A Marriage to Remember

by Carole Mortimer

  Perhaps life as a single man hadn’t been as good for Adam as he had thought it would be. Maggi had avoided all knowledge of him during that time, hadn’t wanted to deal with the possibility that he might be in a serious relationship, or test whether or not she was strong enough to cope with that knowledge. Sue Castle hadn’t lasted long, Maggi did know that, but no doubt there had been a succession of women since Sue’s departure from his life; Adam was not a man to be without female company for long. When had he ever been?

  But Mark, it seemed, kept a closer watch on Adam’s life, knew exactly what Adam was doing—although there was no way that Maggi would ever ask Mark what he knew!

  She turned away abruptly. It was of no interest to her who Adam had in his private life. None at all! At least, she had thought it wasn’t… For almost three years she had deliberately tried not to even think about Adam, not to imagine what he might be doing, but now, within a very short space of time, she suddenly found herself overwhelmed with curiosity.

  Madness. Absolute madness. This man had almost destroyed her life once—she would not allow him to attempt it a second time!

  ‘Where, exactly, are we going?’ Her voice was sharper than she had intended, her thoughts filling her with impatience and tension.

  ‘I’m staying in a friend’s house in the area,’ Adam answered with a shrug, without taking his attention off the road in front of him. ‘I thought we could all go there for the time being while we decide what to do.’

  A female friend? The question came unbidden into her mind. ‘I’m sure Mark and I have no wish to impose upon your friend’s hospitality,’ she answered quickly. ‘So—’

  ‘I said I was staying in a friend’s house, Magdalena,’ Adam cut in dryly. ‘I said nothing about the friend being there too. As it happens Geoffrey and his family are on holiday at the moment, and they offered me the use of their home while they were away.’ He shrugged again. ‘No problem.’

  It might not be a problem to him, but Maggi certainly hadn’t envisaged them continuing to spend time in his company. ‘We merely need to devise a way for us to be able to pick up my car from the hotel,’ she began firmly.

  ‘You aren’t going to be able to do that for several hours,’ Adam answered reasonably. ‘In the meantime we can all go and have a cup of coffee. Breakfast, too. I noticed hardly any of the food had been touched on your tray at the hotel.’

  He noticed far too damned much as far as Maggi was concerned! He had made it his business to know she was performing at this folk festival. It would all have been so much easier if he hadn’t.

  ‘Maggi?’ Mark turned to look at her concernedly.

  What was she supposed to say? She would much rather not go anywhere near Adam’s friend’s house, or indeed Adam himself, but there was the problem of getting her car, and for the moment she was too confused by last night and Adam’s presence now to be able to think straight.

  ‘Coffee sounds fine,’ she accepted tightly.

  ‘And breakfast,’ Adam put in firmly. ‘You don’t look as if you’ve been eating enough,’ he added reprovingly, glancing in the driver’s mirror at her thin, almost gaunt-looking face.

  His concern for her welfare was way overdue. The time for his concern should have been three years ago, but of course then he had been more wrapped up in his career, and the woman who had briefly become his new singing partner. Maggi certainly didn’t need his solicitude now!

  ‘Toast and orange juice will be fine,’ she assured him, meeting his gaze challengingly in the mirror for several friction-filled seconds before he had to turn away to return his attention to the road.

  ‘Mark?’ he prompted the other man tersely.

  ‘The same,’ Mark replied tautly. ‘If it’s not too much trouble,’ he added with sarcasm.

  ‘It was never too much trouble for Magdalena. One of my favourite things used to be providing her with breakfast in bed,’ Adam returned softly.

  She could feel the heated colour flood her cheeks at what she knew was a deliberately provocative statement; the only ‘breakfast in bed’ she could ever remember Adam providing had never included food! But it had usually kept them in bed for a very long time…

  He was trying to meet her gaze in the driver’s mirror again, his eyes compelling—but Maggi refused to give him the satisfaction of letting him know she recalled all too well those ‘breakfasts in bed’! How could she forget them? Their relationship had always been very physical, their responses to each other always instantaneous. Which was one of the reasons why Maggi was so unhappy with her reaction to Adam earlier…

  She had thought, after all that he had done, that she couldn’t possibly still want him. But there was no doubting that tingling sensation in her hand and arm after he had touched her. She only wished there were!

