Love's Duel Read online

  ‘But I wouldn’t run off with another man,’ she gasped.

  ‘You wouldn’t be given the chance,’ he rasped. ‘You won’t be given the chance, because I’m not marrying you. I want to bed you, not wed you.’

  ‘You’re crude!’

  ‘I can be a lot cruder. God, Leonie, I can’t take much more of this. I want you so much it’s driving me mad.’ There was a white ring of tension about his mouth, his eyes dark.

  ‘Why don’t you visit Miss Johnson in that case, I’m sure she would be glad to ease your frustration,’ she said bitchily.

  ‘It isn’t Sonja I want. I haven’t seen or wanted her since I drove her back to London on that Monday morning.’

  ‘I’m sure that doesn’t please her. She assured me I wouldn’t get you, after she warned me off you, of course.’

  His eyes narrowed. ‘When did she do that?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ she dismissed, feeling guilty about disclosing the other woman’s jealousy.

  ‘It matters,’ Giles said grimly, grasping her wrist, looming over her as she sat on the sofa. ‘When did Sonja talk to you like that?’

  Leonie tipped her head back to look at him, unknowingly baring the vunerability of her slender neck. As she saw his mouth so close to her own her breath caught in her throat. ‘Giles…’ she groaned achingly.

  He at once compelled her back against the cushions, his lean body pressing down into her. His lips devoured her, his mouth deepening the kiss, his hands caressing the curve of her spine. The zip of her dress slowly slid down her back, Giles touching the bareness of her skin, slipping the dress off one shoulder so that his lips might caress her breast, her nipples already swollen with desire.

  ‘You’re beautiful,’ he breathed against her silken flesh. ‘So damned beautiful you make me shake with wanting you.’

  And he was shaking, the whole of his body was convulsing with desire. She arched against him as he continued to caress her, his lips now parting hers in an intimate kiss.

  ‘Leonie!’ He gasped as she returned his heated caresses. ‘Not here,’ he groaned. ‘Let’s go upstairs.’

  Her face blazed with colour as she realised that once again she had fallen victim to her own sensuality, that once again she had allowed Giles Noble to touch her more intimately than any other man.

  She wrenched out of his arms, standing up to glare down at him, her hands fumbling with the catch of her zip. Passion still burnt in Giles’ darkened grey eyes, his hair caressed into disorder by her questing fingers. ‘Not anywhere,’ she told him harshly. ‘You aren’t making love to me anywhere, Giles.’

  His eyes snapped with anger. ‘Aren’t I?’ he said fiercely, standing up to come menacingly towards her. ‘I think I am. I’m thirty-nine, Leonie, not a boy, and I know what I want. I want you, and by God I’m going to take you.’

  Leonie backed away, her eyes wide with fear. She had pushed him too far. As he said, he wasn’t a boy, he was very much a man, the veneer of tight control completely gone, leaving only the raging desire that he didn’t even try to hide.

  ‘Take me?’ she attempted to mock him out of his determination. ‘You make us sound like a couple of animals,’ she scorned.

  ‘We are. The fact that we happen to be the most intelligent of the species doesn’t mean our sexual reactions are any different from other animals’.’

  ‘Don’t you believe in love?’ she tried to divert him even further.

  ‘Yes, I believe in it,’ he surprised her by saying. ‘But not even the most sentimental of romantics could call what we have love. Sexual attraction explodes between us every time we meet, and I know you’re as aware of it as I am, so don’t attempt to deny it,’ he derided.

  ‘I wasn’t going to,’ she bit her lip

  ‘Then at least you don’t lie to yourself.’

  ‘I don’t lie to anyone!’

  ‘You lie to me, almost every time you open your mouth. Thank God it isn’t what you say that interests me.’ He began to advance on her again.

  Leonie took a hasty step back, crashing into the cabinet containing the china. She heard several pieces fall over. ‘Oh, lord!’ she groaned, closing her eyes, dreading what she would see when she dared to turn around. Several pieces had fallen on to their side, and one piece was lying in two pieces. She turned to look pleadingly at Giles. ‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to. I—’

  ‘It wasn’t your fault,’ he dismissed stiltedly, moving her out of the way to check the contents, the deep flush of passion fading from his face.

  ‘Let me—’

  ‘Go to bed, Leonie,’ he ordered harshly.

