Lovers in the Afternoon Read online

  She looked up at him in surprise; she had never heard him talk about his father so disparagingly before. ‘He used to look straight through me,’ she said slowly.

  ‘Well he didn’t that evening!

  ‘That gown cost a fortune, and it was ruined,’ she reminded him.

  ‘It was worth it just to see the expression on Dad’s face. Every time I thought about the incident afterwards I burst out laughing,’ he was grinning even now.

  ‘You never told me that,’ she accused. ‘I thought I had embarrassed you once again.’

  He sobered at the admission. ‘You’ve never embarrassed me, Leonie,’ he shook his head. ‘You never could.’

  She was more puzzled than ever now, some of that emotion showing on her face as Adam let her go this time when she moved out of his arms. ‘I have to go in; Harvey hasn’t had any supper yet,’ she told him in a preoccupied voice.

  ‘You’ll have to introduce me to him some time,’ Adam straightened. ‘I’ve always liked cats.’

  ‘I didn’t know that,’ she frowned.

  ‘Maybe you don’t know as much about me as you thought you did.’

  She was beginning to realise that, she thought as she slowly went up the stairs to her second-floor flat. She would never have dreamt Adam could behave as light-heartedly as he had this evening, that he could laugh at himself as well as his father, that he could find her mishaps so amusing. She had been married to him for over a year, and he was still an enigma to her.

  Harvey was sitting on the window-ledge outside when she entered her flat, coming in through the small open window as soon as he saw her, miaowing plaintively.

  ‘All right, all right,’ she cut off his reprimand mid-stream. ‘You aren’t the only one that can spend a night out on the tiles, you know,’ she told him as she opened a tin of food for his supper, groaning as she realised what she had said. ‘Oh, Harvey, what am I going to do?’ She bent down to pick up the bundle of ginger and white fur, burying her face in his side. ‘Tonight was so perfect,’ she told him achingly.

  The cat gave a loud screetch of indignation before jumping to the ground.

  ‘All right,’ she snapped at his lack of sympathy. ‘I can see you’re more interested in your stomach than in my problems.’ She put his plate down on the floor, the cat immediately pouncing on it. ‘I know you catch mice outside so you can stop acting as if you’re starving to death,’ she told him crossly, suddenly rolling her eyes heavenwards. ‘God, I’m having a serious conversation with the cat now!’ She sat down dejectedly in one of the armchairs, oblivious to the passing of time as, his appetite appeased, Harvey jumped up into her lap and instantly fell into a purring sleep, Leonie absently tickling behind his ears as he did so.

  Her first meeting with Adam had been totally unexpected. She knew of him of course, her sister Liz having been his Personal Assistant for the last year, but he wasn’t at all what she had expected of the wealthy industrialist.

  Liz and Nick had been away on holiday for two weeks, still had a week to go, and Leonie was house-sitting for them when Adam paid his surprise visit. The sisters had been close in those days, Liz the senior by eight years, having been like a second mother to Leonie since their parents death three years earlier.

  Leonie had opened the door in all innocence that evening, had fallen in love the moment she looked up into that harshly beautiful face, the grey eyes warm, strangely luminous with the black circle around the iris. She hadn’t heard a word he said as he spoke to her, having to ask him to repeat himself. He had wondered if Liz were at home even though it were her holiday, had needed to talk to her. Leonie had invited him in as she explained that Liz and Nick had gone away on what they called a ‘second honeymoon.’

  She had been shy with him, had wished she were wearing something a little more glamorous than an old dress that did little to improve her already plump proportions, her long hair in need of brushing. And then she had cursed herself for the fool that she was, from what little Liz had told her about this man’s love-life he was hardly likely to be attracted to a cuddly redhead who barely reached his shoulders no matter what she was wearing!

  But Adam had seemed reluctant to leave that evening, even though he knew Liz wasn’t there, the two of them talking for hours, until Leonie suddenly realised it was after twelve and she had to go to work in the morning. She had been speechless when Adam asked her out to dinner the next evening.

