His mouth tightened. ‘I think you should move from here,’ he stated stubbornly, his jaw rigid.
‘There’s just no point to that,’ she sighed. ‘And except for his telephone calls, which will probably continue wherever I live, I like it here. No, Adam, I’m not moving,’ she told him firmly. ‘And one of these days he’s going to get tired of calling me.’
‘And what do you think will happen then?’
‘Hopefully he’ll leave me alone,’ she shrugged.
‘Hopefully!’ Adam repeated raggedly. ‘What if he decides to come here and act out his fantasy?’
She shivered as he put into words what she had tried not even to think about. ‘The percentage of those that actually carry out the things they talk about is very low,’ she dismissed.
‘You could be one of the victims of that percentage! God, Leonie,’ he groaned, taking her into his arms as she began to tremble. ‘I don’t mean to frighten you, but I can’t bear the thought of some maniac wanting to hurt you.’
Her face was buried against his chest, and for a few minutes she allowed herself the luxury of leaning against his strength, of feeling protected. Then she moved back to smile at him brightly. ‘Maybe the fact that you answered the telephone tonight will frighten him off,’ she suggested derisively. ‘I’m sure he didn’t get the same satisfaction whispering those things in your ear!’
‘No,’ Adam agreed grimly, shaking off his worry with effort. ‘Let’s hope you’re right. Now we had better get you to the hospital—What the hell was that?’ he jumped nervously as there was a noise at the window.
Leonie laughed softly. ‘It’s only Harvey wanting to come in.’ She moved to open the window for the ginger and white tabby-cat to come inside.
Adam looked at him with relief. ‘After that call my imagination is running riot!’ he admitted ruefully, bending down on his haunches to stroke the cat’s sleek fur as Harvey strolled over to inspect him.
‘Stroking a cat is supposed to be good for the heart and blood pressure,’ Leonie mocked him.
Adam glanced up at her. ‘I can think of another redhead I would rather stroke!’
Leonie gave a rueful laugh. ‘I think I walked right into that one!’
‘You did,’ he straightened. ‘Any offers?’
She shook her head. ‘I think one lecher per household is enough—and judging by the amount of females that wait outside for Harvey every night he’s it!’
Adam laughed softly, his tension momentarily forgotten. ‘Bit of a ladies’ man, is he?’
‘You could say that,’ she grimaced. ‘I certainly get the impression the cat population in the area could be on the increase in the next few months!’
‘Is he going to need anything before we leave?’
She shook her head. ‘He’s already been fed, he’s just home to rest after his exhausting evening out.’ She moved across the room to check the wire mesh on top of the goldfish bowl that stood on the sideboard.
‘So this is Moby,’ Adam stood at her side watching the fish as it swam into the weeds at the bottom of the bowl.
‘I think he snubs his nose at Harvey sometimes,’ she smiled. ‘A sort of “Hah, hah, you can’t get me!” look.’
Adam chuckled, helping her on with her jacket, careful of her aching hand and arm. ‘This household is like you; crazy!’
‘I like it,’ she shrugged.
‘So do I,’ he said throatily. ‘Leonie—’ He stepped back as she winced. ‘Is your hand getting worse?’
‘It’s—painful,’ she conceded. But not half as painful as the casual way he kept taking her into his arms! He had been doing it all evening, first at the skating-rink, when he took every opportunity he could to touch her, and now, when the situation was much more precarious, her bedroom all too close.
Somewhere during the evening she had lost sight of the fact that they were adversaries, not lovers. After his disgusting behaviour at lunch today she shouldn’t even have been talking to him, let alone have agreed to go out with him. Admittedly, with Adam in this irrepressible mood it was a little difficult to remain angry with him, but she shouldn’t have actually enjoyed herself! The same problem still applied to any relationship between Adam and herself; Adam’s feeling for her unattainable sister still standing between them.
‘Shall we go?’ she said sharply. ‘It’s very late, and I have to go out in the morning.’
‘Where?’
