Roberta Leigh - Give A Man A Bad Name

by Roberta Leigh

  Finally, nearly a week after his departure, she and Nan were watching a video in her room when she did receive a call from London. But it was from Andrea, not Alex.

  'Where on earth have you been?' Marly asked after the usual greetings. 'I've been trying to reach you for ages.'

  'So I gather from the office. But this isn't simply a return call. I'd have phoned anyway. Something fantastic has happened.'

  Marly caught her breath. How wonderful if Andrea had fallen in love again. 'Tell me,' she said quickly.

  'I'm getting married tomorrow.'

  'That's marvellous. I'm so happy for you.' And happy for myself, she nearly added, for now her friend had a new man in her hfe she would find it easier to forgive Marly for marrying the old one. 'Who is he?'

  'Alex, of course. Who else?'

  Marly began to shake and the telephone wobbled so precariously in her hand that she set it on the table. Seeing it, Nan jumped up and came over to her.

  'What is it?' she whispered.

  'Alex has gone back to Andrea.'

  'You're joking!'

  Marly shook her head, totally incapable of speaking. Yet she had to say something, for she could hear Andrea's voice coming through the receiver, faint but persistent.

  'Marly, I can't hear you. Are you there?'

  Lifting the receiver, Marly spoke. 'Y-yes. The line went dead for a minute.'

  'Sorry. I was saying that apart from my immediate family you're the first to know. Alex arrived in London several days ago and came to see me. He said he'd made a terrible mistake breaking our engagement and begged me to forgive him. I tried to keep him dangling for a bit, but he was so distraught I didn't have the heart. He's a changed man, Marly.'

  'I'm glad to hear it.' To her own ears Marly's voice sounded faint, but Andrea was too full of happiness to take in anything else.

  'And guess what?' she babbled on. 'We're honeymooning in Hawaii! Can you imagine anything more romantic? He has to go there on business so he thought we should rush the wedding and combine the two.'

  Marly collapsed on to a chair. Alex's perfidy was like a knife in her gut and she doubled up with the pain of it. Knowing him as she did, she was certain that his decision had not been a sudden one, which meant that even while he had been pursuing her he had resolved to marry Andrea. The doubts she had felt about him these last few days had proved correct. His proposal had merely been a ruse to get her into bed, and had he not been called away he would have succeeded.

  *Marly, are you still there?' Andrea called.

  'Sorry. I wa* just digesting your news. Are you sure you're doing the sensible thing? I mean, he let you down once and he can do it again.'

  'No way. He's a changed character.'

  Marly nearly threw up, and it took all her will-power not to tell Andrea she was making a big mistake.

  'He never went off to another woman, you know, which was what I thought,' her friend continued. 'He just wasn't certain he was ready for the commitment of marriage. But now he is and, well, you know what they say about a reformed rake!'

  'That they remain a rake,' Marly burst out before she could stop herself.

  Andrea laughed, thinking the comment to be a joke. 'I wish you and Nan could be here for my wedding, but it's all rushed because of his Hawaii trip and we're just having a family lunch and waiting till we return to London before having a proper reception. Do you think you'll be home by then?'

  'I'm not suit,' Marly hedged, certain that dancing at Alex's wedding was the last thing she would want to do.

  'Is Nan there?' Andrea asked. 'I'd like to talk to her.'

  'She's out,' Marly lied, seeing Nan shake her head vigorously.

  'I'll leave you to tell her my news, then.'

  'Have you told Alex you have a friend working at his hotel?' Marly couldn't help asking.

  'No—and I don't intend telling him either. We may be coming to Bangkok from Hawaii, and I'd like it to be a surprise.'

  It certainly will be, Marly thought grimly. 'When do you think you'll be here?'

  'Well, Alex says it may be three weeks before he clears the problems at the Hawaii Hamilton, but you can put the champagne on ice any time after that, I suppose!'

  'Will do,' Marly said, and was thankful when the call ended and she could collapse on the bed.

  'Calling Alex a swine is an insult to a pig,' Nan commented sombrely. 'He deserves to be boiled in oil for the way he led you on!'