  There had been a week of dinners together, of talking into the early hours of the morning, and each time Leonie saw him she fell a little more in love. Although Adam gave away little of his own feelings, treating her more like an amusing child as he guided her through one mishap after another.

  The night before Liz and Nick were due to return home was a magical one, Adam taking her to the ballet, something she loved but could only rarely afford to attend, taking her back to the house he shared with his father. It had been after eleven when they arrived, but even so the lights were on all over the house, the butler greeting them at the door, a maid bringing them a tray of coffee and sandwiches. Leonie had been so nervous she promptly knocked over the plate of sandwiches.

  But even that had seemed unimportant as Adam dismissed the incident after helping her put them back on the plate, his eyes almost black as he followed her down on to the rug in front of the fire, his mouth fiercely claiming hers. It was the first time he had done more than give her a polite brush of his lips on hers at the end of an evening, and after her initial surprise at how fierce he was with her she opened her arms and her heart to him.

  He could have taken her right then and there on the rug and she wouldn’t have cared. But he didn’t, his breathing ragged as he pulled away from her.

  ‘Marry me, Leonie,’ he had groaned. ‘Marry me!’

  ‘Yes,’ she gasped her acceptance, on fire for him.

  ‘Soon,’ he urged.

  ‘As soon as you want me,’ she promised eagerly.

  When her sister and Nick returned the next day she told them she and Adam were getting married the following Saturday. Liz had been stunned, and Leonie had thought it was because Liz was surprised at her young sister managing to capture such a handsome and sophisticated man. That was what she had thought it was, she should have probed deeper!

  Adam had taken over her life from the moment he put the engagement ring on her finger that evening, a huge emerald that he said matched the colour of her eyes. She had been happy with his decision that she give up her job, wanting to be with him whenever he could get home from the empire that consumed such a lot of his time, knowing her career would make that difficult. She had even agreed to live in the apartment Adam had always occupied at the top of his father’s elegant London home. She had agreed to anything Adam asked of her.

  Within two weeks of meeting him she found herself married to a man she barely knew and who she was soon convinced didn’t know her. Her wedding night was a fiasco, with her acting the frightened virgin that she was despite Adam’s understanding gentleness with her. The pain had been incredible, too much to bear, until finally they had to stop. Leonie had huddled miserably on her side of the bed while Adam slept. The next night had proved as disastrous, and the night after that, until the fourth night Adam didn’t even attempt to touch her. She came home from their honeymoon still a virgin, too embarrassed to discuss her problems with anyone. Adam had had no such, qualms, making an appointment for her to see a gynaecologist and ordering her to attend when she protested. The doctor had taken away all the embarrassment of her problem, had explained that it was something that occasionally happened, and within a short time the problem had been alleviated.

  But the damage had been done, and she resisted all Adam’s efforts to get her to join in his passion, until finally he lost all patience with her one night, pinning her to the bed as he held her arms at her sides, ignoring her cries for him to stop as he brought her to the peak of ecstasy. After that night he always made sure she had pleasure too, but he always had to fight h
er first, to break down the barriers of resistance that she had built up against him. In the end he became tired of the fight, hardly ever touching her even though they shared a bed every night.

  She tried to make up for her inadequacies in bed by being the perfect wife in other ways, but Charles Faulkner made no secret of his contempt for the young girl his son had made his wife, and she didn’t even have Liz to turn to for support, feeling too embarrassed to discuss the failure of her marriage even with her sister.

  Her tendency to clumsiness became more pronounced as the months dragged on, so much so that she became nervous of leaving the apartment and going downstairs for fear of earning the derision of Adam’s father. It was enough of an ordeal that she had to sit down to dinner with the elderly man every night, usually managing to knock something over. She and Adam had intended eating their meals in their own apartment, but after a week of burnt offerings Adam had decided his digestion couldn’t take any more and suggested they go downstairs and join his father for their evening meal. She had been hurt, especially as she was usually such a good cook, but for the sake of peace—and Adam’s digestion—she had agreed. It was just another brick falling out of the already crumbling foundations of her marriage.