She looked at him coolly as they went downstairs together. ‘I always visit Liz and Nick on Saturday mornings,’ she informed him distantly. ‘Nick would think it a little strange if I didn’t make the effort to visit my niece.’
‘And Liz?’
‘I’m sure you’re well aware of the reason that I find it difficult to be with my sister,’ she bit out, coming to a halt as they got outside. ‘Thanks for a nice evening, Adam,’ she dismissed. ‘Even if I didn’t quite manage to skate properly.’
‘I’m coming to the hospital with you.’
‘I’m not a child,’ she snapped at his arrogance.
‘I’m quite capable of taking myself to the hospital.’
‘And driving yourself there?’ he reasoned softly. ‘With only one hand?’
She blushed at the truth of that. Unlike his own car hers wasn’t automatic; she definitely needed two capable hands for driving, and she certainly couldn’t use her injured one. ‘I can get a taxi,’ she insisted.
‘As I told you yesterday, not at this time of night you won’t. Especially now that I know there’s some sex-pervert with his eye on you,’ he added grimly.
God, had it only been yesterday that she and this man had shared so much passion! It seemed as if he had never been out of her life, as if they hadn’t been separated for eight months, although she knew this was a different Adam from the one she just couldn’t live with any more. This Adam had the power of seduction, a power he wasn’t averse to using whenever she proved difficult; which was most of the time!
He took complete charge when they reached the hospital, declared himself her husband as he stood at her side and watched as they cleaned her wound, gave her tablets to fight the infection, and others to kill the pain.
Like this he was more like the Adam she had first fallen in love with, and as they left the hospital together she decided to make it plain to him exactly where they stood in this relationship he had decided he wanted with her. ‘I accepted your offer to drive me to the hospital, but that’s all I accepted,’ she told him abruptly.
‘Why, what do you mean?’ he asked with feigned innocence as he opened the car door for her, quickly joining her as he got in behind the wheel.
‘I mean you are not spending the night with me,’ she looked at him with steady green eyes.
‘Did I ask if I could?’
‘Adam,’ she sighed. ‘I may not live with you any more but I do know that you aren’t a man that asks; you take.’
His expression sobered. ‘I took because you wouldn’t give freely,’ he rasped.
‘And I wouldn’t give freely because the more I gave the more you took!’
‘I wanted to make love to my wife, I don’t consider that a bad thing. Most wives complain their husband doesn’t pay enough attention to them in bed!’
‘The sexual act didn’t hold the same pleasure for me as it did for you,’ she snapped.
‘But that’s no longer the case, is it,’ he reasoned calmly. ‘Last night you demanded as well as gave.’
She blushed at the mention of her wanton responses the night before. ‘Last night I wanted you too,’ she admitted. ‘Wanted to know if I could respond to you.’
‘And you did.’
‘Yes.’
‘Then there’s no problem, is there,’ Adam dismissed.
‘Yes, there’s a problem,’ she told him angrily. ‘The problem is you, Adam. I can’t deny that last night was a success, but I don’t want to repeat it. I don’t want to work for you, I don’t want to be with you.’
‘Too
bad, the contract is already signed. And as for being with me, you enjoyed yourself tonight, didn’t you?’
She had, she couldn’t deny the fun they had had together. ‘But it wasn’t you, Adam,’ she protested impatiently. ‘You’re the man who owns an empire—’
‘Several companies,’ he corrected softly.
‘It doesn’t matter how many,’ she sighed. ‘You’re rich, successful, sophisticated. You aren’t really the man that took me roller-skating tonight.’
‘Then who was he?’ Adam asked her quietly, not expecting an answer.
And Leonie couldn’t give him one. The man she had been with tonight, been to bed with last night, was a man she could like all too much. And she didn’t want to like him, knew that if she ever came to truly like Adam rather than just have fallen in love with him that she would be lost.
‘I’ll see you at nine-thirty on Monday morning,’ he told her as they parted at her door. ‘You’re sure you’re going to be all right on your own?’
