'Oh! Please don't talk like that!' She put her hands over her ears but he turned on her and pulled them away.
'Why not?' he asked savagely. 'He has encouraged me to take you out when he knows that he has merely to snap his fingers and you will fall into his arms! My God! I will not forget the look in his eyes when the car broke down. If I had so much as laid a finger on you, he would have killed me! For one time-stopping moment, he thought that I had taken what he so desperately wants himself. Even Gabrielle has had little affection since he laid eyes on you; you have rocked a few lives, ma chère!'
'They can settle back to normal,' said Beth, taking a great shuddering sigh, realising that her friendship with Alain was over. 'I'm going home.'
'You are home!' Alain said scathingly. 'What other home is there that he will allow?'
'I'm going next week and I'm not coming back,' Beth said with unhappy finality.
'And he agrees?' Alain asked in astonishment.
'He is arranging it.' Tears welled up in her eyes, spilling on to her face, and Alain muttered angrily, throwing his cigarette through the open window and turning to hold her close.
'You love him,' he said deeply. 'I could kill him for causing you this misery!'
'It's not his fault,' Beth sighed, carefully pulling away from him.
'There speaks true love,' he mocked as he opened the door for her. 'I will not come in, Beth. I have no real wish to go for Gaetan's throat, and he would probably kill me anyway. It would not stop you from preferring the wrong man.'
She watched the car as it pulled away down the drive. She seemed to be at the centre of a growing circle of unhappiness, and her way of breaking it was all too clear. She should never have been here in the first place. She went inside and locked the door behind her, leaning against it wearily for a moment in the dim light of the hall.
'Back at last, I see!' the biting voice stated as Gaetan switched on the main lights and stood leaning against the library door, surveying her coldly.
'We had supper.' She took a deep breath and stepped forward, obliged to step into the brighter light now, and she stopped in growing surprise and fear at the look on his face as he straightened slowly, his eyes running over her, his face pale.
'And you finished off an enjoyable evening with a few wild moments in the car! Right here in front of the door!' His voice was wild with anger and he was white to the lips. 'I take it that you were once again seeking the excitement of a man's arms? I wonder what Alain thought of your wild little cries? Did they do to him what they do to me? Did he beg to hear them again and then lose his head?'
'He—he only kissed me goodnight,' Beth stammered, her hands shaking, afraid and unhappy at the fury in him.
'Just kissed you goodnight?' He was beside her in a few strides, taking her arm violently and dragging her into the library to hold her before the mirror. 'Look at yourself! You have been mauled like a slut!'
His words shook the whole of her body. She could see her bruised lips where Alain had forced her to accept his final kiss and she could see the marks of his fingers on her shoulders, but the contempt in Gaetan's voice brought her to full boil and she spun round on him with blazing grey eyes.
'Yes, I have been mauled! Not for the first time, if you remember! I have been really educated in France, thanks to you. Before I came here, I was simply lonely, but I had a life of sorts and I had friends. Now I have no one. You have taught me how to be alive, Gaetan, and you've confirmed my belief that the world is a cold and cruel place filled with shame and hurt! You told me that I was clever. I'm not. I'm really stupid, otherwise, I would have gone long ago! But understand that I'll never be coming back and I never want to hear of you again!'
'Beth!' He took a step towards her but she stepped back out of reach, tearing at the catch of the necklace and flinging it to the floor.
'Look at it! Cold, hard and meaningless, like you!'
She ran from the room and raced up the stairs, her heavy skirts lifted to allow her to run from him, but he had no intention of following. He picked up the necklace that still held the warmth of her skin and dropped it on the desk as if it burned him.
She sobbed on her bed for what seemed like hours and then, wearily, she showered and put on her nightdress, her fingers plucking fretfully at the delicate lace and silk. She had learned how to be a woman, how to look like one, and now she would have given anything to have stayed as she was.
She slipped on her thick towelling robe and fastened it round her, pacing the room. Now that her anger and pain at Gaetan's words had lessened, she recognised them for what they were, jealousy. Alain had told her that it was obvious even to him that Gaetan wanted her, and she knew that anyway.
He had lashed out with a burst of violence when he had seen her and his tongue had been cruel, though not nearly so cruel as hers. She could hear her own words, so real at the time but now so cruel and hard. She only remembered now his endless care for her, the security he had wrapped around her, his constant forgiveness. Her love for him forgave the stab of jealousy even if it was merely from desire.
Her hard words had wiped out all that had been between them, all that had gone before and she had to set that right. She had to try. She opened her door and walked along to his room, hesitating outside, her courage failing her as she saw the light under his door. But she knew that, like her, he would not sleep easily after such an emotional upheaval and she knocked, her heart hammering frantically.
The door seemed to be torn open at her small and timid tap, and he stood looking down at her, his eyes hard and cold.
'You have thought of something else? Come in, mademoiselle! I would not like you to have to sleep on the idea. It is sure to be violent and painful as it is meant for me! Deliver it and then perhaps we can get some sleep!'
He stepped aside but she moved only a little way into the room, the harsh masculinity of it stopping her. There was not one item of clutter, not one soft colour. Expensive, modern and strictly functional, it was a harsh and lonely background for the man who now faced her.
