He stood up to swing her easily up into his arms, his smile tender as he looked down at her. ‘My bed is bigger than yours,’ he told her. Picking her up, he strode from the room to his bedroom with her still in his arms.
He carried her as if she weighed very little, gently kicking the bedroom door closed behind them before laying her down on the bed, kneeling on the carpeted floor beside her as he slowly removed the rest of her clothes, folding each item carefully before laying it down on the floor beside him.
Annie felt slightly self-conscious as she lay naked before him, but as he began to slowly kiss and caress each slender curve she could see the beauty of her body in his eyes.
‘You too, Rufus,’ she encouraged tenderly, longing to touch him in the same way.
And when he finally stood naked before her she wasn’t disappointed, as she had known she wouldn’t be. Rufus was beautiful, his skin tanned, his body all smoothly muscled planes, his waist slender, thighs firmly muscled, long legs covered with the same dark hair as his chest. Naked, with his dark hair long onto his shoulders, he looked like a warrior of old.
And she wanted to be his captive, completely, wanted to know his full possession, and as Rufus lay down on the bed beside her she could feel the promise of that possession leaping against her thighs.
He began to kiss her again, her lips, her breasts, her thighs, making her cry out in wonder and need.
Then her groans of pleasure became whimpers, crying out as pleasure like she had never known before engulfed her, leaving her mindless, lost in a vortex of such scorching pleasure it reached to her fingertips and toes.
She looked up at Rufus in wonder as he moved to lie beside her once again, gently kissing her flushed face. ‘I’ve never—I—Oh, Rufus …!’ Her arms moved about his shoulders as she hugged him to her.
He raised his head slowly, his gaze gentle now. ‘Have you never made love, Annie?’ he asked gruffly. ‘Or just never known the pleasure it could give you?’
‘Neither!’ she choked a little self-consciously. She was such an innocent, had never guessed, never known …!
Rufus’s smile deepened. ‘Then I’m glad, and honoured, that I’m the first.’ He smoothed back the dampness of her hair from her brow, gently brushing her lips with his own. ‘Now I think we should get under the covers, cuddle up, and go to sleep.’ He stood up, folding back the duvet invitingly.
Annie blinked up at him. ‘But you—We haven’t—You haven’t—’
He knelt on the bed beside her again, lightly touching her heated cheeks. ‘I don’t have anything with me, Annie. And I doubt very much, in the circumstances, that you do …?’ He raised questioning brows, shrugging helplessly as she shook her head. ‘I don’t want the consequences of our first time together to be something that you spend the next few weeks worrying about.’ He settled her under the duvet before climbing into the bed next to her, his arm about her shoulders as he moulded her into him.
Annie didn’t doubt for a moment that he had wanted her as much as she had wanted him—had felt his need. And he was denying himself all that because of her innocence …
Her arms moved about him as she held on tightly to him. She loved this man; she knew that without a doubt as his steady breathing lulled them both into a deep sleep.
CHAPTER NINE
ANNIE was totally disorientated when she woke up the next morning and found herself not in Rufus’s bed or his arms but back in her own room, in her own bed, and by herself.
Rufus must have carried her here some time during the night or early morning. As she sat up in bed she saw her neatly folded clothes—even her blouse and bra—laid on the bedroom chair.
Jessica …
Rufus had been aware, even if Annie hadn’t, that Jessica shouldn’t find them snuggled up in bed together this morning. Or some of Annie’s clothing scattered about the sitting-room!
She stretched in the bed, her body feeling different somehow, still very much aware of the aching pleasure given by Rufus’s hands and lips. Her only regret was that she hadn’t known his full possession. But that might still happen.
What would his behaviour towards her be like this morning? Would he be her employer once again? Or would there be the memory of last night in his eyes too? God, she hoped so. Because she would never forget it! She didn’t think she could bear it if Rufus chose to ignore the passion they had shared so completely—
‘Tea,’ Jessica announced brightly as she entered the bedroom after the briefest of knocks. She put the cup down on the bedside table before sitting on the side of Annie’s bed. ‘Don’t worry, Daddy didn’t make it!’ She grinned teasingly. ‘He’s gone out,’ she added a little wistfully.