  Adam began to stay late at the office, working he said. They also stopped going out, a way of stopping her embarrassing him in front of his friends, she felt sure. But it just left her more and more to her thoughts of what had gone wrong between them. It was easier to try and find something that had gone right. The answer was nothing!

  But she decided she wouldn’t be a nagging wife, would make the most of the life they had together. Much to the disgust of her father-in-law she had offered to organise the decorating and refurbishing of the house; his reply to that was to call in the most well-known interior designing company in London. Next she tried to take an interest in Adam’s work; that was met with blank dismissal. After only a year of marriage she was bored, and she was sure—when she wasn’t attempting to break one of the family heirlooms or tipping wine over someone—boring! The marriage had been a mistake, and she knew that even if Adam didn’t. She had finally had enough after a solid month of not seeing Adam any other time than when he fell into bed beside her, deciding to go to his office and confront him with the fact that she couldn’t go on like this any longer.

  She had wondered why Adam’s secretary tried to stop her going in to his office, especially after telling her he only had Liz in with him. What she had seen and heard had told her exactly why Adam wasn’t even trying to make a success of their marriage, and why her sister had been so stunned that he was marrying her at all!

  Adam had tried to reason with her when he followed her home, but she had required only one answer to one question; had he been sleeping with Liz just before they met. His answer made her leave him immediately, telling him that he should never have married her, that if he had only wanted a replacement for her sister then an affair would have been a much better idea—and much less complicated to them all. For that was what she was sure she had learnt when she came upon them unwittingly, Liz in Adam’s arms, that their decision to end their affair and for Liz to attempt a reconciliation with Nick, had been a failure. And now they were both trapped in marriages they didn’t want. But Liz was expecting Nick’s child, couldn’t leave him now, and Adam was stuck with her young and klutzy sister.

  He hadn’t been stuck with her for long, although Liz was still married to Nick, their daughter Emma three months old now. And Adam was proposing that they, Leonie and he, had the affair she had once told him they would be better having!

  CHAPTER THREE

  ‘BUT, David,’ she protested the next morning. ‘I told you how badly everything went.’

  He shrugged off her argument. ‘Faulkner couldn’t apologise enough about your ordeal in the lift. I didn’t like to tell him you made a habit of it!’

  She had arrived at work this morning all set to tell David how disastrously her appointment with the new President of Thompson Electronics had gone, sure that when he heard all the details that he would be only too glad to put someone else on that job, only to find Adam had already been on the telephone to David this morning, taking all the blame on his own shoulders!

  Her pleas with David had been to no avail; he was adamant she work for Adam. And she was just as adamant that she wouldn’t, had sworn when she left Adam that she wouldn’t take anything from him ever again, and that included this boost to her fledgeling career. ‘David, I don’t want to work with him,’ she told him flatly.

  His eyes narrowed. ‘Why not?’

  She had no intention of telling David that Adam was her estranged husband. Much as she liked the other man, she knew how ambitious he was, and having the wife of Adam Faulkner working for him could give his company the boost into élite London society that he had been looking for.

  ‘I—I don’t like him,’ she frowned as she knew that was no longer true either. When she had left Adam eight months ago she had never wanted to see him again, had hated him for his behaviour with her married sister. But last night, the pleasure they had finally shared, giving and taking from each other rather than Adam having to force her response, had changed all that. She couldn’t hate a man who had given her that sexual freedom.

  Some of the remembered sensuality must have shown in her face. ‘Did he make a pass at you?’ David frowned.

  A pass! Adam had never made a pass at a woman in his life! He was much too controlled for that. ‘No, he didn’t do that,’ she answered tautly.

  David looked relieved to hear it. ‘Then where’s your problem?’

  ‘I’ve just told you, I don’t want to work for him!’

