by Penny Jordan
It was only the harsh expletive that grazed across her skin as Chase released her mouth that brought her back down to earth.
‘I told you resisting temptation wasn’t going to be as easy as you thought, didn’t I?’ he mocked her as he set a small space between their bodies. For a moment Somer felt too bereft to dwell on his comment, her body ached for the warm pressure of his, her lips swollen and stinging, needing the pleasurable balm of his kiss, but the small movement she made towards him was checked as she realised what he had said.
Chase had known she wouldn’t be able to resist him, despite her claim that she loved Andrew. Biting down hard on her quivering bottom lip she forced herself to meet his eyes. ‘I’d like to go back to our table,’ she told him quietly. ‘I’m feeling rather tired.’
What could she say if he challenged her about her response to his kiss? Could she claim a mental aberration? Could she say she had forgotten who it was who held her in his arms?
Much to her relief they returned to their table in silence. Her father was waiting for them a reminiscent smile curving his lips. ‘I used to take your mother dancing,’ he told Somer. ‘She was so light on her feet.’ He pushed back his cuff and glanced at his watch. ‘Well, I don’t know about you two, but I’m ready for my bed.’
Somer didn’t look at Chase, but to her relief he concurred with her father, rising smoothly to once again cup her elbow with proprietorial protection as they made their way outside.
Alone in her bedroom, Somer stood in front of her mirror as she removed her earrings and then cleansed her face, trying not to remember the smooth glide of Chase’s fingers over the bare skin of her back. Shivering slightly she headed for the shower, trying not to think about how the evening would have ended if they were in love. Then Chase would not have left her in the hall, announcing that he had some work to do; they would have gone upstairs together, to a room that they shared; Chase would have slid the dark sapphire gown from her body without having to be asked, and she would… The shiver that ran through her had nothing to do with the temperature of the water.
Shaken by the wanton direction of her thoughts, Somer towelled herself briskly, and hurried through into her bedroom. For once the charming colour-scheme of peach and white failed to soothe her. Her bedroom was delightfully feminine and initially she had been pleased with it, but now it struck her very much as the room of a woman without a man to share it.
She wasn’t asleep when she heard Chase come upstairs, but she buried her head beneath the bedclothes, not wanting to hear him moving about in the next room; not wanting the torment of knowing he was there and that only a wall separated them. Only a wall! She laughed silently to herself. It might as well be the Great Wall of China!
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE phone rang just as Somer stepped into the hall. It had been a busy morning with her going to see her father off at Heathrow and then having to rush back in order to complete a programme she had promised one of her old clients.
Chase had offered to go with her to the airport, but she had curtly refused, knowing that the double emotional strain of his presence and her father’s departure would be too much for her fragile composure. If she hadn’t known better she might have thought that for a moment she had glimpsed pain in his eyes, before it was quickly shuttered by a look of blank coldness.
She picked up the receiver, silencing the shrilling noise of the telephone.
‘Somer?’
Instinctively she tensed at the sound of Chase’s voice, forcing herself to relax as he demanded curtly, ‘Somer, are you still there?’
‘I’m here, Chase. I’ve just got back from the airport. Why are you ringing? Did you think I might have tried to run out on our…agreement and gone with my father?’
‘I left in rather a rush this morning.’
More from the tone of his voice than from his lack of response to her gibe Somer guessed that he wasn’t alone. ‘I left some papers I need in my desk, I was wondering if you could come round to the studio with them? I’d offer to take you to lunch by way of recompense, but unfortunately I already have something on.’
He went on to tell Somer exactly where the papers were and rang off when she had agreed to take them to him. It only took a matter of seconds to find the envelope he had described. Somer glanced at her watch and then picked up the receiver, quickly punching out a number.
Her client was very understanding. ‘I’ve still got a week or so in hand before I need the programme, Somer—I know how reliable you are with your time scales, but other people aren’t so I always give myself some time in hand. It won’t make any difference at all to us if we don’t receive your work until next week. I must admit though that this isn’t like you—what’s causing the delay—a heavy date?’