Annie frowned at the bedside clock. She had overslept again, but it was still only eight-thirty. Who on earth had Rufus gone to see so early on a Sunday morning? He certainly didn’t strike her as someone who went to church every Sunday morning, regardless.
She sat up to drink her tea, realising as she did so that she was completely naked beneath the covers, pulling the sheet up with her to hide her nudity from Jessica.
‘Where did he go?’ She kept her voice casually unconcerned between sipping at her tea.
Jessica didn’t know. ‘He made a phone call, then said he had to go out. He didn’t say where. Or when he would be back.’
Margaret …
Somehow Annie knew the other woman was the person Rufus had telephoned and then gone out to see.
She closed her eyes, hiding the pain she knew must be evident in their depths. Maybe she had been mistaken last night; maybe Rufus hadn’t drawn back from making love to her because of her innocence; maybe it was the complete opposite: he had been thinking of someone else entirely!
He had gone to Margaret this morning. She knew it as surely as if he had told her so. Oh …!
‘Are you all right, Annie?’ Jessica sounded worried. ‘I didn’t wake you up too suddenly, did I?’
It was as well someone had! She had been lying here daydreaming about Rufus, about last night, about the two of them having a possible future together … How stupid. How totally juvenile. Just because a man made love to you, that didn’t mean he wanted to spend the rest of his life with you. She should know; it was usually the opposite! Didn’t she have her own mother as an example of that? And hadn’t Rufus gone to see Margaret this morning …?
She drew in a deep, controlling breath, opening her eyes to smile brightly at Jessica. The last thing she wanted was to alert the child to her inner distress, because if she did Jessica would only tell Rufus—and he would know exactly why she was so upset.
She had to be adult about this. After all, what had really happened between herself and Rufus? For her, everything. But for Rufus, a man of obvious experience, probably very little. She was a conquest, that was all, a willing woman to share his bed. Because the one that he really wanted no longer would!
But all that might have changed by the time he returned, and Annie certainly didn’t want him to think last night had been more important to her than it obviously had to him!
‘No, you didn’t wake me too suddenly,’ she assured Jessica warmly, and the little girl’s worried face instantly cleared. ‘Would you like some pancakes for breakfast?’ She knew they were Jessica’s favourite, the answer a foregone conclusion. ‘Give me ten minutes,’ she requested at Jessica’s eager nod, ‘and I’ll come through to the kitchen and make them.’ It would also give her the privacy to get out of bed without Jessica seeing her nudity.
‘I’ll go and get everything out ready for you,’ Jessica told her with enthusiasm, getting up from the bed to skip out of the room.
Annie fell back against the pillows as soon as she was alone, wishing she had the energy—the happiness!—to skip like that. But with morning had come reality in all its harshness, and last night was starting to seem like a dream.
Maybe it had been? Maybe she hadn’t woken in Rufus’s bed because she had never been there?
But as she got up
out of her own bed she knew none of it had been a dream, her nipples slightly tender from Rufus’s ministrations, muscles in her thighs that she had never been aware of before aching slightly, her whole body filled with an unaccustomed lethargy. She might wish it had never happened, but it certainly had.
And when Rufus returned she would have to face him with that knowledge firmly imprinted on her body and mind …!
Jessica had eaten her pancakes, while Annie drank two cups of coffee, by the time they heard the apartment door slam, heralding Rufus’s return. Annie stiffened when she heard the sound, her back turned towards the kitchen door as she started on her third coffee; she was hoping it might wake her up and give her some courage too. She knew that it hadn’t as she heard the kitchen door swing open. Her stomach seemed to drop to the floor, her hand shaking slightly as she carefully put her cup back in its saucer.
