The Rock'n'Roll Romance Box Set (Pam Howes Rock'n'Roll Romance Series) (74 page)

  
‘I won’t, but how come
you
knew?’

  
‘I saw Livvy in the
churchyard after Nick’s service. She told me then.’

  
‘Oh!’ Jess was shocked.
‘So, in all fairness to Livvy, the baby
was
genuinely an accident and
she’s kept it to herself all this time.’

  
Eddie nodded. ‘She asked
me to tell
Roy
. She was frightened and unsure what to do. Anyway, to cut a long
story short, Sammy went to see her and that was that.’

  
‘Why did Sammy go and see
her?’ Jess asked.
 

  
‘To tell her to send
Roy
packing if he turned up. She
spotted Livvy was pregnant, hit the roof and you know the rest. Come on, sup up
here’s the food. Same drinks again?’

  
‘Please, Dad.’ They spoke
in unison as Eddie strolled to the bar leaving them staring at one another.

***

‘Ignorant cow!’ Sammy slammed the phone down and turned to Jane.

  
‘Who is?’

  
‘That bloody receptionist
at The Grand. She said
Roy
doesn’t want to be disturbed until after eleven. I told her I’m
his wife and it would be quite in order for me to speak with him, but she was
adamant, said she’d pass on a
mes
sage.’

  
‘Oh well, let’s have a
coffee and then you can be on your way. Give her a piece of your mind.’

***

Sharon
called
Roy
’s room just after eleven and
conveyed both Sammy and Eddie’s
mes
sages to him. He jumped out of bed, stretched and lit a fag.
Feeling much better for the extra sleep, he ran a bath, shaved and splashed
himself liberally with Sammy’s favourite aftershave.
  

  
He pulled on his usual
Levis
and T-shirt, then deciding he
should look a bit smarter, chose a cream cotton shirt instead to show her he’d
made an effort. He lay back on the hastily made bed, flicked idly through the
TV channels and waited.
 

***

Sharon
’s jaw dropped at the sight of the
coolly elegant woman standing at the desk. With her pale green linen suit, over
a white silk top, shiny brown hair falling neatly to her shoulders, her makeup
immaculate, she looked the epitome of a successful businesswoman. Her cool blue
eyes raked over Sharon who smiled in a friendly manner.

  
‘Yes, can I help you?’

  
‘Mr Cantello’s room
please.’

  
‘I’ll just check that
he’s receiving visitors.’ She dialled
Roy
’s room number. ‘Whom shall I say?’

  
‘Mrs Cantello - his
wife,’ the woman replied pointedly.
  

  
‘Mr Cantello,’
Sharon
said as the call was answered. ‘I
have your wife in reception. – Thank you. Goodbye. Room 125, through the double
doors, up the stairs to the first floor and turn left,’
Sharon
instructed. She stared enviously
as Mrs Cantello walked away. She noted her long slender legs elegantly clad in
shiny stockings and looked down at her own short ones. Her mother had always
told her that she must have been at the back of the queue when God handed out
legs. Roy Cantello’s wife had obviously been right at the front. She was
certainly an attractive woman; she looked cool and frosty though. Maybe that
was why he’d left her. Perhaps she was cool and frosty in bed and he needed
someone warmer and more spontaneous.

***

Sammy grinned as she walked away from reception, knowing she was
being scrutinised. The receptionist seemed to be taking her duties a bit too
seriously where
Roy
was concerned. Still, it didn’t worry her; the girl was no
competition. Short, dumpy redheads had never been
Roy
’s type.
 
She knocked on the door of room 125.
 

***

‘You look gorgeous, as always.’
Roy
pulled Sammy close and kissed her.

  
‘And
you
smell
gorgeous,’ she said with a smile. ‘You know what that aftershave does to
me.’
    

  
‘Why do you think I’m
wearing it? I need all the help I can get,’ he quipped. He took her hand and
led her into the middle of the room. ‘Chair or bed?’

  
‘Chair,’ she replied.

  
‘Oh!’ He looked
crestfallen.

  
‘Idiot, as if,’ she
teased. She removed her jacket, hung it over the back of the chair and sat down
on the bed.

  
‘Do you want to eat first
or afterw…?’ he trailed off as Sammy smiled at him.
 

  
‘Jumping the gun as
usual, Cantello!’ She patted his hand. ‘I’m starving, let’s eat first.’

  
He nodded and called
reception for room service. He ordered a tray of assorted sandwiches, a fresh
fruit platter and a bottle of chilled white Chardonnay.

  
‘Right, before the food
arrives, tell me quickly how you got on with Livvy last night. I was going to
call you around
midnight
but I fell asleep. I rang this morning but the snotty cow on
reception wouldn’t put me through, because you’d asked not to be disturbed.’

  
‘I was just tired, you
know, with everything that happened yesterday,’ he told her. He silently
thanked heaven that Sammy had fallen asleep last night, otherwise she would
certainly have realised he’d spent the night at Livvy’s place. Helping the girl
was one thing, but him sleeping with her again, Sammy would not tolerate under
any circumstances. He knew he was skating on very thin ice. He outlined his
plans and she nodded her approval.

  
‘And when the child
arrives, are you going to want access?’

  
‘I hadn’t thought that
far to be perfectly honest. Can we cross that bridge when we come to it?’

  
She nodded. ‘Now let’s
concentrate on Jason and us. Our son needs us more than Livvy does at the
moment.’

