While Drew finished off some work in his study, Eve walked into the kitchen, made coffee and took it into him. They had eaten earlier at a small restaurant, now Drew wanted a few hours alone with her to relax.
“There are no risks involved, I hope?” Eve asked with a pang of anxiety. She was seated on the green leather sofa, looking towards Drew at his desk.
“Tempers are flaring, that’s all.” Drew shook his dark head. “It will be an intolerable situation if operations are brought to a halt. The answer, quite obviously, is face-to-face mediation. We’re not about riding roughshod over legitimate claims. Our intention is to be strictly fair in our dealings. We’ve honoured land rights in the past. I’m sure with goodwill on both sides we’ll work it out. Anyway, enough of that, I just want to be with you. That’s what matters the most. Our being together.”
Drew stood up, walked over to the chesterfield and scooped her up. He bent his head and brushed his mouth lightly, shiveringly, back and forth over hers. “How long do we have to wait?”
“Not quite six weeks,” she sighed. “The invitations have gone. I don’t think we’ll get any refusals. Maybe Susan.” Her mouth turned down wryly.
“Susan? Why, what’s the matter?” Still holding her, Drew sank back in an armchair.
“I think she has some idea of going overseas.” Eve decided to gloss over Susan quickly.
“This is the first I’ve heard about it. I thought she was being a lot of help to you.”
“Actually no!” Eve tipped back her head, her emotions more tangled than she thought.
“Is there something going on I don’t know about?”
“Oh, please, don’t let’s talk about Susan,” Eve moaned. “I wish I’d never laid eyes on the woman.”
“But obviously we must.” Drew managed a twisted smile. “Has she upset you in some way?”
“You’re dead right,” she said quietly when she wanted to shout.
“So, I’m asking, what did she say?” Drew closed a hand around her nape.
“Give me a break!” Suddenly, Eve was at flashpoint. Her heart beat like thunder. She jerked away, curling into a tight defensive position on another armchair. “You’ve heard every word of it before.”
“Evie!” Looking completely baffled, Drew threw up his hands. “It’s been a long day. What the hell’s wrong?”
“Oh, God, I don’t know.” She couldn’t diagnose her own mood. “I’m more difficult than most, I suppose.”
“Your surely not suggesting you’re having second thoughts?”
What an absurd idea! Still she lost her head, in fact, said something hurtful and stupid. “You haven’t given me much time.”
“No.” Danger and turbulence prowled in his dark eyes. “But you agreed to marry me. You made a commitment. A commitment, Evie. Isn’t that something you’re big on?” he asked harshly even as he thought, What am I doing? This woman he loved had such a tragic history.
“I didn’t mean—” Eve started, then closed her eyes.
“Tell me, then. What do you mean?” Drew begged.
Her beautiful eyes flew open, burning green. “Did you ever give Susan the slightest encouragement?”
Drew groaned aloud. Finally, he thought he’d lost it. “Do you enjoy doing this?” he demanded. “I’ve given you all the comfort and reassurance I know how. I took your hand. Put my ring on it. What can I possibly do more?”
Eve could feel herself trembling. “You can answer my question.”
The bright light shone on Drew’s taut, striking face. “There’s no need,” he rasped.
“Then how am I supposed to know?”
“How?” Frustrated beyond belief, Drew grabbed her, literally grabbed her, lifting her clean out of the chair and dragging her hard against him. “This is how!”
He crushed her mouth under his, revelling in pure sensation, ignoring her struggling, until her whole body responded avidly, angrily, full of temper and answering primitive passion.
“You still don’t know?” Strong emotion distorted his voice. With one steely, strong movement he had her up into his arms, carrying her back through the house and up the staircase.
“Drew, put me down!” Her life had never included such galvanic action. Her whole body was shaking with anger and excitement inequal measure.
“The hell I will,” he retorted. “Just shut up”
In his bedroom he threw her down on the bed, golden hair billowing, short skirt rucked up over her long exquisite legs. He grasped her wrists and pinned them to the ebony and bronze quilt. “How much punishment am I supposed to take from you?” He tried to ease his breathing but he couldn’t.
“Why don’t you let me go?” She tried to tug away. No hope.
