Chapter Five

Changmin took as long as she could in the bathroom seeing to Yeonhee's needs. She needed time to think.

So much was happening and happening so fast she hadn’t had time to get her head into gear.

She felt a fool for not anticipating people such as Yunho’s receptionist having met her sister previously. And no doubt there would be other people she’d have to pretend she knew. And that little slip about the allowance—Oh, God! Her stomach clenched with tight fingers of fear as she thought of her charade coming unstuck in such a way.
She daredn’t even think about Yunho's reaction.

 

He turned from the window when she returned to his office and, in spite of her determination to keep cool and calm under pressure, she couldn’t help a tiny flip-flop in her belly at the sheer height and presence of him as he came towards her.

‘It has occurred to me that there are quite probably Things Yeonhee needs, such as new clothing or toys,’ he said, taking the baby from her with gentle hands. ‘I have some time available now, so we could go shopping if you like.’

Changmin stared up at him, uncertain of how to answer.

Yeonhee was in desperate need of clothes as she was growing so fast, but shopping with Yunho as if they were any normal couple…?

She lowered her gaze and pretended to be re-sorting the changing bag to avoid looking directly at him as she hunted her brain for some sort of excuse.

‘Since your own clothes are designer labels, surely your child is entitled to the same?’ A hard edge had crept into his voice.

Changmin tensed as she pushed the lid back down on the baby wipes container. She’d picked up one of Jaejoong’s cast-offs thinking it was one of the more conservative of the collection she’d left behind, never dreaming it was actually haute couture.

‘This old thing?’ she quipped with a disdainful glance down at the cashmere she was wearing.

Yunho’s mouth curled. ‘I suppose you only wear an outfit once before it is thrown to the back of the wardrobe?’

Changmin almost laughed at how close he was to describing her sister’s attitude to clothes. She could have afforded designer wear herself if she’d been given a dollar for every time she’d picked some discarded article up off the floor after one of Jaejoong’s wild nights out.

She tossed her long hair behind one shoulder and smiled up at him saucily. ‘Is it my fault I get bored easily?’

‘You know something, Shim Changmin?’ He gave her a cutting look. ‘I am almost looking forward to being married to you so I can teach you how to behave. You are the shallowest young woman I have ever had the misfortune to meet. I think it will be a great pleasure to bring you to heel as someone should have done a very long time ago.’

Changmin pretended to shudder in trepidation. ‘Oh! I am sooo scared of you, Mr Jung.’

His black eyes glittered with contempt. ‘If I was not holding Yeonhee right at this minute I would be tempted to begin lesson one right here and now,’ he bit out.

Changmins eyes flashed at him with false bravado. ‘You lay one finger on me and you will be the poorer for it.’

‘It would be worth it, I can assure you,’ he shot back.

‘You think?’ She tilted her chin at him. ‘Your brother certainly thought so.’

Changmin knew the only thing that saved her at that point was the fact that Yeonhee was in his arms. Her tiny starfish hands were clutching at the stark whiteness of his business shirt, her little elfin face looking up at him as if in wonder, her brown-black eyes so like his own with their thick fringe of lashes.

Changmin saw the struggle he had to control himself playing out on his features as he stood before her. The line of his mouth was grim, his jaw tight with suppressed anger and his eyes sparking at her as if he wanted to torch her to the ground right then and there.

The intercom on his desk broke the brittle silence.

‘Mr Jung?’ Katrina’s cheerful tone entered the room like a light being switched on in pitch blackness. ‘Your father is on line two.’

Yunho handed  Yeonhee back to Changmin without meeting her eyes. ‘Excuse me.’ He turned his back to attend to the call.

Changmin reached with one hand for the baby pouch where she’d left it earlier when she heard the first few words of Yunho's conversation with his father. Even though he spoke his native tongue rapidly she had studied the language long enough to pick up on the general gist of the exchange.

‘Yes,’ Yunho said. ‘I have found a solution. I am marrying her on the fifteenth.’

Changmin couldn’t hear what his father said in response but she could more or less piece together the rest on Yunho’s reply.

‘No, she insists she does not want any money or anything to do with Yoochun’s estate…I am not sure but I suspect she is trying to butter me up by pretending to be a changed person…Yes, I have arranged an allowance but it will not take her long to work her way through that, I am sure…Yes, I know she is everything that Yoochun said and more…I know, I know…she is an unprincipled …’

Changmin had trouble keeping her reaction disguised. She silently fumed and vowed revenge on his insulting assessment of her as she eased Yeonhee back into the pouch.

‘Yes…I know, I will watch my back, and yes…’ Yunho gave a distinctly male chuckle ‘…my front as well.Ciao.’