  
‘Well Jason isn’t here
right now, but we are, so let’s concentrate on us today.’
Roy
stroked her thigh through her
skirt, kneading the little bumps of her suspenders.
 
‘Stockings and suspenders again. You
certainly know the way to a man’s heart, girl.’

  
‘I know the way to
yours,’ she said, pulling him down beside her. She undid the buttons on his
shirt and buried her face in the dark, curly hairs on his chest.

  
He traced his fingertips
from her nose, over her lips, chin and down the front of her top. He smiled as
her nipples responded to his touch through the fine silk. He bent to kiss her
lips and pushed her skirt up when a knock on the door startled them.
  

  
‘Room service,’ a voice
Sammy recognised as the redhead’s called out. She straightened her clothes and
sat on the edge of the bed while
Roy
opened the door. The girl waltzed
in and blushed furiously at the sight of
Roy
’s open shirt and the hairy chest
beneath. ‘I’m sorry to disturb you, Mr Cantello,’ she stuttered.

  
‘That’s okay, you
didn’t,’
Roy
said, smiling at her. ‘We ordered
the food, so we were aware it would be arriving soon.’

  
‘We’re short of
chambermaids today. This isn’t my usual job,’ she informed Sammy, her words
tripping over one another as she placed the tray down on the dressing table.

  
‘Really?’ Sammy replied
coolly, arching an eyebrow.

  
As the girl left the
room,
Roy
hung a "Do Not Disturb"
sign on the door. He grinned, picked up a corkscrew and the bottle of
Chardonnay. ‘I think we embarrassed her. Drink?’

  
‘Please,’ Sammy said,
helping herself to a sandwich. ‘Serves her right for being nosy. Those
strawberries look lovely.’ She pointed to the plump red berries nestling on the
fruit platter.

  
‘Don’t they? I know a
game we can play with those!’ He grinned wickedly.

  
‘Yeah, I know you do, Roy
Cantello.’

  
‘They’re not as
mes
sy as Mars Bars,’ he quipped,
handing her a glass of wine.

  
‘
Roy
, you’re incorrigible. What on
earth would that receptionist think if she heard you now?’

  
‘I don’t know and I don’t
care. Eat up; I want to make love to you before you go back to work.’

  
‘What are you doing
later?’ she asked, reaching for a slice of melon.

  
‘Swimming with Eddie,’ he
replied, wolfing down one sandwich after another. ‘I’ve no plans for tonight.
What about you? Fancy eating here and spending the night with me?’

  
‘I can’t, I’m going out
for a meal.’

  
‘Who with?’

  
‘Stuart Green, actually.’

  
Roy
frowned, a sandwich halfway to his
mouth. ‘Stuart?’

  
‘Yes, Stuart.’

  
He looked deflated. ‘Oh,
I didn’t think you would, well - you know…?’ he tailed off.
                     

  
‘You didn’t think I’d
what, go out with someone else?’ Sammy challenged.

  
‘Well, yes.’

  
‘It’s a business meeting,
Roy.’

  
‘Well in that case,
couldn’t you have had it at work during the day?’

  
‘God, you’re as bad as
Jane. Stuart asked me if I’d like to go for a meal and I accepted. We’ve things
to discuss.’

  
’You and Stu used to be
very friendly if I remember rightly,’ he replied jealously, taking a large slug
of wine.

  
‘I like Stuart. I’ve
known him all my life.’

  
‘You’d have gone out with
him if I hadn’t come on the scene, wouldn’t you?’

  
Sammy shrugged and bit
into a strawberry. ‘Maybe, who knows? It was probably on the cards. But you
did
come on the scene,
Roy
, and we fell in love.’

  
He nodded and gazed down
into his glass, blinking furiously.

  
‘
Roy
, what’s wrong?’ She saw the tears
in his eyes. ‘Oh, for heavens sake, it’s not a date. Come here.’ She took his
glass, put it down on the bedside table and pulled him into her arms. ‘You’re
jealous and upset, why?’

  
‘I just can’t bear the
thought of you going out with anyone else, for whatever reasons.’

  
‘Well I can’t just cancel
without a good excuse. Stuart thought it would do me good with everything
that’s been going on lately.’

  
‘Does he know about Livvy
and me?’

  
‘Not about the baby, but
he’s aware you had an affair that’s over. He knows you’ve moved out while we
sort ourselves out.’

  
‘Does he also know that I
want to move back home and that I still love you?’

  
‘Of course he does. He’s
not going to make any moves on me and he also knows that
I
love
you
. Give me some credit where it’s due. I think I’ve
handled things quite well so far, Nick’s death, Livvy, the baby, Jason and us;
but just because I appear cool and calm on the outside doesn’t mean that I’m
not churning up and in bits here.’ She banged her chest.

  
‘When you left me to go
to Livvy’s last night I felt so sick, especially after what had happened
between us. I know you had to try and sort out what to do for the best, but I
was terrified of letting you go in case she managed to wrap you around her
little finger again. If I’m honest, I was also scared to death that you would end
up spending the night with her.’

 
Roy
swallowed hard, his heart thudded
and his face felt warm. He took a swig of wine while Sammy continued.

  
‘The pain I feel knowing
Livvy’s carrying
your
baby when I’ve just lost one of mine is
indescribable,
Roy
. I worry that when it’s born she’s going to have such a hold over
you that you’ll leave Jason and me properly and go off with her. After all,
I
can’t give you another child.’