Beaumont Brides Collection (36 page)

 ‘Did you enjoy that, hussy?’ he asked, as he made a cave of his body over her.

‘Why don’t you try it and find out for yourself?’ And she stretched out in invitation, smiling lazily up at him.

‘Do tell me if you want me to stop at any time, Fizz,’ he invited, confident that nothing would interrupt his slow exploration of her body as slowly, very slowly, he pulled the teddy down, lifting her to ease it under her hips, leaving a trail of kisses over her breasts, her waist, the gentle swell of her abdomen, down the smooth silk clad skin of her inner thigh and Fizz drew up her leg in response to the erotic charge that surged through her. ‘How beautiful you are,’ he said, propping himself on one elbow to lie alongside her, to look at her, touch her.

Fizz, desperate to feel his skin against hers, to take his weight, to know him said, ‘Tell me later. Right now I don’t want talk.’ And she turned to press herself along the length of his body. ‘I want action.’

There was a moment when they just stared at one another, another as his mouth swooped to plunder hers, pushing her back against the bedclothes, sliding his fingers into her.

Fizz arched her back, pushing against his hand. ‘Now, Luke,’ she demanded. ‘I want you. Now.’ And then she gasped as he drove into her, filling her, she cried out, twisting in his arms, rising to meet his thrusts until something exploded. Fizz. Bang. A chorus of angels singing the Hallelujah Chorus while Luke shuddered against her.

Afterwards it seemed very quiet. Luke, his head thrown back against the pillow, his neck corded in the shadowed light, lay perfectly still, holding her against him. Fizz did not dare move. Part of her was still in heaven with the angels, but part of her was afraid, terrified even. He looked so distant.

Luke moved. Turned to her so that she was confronted with his chest. It was beautiful, as chests went. Sculptured even. Not a lot of hair. She wanted to touch it, put out her tongue and taste his skin, take possession of him. The choir grew a little in volume. She had just decided that it would be safe to run her finger along the hollow of his collar bone when he brushed back the hair from her face and looked at her intently.

‘I’m sorry, Fizz.’ Sorry? The chorus stopped abruptly. The pain was instant, agonising, immutable. ‘I’m not usually quite that stupid.’ Stupid! ‘I don’t know what came over me.’

‘Don’t you? Isn’t there a word for it?’ He looked startled. ‘Lust?’ she offered.

‘That wasn’t… Fizz!’ he protested as she flung herself off the bed. He came after her, rolling upright, reaching for her in a single movement. Graceful, quite unconscious of his nudity. ‘I did nothing to protect you,’ he said, pulling her back into his arms. Then, thickly, ‘And I’m pretty damned sure you haven’t done anything to protect yourself.’

‘Oh.’ Even in her lust for Patrick she had never been quite so lost to common sense. But then all those lectures Claudia had given her about safe sex had been so long ago that she hadn’t for a moment thought about it. Even afterwards, up there with the angels, it hadn’t crossed her mind.

She didn’t doubt for a moment that he was right to be concerned. She just wished that for a moment he could have forgotten consequences and stayed to listen with her to the chorus.

She shrugged out of his arms, crossed to the bathroom door where she fixed a bright smile to her face before turning back to him.

‘Well, it’s too late to do anything about it. I won’t worry about it, if you don’t.’

He was across the room to her, grasping her arms, holding her at a distance before she could step back. ‘Idiot,’ he said, fiercely. Then, ‘Marry me.’

She stared up at him, at the intensity of emotion knotting the muscles on his neck, his jaw. He was really concerned. Well, that was nice, but it wasn’t enough. ‘I think you’re overreacting, Luke. You’ve been working too hard.’

‘Idiot,’ he said, again, but gently this time. And then he kissed her. ‘I love you, Fizz. Marry me. Please.’

That jolted her. ‘And you have the nerve to call me an idiot? Lie down for a moment, take an aspirin.’

‘I don’t need an aspirin, I need you.’

She was almost convinced. ‘Right now all I need is a shower, Luke.’ She detached herself, switched on the shower, tested the temperature of the water.

‘I mean it, Fizz.’ The water was warm now and she stepped beneath it. He followed her.

‘Luke!’

