In the past, he was proud to brag about having a maid, but for some strange reason this woman made him want to hide the fact.
“No,” he said. “I thought you were going to make up the bed, that’s all. I’m not sure I know how.”
She burst out laughing.
“Then learn. You have nothing else to do till the food arrives.”
She left him and made her way downstairs, still laughing. What a jerk! A grown man who didn’t know how to make up a bed; where did he come from? The nineteen fifties? She felt something of a jerk herself, assuming he was hitting on her. She was even a little disappointed to find he was not; it had been a very long time since anyone had taken that much notice.
She studied her reflection in the hall mirror and understood why that was. What a mess! No makeup, hair all over the place and sprouting strands of hay; who on earth would want to hit on her?
They ate in silence. The misunderstanding had stilled the tongues of both of them, but if he was to stay, she needed to break the ice.
“So where do you work?” She asked.
“In the city,” he said.
That was usually a euphemism for ‘the Stock Exchange’ but she wouldn’t take the bait. She had noticed the designer suit and the expensive aftershave. She recognised that at once; it was the same brand her ex always wore, but she had the feeling it was all show. After all, if he were as well off as his accessories implied, he wouldn’t be begging a room here, would he? No, there was more to the story than he was letting on and Tamsyn wasn’t easily impressed. She hadn’t completely swallowed the tale of frozen accounts because of a divorce; he would be entitled to enough to rent a flat or he would have to stay with his wife. She couldn’t force him to leave.
“Don’t you have a car?” she said. “I noticed you arrived on foot; have you left it out on the road?”
“Yes, I did. I wasn’t sure it was the right place, so I didn’t want to drive up.”
“What is it? No; let me guess – a BMW, right?”
“Spot on. Am I really that transparent?”
Yes, she thought but didn’t say.
“I only have Aunt Tilly’s old Rolls,” she added.
“Old Rolls? That must be worth a bit, I should think.”
“Possibly. It’s nineteen thirties, so might be worth a bob or two, but it’s not mine; it belongs to the sanctuary, like everything else. It’s the only thing left of Tilly’s heyday. I don’t have anything else to drive; Kevin took everything, including my car. I was stupid enough to let him get that through his company, so when he liquidated it, they came and took away my wheels.”
He hoped his disappointment didn’t show. So Tilly hadn’t left everything to her then? His last hope of redemption faded quietly. Still, she might not have left her the farm, but she must have left her all her money or she wouldn’t be able to afford to live here. Perhaps she daren’t spend any in case her ex husband got wind of it.
There might still be a way to keep him from a long prison sentence and personal bankruptcy. The idea of either terrified him.
“You’ve been badly treated,” he said.
“I think so. It wasn’t an ambition of mine to come home and find a plastic whore in my bed and then he had to ice the cake by tying everything up so I didn’t have a hope. I was afraid he might try to get his filthy mitts on Tilly’s money, so I had to go through with the divorce before I really wanted to. I could do with a nice car though; I hate old cars.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I like my electrics and power steering, and I like something that goes fast. Not much hope of that till my lawyers find Kevin’s hidden stash. Even though the divorce is final, he can still be made to share.”
On impulse, he leaned forward and lowered his voice to a teasing whisper.
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” he said.
She turned to stare at him sharply, saw the playful grin on his lips and laughed.
“I would love to drive your BMW,” she said. “Tomorrow. But I think you might find the Rolls hard work.”
“Possibly. I’d love to give it a go though. Don’t get too used to the Beemer; I am expecting it to be repossessed in the not too distant future.”
“Why?”
“I told you. I have no money, so I can’t keep up the payments.”
“Your job?”
“Ah, well. I resigned last month to stop Donna getting her claws into my pay packet.”
How easily these lies slid off his tongue; that was a little worrying.
“I can relate to that,” she was saying. “What did you do before?”
He didn’t answer for a moment, and she wondered if he were trying to invent some glamorous occupation. What he was doing was cursing himself for mentioning the car at all. He hadn’t left it in the lane; he’d come by train and scraped up his last pound for a taxi. Why had he told her it was here? Now he’d have to make up some story to explain its absence.
Perhaps he could say it had been stolen. No, that wouldn’t do; she’d expect the police to turn up. He’d have to feign surprise and hazard a guess that the repossession team had found it.
She was still waiting for an answer.
“Investments,” he said. Now was his chance, the ideal opportunity to put his scheme into action. Why couldn’t he take it? “And you?”
“I was going to follow in Tilly’s footsteps. Had a role in a film, only a small one, but that led to an offer as second lead to a very famous star. Then Kevin proposed and I gave it all up. I must have been mad.”
Tamsyn hadn’t realised at the time that Kevin was probably jealous of her success. The small part had been in a block buster film and she’d had good reviews for her own role in it. She’d been offered the second lead in a new production and she was very excited. She remembered that day clearly; she had met Kevin for lunch, anticipating his face when she told him about her offer.
They had ordered their meal and while they waited she’d given him the news. She wasn’t really watching his expression, was too excited, but looking back he didn’t seem too pleased.
