The Lethal Encounter (18 page)

The rest of the day was like
a blur. She filled in OK for David, but any reasonably observant person would
have noticed that her mind was on other things. To make things worse, she
received a call from Sue booking in a meeting with her for the day after she
got back. This was unlike her.....normally she would have waited and then just
called her in on an informal basis. All in all, Katie felt like the world was
closing in - and not in a good way.

As she climbed out of the
taxi at the hotel that evening, all she wanted to do was to call room service,
soak in a bath, eat and then curl up in bed. She made her way wearily through
the lobby and was surprised when she heard her name being called.

She spun round and there,
sitting nonchalantly at the bar was none other than Mr. Peter Jarvis. He smiled
and beckoned her over. She sighed, and seriously considered ignoring him to
continue her trek to the lift and the sanctity of her room on the fourth floor.

However, with a shrug of her
shoulders, she hoisted her briefcase up onto her shoulder and made her way over
to the bar.

“Katie, hi. What a surprise!
Join me for a drink, please do.”

“Good evening, Peter.” Katie
responded rather lamely but, quite frankly, she was too tired in mind and body
to play any games this time.

“Have you had a good day? You
look knackered. Here sit down.”

With an imperious wave he
caught the attention of the bartender and ordered a large gin and tonic. When
it arrived, he handed it over to Katie, who took a large gulp gratefully,
feeling the tangy liquid slide down her throat and warm her stomach.

“Well, I've had better days,
thank you.....particularly after such a bad start.”

As soon as she said that and
despite all her previous feelings and misgivings, Katie realised that it was
lovely to see Peter again and the tiredness seemed to slip away. His dazzling
smile and piercing eyes (that seemed to only have time for her on this occasion)
melted her previous mood and she relaxed for the first time that day.

“Peter….I want to apologise.”

“No need to apologise about
anything.....anyway I don't know what you are talking about.”

“Oh please, I behaved like a
love struck schoolgirl this morning at breakfast and I have felt really bad
about it. Your companion must have been highly amused. I hope I haven't spoilt
your chances there.”

Peter looked at her strangely
and then laughed.

“Oh my God, you don't think
Lenka and I. You don't think…..”

“It really doesn't matter
what I think does it? You can do whatever you want…..it’s not a problem.”

“Look Katie, she is a
colleague, that's all.”

“It just does not
matter.....really.” There was a pause.

“So what are you doing in Prague, Peter,” said Katie, desperate to change the subject.

“I'm developing a new
programme with one of our partners. Not the one you saw today.....another one.
It’s going OK.”

The couple relaxed into an
easy banter and Katie even burst out laughing when Peter talked about an
amusing account of a lunch meeting. Katie realised that she had a multitude of
questions to ask Peter.....to ask him why he left Cannes so quickly, why he had
not called her and what exactly were his feelings towards her. Those were the
kind of things she wanted to talk about but she could not bring herself to ask
them…..even as the gin went straight to her head.

At that moment, Peter looked
behind Katie and smiled. He nodded his head and started to stand. Katie felt a
presence slink up beside her and the sultry Lenka sidled up to them. 

She leant forward into
Katie's body space and embraced Peter warmly, totally ignoring her.

Katie bristled and, at that
moment, had never hated anyone so much in all her life.

“Peter, hi. Sorry I'm a bit
late.”

“No problem Lenka. I've been
chatting to a colleague of mine, Katie. You met her at breakfast this morning.”

At that moment, Lenka turned
and acknowledged Katie for the first time.

“Of course. How can I forget?
Have you had a good day Katie?” purred the gorgeous Lenka in what seemed to be
almost flawless English.

“OK, thanks.....and you?”
Katie replied through her clenched teeth.

Lenka gave her a brief,
almost pitying smile before turning back to Peter.

“We have to go. Mr. Pulka is
waiting at the restaurant.”

“Great. Katie, I have to
leave you. Sorry.”

With that, Peter drained his
drink and got off his stool. Lenka linked his arm in his and they walked off,
with Lenka casting what Katie thought was a victorious smile in her direction.

Katie watched them
disappearing with feelings of frustration, anger and loss. She turned back
towards her drink and finished it one gulp, before sliding off the stool,
gathering her bag and heading off to the lifts.

Once in her room, she threw
her stuff on the bed, took off her coat and sank back into the soft bed. She
stared at the ceiling with a heavy heart. If anything, she felt even more
confused than she did an hour ago. At least then she was merely unhappy.

But she could not help think
about their drink together downstairs. Peter had been friendly and attentive
and if he had not had a prior meeting, Katie felt sure they would have extended
the drinks into dinner and who knows what else? Peter had shown no signs of
having “moved on” which had been Katie's biggest fear since their amazing
sexual encounter in Cannes. Or was he always like that with his past conquests?
Did he have sex and then just expect his partners to be “friends”. Perhaps the
kind of girl he had relationships with understood that and accepted it.

