Authors: Sara Craven
But at the same, time it was disturbing to realise that Gerard thought of Carla Foxton as more than just another woman to add to his tally.
She said, 'Surely everything isn't lost? What about your seat on the board?'
'That's all right,' he said flatly. 'Not even Allard could take that away from me, although he probably wouldn't have bothered anyway. He knows I can't do much with all the rest of the men against me. They were all sitting there like the Three Wise Monkeys today. It was sickening.' He sent her a sidelong glance. 'The only amusing part was watching your boy-friend Grayson being slowly split in half. He clearly couldn't decide whether to be lost in admiration at Allard's methods, or as jealous as hell. Admiration may have won by a whisker this time, but I don't guarantee it will always happen.'
The door behind them was flung open and Jake walked in, the grey eyes raking Lisle mercilessly.
'I thought you might have taken refuge in here,' he said. 'Or didn't you get my message?'
'The royal command did get to me, yes.' She stood up. 'It didn't occur to you that I might not want to miss an important departmental meeting?'
'On your past record, frankly, no,' he drawled. 'Carl Forster seemed quite happy to release you, anyway.
'He'd hardly be likely to argue with the new boss on his first day,' she snapped.
He gave her an ironic smile. 'I doubt if that aspect even occurred to him,' he said. 'Let's have lunch.'
Her shoulders sagged. 'I'm not very hungry,' she said tonelessly.
'And I don't have a great deal of time,' he said levelly. 'Shall we go?'
There were a number of restaurants in the immediate vicinity which Harlow Bannerman personnel used regularly, and she had assumed they would be going to one of these, but she was wrong. Jake went straight to the car park at the rear of the building, where his car was. waiting. It was standing in the spot usually reserved for Murray, and seeing it gave her a pang.
'Where are we going?' she asked, as they turned into the stream of traffic.
'To my flat!' he said tersely. 'I want some peace and quiet, and a little privacy. It's been a hell of a morning, and it promises to be a devil of an afternoon, with half the company behaving as if I was God, and the other half as if I was Cesare Borgia.' He gave her a sidelong glance. 'And don't tell me which half you're in, because I can already guess.'
Lisle was rigid in her seat. 'I'd prefer to go back to the office.'
'Don't be a fool,' he said wearily. 'I've no time for a lunch-hour seduction, even if I was in the mood. We're going to the flat because it occurs to me that you haven't seen it, and perhaps you should.'
'I don't want to see it,' Lisle said immediately. 'It isn't of the slightest interest to me.'
'Then you're going to be extremely bored,' he said indifferently. 'Anyway, I thought looking round other people's homes was most women's idea of heaven.'
'I'm not most women,' Lisle shrugged. 'And I didn't think you looked on the flat as home.'
Jake shot her an amused glance. 'So you do hear some of the things I say to you. I'm surprised.'
The flat was situated in a discreet block, surrounded by private railed gardens, and the interior seemed to have been designed with the express intention of ensuring that the residents never bumped into each other. It was luxury personified, Lisle thought, looking round her, but impersonal luxury…
The service was as efficient as anyone could have asked. Unseen hands had already laid lunch, not in the dining room, but at a small table by the huge drawing room window overlooking the garden. Cold chicken, Lisle saw, and a variety of delicious-looking salads, and a bottle of wine on ice.
Jake poured her a glass of pale dry sherry, then disappeared, taking his own drink with him, saying merely he would not be long. Slightly piqued and totally unable to relax, she sat gripping the glass and looking round her. It was a beautiful room, she thought, well-proportioned with a high ceiling.
Two massive sofas covered in cream velvet were stationed facing each other on either side of the fireplace, and all the occasional furniture had the patina and delicacy of the antique. There were few pictures or ornaments, as she had expected, but the alcoves which flanked the fireplace contained shelf after shelf of books, providing almost the only home touch, as far as she could see.
She looked at everything slowly and carefully, knowing in her heart that she was looking for traces of Cindy Leighton's presence and despising herself for doing it.
When the phone rang, she started nervously, nearly spilling her untouched sherry. She waited for Jake to answer the phone, telling herself he must be within earshot, but it continued to buzz at her angrily, and eventually she lifted the receiver herself, and gave the number.