“Because I love you, damn it,” he gritted. “You’re a woman like no other. I can’t keep my hands off you. There’s never been anyone else. Not Carol. No one. Is that what you want to hear?” Furious with her, with both of them, he lowered his head, kissing the young straining body that was arched to him. “You drive me crazy.”
She felt utterly crazy, too.
There was desperation in their lovemaking that night, no gentleness, no tenderness, but a furious kind of love dance.
Drew’s mouth razed her face, her throat, her body, his hands equally unappeasable, bringing her to the very edge, over and over again. All he wanted, she wanted. She wanted to cry aloud how much she loved him, how much she wanted him, but he wasn’t letting her breathe. His kisses rained down on her mouth while she lay beneath him, her breasts crushed against his chest, their flesh fused at the fulcrum.
When Eve finally convulsed, her whole body in spasm, she thought she called out to Drew. Her lover. Her soul. Only the strength of sensation was so great, the heat their bodies generated so volcanic, her lips barely moved.
When Drew drove her home much later, they were both very subdued, as though disturbed by the dark sensuality their mutual anger had unleashed. Eve’s body still throbbed from that sizzling confrontation. Drew’s mastery, her own high seductive power. Tonight they had entered another realm and neither could stop thinking about it.
At Eve’s apartment block Drew insisted on coming in with her, waiting for her to check through the rooms. Ben hadn’t come in yet. Something for once, Eve was grateful for.
“All right, I’ll say goodnight.” Drew nodded to her abruptly, his lean face taut. “There’s something else I have to say to you, Eve. Trust is what relationships are built on. I can’t believe you could let anything Susan could say hurt you. For the last time, Susan is my father’s widow. No more. Accept that or destroy what we have.”
Clearly it was an ultimatum. Though she was about to protest, say something to defend herself, Susan’s behaviour was unforgivable, Drew opened the front door and strode through.
Worse, he didn’t look back.
Midafternoon of the next day, still Drew hadn’t called. Either it was impossible for him to find a minute off or he was totally fed up with her. Eve bowed her head at her desk and tried desperately to concentrate on her work. For reasons she couldn’t explain, she felt anxiety crowding in on her other problems, an almost palpable unease. She’d already seen on television the sort of tensions that were being generated over native title. Drew himself was of the opinion everyone needed a cooling down period. But the wild card was always there. The person with the potential to incite violence. Not that Drew couldn’t look after himself. He had great negotiating skills and if it ever came to a scuffle, he was superbly fit.
Around four o’clock, Jamie all but ran into her office, holding on to the doorjamb. “Eve, did you hear?” His voice was uncharacteristically sharp and loud.
“What?” She jumped up, heart lurching.
“You don’t have to worry. I shouldn’t have blurted it out.” At her expression, Jamie tried to backtrack. “There was a news flash.”
“Tell me.” Eve advanced on him looking like she was ready to shake him.
“There’s been some trouble
at Sunderland. They don’t know who’s involved.”
Eve almost reeled back, looking stricken. “Not Drew surely!”
“No, no, I’m sure it isn’t.” Jamie vigorously shook his head. But there was tension in the muscles of his face. “Drew knows how to handle himself. A vehicle has been pushed over by the crowd. There might have been anyone in it.”
Eve moved back swiftly to her desk, reached into a drawer and withdrew a card. “I have Drew’s mobile.”
“It’s not answering,” Jamie told her. “Steve Holland is already onto it. His department will follow through. We just have to wait.”
They all waited. Five o’clock came and went and no one at TCR left the building. Everyone right down to the most junior member of the staff was still haunted by the sudden death of Sir David. It was difficult indeed under the circumstances to block off the general unease. Eve, who always appeared so competent and self-contained was totally unable to hide her anxiety. Everyone felt for her.
Finally news came through which Steve Holland, top executive, took in his brusque fashion.
“Easy, easy, I’m not following you,” he barked. “Tell me about Forsythe. What do you mean?”
Silence while he listened. “Well, we sure appreciate that,” he said in an altered tone. “I suppose we’ll be seeing it tonight. Right up there on television. Many thanks. Sorry I was a bit short there but we’ve all been mighty anxious.”
Steve replaced the receiver. It was Eve who spoke first.
“Drew is all right?”
