Fugitive Wife

by Miranda Lee

  'If Gerard were here in Broome, then he'd contact you, wouldn't he?'

  'Oh, yes.' Gerard was no coward. Not like his wife.

  'Then that settles it. He's not here. You must have been mistaken about this Nigel person. Understandable, given your obvious state of mind. You're very jumpy, Leah. I suppose I'm to blame for that.'

  'I'm a bit mixed up, that's for sure,' she said raggedly.

  Gareth reached over the table and picked up her hand. 'You have to move on, Leah,' he said softly as he stroked the back of her hand with gentle fingertips. 'You have to forget Gerard.'

  She didn't react too badly to his touch this time, accepting his tactile comfort without panicking, or being swamped with dark desires. She was too distraught for such tempestuous feelings. Seeing Nigel—or thinking she had—had left her feeling disorientated, and very vulnerable.

  Her eyes lifted to Gareth's and for once she didn't see Gerard, but a man with a face full of concern and caring.

  'I'd like to forget him,' she said unhappily. 'Believe me.'

  'You need to find someone new,' he said, his eyes holding hers. 'Someone to love and who'll truly love you in return. You must put aside the past and get on with your life, Leah. No more hiding. No more running away. Stop looking back and go forward.'

  'That's easier said than done. I don't even know where to start.'

  'I'll tell you where. The next time a man asks you out, if you like him at all, you should say yes.'

  He stared at her for several long and incredibly meaningful moments, and Leah found herself holding her breath, waiting for him to say what she suddenly feared he was going to say.

  And then he said it.

  'Come out with me, Leah.'

  Now she snatched her hand away, her eyes rounding even while her heart galloped.

  'I liked you the first moment I saw you,' he said. 'More than liked.'

  'No!' she protested, shaking her head violently at him. He had no idea what he was saying. And asking.

  'Oh, yes. Very much so.'

  'But I...I can't go out with you'

  'Why not? I promise you I'm not two-timing anyone. I'm here alone, and I have no wife or girlfriend hidden at home in Brisbane who would object. All you have to do is say yes.'

  She jumped to her feet, unable to stay calmly sitting there. She hurried across the street away from him, but he soon fell into step beside her.

  'You can't run away from everything, Leah,' he ground out. 'You're as attracted to me as I am to you. I know you are.'

  'You don't know what you're saying! I'm your brother's wife!'

  'In name only. You told me yourself. You despise him. You left him.'

  She found herself automatically heading back to where Gareth had parked the Pajero, the shops and the tourists quickly left behind. The pavement they were striding along was quite deserted.

  'I haven't divorced him yet,' she threw over her shoulder.

  'You will, though. Won't you?'

  'I... I...'

  He grabbed her arm and spun her round, his face harder than she'd ever seen it. 'What are you trying to say? That you're still in love with him?'

  'I don't know.' She kept shaking her head in an agony of confusion. 'Dear God, I don't know anything any more!'

  Suddenly she burst into tears, burying her face in her hands. She had no strength to stop him from taking her in his arms and cradling her against him.

  'Oh, you poor darling,' he crooned as he held her close. 'You poor, poor darling...'

  She sobbed into his shirt, her agony and confusion increasing with the feelings which erupted within her as he stroked her hair and back. They were stronger than what she'd felt the previous night, equally as strong as anything she'd felt with Gerard. Before she knew it she was sliding her arms around Gareth's waist, clinging to him, wanting him with a want which was beyond wanting.

  His instant tension communicated itself to her in his frozen hands. But there was a part of him which wasn't frozen, which was hot and throbbingly alive, pressing its insistently hard length into the soft swell of her stomach. She imagined it complementing her own empty, craven flesh, filling it as only Gerard— or Gerard's twin—could fill it.

  The temptation to just-surrender to the moment in all its wild madness was acute. But she just couldn't do it. She wasn't like Gerard. She would not use people. Gareth was a decent man. He deserved better than a mixed-up fool who didn't know which brother it was she was wanting.