‘Will you listen to me now?’ He had her trapped, no escape. ‘I want you to marry me.’

A smile, a real smile, began to form on her lips. She tried to stop it, but it had a life of its own. ‘Will you pass me the soap?’ she asked.

‘I warn you I’m not going anywhere until you say yes.’

‘Oh?’ She held out her hand. ‘The soap?’

He glared at her, then reached behind him and handed it to her. She worked up a lather in her hands, handed it back to him and began to circle her hands over his chest, over his shoulders. His skin was like silk beneath her fingers. She leaned forward, circling him with her arms, brushing his chest with her breasts and suddenly it was Luke who was trapped.

‘Fizz? What are you doing? I’m trying to talk to you.’

‘Later. If you talk in the shower, you’re likely to get soap in your mouth.’ She lifted her fingers to his mouth, wiped the foam across his lower lip. ‘See? Now, do you want to play? Or do you really want to talk?’

She could still taste the soap when they finally emerged from the shower some time later.

‘Shall I open that bottle of wine now?’ Luke said, wrapping a towel around his hips.

‘Mmmm. There’s some brie, if you’re hungry. Or I could -’ She broke off as the doorbell rang. ‘Who on earth could that be?’

‘Do you want me to find out?’

‘Dressed like that? If it’s Mrs Pusey you’ll give her palpitations.’ Fizz grinned. ‘You’re giving me palpitations right now.’ She pulled on a thick towelling robe and crossed to the door. ‘You concentrate on the wine.’

The bell rang again before she reached the door. A long urgent peal. And when she opened it Melanie flung herself at her. ‘Oh, Fizz.’

‘Mel, what is it? What’s happened?’ But the girl was shaking, tearful and Fizz looked helplessly over her head to Andy. As their eyes met, her insides contracted and twisted.

‘I’m sorry, Fizz. It’s Edward,’ he said. ‘They’ve taken him to the hospital.’

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

‘FIZZ!’ Luke called from the kitchen. ‘I can’t find a corkscrew.’ He waited, but there was no answer and grinning in anticipation of another teasing game, he put down the bottle and walked to the door. ‘I don’t know what you think I’m made of, girl, but -’

Three pairs of eyes met his. Melanie, open-mouthed appeared unable to speak, Andy with a knowing look that took in the damp hair, the towel wrapped around his hips covering nothing but wet skin. Fizz was in shock.

‘Funny time for a social call,’ he said. ‘What’s up?’

‘Edward collapsed at the studios about an hour ago,’ Andy said, quickly pulling himself together. ‘He’s been taken to the General. Claudia asked us to fetch Fizz.’

‘Collapsed?’ His guts twisted, like spaghetti round a fork. ‘Was it a heart attack?’

Fizz uttered a brief anguished cry and Melanie began to cry.

‘It’s all my fault,’ she sobbed and for one sickening moment he stared full into the face of a nightmare of his own creation. He had to get Fizz out of there before Melanie spilled it all out, give himself time to explain. But she looked so fragile that when he touched her arm he was almost afraid that she might break.

 ‘Fizz?’ She stirred, looked at him with eyes that would tear a man’s heart to shreds. ‘Go and get dressed, my love, I’ll take you to the hospital.’

‘Yes. Yes, of course.’

He watched her go, wanting to be with her, to hold her, to tell her that he never meant it to be like this. That he had never wanted to hurt her. But it wasn’t true. His sole intention had been to hurt Edward by making his daughters suffer. He hadn’t the right. It would be pure self-indulgence to unburden himself now. She was in enough pain.

Instead he forced himself to give his attention to Melanie. It was barely a year since she had lost her own mother, since he had had to tell her about the accident, take her to the hospital to watch Juliet die.

‘Why were you at the studios, Mel? I thought you and Andy were going into Brighton tonight for some concert.’

‘Claudia has an audition tomorrow, something big. So she asked if we could record “Holiday Bay” this evening instead of tomorrow. Edward came back especially.’

An audition. The fork twisted again. An audition for a play he had agreed to back provided Claudia Beaumont was given the lead. Oh, God, the irony of it, the sheer bloody irony. The one thing he hadn’t been able to fix, but hadn’t worried about because there was no rush, because he could do it in the morning, had blown right up in his face.

