
    'It's the best way'
    'It
may be your best way, Alex,' she scorned, ignoring the tiredness still about
his eyes, the fact that he must be feeling exhausted, knowing only that if she
gave in to him over this then she would be continually doing so, 'but I happen
to believe Courtney needs a mother's love, not the impersonality of a transient
nanny.'
    'A
mother's love is something we can't give him!' Alex rasped.
    'I
can,' Morgan told him heatedly, her eyes flashing deeply green. 'I intend
adopting him as my own son.'
    Grey
eyes snapped with anger. 'That might be a httle difficult,' he ground out.
    She
eyed him warily. 'Why?
    'Both
guardians have to agree to any plans involving Courtney,' he pointed out
grimly.
    She
stiffened, turning in the leather seat to look at him, aware that he looked
very weary, lines of strain beside his eyes and mouth, the latter a taut