Beaumont Brides Collection (24 page)

‘So why are you?’ Her voice was thick with her own need. ‘Waiting?’

‘You have to ask that?’ he groaned. ‘We can’t ... not here. What I need right now is upstairs.’ But Fizz wrapped her legs about him, imprisoning him and smiled like a cat.

‘I like it here.’

‘You think I don’t?’ She tightened her grip and he began to sweat. ‘For heaven’s sake, Fizz...’ He suddenly realised that she was playing with him and he laughed. ‘You little witch, behave yourself.’ In answer she reached up and her little pink tongue licked at the hollow of his neck, her teeth nibbling at his chest. Luke decided that he didn’t have to suffer alone, dipping his head to seize a nipple between his teeth, roll it around his tongue so that she drew up her legs in an unconscious gesture of longing, threw back her head and moaned. ‘Now,’ he enquired, ‘do you really want to make love on the carpet?’

‘It’s a very...’ - she gasped as he touched her - ‘...nice carpet. And as an alternative to walking naked through the hall, it has a lot to commend it.’ She reached down to unfasten his trousers, slide down his zip and for a moment he surrendered to the sensual delight of her touch. Then, the pulse beating hard in his temple, thrumming in his ears, he struggled to re-assertive himself. ‘No, Fizz. Please. There’s a door hidden in the panelling, a staircase -’ He cried out as she arched against him, the thrumming was growing louder, knocking, knocking...

‘Luke? Are you in there?’

Melanie’s voice from beyond the door brought him crashing back to earth and for a moment they stared at one another.

‘Melanie!’ Fizz whispered. He saw the sudden flare of realisation in her eyes and knew that he had, for the moment, lost her. As the door handle turned he put his hand over her mouth, afraid she would call out.

‘It’s all right, the door’s locked. She can’t get in,’ he murmured softly, reassuringly, but instead she bucked furiously beneath him and rolled away.

‘Luke?’

‘I’m on the telephone, Mel. Give me a minute.’

‘It’s all right. It’s just that Claudia has arrived and she’s looking for Fizz. Do you know where she is?’

He swore, softly. Then rose to his feet, attempting to straighten his clothes with fingers that shook like those of a boy. ‘Fizz was dancing when I last saw her,’ he called out, gathering his wits as Fizz scrambled about the floor in a panic to find her clothes. ‘I’ll be with you in five minutes.’

After a moment he turned, but any thought that they might ultimately retire to the privacy of his bedroom and resume their delicious foreplay was immediately dashed. The barriers were back up and he could see that it was going to take a lot more than a blowtorch to burn them down next time.

‘Fizz, I’m sorry...’ She ignored him, but clutching her dress against her, quartered the floor looking for something. ‘Can I help?’

‘Haven’t you done enough?’ Her voice, the merest whisper, conveyed outrage. Outrage? Anyone would think he had pinned her against the wall and ripped the dress off her back. He didn’t kid himself that his intentions were honourable, but she had led the way.

‘Here.’ He opened a narrow door concealed in the panelling. Beyond it was a flight of stairs. ‘This goes straight up to my room. You can take your time to get dressed properly.’

‘Properly?’ she hissed, furiously. ‘Properly? How can I get dressed properly when I’ve lost my knickers?’ He found them beneath the drinks cabinet, damp with the dew of her desire and handed them to her without a word. She snatched them from him and then blushed crimson. ‘And an earring. And my handbag. I’m quite sure I’ll need a comb.’

‘Not for me, sweetheart. Don’t change anything for me.’ Indeed, as she stood in the doorway, her hair gloriously tousled, her eyes blazing, her cheeks flying bright flags she looked more beautiful, more desirable than any woman he had ever known. Unable to help himself he moved to hold her, but she flinched away from him.

‘No!’

He silently cursed both Melanie and Claudia in the same breath. ‘I’ll find it and bring it up.’

‘Don’t you dare come near me!’