'There is no need to shiver, mademoiselle,' he grated icily. 'I am prepared to take any further truths without resorting to violence. Say your piece and go!'
'I came to say that I'm sorry,' she said quietly, her head held up and her shimmering eyes on his face.
'There! You have said it and I accept your words at their face value. Goodnight!'
'You don't forgive, though, do you?' Beth asked softly.
'There is nothing to forgive. You have done what good breeding dictates. You have offered your apologies.' He turned away and stood with his back to her. 'We are now where we began many months ago, two well brought-up people keeping up the traditional face of civility. That is what separates us from the lower animals after all. The words you said before, however, came from the heart and the heart speaks only the truth.'
'I have not always been civilised,' Beth said softly, 'and sometimes, the heart is too filled with grief to care much about the truth. I want you to know that when I've gone, I'll remember only the good things, the way we laughed together, the way you looked after me and how, for a while, I was happier than I've ever been before in my whole life.'
He turned back to look at her, his eyes shuttered and his face still, and she hurried on, not nearly so brave when he was looking at her.
'I think that, after tonight, I had better go at once. I really don't want to be here any more.' She turned away, feeling blindly for the door, but his voice, unutterably weary, stopped her.
'Very well. Louis can drive you to Calais in the morning. As you do not want to wait, I cannot make arrangements for your living accommodation, but I will see that you have plenty of money. I will send your things on or you can take them. I promise that you will be away from here tomorrow if that is what you wish.'
'There's nothing else to wish for.' She sighed shakily and moved to pull the door open.
'You are doing what you want! What you have decided!' he said tiredly. 'Whate
ver else you wish, tell me and I will see to it that your wishes are granted.'
'Oh, no!' She turned as tears fell in streams down her face, her laughter a little wild. 'My wishes can never be granted. You said that, Gaetan!'
'You are moving temptation away from both of us,' he said quietly. 'I bow to your superior judgement.'
'Do you? Do you, Gaetan?' she cried wildly. 'But then, it means so very little to you!' She turned blindly away but his voice stopped her.
'You know that is not true!' There was an aggressive intensity in his voice that kept her pinned to the spot. 'Tonight—I wanted to kill Alain for even thinking of touching you!'
'Then don't send me away,' she whispered, her head resting against the hard comfort of the door.
'Dieu! You are going of your own free will. I am not sending you. I do not have that kind of courage! You are leaving because it is what you want!'
'I want you!' she wept. 'Nothing more.'
His hands grasped her shoulders, almost crushingly, his voice desperate.
'You don't know what you are saying! It will ruin your life! You have your whole future before you, a whole world to see. I want only what is best for you, I…' His voice faded as she simply stood and looked up at him, her heart in her eyes, his words rolling over her with no effect. 'If I hold you, I will never let you go,' he murmured, his fingers coming to trace the glitter of tears on her face with a kind of wonder. 'I have put you from me twice and I cannot do it again ever. You are crying for me and—I need you so badly!'
She moved into his arms, leaving him no time to protest, and he crushed her to him, murmuring her name as she wound her arms around his waist and clung to him as if she would never let go, her breath a sigh of contentment as his hand came to caress her hair.
'I feel like the devil who has tempted an angel,' he said unevenly. 'Now, I am almost afraid of my victory, but I know what I have known for a very long time, I cannot let anyone else have you.'
She lifted her face, still wet with tears, and he looked down at her with a smile in his eyes.
'Do not cry, mon amie,' he said deeply. 'I will not let you go.' The sensuous lips curved into a smile and his eyes began to blaze into hers. 'Tu es si belle, mon ange,' he murmured against her lips. 'I want every part of you and though I am the devil himself, tonight I will make you happy.'
His arms enveloped her completely, crushing her slender body to his, a shudder of triumph racing through him at her complete and instant surrender. She felt it race through his body, a body that hardened against hers immediately, signalling his waiting need, and her soft lips opened beneath his driving demand, no fear in her at all as his hands closed possessively around the silken softness of her body.
'You are not afraid?' he muttered thickly against her mouth and she shook her head, words utterly beyond her, her heart racing beneath his hand as he pushed the thick robe away and covered the pounding rhythm with his palm, his fingers brushing the rise of her breast.
'Let me look at you, chérie!' He slid away the thin straps of her nightdress, allowing it to glide from her slender body to the floor, and her face blazed with colour at the flare of passion in his eyes.
'No,' he said softly as she crossed her arms over her breasts. 'Do not be shy with me. You are beautiful.' He drew her hands away. 'Viens, chérie.' He guided her hands to his chest, urging her to remove the white shirt that was open now to the waist, and her eyes followed the movements of her hands, her breath small gasps in her throat as her fingers lingered on his skin.
'You see?' he whispered, his hands covering hers, pressing them to his chest. 'It is a need in both of us, to touch each other, to look at each other, to find each other beautiful and desirable.'
This time, she did not attempt to hide from the glitter of his eyes. The way he looked at her made her feel beautiful, and when his eyes at last returned to hers, she whimpered softly in her throat, reaching out to him as he moulded her to his hard body.
