Bittersweet Love Read online

  She half expected Eric to decline Kane’s invitation, but to her surprise he accepted with alacrity, informing her that it might prove a very good opportunity to make valuable contacts.

  Natalie hadn’t thought of that. She grinned wryly to herself as she replaced the receiver, and decided that it was just as well that she was not madly in love with him because she would have been quite disappointed at the speed with which he relinquished a weekend alone in her company in favour of the chance to make a few contacts.

  The following morning Kane asked her whether she had sorted out the weekend with Eric and she nodded, not glancing in his direction.

  ‘We’ll be there at six,’ she informed him, skimming through her mail and then getting up to make them both a cup of coffee.

  ‘I half expected you to tell me that he had refused to spend a weekend watching you entertain my clients,’ Kane called out, walking towards his office. ‘Odd sort of response considering the passion you two share. Or rather the passion you claim you two share. Or maybe my definition of passion isn’t quite the same as yours, because I know that if I were Eric I damn well wouldn’t want to share you for a weekend.’

  Natalie dumped the cup of coffee on his desk. ‘Well, you’re not Eric, are you?’ she said sweetly, her skin burning from his throw-away remark which had sent a series of images shooting through her brain.

  He grinned wickedly at her and promptly dropped the subject, but his reaction had left her with a niggling feeling. Whatever he said, however he behaved, deep down he would never equate her with anything other than the sexless secretary, she thought. She might drag Eric along, but he didn’t for a minute think that he would distract her from her duties because despite what she had told him he had not believed a word about any of it.

  She was preparing to leave for home on the Friday when the outer door opened and she looked up to see Anna staring down at her.

  ‘Mr Marshall isn’t here,’ Natalie informed her without bothering with niceties, which she knew would have met with a brick wall anyway. ‘He had a meeting in the Midlands and he won’t be back this evening.’

  ‘He didn’t tell me,’ Anna said, piqued.

  ‘It was a sudden thing.’ Natalie strapped her bag over her shoulder and switched off her computer terminal.

  ‘Well, I’ll see him tomorrow, anyway.’ Anna shrugged but didn’t move. ‘Kane tells me that you will be there with that boyfriend of yours.’

  Natalie nodded and wondered whether he made a habit of discussing her with his girlfriend behind her back. The thought made her feel slightly uneasy for some reason.

  ‘I might as well tell you that I’ll be sticking to Kane’s side like glue, so if you think you can use the opportunity to wheedle yourself next to him, then you’re in for a shock.’

  Natalie moved towards the door, her body stiff with anger, but she still managed a smile. ‘If you don’t mind, I’m just about to lock up and go home.’

  ‘He doesn’t look twice at you, you know,’ Anna said, flouncing out of the door towards the lift. Natalie followed her reluctantly, not having a great deal of choice.

  ‘I never implied that he did,’ she pointed out, stepping into the lift with the other woman and absent-mindedly staring at the buttons as the doors swished shut in front of them.

  ‘I told him that you fancied him,’ Anna continued and Natalie turned to face her, enraged.

  ‘You did what?’

  Anna threw her a sly look. ‘Well, I thought it just as well to warn him. Men can be so stupid where women are concerned, and I didn’t want him to find himself in any embarrassing situations.’

  Natalie could have hit her. No wonder he had been so amused at the thought of her and Eric conducting a passionate affair; no wonder he had not believed a word of what she had said. Why should he? Anna had said her piece and hadn’t Natalie herself responded to his lightweight kiss like some inexperienced teenager?

  What a joke he must find it all.

  ‘How good of you,’ she said through gritted teeth.

  ‘I hope you don’t mind,’ Anna said carelessly, pleased with the reaction which she had managed to stir.

  ‘I don’t really care.’ The lift deposited them on to the ground floor and Natalie stepped out into the foyer with a feeling of intense relief. ‘You can tell Kane Marshall anything you like,’ she said quietly, in control of her emotions now, ‘if it makes you feel better. But if I were you I would think very carefully about your relationship with him. I would say that if it was a solid one you wouldn’t be looking over your shoulder continually, wondering whether you can trust him near other women.’