  'I'd settle for a shot through the heart, if he had one!' Marly said as she dabbed at her eyes.

  'Why didn't you put Andrea wise?'

  'I was tempted, but I thought it might sound like jealousy. Anyway, she's not a fool, and I'm sure she's considered the pitfalls.'

  'She sounded as if she hadn't considered anything,'' Nan expostulated. 'With his charisma, Alex can pull the wool over the keenest eyes.' The telephone rang and she leaned across the bed to answer it. It's him I she mouthed, disbelief on her face.

  Marly jack-knifed off the bed and darted to the far side of the room, almost as though he could see her. 'I can't talk to him,' she whispered in a strangled voice. 'What can he have to say?'

  'That he adores you?' Turning her mouth to the receiver, Nan spoke into it. 'I'm sorry, Mr Hamilton, but Marly's gone to stay with friends in Chiang Mai.'

  'Damn!' His voice was loud and clear. 'I won't be able to call her until I'm in Hawaii. Will you tell her that?'

  'Yes.' Nan almost choked on the word.

  'Another thing; would you——— ?'

  The rest of his words were lost, for Nan quietly put down the receiver. 'I couldn't bear to listen to him a moment longer,' she explained. 'He must be mad to think you'd want to speak to him after what he's done.'

  'He doesn't realise I know. He has no idea I'm a friend of Andrea's.'

  'I'd forgotten that! When will you tell him?'

  'Never. If I'd finished programing the software I'd leave Bangkok tomorrow.' Marly ran slender fingers through her silky hair, pushing it away from her face. 'I can't be around when he returns from Hawaii. I can't!'

  'I'll take a bet with you he won't bring Andrea here. He'll find some excuse for sending her back to England so he can continue his seduction of you.'

  'Don't!' Marly shuddered.

  'Sorry. I was just trying to warn you. Anyway, I can't keep saying you aren't here every time he calls.'

  'Yes, you can. And so can the switchboard at the hotel. I'll talk to them.'

  It was a good thing she did, for true to his word, Alex tried to contact her the day he arrived in Hawaii, and kept calling twice a day until Marly told the hotel, as well as Nan, to say she had gone on hohday and had not given them a return date.

  Two weeks after her conversation with Andrea, by dint of working all hours she had completed the bulk of the software programing, and called her boss in London to say she was returning home and would finalise it there.

  'You surprise me,' he commented. 'I thought you'd be keen to stay in Bangkok as long as possible. I hear it's a great city and that the hotel is sensational.'

  'Both are, but I'm homesick. I'll be catching the next available flight home.'

  She was fortunate enough to obtain a seat on a plane for the next day. It meant changing at Frankfurt for a connection to London, but her determination to leave before Alex's return was so strong, it was worth the inconvenience.

  She was zipping up the last of her cases in her bedroom on the afternoon of her departure, when Nan burst in, hastily shutting the door behind her.

  'Alex is here!'

  A pile of clothes fell from Marly's nerveless hands. 'I don't believe it!'

  'Believe it; and the mood he's in, he'll come storming up here if you don't go down to him!'

  'How can he have the gall to try to see me?'

  'Easily. He doesn't realise that you know he's married, and he can't fathom why you won't accept his calls.'

  'I absolutely won't see him.'

  'You must. This is show-down time,
remember?'

  So it was! Marly caught her breath. At last she could hit Alex where it would hurt him the most—on his ego! How could she have forgotten her plan to cut him down to size when it was the one reason she had embarked on her charade?

  'You're right,' she said, and with trembling hands smoothed her hair. As she did, she realised she was wearing her own clothes, not Nan's, and glanced quickly into the mirror opposite her. She was the epitome of a successful business executive in a navy pin-striped viscose and silk trouser suit, the jacket cut with military precision, though the white silk blouse beneath it was softened by a small bow at her throat. It was a far cry from the ultra-feminine outfits Alex had seen her in, and he would be astonished if he saw her like this. Yet how better to let him know that the Marly he had asked to marry him was as much a charade as his declaration of love had been?