  With the last vestiges of her will she wrenched herself out of his arms and began to run, not looking back.

  She ran till she could not take another step. She was bent over, gasping for breath, when the Pajero slid to a stop beside her.

  'Get in,' he ordered firmly, leaning over to push open the passenger door.

  She straightened with a groan, her chest still rising and falling. Her hair had half fallen down with her flight, long sun-kissed strands hanging around her flushed face.

  The man behind the wheel tightened his grip as he stared at her. He thought she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, and he wanted her so much he ached unbearably.

  But he could see he would have to go carefully to win what he wanted even more than her lovely body. He wanted her, his, for ever!

  Leah's shoulders sagged as she finally gave in to common sense. Running away was futile. It achieved nothing. She'd run away from Gerard, and six months later she was still running. It was time to stop. Even she could see that.

  She walked over and climbed up into the car, pulling the door shut after her and collapsing back against the seat with a shuddering sigh.

  Gareth negotiated a U-turn before angling the car over to the side of the road and snapping off the engine.

  'Now, let's be strictly honest with each other,' he started, with a dark intensity in his voice. 'What happened back there betrayed you do feel attracted to me in return. Do you deny that?'

  How could she? Her sigh was a mixture of distress and defeat. 'I'm not in a position to deny or confirm it, Gareth, because frankly I don't know who it is I'm attracted to. That's why I get so upset when you're around. When I look at you I see Gerard. Maybe what I feel for you is really for my husband.'

  She waited for him to look offended, but he didn't. He merely looked thoughtful.

  'Well, I suppose that's only to be expected,' he said with surprising cool. 'You don't know me well enough yet to differentiate. But you will, if you give me a chance.'

  'I don't think giving you a chance is a good idea. You were right when you said I should forget Gerard. But how could I do that by moving on to his brother? Going out with you would be foolish of me and not fair to you.'

  'I don't give a stuff about fairness,' Gerard grated out, startling Leah with his sudden passion. He swivelled further in his seat to take her face in his hands and turn it towards him. 'I don't think you'd be foolish going out with me. Not at all. Stop worrying about Gerard, Leah, and just go with your heart.'

  He kissed her then, and the passion in his voice was nothing to the passion in his mouth. Leah had never experienced anything like it. Where Gerard had seduced, Gareth demanded, prying her lips apart with a hunger which would not be denied, his tongue driving deep into her mouth. His fingertips tightened on her cheeks, his thumbs hooking under her chin while he held her face fiercely captive beneath him. Not that he needed to hold her captive. She'd been with him all the way from the moment his mouth had met hers.

  His lips lifted with an abruptness which left her gasping. They stared at each other, both breathing heavily. Leah was shocked, for Gareth had just proved himself a far more passionate man than his brother.

  Yet he'd seemed so laid-back last night. A calm, controlled, self-contained individual. The man staring at her now with a wildly glittering gaze left Gerard for dead in the emotional stakes.

  'I wanted you from the first moment I saw you,' he insisted, his turbulent blue eyes laying claim to the truth of his words.

  Leah's head whir
led. She'd wanted him from the first moment she'd seen him as well. But was that wanting real, or just a replay of what she'd already experienced with his brother?

  Leah hoped for the former, but feared the latter. Gareth kept telling her to forget Gerard and move on, but her husband was never going to be forgotten as easily as that. The last thing she wanted was to hurt Gareth. But, on the other hand, what if what she was feeling for him was real, and her so-called love for Gerard the illusion?

  'I won't rush you,' he promised, reaching out to cup her face with gentle hands. 'Just spend some time with me, get to know me.'

  She might still have done the noble thing and sent Gareth on his way if he hadn't kissed her again at that moment, this time using a gently persuasive passion to undermine what little defences she had left.

  'If Gerard finds out,' she murmured shakily against his very tempting lips, 'he'll go crazy.'

  'Why should he find out?'

  She drew back then and tried to regather some sense. 'What if that was Nigel I saw? What if Gerard's having me watched?'

