Eepisode 19
1773 Words
She’d actually forgotten about Chris and the appalling way that he’d
treated her. She’d forgotten about his lies and his betrayal the other
woman he’d been seeing all the time he was supposed to have been
engaged to her. Yesterday she’d been shattered devastatedunable to
think straight and yet somehow during the night something someone had pushed all those thoughts and concerns from her head and replaced
them with others.
With thoughts and concerns abouthim .
Dazedly, she shook her head, unable to believe her own thoughts. What
was happening to her? Just a few short days ago she had believed that
she loved Chris enough to marry him to be with him for the rest of her
life. Oh she’d known it was a quiet sort of love a friends into lovers built on mutual respect sort of love but she had believed it was love.
And now today.No? Edward questioned interpreting her shake of the head in a very different way from the one she had meant.No you won’t be going now or
no you won’t be staying?I wouldn’t be staying if I had any choice.I know you want me out of here
out of your life. I know.The sentence died on her lips as this time it was Edward who shook his
dark head with such total determination such purpose that it stopped
her dead in shock.
If you think that, then you know nothing. Did last night not tell you
anything? Did you not realise what it meant?Oh I know what it meant.Agitated fingers went to her hair again tugging at the tangled strands
then she tried to straighten her blouse once more pulling it towards her
waistband and fighting to tuck it in.But each time she got one uneven
edge straight another would pull lose until eventually she gave up again
with an exasperated exclamation of frustration.
It meant that you wanted me.That to put it bluntly because blunt is
the only thing that you seem to understand you wanted to get into my
pants.That you wanted s*x with me and that was all.No Edward inserted dark and low but suddenly finding that her tongue was freed from the restraints that the shocks of the past few
days had imposed on it Liza ignored the interjection and carried on
right over it.
So in my book that makes you only after one thing just like every other man just like Chris No!It was a roar of fury breaking over her head like an icy black wave cutting off her tirade, stopping it dead. Or that was the impression that
she gave Liza acknowledged. She wasn’t going to let Edward see that
she had really choked to a halt on the recollection that he wasn’t just like
Chris at all. At least Edward had truly wanted her, even if only sexually.
Chris had been lying through his teeth all the way along. He had never
wanted her at all not even in his bed. Don’t you dare say that I am like
the snake you were engaged to. Don’t even think of comparing me to him.
I am nothing like.Nothing like?.Nothing like?The acid burn of pain that was eating away at her heart put a black
cynicism into her tone, one that expressed her total scepticism better
than any words could ever do.So are you trying to claim that if we had…if I had let you.if we had slept
together last night that it would been more than just a night stand?That when I woke up in the morning you would have still been there?
That you wouldn’t have just had your fun and hightailed it out of there…’
Yes!The force of the single word the vehemence with which it was spoken
together with something fiercely intent in Edward’s face, stopped her
mid sentence once again only able to stare at him in confusion and disbelief.Yes Edward repeated even more emphatically this time. And no. Yes to
the fact that I would still be here in the morning.No I would not have
left before you woke. No I would not havehigh.
Unexpectedly his normally near perfect English let him down and the
little failure suddenly made him seem so much more human, so much more
fallible somehow giving a surprising edge to his words making her listen
to them even more closely and actually allow them to sink into her mind.Hightailed. she supplied faintly not wanting to distract him knowing a
sudden desperate need to know exactly what he was going to say next.
She found that she was holding her breath tight and forced herself to
let it go, expelling it in a soft sigh that she didn’t care if he heard.I would not have got into your pants. His grimace of distaste at the
expression said more than his words about the way he felt about her
accusation. And then left in the morning.You wouldn’t?
I would not.
