He was obviously controlling his temper with an effort. ‘That’s not true. I went to St Cyprian’s because of you. Because of something you said.’
‘I hope you satisfied your curiosity,’ she said savagely. ‘I hope it was worth it. Because I’m going to contact St Cyprian’s, too. And if I find out that they released my medical records to you, I’m going to let loose the biggest scandal you’ve ever seen. I’m going to drag them—and you—through the courts and the newspapers and anyone else who will listen. I don’t care what it costs me. But I’ll make you sorry! Thank you for a lovely evening, Ryan. Goodbye.’
She hurried out of the house, ducking her head against the blizzard of snowflakes.
She heard him calling after her, but she flung open the door of her little van and jumped inside. She was so angry that her breath was coming raggedly through clenched teeth.
Penny started the engine and drove off down the drive, fast, her wheels spinning in the loose snow.
Snow was falling so thickly that her windscreen wipers could not cope with it, and merely smeared the crystals in icy sheets on the glass. It was very cold in the car. Her breath was clouding around her mouth and nose.
She reached the tall stone gateposts and drove out onto the road. If she had left with the others, instead of staying to give Ryan a piece of her mind, she would at least have been able to follow their tail-lights. As it was, the road was pitch-black, her headlights no more than a diffuse dazzle in the whirling flakes of snow. She felt very lonely.
Damn him, she thought in fresh outrage. How dare he? She had meant every word of her threat. If he had somehow inveigled the hospital into releasing her records, she would make them—and him—pay dearly.
To speak of love! To tell her he adored her! And then to snoop into her most private details, looking for evidence that she had told a horrible lie—her blood was boiling.
Cursing, she skidded along the narrow road. It was like driving through an unlit tunnel. Then she sighed with relief. She knew where she was, at last. The road dipped steeply down here to cross Fotheringham Bridge. She steered cautiously over the narrow stone bridge, then accelerated hard to get up the hill on the other side of the stream.
The van responded with a surge of power.
And then the rear wheels were spinning out of control, and the car began to turn on its own axis.
‘Oh, no!’ she heard herself say.
She’d had no idea her little van could spin so fast.
It went completely around, once, twice, and on the third time it shot backwards through a hedge. Clinging to the steering wheel, Penny bounced in her seat wretchedly as she heard twigs snapping all around the car.
Her rearwards progress ended with a jolt as the back of the van thumped into a ditch of some kind. She revved the engine desperately, but her wheels just whirled uselessly in the slush.
She was well and truly stuck.
Penny thumped the steering wheel in frustration. What an idiot. She should have remembered that the van was much more powerful than previous cars she’d driven. Now, here she was, stuck in a hedge in the middle of a snowstorm.
She recalled the advice she had been given. If you’re stuck in the snow, don’t leave the car. Keep the engine running, keep warm, wait for help.
But the prospect of sitting in the van all night, alone with her misery, was not an attractive one.
She was already starting to shiver.
And then, to her joy, headlights glimmered in the distance. Help was at hand!
Wrapping her coat around her cold body, she pulled herself out of the car and stood at the roadside, her eyes squinting against the swirling snowflakes. The lights grew brighter and brighter until, with a rumble, a big four-wheel-drive car came slowly up from the bridge.
She waved urgently, dazzled by the headlights.
To her intense joy, the Land Cruiser ground to a halt beside her, gleaming and luxurious-looking. She was filled with a mixture of relief that she had been saved and embarrassment that she had done something so foolish.
‘Thank you so much for stopping,’ she called.
A tall figure got out of the Land Cruiser.
‘It’s a pleasure,’ said Ryan Wolfe. ‘I was just wondering which particular ditch I would find you in.’
CHAPTER SIX
SHE was a very much more subdued Penny as he ushered her back into the hallway of Northcote.
‘Don’t worry,’ he said, ‘your van will be safe there until tomorrow. It doesn’t look as though there’s too much damage. I’ll pull it out of the hedge in the daylight with the Land Cruiser and you’ll probably be able to drive it home.’