‘My hand is fine now—’
‘I wasn’t thinking of your hand,’ he said grimly.
‘The telephone calls?’ she realised, shaking her head. ‘He only ever calls that once, at eleven-thirty on a Friday night.’
And it wasn’t until she lay in bed that night, Harvey curled up against her side, that she realised that for the first time since the calls began she hadn’t even thought about or dreaded tonight’s call, that she had been so fascinated by Adam that she had forgotten all about it!
CHAPTER FIVE
LIZ was as beautiful as ever. No, more beautiful. Since Emma had been born three months ago Liz had possessed an inner glow of beauty that far outshone her obvious physical beauty. Her blonde hair was styled attractively close to her head, kept shorter now for convenience sake, having little time to fuss over her appearance now that she had a baby to care for. Her widely spaced hazel eyes were often more green than brown, glowing with the happiness she felt in her new role, her mouth curved into a perpetual smile, her figure having returned to its previous sylph-like elegance, although she wore little that emphasised that fact, her clothes loose and comfortable rather than fashionably styled as they used to be.
Yes, to an outsider Liz looked the perfect wife and mother, ecstatically happy in both those roles. And if Leonie hadn’t seen her four-month pregnant sister in Adam’s arms she may even have been fooled into believing that image herself.
But she had seen Liz in Adam’s arms, had heard her sobbing about when they had been together. Adam had looked up and seen Leonie’s stricken face as she watched them from the doorway, but he hadn’t come after her straight away, had continued to hold Liz as she cried. In that moment Leonie had realised what a fool she had been, what fools they had all been to think that any marriage other than with the person you loved could possibly work out.
When Adam returned to the house over an hour later her suitcases were already packed, and she was waiting for the taxi to arrive that would take her to a hotel until she could decide what to do with her life now that her marriage was over, the Porsche Adam had given her when they returned from their honeymoon parked outside the house, the keys left on the dressing-table for Adam to pick up, all of the clothes he had given her still hanging in the wardrobe. She wanted nothing he had given her.
He had tried to reason with her, to explain what she had seen, but she had only one question she wanted answered; had he slept with Liz. The guilt on his face had been answer enough. Not that she could altogether blame him for that, Liz was a very beautiful woman, what she couldn’t forgive was the fact that he had involved her in their triangle of misery.
She may have left Adam but Liz remained with Nick, both of them adoring the beautiful child they had created between them. But Leonie couldn’t help wondering how long that would last, when Liz would decide she had shared Emma with Nick long enough and went back to Adam. Worst of all she wondered how Nick would react to knowing that his wife no longer loved him, that she had stayed with him only because she was expecting his baby. Nick adored Liz, had been in their lives ever since Leonie could remember, his love for Liz evident in everything that he did.
Leonie watched him now as he played on the floor with Emma, the little baby gurgling up at him, her huge green eyes glowing. Nick wasn’t a handsome man, but he was strong, in body as well as mind. Having just passed his fortieth birthday he still remained remarkably fit, his blond hair peppered with silver giving him a distinguished air. He had lived next to them since their parents died, had been ecstatic when Liz accepted his proposal.
Leonie loved him like a brother, wished there were something she could do to prevent the pain and disillusionment he would feel when Liz tired of playing house and decided to leave him. But he was happy now, deserved that happiness after the long wait he had had for Liz; why end that happiness prematurely?
‘You’ll stay for lunch, won’t you, Leonie?’ Nick looked up to smile.
‘Er—no, I don’t think so,’ she refused, finding even this two-hour duty visit per week a strain.
He grinned, straightening, Emma in his arms. ‘I can assure you that Liz’s cooking has improved since she’s been home full time,’ he mocked.
‘Just for that, Nick Foster, I may decide not to cook your Sunday lunch tomorrow,’ Liz pretended to be offended, but she couldn’t help smiling.
‘You wouldn’t do that to a starving man,’ he protested.
Liz grimaced at him. ‘You look as if you’re starving,’ she looked pointedly at his muscular physique.