He obviously hadn’t heard about her marriage, and Somer explained quickly.
‘My, my, that was all rather sudden, wasn’t it? Somehow you don’t strike me as the impetuous type. Seems like I was wrong, or did that new husband of yours just catch you at a weak moment?’
They chatted on for several minutes, with Somer deftly side-stepping an invitation to dine with her client and his wife.
‘I see, still at the honeymoon stage are you?’ he teased, not at all offended. ‘Well, I can still remember what it’s like—just about.’
How many more lies was this charade of a marriage to Chase going to force her to tell? Somer wondered bitterly as she started up her car. Chase was using her, callously and cold-bloodedly, and yet knowing that did nothing to destroy the love she felt for him. What kind of woman was she anyway? The kind who was only capable of loving and responding to one man, Somer thought sadly as she manoeuvred her car through the late-morning traffic. At least she no longer believed herself incapable of any sexual response, but then perhaps she had always known that and had hidden from the truth, knowing that to admit it was to admit her feelings for Chase; to admit that her almost instantaneous physical response to him sprang from a deeply intense love that her body had recognised long before her mind and heart were willing to acknowledge it.
The television studio was housed in an extremely elite office block, a uniformed commissionaire stepping forward as Somer entered the building and directing her towards the reception desk.
Beneath her smooth, faultlessly applied make-up Somer detected traces of curiosity—and something else—in the receptionist’s glance as Somer gave her name. A frisson of uncertainty trickled down her spine. If she hadn’t known that Chase was expecting her she might almost have believed the girl was flustered and somehow uncomfortable at her appearance. For the first time it occurred to Somer to wonder how Chase would deal with the effects of their marriage on the more personal side of his life. He had never made any pretence of living like a monk, and even discounting the publicity element, there had been a considerable amount of newspaper gossip about his ‘affairs’. The most news-worthy had been with the actress Clancy Williams, Somer remembered, but their affair had ended when she had married someone else. That had been over a year ago, and although he had frequently been photographed with different, glamorous women, as far as Somer knew there was no one woman in his life at the present time. Apart of course from herself.
She grimaced faintly at the thought. She was hardly up to the standard of Chase’s normal women, but then she had not been chosen for her looks, or for her sexual desirability. A fierce stabbing pain knifed through her body. It took her several seconds to realise it for what it was. So this was jealousy; this surging, violent emotion that left her weak and vulnerable.
The receptionist had picked up her phone and had her back to Somer, murmuring something into it. There was a pause and she swung round to glance uncertainly at Somer. As she did so, whoever she was speaking to said in a voice perfectly audible to Somer, ‘Are you sure she said Mrs Lorimer, Nan, only he’s got La Clancy in with him at the moment staging a big reconciliation scene and I daren’t go in and break it up.’
The receptionist swung ba
ck quickly, flushing slightly, and for her sake and for the sake of her own pride Somer pretended she had not heard.
Clancy Williams was with Chase? Had she developed some psychic power she hadn’t known she possessed before, she wondered bitterly. Only seconds ago she had been remembering Chase’s turbulent affair with the actress and now apparently she was here in the same building as Chase—in the same room as Chase. As far as she knew Clancy Williams was married. But what if she wasn’t? What if she had left her husband? Would Chase regret marrying her?
It was pointless letting her thoughts torture her like this, Somer told herself, standing up and walking over to the receptionist who was replacing the receiver.
‘Look,’ she said pleasantly, ‘my husband rang me and asked me to drop some papers round for him. If it isn’t convenient for me to see him I’ll just leave them with his secretary.’
Plainly relieved, the girl gave Somer directions to find Chase’s office, walking with her to a small lift almost hidden by the display of greenery decorating the foyer. Instead of showing the floor numbers this one simply bore the words ‘Chief Executive’s Suite’.
