FORGOTTEN LOVER, Carole Mortimer [chrysanthemum read aloud TXT] 📗

a ragged, controlling breath. ‘Last night I had very little sleep, today I’ve driven for over four hours. Right now I need to be with someone I can relax with.’

‘And you—you can relax with me?’ She couldn’t relax with him at all, feeling as taut as a bowstring.

Jerard gave a rueful smile. ‘I can try. I don’t want to be alone, Velvet,’ he added seriously. ‘I just need—company, your company.’

‘All right,’ she agreed softly. ‘But I really don’t think I can eat.’

‘Then just have some wine. It will help you relax.’

It was a nice wine, white and bubbly, a little like champagne. Jerard didn’t do full justice to the meal either, although he asked the waiter to leave the wine as he cleared the other debris of the meal away.

‘Now for the music,’ Jerard said once they were alone again, moving to the stereo and vast supply of records in the adjoining cabinet. ‘What do you suggest?’

‘Johnny Mathis?’

‘Mm, I think I have a couple of his.’ He flicked through the collection, taking one out of the rack. ‘I seem to remember you used to like Rod Stewart.’

She smiled. ‘I still do.’

Jerard grimaced. ‘But not to make love to. I remember finding it very unsexy listening to Rod Stewart sing ‘If you think I’m sexy’ when I was trying to make love to you.’

Her mouth quirked with humour. ‘What happened?’

He shrugged. ‘We landed up in hysterics.’

‘I’m not surprised!’ She was starting to feel less embarrassed about his revelations from the past, although that was probably due to the wine she had consumed.

He put the Johnny Mathis record on the turntable. ‘This is much more romantic.’

Panic washed over her. ‘Perhaps I ought to go to bed now.’ She put down her wine glass. ‘I—I never did get anything done about a seperate room,’ she said nervously.

‘There’s really no need. There are more than enough rooms here. I’ve said I won’t force you, Velvet, and I won’t.’ His eyes were compelling. ‘It isn’t my way at all.’

‘I don’t suppose it’s ever needed to be,’ she choked. His eyes narrowed. ‘If you’re trying to find out if I forced you before then the answer is no,’ he rasped. ‘We met quite accidentally on the beach one day, fell in love, and after that there was no question of not spending every moment of that week together, day and night.’

‘But what was I doing in Florida?’

‘The same as you are this time, working. You were working for me then, too.’

‘And that’s how I was able to take the week off,’ she derided.

‘Yes,’ he snapped tautly, moving towards her. ‘Is that what it was, Velvet? A case of sleeping with the boss and seeing what you could get out of it?’

She stood up, suddenly pale. ‘I think I’ll go to my room now. And just for the record, Mr Daniels, did I ever ask you for anything?’

‘No, I offered it. I offered you marriage,’ he revealed bitterly.

‘And I married Anthony.’ Her mouth twisted. ‘So much for that theory, Mr Daniels. Perhaps you can give it a little more thought and come up with the answer as to why I married Anthony, if it isn’t already obvious enough.’

‘You loved him!’ Jerard rasped.

‘That’s right,’ she nodded coolly. ‘And whatever time I spent with you was just an impetuous interlude—and one I would rather forget had ever happened.’

‘I thought you already had,’ he scorned.

Her head was held high. ‘I have, but you haven’t.’

‘And I don’t ever intend to. It will serve to remind me of the deceit of women, something I’d forgotten by loving you.’ He turned his back on her.

Velvet went to her room, the temporary truce between them definitely over, although for Vicki’s sake she had to try and act as if there were no friction between Jerard and herself. Friction! It was such intense sexual awareness she could feel it even now, could sense his presence on the other side of her bedroom wall, his room being the one next to hers.

She found it hard to sleep, although she didn’t fear Jerard’s intrusion at all. He had said he wouldn’t force her, and she knew he wouldn’t. She knew that much about him at least.

She was slowly learning more and more about two years ago, had learnt that she must have thought herself very much in love with Jerard, that he had deeply returned that love, that he had been separated from his wife but that she was still engaged to Anthony.

She must have thought herself very much in love with Jerard to have betrayed Anthony in that way, and according to Jerard she had even agreed to marry him, something that had never become fact—because of his family commitments, Jerard said.

She didn’t even know she had been in Florida before, but Simon must know about it, so perhaps he could shed some light on it; he might even know about Jerard! Her brother had never mentioned another man when she had asked him about that blank eleven months, but then he probably wouldn’t know the whole story, and what he did know perhaps hadn’t seemed important as she had later married Anthony.

Nevertheless, she had to find out what he did know. She could hardly contain her curiosity until she got home. Home. Tomorrow she would be back in England, would take Tony back to the flat they shared, and then maybe she could forget all about meeting Jerard Daniels—for the second time.

After the way they had parted the evening before Velvet was perfectly prepared to put up with Jerard’s angry mockery; instead he was charming, laughing and joking with both Vicki and herself as they breakfasted together.

‘Can I go in Tunnel Mountain this time, Daddy?’ Vicki asked excitedly. ‘You said I was too small last time.’

‘You haven’t grown much,’ he teased, perfectly relaxed, looking handsome in a dark green shirt and black trousers, his tanned hair-roughened chest revealed by the open neck of his shirt.

It was a beautiful day outside, the sun was shining brightly,