'I thought that I would never again in my life hear those small and eager sounds,' he said huskily, his hands restless on her slender flanks. 'I will make you cry for me, chérie, and I will please you.'
He lifted her and closed the door, moving over to his bed and placing her gently on the dark cover, his eyes devouring her as he undressed.
'Only desperation allows me to touch you,' he breathed, taking her in his arms. 'You are so perfect that it is a crime even to think of it.' His eyes roamed over her face and hair as his hand smoothed the golden strands from her face. 'I remember when you were a strange mermaid in this house,' he whispered, 'combing your long hair, your eyes calling to me like a siren, filling me with forbidden feelings, angering me.'
His lips trailed over her throat and down to the swell of her breasts, nuzzling hungrily against her until she twisted beneath him in frustration. 'I remember my shock when you came back that same day, a woman, smiling and secret, charming Alain and tempting me beyond reason. I wanted you then as I want you now, but I never thought that one night you would be here in my arms, crying out for me.'
He covered her mouth with his, all teasing and soothing past, only a throbbing urgency left in him, and the hands that held her now were sure and possessive. There was a heated madness in them both making him forget her innocence in his need to own her completely, and it was only when his kisses and stroking hands sent her spinning into a shadowy world where she threatened to leave him that he slowed the pace of their lovemaking, his hands cupping her beautiful and wild face.
'Gently, chérie,' he murmured against her lips. 'I want this to be magic for you. I do not want to hurt you.'
But she was too involved to have any fear, and she pulled him closer until she was impossible to resist, ready for him, in spite of her innocence, accepting the hard thrust of his body with a small cry of joy that matched the deep groan that shuddered through him.
'Ah, Beth! Chérie!' He clasped her convulsively and took her with him into an explosion of delight that ended only when their desperation came to a climax in a swirling release and she lay still and quiet beneath him.
For a second they lay and looked into each other's eyes and then his dark gaze roamed over her flushed face, his hand smoothed the damp hair from her forehead.
'Mon ange!' he said softly, his gaze intent on her. His lips stroked hers softly and then he moved to his side, taking her with him, enfolding her in gentle and protective arms and covering them both with the sheets.
'I'd better go,' she murmured after a while as they lay together in silence, but his arms tightened around her instantly with no chance of release.
'No! The night is not over and this night you stay with me. Tomorrow we will talk and look at things, but tonight I need you beside me while I come to terms with the fact that you belong to me.' He turned his head and captured her lips. 'You are mine, chérie, are you not?' he asked deeply, and she nodded, smiling into his eyes. It seemed to her that she had always belonged to him. There was nothing in life except Gaetan, nothing that she wanted.
In the morning she awoke slowly, unsure of her surroundings, everything unfamiliar. She looked around the room without moving her head and the fact that this was no dream brought a faint flush of colour to her skin. Painfully shy now in the light of day, she turned her head, looking for Gaetan, but he was not there, he was nowhere in the room, and she slid from the bed in a panic, finding her nightdress where he had dropped it the night before and getting into it hastily.
She was struggling with her robe, her face filled with bewilderment, when he came from the adjoining bathroom, his dark blue robe belted around him, his hands still busy towelling his black hair.
He stood quite still as he saw her, his eyes moving over her flushed and anxious face and resting on the nervous hands that struggled with her robe. He looked again into the eyes that would so clearly have liked to avoid his but would not allow themselves this cowardice, and he smiled slowly.
'You wish to shower here?' He indicated the bathroom, and wh
en she shook her head, her colour deepening, he moved forward and took the robe from her nerveless fingers, fastening it around her as her eyes slid to the crumpled sheets. 'Hurry along then, petite,' he said quietly. 'Shower quickly and then come down to breakfast. There is a lot to do today and we have slept rather late.' He led her to the door and gave her a gentle push as she fled to her own room.
Trembling so much that everything was difficult, Beth showered and changed. She had no idea what he meant when he said that there was a lot to do today. Did this mean that she was still to go? In the morning sunshine it was difficult to believe that she had been so wanton and wild in his arms the night before. She had given herself to Gaetan wildly, not once but many times, and he had not even kissed her good morning. Now that he was satisfied, was it all over? Was this what happened when a man merely desired a woman? She went downstairs, her face pale and her eyes shadowed.
Gaetan was already there and after one look at her he took her arm and led her to the library, closing the door firmly behind them.
'Alors!' he said with what sounded to her very much like irritation. 'It is clear from the look of you that you are not about to eat until we have cleared the air.'
He frowned down at her pale face and she wondered how he could look so fresh and alive when he had had so little sleep. The thought brought a fresh wave of confusion to her face and he sighed deeply, leading her resignedly to a chair then leaning against the desk, his arms folded, his eyes keen and dark on her face.
'Today, we have several things to do. I will take you into Paris because we must choose a ring. Later, I will take you to Madeleine's and arrange for you to stay there for a while.'
'I don't understand! Why must I go to Madeleine's?' Beth raised puzzled eyes to his and he suddenly laughed, his eyes lighting up with mischief as he strode across and pulled her to her feet.
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