by Miranda Lee
Her head turned slowly his way, their eyes meeting. She was astonished at how calm his were. But he was right. What was the point in promising herself to be different from now on if she never acted upon it?
‘Yes,’ she confessed, though it came out in a hoarse whisper.
His eyes flickered slightly. ‘Yes what?’
‘Yes, I still want you to make love to me.’
Her satisfaction was strong as the words came out, steady and sure.
He held her gaze for ages, the silence in the car deafening.
‘I’m not sure if you’re still a fool, Audrey Farnsworth,’ he said at last, his voice low and almost angry, ‘or the most devious young woman I’ve ever met.’
She gaped at him.
He sighed, his frustration obvious. ‘God knows you confuse me more than any female I’ve ever met. I don’t know if I want to kiss you, or take you over my knee and smack your very delectable bottom. Either way I’ll probably still end up in bed with you, you cunning little minx.’
He made an exasperated sound. Audrey merely stared at him, enthralled and bemused. Delectable? Cunning? Her?
‘Look,’ he ground out. ‘I don’t know how long I can keep playing the noble gentleman with you, Audrey. I did warn you it wasn’t the natural me. I want nothing more than to take you somewhere right now and make love to you all afternoon. But I know I’d feel guilty afterwards.’
He uttered a gravelly laugh. ‘Hell, no one is more surprised than me that I’ve developed this overly active conscience where you’re concerned. I know it can’t last.’
I hope not, Audrey thought with a bold recklessness that should have appalled her. But didn’t. She had never felt so excited in her life. All she could think about was herself and Elliot, back at his place, naked, their bodies blending over and over.
Heat seared into her cheeks. Her heart-rate tripled.
He twisted in his seat and set equally feverish eyes upon her. ‘To tell you the truth, my chivalry is beginning to irritate the death out of me. Why am I holding back, I keep asking myself? She’s neither a child nor a virgin. If not me, it’ll be someone else soon. God knows, I’ve never seen a peach so ripe and ready for plucking!’
He glared at her, at her flushed cheeks, her dilated eyes, her trembling mouth.
‘I’ll make a bargain with you,’ he growled at last. ‘If we both still feel this way by the time you get your driving licence, I’ll take you down to my place in the snow for a weekend. Just you and me together. No skiing. Nothing but sex. What do you say?’
Audrey couldn’t say a thing.
Her eyes dropped to the car floor in a frantic confusion.
‘At least by then,’ he ground out, ‘Russell might be well and truly out of your system and I won’t feel as if I’m taking advantage of you on the rebound.’
Audrey lifted her eyes slowly to stare at him. If anyone had told her a few moments ago that Elliot would offer himself to her as a lover, and that she would knock him back, she would have said they were mad.
‘Well?’ he prompted, somewhat testily. ‘Say something, for pity’s sake. It’s what you want, isn’t it?’
‘No,’ was all she could manage.
‘No?’ He lanced her with a fierce frown. ‘What do you mean, no?’
She cleared her throat. ‘It means no, I’m not interested in a dirty weekend.’
‘A dirty weekend?’ he spluttered, a slash of angry red across his cheeks.
Her nerve started to break. What are you doing, you idiot? This is no time for a holier-than-thou attitude. So what if it’s only sex he’s after? So what if his rather unromantic offer sent a momentary chill running through your veins? Say you’ll go! Tell him, fine, a couple of days of pure unadulterated lust is exactly what you’re looking for.
‘You...you said I should be looking for love, Elliot,’ she blurted out instead. ‘Not just sex.’
‘Yes, well, that was last night,’ he muttered, throwing her a cynical glance. ‘I think I got carried away by my gallant knight act. Today’s a different story, especially with you wearing those damned tight jeans!’ His gaze dropped to her thighs—and between—where the denim fitted her like a second skin. ‘Look, Audrey, you can’t expect—’
Elliot broke off when cars behind them started blowing their horns. The lights, it seemed, had long turned green. He muttered something under his breath and the car leapt forward, not altogether smoothly.