  'Do you honestly believe my brother would be content with having you watched? I know Gerard. If he knew you were here, he'd storm up here in person. Gerard is confrontational. To give him credit, he's not afraid of a fight.'

  'If he ever finds me with you, you're the one he'll fight,' Leah warned, shuddering at the thought.

  'Gerard doesn't frighten me,' he pronounced with a rather Gerard-like arrogance. 'As I said once before, he deplores violence.'

  'He could still ruin your business.'

  'He wouldn't dare.'

  'You sound very sure of that'

  'Believe me, I am.'

  Leah was impressed. Anyone who could stand up to Gerard impressed her. That took real courage. She hadn't been able to do it.

  It crossed her mind, however, that the thought of asking her husband for a divorce did not terrify her as much as it once had. She'd grown stronger during the six months away from him without even realising it. Still, she could not risk going back to Brisbane till she was positive she could face Gerard without the fear of falling victim to his sexual spell once more.

  She glanced over at Gareth, not at all sure she wasn't about to fall victim to his spell. He was as potently attractive as his brother. Though 'victim' would not be the right word in Gareth's case. No woman would ever be Gareth's victim. She would go willingly into his arms.

  'All right,' she said, her voice shaking a little. I'll go out with you. But I...I won't promise anything.'

  His face registered an astonishingly dark triumph. Dear God, what had she done?

  'When?' he demanded to know. 'Tonight, after the cruise? I'll take you to dinner. I'll ask around and book somewhere nice.'

  'Nowhere too fancy,' she said swiftly. 'I don't have any fancy clothes.'

  'You'd look gorgeous in anything. So when and where will I pick you up?'

  'If you drive me home now, I'll show you.'

  'It's only one-thirty. Do you really have to go home yet? We could go back to my place. There's a pool there. We could have a swim together.'

  Leah was tempted, she had to admit. She felt hot and sticky, sitting in the car. But a swim meant skimpy costumes, and possibly time alone in Gareth's apartment. She wasn't all that confident of his promise not to rush her, not after the way he'd just kissed her. . On top of that, there was something she had to do, something she didn't want to tell Gareth about...

  'I really don't have the time,' she said by way of excuse. 'I have some housework to do this afternoon. And some washing.' Which she did. But it wouldn't take her two hours.

  Alan always picked her up for work at half past three, after his regular afternoon stop at the pub in town. He drove a small open-air jalopy which he parked at the ready near the far end of Cable Beach, opposite where The Zephyr was anchored. He ran her home around seven each night, after the cruise, except for those nights when she stayed aboard. And Mondays, of course. There was no sunset cruise for The Zephyr on Mondays.

  But today was Friday.

  'If you pick me up at eight,' she said, 'I should be ready by then.'

  'Eight it is. Now you'd better show me where this place of yours is located.'

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THE house Leah shared with the other girls was an ancient wooden white-ant-infested dump. There was no getting around it. How it had survived a hundred years of cyclones she'd no idea. Admittedly, the dump did have some superficial charm, with its stained glass windows, pitched iron roof and latticed-in verandahs.

  The garden was a shambles, however, a tangled mass of trees and shrubs and vines. Half a dozen bougainvillea choked practically everything else, and, while they produced a profusion of brilliant colours at this time of year, their thorns were not to be taken lightly. A couple of times Leah had contemplated doing some pruning, but without proper equipment she would have only ended up scratched and exhausted.

  'Pull in over there,' she directed, pointing.

  'You live here?' Gareth asked, disapproval in his voice as he swung into the rutted driveway, the bumper bar almost hitting the old rusted gates which hung alarmingly outwards.

  'It was all I could afford.'

  'Mmm. Gerard would not be impressed with his wife living like this.'

  'Well, Gerard can go hang himself!'

  Gareth laughed, but Leah didn't. Suddenly she wished Gerard would disappear from the face of the earth. She wished she would never have to think of him again. Or see him.