'Hello, is that Miss Bannerman? I'm sorry to interrupt your lunch, but could I speak to Mr Allard? There's a tiny problem he should know about.'
The voice was friendly and familiar, and Lisle thought quickly. 'It's Mrs Pearce, isn't it? I—I'll try and find him.'
She went into the hall and looked round her doubtfully, wondering where he was. All the doors were closed except one, and she approached this hesitantly and peeped round it, speaking his name.
It was the bedroom, as she had guessed it might be, furnished in shades of beige and bitter chocolate, and starkly masculine. It was empty, but there were signs of his presence—the jacket he had been wearing tossed across the immaculate bedcover, and a discarded shirt on the floor. There was another door on the far side of the room, and beyond it Lisle could hear the sound of running water. She trod reluctantly across the thick beige carpet, and tapped on the door.
'Jake—telephone! It's your secretary.'
The noise of the water stopped abruptly, and seconds later he appeared, a towel draped hastily round his hips. He went straight to the extension telephone which stood on a low table beside the wide bed.
'Brenda? What the hell's the matter?'
He listened frowning, and Lisle told herself she should go back to the drawing room. She had given the message, and there was no reason for her to linger.
Yet linger she did, watching him obsessively, her eyes roaming over the broad shoulders, the deeply muscled chest, lean hips and long muscular legs. She was like a child outside a toyshop window, totally engrossed, utterly desirous of all she saw.
She swallowed deeply, trying to control the rush of her breathing, the uneven hurry of her pulsebeats, and saw too late that he was looking at her, that he had registered her absorption and interpreted it.
The silvery eyes narrowed, and he held out an imperative hand, silently ordering her to come to him.
As if mesmerised, Lisle obeyed. His arm went round her, drawing her against him, turning her into his body so that her mouth rested against the cool dampness of his skin. She was trembling as she began to kiss him softly at first then, as shyness dissolved in excited wonder, with passion, her lips tracing the strong hard lines of his shoulders in little feverish caresses, her hand curved like a benison over the deep urgent beat of his heart.
His fingers lifted the heavy fall of copper hair and cupped the nape of her neck, teasing her earlobe and the line of her throat with soft sensuousness.
As if in a dream, she heard him give swift, clipped instructions, heard the receiver go down on its rest, and tensed as his other, hand rested on her shoulder gently, then slid down to her hip, pulling the lower part of her body into intimate contact with his. His head bent and his hard mouth parted the softness of hers in a deep, searchingly passionate act of possession.
The last remnants of sanity fled as she responded blindly and with her whole heart, clinging to him with unthinking ardour.
She felt the edge of the bed against her legs and it seemed natural and right that she should subside on to it, borne down into its softness by the weight of his body against hers.
Jake lay beside her, his hands framing her face gently, but his eyes looking into hers with frankly sensual urgency. He kissed her again, his mouth warm and erotically persuasive as it moved on hers, and a sigh of pleasure shuddered through her.
Her hands explored the length of his back, lingering on his spine, revelling in the silky glide of his skin under her fingertips, and she heard him groan softly against her lips.
He was undressing her without haste, his mouth retracing the path of his fingers as he unfastened her blouse, slipping the cream silk away from her body. The tiny clip which fastened her bra was deftly snapped open, and his lips brushed the fragile lace cups away from her breasts before taking more intimate possession. Lisle gasped helplessly at the warm, teasing provocation of his tongue against her flesh, caught in the golden web of pleasure and excitement that he was weaving so effortlessly around her.
She felt him unhook the waistband of her skirt, was aware of the slide of the zip, and she didn't care. All that mattered was that this unhurried exploration of her body with his hands and mouth should never cease.
The bed beneath her felt endlessly soft, like a cloud, and she felt weightless too, drifting, the pressure of his body against hers a beloved burden in her arms.
Languid with delight, she turned her head so that her cheek brushed the quilted luxury of the bedcover, and the scent of some alien fragrance wafted up at her. Not Jake's. She knew the scent, the taste of his skin now, as well as she knew her own. Not hers, either.