  ‘But he sounded very charming on the telephone.’

  She grimaced, well aware of how charming Adam could be when he wanted something. He had once wanted her so badly in his bed that he had married her; how ironic that the one thing he had wanted from her had been so disastrous. ‘Anyone can be charming for the few minutes of a telephone call,’ she dismissed.

  ‘Then he wasn’t charming to you yesterday when you did eventually meet?’ David probed.

  ‘Yes, he was,’ she sighed. ‘Very charming.’ Colour heightened her cheeks as she remembered just how charming he had been later that evening.

  ‘Then why don’t you want to work for him?’ David repeated again in exasperation. ‘I can tell you, he was very impressed with you.’

  ‘I made such a fool of myself,’ she said desperately. ‘I feel embarrassed.’

  David shrugged. ‘You always make a fool of yourself sooner or later.’

  ‘Thanks!’

  He grimaced. ‘But you do,’ he reasoned. ‘I’ve never known you to get through a day yet without something going wrong; and it’s usually your own fault!’

  ‘That’s what I like, a little sympathy and understanding,’ she glared at him.

  He smiled at her anger. ‘Trouble just seems to follow you around. Look, I’ll tell you what I’ll do, I’ll call Faulkner’s secretary and tell her I’ll be joining the two of you for lunch. If I can see any reason, any reason at all, why you shouldn’t work for him I’ll put someone else on to it. All right?’

  It was the best she was going to get, she could see that. And surely she could make Adam drop the tolerant charm for the few minutes it would take David to realise he would be better sending Gary or Sheila on this job, if only for the sake of his company’s reputation.

  ‘I’ll drive over with you,’ she nodded agreement, feeling a little happier.

  David frowned. ‘What’s happened to the VW, has it broken down again?’

  ‘It’s still at Thompson Electronics,’ she told him awkwardly. ‘Mr Faulkner insisted on driving me home after my ordeal in the lift,’ she invented.

  David smiled. ‘He doesn’t know you very well if he thinks a little thing like that will shake you up!’

  She gave him an exasperated look. ‘Actually, I did some work while I was waiting.’

 
; ‘See,’ he laughed.

  She went back to her own desk, her nerves becoming more and more frayed as twelve o’clock neared. Then just as she was tidying her desk in preparation for joining David a deliveryman arrived from a nearby florists. The single long-stemmed red rose took her by surprise, the bold black script on the accompanying card telling her that Adam had in no way changed his mind about where their relationship was going. ‘For an interesting experience—one of many’, the card read. She crumpled the cryptic message in the palm of her hand, would have done the same with the rose if David hadn’t arrived at her office at that moment.

  ‘A new admirer?’ He raised blond brows as she thrust the rose into a sadly inadequate glass and pushed it to the far corner of her desk.

  She shook her head. ‘Another apology from Mr Faulkner.’ There was no point in lying about the sender; knowing Adam he would ask if it had arrived!

  ‘Nice gesture.’ David helped her on with the fitted jacket to her brown suit, the pale green blouse she wore beneath alleviating its sombre colouring.

  ‘A pity he didn’t feel generous enough to send the other eleven,’ she said with uncharacteristic waspishness.

  David’s brows rose. ‘I’m sure he—Watch out!’ he had time to call out as the sleeve of her jacket caught the perfection of the single red bud, overbalancing the too-short glass, smashing the latter on the floor, the rose crushed among the heavy glass.

  Leonie looked down at the ruined perfection with tears in her eyes, instantly regretting what she had done. For the first time in her life she had committed a deliberately destructive act, had knocked against the flower on purpose, not wanting that reminder of Adam facing her when she got back.

  ‘Careful!’ David warned as she bent to pick up the crushed flower, sighing his impatience with her as a large jagged sliver of glass stuck straight into the palm of her hand.

  Leonie gasped, automatically pulling out the piece of glass, the blood that instantly flowed from the wound the same colour as the rose she still held. She knelt and watched as it continued to bleed.