And he meant it. Fierce pride drew his shoulders straight, brought his
head up. It blazed in the depths of his eyes, was stamped into the rigid
set of his jaw. He was insulted outraged that she would even suggest
it. And because of that Liza suddenly found that she was shaking in
apprehension trembling all over as she waited to hear what he would say
next.And why not?Why not? Because I want more than one night with you because what
we have between us will not burn itself out in just a few short hours.It—it won’t?The trembling was getting worse now.From feeling that he had walked
out on her for good, she had veered to the belief that he didn’t want her
anywhere near him and from there to thinking that he wanted her out.
Now he was saying that he still wanted her—and wanted her far more for far longer than she had ever dreamed.
Oh Liza.
Edward’s tone was almost gentle in its mockery and he took a step
forward, closer to her.Lifting a hand he let the backs of his fingers
trail down the side of her face, from her temple, over her cheekbone to
the fine line of her jaw and then along to trace the shape of her
quivering mouth. And she saw how his eyes darkened and deepened as he
watched her shiver of response.
Do you doubt it? Can you find any reason why it would not be true?And of course she couldn’t. Looking into his face, into his eyes, as she
was she could see nothing but sincerity and total conviction in what he
was saying.She didn’t know just what it meant, only that for now for
today, he meant exactly what he was saying. But she couldn’t find any words to answer him. All she could do was shake
her head in stunned silence, her tongue seeming frozen inside her mouth.
It seemed that that was enough. A small smile crossed Edward’s sensual
mouth brief fleeting. If she had blinked she would have missed it. But
she saw it and the way that her senses reacted to that faint warmth in his face, every nerve twisting in instant response, her heart kicking
under her ribs and her pulse picking up a beat or two, told her just how
much it meant.And that warned her how deep she was in.
So deep that the waters of sensuality were almost closing over her head cutting her off from the world she knew and all sense of reality that she understood.For now, for this moment there was only Edward and the spell he was
weaving around her.And Edward wanted her. He wanted her for more than one night.What we have between us will not burn itself out in just a few short
hours…
A small spark of hope lit in her bruised heart warming and easing the
pain that had torn at it so much in the past few days.Edward she began her voice trembling.But he brushed aside her stumbling beginning with an arrogant flick of
his hand and suddenly moved away again, crossing to sit astride the broad
leather covered arm of a nearby chair one foot on the buttoned seat the other on the floor his arms crossed over his broad chest.So now perhaps we had better talk about that job I’m offering.That job?
So now perhaps we had better talk about that job I’m offering.The words swung round in Jessica’s head, making her feel as if the world
was spinning round her so violently that she had to grab at the back of
the chesterfield for support.If he had slapped her hard in the face she doubted that it could have had much more effect than his sudden
withdrawal and the coolly careless words he had just tossed at her.Was she hearing right?And which part of what she had heard was the right one?Had she been imagining the darkly sensual, ‘what we have between us will
not burn it self out in just a few short hours’? Or was the brusque businesslike declaration that they had better talk about a job the reality and the other Edward just a figment of her imagination?
She didn’t know and couldn’t begin to guess. And the expression on the
face of the Edward who sat just a short distance away from her, proud
dark head slightly angled to one side, deep-set eyes watching her closely was totally enigmatic, giving nothing away.You’re offering me a job?
I already did remember. Yesterday before you set out to meet your
fiancé.Oh she remembered all right.She remembered him saying something
about offering her a job and then adding that he didn’t want her to go.But then he had moved closer. He had told her that he was definitely not
playing this time and then he had kissed her.And from that moment on
nothing else had registered in her mind.Only feelings feelings of hunger
and desire an overwhelming need for this man in a way that she had never ever experienced in her life before.A desire that in the shifting fortunes the total upheaval of the past couple of days was the one and only constant in her life.It was the only
thing that had remained consistent when her inheritance her belief in
the sort of man she had thought Jarty to be and finally her own trust in
the man she had thought she was going to marry had been totally
shattered until her existence was completely unrecognisable as the life it
had once been.We didn’t exactly discuss any details she managed warily.So what is it
that you have in mind?
- Writer