Changmin smiled guilelessly as she turned back to face him. ‘So, where are we going shopping?’

 

A short time later, as they began trawling the department stores as well as exclusive designer boutiques, Changmin had cause to wonder if she had catapulted herself into some sort of shopaholic’s dream. Yunho’s credit card was flashed so many times she thought she was going to go blind with the amount of currency going past her eyes as he bought item after item for his niece. Beautiful clothes, expensive toys, special feeder cups for when she came off her bottle—all were parcelled off to be delivered to his office.

When it was time for Yeonhee's next feed Yunho suggested they go to a quiet café where she could feed the baby whilst they had a coffee and a sandwich.

Changmin wished she wasn’t starving so she could refuse, but she’d missed breakfast due to Yeonhee's crying bout and her stomach was letting her know in no uncertain terms it was well and truly time for a pit stop.

They were soon seated in a booth in a café overlooking the lively shopping mall below. The rushing lunchtime crowds and talented buskers performing below added to the high energy of the city.

Yeonhee’s bottle was soon heated and brought back to the table by a young waitress. Once she’d gone, Changmin was about to offer her niece the bottle when she caught Yunho’s dark gaze on her.

‘Would you like to feed her?’ she found herself asking him.

His dark eyes held hers for a brief moment of silent hesitation.

‘Sure, why not?’ he finally answered and, standing up, reached across the table to gather Yeonhee in his arms.

Once he was seated, Changmin handed him the bottle and a soft cloth she used to catch any drips. She leaned back in her own seat and watched as he positioned the teat for Georgia’s searching mouth.

Seeing the way he held the child set off a funny reaction deep inside Changmin's belly, like the sudden unfurling of a tightly wound ball of string. She shifted in her seat and forced herself to look at the menu the waitress had left for their perusal but the words all seemed a blur to her as her thoughts shot off in all directions.

Yunho was so at ease handling his niece and she wondered if he had ever wanted children of his own. If so, why was he tying himself to her in a loveless paper marriage?

She knew Italians had a deep sense of family, and the value of children in their lives was high. But surely marrying a stranger, even though she was supposedly the mother of his brother’s child, was going a little too far in terms of familial duty?

It had occurred to her that he might annul the marriage at some point in the future and apply for full custody of Yeonhee. It was an uncomfortable scenario as she knew she wouldn’t stand a chance once her true identity became known. She would be seen as a scheming, manipulating liar and no magistrate would hand her niece to her, even for access visits, let alone assign her full or partial custody.

Suddenly her earlier gnawing hunger faded and she pushed the menu away with a slump of her shoulders.

‘Not hungry?’ Yunho's eyes met hers across the table.

‘I’ll just have coffee.’ She shifted her gaze from his. ‘Black.’

The waitress came over and took the order from Yunho, lingering to hover over the baby who had by now finished her bottle.

‘How old is she?’ the young girl Asked.

‘Four months,’ Changmin answered.

The waitress smiled as she looked between the baby and Yunho. ‘She’s like her daddy, isn’t she?’

It was on the tip of Changmin’s tongue to say that Yunho wasn’t actually Changmin’s father but something stopped her at the last minute.

‘Yes,’ she said instead, shocked that she hadn’t seen it before now.

Yeonhee did have a look of Yunho about her, seemingly more so as each day passed. Her olive colouring was one thing, so too the dark eyes and silky black hair. But she could also see evidence of herself and Jaejoong in the rosebud mouth and the slightlyretroussé nose and wondered if he could too.

The waitress bustled off to get their coffee and Changmin watched as Yunho eased Yeonhee up against his shoulder, gently patting her tiny back as if he’d done it a hundred times before.

‘Have you given any thought to having a child of your own some time in the future?’ she asked before she could stop herself.

Yunho’s expression gave little away but Changmin was sure she saw a flicker of regret pass through his dark-as-night eyes before he quickly disguised it.

‘No.’ He shifted Yeonhee to his other shoulder. ‘I had not planned on marrying and doing the whole family-rearing thing.’

His answer intrigued her. She knew there were plenty of sworn-in life members of bachelordom about the place, but somehow Yunho didn’t seem the type.

‘Was this your father’s idea for us to marry?’

His eyes met hers, holding her questioning gaze intently. ‘What makes you say that?’

‘I…’ She fiddled with the edge of the tablecloth, doing her best to avoid the full force of his all-seeing eyes. ‘A hunch, I guess. I’ve heard Italians are pretty big on kids.’

‘I suppose that is why you sent him that letter to twist the knife a bit,’ he said, leaning forwards on the table so the other diners couldn’t hear his harsh accusation. ‘Did you ever consider how much you were hurting an elderly man who is already doing his best to cope with unbearable grief?’