‘Daddy!’ Jessica cried her own pleasure at seeing her father, hopping up and down excitedly, the injury to her ankle almost forgotten now.
Annie didn’t move. But she had to. If she didn’t, Rufus would surely realise something was wrong. And she really didn’t want him to know what last night had meant to her. She had some pride.
She drew in a deep, calming breath, turning slowly, shrinking back on the stool as she saw Rufus’s expression. Last night, in the circumstances, was surely regrettable, but it surely wasn’t as bad as all that …? Rufus looked—
‘How soon can you and Jessica be ready to leave for Clifftop House?’ he barked.
Annie was taken aback, both by the coldness of his voice and the question itself. Yesterday he had told them to stock up on food for another couple of days; now it seemed he intended leaving immediately. What had happened between then and now to cause this sudden change of plan?
Last night had happened …
And from Rufus’s arrogantly distant expression it wasn’t even a subject he cared to discuss, let alone repeat!
‘Clifftop?’ Jessica was the one to answer in a woebegone voice. ‘But, daddy, you said—’
‘I know what I said, Jess,’ he bit out. ‘But—circumstances have changed. We’re going back today.’
He didn’t so much as glance at Annie as he mentioned those changed circumstances, but she felt the accusation in the words anyway. Obviously going to bed with his daughter’s nanny—the second one!—had not been on his agenda.
Well, it hadn’t been on hers either—had been the last thing she’d expected to happen this weekend. In the circumstances, she couldn’t wait to leave either, could envisage nothing more painful than spending another couple of days here with the two of them trying to be polite to each other, for Jessica’s sake.
‘Fifteen minutes.’ She stiffly answered his original question, looking in his general direction but her eyes remaining unfocused, the coldness she had seen in his face earlier enough to deter her from looking at him properly.
‘Make it half an hour,’ he told her in short reply. ‘I need a cup of coffee myself before we make the drive back.’
‘I’ll go and pack,’ Annie agreed, making no effort to offer to make his coffee for him; if she didn’t get out of this room soon she was going to make a complete fool of herself by bursting into tears!
‘Annie?’ Rufus reached out to grasp her arm as she would have walked past him out of the room. ‘You’re very pale.’
Probably because for her, unlike him, last night had been unique. It had been wonderful, magical—falling asleep in his arms like no other comfort she had ever known. And briefly—very briefly!—she had imagined being able to do that for the rest of her life.
How naive. How stupid she had been. Last night hadn’t been about for ever. And, far from being considerate of her innocence, Rufus had probably felt like running a mile from her inexperience. He hadn’t been being kind at all, had probably lost interest in making love to her the moment he’d realised she was an inexperienced virgin!
‘We need to talk—’
‘I don’t think so,’ she replied, much more calmly than she felt, moving slightly so that his hand dropped away from her arm. ‘Unless it has to do with going back to Clifftop House?’ she added in a businesslike tone; after all, she did work for this man.
‘No.’ He looked down at her. ‘Believe me, Annie, we do need to talk, and I’m sorry I wasn’t here this morning—’
‘You obviously had important business to attend to,’ she cut in with a warning look in Jessica’s direction. The last thing she wanted was for Jessica to realise Rufus was talking about not being in bed beside her when she woke up. That would just be too awful!
‘It wasn’t business,’ he rasped. ‘But it was important. It still is. And until I sort it out, one way or another, it has to take priority over everything else. Is that going to be okay with you?’ His gaze was suddenly warmly probing now.
And Annie found she couldn’t withstand that warmth, her cheeks no longer pale as she wrenched her own eyes away from his, feeling their heat as she recalled all too vividly how Rufus had looked at her last night, how he had touched and caressed her until she almost shattered in his arms.
‘Perfectly okay with me,’ she told him coolly. ‘I’m just an employee, Rufus; I go where you tell me to go.’
Her chin was wrenched up as Rufus forced her to look at him. His gaze moved searchingly over her face now: the brown eyes that couldn’t hide the hurt she felt, the slightly dark shadows beneath their depths from the lack of sleep she had known in his arms, the mouth she could only just stop from trembling, tears very close now.