“Isn’t it wonderful?” She asked him.
He reached across and squeezed her hand.
“It is,” he said. “But it might make you refuse my offer.”
“Your offer? What offer?”
“This one,” he said and he pulled from his pocket a little leather box. Inside was a diamond ring, at least one carat, the stone catching the light from the overhead lights.
That had been the end of her career. She couldn’t really blame him, could she? She didn’t have to accept and even so, she didn’t have to give up what looked to be a promising future in the movies. But she was head over heels in love and that was all she thought of.
“Will you marry me?” Kevin asked.
She wished he hadn’t done that in a crowded restaurant. She wanted to throw her arms around his neck and hug him, but she couldn’t reach across the table. Instead, her face lit up in a delighted smile and she slipped the ring on her finger.
“Oh, yes! Of course I’ll marry you.”
“But what about the contract?”
She must have looked a little vague; she’d forgotten all about it.
“What about it? Is there some reason I can’t have both?”
“Well, it’s up to you, of course, but if you’re off to Hollywood we’re not going to be seeing much of each other, are we? We’ll have to wait till you get back and then again, you might not come back. You might be such a roaring success they’ll want to keep you.”
So she made the decision to turn down the offer and marry Kevin. She hadn’t regretted it, either, not until that day she’d come home to find that woman in her bed. He tried to tell her it was a one off, that it didn’t mean anything, but what difference did that make?
“She means nothing to me, Tammy,” he said. “It was only sex.”
She’d never understood why men thought that made it all right. Some women did as well,
but it was beyond her.
“That only makes it worse,” she told him. “If you fell in love with someone else and was tempted by your love for her, I could have understood it better. But just sex? As though sex is not important, no different to having a coffee together; I can’t understand that. What can you get from her that you can’t get from me?”
“Nothing. It was a lapse, that’s all. I love you.”
“Well, I don’t love you. Not any more.” She realised suddenly that she spoke the truth. She was angry, she was humiliated, but she wasn’t heartbroken or even hurt. It took something like that to show her just how little he had come to mean to her. “I want a divorce.”
That had been two years ago and she hadn’t done anything about it until she suspected that Aunt Tilly might leave the estate to her. She asked her not to, just in case, so she didn’t expect to inherit anything but just in case she did, she wanted to be quite certain Kevin had no claim on it.
“You okay?” Richard’s voice broke into her thoughts. “You were miles away.”
“Sorry. I was just thinking about how things turned out.”
“You were going to be an actress, like Tilly? I never knew.”
“Nobody did, nobody except me and Kevin.” She shrugged. “Anyway, it’s all in the past now. I’ve given up trying to get anything out of him; I’m quite content here, looking after the animals. At least they’re loyal.”
It was getting dark outside and she began to clear away the plates. She didn’t like the way Richard’s presence had brought back all those bitter memories and now she wished he hadn’t come.
She looked at her reflection in the window as she washed up the plates and cups and realised again that she looked a fright. Her hair could do with a wash. Living alone here, she never bothered too much about how she looked. After all, the horses didn’t care, did they?
Just having a man in the house made her want to rush upstairs and get under the shower, wash her hair and put on her make-up; how silly. She had sworn never to do anything for the sake of some man, ever again, and Richard was nothing special.
“I have to go and be sure Mason’s ok for the night,” she said as she dried her hands.
“Mason?”
“The horse I was tending when you arrived. I need to be sure he hasn’t pulled his bandage off and see that he has enough hay and water for the night. I shan’t be long. Put the tv on if you want.”
But as she opened the door to step outside, she felt him right behind her and looked back.
“Mind if I tag along?” He asked.
She nodded; she was too polite to refuse, but she had really wanted to be alone, to give some thought to her recent feelings. She’d been content with her life until he turned up. She was quite happy with the animals, quite happy alone but now she found herself wanting company. She didn’t like that, because she knew he would go away and she would once more be alone. She’d got used to it; she needed to go back to how she was before he arrived on her doorstep.
She switched on the stable lights and went inside the stall to inspect Mason’s injured leg. Thankfully the bandage was still in place and there was no blood seeping into it, so she felt comfortable leaving him for the night. She checked he had enough hay and water, then turned to see Richard peering over the open stable door at her.
She started to walk past him when he spoke.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” He asked.
She laughed as she stepped out and closed the door, turned to lock it firmly behind her.
“You can’t even make a bed,” she answered.
“That is true. Donna did rather spoil me, I must admit.”
Another lie. Why didn’t he want her to know they had a maid to do stuff like that?
“So what went wrong?” She asked.
“Not sure, really. I suppose I was away too often, working long hours to give her the lifestyle she’d got used to. She had too much time on her hands and she turned to someone else. It happens.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I was only surprised at how little it hurt. I think I fell out of love with her a long time ago, but I never noticed.”
His own words made him realise that last bit was actually true. He had fallen out of love with her, assuming he was ever in love with her in the first place.