  ‘But—’

  ‘Now. While I still have the control to let you. Oh, and Leonie,’ he stopped her at the door, ‘don’t make any arrangements to be out tomorrow evening. I’m giving a small dinner party for my aunt and I’m sure she will want you to be there.’

  ‘And I’m sure you would rather I wasn’t.’

  ‘On the contrary,’ he drawled, ‘I can’t imagine anything more—pleasant than your company there.’

  Leonie made good her escape while she could, sorry that she had been able to do so at the cost of one of those china figurines. They were beautiful, and she had no doubt the one she had broken had been very expensive.

  Emily noticed the missing figurine immediately after breakfast, Giles having left long ago for his offices. ‘Oh, what a shame!’ she looked at the empty space in the cabinet. ‘The shepherdess was one of Giles’ favourites. Ah, Davenport,’ she turned to the manservant as he brought them in a tray of coffee, ‘what’s happened to the shepherdess?’

  ‘Mr Noble accidentally dropped it, Mrs Dryer,’ he replied in his stiff, formal voice. ‘It was broken in two, madam.’

  Emily frowned. ‘That doesn’t sound like Giles.’

  ‘No, madam.’

  Was it Leonie’s imagination or did Davenport give her a reproving look on his way out of the room? Surely he didn’t know it was her…? ‘Giles tells me he’s giving a dinner party in your honour this evening,’ she rushed into speech.

  Emily smiled her pleasure. ‘Isn’t it lovely of him, so thoughtful.’

  ‘Who will be coming?’ Leonie was just glad to be off the subject of the figurine.

  ‘Giles has invited about a dozen people, some of them my friends from when I lived in London, some of them his own friends.’

  ‘Miss Johnson?’ Leonie asked dryly.

  Emily grimaced. ‘Oh no, dear. At least, he didn’t mention her. You’ve worried me now. Now let’s see, he said the Andersons, Joe and Maggie Forsythe, Jim Fenton, the Lindsays, Ann and—’

  ‘Lindsay?’ she echoed shrilly. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said more calmly at Emily’s concerned look, ‘but I used to know someone called Lindsay. I—I just wondered if it was the same person.’ Surely Giles couldn’t be that cruel!

  ‘Oh, I doubt it, Leonora. Unless of course it was their daughter you knew, she’s more your age. Jeremy and Glenda are in their forties.’

  He had done it to her! Jeremy and his wife would be present at this dinner party tonight. And Giles was going to enjoy watching her squirm!

  CHAPTER SIX

  ‘WHY?’ Leonie demanded of him tearfully that evening.

  Giles loosened his tie before removing it altogether, unbuttoning the top button of his shirt. His jacket had been discarded as soon as he entered the room, the waistcoat to the pin-striped suit fitting smoothly over his taut stomach.

  ‘Why what?’ he asked absently, moving to pour himself a huge tumblerful of whisky, which he drank down in one swallow. ‘God, what a lousy day!’

  Leonie had been waiting in the lounge for him when he got home, ready to do battle. Emily was upstairs in her room resting before preparing for the evening ahead. Giles looked tired, lines of weariness beside his nose and mouth.

  ‘What happened?’ she taunted. ‘Did an innocent man get off?’

  ‘No, he damn well didn’t,’ Giles snapped, his eyes narrowed with anger
. ‘And he should have done.’

  ‘Then appeal,’ she shrugged.

  ‘He isn’t my client,’ he bit out tautly.

  Leonie’s eyes widened. ‘You mean you think the other man should have won?’

  His glass landed on the table with a clatter. ‘It isn’t a question of winning or losing,’ he told her grimly. ‘It’s a matter of justice being carried out. In this case it was wrong.’

  ‘I’m surprised you can admit it,’ she scorned.

  ‘I can always admit when I’ve been wrong.’

  ‘Meaning that in my case you weren’t,’ she said bitterly.

  He shook his head. ‘I don’t believe so, no.’

  ‘Is that why you’re putting me through the humiliating experience of meeting Jeremy again?’ she demanded to know.

  ‘So that’s what all this is about.’ He sighed, and poured himself another glass of whisky. ‘Do you want one?’ he indicated the array of drinks.

  ‘I want to know why you’re doing this to me,’ she said firmly.

  ‘Curiosity.’