‘This is ridiculous,’ he began grumbling under his breath. ‘I knew I shouldn’t get mixed up with you. I knew it was a mistake. Maybe you’re not a virgin but you are still a child, a silly naïve little child, playing at being a woman, tying me up in knots and then—’
‘Elliot!’ she screamed as the Magna drifted and went breathlessly close to a truck in the next lane.
Now he didn’t just mutter. He swore outright, reefing the Magna across a gap in the oncoming traffic and shooting up a quiet side-street. Wrenching the car over to the kerb, he brought it to a shuddering halt, snapping off the ignition key with an angry twist of his hand. He turned to Audrey with a face like thunder.
But he didn’t say another angry word.
For Audrey was hunched there, her face like a ghost. She was trembling like a leaf, shaking so hard that her teeth were rattling.
‘Oh, God,’ he groaned. ‘I forgot about your accident. I’m sorry. Hell, I’m a damned idiot! Here... Come over here, love...’
He undid both their seatbelts and gathered her shuddering body into his arms as best a man could in the front of a car these days.
‘There, there, you’re fine now,’ he soothed. ‘We’re safe... The car’s stopped... No need to worry any more... Elliot’s here... I’ll look after you...’
It happened again. Somewhere along the line he stopped stroking her hair, stopped uttering soft words. His fingers tipped up her chin and he took that quavering mouth into his, sighing with a type of frustrated resignation.
Audrey didn’t sigh. She moaned, knowing that she was making a mockery of her earlier refusal with her instantaneous body language. If she’d meant what she’d said a minute before she wouldn’t be parting her lips so eagerly now, wouldn’t be letting his hand move down over her breast, wouldn’t be almost sobbing with pleasure as he teased her nipple to an exquisite erection.
‘Elliot,’ she cried, gasping for breath as she tore her mouth away.
‘Mmmm?’ His hot mouth merely moved across to devour her ear instead, his hand never ceasing its erotic intent. He’d somehow undone a button or two and was inside her blouse, rubbing the already rock-like peak through the silk of her bra.
‘We still can’t,’ she husked.
‘I know...’
‘Stop...please stop.’
‘No,’ he rasped. ‘Not till I get your promise to come away with me once I’ve taught you to drive.’
‘Yes, yes. Anything. Only stop doing that.’
‘I don’t want to,’ he groaned.
‘You’re not being fair.’
‘Neither are you.’
‘Elliot, please...’
He slumped back into his seat, leaving her shaking almost as much as when he had started. Neither said a word, their mutual heavy breathing gradually settling down to relative calm.
Elliot heaved one last agitated sigh. ‘You’re at liberty to change your mind, Audrey,’ he said tautly. ‘I won’t hold you to a promise made under sexual duress. I’m not that much of a bastard.’
Audrey squeezed her eyes tightly shut, her head still whirling. Elliot’s earlier accusations kept going round and round in her mind, about her playing at being a woman, tying him up in knots... Wasn’t that what she had just done again?
Time to really grow up, Audrey, she told herself. Time to understand that there is a difference between what you want and what you can have. Life is made up of compromises.
She drew in a deep, steadying breath. ‘I won’t change my mind,’ she said, her voice only shaking a little. ‘I do wa
nt you, Elliot. I think I have, right from that first day we met.’
He looked startled when she said this. Then concerned.
‘I know you worry that I’m on the rebound from Russell,’ she went on quickly. ‘And that’s very admirable of you. But you’re not my keeper, Elliot. You yourself said that the main factor in my deciding to go to bed with a man should be if I wanted to. Well, I certainly want to go to bed with you, more than I ever thought it possible. But desire is not all I feel for you, Elliot.’
His head jerked her way. ‘For God’s sake, don’t go saying you love me!’
‘I have no intention of saying any such thing.’ Which she didn’t. Did he think she would risk the little of him she was trying to win for herself? ‘I was merely explaining why I didn’t like your reducing any relationship between us to a weekend of sex. I want us to have more than that together. I...I really like and admire you, Elliot. You’re social-smart and sophisticated and very, very sure of yourself. All the things I’ve never been but would like to be. I think I can learn a lot from spending time with you.’
