To Make a Marriage (5 page)

‘Tried,' she repeated firmly, the coldness of her gaze easily holding his. ‘But I can't even do that any more, Adam,' she told him flatly. ‘I suggest that in future we just try to stay out of each other's way.'

He swallowed hard, knowing by her implacable expression that she meant exactly what she had just said. But how could he stay away from her—when what he most wanted to do was the exact opposite to that?

No!

Much as he might want Andie, he certainly wasn't what Andie needed in her life.

‘I think you're right, Andie,' he said shortly. ‘You are tired and need to go to bed. We can talk about this again tomorrow.' When he had recovered sufficiently from this talk to be able to deal with the situation logically.

‘My conclusion will be exactly the same, tomorrow or
any other day!' Andie snapped before sweeping from the room, leaving a trail of her heady perfume in her wake.

Adam almost fell into the chair, putting his hands up to cover his face as he gave a pained groan.

Andie had always tried to be his friend!

Until he had ruined even that…?

‘J
UST
how long did you think you could keep the existence of my child from me?'

Andie flinched at the sound of that angrily accusing voice, but she didn't open her eyes, or move from her prone position on the sun-lounger on the terrace of her father's Majorcan villa.

His
child, he had said…

Yes, she was carrying his child. The baby was hers too, of course, but she knew him well enough to realise he wouldn't just stand by and ignore his own child.

Although, as he seemed to have guessed, that hadn't prevented Andie wanting to stop him from having that knowledge for as long as possible. Which was what she was doing in Majorca in the first place.

It had started out as a germ of an idea, a need for a complete—if temporary!—break, away from the emotional pressures being brought to bear concerning her pregnancy. With no magazine to go to each weekday, and her father's attention thankfully occupied elsewhere, it hadn't been too difficult to make the move to the Majorcan sunshine for a few weeks. To put off, for a short time longer, the confrontation that now seemed to have come to her…

How had she ever got herself into this mess?

Ah, yes…she remembered now. It had begun, quite innocently, with an invitation to attend a party as Adam Munroe's partner. She gave a rueful smile as she remembered teasing him about the unexpected invitation…

‘Don't tell me the eligible Adam Munroe has been stood
up?' she taunted at the twenty-four hours' notice he had given her.

He shook his head unconcernedly. ‘I was actually going to attend alone,' he drawled. ‘But then I thought you might find it rather fun.'

‘Run out of ambitious young actresses just longing to be seen on the arm of the influential film producer Adam Munroe?' Andie looked up from her desk to venture.

Adam grinned unabashedly, perched on the side of her desk. ‘Tired of their unsubtle machinations,' he revealed. ‘At least I know you don't have any ambitions to become an actress!'

Andie had to smile. ‘Not the most charming invitation I've ever received!'

‘But you'll come anyway?'

Why not? Her social calendar wasn't exactly overflowing with invitations. From choice, she acknowledged. No man, she had learnt through dating over the years, could in any way measure up to the man she was already in love with. The man who, for reasons of his own, was inviting her to spend tomorrow evening with him…

She looked up at Adam with searching eyes. What was it about this man that held her so enthralled? Oh, he was handsome enough, but then so were a lot of other men she had met. Adam could be incredibly charming too—but that wasn't unique, either. No, she had no idea why it should be this man she loved; she only knew that she did. That she always had.

And the temptation to spend an evening in his company was just too great to refuse…

‘Okay, Adam,' she decided firmly—before she could have second thoughts about the prudence of going out with him at all. ‘What time shall I be ready? And what do you want me to wear?'

‘Eight o'clock.' He smiled his pleasure in her acquiescence. ‘And I wouldn't presume to tell you what you should wear.'

Andie gave a wry smile. ‘It's never stopped you before!' she clearly remembered one occasion, that of her eighteenth birthday, when Adam had been less than polite concerning the figure-hugging red dress she had been wearing!

He continued to grin. ‘Maybe I'm getting more circumspect in my old age,' he drawled.

Andie quirked one mocking brow. ‘I doubt that very much. Okay, Adam, I'll use my own judgement,' she assured him.

And she did, the knee-length shimmering silver dress clinging lovingly to every curve of her body, the low neckline revealing a tempting expanse of creamy breasts. Her blonde hair she left loose down the length of her spine, silver lights reflecting from the dress, her jewellery of chunky gold earrings and bracelet, giving her a delicacy that was refuted by the teasing mischief lurking in her deep green gaze.