Steve beamed at her. “Well, he might have a sore head for a few days, Eve. Poor old Rhys has broken his collarbone but Drew managed to deal with it. Apparently the meeting went well but they were waylaid by some hired hotheads on the way back with only one thing on their minds. Trouble. The driver got the wind up, tned to bulldoze through, but they rushed the car and succeeded in turning it over.
“Drew got out. Got the other two out, then took on the crowd. Whatever he had to say, it broke them up. We’ll see it all tonight on television. That was Channel Nine. Rhys has a stopover at hospital. They’re flying Drew home.”
She wasn’t going to wait. While staff dispersed seemingly on a high, Eve drove directly to the television station waiting for the helicopter to land. Drew was second out, his jacket folded over his arm, tieless, white shirt open at the throat. His lope was as springy as ever, limbs moving freely.
Her heart bursting with relief, Eve flew across the short distance that divided them, flinging out her arms, calling his name.
He caught her to him strongly, bent his head, kissed her mouth. “Everything’s okay, Evie.” He felt the trembling through her. “I’m perfectly fine.”
“But you’re not!” There was a large angry-looking graze on his right temple.
“Don’t take any notice of that. It’s nothing. Mindless little stunts don’t do anyone any good. In fact, as far as I can make out, it worked in our favour. I believe a resolution is in sight.”
“And us?” Eve whispered, conscious now video cameras were on them. “I want to resolve all our differences. All I know is I’d die if I ever lost you. I love you, Drew. I can’t wait to be your wife.”
It was said with such passionate intensity, Drew, despite a blinding headache, was flooded with a powerful sense of elation. Much as he had felt the love in Eve, saw it in so many ways, it was glorious to hear her put it into words.
He’d lived for this moment. This extraordinary moment.
Everyone who saw the large front page photograph of them in the morning paper, arms flung around one another, Eve’s beautiful face raised to her fiancé’s flashing smile, knew exactly what they were looking at. The very image of love.
Susan saw it, too. In her penthouse apartment she twisted the newspaper in her hands, her long nails unconsciously gouging holes in the page Oh, yes, she’d stay away. A captured moment like that gave her no hope.
CHAPTER TEN
A BRILLIANT spring afternoon.
Exquisite in her wedding raiment, Eve stood inside the Gothic doors of the packed cathedral, holding tightly to her brother’s arm. The days had rushed away, now she was presenting herself to the man she so passionately loved and who loved her. Could there be a greater happiness?
Drew’s pearl and diamond heart-shaped necklace lay warm against her breast. Her wedding gown of duchesse satin had the same lustre as the pearls, magnolia in colour with the faintest flush of ice green in the folds. The tiny panelled corselet bodice of her gown was strapless over the magnificent full skirt. Her short white veil caught by a high, pearl-encrusted headband had the same glimmer of ice green.
In a face made pale by deep emotion, her eyes glittered like emeralds. In her hand she carried a beautiful bouquet of all white flowers, lilies, peonies, roses, orchids, framed by delicate green foliage.
Two bridesmaids and two flower girls attended her. All in Chinese silk, their lovely dresses with billowing skirts reflecting the colours of their spring bouquets, rose-pink and lilac, mimosa yellow and a heavenly shade of blue. One of the attendants, a young girl, bore a decided resemblance to the bride, with her finely cut features, long blond hair and large, almond-shaped hazelgreen eyes. A stepsister, it was later confirmed in the press, to no one’s surprise.
The processional music from the great organ rang out, a wonderful composition by Handel, to thrill the soul.
Eve’s walk to the flower-decked altar began.
This is my life, she thought. My life to make full and meaningful. Take hold of it.
Wedding guests turned around, smiling and exclaiming at the dazzling beauty of the bride and her procession. Some women in the beautifully dressed congregation, remembering their own wedding, had tears in their eyes.
When at last Eve reached her bridegroom, more resplendent than she had ever seen him, she saw from the brilliant glitter in his eyes he was as immensely moved as she was. This was their day. Their great celebration.
Her beloved Ben took her hand and placed it in Drew’s.
“God bless you two all the days of your lives,” he whispered. For a moment Ben thought he could see through time and what he saw was good.
And now the wedding ceremony began, carrying them forward on life’s journey.
ISBN : 978-1-4592-5254-7
BOARDROOM PROPOSAL
First North American Publication 1999
Copyright © 1999 by Margaret Way Pty, Ltd
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