‘Thanks for coming to my rescue,’ she said morosely. She was fully expecting that he would gloat over her humiliation.
‘I thought you might get into trouble,’ he said gently. ‘You shot off out of here like a scalded cat. Fresh snow is very treacherous. That’s why I followed you in the Land Cruiser. I’m just relieved you didn’t break your beautiful neck.’
‘Me, too,’ she admitted.
He helped her take off her coat. ‘You’re freezing. I’ve got a fire upstairs. And your photos and things are there, too. Come upstairs, I’ll give them to you.’
The great, empty house was silent, yet it seemed warm and welcoming as she went up the staircase with Ryan. He had chosen for his own one of the bedrooms that looked out over the lawns behind the house. It was a big room with a large four-poster bed in the middle. A fire had been burning in the grate, and had now burned down to a pile of glowing logs.
‘Sorry it’s a little cold in here,’ he said, putting two more logs on the fire. ‘I think a new heating system will be the first thing I install when I buy the house.’
‘You’re really going ahead and buying it?’ she asked.
‘I think so. I suppose I’ll have to start looking for some staff to run the place soon.’
‘When you talked about buying Northcote, I thought you were just trying to pull the wool over Ariadne’s eyes. I didn’t for a moment think you were serious!’
‘Why not?’ he asked.
‘Well—for one thing, this is a grand mansion. The owners must want a fortune for it!’
‘Money is one thing I have plenty of,’ he said. ‘You know that.’
‘Well, for another, you’re not exactly the domesticated type.’
Ryan cocked his head at her quizzically. ‘Now, what on earth do you mean by that?’
‘Well…you have the flat in London.’ She thought of that beautiful apartment in Knightsbridge, with its Swedish furnishings and starkly modern décor, where she had been so unhappy. ‘You always said that was all you needed. Low-maintenance, minimal upkeep, lock the door and fly to Mexico at the drop of a hat if you needed. It’s a very big step from that to this.’
‘A very big step,’ he agreed. ‘But you see, my love, I’ve taken some very big steps since we parted. I’ve changed and matured, just as you have.’ He lifted a leather box onto the four-poster and opened it. ‘Here are your things. Everything’s all mixed up. You’d better sort through it.’
Penny sat on the bed and looked into the box. It was like looking into a kaleidoscope of her own life, and for a moment she felt her head spin.
Here were old photographs of her parents. Her father, dashing in tennis kit. Her mother, pretty and carefree. Photographs of herself as a child, chubby and adorable in pigtails. Then photographs of her mother with Aubrey, her stepfather, after her father’s early death, her stepfather’s face kindly and smiling, her mother’s face tranquil, but permanently marked by the grief she had passed through.
There were photos from her own adolescence and early adulthood, the chubby little girl turning into a slender beauty with a steady gaze and an expressive mouth. Herself at nineteen, already under the spell of Tom, the professor who had seduced her, her eyes already darkening with pain.
There were other mementoes, too, beads and rings and theatre tickets and concert passes.
And a blue velvet box that Ryan opened.
‘Remember this?’ he said, sitting beside her. He took the ruby necklace out. In the firelight, the stones glittered with deep crimson lights. She stared at the necklace. He had bought it for her the week she’d learned she was unquestionably pregnant, a gift so expensive that it had made her feel even more panic, even more alarm. As though those exquisite Burmese stones were links in a chain that was winding ever more tightly around her.
‘Put it on,’ he murmured, opening the clasp.
‘I don’t want it.’
‘Just for a moment. I don’t think you wore this more than once.’
‘You should sell it. It’s much too valuable to keep lying around.’
‘I will never sell it. It belongs to you, darling.’ He placed the necklace round her neck. His beautiful grey eyes looked deep into hers as he reached around the back of her neck to fasten the clasp. ‘There.’
Penny looked down. The strands of rubies were like drops of blood, she thought, frozen in time. They lay against her blouse, glowing vividly.
‘It’s too long for that shirt,’ he said quietly. ‘Let me unfasten these buttons.’
