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

far as Velvet was concerned the whole evening had been ruined, and she found it hard to relax in Jerard’s company.

‘You’re very quiet,’ he remarked on the drive back to her flat. Tony was spending the night with Vicki.

‘I’m surprised you noticed,’ she said waspishly.

‘I noticed,’ he said grimly. ‘What the hell is the matter with you?’

‘Nothing!’ she snapped.

‘You’ve been in this mood all evening,’ he sighed.

‘Not all evening,’ she corrected tautly.

‘No,’ he slowly agreed. ‘Just since we talked to Marion.’

‘We didn’t talk to Marion,’ she stared sightlessly out of the window. ‘You did,’ she added resentfully.

Jerard raised dark eyebrows. ‘And you didn’t like it?’

‘No, I didn’t!’ Her eyes flashed as she turned to glare at him. ‘Is she one of them?’

Jerard frowned. ‘One of what?’

‘One of those women,’ she said heatedly. ‘One of the select twenty or so.’

‘What the hell are you talking about?’ he asked impatiently, as he stopped the car outside her flat.

‘I’m talking about you and Marion Walsh. Is she one of those twenty women you’ve slept with?’

Jerard looked puzzled. ‘Marion is my secretary.’

‘Your—? That doesn’t mean you haven’t slept with her,’ she accused angrily. ‘In fact, it’s more likely that you have. Most men sleep with their secretaries.’

He reached out in the darkness and shook her. ‘Will you stop that!’ he ordered furiously. ‘Marion is my secretary, she’s never been anything else to me.’

‘Oh yes?’ Velvet scorned.

‘Yes!’ He thrust her away from him. ‘But then you already knew that. Are you trying to argue with me, Velvet? Is this your way of getting out of marrying me?’

‘I don’t want to get out of marrying you! Why do you keep saying that?’

‘Maybe I can’t believe my luck.’ He ran a hand through his hair.

‘And maybe I can’t believe mine! I didn’t realise that I would be competing with your secretary. The way she kept touching you, right in front of me, was disgusting!’ Velvet opened the car door and swung out on to the pavement. ‘I’ll be round early in the morning to pick up Tony,’ and she slammed the door and walked hurriedly away.

Jerard caught up with her at her flat doorway, swinging her round to face him. ‘You aren’t getting rid of me that easily.’ He took the key out of her hand and opened the door, pushing her inside. ‘Now we are going to talk this thing out,’ he told her grimly.

Velvet switched on the lights, facing him defiantly. ‘There’s nothing to talk out.’

‘Oh yes, there is, damn you. Okay, so maybe Marion was being a little—enthusiastic—’

‘Obscene is the word,’ Velvet put in tautly.

His mouth quirked into a smile. ‘Enthusiastic,’ he insisted lightly. ‘But she was only trying to get her own back. You put her nose out of joint, and she doesn’t like it.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ her tone was sarcastic. ‘Maybe you would prefer to call off the wedding?’

‘I wasn’t talking about now, Velvet,’ he sighed. ‘I’m talking about in Florida.’

She frowned. ‘But Marion Walsh wasn’t in Florida.’

‘She was.’

‘But I didn’t see her. If she was there why didn’t you get her to take care of Vicki?’

‘Vicki? But—Velvet, I’m not talking about this time, I’m talking about two years ago. Marion, as my secretary, was with me that time. I’ll admit that I’d decided that trip was going to make it more than a business relationship. She knew it too, which was why she was a little put out when I met and fell in love with you. We were supposed to be there working, with perhaps a little romance as well, and she didn’t see me all week.’ He was watching her closely, his face pale. ‘You don’t remember it, do you?’ he said dazedly.

‘No,’ Velvet breathed huskily. ‘I—No wonder she didn’t like me just now!’ She blinked back the tears. ‘I didn’t realise we’d met before. She must have thought me very rude.’

Jerard walked over to her as if in a trance. ‘You really don’t remember, do you?’ he said softly.

She shook her head. ‘No.’

His hands came up to cup either side of her face as he searched the bewilderment of her face. ‘My God,’ he choked, ‘it’s true. All that you told me, it’s true.’

‘Yes,’ she nodded, biting her bottom lip.

’God!’ He pulled her hard against him. ‘You poor child!’ he groaned, his face buried in her throat.

‘I’m not a child, Jerard,’ she cried her relief, holding him tightly to her. ‘I’m so glad you believe me at last!’

‘Oh, I believe you,’ he said deeply, putting her away from him. ‘I should have known you couldn’t lie like that. Except for denying all knowledge of me you’re still the girl I fell in love with, and I—’

‘I am?’ she asked eagerly.

‘Yes,’ he nodded. ‘But you kept saying you didn’t know me, and I thought you were ashamed of the week we’d spent together.’

Tears glistened in her deep brown eyes. ‘You’ll never know how much I wish I could remember it.’

‘It was beautiful, Velvet. The most beautiful week I’ve ever spent in my life. We used to lie in bed every night watching the moonlight on the ocean—until I couldn’t stop myself making love to you any longer,’ he recalled huskily. ‘I loved to make love to you. Each time it got better, until I was sure it couldn’t be any better. But it was,’ his eyes glowed. ‘God, it was!’

Velvet bit her lip, frowning. ‘So it was just sex with us?’

‘No, it wasn’t!’ he shouted furiously. ‘I said we made love, and that’s exactly what we did. Sex is what I could have had a dozen times during the last two years, but I didn’t want just a body in my bed to caress and get enjoyment from. What we had was unrepeatable, a complete joining of our minds, our souls, and lastly our bodies.’

‘Are you saying there’s been no one else since—since me?’

‘No one,’ he shook his head. ‘I’d known plenty of women before you, I’ve already told you that, but once I’d met you, loved you, there