He was beginning to lose patience. ‘I’m sorry, Fizz, but I need a fresh tie and I don’t plan to crawl about on my hands and knees looking for my shirt studs either.’ He looked down at himself. ‘Of course I could just go back to the party like this if you would prefer, but I can’t imagine what kind of telephone call would leave me in a state like this, can you?’ She didn’t answer. ‘Go on, now. Before they come back. These stairs lead straight to my room. I’ll be up in a minute.’

She turned and fled up the stairs, leaving him with a glorious view of her backside. He smiled briefly, then shut the door and looked about him.

He found her handbag, a couple of his studs before abandoning the search. He crossed to the foot of the stairs, then returned to the sideboard and poured a measure of brandy into a large glass before following Fizz up the stairs.

She was in the bathroom. He could hear the shower running and he didn’t disturb her. There didn’t seem to be any point. Instead he found a fresh shirt, fitted another set of studs and with hands that lacked his usual rock-steadiness, made a less than perfect job of tying his tie. Then he went back down into the study, picked up his jacket, unlocked the door and rejoined his guests.

*****

“It’s all right, the door’s locked.”

All right? What was so damned all right about the door being locked? It suggested premeditation, forethought, planning. For a moment she had been lost in wonder and joy at the rediscovery of herself, but those six little words had sent splinters of ice down her spine.

How could she have been so stupid? Fizz stood beneath the fierce shower, her face flaming in hot shame at the wanton way she had just unzipped her dress and stepped out of it.

“These stairs lead straight to my room.”

Ice-cold inside, Fizz had heard the words and known exactly what they meant. Straight to his damned four-poster bed he meant. She had lost more than an earring in Luke Devlin’s study. She had lost her pride, her self-respect, and quite obviously her head.

Claudia was right, she had never been cut out for the stage. She had never been able to pretend. The poised, cool young woman she had been playing had crumpled the moment Luke had touched her.

She might have been able to live with that. Just. After all, Luke Devlin had it all. Money, good looks, the kind of power that is a real turn-on for some women. He must be used to women throwing themselves into his bed. But she had stepped out of her dress and thrown herself into his arms with a casual ease that suggested a lifetime of practice. And afterwards... Where had she learned to do those things?

Fizz closed her eyes and groaned, her whole body trembling with mortification. She had had one lover. Only one. And that was seven years ago. The irony of it was that she had flung herself into Patrick’s arms too.

The speed of it had left her bewildered, unsatisfied, but Patrick hadn’t seemed to realise that anything was wrong and she was young and inexperienced and quite ready to believe that any shortcomings were her own. They had to be, after all Patrick March was sex on a stick. But suddenly she was not so certain. Patrick had never made her feel the way she had felt in Luke’s arms.

She leaned against the tiles and let the water beat against her skin. She had never indulged in casual sex. But then there was nothing remotely casual about her feelings for Luke Devlin. She hated him and she had wanted him since the first moment she set eyes on him. And she was quite old enough to know that such a combination was lethal.

Thank God that Melanie had given her breathing space to restore the carefully constructed barriers that Luke had somehow managed to crash.

She began washing herself from head to toe, scrubbing herself to try and rid herself of the taste, the scent of him. But using Luke’s soap it was quite impossible and in the end she gave up trying and dried herself. She wrapped a towel around her and listened at the bathroom door. There was no sound.

He might of course be waiting quietly, standing by the window, looking out into the night as his garden was blanketed with snow. But she couldn’t hide in the bathroom all night, and if Claudia was launching a hue and cry for her, the sooner she appeared the better.

Claudia.

With the unexpected arrival of her sister she was under no illusions that life was about to become even more complicated.

She had scarcely registered Luke’s bedroom as she had bolted for the bathroom. Now she looked about her. It looked somehow different from the way she remembered it, the colours darker, the furniture heavier, grander. Rich velvet curtains had been drawn over the windows shutting out the night and even the four-poster with its heavy drapes seemed larger in the soft shadows thrown by the lamplight.

