by Miranda Lee
Celeste was stunned when his hands shot out to drag her into his arms, taking her mouth in a savage kiss while he shoved her back against the wall so hard that all the breath was knocked out of her lungs. He must have crushed his hands in the process but he didn't seem to notice, all his concentration on what he was doing inside her lips.
One of his legs pushed between hers and before she knew what she was doing she had lifted her right leg and was sliding the inside of her thigh up and down on his. He groaned into her mouth, and almost immediately his hands were on the waistband of her jeans and the snap fastener gave way.
But he didn't proceed any further in that direction.
Instead, his hands crept up under her leather jacket to mould over her lace-encased breasts, teasing her braless nipples into rock-hard pebbles till they felt they had to be bursting through the already tightly stretched material. He didn't stop kissing at any point and Celeste could feel her limbs gradually going to jelly. Her leg dropped limply back to the ground and she would have slid down the wall to the floor if he hadn't been holding her upright.
'Good lord!' a female voice gasped from somewhere.
Byron wrenched away, Celeste sagging downwards before propping her back against the wall and levering herself into a standing position. Her wide, glazed eyes encountered a strange woman standing there, gaping at them both. It was a few seconds before she recognized Ava. Once she did, Celeste's gaze jerked to Byron, who was raking his hair back from his flushed face in an agitated fashion and trying to calm his ragged breathing.
'You might as well know, Ava,' he said at last. 'Celeste and I have started seeing each other.'
'So I gathered,' his sister returned drily, astonishing Celeste with her quick composure, not to mention her appearance. Where had the overweight, awkward, timid Ava of old gone to? In her place stood an unbelievably attractive, shapely, confident woman who was looking at them both with a sardonically arched eyebrow.
'You don't have to answer to me for what you do in your private life, Byron,' she went on, her voice and face quite calm now. 'I was merely surprised, that's all. But it's nice to see that the old feud between the Campbells and the Whitmores has come to an-er-
amicable ... ending. Hello, Celeste.' She nodded politely her way. 'Nice to see you're looking so well. So, Byron, what do you think of the new carpet?'
'New carpet?'
'You didn't even notice it, did you?' his sister mocked, and pointed to the long strip of grey-blue carpet that ran along the middle of the hall. 'It's up the stairs as well. I did tell you about it.'
'I'm sure you did. It's-er-very nice.'
'I'm thinking of putting it along the downstairs corridor and through my studio as well. I'm tired of slippery floors.'
Ava smothered a yawn, smiling an apology at Celeste. 'Do excuse me. I'm a little weary. I'm going to bed. Will I be expecting an extra for breakfast, Byron?'
Byron, who was not one to be caught at a disadvantage for long, smiled wryly at this unveiled sarcasm from his sister and wickedly said yes.
When Ava looked taken aback, he added drily, 'Gemma's staying with us for a while. She's asleep in the same room she used to have.'
Ava was frowning now. 'You mean she's left Nathan for good, then?'
'Maybe. Maybe not. We'll talk about the situation in the morning. Go to bed, Ava.'
There was the tone of an order in these last words which Celeste could see Ava resented. Clearly, Byron wasn't ruling the roost around Belleview as he used to. How times they were a-changing!
Ava shrugged, however, said goodnight and did as she was told. Not, Celeste believed, because Byron had ordered her to, but because she wanted to, anyway.
The interruption had given Celeste invaluable time to get herself together and see the situation as va had first seen it. Shocking. Disgusting. And deplorable. They'd been acting like two animals, uncaring of anything but their own base needs. Celeste's supposed love for Byron was no excuse for allowing him to use her like that. The least she deserved was a little respect.
Snapping her jeans up again, she surveyed .Byron:s flushed face with a bitter resentment. It was time this man didn't get his own way for once.
Spinning on the heels of her black boots, she started to march down the hall, quickly reaching the top of the wide marble staircase.
'And where the hell do you think you're going?' Byron called after her.
.
'Home, Byron. Like I told you.' She kept on going.
'But you can't!'
Her laughter rippled back up the stairwell. 'Just try and stop me.'
'Maybe I could at that,' he snarled, catching up with her as she reached the bottom of the stairs. When she continued across the foyer towards the telephone, he reached out and grabbed her arm.
This time, Celeste had no patience left with him. She grabbed back, flipping him over on to his back on to the marble floor, her boot solidly in the middle of his chest. Though not seriously hurt, he was winded. And undeniably shocked.
'Don't presume to touch me again, Byron,' she warned darkly. 'Not unless you're invited. Now I'm going to call a taxi. Stop me at your own peril.'
He didn't try to stop her, and she left five minutes later.
'WHAT a pickle!' Ava said over breakfast. 'But surely, Byron, once you explain it all to Nathan, he'll understand why Gemma did what she did.'
'Gemma doesn't seem to think so.'
Ava turned puzzled eyes towards Gemma, who had woken this morning with ambivalent feelings. She wanted very much to do what Lenore had urged her to do-fight tooth and nail to put her marriage right, irrespective of the events of yesterday. But there remained in her heart the feeling that Nathan would never believe she hadn't slept with Damian. He didn't trust her. He didn't trust women in general. His mother had left him with this crippling legacy and Gemma wasn't sure if the love he did hold for her was strong enough to balance the scales in her favor.