  ‘Curiosity!’ Leonie repeated shrilly. ‘You’re playing around with my life out of curiosity? My God, you’re a bastard!’

  Giles shrugged. ‘I want to see if all feeling between the two of you is dead.’

  Her eyes flashed deeply blue. ‘You didn’t need to go through this charade for that, my feelings are very much alive.’ She hated Jeremy as much now as she had four years ago.

  His expression darkened. ‘They are?’ he said harshly.

  ‘Yes,’ she snapped.

  ‘I see,’ he said tightly.

  ‘I hate you for doing this to me, Giles,’ her voice shook. ‘You must know how embarrassing it will be for me.’

  ‘I’m beginning to,’ he rasped, and swallowed some of the whisky, his expression grim.

  ‘And how do you think your friend Jeremy is going to feel when confronted with the woman he once prosecuted?’

  ‘Let’s be honest, Leonie,’ Giles drawled insultingly. ‘He did a lot more than prosecute you.’

  Colour flooded her cheeks and then she went white. ‘If you believe that, and Jeremy is supposedly a friend of yours, why are you doing this to him too? And his wife, she’s going to be there. Or is that the idea, are you trying to get Glenda Lindsay for yourself?’ she scorned.

  ‘Glenda?’ Giles snapped suspiciously. ‘Why the hell should I want her?’

  ‘Because you—’ she broke off, realising she had almost implicated Wanda, and Giles wasn’t even aware that she knew her.

  ‘Because…?’ he prompted.

  ‘You said last night that you’re a man, and I know you’re a virile one, and Glenda Lindsay is very beautiful, I remember that.’

  ‘So it automatically follows that I want her in my bed?’ he rasped.

  ‘Well, doesn’t it?’

  ‘No, it damn well doesn’t! They’re friends of mine, both of them, and that’s all.’

  ‘Then you should try choosing better ones, ones that don’t lie to you.’

  ‘Why, you—!’ He grasped her wrist, twisting her arm behind her back. ‘You little bitch! Just because you got caught out it doesn’t mean you have to bitch at everyone concerned.’

  ‘I’ll bitch at you any time I damn well please,’ she spat the words at him. ‘I hate you!’

  ‘Say that once more and I’ll—’

  ‘Hit me?’ she taunted.

  ‘No,’ he ground out, ‘I’ll do this!’ His mouth came down savagely on hers, splitting her inner lip against her teeth. As he raised his head his eyes gleaming triumphantly down at her. ‘Had enough?’ he taunted.

  ‘I hate you, I hate you!’ she repeated defiantly, her mouth sore and still bleeding.

  ‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you,’ he said fiercely, his mouth once more on hers, uncaring of her cry of pain.

  The kiss was a punishment, and Leonie didn’t enjoy a second of it; her arm twisted painfully, the ragged edge of her torn lip grated against her teeth.

  ‘Oh! I—er—I’ll come back later. I—er—Excuse me.’

  They both looked up to see the door closing behind an embarrassed Emily. Giles pushed Leonie disgustedly away from him.

  ‘Oh, hell!’ he swore angrily, running an agitated hand through the thickness of his hair. ‘I wish she hadn’t seen that.’

  ‘Frightened she might see more in it than your anger and my hate?’ Leonie scorned, touching the ragged flesh of her mouth with tentative fingers.

  ‘Oh, get out of here,’ he said contemptuously.

  ‘I want to—right out,’ she told him vehemently. ‘I’m not staying here for your dinner party. You can just get by without me. I’m sure that won’t be too difficult.’

  ‘It won’t be difficult at all, because you aren’t going anywhere.’

  ‘Who says I’m not?’ she challenged.

  ‘I do,’ he replied calmly.

  She gave a scornful laugh. ‘And why should what you say make any difference to me?’

  His eyes narrowed. ‘You really want me to tell you?’

  ‘I’m going out!’ She swung away from him.

  ‘You’ll stay here!’

  ‘Make me!’

  Giles gave a weary sigh. ‘You don’t really want that. Haven’t I hurt you enough for one night?’

  ‘The first minute I saw you you started hurting me, and you haven’t stopped since. Oh, all right, Giles, I’ll stay to your dinner party, I’ll play your little game for you, but when it’s over I’ll only hate you more.’