‘I don’t believe that for a moment, Annie,’ he said huskily. ‘God, this is all such a damned mess!’ He ran an agitated hand through the dark thickness of his hair. ‘Can you try to be patient with me until I’ve sorted it out?’
Until he had sorted out exactly what his feelings were towards Margaret, he meant! Wasn’t it enough that he had gone to the other woman this morning? There really was nothing to sort out as far as Annie was concerned; she had loved—still loved!—and had most definitely lost! There was nothing else to say. Because no amount of talking could change that …
Once again she moved away from him. ‘We all make mistakes, Rufus,’ she told him evenly. ‘Let’s mark last night down as one.’
‘Is that what it was?’ he demanded. ‘A mistake?’
‘Most definitely!’ She shuddered as she remembered how utterly stupid she had been. In her naiveté she had believed that if Rufus made love with her everything would turn out right between them, but now she accepted that a man could make love to one woman and actually be in love with another one. A man’s emotions didn’t necessarily follow the instincts of his body.
Rufus drew back from her, his expression closed now, totally unreadable. ‘Jessica, go and help Annie pack anything you want to take with you.’
Jessica pulled a face. ‘Does this mean I go back to school tomorrow?’
His expression softened as he looked at his daughter. ‘It most certainly does. The way you’ve been moving around on that ankle the last few days, I think you could run a four-minute mile if you had to!’
‘Oh.’ She pulled another face.
‘Come on, Jessica,’ Annie encouraged. ‘Just think, you can tell Lucy all about your week when you see her tomorrow.’
‘That’s true,’ she acknowledged grudgingly as she crossed the room to join Annie at the doorway without even the slightest of limps.
It took Annie less than ten minutes to pack the few things she had brought with her, but Rufus had said half an hour, and so she took that full half-hour, taking advantage of the spare twenty minutes to apply some make-up to her pale cheeks. The end result was quite pleasing—at least she no longer looked ill, the blusher adding a peachy glow to her cheeks.
The disillusionment in her eyes was something else entirely; she couldn’t hide that with any amount of make-up!
The drive back to Clifftop House was made in almost complete silence, Jessica once again choosing to fal
l asleep in the back of the car, Rufus stony-faced and lost in thought, Annie immersed in her own private misery.
It was the longest journey she had ever undertaken, not in miles, but in terms of emotional trauma. She had never been as happy to see the gothic proportions of Clifftop House as they turned into the long driveway—not even on the day she’d first come to work here!
That seemed such a very long time ago now …
So much had happened in that last two months. She had thought she had fallen in love once, only to realise Anthony wasn’t the man she thought he was, and then she had really fallen in love, with a man who was everything she thought he was, and more—he was in love with another woman!
She barely waited for Rufus to stop the car in front of the house before getting out onto the gravelled driveway, opening the back door to help Jessica out too.
‘You two go inside; I’ll bring the bags in.’ Rufus stood on the drive too now.
Annie didn’t need any persuading to do exactly that, relieved to at last be away from Rufus. It was going to be difficult staying out of his way for the rest of his visit here, but it was what she intended doing whenever possible. If she didn’t see him, perhaps this ache for him inside her would go away.
Celia was crossing the entrance hall as Annie and Jessica entered the house, the raising of her already arched blonde brows the only outward sign she gave that she was surprised to see them. ‘You’re back,’ she stated smoothly. ‘I didn’t expect you back so soon.’
‘Rufus has some business to attend to.’ Annie was the one to answer her.
‘He is with you, I take it?’ There was a slight edge to her voice. ‘And not still in London?’
‘No, I’m here, Celia,’ Rufus told her evenly as he entered the house with the bags.
Celia looked at him coldly. ‘And which member of staff do you intend to dismiss while you’re here this time?’
Diamonds Are Forever: The Royal Marriage ArrangementThe Diamond BrideThe Diamond Dad Page 28