  Mark glanced round at her. ‘I’m sure the reporters will give up and go home once the management have told them we’ve booked out, so it should be easy enough to go back and get your car in a couple of hours.’

  A couple of hours…! Spent in Adam’s company? Oh, they were going to be a very long two hours!

  ‘I really don’t want to inconvenience Adam for that long. Perhaps you could drop us off somewhere?’ Maggi suggested to him stiltedly.

  ‘I’m not being inconvenienced,’ Adam assured her dryly. ‘And you’ve seen the newspapers; do you really think there is anywhere I could drop you off in this area those reporters wouldn’t somehow get to know about and find you there?’

  He had a point, and she for one did not want to fight her way through a barrage of questions from the Press. What a great choice—a couple of hours spent in Adam’s company or having her privacy totally invaded!

  ‘Strange,’ Adam murmured. ‘I have the distinct impression the two of you would rather not be here!’

  ‘How astute of you.’ Mark returned the sarcasm.

  ‘Ungrateful pair,’ the older man said dryly.

  ‘Ungrateful—!’ Mark repeated indignantly. ‘If it weren’t for you—’

  ‘Yeah, yeah, Mark, I’ve heard it all before,’ Adam dismissed wearily. ‘Give it a rest, will you?’

  He really was still the same arrogant Adam she remembered so well. Mark was right; he had created this situation for all of them, and now he was bored by it.

  That was another part of Adam’s personality she knew very well; he became bored very easily. She had spent months after their separation wondering if that was what had really gone wrong in their relationship, if Adam had become bored with her! In the end the reasons had become irrelevant; their marriage was over.

  She had thought the happiest day of her life was the one when she’d married Adam, had imagined them spending the rest of their days together. Perhaps there was no such thing as a lifetime of love any more—although her parents seemed to have found it. They were still together after thirty years of marriage, and, she was sure, happy together. Maybe it was just that her own choice had been someone like Adam, a man too good-looking for his own—and every female’s! —good.

  She was back to looking for reasons again! At the end of the day—as she had finally realised after all her soul-searching—none of them mattered; it was over, had been over for a very long time.

  ‘Here we are.’ Adam turned the powerful vehicle down what looked to be a long drive; the house was not even in sight.

  ‘Your friend likes his privacy,’ Maggi remarked dryly after they had been driving for half a mile or so and the house had just come into view. It was an impressive Victorian mansion, with ivy crawling all over its red brick and the extensive surrounding gardens kept in immaculate condition.

  ‘Actually his wife is the one who likes her privacy,’ Adam answered as he parked the car on the gravel outside the front of the house. ‘She’s Celia Mayes, the actress.’

  Maggi had seen the woman in numerous television programmes; she was a beautiful actress, making a name for herself in films at the moment, having been nominated for an Oscar for her last starring ro
le. Tall and blonde, aged in her late twenties and with the sort of figure most other women would kill for, this seemed a strange location for her to choose to make her home.

  ‘Geoffrey and Celia have twin boys, aged one, and they prefer to keep them away from the limelight,’ Adam explained as he unlocked the door to let them all into the house.

  It was difficult enough to imagine the other woman as a mother at all, with her exquisite appearance and perfectly proportioned body, but of twin baby boys…! How on earth did she manage to combine a marriage, children, and a career of the magnitude to which hers had grown?

  ‘Geoffrey is the agent Geoffrey Haines?’ Mark put in abruptly.

  Adam looked at him with narrowed eyes. ‘He’s my agent, yes,’ he nodded.

  That was something new; in the past Adam had never wanted to bother with an agent. Still, he was a big star now, his work taking him all over the world, something it must be easier to organise with the help of an agent

  ‘And Celia Mayes’,’ Mark acknowledged hardly.