Once she had installed Somer safely inside it the receptionist flicked a button inside it and smiled reassuringly. ‘Turn right once you get out of the lift,’ she instructed as the doors started to close, ‘Mr Lorimer’s office is straight ahead of you.’
The lift bore Somer upwards with stomach-lurching speed, rocking gently as it came to a full stop. There was a mirror inside it, which because of the harsh lighting showed her a far less flattering reflection than she was used to seeing. No doubt Chase found it an ego-bruising weapon to use against those who came up to seek him out in his lair, Somer thought, resisting the temptation to steal another glance at her make-up as the doors opened.
Following the receptionist’s instructions she walked down a short, thickly carpeted corridor which opened out into an elegant foyer decorated with natural grass wallpaper and furnished with comfortable masculine-looking leather chairs and a low table. Plants were banked up beneath the large window, adding a touch of greenery, although unlike the foyer walls downstairs which were adorned with glossy prints of Television West’s best known personalities, these were completely bare.
An attractive brunette in her mid-twenties, immaculately dressed and made up, smiled cautiously at her.
‘Mrs Lorimer? Your husband did warn me to expect you,’ she said, ‘but unfortunately he’s rather tied up at the moment.’
‘Well, I’ve only called with some papers he wanted,’ Somer told her, ‘perhaps if I were to leave them with you?’
‘Well, yes, but if Mr Lorimer knows you’re coming in…’ She bit her lip, plainly undecided about what to do. It was obvious to Somer that she was reluctant to interrupt Chase, but neither did she want to offend her, Somer could see, by denying her access to her husband.
Wanting to make things easy for her, and suffering from a cowardly lack of desire to see Chase with Clancy Williams, Somer handed over the papers she was holding and turned back towards the door, but just as she did so, the connecting door between his secretary’s and his own office was opened by Chase, his hand resting lightly on the shoulder of a tall, elegant woman, whose eyes widened slightly as she saw Somer.
‘Mr Lorimer…’
‘Chase…’
His secretary and Clancy Williams both spoke at the same time, the secretary’s hesitant, ‘Your wife…’ falling into the silence that followed.
‘This is your wife, Chase?’ Clancy Williams was plainly amused, although there was some hostility in the glance she directed at Somer. ‘Good heavens, where on earth did you find her? Not your type at all, darling…is she?’
A cold finger touched Somer’s spine. Chase was showing no inclination to leave Clancy Williams’s side and come to hers. If anything the look he was giving the other woman was tenderly indulgent, while Somer had barely merited more than an irritated glance.
Well, no wonder he was looking at Clancy, Somer thought miserably. She was beautiful; and like any good actress knew how to project herself. Right now she was stage centre and loving every minute of it, Somer recognised.
‘I couldn’t believe it when I heard Chase had got married,’ she told Somer pouting slightly, her eyes as hard as diamonds. Chase’s secretary had diplomatically whisked herself out of the office, so there was no one there to witness her annihilation apart from Chase. ‘I would have sent him a present—I saw some darling silk pyjamas in L.A. but then of course I know that Chase doesn’t wear them.’ Somer caught the brief smile that tugged at the corners of Chase’s mouth and the look he and Clancy exchanged and rage and jealousy burned through her like a fireball; in that moment if she could have done so she would willingly have destroyed them both. Clancy Williams first, and Chase second—slowly and painfully.
‘You must have caught him at a vulnerable moment,’ Clancy told Somer unkindly. ‘Or did you do it just to spite me, darling?’ she asked Chase softly. ‘Rather silly of you in view of the circumstances. Which reminds me, I have to go and see my solicitor tomorrow. You must come, with me, Chase, you know how hopeless I am about business matters.’
About as hopeless as a praying mantis at attracting food, Somer thought, raging with anger. How could Chase be taken in by that soft cooing voice and that mock helpless act? He was positively lapping it up, she thought viciously as Clancy added, ‘I’m hoping my divorce won’t take too long to come through, but it’s such a traumatic ordeal, and then finding out that you’re married.’