Changmin  wished she could tell him the truth. It hurt so much to have him think so poorly of her when in fact it had been her sister who had acted so unthinkingly.

‘No.’ She let the edge of the tablecloth go and raised her eyes to his condemning ones. ‘No, it was very insensitive of me. I’m sorry.’

Her answer seemed to surprise him. If it had come from Jaejoong, it would have surprised even her, Yunho thought wryly. She couldn’t recall a single time when her sister had apologised for anything; ‘I’m sorry’ just wasn’t in her twin’s vocabulary.

‘Sometimes sorry is not enough,’ he said, leaning back again, settling Yeonhee more comfortably against his shoulder. ‘Once the damage is done there is no going back to undo it.’

Changmin felt sick at the truth of his curt statement. How much damage had she already done with all the lies she’d been forced to tell on her sister’s behalf?

‘Yes, I know.’ She stared at the salt and pepper shakers standing side by side like small china soldiers on the table in front of her. ‘I guess I was so confused at the time…I hardly knew what I was doing.’

There was a small silence broken only by the soft gurgling of Yeonhee, who had found the pocket of Yunho's business shirt, her tiny fingers clutching at the fabric in delight.

‘You deliberately tried to trap my brother, did you not?’ he upbraided her. ‘By using the oldest trick in the book.’

She wished she could deny it on Jaejoong’s behalf but knew that too would be yet another lie. Her sister had deliberately set about to snare Jung Yoochun by fair means or foul. Changmin had been appalled when Jaejoong had told her of her plan to trap him, casually revealing the way she’d sabotaged a whole box of condoms in order to bring about a pregnancy as if it was all a game, not real life with the potential for irreparable damage to occur. Changmin still tortured herself with her own guilt at not being able to talk her sister out of it. Maybe if she’d spent more time with her, had counselled her to think a little further ahead than the next moment of pleasure…

‘It was a stupidly impulsive thing to do…’ she finally said, her voice low, her eyes downcast. ‘I had no idea of how it would backfire on…me.’

Again her answer seemed to surprise him. She chanced a look at him and found his hard accusatory expression had softened slightly as he looked across at her, the child in his arms nestling against him preparatory to sleep.

‘There are few of us who get through life without one or two regrets,’ he offered.

Changmin gave him a rueful smile. ‘Don’t tell me the great Jung Yunho admits to getting it wrong now and again?’

He held her gaze for a moment before looking down at the child in his arms. ‘I have made one or two errors of judgement in the past but I have no intention of ever doing so again.’

Changmin wondered if he bore the internal scars of a broken relationship which had made him wary of emotional commitment. The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed. What better way to take himself out of the game than to marry for convenience, not love? He would be free to liaise with whomever he chose without the pressure of formal commitment due to the piece of paper that would soon be documenting her as his wife.

His wife…

She swallowed a lump of panic as she thought about all such a relationship would entail. Even though he’d stated implacably that the marriage would not be consummated, they would still be living in the same house which would force certain intimacies on them both regardless.

She imagined seeing him in less formal attire, perhaps in sports gear or after a shower with a towel around his waist, his long strong body exposed. Or seeing him unshaven in the morning, his chiselled jaw dark with stubbly growth, the sort of growth that tingled female skin if it brushed up against it…

Changmin pulled back from her thoughts with a little jerk in her chair, her guilty glance meeting Yunho’s questioning one.

‘Is something wrong?’ he asked.

‘No, of course not.’

‘You do not seem yourself,’ he observed.

‘Oh, really?’ She gave him one of Jaejoong’s scathing looks. ‘And you know me so well after, what is it—’ She checked her watch for the date and looked back at him. ‘Less than a week?’

‘Suffice it to say I am familiar with your type,’ he answered smoothly.

‘So you think one size fits all?’

His smile was cynically lopsided. ‘I have been around long enough to recognise danger when I see it.’

‘Danger, eh?’ She arranged her lips into a smirk. ‘You see me as dangerous? What exactly are you threatened by? My appeal?’

His mouth tightened and she knew she’d scored another hit. It struck her as ironic that he was fighting an attraction to her when she was pretending to be someone else. What chance did she stand of him being attracted to her as Changmin—thereal Changmin? The Changmin without the reputation or the Changmin without the baggage? Not to mention the Changmin without the designer wardrobe. The Changmin who was in very great danger of falling in love with a man who despised the very sight of her.

‘Your ego no doubt has had considerable over the years but I refuse to join your band of avid admirers,’ he said. ‘If you are looking for compliments I am afraid you will have to go elsewhere.’