  Anna gave her a look of spiteful hate. ‘Of course I can trust him,’ she hissed, but there was a shadow of doubt in her eyes. ‘It’s just that men are easily tempted.’

  ‘Only if they want to be.’ Natalie turned and began walking away, not daring to glance back behind her.

  That unexpected meeting had left her feeling drained and depressed. She arrived back at her flat with that deflated, slightly sickened feeling still there in the pit of her stomach, and on impulse she went into her bedroom and began packing for the overnight stay, including an absolutely outrageous flame-red outfit which she had bought to celebrate her weight loss and which she had so far not actually screwed up the courage to wear.

  Why should she fade away in greys and browns simply to keep a low profile? She threw in a pair of skin-tight flowered leggings which she would wear with a turquoise silk blouse on the Sunday morning, and by the time she had finished was actually feeling quite a bit better.

  For all those years she had been an insignificant figure in an office, efficiently accomplishing her duties, over-looked by all of those women who trailed in on Kane’s arm and then trailed back out again when he was finished with them. Now she would show the world at large that she might not be a staggering beauty, like Anna, but she could hold her own and be proud of the way she looked.

  Eric must have sensed her defiance when he came to collect her the following afternoon because he immediately commented that there was something different about her. Natalie smiled and told him that the weather must have something to do with it, and it was true—the sun was shining brilliantly and through the open window the pleasant breeze made her want to shut her eyes and drowse. She had made this trip to Kane’s house several times before, and she knew that it would take at least two hours, and probably more like three if the traffic proved unreliable.

  His house, which he had inherited from his parents when they emigrated to France, was in an idyllic little village in Worcestershire—one of those charming places which somehow managed to look endearingly quaint without sliding into over-cute banality. It was oddly pro-portioned, quite small upstairs, but huge downstairs, with enough room to entertain vast numbers of people without a feeling of overcrowding. Which was probably why his parents had bought it. Natalie knew that they had entertained quite extensively before they emigrated. In fact, she had been to their very last party before they left the country and had thoroughly enjoyed it. She had rather liked Kane’s parents. They were intensely charming, the sort of charm that brought a smile to your lips.

  As the car edged out of the London traffic and picked up speed on the motorway Natalie relaxed and chatted to Eric about the place, about the people who would be there, and about what would be expected of her.

  ‘Most girls would put their foot down at working on weekends,’ he said, glancing across at her with curiosity.

  ‘It’s become something of a bad habit,’ Natalie told him truthfully. ‘I was very accommodating for a long time; after all, I enjoyed the work and the money was fantastic. Now he simply takes it for granted.’

  ‘And you’ve never considered leaving?’

  ‘Of course I have,’ she protested; ‘it’s just that…’ Her voice dwindled off and she thought about what it would be like to work somewhere without that constant excited tension in her at the thought that Kane would be around. Even in his ab
sence she had not been able to shake him off because she had known that in due course he would reappear in her life.

  ‘The money?’ Eric prompted.

  Natalie laughed and agreed vaguely, changing the subject. Recently, she had been thinking a great deal about all sorts of things, one of which was working with Kane. Sooner or later she would have to leave. When he had treated her only as a secretary, she had been able to feed her love from a distance, never questioning herself too much. But things were changing and matters which had previously only briefly popped into her head to pop back out again were looking up in a decidedly more threatening manner now.

  It was just after six by the time they made it to the house. The car pulled up through the stone pillars, up the tree-shrouded avenue and into the courtyard.

  Natalie had been there enough times to be fairly casual about the impressive edifice, but Eric let out a long whistle.

  ‘Some house,’ he said on a low, awe-struck tone.

  Natalie gazed at it. It was a grand building, cream-coloured and set in acres of beautifully landscaped gardens.