  Firmly she reached for the loose, flowing caftan that lay on the bed, and slipped it on. An experienced traveller, she always wore something easy-fitting during a long flight, and the caftan was going into her hand luggage, ready for her to change into once she was airborne.

  'Why are you wearing that now?' Nan asked, puzzled.

  'To make my confession even more exciting,' Marly replied, and high heels clicking on the marble floor, went down to the living-room.

  Alex was standing by the window. He was dark-suited, his pristine-white shirt threw his tanned face into relief, and though his mouth curved in a smile as he strode towards her, his eyes were the grey of storm clouds, betokening suppressed anger.

  'Hello, Alex,' she smiled. 'You're back earher than I expected.'

  'I'm only staying overnight; then I have to return to Hawaii.'

  'You're just here for a day?'

  'I came to see you.'

  She gaped at him. What sort of a monster had poor Andrea married?

  'Why the amazement?' he went on. 'You wouldn't accept my calls and I had to find out why.'

  'My work was falling behind schedule and I decided not to take any calls,' she replied evenly.

  It was Alex's turn to gape. 'You wouldn't speak to me because of your damn work? But I'm the man you love, for God's sake!'

  'I never said so.'

  'Not in words, perhaps, but the way you acted I '

  "That's all it was,' she cut in, seizing the opening he had given her. 'An act.'

  He frowned in puzzlement. 'I don't follow.'

  'Maybe this will help.'

  With a flourish she slipped off her caftan, and Alex's gaze fastened on her clothes. His brows drew together in a frown which slowly dissolved into incredulity, and he shook his head as if unable to absorb what he was seeing.

  'Why did you do it?' he finally asked.

  'For fun.' Marly managed to twist her lips into a smile. 'When you assumed I was Thai, after the staff Christmas revue, I thought it would be amusing to see how long I could fool you. I was positive you'd soon guess the truth, and when you didn't I got carried away by the whole thing. Of course when you asked me to marry you, I had a fit. I mean, I didn't think you were serious about me, and——- '

  'I wasn't,' he intervened smoothly, and unexpectedly chuckled. 'Looks as though we've both been had, Marly. That is your name, I assume?'

  She nodded, not bothering to say it was short for Amalia.

  'I fancied you hke crazy,' he went on, 'but your virginal act fooled me, and I believed that the only way of having you was to—er—————————————— '

  'Don't get tongue-tied over it, Alex. I was well aware that your offer of marriage was a ploy. That's why I stalled with my answer.'

  'You played me for a real fool, didn't you?'

  'You did the same to me!'

  'True.' The frown returned. 'How come you speak the language so fluently?'

  'My great-grandmother was Thai, and I suppose it gave me an affinity with the tongue.'

  Hands in the pockets of his trousers, a typically masculine stance that heightened her awareness of his muscled thighs, he rocked back on his feet as he regarded her, and though she returned his stare coolly, she was memorising every detail of him: his thick, tawny hair, the cleft in his firm chin, the sensual mouth that had sucked and teased and almost tempted her into submission. From today she would never see him, but his image would forever remain with her; a haunting reminder of the might-have-been.

  'You can't blame me for wanting you, Marly,' he murmured.

  'I don't blame you, Alex. I just don't like you very much.'

  'I don't see why. I'm not angry with you'

  'You behaved far worse than I did, Alex,' she replied. 'You believed I was an innocent girl, yet you didn't have a twinge of conscience about lying to get me into bed.'

  'I didn't think of it in those terms. I wanted you, and I was pretty sure all it required was a little persuasion.'

  'Little!' Marly almost exploded. 'If you regard a phoney marriage proposal as a "little persuasion", what would you do if you wanted to exert a big influence on someone? Murder them?'

  He grinned. 'You know what I mean, Marly. You were passionate and responsive, and———— '

  'You'd have been up the creek if I'd said yes. Or would you have had your way with me,' she went on in mock Gothic tones, 'and then said the whole thing was a terrible mistake?'

  A wave of colour stained his cheekbones and she revelled in his shame and dug in the knife deeper. 'I suppose it's something you've done before?'

  He half turned away. 'Let's say it's something I won't be repeating.'