His grey eyes were filled with a rueful irony as they stabbed over at her. ‘Are we speaking generally here, Audrey? Or are we back to sex?’
She was pleased that she didn’t blush too much, her mouth pulling back into a smile that was unintentionally but very definitely provocative. ‘I would say I could do with quite a few lessons in that department...’
Elliot laughed. ‘And you think I’m equipped to give them to you?’
‘Very,’ she rasped.
His eyes widened, then narrowed, undeniable desire sparking in their darkened depths. ‘And which lesson do you want to pursue this afternoon?’ he demanded hoarsely.
A heady sense of power claimed Audrey on hearing Elliot’s thickened tone, at seeing his arousal. If such a man as this wanted her so badly she had to be a desirable woman, a woman worth waiting for.
‘I think, Elliot,’ she said with her newly discovered self-confidence, ‘that your original idea was best. I’ll learn to drive first. And then...we can move on to other pursuits.’
He looked floored. ‘My God, you’ve certainly come a long way overnight! I know I said I wanted you to take charge of your own life but don’t take it too far with me, my sweet,’ he warned darkly. ‘You might find you have a tiger by the tail.’
He glared at her for a moment, then suddenly threw back his head and laughed. ‘Hell! Who would have believed it? Checkmated by a mere novice at the game. I dare say I have no option—being a gentleman,’ he said with a look that should have sent a warning prickle up her spine, ‘but to give in graciously. Might I add, though, that you’re going to learn to drive in record time? Even if we have to be at it morning, noon and night!’
CHAPTER SIX
‘AMAZING!’ Elliot exclaimed. ‘Simply amazing.’
‘Yes, it is, isn’t it?’ Audrey said quite smugly.
Only six days had passed since that memorable Saturday, and already she could drive confidently in traffic. And now, this morning, she’d successfully done a reverse park without putting a single wheel wrong.
It certainly had come as a surprise that, with all her past nerves and fears, she had proven to be such an excellent driver. Though Audrey suspected Elliot had something to do with it.
After he’d made his warning edict about teaching her morning, noon and night, he’d immediately done an about-face and taken her back to his place for coffee, saying that her first driving lesson could wait till he’d found out the exact nature of the accident she’d been involved in.
Audrey had been tight with tension at finding herself alone with him so soon after his explosive reaction to her proposal, but Elliot didn’t touch her in any way. On the contrary he handled her with a professional and rather impersonal kindness—as she imagined a psychiatrist might act—and soon, Audrey found herself relaxing and telling him what had led up to the accident that had killed her mother, how her father had been driving at the time—a powerful sports car—how he’d had an argument with her mother about money and had been taking his temper out on her by driving far too fast. It had been raining and they had skidded on a corner, slewing at breakneck speed into a telegraph pole. Her mother had been killed instantly. She herself had been very badly hurt. Her father had escaped with a bruise on one elbow.
Elliot, while sympathetic about the accident and her fears relating to driving, finally commented that she might be less nervous behind the wheel than beside it. He calmed her with the thought that driving herself was another way of having control over her own life and that confidence in driving was relative to being skilled at it. Which meant being taught well in the first place.
And he proved to be a very effective teacher, taking each progressive step very slowly, using profuse praise and encouragement every time she did something right, and defusing her instant fluster with a teasing remark if she didn’t. Nevertheless, when, a few days later, Audrey found her hands and feet and eyes co-ordinating with an incredible smoothness, they’d both been astonished.
Of course, her lessons had been frequent and intense. They’d spent most of Sunday on it, then Elliot had picked her up every day since for an hour before work and every afternoon for another hour afterwards. This morning—Friday—had been her hardest test yet, for it had been raining slightly, bringing back memories of her accident. She’d come through, however, with flying colours.
‘You’ll be ready for your test soon,’ he said, and darted her a meaningful look.
Her heart missed a beat.
He hadn’t touched her all week, yet every minute they spent together carried an intensifying sexual awareness. On both sides.