Adam, she was pleased to note, was completely bowled over by her appearance when she opened her apartment door to him the following evening.

‘May I say, Miss Summer, that you dress up quite spectacularly?' he told her.

‘And may I say, Mr Munroe, that so do you?' she returned flirtatiously in an effort to hide her own reaction to his lethal handsomeness in the black dinner suit and snowy white shirt. Not that she could hide her reaction completely, conscious of a pulse beating erratically at the base of her creamy throat.

‘Your carriage awaits, my lady.' He gave a theatrical sweep of his arm.

Her ‘carriage' consisted of Adam's sleek green Jaguar
sports car. She showed a long expanse of slenderly silky leg as Adam held the door open for her to slip into the passenger seat.

She gave him a reproving look as he got into the car beside her, still trying to pull her dress down to a respectable level. ‘I can't help thinking, Adam, that you chose such a low car deliberately!'

He quirked blond brows at her before turning the key in the ignition. ‘Actually, Andie—I can't help thinking the same thing!' he returned unrepentantly.

Adam drove out of London towards Berkshire, their hosts for the evening turning out to be the Grants, the film director Daniel, and his beautiful actress wife Carla Burton, the latter heavily pregnant with their second child.

There wasn't a single guest at the party that Andie didn't recognise from either film or television, and, while her own highly indulged upbringing meant she wasn't in the least overwhelmed by so many celebrities, she couldn't say she was exactly overjoyed when, shortly after their arrival, Adam, having provided her with a glass of champagne, excused himself to go and talk to the latest darling of the film world, Elizabeth King.

In fact, Adam's attention on the beautiful redhead was so intense over the next ten minutes that Andie couldn't help wondering why on earth he had needed to bring her here with him at all!

‘Actress or television presenter?' The teasing male voice at her side drew her attention away from Adam and the beautiful actress.

She turned to find herself looking at the boyishly attractive comedian Gordon Andrews. ‘Actually, I work on a women's magazine,' she revealed.

His eyes widened humorously. ‘How on earth did a member of the press manage to get an invitation here?' He
looked around them pointedly at the less-than-well-behaved guests, the champagne flowing liberally, along with the guests' inhibitions.

Andie laughed at his comical expression. ‘I'm the senior editor, not a reporter.'

Gordon waggled his dark eyebrows expressively. ‘I'd love to see the junior one—she must still be in nappies!'

She liked him, Andie decided, as Gordon seemed to have decided to stay at her side, his wicked brand of humour having her laughing out loud several times through the evening, thankfully diverting her attention away from Adam. Although she was still aware that Adam didn't leave Elizabeth King's side for a single minute, attentively supplying her with champagne and food if she looked like running out of either.

Damn him, Andie decided stubbornly. Stupidly, she had looked forward to this evening out with Adam—and as far as he was concerned she might just as well not exist!

In fact, she was surprised when, the party obviously drawing to a close at about three o'clock in the morning, Adam remembered to come and get her so that the two of them could leave together, she had half expected him to leave with Elizabeth King, too!

‘Good party?' Adam finally asked rigidly in the darkness of the car as they drove through the quiet London streets, the rest of the journey having taken place in tension-filled silence.

‘Excellent,' Andie came back tautly. ‘Gordon Andrews is as funny off stage as he is on it.'

‘I noticed you were enjoying yourself,' Adam observed sarcastically.

‘Really?' Andie returned just as sarcastically.

Adam turned to her sharply in the confines of the car.

‘And exactly what does that mean?' he snapped.

She gave a dismissive shrug of her shoulders. ‘Elizabeth King is very beautiful.'

‘I—'

‘You just missed the turn to my apartment,' she interrupted.

His response was to immediately do an illegal U-turn in the middle of the road—something he wouldn't have stood a chance of doing if it weren't almost four o'clock on a Sunday morning!—bringing the Jaguar to a screeching halt outside the apartment building where she lived, before turning in his seat to look at her with steely grey eyes.

‘I would rather have spent the evening with you,' he ground out between clenched jaws.

‘Really?' Andie's eyes flashed deeply green in the half-light. ‘Then you must have hidden acting ability!' She glared at him, remembering all too clearly that if it hadn't been for Gordon Andrews she would have spent the entire evening mingling with people she didn't know—and who, on this evening's behaviour, she wasn't sure she wanted to know, either!