Katie knew she could not do
that. For her in a relationship it was pretty much all or nothing. She could
not do “casual” and, even if it meant losing someone as attractive as Peter
Jarvis, then so be it.

With this fresh resolve in
her mind, Katie slowly undressed and had a shower, cleaning the effects of the
day away. Afterwards she dressed casually and, unable to face the outside world
again, studied the room service menu before picking a simple club sandwich and
a glass of white wine.

Then, feeling drowsy, she
turned the TV onto BBC World and relaxed back against the pillows with a book.

She must have dozed off
because she was awoken with a start by an insistent knocking on the door. She
looked at the bedside clock and noticed the time was 11.35pm, much too late,
she thought, for room service to be up collecting her tray.

She pulled herself off the
bed and walked to the door, wrapping the robe she had slipped on earlier,
around her more tightly.

She opened the door
fractionally to see who it was and was bowled over to see Peter standing in the
hall. With her heart going into overdrive, she opened the door as little wider.

“Hi Peter, everything OK?”

“Katie,
Katie.....everything's not OK. I've had a boring dinner and I wanted to see
you.”

Katie realised that the man
in front of her had probably had a few drinks, perhaps a few too many if truth
be told.

“What's happened to dear
sweet Lenka?” Katie replied somewhat bitchily. She knew it was probably not the
thing to say and would play into the ego of a man like Peter Jarvis, but, like
that morning, she could not help herself.

Peter waved his hand, as if
to push such a suggestion well into touch.

“Oh, she's just a fixer, no
one important. So, can I come in for a drink?”

At that point, Katie's anger
swelled up to the surface. This was the way he treated his women and she was
going to have no part of it.

“I tell you what Peter, why
don't you just fuck off.....”

And with that outburst, she
slammed the door on an astonished Peter Jarvis.

She leant against the door
with the pulse in her head pounding. There was no sound from outside but, after
a few moments, she heard his footsteps retreat down the corridor.

Only then did she return to
her bed, fall down on it and bury her head in the pillows.

If there had been any
lingering doubt left in her mind as to any possibility of she and Peter ever
getting together, it was now extinguished once and for all.

CHAPTER13

Peter Jarvis returned to his
room disappointed. True, he knew that his behaviour had been a bit forward but
the drink he had consumed at dinner had overcome any reservations he might have
had. He had genuinely thought that Katie would have opened the door and
welcomed him, but he had read her wrongly.

He sighed. This just proved
that women were complicated creatures and, looking back over the last few days,
he tried to understand what was going on. OK, he should not have skipped Cannes quite so quickly and, because he had, he should have left her a message or rung her
to explain why he had left.

But he hadn't and she had not
bothered to ring him anyway so she was partly to blame there. And what was all
that stuff this morning at breakfast been about? The comment about “his Cannes girl” That had been quite embarrassing in front of Lenka and he knew that the cool
Czech girl had been somewhat amused at her behaviour.

“I think she has a thing for
you,” had been her comment in the cab later and Peter had laughed it off.

But now, thinking about it,
the outburst demonstrated to Peter that Katie must have been jealous (what
other explanation can there be?) and that, in Peter's mind, meant that she must
be attracted to him.

Whilst the mere knowledge
that a woman was attracted to him was nothing new to Peter, he was still
struggling to separate the kind of attraction that the opposite sex has towards
handsome, successful men - attraction that is born out of an “aura” and is
rarely long lasting, and the attraction that has its roots in love. He knew
that many of the women with whom he had enjoyed relationships had purported to
“love” him, but he never really felt that they had
really
loved him, merely
intoxicated by his character and position. Up to now, he had never really
worried about this - it certainly did not make him sad or insecure - and that,
he finally concluded, was probably because he had never really loved them back
in the true sense of the word.

And there was no doubting
that his feelings for Katie were something new and very, very different from
previous relationships. She was under his skin and the amazing sex that had
occurred between them, far from enabling him to “get her out of his system”,
had left him yearning for more. It was these feelings, combined with the drink
of course, that had been his motivation for going up to her room tonight.

Now it had all gone wrong and
Peter knew that he was being distracted by this roller coaster ride. It had
only been a week or so, but already his work focus was slipping and he thought
people were beginning to notice. In his position, that was unacceptable and
tonight's events had brought everything to a head.

But what to do? The thought
of never seeing her again on an intimate level filled him with a sense of loss,
a feeling that was new and alien to him. But he knew that he would have to get
some kind of closure if life was going to proceed with any sort of normality,
and serious relationships had not and could not feature top in his priorities.
His company was his only mistress and she was demanding enough. No, there was
no room for anyone else, whatever the circumstances.

He sat down at the desk in
his room and opened his laptop, clicking the wireless access button so he could
catch up on his mail. As he watched his inbox fill up, he suddenly realised
that, for the first time in his business career, his email and work was not the
things most uppermost in his mind. It was a sobering thought and one that he
was struggling to get his head round.