Sometimes, when she was on the end of one of Elliot’s devouring glances, Audrey would begin hoping he was falling in love with her. But she always quickly dismissed such foolish thoughts.
Elliot had given her no reason to believe his desire was rooted in anything but a strong sex drive that hadn’t been satisfied lately. Even with her hair up and wearing subdued colours, Audrey was still no stunner, certainly not the type to enslave a man against his will. Nevertheless, she could see that a man of Elliot’s class and style liked his bed-partners to have an exclusivity about them. Audrey believed that her relative inexperience rather appealed to him.
But she wasn’t so sure it would after the event. While the delay in consummating their desire had heightened the tension between them, it had also fuelled Audrey’s doubts about her ability to please Elliot in bed. It was hard to dismiss Russell’s hurtful comments, particularly since they were true. She had been awkward and shy and inhibited once he got her clothes off. She’d also failed to find any pleasure in the act itself. To her, it had been disappointing and embarrassing and just plain messy.
Maybe it would be the same with Elliot? Even if he managed to bring to life the woman she seemed to be in her fantasies, how would this woman compare with the other women who’d been in Elliot’s life? His wife might have been plain, but Audrey felt sure she must have been a very sensual woman. Older women were, weren’t they? One only had to look at Lavinia.
‘I’ll organise a test for you early next week,’ Elliot informed her. ‘That way, if you fail, you can take another one later in the week.’
‘Perhaps we shouldn’t rush into a test just yet,’ she said, worried she might not be as confident with a stranger in the car as she was with Elliot. ‘There’s no real rush, is there?’ she added without thinking.
His glance was reproachful. ‘Don’t turn into a tease, Audrey. You know damned well there’s a rush. Another week of this and I’ll be climbing the walls. There’s just so much jogging and cold showers a bloke can put up with.’
‘Oh...’ She blushed fiercely. ‘I...I didn’t realise it could get that bad. I guess I’m somewhat ignorant about men and their bodies.’
‘That’s not such a bad thing to be,’ Elliot gruffed. ‘If I wanted a promiscuous little raver, I wouldn’t be here with you now.’
/> They both fell awkwardly silent. Audrey glanced over at him just as he looked across at her. When a slow sexy smile creased his mouth, she felt her mouth go dry.
‘In a way it’s rather fun, this waiting,’ he confessed. ‘Like a child counting off the days till Christmas.’ His eyes narrowed as they travelled over her body with flagrant intent. ‘I’ll enjoy unwrapping you, Audrey, as much as any boy with a bright new toy.’
Audrey’s face flamed. As usual, Elliot was very evocative when talking about sex. But much as her arousal was instant and compelling, she couldn’t discard a certain dismay at being likened to a toy, nor the insidious thought that children tended to discard their toys a few days after Christmas.
‘When...when are you planning our weekend in the snow?’ she asked in a husky voice.
‘One week today. We’ll leave on the Friday, after you finish work. Unless, of course, you can get an early mark.’
She licked very dry lips. ‘What if I don’t pass my driving test?’
‘We’ll damned well go anyway,’ he said forcefully. ‘If I didn’t have to attend those stupid races tomorrow I’d probably have given in to temptation and taken you this weekend. Now get this chariot going again before I start getting ideas!’
* * *
‘How are the driving lessons going?’ Edward asked as he walked past her desk half an hour later.
‘Great.’
He stopped at the door that led into his office and looked back at her, frowning. ‘I hope I’m not going to lose you, Audrey. You’re a very good secretary.’
Audrey swelled with pleasure. She believed she was a good secretary, but it was the first time her boss had ever said so. ‘Why should you lose me? I’m not going anywhere.’
‘Men like Elliot Knight don’t let their wives work,’ he stated matter-of-factly.
Audrey sucked in a startled breath before laughing, somewhat drily. ‘Heavens, Edward. You’re as bad as Father. He keeps asking me when I’m going to make an announcement. Elliot and I are just good friends,’ she finished with that old hackneyed excuse.