Adam reached out to grasp her shoulders. ‘Are you seeing Andrews again?' he demanded to know—almost as if she had spoken her thoughts out loud!

Andie wrenched out of his grasp, reaching to open her car door—obviously Adam wasn't about to get out and do it for her! ‘I don't think that's any of your business!' she scorned as she stepped out onto the pavement.

For such a large man, Adam moved with surprising speed, at her side as she used her key to open the security door at the entrance to the building, following her inside.

He swung her round to face him. ‘I'm making it my business, Andie,' he insisted. ‘Do you intend seeing Andrews again?' he repeated, his voice steely now.

She looked up at him defiantly. ‘I think that's for me to
decide—don't you?' Knowing she actually had no intention of seeing the other man again.

Gordon had asked her if she would like to have dinner with him next week, but, despite having enjoyed his company this evening, Andie knew she wasn't in the least attracted to him. Much better to leave their evening together as a pleasant memory. At least, that part of it!

‘Excuse me, Adam,' she dismissed as the lift arrived at the ground floor, stepping inside.

‘No,' Adam returned shortly, stepping into the lift beside her. Andie looked at him frowning as the lift ascended to her floor, before stepping out into the carpeted entrance to her apartment, throwing her bag and keys down onto the table and striding through to the calm elegance of her sitting-room.

Adam swung her roughly round to face him, his expression furious in the glow of the side-light she had left on in the room in anticipation of her return.

She gave a heavy sigh, knowing that they were both too angry to continue this conversation. ‘It's very late, Adam—'

‘That didn't seem to bother you a short time ago when you were all over Gordon Andrews!' he shot back at her, grey eyes glacial.

Her own eyes widened indignantly at his unwarranted accusation. ‘The man kept me company for the evening—which is more than can be said of you!' she returned angrily.

‘Don't try and turn this round on me,' Adam rasped coldly, his hand tightening on her arm. ‘By the time I had concluded my business with Elizabeth you were secluded in a dark corner with that damned clown!'

‘I—!' Andie gasped her outrage, trying to pull out of his grasp—and only succeeding in bruising herself instead.
‘Elizabeth King is even younger than I am!' she exclaimed.

‘Which makes you nothing but a—'

‘Yes?' Adam challenged hardly, his face only inches away from her own.

There was a warning in his eyes, but Andie was past caring about his anger, was only concerned with her own humiliation—and hurt, that he should have chosen to spend her coveted evening with him in the company of another woman, a beautifully luring one at that.

She had so looked forward to being with him this evening, had dressed with him in mind—and, as far as she was concerned, he had merely been using her in an effort not to arrive at the party alone, after all!

‘An aging Romeo!' Andie concluded stubbornly, anger winning out over prudence.

‘An aging—!' Adam's eyes darkened for a moment before they became silvery cold. ‘If I'm an aging Romeo,' he bit out tautly, ‘then you're nothing but a teasing flirt!'

The two of them glared at each other, nose to nose, green eyes clashing with silver, chins jutting out, neither of them willing to give an inch.

How long they would have gone on staring at each other in that way Andie couldn't have said, but suddenly Adam gave a groan, all of the anger draining out of his body, his hands no longer tight on her arms, the thumbs lightly caressing against the creaminess of her skin.

‘Damn you, Andie…!' he breathed raggedly, his forehead damp against hers now.

She felt the change in him, holding her breath in an effort not to break the physical awareness that suddenly seemed to have sprung up between them, her gaze steadily meeting his as she dared him to take this one step further.

‘Damn you…!' he groaned again before he moved slightly, his mouth claiming hers.

There was no gentle exploration, no slow rising of passion; as their lips met it was as if a sensual explosion had been set off between them, all thought, all caution, forgotten in the wave of feeling that engulfed them both.

With their mouths still fused in exploration, their clothes fell quickly to the floor, Andie not absolutely sure who took off what, only aware of searing emotion as she felt the naked warmth of Adam's body as it fitted perfectly against her own nakedness, Adam's hands seeking, and finding, each sensitive spot on her body, his lips heatedly following that same trail until Andie felt like liquid fire in his arms.

The carpet felt warm against her back, Adam like fire above her, his lips and hands touching the pouting yearning of her breasts, Andie groaning low in her throat as she felt a nipple drawn completely into the moist heat of Adam's mouth, the gentle touch of his tongue, the pleasure-pain of nibbling teeth, bringing a moist warmth between her thighs.