‘We can still be…friends.’
‘Friends?’ She pouted again. ‘Friendship wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I came to see you this morning, darling, but we can talk about that over lunch.’
So his business lunch was with Clancy Williams, Somer thought wretchedly. She might have known. All too vividly she could picture the two of them alone somewhere… It was pointless to imagine that Chase would even try to resist the sensual temptation of his one-time mistress.
‘I’ll just see Somer to the lift, Clancy,’ she heard Chase murmur to his companion. ‘Why don’t you wait here for me?’
The look the actress gave her was all smug complacency, rubbing her head against Chase’s shoulder like a purring cat.
Chase waited until he had closed the office door behind them and they were in the corridor to speak.
‘Thanks for bringing the papers,’ he said carelessly.
His casual attitude only added to Somer’s sense of outrage.
‘Yes, a pity I arrived just when I did,’ she seethed, practically choking on the words. ‘I hated to interrupt what was obviously a very emotional get-together.’
For a moment she almost thought she saw amused satisfaction gleaming in Chase’s eyes, but it was banished very quickly; cool aloofness taking its place.
‘Clancy and I are very old friends,’ he told her curtly. ‘She’s flown in to London to talk to me about appearing in one of our new drama series.’
‘And to tell you that she’s getting divorced?’ Try as she might Somer couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice. ‘Would you have married me, Chase, if you’d known that before our wedding?’
‘I didn’t know, did I?’ He shrugged, avoiding the question. ‘Besides there’s no comparison between our relationship and mine and Clancy’s…’
Somer went white with the pain of hearing him say it. ‘No, of course not,’ she choked, forcing back the tears threatening to ignominiously flood down her cheeks. ‘I’m only your wife, while she’s…’
‘Clancy and I go back a long way,’ Chase told her curtly, ‘she’s going through a very bad time at the moment. As a friend I owe it to her to help her as much as I can.’
There was something Somer had to know.
‘Does she…does she know the truth about our marriage?’ she asked woodenly, hating herself for asking the question and knowing that a humiliating flush of colour scorched her face.
Chase was watching
her thoughtfully. ‘I shan’t say anything about it to her.’ He smiled mockingly. ‘I hardly think she’ll want to discuss our marriage in any case, we have other things to talk about.’
And Somer could guess what they were. The look Clancy Williams had given her in the office had told her just how little she was prepared to tolerate Somer’s presence in Chase’s life. She wanted Chase, Somer acknowledged bitterly, and Chase probably wanted her. She couldn’t ask him outright if he still loved the other woman because she couldn’t bear to face the pain of his answer.
She walked into the lift without a backward glance, praying that he couldn’t tell how upset she was. She knew she ought to return home and start work on her new programme, but somehow her mind refused to return to her work, but kept centring on Chase. She was becoming obsessed by him, she thought bitterly, still shivering from the effects of her blazing jealousy. She had never dreamed she could experience such powerful emotions and it frightened her to discover these unexpected depths to her own nature.
She was just pulling up outside the house when a taxi drew up from the opposite direction. The tall fair-haired man who alighted was instantly recognisable, and Somer locked her car, starting towards him.
‘Andrew…’
He turned at the sound of her voice, his face alight with pleasure.
‘Somer.’
‘Andrew, what on earth are you doing here?’ Somer was completely bewildered.
‘Can’t you guess?’ His voice was huskily deep with meaning. ‘Oh God, Somer, I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind. I had some leave owing to me, so I took it. I’m staying at our hotel in London—I told Judith I needed to get away for a while to sort myself out, but she wasn’t deceived. Oh, my darling girl…’
‘I’m not your darling girl—or your darling anything,’ Somer told him tartly. ‘Andrew…’
‘Let’s talk,’ he pleaded. ‘Please, Somer. I’ve come all this way just to see you…to talk to you. Have lunch with me.’
‘How did you know our address?’ Unwillingly Somer found herself propelled towards the taxi, where the driver still waited to be paid.