  Adam looked at him again. ‘Is that a problem?’

  ‘For me? No,’ Mark replied dismissively.

  Grey eyes clashed with blue for several long seconds, and Maggi could feel the tension between the two men. She didn’t understand it, but she could feel it What on earth was going on now?

  ‘This is a lovely house,’ she said, more for something to say than anything else, although in truth it was lovely, having been furnished as a home rather than as a show-piece. Which was probably as well, with two very young children living in it!

  ‘Yes, it is,’ Adam acknowledged uninterestedly, leading the way through to the spacious kitchen at the back of the house. The oak panelling and cabinets had obviously been chosen with the age of the house in mind, the yellow and white colour scheme brightening the room up considerably. ‘Sit yourselves down,’ he invited, indicating the chairs at the oak kitchen table. ‘I’ll make us all a pot of coffee.’

  Maggi sat down, relieved to do so. This was the weirdest situation! Here she was, sitting down, quite amicably, it seemed, having coffee and possibly breakfast with the man who had totally destroyed her life three years ago. Only the English could be this civilised.

  ‘What are you smiling at?’ Adam prompted indulgently.

  She hadn’t realised she was smiling until he pointed it out. But, yes, she supposed she was smiling, admittedly ruefully, but it was still a smile. Although it soon turned to a grimace. ‘Life,’ she said dryly.

  He put mugs of freshly brewed coffee down on the table in front of them. ‘The irony thereof?’ he questioned wryly.

  Trust him to know exactly what was so funny—and not necessarily humorously so!—about this situation. ‘Something like that,’ she replied, deliberately not looking at him as she sipped her coffee, although she could feel his gaze on her for several more, long, lingering seconds.

  It really was all so civilised, and yet this man had betrayed her, hurt her, before finally walking out on her! She must never forget that. Never!

  ‘Now, what have we got in here?’ Adam was looking in the refrigerator, perusing its contents. ‘Freshly squeezed orange juice for the lady.’ He brought out a jug of the cooled liquid. ‘Squeezed by my own fair hands this very morning,’ he told her as he put the jug on the table with a flourish. ‘And croissants.’ He produced them from a bread bin on top of one of the units.

  ‘I suppose you made those with your own fair hands this morning too?’ Mark scorned.

  Adam looked at him coldly. ‘No, but I did collect them from the baker’s and straight from the oven,’ he answered curtly, getting butter and honey from the refrigerator while he warmed the croissants slightly in the microwave. ‘Just the way Magdalena likes them,’ he added huskily. ‘I hope you like them too, Mark.’ His tone gave the impression he really didn’t give a damn whether his cousin liked croissants or not; that was what he was getting! Because that was what Maggi liked…

  Fresh orange juice with warm croissants and honey—her absolutely favourite breakfast. And Adam had all the ingredients. Almost as if he had known she and Mark would be here for breakfast…

  He had seen the reporters from the newspapers himself, would have realised how distressing their pursuit would be. But he couldn’t possibly have known she and Mark would come and have breakfast with him. Could he…?

  He was Adam; he had intended them to be here for breakfast—or it certainly seemed as if he had by the very fact that he was so prepared for their arrival. Wasn’t the fact that they were here, against all the odds, proof of that?

  She had suddenly lost her appetite, and slowly put down the croissant she had been in the middle of smearing with honey. ‘I would like to use the bathroom,’ she said stiffly, needing a few minutes’ respite from the tension of this situation.

  ‘Down the corridor, turn right, and—I’ll show you,’ Adam decided briskly, putting his own coffee down untouched.

  Being alone with Adam was the last thing she wanted, either now or in the future, but she had made the statement about the bathroom; it would look cowardly to change her mind just because Adam had offered to direct her there personally.

  ‘Thank you,’ she accepted abruptly, shooting Mark a resigned look.

  He gave her a reassuring smile as she left the room, trailing behind Adam. What else could Mark do? What could either of them do other than accept the situation they found themselves in at the moment? Later, once they were away from here and had their own transport back, it would be a different matter entirely!