'He thinks I went from his bed to Damian Campbell's,' she said with a grim honesty. 'He couldn't conceive that Damian might just want to be my friend.'
'Well, you can't blame him for that, surely,' Byron muttered. 'The man's reputation is hardly lily-white.'
Gemma settled her steeliest gaze upon her father-in-law. 'I don't set much store by people's so-called reputations any more. Till I met Celeste, all I'd heard about her were bad things, but she's not like that at all! She's a warm, wonderful woman and I won't hear a word against her. I won't hear a word against Damian, either. He might not be a saint but he's been very good to me and he's never made a pass or done a single thing to offend me.'
Byron scowled at this while Ava leant over to pat her gently on the wrist. 'It's very creditable of you to defend your new-found friends, Gemma. I, for one, agree with you that one can't always believe what is said about others, but please ... understand our concern as well. There's never been any love lost between the Campbells and the Whitmores. And you're a Whitmore. Common sense demands one has to view with suspicion whenever a Campbell makes friendly overtures towards a Whitmore, wouldn't you say, Byron?'
Gemma blinked at the savage look Byron sent his sister across the breakfast table. 'We all have to run our own races in the end, Ava. You, of all people, should appreciate that. '
Ava's returning smile was so self-assured that Gemma was stunned. The word 'transformation' was not an exaggeration when applied to Ava. She'd fairly blossomed in every way, not just her looks. There was a confidence about her person and even her movements that was a pleasure to see. Gemma had always liked her but had also always pitied her. No one was ever going to feel pity for this composed, assertive, attractive woman ever again.
'So what are you going to do, Gemma?' Ava asked.
Byron jumped in before Gemma could verbalize a plan. 'If she's in agreement, I'd like to drive her over to see Nathan first thing this morning. Maybe I could have a word with him first, pave the way, so to speak. Nathan's likely to still feel highly emotional, and maybe irration
al, about the situation.'
Gemma closed her eyes. God, if Byron did that, Nathan might tell him what happened yesterday. She didn't want anyone else to know about it. OK, so Celeste knew, but she'd sworn her to secrecy. There was nothing to be gained by blackening Nathan's name to his family. Clearly he hadn't been himself yesterday. Something had snapped in him and he hadn't been able to see reason. Gemma could see that now.
'Is that what you want, Gemma?' Ava asked kindly, perhaps interpreting her shut eyes as an unwillingness to go along with Byron.
She lifted damp lashes to give Ava a small half-smile. 'Yes. The sooner I talk to him, the better. Only .. .I don't want you to talk to him first, Byron. Please. I feel this is something private and personal between Nathan and myself. I know you all want to help but I feel we have to work out our problems ourselves. I must talk to Nathan, and he must be made to talk to me. Really talk, probably for the first time in his life.'
Ava nodded wisely. 'You're quite right. That's always been Nathan's problem. He keeps things to himself too much. He doesn't know how to open up to people.'
'I hate to admit it,' Byron said with a weary sigh, 'but I think you could be right. Even when he was a young lad, he didn't say much. He let me do all the talking. I used to think he was listening, that he was really taking in the advice I was giving him, but how do I know if he ever did? Maybe I failed him. Maybe he wasn't even the essentially good boy I thought he was. " Maybe he's not turned out as well as I'd hoped.'
Gemma suddenly remembered Damian's earlier claim that Nathan had had a sexual liaison with Byron's wife shortly after he came to live with them. How odd, she thought, that now, even after what Nathan had done, her faith in her husband's moral fiber was stronger than ever. Perverse as it might seem, she was sure that there had never been anything between Irene and Nathan. Not ever. Nathan might be capable of a lot of things, but not that kind of treachery.
'Nathan is not easy to understand, Byron,' she told her father-in-law, 'but in his heart he is a good man. You should feel pride in what you've achieved with him. He would surely have been lost if you hadn't taken him in and I know he loves you dearly. He would hate for you ever to think him unworthy as his son which is another reason why I don't want you to confront him this morning. He might feel belittled somehow in your eyes. That would never do. No, I can't allow that. .. '
Byron and Ava were both staring at her as though they couldn't believe what they were hearing. Her smile was softly wry, tears pricking her eyes. 'My love is not blind any more,' she murmured, 'and it's stronger for not being so. Nathan is a man worth fighting for. I won't let misunderstandings come between us, and I won't let his past come between us.'
'He's a lucky man,' Byron muttered. 'It must be really something to have a woman love you like that.'
A hushed silence fell on the table. Ava eventually broke it by abruptly scraping back her chair. 'Anyone for more coffee?'
'I'm going to wait outside here,' Byron stated firmly as he slid his Jaguar into the kerb. 'I don't care how long you take. I'll just sit here and read the newspaper till you come back down.'
'I might be ages!' Gemma protested. 'You should go on to your office.'
'And what if things don't work out?'
