Second Best Wife Read Online Free PDF Page A

fact. I may have my faults, William dear, but your kind of arrogance is not part of my make-up. How will your pride enjoy having a wife who's in love with somebody else?'
    'With whom?' He laughed without humour. 'Are you trying to tell me you have a boy-friend?'
    'Why not?' she countered in commendably cool tones.
    'Who is he?'
    She opened her eyes wide, beginning to enjoy herself. 'Peter Anthony. I don't think you know him. Jennifer and I met him at a dance —'
    'And you took him away from her, I suppose?'
    Georgina sighed. 'I didn't have to. Impossible as you find it to believe, there are a few men in the world who don't give Jennifer a second glance. Not many, I grant you, but there are one or two.'
    William frowned at her. 'And how far has this romance gone?' he demanded.
    'That,' said Georgina, 'is none of your business.'
    'It is now! Marry me you're going to, Georgina Perry, and although I don't relish the prospect of second-hand goods, it isn't going to put me off, if that's what you're hoping?'
    Georgina's face flamed. 'Think what you like! I don't care!'
    William raised his brows thoughtfully. 'I wonder why you do?' he murmured. 'You've always cared what I think. Why not admit it?'
    Georgina shrugged. 'You flatter yourself—as always!' She flicked her fingers as close to his face as she could get. 'I don't care that much for what you think! And you won't find Peter as easy to bully
    as you do me. He's more of a man than you'll ever be!'
    William threw back his head and laughed. 'Tell me that when you've been married to me for a week or more,' he said nastily. 'I've never had any complaints before.'
    'I daresay nobody dared voice any,' Georgina retorted. 'Like Jennifer, they probably told their troubles to someone else. You're not a very sympathetic listener, William Ayres. In fact I don't find you sympathetic at all!'
    'You don't have to, though, do you? Bullies in my experience always complain of being bullied when anyone dares put a stop to their activities. If you want me to be kind to you, the remedy is in your own hands. I'll be as kind to you as I think you deserve, no more, no less.'
    Georgina rose to her feet. 'Thanks very much,' she said, the bitterness she was feeling rising like a geyser to the surface. 'I don't want you to be kind or not kind, or anything else! I just want you to leave me alone! I'm going home!'
    He took her hands in his, pulling her into the circle of his arms. 'You're not going anywhere, my sweet — '
    She stamped her foot at him, trying vainly to free her wrists from his clasp. 'Really, William, don't you think this joke has gone far enough? All right, you've given me a fine fright, which is presumably what you wanted to do, but I'm not frightened now. I've had it, and I've had you too!'
    'Not yet you haven't, but you're going to.' He smiled at her with a gentleness that belied the pressure of his hands in the small of her back. 'You won't hanker after your Peter for long, Georgie Porgie, I promise you. If you'll let me, and by that I mean if you don't fight me every inch of the way, I'll make you very happy. It's a long time since I took a good look at you, but you're not as bad looking as I thought. Jennifer is so delicate-boned and fragile that she makes you look too solid and robust by comparison—'
    Georgina achieved her ambition of stamping hard on his toe, followed by a fierce kick on the shins. She might just as well have saved herself the trouble, for William's only reaction was to laugh.
    'Don't you want me to kiss you?' he teased her.
    'I don't want to have anything to do with you!'
    But she was very much aware of his hands on her back. They were warm and competent, holding her with an ease she had never come across before. Struggle as she would, she could not gain her freedom from him, and yet it was no effort to him to bring her closer still against him. Her heart beat increased its rhythm in a sudden excitement that she found quite inexplicable.
    'You see,' he said in