Leonie’s heart ached at the way Liz was able to banter and share her life with a man she no longer loved; she certainly hadn’t been able to do the same once she knew the truth about Adam and Liz.
‘Your mummy is implying I’m putting on weight,’ Nick spoke to his daughter of his indignation at the suggestion.
‘She isn’t implying anything,’ Liz laughed softly, taking the baby from him. ‘She would tell you if you were. I can’t have you running to seed after only a few years of marriage.’ She began to feed Emma.
There was nothing more natural than a woman with a baby at her breast, and yet the sight of Liz and Emma together in that way twisted a knife in Leonie’s heart. She had suggested to Adam that they have a baby, had hoped it might help draw them closer together, to give her the confidence in herself as a woman that she so sadly lacked with the failure of the physical relationship. But Adam had turned down the idea, had told her children didn’t fit into his plans for some time to come. No doubt Liz’s child would be a different matter!
She wondered if Liz would feel quite so content if she knew that Adam was trying to have an affair with her. Why didn’t Liz just go to him now and save them all a lot of heartache! She stood up jerkily, unable to take any more. ‘I really do have to go now.’
Liz frowned. ‘But you’ve only just arrived.’
‘I—My hand is aching,’ she didn’t exactly lie, her hand did ache, despite the pain-killers she had been taking to ease that.
‘How did you do it?’ Liz looked concerned.
She shrugged. ‘Just another of my little “accidents”,’ she dismissed.
Nick gave her a teasing smile. ‘I’m glad you’ve never come to me for insurance, it would be embarrassing having to turn down my sister-in-law as too much of a risk!’
She returned his smile. ‘I don’t think I could have afforded the premium anyway on my record!’
‘You never used to be quite as bad as this.’
Her smile became brittle at her sister’s observation. ‘No,’ she acknowledged tightly.
‘I remember Adam always used to have the effect of making you worse,’ Nick mused.
‘Have you seen anything of him?’
How casually her sister made her interest sound! She had no idea if Liz saw Adam at all, rarely discussed anything personal with her sister, least of all Adam. But she assumed that they would meet occasionally, despite Liz’s act of the devoted wife. ‘I saw him yesterday
as a matter of fact,’ she replied lightly. ‘He’s looking very well.’
‘He always does,’ Liz observed affectionately. ‘Have the two of you—resolved your differences?’
The look she gave her sister was scathing to say the least. ‘We never will,’ she said dully, knowing Liz must know that above all people. ‘Our marriage is over.’
‘I’m sorry, I assumed because you met yesterday…?’
‘I’m going to be working for Adam for a few weeks, nothing more than that,’ she dismissed.
Hazel eyes widened. ‘Adam has hired you to work for him?’
‘Yes,’ she bit out. ‘I may not be any good as a wife but I’m a damned good interior designer.’
Liz looked taken aback by her bitterness. ‘I’m sure you are, it just seems an—odd, arrangement.’
Not half as odd as the other arrangement Adam was suggesting! She shrugged. ‘Adam isn’t a man that cares how things look. And I have little say in the matter, David decides who will do what.’
‘How is David?’ Nick asked interestedly.
‘Very well.’ Some of the tension left her at this more neutral subject, looking gratefully at Nick, knowing by the compassion she could see in his deep blue eyes that he understood she would rather not talk about Adam. She had brought David here to dinner one evening, had found him the exact buffer she needed to help her get through an evening with Liz, and the other couple had liked him immensely.
‘You see rather a lot of him, don’t you,’ Liz said conversationally.
Leonie at once stiffened resentfully. ‘I work for him,’ she reminded abruptly.
‘I meant socially, silly,’ her sister chided.
She looked at Liz with suspicion. What was Liz up to now, trying to absolve her conscience by making sure Leonie had a man in her life when she went to Adam? She was over her own shock and humiliation, needing no man in her life, it was Nick who was going to be devastated.
Lovers in the Afternoon Page 8