His strong fingers were sure and deft as they unbuttoned her blouse, revealing the milky smoothness of her throat. He opened the lapels of the blouse. She wore a pale gold bra beneath it, the full curves of her breasts cupped in aureate lace.
‘There,’ he said huskily. ‘That’s better.’
Against her pale skin, the rubies took on a new note. No longer like blood, they had become crystals of fire whose hot, sensual colour belied their cool caress on her bosom.
‘You’re so lovely,’ Ryan whispered. He bent to press his face to the scented hollow between her breasts, a place on her body he had always loved to kiss.
His touch made her shudder again, and she could not prevent her eyes from closing, or her head from going back—any more than she could prevent her arms from sliding round his strong neck, or her fingers from invading the crisp, dark curls of his hair.
Then she made a valiant effort to draw her blouse closed again. ‘I should go now,’ she said.
‘Not just yet.’ His tone was halfway between a lover’s plea and a tyrant’s command. ‘Stay with me a while.’
‘It’s late.’
‘I’ve missed you so, Penny.’ His breath was warm against her skin. He held her as tenderly as though she were a faun that might start away at the slightest noise. ‘Have you missed me?’
Her mouth was dry. ‘At first…’
‘At first?’ he prompted, when her words dried up.
Penny closed her eyes. ‘Nothing.’ It would serve no purpose to tell him how desolate she had been in those terrible weeks after she had been discharged from St Cyprian’s, how she had longed for his strength and comfort.
Later, she had been glad that he hadn’t come to her then. She would certainly have ended up in the velvet prison she’d taken such pains to escape from!
It was just as well that he had never received her letter. Some kindly fate had been looking after her.
‘Nothing,’ she repeated.
Ryan kissed her throat, inhaling the scent of her skin and her perfume. She ran her hands across his shoulders, feeling their power and breadth. Then, with the last of her strength, she tried to push him away.
‘Stay,’ he whispered.
‘You must have a guest room. Let me go to it!’
‘But we’re here now,’ he said, his lips brushing the delicate skin under her chin. ‘We’ve got all night and all of tomorrow.’ He kissed the corners of her mouth. ‘Stay with me. You don’t want to be alone tonight, and nor do I.’
She had no answer to that. His palms slid possessively up her back, his fingers unhooking her bra. The golden cups dropped forward, releasing her high, proud breasts. Her nipples, exquisitely sensitive to his proximity, were already rising eagerly.
Ryan kissed them lingeringly. ‘They’re magic,’ he said with a secret smile at her. ‘They turn from pink satin to pink corduroy.’
She had to smile in return. ‘Practical magic.’
And then she allowed him to draw her down into his arms.
She had forgotten—or had willingly hidden the memory—of how glorious his lovemaking could be.
His body was beautiful, and he used it uninhibitedly to give and take pleasure. His thirst for her was unquenchable. At times they slept, curled up against one another’s bodies, but soon she would drift back into wakefulness, stirred by his kisses into fresh desire, fresh need.
The snow whirled against the window-panes with no sign of stopping. The huge four-poster was a world, a universe for them alone. She watched, drugged with pleasure, as Ryan rose to put more logs on the fire. Silhouetted against the amber glow of the flames, he was like a fire god from some ancient legend, whose touch brought burning pleasure that never died away.
He came back to her and sat beside her on the bed, stroking her breasts so that she purred like a contented cat.
‘Were you telling me the truth when you said you hadn’t been with anyone since you left me?’ he asked.
‘Of course. Why would I lie to you?’
‘I’m just jealous.’
‘You don’t need to be,’ she said, smiling up at him.
‘Do I give you pleasure?’
‘If you don’t know that you do, you must be blind and deaf!’
Ryan laughed. ‘Then why…?’
‘Why what?’
‘Why do you keep running away from me?’
‘I’m sure narcotics must be very nice, too, but I would run from them as well, Ryan.’
‘I’m not very flattered to be compared to a dangerous drug.’