Tamsyn turned back toward the house, feeling Richard’s presence beside her. She could easily jump him and the knowledge made her blush. It had been a long time since she’d had the comfort of a man. She wasn’t one who went in for one night stands; she had to know a man, had to feel something for him and she knew nothing about this one.
CHAPTER THREE
Tamsyn stood and watched while Richard struggled to make up the bed. She felt a little guilty, felt as though she should be at least helping if not doing it for him. But at the same time, he was a grown man and it was high time he learned how to do something so simple. Besides that, she’d had enough of waiting on some man, only to discover he was a cheating bastard.
Richard had taken off his shirt and his chest was bare, his muscles just enough to be attractive. She couldn’t find too much muscle appealing, but on the other hand she didn’t like skinny or flabby men either. Even so, his powerful strength was useless in the fight with the sheets and pillow cases. When she saw him disappear into the quilt cover though, she decided it would be too cruel to just stand and watch.
After struggling together to get the cover straightened over the quilt, they were both in fits of laughter and Tamsyn collapsed onto the bed in an effort to control her giggles. She hadn’t laughed so much in years and now she realised she hadn’t laughed like this since before she married Kevin, in fact before she met Kevin.
Her eyes were flooded with tears of laughter and she squeezed them shut in an effort to stop the flow.
“It’s good to hear you laugh,” Richard said.
She opened her eyes to see him lying beside her, leaning on one elbow and looking down at her. She hadn’t been this close to a man since Kevin either and now she ran her eyes over his smooth muscles.
What was she doing, lying on a bed with a strange, half naked man? This was against everything she believed in, but she couldn’t help it. He was so delicious and he wasn’t really a stranger, was he? He was a relative, albeit a distant one, and she’d known him for most of her life. Did that make it all right? And did it matter? She had no one to please but herself.
He reached across and rested his hand gently on her waist while he kissed her, a long, hungry kiss such as she had never known before. She hadn’t had many boyfriends, but of the ones she’d known, none of them could kiss like this. Come to think of it, she could barely recall Kevin kissing her at all, not once they’d slept together. He seemed more interested in groping her than actually making love to her.
She’d been such a fool for that man and she didn’t want to make a similar mistake, but there was no relationship on offer here, was there? There was no commitment, just a night of possible passion with a man she found very appealing and who certainly knew how to kiss.
“Do you want to?” He asked.
Oh yes, she wanted to! But should she? And who was she asking? For the first time in her life she wanted to do something completely for herself and she saw no reason why she shouldn’t. Would he respect her in the morning? Who the hell cared?
She put her arms around his neck and pulled him down towards her so that his lips were on hers once more and she felt his fingers fumbling with the buttons of her shirt, unfastening each one and slipping both halves of it from her shoulders.
He ran his fingers through her blonde hair, his hand warm against her face, and he kept kissing her until she felt she was falling from a great height and keeping her mouth on his was the only way to stop it.
She felt his fingers on her bra, unclipping it and slipping his hand inside to caress her, then he pulled the straps down, releasing her breasts to his mouth while she unfastened his zip and slipped his t
rousers from his body. She felt her jeans and pants sliding down past her hips and away from her body, then he moved a little away from her and stared down at her naked form.
“God, you are beautiful,” he murmured. “I have been wanting you since the moment I saw you, with a horse’s leg in your hands.”
“I’m sure that was an attractive sight.”
“It was; it was a wonderful sight.”
That was no lie.
He kissed her again and the last trace of resolve left her, melted away like snow in the sunlight. He stroked her lovingly, trailed his fingers down her body while she sucked on his nipple and he stirred, growing hard against her.
She felt that throbbing she hadn’t felt in years and she arched her body to meet his; she parted her legs to receive him as he plunged into her.
Oh, My God! It had been so long, so very long. And it had never been like this. She had never been loved like this.
***
Tamsyn opened her eyes and tried to gather her thoughts into some coherent order. After two years her body clock reminded her to wake at an early hour to feed the animals, and she was used to that. What she wasn’t used to was the warmth of another body in her bed, the sound of soft breathing in her ear and the smell of a man overpowering the sweet smell of aftershave.
She turned and looked up at Richard’s sleeping body and memories of last night rushed back at her. She felt her cheeks burning; Oh, boy! She shouldn’t have done that, but she was very glad she had. She watched his sleeping body for a little while longer, watched his chest rising and falling and let her eyes move over him. She fought the urge to lean across and kiss that chest; she didn’t want to seem too eager.
The covers had fallen down and only came up to his waist and she could just see the swell of his hips. She savoured every minute of their lovemaking, his passionate kisses, the pressure of his hips on hers, the feel of him inside her. She shivered and climbed slowly and quietly out of bed.
She ran naked to her own room to grab her robe before he woke up and saw her. A little late now, but better late than never. Downstairs she filled the kettle and spooned tea leaves into the pot. She liked tea in the mornings and she couldn’t bear the feel of wet tea bags.
Fallen Stars: Lies: Book One of Fallen Stars Romance Series Page 2