Changmin gave him an arch look. ‘But you do find me attractive, don’t you? Go on, admit it.’

‘I admit nothing.’

She laughed. ‘You’ll get sand in your eyes if you bury your head too deeply.’

She saw his jaw tighten another notch. ‘Women like you think they are irresistible but let me tell you, you are not. Do you think I am so easily swayed by full s and pouting lips and come-to-bed eyes?’

She pursed the said pouting lips and affected a super-confident pose. ‘I can feel your interest from right over here,’ she said in a breathy undertone. ‘I bet if I slipped my hand under this table and examined the evidence for myself you’d have some serious back-pedalling to do.’

Black eyes met grey in a challenge that rocked Changmin to her very core but she was determined not to back down. She held his look with a spirited defiance she hadn’t thought herself capable of.

Although he tried to disguise it, she noticed he shifted backwards in his chair as if he didn’t trust her not to do exactly as she’d said. Her mind began to wander of its own volition…What would he feel like fully aroused? Would he shudder at the touch of her fingers around his length or would he groan with deep out of control pleasure? And what would his reaction be if were to close over him, drawing from him a response that would spill his life force out of his body in an explosion of pleasure?

‘It’s time to leave.’ His announcement was curt as he got stiffly to his feet.

Yeonhee gave a soft rumble of protest about the sudden movement but soon settled back against his chest, her tiny eyelids fluttering closed, her miniature fingers still grasping his pocket.

Changmin rose with less speed, taking her time to gather up the baby’s changing bag and her own handbag, shooting him a glance from across the width of the table.

‘Do you think it’s worth disturbing her to put her back in the pouch?’ she asked.

Yunho looked down at the tiny infant against his chest and shook his head. ‘No.’ He lifted his gaze back to hers. ‘I will carry her.’ He scooped up the bill the waitress had left and added, ‘Is there anything else we need to buy?’

It was the ‘we’ that really got to her. Seeing him with Yeonhee cradled so tenderly in his arms, she couldn’t help feeling a deep sense of regret over how circumstances had led them both to this. How different things might have been if they had met without the baggage of both of their wayward siblings. If the truth were known they probably had more in common than not. He was the solid dependable type, anyone could see that, and she…well, she was hardly the sleep-around town tart he thought her to be.

If only he knew!

‘No.’ She carefully avoided his eyes in case he saw the glitter of sudden moisture. ‘I think we’re more or less done.’ She hoisted the changing bag over her shoulder and followed him out of the café with her head well down.

The city streets were so busy as to make conversation both difficult and unnecessary. Changmin was glad of the reprieve. Guilt flooded her from every direction. Maybe she should have been firmer with Jaejoong, should have insisted she stay and face her responsibilities. But then, when had Jaejoong ever faced anything? Her policy had been to move from one disaster to the next with her twin picking up the pieces behind her. Changmin had even done it for their mother in the past, becoming the parent instead of the child in an attempt to provide some level of security for them. Much good it had done in the end, she thought sadly. Her mother had still drunk and drugged herself into an early grave and there had been nothing Changmin could do to stop it.

Yunho pressed the pedestrian button and flicked a glance down at the silent figure beside him as they waited for the lights to change. ‘You are very quiet all of a sudden.’

Changmin shook herself out of her mental anguish and sent a vacant smile his way. ‘I’m just tired.’ She yawned widely. ‘Yeonhee woke me early.’ She patted and forced another smile. ‘Kids; who in their right mind would have them?’

Yunho was saved a reply by the lights changing. It was clear to him that money was Changmin’s primary motive and she had targeted the richest man she could and had got on with the business of falling pregnant to him. But it was still somewhat of a mystery to him why she hadn’t asked for a whole heap of money when he’d offered her marriage. He’d been expecting her price to be in the millions and yet even the allowance he’d organised for her had seemingly surprised her. And, as for pretending she had no interest in Yoochun's estate, what possible reason could she have other than to try and fool him into thinking
she had somehow changed from a money-hungry pleasure seeker to a woman of high morals?

But he knew Changmin was trouble from the top of her shiny head to the soles of her dainty feet. She had a disturbing habit of switching from sultry siren to wide-eyed innocent as if she was deliberately trying to confuse him about who she really was. If Yoochun hadn’t told him how manipulative she was he would sometimes be tempted to think he was dealing with someone else entirely.

He slanted a covert glance her way, instantly noting the line of her slightly anxious brow and the way her small white teeth nibbled at her bottom lip.

He gave a rough inward sigh. Marrying her was going to be the easy part; however, he was starting to think that if he wasn’t very careful, keeping his hands off her was going to be something else indeed.