Carole Mortimer - Lifelong Affair

Morgan took this opportunity to call Sam and Jerry, something she hadn’t had time to do in the trauma of the last hour. Sam was very understanding, and Jerry had already rearranged the work schedule to allow her to take a week off. A week should be long enough to convince the Hammonds that Glenna’s baby belonged with her.

‘Just don’t be any longer than that,’ Jerry warned in a growl, ‘or the wrath of Zorbo will come down around your head!’

Morgan laughed softly, ringing off. Frank Zorbo was a small Greek man, the head of A.M.X. Broadcasting Company, and quite harmless until something put out his carefully organised programme schedule. Then he was like a roaring tornado.

‘Everything is organised,’ Alex came back to assure her. ‘We’ll be boarding in a few minutes.’

For the moment it just felt good to let him take over the details; her mind was not functioning as fluently as it usually did. Alex looked as if 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 seat much farther down the plane, had been told that there were no other seats available.

‘I already had a seat 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 normally—’

‘Forget it,’ he dismissed abruptly. ‘I already have.’

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 little 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 line of aggression. ‘And you won’t agree to my adopting Courtney?’ she asked softly.

‘No.’

‘Why?’

‘I don’t believe it would be in his best interests.’

‘Don’t talk down to me, Alex Hammond!’ she snapped. ‘just say what you mean. You don’t think a “fun-loving young actress with no morals” a suitable mother for him, that’s it, isn’t it?’

He sighed heavily. ‘I wish I’d never made that remark. I suppose I’m to have it thrown up at me periodically during our association?’

‘That won’t be for long! I’m returning to Los Angeles as soon as possible.’

‘Without Courtney.’

‘ With him.’

‘No,’ he shook his head. ‘Not unless I agree. And I don’t. Don’t you think this is a little soon to start arguing about Courtney’s future?’

‘With you I have a feeling it’s never too soon to start arguing!’

To her surprise the austere features broke into a smile, and Alex instantly looked younger, incredibly handsome, the grooves in his cheeks ones of humour this time, unfamiliar grooves, as if he smiled little. Morgan had a feeling that he didn’t, and she wondered at the reason for his harshness. A woman in the past, perhaps? That was usually the reason a man with Alex’s intelligence retreated into himself. Perhaps he hadn’t been able to take rejection. Whatever the reason, his humour now was totally unexpected. She gave him a questioning look.

His mouth quirked. ‘You’re the only one who does argue with me,’ he drawled.

‘Really?’ She smiled too now.

‘Really,’ he nodded.

‘That’s incredible.’

‘Yes.’

‘And that’s arrogant!’

‘No,’ he smiled again. ‘It’s quite exhilarating, actually.’

Now why on earth should she blush like a schoolgirl at the thought of Alex Hammond finding something about her exhilarating? Maybe it was because he was a challenge, the original ice man.

But she wasn’t here to find him a challenge, she was here to get Courtney and return home. And she would do it.

It needed all her self-confidence to enter the Hammond house with him a short time later; she was wary about meeting Rita Hammond again. They hadn’t exactly taken to each other when they met two years ago, and she had no reason to think the other woman would be any more kindly disposed towards her. The opposite if she also believed in the part of Mary-Beth being Morgan’s own nature!

If Rita Hammond had been sedated the day before there was no sign of it today. The woman was tall, almost as tall as her son, her iron-grey hair perfectly coiffured, her make-up impeccable despite her sixty years, her taste in clothes sophisticated and flattering to her slender figure.