And it was all painfully redolent of its occupant. A pair of men’s silver backed brushes, discarded cufflinks, the box that had contained his shirt studs had been left on the great oak dressing table. There was no sign of Melanie’s presence. Maybe she preferred to have her own room, somewhere softer, frillier, where her stuffed toys would feel at home and she wouldn’t irritate Luke with her clutter. No, this was his domain, his alone and he had been planning to bring her up here.

Fizz subsided onto the stool before the dressing table and regarded her reflection. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips bee-stung, her hair no longer sleek but tossed every which way by Luke Devlin’s passionate hands. The look was unmistakable. She had been making love and despite the most thorough application of soap and water, it showed.

Luke had left her small black clutch bag on the dressing table, along with a large brandy glass with a generous measure of the rich amber spirit. He doubtless thought it would give her the strength to face him. She didn’t need brandy for that. Just guts. Or did he expect her to drink the brandy and wait for him to join her when he had made his excuses?

At the thought her heightened colour drained abruptly away. She opened her bag and began rapidly to repair the damage to her makeup in an attempt to recover the treacherous poise that had deserted her without a backward glance when she had most needed it. She combed out her hair until it glowed sleekly, making up sparingly, her lipstick helping to disguise the startling effect of Luke’s embrace.

Then she dressed slowly, reluctantly, in her abandoned clothes. The elegant black gown was surprisingly uncreased considering the abuse that it had undergone. But it had been made for a poised and sophisticated woman. Maybe that was one of the requirements.

He obviously hadn’t found her earring and she overcame the temptation to fling the other into the waste bin. She had made enough mistakes tonight and it would be too easy for Melanie to put two and two together if the housekeeper brought it to her, asking if it was hers. Especially if the other were later found on the study floor. She put it into her handbag to be disposed of later along with everything else she was wearing that evening.

The dress that had given her such pleasure when she had put it on earlier that evening no longer had a place in her wardrobe.

She wasn’t poised, she wasn’t sophisticated and it had been a terrible mistake to pretend she was. But pretend she must until she could make good her escape.

A final glance at her reflection satisfied her that she looked as near like the Fizz she knew as was possible under the circumstances and with a little lift of her head she rose and let herself out of the room without a backward glance at the four-poster bed in which Luke had intended she spend the night. He had obviously tried it out for length and not found it wanting.

The main staircase descended into the large, panelled entrance hall. Luke was there, leaning against the mantle, every inch the urbane host as he and Melanie chatted to her father and sister.

Only she would spot the less than perfectly tied black silk bow at his neck, that he wasn’t wearing the same studs in his shirt and that in his haste, one of them hadn’t been fastened properly. With her sister standing so close to him, who would notice anything but how good they looked together?

Claudia was certainly too busy flirting, her father too busy talking to Melanie. Luke, it seemed, had eyes for no one but Claudia and who could blame him?

With her hair blonde once more, rippling over her shoulders and down her back in tiny little waves that caught the light and shone softly as she turned to look up at him, she was enough to fill any man’s eyes. And when, on top of all her natural assets, she wore a scarlet dress that skimmed her breasts and clung to her like a second skin all the way down to her ankles, no red-blooded male stood a chance.

Yet despite Melanie’s fresh and youthful charms as opposed to Claudia’s more blatant attractions, there was no doubt about one thing. The Australian reporter in the clipping Jim had given her had been right. There was a likeness between the two girls.

Nothing you could put your finger on. Nothing obvious. And Claudia’s present colouring was not inherited but achieved at great expense in an exclusive salon in Knightsbridge. But it was there. Her father was remarking on it as she approached them. ‘What do you think, Fizz?’ he demanded.

‘About what?’

Luke turned abruptly, as if he hadn’t heard her coming. But he had. She had seen his shoulders tense beneath the smooth cloth of his jacket, his jaw tighten. ‘Are you feeling better, Fizz?’ he asked.