‘Can you tell me what happened?’

She sniffed a little, pushed the hair back from her face. ‘Um… We’d done most of it before Mr Beaumont arrived. He only had a few words, right at the end. I don’t think he’d even seen the script. He just took it, glanced at his lines, nodded and said we might as well go for it.’

‘And?’

‘Oh, he was wonderful. You’d have thought he’d been rehearsing all week. He said his lines, I said mine and the recording manager nodded to say everything was fine. So we all started to talk at once, you know how it is.’ Luke didn’t, but had no wish to be told.

‘What happened?’

‘It was so odd. I turned round to speak to Mr Beaumont and he was staring at me so strangely. He just said, “Juliet?” That’s all. He looked, well,
haunted
. Then he just crumpled up - oh, Fizz,’ she said, breaking off as she saw her in the bedroom door. ‘I’m so sorry. It was the name - I shouldn’t have changed the name.’

‘Mel,’ Luke interrupted, sharply. ‘This isn’t your fault.’ She looked at him, her eyes full of tears. ‘It’s not your fault. Andy will take you home.’ He glanced at the other man. ‘Will you stay with her until I get back?’

‘Of course.’

Fizz had muddled the buttons of the thick, padded shirt she was wearing, he noticed. It was such a childlike mistake, making her seem utterly defenceless. His heart just cracked with longing to go to her, to tell her that it would be all right, that he would put the world back together for her if she’d let him.

But if Edward died…

‘We’ll go now. I’ll ring as soon as there’s any news,’ he said, ushering them through the door, closing it behind them.

He turned, slowly, because he didn’t want to face this girl that he loved to distraction. Didn’t want to see the accusation in her eyes. But when he turned he realised that she hadn’t yet worked it out.

‘I’d better get dressed,’ he said. She didn’t answer. He could almost see the cogs spinning in her brain. Then she took a deep shuddering breath, almost shook herself.

‘Hurry, Luke,’ she said.

He was already moving, relief that they had both been reprieved for the moment making his hands shake. When he rejoined her in the hall she was frowning. The cogs were busy clicking again.

‘Are you ready to go, Fizz?’ He kept his voice crisp, impersonal. She didn’t answer, but picked up her bag and hurried down the stairs, leaving him to make sure the door was shut.

For a while they drove through the darkness in a silence so thick that he could feel it coming at him in waves from her. He stared ahead, his face fixed on the road, his hands grasping the wheel until his knuckles stood out, bone white. Then she turned to look at him.

‘You’ve done this, haven’t you Luke? That’s what Melanie meant when she said it was her fault?’

‘Fizz, I don’t think this is a good time ...’

‘I don’t know how, or why. But if my father dies you will be responsible.’ He didn’t deny it. Didn’t make excuses. What excuses could he make? Phillip had warned him that revenge was a wild justice. Once set in motion the outcome could not be foreseen or controlled. ‘Will you be able to live with that on your conscience?’ she asked.

Not angrily, but as if she genuinely wanted to know.

And the answer was staring him in the face. No. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself. He wouldn’t deserve to. He simply prayed it wouldn’t happen and with some relief drew up at the entrance to the hospital. Fizz scrambled out, not waiting for him to open the door. ‘I’ll find somewhere to park,’ he said.

‘No. Go away, Luke. Go away and leave us all in peace.’ She didn’t wait to see if he had obeyed her, but pushed open the door and was immediately enveloped in the sterile, over-heated atmosphere of the hospital.

For a moment he rested his head on the back of his hands as he gripped the steering wheel, wishing he could do as she asked. Give them back the peace he had snatched away. He would try. But if Edward died there would be no peace for any of them for a long time. For him, perhaps never.

Claudia was in the waiting room, pacing backwards and forwards. Jim Ryan was there too. He immediately went to Fizz, drawing her into the bulky comfort of his arms to hug her.

‘What’s happening? Why are you out here, why isn’t someone with Dad? Can I see him?’ she said, the words tumbling over themselves, an antidote to the dreadful thoughts racketing around inside her head, too jumbled up to sort out right now. Or maybe she just didn’t want to sort them out.