  But of course she would have to. Even she could see that now. One day soon she would have to face him and tell him she wanted a divorce. No easy way out for her. No impersonal solicitor's letter. Otherwise she would never have done with him.

  And suddenly that was what she wanted: to have done with him!

  How much Gareth had to do with this suddenly intense wish, she didn't know. Maybe she would find some answers in the days to come.

  She glanced over at him, her eyes thoughtful. 'How long are you in Broome for, Gareth?'

  His blue eyes turned a steely grey as they narrowed. 'For as long as it takes.'

  Stubborn, she thought. Just like Gerard.

  The realisation rattled her for a moment, till she reminded herself for the umpteenth time that they were identical twins. Gareth himself had admitted they had many similar character traits and tastes. It was inevitable.

  Leah also realised she hadn't asked Gareth much about himself as yet. She'd been the one doing all the talking. Why hadn't he married, for instance? Why had the brothers stayed estranged? And what of that mysterious mother of theirs, whose very existence Gerard didn't acknowledge?

  Leah frowned. What was it Gareth had tried to tell her last night on the boat? Something about Gerard blaming his mother for their father's death.

  As much as Leah didn't like bringing up the subject of Gerard all the time, she might have to one last time. Over dinner tonight, she resolved. Then no more.

  'Your company must be doing very well,' she remarked, 'if you can afford to stay here as long as you like.'

  'I can't afford not to. I've never met a woman I want as much as I want you, Leah. I know that you and I could have something special together. I won't leave a stone unturned till you let me prove that to you.'

  Leah could only shake her head at him. Gerard had rushed her into marriage. She would not let Gareth rush her into anything. 'You know, in your own way you're just as stubborn and arrogant as your brother.'

  'Is that so bad?'

  'Arrogance can make a person one-eyed. Gerard's main failing was he never appreciated how others felt. He never really listened to me when I tried to tell him something. He had his own private agenda in life and everyone else had to fit in with it. I made the mistake of fitting in far too well for far too long. I won't make that same mistake again, with any man.'

  Gareth's eyes moved over her determined face, and he nodded slowly. 'I can respect that. I won't try to pigeonhole you, Leah. With me, you can be your ow
n person in whatever way you want to be. I promise I'll listen when you tell me something. I won't make the same mistakes Gerard made.'

  'But you're his identical twin.'

  'I like to think I'm his better half.'

  Her eyes saddened. 'I liked to think I was that, once.'

  'No more about Gerard,' he suddenly snapped. 'He spoils everything.'

  'But there are still some things I must know,' she insisted bravely. 'I was going to ask you over dinner tonight.'

  He scowled his displeasure at such an idea.

  'You just promised to listen to me,' she reminded him.

  He groaned. 'Hung by my own petard!'

  Her smile was wry. 'Back to hanging again.'

  'Very well,' he agreed grudgingly. I'll answer your infernal questions about Gerard. But just this once! Come tomorrow, I want us to start afresh. I want you to look upon me as though we've only just met.'

  Impossible, she thought. But didn't say so.

  'I want you to give me a real chance to prove to you that I'm nothing like Gerard...except in the things that count.'

  'And what are they?'

  'I think you already know that, Leah,' he said, with a cool audacity that took her breath away. 'I'm not above using those parts of me which can't fail to impress you. You must have been very attracted to my brother to marry him so quickly.'

  'You...you said you wouldn't rush me...'

  Even to her ears it sounded a weak protest, and in truth she could not help wondering what it might be like, making love with Gareth. His kiss this afternoon showed he would be a passionate lover. Not as controlled as Gerard. Or compelled to always be on top, both figuratively and literally.

  Her train of thought made her whole mouth go dry.

  Dear heaven, this was what she'd feared from the start, that she would not be able to resist him!

  'I won't rush you,' he promised again. 'But I don't intend to be a wimp, either. I want you, Leah. It's as simple as that.'

  She blinked at him. Nothing was as simple as that. Only a man would think so.

  'I...I must be going,' she said shakily, and scrambled out of the car before he could kiss her again. She was far too susceptible to his kisses.