  ‘Why on earth does he live in London when he can move out here?’ Eric asked in the same impressed voice, and Natalie laughed.

  ‘Kane Marshall? In the country? On a full-time basis? I think he would go mad within a week. He once told me that he’s the sort of person who needs stress to survive. He thrives on the fast pace of city life, and of course when he needs a rest he always has this to come to. In fact, you could say that he has the best of all possible worlds.’

  She jumped out of the car and allowed Eric to carry her case up to the front door, which was opened by O’Leary after a couple of rings. He recognised Natalie instantly and gave her a coy smile. To Eric he directed a look of open suspicion which made her want to burst out laughing.

  ‘I can’t cope with all this to-ing and fro-ing at my age,’ he told Natalie in an undertone, as he bustled around them in the hall, shutting the door with a huge clang. ‘No sooner do we settle in the city than I get dragged up here to entertain the master’s friends.’

  Natalie stifled the grin at the thought of O’Leary entertaining.

  ‘Has Mr Marshall arrived as yet?’ she asked, noticing out of the corner of her eye Eric’s reverential observation of the hallway with its original paintings and magnificent tapestry dominating the staircase wall.

  ‘He has.’ Kane’s voice from behind her made her swing round to see him walking towards her, casually dressed in a pair of beige trousers with an olive-green shirt carelessly tucked into the waistband. He glanced across to Eric who had also turned at the sound of his voice, and Natalie wondered for a fleeting moment what was going through his head.

  ‘I’ll get back to the kitchen, then, shall I?’ O’Leary muttered, shuffling off into the left-hand wing of the house.

  Eric began to praise the house effusively, and Kane listened to him in polite silence, which irritated Natalie because she knew that it was deliberate, verging just slightly on the brink of rudeness, but when Eric flushed and paused in his eulogy Kane threw him that taste of urbane charm guaranteed to make you wonder whether you had misread his earlier coolness.

  He caught Natalie’s eye and she raised her eyebrow slightly, leaving him in no doubt that this little game was one that she could see through with no difficulty at all. She had seen it often enough in action and it usually succeeded in elevating Kane into a superior position.

  He grinned at her and said, in a ultra-courteous voice, ‘Shall I show you where you will be sleeping?’

  They followed him up the vast staircase which curved around on to the first landing, and along the wide corridor to one of the doors on the right which he pushed open with a flourish.

  ‘Here you go,’ he said, then he turned to Natalie. ‘O’Leary hasn’t as yet made up the spare room for you. If you like, I can get him to do that now.’ He lounged against the door-frame, his hands in his pockets, and surveyed her thoroughly, then his eyes flitted across to Eric, who was gazing around the room with evident admiration. ‘Of course,’ he murmured, teasingly, mock seriousness on his face, ‘if you want to share this room…?’

  He expected her to refuse. Vigorously. The horrified virgin who wouldn’t dream of any such thing. She could hear the intonation in his voice, feel the expectancy hovering at the edge of his question, and she heard herself saying. ‘Yes, I rather think I do.’ There was a swift change of expression on his face and he stood upright, a sudden stillness about him which made her want to laugh out triumphantly. Except, she thought, appalled by her rashness, there was nothing to laugh about, was there?

  ‘What the hell do you mean by that?’ he asked in a low voice, as Eric moved across to the window to gaze outside, oblivious to what was going on. His green eyes devoured her, demanded a response, and she forced herself to answer lightly.

  ‘I mean that there’s no need for you to get O’Leary to clean the other spare room.’ She turned to Eric and said in a louder voice, ‘We’ll both be fine in here.’

  CHAPTER FIVE

  KANE left the room without saying a word. As soon as the door clicked behind him, Natalie looked across to Eric with an expression of nervousness. It was one thing being defiant with Kane Marshall, but now she would have to suffer the consequences of this particular rebellion, and some instinct, which she could only assume was the prurient streak in her, balked at the prospect.