  'Which makes my sacrifice worthwhile.'

  'Sacrifice?'

  'You don't think it was easy pretending you'd bowled me over? You're a gorgeous hunk of man, as I'm sure many women have told you, but you don't have the spark to light me up.'

  'Pity,' he drawled. 'Now I know you're a liberated lady, I think we'd be even better together!'

  'Sorry, no can do.' Did she sound as matter-of-fact as she thought she did? If so, she was giving a gold medal performance. 'I'm sorry you flew from Hawaii for nothing.'

  'No big deal. As the saying goes, you win some, you lose some.'

  Feeling as though she had been stabbed, Marly lowered her eyes to her watch. 'I'm sorry I can't offer you a drink, but I'm in an awful rush. I have to be at the airport in an hour.'

  'Where are you going?'

  'To England. The bulk of my work is finished, and I can finalise it in London. It's more cost-effective for you.'

  'I've never quibbled over the cost, and I think you'd do a better job if you remained here till you completed the software.'

  'It isn't necessary. Anyway, I can't. I have another job hned up for me.'

  'I hope it isn't in Sweden. You'd have a tough task pretending to be a tall ash-blonde!'

  'I wouldn't even try! You've witnessed my first and last acting performance!' She cast another glance at her watch and he took the hint and went to the door.

  'Goodbye, Marly. Maybe we'll meet again one day.'

  Not if I can help it, she thought, and silently watched him walk through the compound to where his car was parked outside the gates. Thank goodness she hadn't lost her temper with him, or worse still, let him see the depth of her hurt. Eventually she would stop loving him, but it was going to be a long, painful haul.

  Very long. Very painful.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  'A letter for you, Marly,' Jenny Hunter, one of her flatmates, said.

  Seeing it was from Nan, she excitedly tore it open. 'Wonderful news! Kevin and Fiona are engaged.'

  'So your matchmaking worked.'

  'It took a while. I've been back over two months.'

  'Not everyone falls in love at first sight, like you,' the other girl remarked drily, Marly having confided the whole story to her on her return from Bangkok.

  Jenny worked for the same company as Marly, and over the past two years they had become firm friends. They shared a three-bedroom apartment in one of the finest developments in Docklands with Jenny's boyfrie
nd Tony Parker, for it was the only way they could afford the mortgage on such expensive accommodation.

  'Any news of Alex?' Jenny went on.

  'Not from Nan. He's no longer running the Bangkok Hamilton, and I only hear of him from Andrea.'

  Indeed her friend's letters from Hawaii were ecstatic. Alex was proving to be an ideal husband, and though Marly was dehghted to hear it, the glowing descriptions Andrea gave of her new hfe filled Marly with such pain that it dashed any hope she had of quickly getting over him. For this reason she rephed to each long letter with a brief card, hoping it would eventually cause Andrea's outpourings to cease.

  Staring at her computer screen later in the day, Marly accepted that if she didn't pull herself together she would become sour and embittered, thinking of what might have been instead of concentrating on what could be.

  'Penny for your thoughts.'

  Looking up, she saw Gordon Murray, the managing director of the furniture company for whom she was devising a software program, standing by her desk.

  'They're not even worth half of that,' she smiled, thinking he had the kindest blue eyes and the thickest brown hair she had ever seen. And if he didn't fancy her like mad, he was certainly giving an excellent imitation of it!

  'You wouldn't be free to have dinner with me tomorrow night?' he asked.

  'I would, and I will!' she rephed promptly. She had spent an enjoyable evening with him a week ago, so why not again? Gordon, if not as handsome and charismatic as Alex, came a good second. 'What time will you call for me?'

  'Eight?'

  'Perfect.'

  He took her to an Italian restaurant in the King's Road. It had recently opened to high acclaim and consequently was packed.

  'I hope it's as good as it's reputed to be,' she commented as they were shown to their table.

  'If it isn't, you look good enough to eat.'

  She grinned, pushing her hair away from her face. 'Not better than the pasta they serve. It's supposed to be like Mamma used to make!'

  'Not my Mamma!' he assured her. 'Haggis was her speciality!'