‘You ought to be put on a schedule and used only in emergencies,’ she retorted. ‘You shouldn’t be available over the counter.’
‘I’m not available over any counter that I know of,’ he said, his eyebrows coming down. ‘I’m only available to you.’
His caressing hands had found their way to her loins, and her thighs parted languorously to allow him access. ‘Yes,’ she whispered, ‘but it’s like having opium on prescription. It’s too tempting.’ She covered her face with her hands.
Ryan kissed her fingers. ‘What’s the matter?’
‘I don’t know why I can’t resist you, Ryan,’ she said in a stifled voice. ‘I sometimes believe you are a dangerous drug, and that I will never manage to get free of you.’
He sighed. ‘I can only tell you that I have never loved like this before, Penny, and that I never will love like this again. You are the woman of my dreams, the great love of my life. From the moment I saw you on that film set, I had to have you. And when you left me, it was as though somebody turned out all the lights and left me in the darkness.’
‘Why did you go to Exeter?’ she choked. ‘Why don’t you trust me, if you love me so much?’
‘Penny, it is you who won’t trust me. I did not go to St Cyprian’s to pry into the circumstances of your miscarriage. I went because you told me you were on anticonvulsant medication, and that you stopped taking it without consulting the doctors.’
Penny uncovered her face slowly and glared at him. ‘What business is that of yours?’
Ryan sighed. ‘You know very well that after encephalitis, there are dangers. When you told me you’d stopped taking the medication, I was very concerned. I wanted to know what the consequences might be. For your sake.’
‘That doesn’t excuse your prying!’
‘Perhaps not. The fact is, you should not have stopped taking the medication. I spoke to the neurologist who treated you in Exeter, Ellis Brent-Jones. He was very concerned about you. You were supposed to go back to him for regular checkups. You’ve never been to see him.’
‘I’ve been fit and well. That’s more important than checkups with old Brent-Jones.’
‘Oh, you little idiot.’ He paused, and was silent for a while, gently stroking the swathes of her rich auburn h
air. At last he continued. ‘You are like a drug to me, too.’
‘That’s what I keep saying. We’re bad for each other!’
‘Hmm. I wouldn’t agree with that.’ He kissed her belly tenderly, then caressed her thighs with his lips. ‘But after you left, I realised something—that I know so little about you. Our life together in London was so full. There was so much work to be done, so much travelling, so many other people in our lives, that we never had time to communicate. When we were together, we made love. And then fell into an exhausted sleep. We’ve never talked.’
‘You never wanted to listen,’ she said with asperity.
‘I’m listening now.’
‘You can’t listen with your mouth down there,’ she said as he nuzzled between her thighs again, hungry to taste her all over again.
‘I don’t listen with my mouth,’ he said, licking the honeyed bud of her desire.
She moaned. ‘It’s too late for talking, in any case,’ she whispered. ‘We’ve lost everything.’
Ryan raised his head. His beautiful grey eyes met hers. ‘No,’ he said gently. ‘We haven’t lost everything.’
‘Well, we can’t carry on like this,’ she said.
Ryan raised himself on his elbows to study her face. ‘What do you mean by that?’ he asked.
‘You said you know nothing about me, and that’s true. You think you understand me, but there are things about me that you’ve never even begun to grasp.’
‘Such as?’ he asked.
‘Such as what Tom did to me,’ she said. ‘Such as what frightens me about you. What makes me panic, even when we’re at our happiest.’
‘Tell me, then. Tell me now, Penny, I’m listening.’
‘It’s too late for any of that.’
His face was concentrated. ‘What do you want, Penny?’
She swallowed. ‘I want you to leave me alone.’
‘Don’t ask me that,’ he said. ‘I spent a year without you.’
‘If you buy this house,’ she said, ‘I’ll run away again.’
‘Penny—’
‘I promise you I will,’ she said. ‘You can spend what you like on Northcote Hall. I’ll close up the shop and go somewhere else, somewhere you’ll never find me!’
Ruthless Husband, Convenient Wife Page 6