  She had never, ever shared a room with a man before. Not in any circumstances. The thought of doing so now made her go hot with embarrassed anxiety. Not that she saw Eric as a threat. She didn’t.

  She smiled at him and cleared her throat. ‘Here we are,’ she said with a little cough. ‘I…I really don’t know what came over me just then.’ She sighed heavily and sat on the bed, hoping that he wouldn’t sit next to her.

  ‘Nor do I,’ Eric said. ‘You’re the last person I would have expected to rush into anything like this.’

  Natalie stared at him, alarmed. ‘Don’t get the wrong idea, Eric,’ she said quickly, in a high voice. ‘I don’t want…I didn’t mean to let you think that…that…’ Her voice trailed off and she looked at him hopefully to fill in the gaps in what she was trying to say.

  ‘So why are we both here now?’ he asked logically enough and Natalie shrugged her shoulders helplessly.

  ‘Kane Marshall,’ she said in a faltering voice, ‘thinks that I’m…that I haven’t got a clue about…anything. I suppose I just sort of rebelled on the spur of the moment.’

  ‘You care that much about what he thinks of you?’ Eric looked at her curiously and she flushed.

  ‘Of course not! It’s just that…’

  He waited for her to finish but what more could she say without inadvertently telling him much more than she wanted him to know? She miserably trailed her finger along the ornate embroidered bedspread, and finally muttered, ‘I don’t want to sleep with you.’

  Eric laughed ruefully. ‘Thank you for being so blunt.’

  Natalie looked at him, scarlet-faced. ‘I’m sorry, I really don’t mean to be offensive…’

  Eric sighed and then said in an amicable enough voice, ‘Go and get dressed, Natalie, before you tie yourself into even more knots. I get the message. You wanted to prove something to Kane Marshall, but that’s it. Don’t worry. At least you’ve stopped me from making a fool of myself.’

  Was he angry? Natalie wondered, looking at him. He didn’t appear to be too overwrought, but maybe he was clever at hiding his emotions. Whatever, there was no sense in dragging the whole discussion out. She had dug herself a pit and then willingly stepped into it, so all she could do now was make the best of the situation.

  And Eric was as sympathetic as she could have wanted him to be, which would have been an insult if it wasn’t instead such a huge relief. He made sure that the conversation was as impersonal as possible, scrupulously afforded her as much time as she wanted in the bathroom, and after a while some of that nervous panic began to leave her. She was m
ore or less her usual calm self, at least on the surface, by the time she was dressed and ready to make her way downstairs.

  Eric was still in the bathroom and rather than wait for him she made her own way to the kitchen, quickly looking over the food, which smelt delicious, listening to O’Leary’s complaints about being too old for this sort of flash catering, and generally making sure that every-thing was going to run smoothly. It was the normal routine when she attended one of these weekend work parties, and she could handle it all with her eyes closed.

  She was walking towards the lounge when she felt Kane’s presence behind her. She had not heard him, but she knew that he was there because the hairs on the back on her neck stood on end and she got that slightly breathless, alert feeling that came over her whenever he was around.

  She turned around to find him staring at her, lounging against the wall. He must have been in one of the down-stairs rooms, and seen her as she had walked past. He was dressed formally in a deep grey, impeccably tailored suit, and Natalie thought that she had never seen anyone look quite so devastating in her life before.

  Did he have any idea just how physically attractive he was? Probably. That didn’t worry her, but what did worry her was what he might be thinking now about her, after what Anna had told him. Did he think that she was about to collapse in a dead faint at his enormous sex appeal?

  ‘Hello,’ she said, not moving towards him and making sure that her voice did not betray her emotions.

  He grinned and remained where he was. Then, very deliberately, he let his eyes wander the length of her body, only slowly returning to meet her face, which was stony and disapproving.

  Are you quite finished? she wanted to ask, but she dreaded the sort of cryptic, mocking answer that might meet her question, so instead she said calmly, ‘Shall I wait for the guests in the lounge?’