Her body stiffened in rejection as realisation dawned, and she moaned hoarsely, 'No!', trying to twist away from him across the width of the bed which he had shared with Cindy Leighton.
Jake moved sharply, his arms, his body a prison suddenly, holding her so that she couldn't escape. 'What is it?'
'Let go of me,' she said huskily, sick with self-disgust because she had so simply, so readily forgotten.
'Why the hell should I?' he grated. His long fingers gripped her chin, forcing her to face him again. 'You started this, you little tease, and you're damned well going to finish it!'
His mouth was hard now, and bruising, imposing an aggressive mastery which she did not have the strength to resist. His weight crushed her now, and she froze, helplessly anticipating the brutal culmination, closing her eyes to shut out the dark intentness of his face poised above her.
A tear squeezed from under her eyelid and trickled scaldingly down her cheek. Another followed it. Another.
She heard him swear softly, obscenely, and then she was free.
She turned on her side, her body hunched into a curve of misery, and her hands went up to cover her wet face. Silent sobs tore through her. She felt as if she was breaking into small pieces. Cindy Leighton's perfume seemed to fill her head, choking her, and she dragged herself into a sitting position, pressing one clenched fist against her mouth to dam back the small sounds of despair.
Jake said harshly, 'Cover yourself, for Pete's sake.'
She heard him move away, back into the bathroom, and then she ventured to open her eyes, snatching up the scattered garments he had removed with such skill and tenderness such a short time before and huddling into them, her shaking fingers hardly able to cope with the intricacies of buttons and hooks.
She scrambled off the bed and fled back to the drawing room, grabbing her jacket, looking round wildly for her bag, intent on flight.
Jake met her in the doorway, his arm implacably blocking her passage.
He said coldly, 'Where do you think you're going?'
'Anywhere. Away from you,' she said, her voice rising.
'It's a little late for that.' He was fastening a clean shirt, slipping elegant gold links into the cuffs. 'We have some talking to do.'
'I have nothing to say to you!'
'Then you can keep quiet and listen.' He gripped her arm, propelling her inexorably back into the room, thrusting her down on to one of the sofas. 'And calm down,' he added impatiently. 'The only appetite I have left is for food.'
Lisle bent her head. She mumbled, 'I'm sorry.'
'Are you?' His voice was sardonic. 'You know all the tricks, beauty, but you nearly miscalculated with that last one. For all you knew, tears might have turned me on, and then you'd really have had something to be sorry about, you cold-blooded little tease!'
The raw anger underlying his tone made her shudder. Roused her defensive hackles too.
'You behave as if I'd intended this to happen, as if I'd planned it!' Colour began to creep into her pale face as she glared at him. 'It wasn't my idea to come here. And is it your normal practice to take showers in the middle of the day? And why didn't you answer the phone yourself when you've got an extension?'
'When I have a day as heavy as this one,' he told her, 'a shower—a change of clothes is a refreshment.' The grey eyes slid over her insolently. 'And an hour in bed with a willing lady is a bonus. I keep the bell on the extension turned off usually, because I don't wish to be disturbed in that part of the flat. Satisfied?' He waited for a moment, but Lisle remained silent. 'Now, have some lunch unless eating is something else you don't want to do with me.'
'I said I wasn't hungry,' she snapped.
'You did, didn't you.' His mouth slanted mockingly. 'Perhaps I should have taken your word for it, then I might have been spared this present ache in my guts.'
He went to the table, filled a plate with food, poured wine into a glass. Then he came back and sat on the sofa opposite.
The silence seemed to last for ever. Eventually Jake said, 'When you came into my arms just now, it occurred to me that it might be a tacit way of telling me you'd reconsidered my offer of marriage. Was I right?'
Lisle looked down at the thick pile of the carpet, and wished she was lying on it, dead. A dozen replies rioted in her head from flat denial to helpless submission, but she seemed incapable of uttering any of them. She knew what she ought to say, but she knew what she wanted to say.
Jake said inexorably, 'I'm waiting.'
She moistened her dry lips with the tip of her tongue, giving him a swift imploring glance. 'I—don't know. I need more time.'