  ‘Don’t look so apprehensive,’ Adam turned to remark dryly. ‘I’m not about to try and ravish you on the bathroom carpet—comfortable as I’m sure it would be!’ He pushed open the bathroom door, revealing that the white carpet had a thick, deep pile, luxurious to the feet—and the rest of the body!

  Deep colour darkened her cheeks at the erotic thoughts that briefly ran through her head at his provocative remark. What was she doing?

  ‘Thank you,’ she muttered dismissively as she entered the room, willing him to go away.

  But that was something he seemed reluctant to do, now that he had finally got her on her own. ‘For what?’ he taunted. ‘Not ravishing you on the bathroom carpet? Or showing you where the bathroom is?’ He quirked mocking brows at her.

  ‘The latter, of course,’ she snapped irritably. ‘I mean both!’ she amended impatiently as she saw his grin and realised exactly what she had said; she had made it sound as if she wanted him to make love to her on the bathroom carpet!

  Adam looked down at her with indulgent humour. ‘Make your mind up, Magdalena,’ he drawled softly. ‘Mark probably wouldn’t come looking for us for a while…’

  He was being ridiculous, and he knew he was, but he was obviously enjoying tormenting her. ‘I made my mind up about you a long time ago, Adam,’ she snapped waspishly. ‘Go and find someone else to flirt with; it’s wasted on me!’ She closed the bathroom door in his face, firmly pushing the lock across into place, breathing deeply as she waited for the sound of his retreating footsteps from the other side of the door.

  They were a long time coming, but finally she heard him moving back down the corridor towards the kitchen, and started to breathe easily again, herself once more. What a nightmare these last few days had been—an absolute nightmare. The sooner they left here the better. Perhaps then she could resume a normal life. Well…as normal as it could be since Adam had invaded it.

  She took her time freshening up, renewing her lip-gloss and blusher, brushing the length of her hair down her spine. The deep blue blouse she wore was almost a perfect match for her eyes and her fitted denims emphasised the slenderness of her hips and thighs.

  She didn’t give the appearance of someone having to get through one of the most traumatic experiences in her life to date—being this close to the man she had once loved to distraction. Which was good, because she didn’t want him to realise just what an effect he was having on her. Wouldn’t Adam just love to
know the havoc he was wreaking on her already strained nerves?

  She had no trouble finding her way back to the kitchen—mainly because she only needed to follow the sound of raised male voices to know exactly where she was going; Adam and Mark were arguing yet again. The two men, after her initial break-up with Mark, had never really been friends, but as members of the same family they had been polite to each other, at least.

  Not any more, though; their voices were getting louder than ever as Maggi approached the kitchen.

  ‘You have no idea what you’re talking about, Mark,’ Adam was saying coldly.

  ‘Everyone—except Maggi, it seems!—knows what I’m talking about,’ Mark returned scornfully. ‘You and Celia Mayes!’

  Maggi shrank back against the wall of the hallway, her face paling. What on earth—?

  ‘The rumours have been flying thick and fast about the two of you over the last couple of years,’ Mark continued contemptuously. ‘And lo and behold here you are, staying in Celia Mayes’ home!’

  ‘It’s Geoffrey’s home too,’ Adam pointed out icily. ‘And he would hardly invite a man be believed to be his wife’s lover to move into his home for several days!’

  ‘It’s a well-known fact that Geoffrey Haines is absolutely besotted by his beautiful wife; he would probably give her anything she asked for!’ Mark scorned.

  ‘Including making a friend of her lover?’ Adam derided harshly. ‘You’re talking rubbish, Mark, and you know it.’

  ‘Do I?’ the younger man challenged.

  ‘I really don’t give a damn whether you do or not,’ Adam dismissed. ‘I’m just warning you against repeating those rumours to Magdalena.’

  Magdalena had just heard them…

  CHAPTER SIX

  ‘I STILL think you’re making a mistake,’ Adam muttered grimly. His teasing banter of earlier had gone completely in the face of Maggi’s stubbornness.