Revenge

by Natalie Fox

  'True, but you've got to start somewhere. I'll do the groundwork and then, because I'm a woman and far more devious and clever than the average male, I'll let him take over. Go all feminine on him over dinner. You know, consult him over the menu. "What's a biryani, Rob? I've never tried it before" and "I'll leave the wine to you, Rob, I know absolutely nothing about wine".'

  'He might not either!'

  'But he wouldn't admit it, because he's a man. He'd go all macho and make out he knew and it wouldn't matter if what he chose was awful because I'd say it was perfect. I mean all those creases in the relationship can be smoothed out at a later date; by then he'll be crazy about me and it wouldn't matter!'

  Alexia couldn't help laughing though it was food for thought. Did Harry feel insecure and threatened? Was his macho pride holding him back from making any advance towards her? She could almost laugh at the very thought, it was ludicrous and besides their relationship wasn't April's and Rob's. They had skipped the preliminaries and gone straight into the heavyweight bout and pride and egos weren't a consideration any more.

  'That's provided he accepts your invitation,' Alexia said cynically. 'Supposing he doesn't?'

  April gave her a wide smile, as if the suggestion wasn't even worth a second thought. 'Little me doesn't take no for an answer. You see, I know it's the real thing for me. I knew as soon as I saw him. I'm not giving up. I'll get him if it kills me!'

  'Good luck,' Alexia wished lightly and got back to her work as April skipped out of the door. But her concentration had gone. The phone rang and listlessly she picked it up.

  'Alexia, I'm going to be tied up for the next few days,' Harry told her. 'I've arranged for a client to come down to the works—can you do the honours and show him around?'

  'Of course. Will he be buying?' She wished her heart didn't race like this when she heard his voice. She picked up a pen to jot down the details.

  'Yes, and heavily too, so don't stint on the welcome mat.'

  Alexia bristled. 'Have I ever?' she snapped back.

  'No, but you haven't been yourself lately. Have you thought of taking a holiday?'

  Did he think it that simple? Did he think?

  'Don't be ridiculous! A holiday is the last thing I want or need at the moment.'

  'What is it you do want and need, Alexia?' He asked it softly, not in his business voice, and for a second she felt lulled into blurting the truth. She wished she could take an April attitude and just come right out with it. 'It's you I want and I'd kill to get you!' But her emotions were too fragile to take a rejection if it didn't work.

  'Nothing but to get on with my work in peace. Now what's the name of the client so I can get it up on the visitors' board?'

  His voice was stiff and businesslike as he gave her the details and after he had rung off Alexia held her head in her hands and mentally counted the opportunities she had let slip to tell him how she truly felt.

  'It worked!' April shrieked, flying into Alexia's office and swirling round the room like a demented teenager. 'He said yes! He loves Indian food and he's picking me up at eight and I just know this is going to be the beginning of something big!'

  Alexia was grateful for April's phone ringing in the outer office and April tearing off to answer it. She badly wanted to be happy for her but her own depression tightened around her throat choking ho-. So April had pulled it off, April with her guile and nerve and lust for life had got exactly what she wanted. Lucky April. Poor Alexia.

  *

  'This is odd. I thought Mr Harry Masters was Mr Efficiency himself.'

  'What's odd?' Alexia murmured uninterestedly from the window. It was a warm Friday afternoon and the workers were leaving for the weekend. Alexia watched the procession of cars queuing at the barrier, impatient to be away. Harry had been in today but had been closeted in Roland's office for most of his visit and now was long since gone. April was tidying Alexia's desk before leaving.

  'These contracts. I distinctly heard Mr Masters say to Roland he needed them this weekend. He must have forgotten them.'

  'He doesn't forget anything, April. He probably has copies.'

  'He hasn't,' April told her, 'because I offered to do some for him but he said he needed to make some amendments over the weekend and Monday would do. Don't you think you ought to have a look at them?'

  Alexia crossed the room. She'd been tied up with a snarl-up in the computerised sales department all afternoon and didn't know what contracts April was referring to. She glanced quickly at them. Yes, they were important, and Harry had been extremely careless in leaving them lying around in her office. Not like him at all.