'But they will,' she insisted, refusing to think of any other outcome.
'I'll wait,' he repeated stubbornly.
'Oh, all right.' She dragged in a steadying breath, letting it out slowly. 'Are you sure Nathan will still be there? I mean ... how do you know that after your call this morning he hasn't done a flit? He might not want to see me.'
'He doesn't know it's you who's coming to see him.'
Gemma's head whipped round to stare at him.
'I thought it best,' Byron said ruefully.
Gemma sighed. 'Yes, it probably was.'
Still, she was not fond of deception. Suddenly, she was reluctant to make a move to get out, her stomach churning. 'How ... how do I look?' she asked nervously.
She'd taken a lot of trouble with her make-up and clothes, choosing a dark green slim line dress which was one of Nathan's favorites. It had a wide self-covered belt that pulled her tiny waist in even further, emphasizing her hour-glass figure. A gold chain necklace filled the deep V crossover bodice and gold drop earrings dangled from her ears. Red Door perfume wafted tantalizingly up from where she'd sprayed it between her breasts.
It did cross her mind that it would seem crazy to anyone else that she was making herself physically attractive for the same man who'd virtually raped her the day before. But understanding and love made her see Nathan's actions as an expression of extreme pain, not violence, a reaction to an imagined betrayal that he could not cope with. He had struck out at her in a horrible way, admittedly, and she had been devastated at the time, but there was no future in keeping those feelings of anger and vengeance going. Her future, she felt sure, lay with understanding her husband, and unconditionally loving him.
'I haven't overdone things, have I?'
'You look absolutely delicious,' Byron complimented with such a look Gemma was taken aback for a moment. She'd never thought of her father-in-law as a member of the opposite sex before. He was simply Nathan's adopted father. The formidable head of Whitmore's. An invincible, almost machine-like individual.
Now her woman's eyes took in his strongly handsome face, his penetrating blue eyes, his highly sensual mouth. He might be fifty years old but he didn't look it. In fact, he looked fit enough to go quite a few rounds, either in the ring or in bed.
She almost blushed under her forthright train of thought, but she frowned instead, her mind sliding back to how Celeste had dressed for her meeting with Byron last night. It had struck her as peculiar at the time-Celeste's provocative clothing quite at odds with the occasion. Was the answer sitting behind the wheel in this very car? Who knew? Maybe Byron was the answer to a lot of things Celeste did ...
Gemma gave herself a mental shrug. What did Byron and Celeste have to do with what she was about to do?
Nothing!
'I suppose I can't put this off any longer,' she muttered, and opened the passenger door.
'Good luck.'
'Thanks. I think I'm going to need it.'
'Don't forget I'm waiting down here.'
'I won't,' she said and climbed out, striding purposefully over to the building.
Her outward decisiveness was a complete sham, something that struck her forcibly once she found herself in front of the door to their apartment. Should she knock, or let herself in with her own keys? If she knocked and Nathan slammed the door in her face, what could she do then?
Gemma inserted her key with shaking hands, let herself in then shut the door behind her. Immediately, Nathan appeared outside the door of his study, glaring down the corridor at her. She simply stood there and stared back at him.
Dear God, but he looked appalling. Unshaven.
Bloodshot eyes. His hair a mess. Wearing navy blue pyjama bottoms and nothing else.
He didn't say a word as he looked at her. Not a word. But his eyes were dead.
'What are you doing here?' he asked at last in a voice so unlike his she was stunned.
There was no anger. No emotion. No nothing.
'Byron brought me. He ... he's waiting in the car for me downstairs,' Gemma explained shakily. 'Look, I'm sorry he lied to you but he was worried you might not stay if he said it was me who wanted to talk to you.'
'He'd be right. Why in God's name you would want to talk to me at all mystifies me,' he said in that horrible, hollow-sounding voice. 'But it won't make any difference. It's over. We're over.'
When he went to turn away, Gemma blurted out, 'I saw Lenore last night. She explained to me that what I overheard you and Lenore saying to each other last Sunday was actually a section of your play.'
Nathan froze. He didn't turn round, but he waited for her to continue.
'She showed me the actual script,' Gemma went on hurriedly. 'It was exactly what I overheard, word for wo
rd. She said it's a scene she'd been having trouble with and you were helping her with it. It's where the leading man tells his leading lady that it was only sex between them the night before. You must know the scene I'm talking about. . .'
'Yes,' he agreed flatly. 'I know the one.'
'Then you must be able to see why I jumped to the wrong conclusion,' she implored. 'That was the only reason I left, I swear to you. And I didn't run straight to Damian. I didn't even contact him till the next day when I couldn't think where to go and what to do. I. .. I didn't want to go back to Belleview and I couldn't think of anyone else I knew. Please believe me when I tell you we have not been having an affair, not before I left you or after. I swear to you, Nathan. I'm not lying about this.'
He turned slowly to face her, his eyes totally devoid of expression. 'And you think that would make me feel better? If I allow myself to believe you, my darling Gemma, then I would have no option but to go and blow my brains out. And I'm not going to do that over any woman,' he muttered and disappeared into his study.