  ‘I think I can stand that. The way you hate I can take as much as you want to give.’ His gaze ran over her insultingly, lingering on her denim-clad thighs and the thrust of her breasts beneath the vest top she wore. ‘You look about sixteen in that outfit,’ he snapped.

  ‘Sorry, sir. I’ll change immediately, sir. Black bra and suspender belt to your liking, sir?’ she sneered.

  He smiled, a genuinely humorous smile, instantly looking younger, the tension leaving his body. ‘It’s a tantalising thought. Perhaps you could brighten up a winter evening for me that way some time.’

  ‘I won’t be here then!’

  ‘You could be. And I think black could be your colour. Do you have a black dress with you?’

  She flushed her resentment. As it happened, she did have a black dress, a slinky affair that she had never quite had the nerve to wear. ‘I’ll wear what I please!’ she told him angrily.

  ‘Wear what I please, Leonie. I want you to look beautiful. Not that you don’t usually,’ he added ruefully. ‘Too beautiful on occasion. Even in that outfit you look lovely. So wear the black dress, hmm?’

  Her chin was held high. ‘I might,’ she said grudgingly.

  ‘For me.’

  ‘That’s a definite way of making me wear something else!’ and with an audacious wrinkling of her nose she left the room.

  She put on the black dress as she had known she would, looking sophisticated and very self-assured. If only she felt that way too! Tonight she was to see Jeremy again for the first time in four years. How would she feel about him after all this time? In her mind she hated him, but how would she feel about actually seeing the man himself.

  Emily called at her room for her shortly before seven, a slightly embarrassed Emily. ‘I’m so sorry, dear,’ she rushed into breathless speech, ‘I had no idea—Well, I—I didn’t realise—’

  ‘It’s all right,’ Leonie assured her. ‘It was only a kiss,’ she casually dismissed what had been a savage onslaught, her mouth still slightly swollen from the encounter.

  ‘It looked a little more than that, dear. Are you and Giles—’

  ‘We’re just friends, Emily.’ Leonie moved jerkily to the door. ‘Really, that’s all.’

  ‘But—no, I mustn’t interfere,’ Emily reprimanded herself. ‘Giles wouldn’t thank me for it.’

  There were several people already in the sitting-room when they entered, but a hurried look round revealed that Jeremy and his wife h
adn’t yet arrived. Giles was talking to a pretty brunette on the other side of the room, although he looked up as Leonie glanced over at him, almost as if he had felt her presence.

  Leonie’s heart seemed to stop beating, her breath catching in her throat. She loved him! She loved Giles Noble. In that moment it all became clear, her initial attraction to him four years ago buried beneath the humiliation she had suffered at his hands.

  She hadn’t loved him then, couldn’t have done, although he had made enough of an impression not to be forgotten. That love had happened since meeting him again, the mindless attraction to him was not just due to sexual excitement after all.

  She turned away from him, blotting out the dangerous magnetism of him. No wonder she hadn’t been able to run away from him, despite the terrible provocation from him. She couldn’t leave him because she loved him, and that love was filling her with such warmth she just wanted to walk across the room and stand next to him, just so that she could be close to him.

  ‘You look sensational.’

  Leonie spun round, her face pale as she confronted Giles. She knew every feature of his strong face, knew every hard curve of his body. And now she knew she loved him. ‘Thank you,’ she said jerkily, breathlessly, completely confused by her own emotions.

  ‘Don’t let me down now,’ he warned softly.

  ‘Let you down?’ she repeated dazedly.

  ‘I saw your reaction to Jeremy,’ he told her harshly. ‘You went completely white.’

  Jeremy! Was he here? ‘I—’ she bit her lip. She couldn’t very well tell Giles she had gone white because of the discovery of her love for him! ‘Where is he?’

  ‘Don’t you know?’ he taunted.

  ‘If I did I would hardly be asking!’ Her nerves were all strung out, the precariousness of loving a man like Giles all too evident to her.

  He gave a sardonic smile. ‘He’s near the window, talking to my aunt.’

  Leonie’s gaze swung over in that direction, coldly taking in the fact that Jeremy had changed little since she last saw him. He was still tall and slim, his handsomeness undiminished, a touch of grey among the blond hair at his temples adding distinction. He was chatting easily to Emily, making the elderly woman laugh at his remarks. Yes, he was still as handsome and assured—and he left Leonie cold!