  Alexia slid them back into their thick brown envelope. 'His address is on file, get a courier to take them to him.' Alexia reached for her bag; she'd had enough for this week.

  'A courier to Wales!' April cried.

  'Wales!' Alexia echoed.

  April blushed. 'I made him a coffee while he was here and he was telling me about his farmhouse in Wales and how he would be down there this weekend. He has thousands of sheep and apparently you can see the Brecons from his farmhouse and he has an old jeep --'

  'He told you that!' Alexia cried. She couldn't believe it. Harry Masters was very secretive about his private life, especially his Welsh home. Not once had she ever heard him talk to any of the staff about his personal life. He just didn't do that sort of thing. Slowly her heart began to thud.

  'I thought it a bit strange,' April said uncomfortably. 'For one crazy moment I thought he might be...well...you know...flirting with me but...well, that's ridiculous... I mean... I'm not his sort.'

  So why? Alexia asked herself, and that glimmer of hope that had flickered before suddenly became a beacon in her sight. Harry Masters didn't leave important contracts lying around. Harry Masters didn't confide in bubbly secretaries. Harry Masters was the executioner of a very corny contrived situation!

  'It's... it's OK, April. I'll see to it.' She felt hot all over and her heart was going for gold now. This would be the last opportunity, the very last, because no others would be offered to her if she didn't take this one up.

  'What are you going to do, Alexia?' April asked, her eyes wide and innocent.

  'I'm going to do a bit of male-ego stroking, April. Thanks for the tips.'

  'Alexia!' April called when she got to the door. 'Haven't you forgotten something?' April was frowning when Alexia turned to her.

  'The contracts, yes, of course. How stupid of me.'

  'Not like you, not like you at all, Alexia,' her secretary reprimanded her as Alexia scooped up the file and rushed out of the office.

  No, it wasn't like her at all, Alexia reminded herself as her Mercedes bumped and sloshed and skidded up the dirt track lane. She must be mad to be doing this with no guarantee that it would work. But it would, because Harry had made it possible. He had given her this opportunity to make it right between them and she was acting on it.

  Did it always rain in Wales? This wasn't happening! The car slithered and stalled and Alexia slumped back in her seat in dismay. This hadn't been a good idea, and supposing he wasn't here anyway? Negative thinking. He would be and waiting for her too.

  She reached over into the back seat and hauled out the wellies she'd bought at a garage en route. This weekend she was prepared.

  She tugged them on and got out. Pity she hadn't thought to buy an anorak too; it was pelting down and pitch dark.

  She was soaked through to the skin by the time she reached the porch and nervous now. There was only the porch light on... and supposing he wasn't here!

  The door suddenly flew open and Harry Masters stood in the doorway.

  'What the.. .Alexia?' He sounded shocked and surprised and Alexia's heart failed. She'd got it all wrong! Miscalculated! Misunderstood!

  'I... I was expecting a warm, welcoming hostelry. ..' Her voice faltered and she nearly fell into the house.

  Harry lurched forward and scooped her off the front step and Alexia clung to him with r
elief but when he put her down all her doubts crowded in on her.

  She stood in front of him, dripping raindrops on to the rug just inside the door. Her green boots were caked with mud and Harry looked down on them and grimaced with dismay.

  He crouched down to her hold-all and started to pull out her clothes. Sensible shirts and jumpers, jeans and socks this time.

  'No silk and satin?' He pulled out her velvet flatties from the bottom and handed them to her.

  'I... I didn't think I'd need them.' Embarrassment engulfed her as she snatched the shoes from him.

  'Let me help you.' He eased off her boots and she had to cling to his shoulder to keep her balance. Her nails dug into his thin sweater and she felt the heat of his body in the contact. She prayed she'd done right by coming here. Had he paved the way for her or had she misinterpreted the signals?

  'You left some contracts in my office...'

  He stood up and he was standing so close that all she had to do was slide her hands up his chest and he would know. But she wasn't April with her sublime confidence.

  'And?' he said quietly.

  'And... and I brought them... thought you might need them.'

  'How did you know I was here?'

  Oh, God, perhaps he had been flirting with April and the information he'd fed her hadn't been intended to go any further. But no, he was proud and wouldn't admit to such a corny ruse anyway.

  'I just took a chance.' She couldn't face him, just struggled into her flatties, using the wall, not him, for support.

  'A bit risky. I could have been anywhere this weekend.'

  'But you aren't!' she retorted, suddenly angry with him for not making it easier for her. 'You're here,' she murmured, calming herself. 'And... and I'd like a cup of tea or something. I'm tired and the traffic was bad.'

  'It always is on a Friday night,' he told her, reminding her of one of her own sarcastic retorts. 'You obviously came prepared for the night, or possibly the whole weekend.'

  Or possibly for the rest of our lives, she so desperately wanted to add, but he wasn't helping, he just wasn't! He was cool and distant, just like that morning in her home when he had got all he wanted and was leaving.

  'I'll go if you want me to,' she uttered weakly, lifting her eyes bravely to meet his. Now he would have to say something, yes or no, and then she would know for sure if there was any hope.

  'You'd better get out of those wet clothes,' was all he said as he turned away from her.

  That wasn't an answer, not the one she wanted to hear, and Alexia hesitated, not sure whether to go up to the four-poster bedroom or not. She stood where she was, watching him go through to the kitchen area to put the kettle on.

  'Go on, then,' he urged as if she were eight years old. 'You know your way about.'

  Damn you! she breathed under her breath as she picked up her hold-all and marched across the room to the stairs.

  The room was exactly as she had left it, the magnificent four-poster as sensually inviting as before, but she remembered his remark about it being a grave error of his judgement and depression flooded her. She shouldn't have come.

  'Where do you think you're going?' He blocked her way out of the bedroom.

  'To... to find another bedroom.'

  'This one not good enough for you?' His voice was dry and prickly.

  'Apparently not, as you once indirectly told me!' Her voice was as dry and prickly as his.

  'Get your clothes off, Alexia.'

  Her body reacted to that, it tensed in shocked fear and dismay. He didn't want her here but now that she was he'd use her for his own pleasure.

  'I won't!' she breathed, her lips tightening determinedly.

  'You will or you'll catch a chill. Now do as you're told and get them off.' He made no attempt to move out of the room.

  'Get out, then!'

  He smiled then, the first time he had allowed it for a long time, but it wasn't a smile inspired by pleasure. 'Shy all of a sudden? Short memory you have. I know every inch of that body, remember? Inside and out, you might say.'

  He moved in on her then and she let the holdall she was still clutching drop out of her grasp to the floor. Nervously she stepped back and then could move back no further because of the bed.

  'No, Harry!' she cried fearfully.

  He raised a brow in surprise at her protest but it didn't stop him reaching out to unbutton her shirt for her.

  Her hand clasped over his. 'No!' she repeated.

  His hand under hers warmed her breast and her heart throbbed painfully. She fought the rush of desire his touch roused and her fingers dug into his flesh.

  'You say no but your heart says yes; it's fluttering like a trapped bird under my hand.' •

  'Because I'm afraid!' she blurted.

  'Afraid of what, Alexia?' he asked smoothly.

  'You, of course. I didn't come here for... for this.' She prised his hand from her and he let it drop to his side. Her eyes widened reproachfully. 'I came here... to talk... I think we need to talk but you're not... not making it easy for me!'

  'So why the fear?' he asked, and she thought she noticed a softening of his voice.

  'Because... because I'm afraid you won't listen...' she bit her lip and suddenly April was with her, urging her on, giving her the strength she needed to get this out '.. .and I'm afraid of rejection,' she finished lamely. April wouldn't have said that, April wouldn't have considered a rejection.

  Harry suddenly reached up and pulled at her shirt and the tiny gold buttons gave easily. Shocked, Alexia gazed up at him, and for the first time saw hope. Harry's eyes were soft and almost slumbrous and his lips were turned up very slightly at the corners. Alexia's skin tingled and her pulses charged eagerly.

  'Harry?' she murmured as his hand slid over her naked breast.

  'Is this rejection?' He lowered his mouth to hers and she parted her lips willingly. He kept up the throbbing pressure on her breast, caressing away her resistance till she wanted nothing but him to love her.

  A sob came from her throat when he broke the kiss to take her swollen nipple in his mouth to draw on it so deeply that the room swam around her.

  'I.. .1 still want to talk, Harry,' she pleaded in a faint whisper. 'There's so much I want to tell you and so much I want to hear from you.'

  His mouth came up to her throat, to smooth kisses on her creamy flesh. His hands slid down her back and drew her into his hard arousal.

  'Love doesn't need to be talked about, Alexia,' he murmured huskily. He slid the zip of her white cotton jeans down and gently caressed her tiny lacy briefs beneath, small, darting thrusts of his fingers that had her hips urging into his caress. 'Love is felt and enjoyed and no amount of words will make it any the stronger. Is that what you wanted to hear, my darling?' he grated as with his other hand he slid her jeans down till they fell to the floor.

  'Oh, yes,' she whispered softly, relief pulsing around her heart. 'It will do for a start.'

  Love. She tried to form the word on her lips but it wouldn't come. He'd said love, actually spoken that magical word she had so longed to hear. So he must mean it and he knew why she was here and that she loved him too. She wanted to tell him then how deeply she felt for him, but his fingers were pulsing her into a different world, a world where actions said all there needed to be said for the moment.

  Harry eased her back on to the bed and as she struggled with her wet shirt he took off his jeans and sweater. He came to her then, his dark eyes warm with the love she now knew he felt, and she was ready for him because there were no barriers any more. He entered her immediately, his arousal driving into her so thoroughly that she cried out with joy. His tempestuous, frenzied movements started immediately as if there was no time left in the world for preliminaries. He drove hard, spinning her higher and higher till she throbbed her need to him as she tightened her muscles around him.

  He groaned once, a deep resonant sound that trapped itself in the lacy folds of the four-poster above them, and then she felt t
he swell of his orgasm approach and she moved urgently against him, desperate to be with him in that very special moment. With a cry she reached it and they came together, furiously, blindly, frantically, lovingly.

  A long while later Alexia was the first to speak, her voice low and subdued as if she had just recovered from climbing a small mountain and was relieved to find herself in one piece.

  'Harry, are you awake?'

  'Hmm.'

  She pinched his thigh lightly. 'Just testing,' she murmured when he flinched under her touch. 'The last time I wanted to show you something you were fast asleep.'

  She had his attention now. He leaned up on one elbow and looked down on her, smoothing her still damp hair from her brow.

  'What did you want to show me? I only want to know if it's indecent,' he drawled seductively.

  She pulled his head down and kissed him on the mouth, a long, impassioned kiss of very deep love. Her hands coiled around him, smoothing down his back, round the front to run up his chest in the narrow aperture that parted them.

  'Was that it?' he moaned when she took her lips from his.

  'Yes,' she murmured. 'You're right, love is felt and not talked about. That was my love. I wanted to show it to you that night in my home but you were too exhausted and fell asleep on me.'

  'That late in the relationship, huh?'

  She thought he might be teasing her again and she playfully pushed him away and sat up on her knees looking down on him. 'Yes, that late in the relationship,' she told him as he linked his hands behind his head to give her his full attention. 'Oh, I knew before, right from the start, I suppose. Why else would I have suffered your arrogance for so long?' She gave a little hopeless shrug. 'But I couldn't tell you, it was all so wrong. We made love but there was no love, none that showed. I began to think it was all my fault, that I'd never actually done anything to show how deeply I felt for you.'

  Harry smiled. 'You couldn't, darling. You were still wrapped up in the last rejection, still blaming me for your lost lover --'

  She shook her head. 'I don't think I ever loved him, Harry,' she told him emphatically.