by Kay Thorpe
`Ramon, you're not staying the night at the flat.' Eve said it flatly and firmly. 'This time you've taken just a little too much for granted ! All right, I'll come out with you, but first you book yourself into a hotel.'
He was smiling. 'Of course. It was my intention to do that by telephone while you change. So far there hasn't been a great deal of time.'
If the taxi-driver's face was anything to go by, Eve wasn't the only one to treat that statement with scepticism. She shut up after that. Any further exchanges on the subject could be left for when they were alone. She could still hardly credit that Ramon was actually here in London, let alone in the taxi beside her being his usual outrageous self. She had longed for him so badly, yet here they were within a few minutes of meeting again, right back where they had left off. It wasn't love which had brought him all this way, it was the challenge to his pride. He wanted her on his own terms.
By the time they reached the flat she was outwardly composed. She went on up while Ramon paid off the taxi fare, almost falling over the leather suitcase standing just inside the door. The moment he walked in she pointed to the telephone, then
gave him a sweet smile and went through to the bedroom, shooting the bolt audibly behind her.
There was a dress at the back of her wardrobe which she hadn't worn for ages. She took it out and looked at it for a moment before deciding to wear it now. It was black and plain, with long bell sleeves lined with a brilliant purple silk print. Gavin had considered it too noticeably different for his notion of good taste. Eve wondered how long it would take for Ramon to get around to asking her about Gavin, and how she would answer him when he did. Not that there were really any two ways about it.
Ramon was still on the phone when she went back to the living room some fifteen minutes later. He said 'Thank you' as she closed the door at her back, and ran an appreciative eye over her as he replaced the receiver on its rest. 'Perfect,' he said. 'Classic simplicity with a surprise up the sleeve at every move. It's often been said that clothes are an extension of personality. Now I see why.'
'Did you book a room?' Eve demanded, ignoring the satire.
He lifted a pained eyebrow. 'First things first. I obtained a reservation for dinner at one of your leading night spots. It seems a long time since we went dancing together.'
'Did you book into a hotel?' repeated Eve, enunciating each word with care and precision.
He lifted his shoulders and smiled, settling back comfortably into his chair 'I tried and failed. There are no rooms to be had.'
'Oh, don't be ridiculous! Of course there are.
There must be!'
Ramon pushed the directory towards her. 'Then you try. I already phoned a dozen hotels only to be given the same answer.' His grin was taunting. 'It's the tourist season, amada. The place is full of foreigners.'
'Well, this place isn't going to be ' She seized hold of the directory and began flipping through it. 'It doesn't have to be central London, does it?'
'It most certainly does.' He watched her in amusement. 'It can be left until later. There's almost sure to be a last-minute cancellation somewhere. I can try again when I bring you home.'
'If you haven't got somewhere to stay by then you won't be bringing me home,' she retorted. 'I told you ...'
'I know what you told me.' He said it lazily, but there was a certain glint in his eye. 'You've done nothing but tell me what I'm not going to do since we met. Matters will sort themselves out to our mutual satisfaction, never fear. In the meantime, I intend to enjoy our evening together, so pick up your coat and we'll get along. We can call somewhere for a drink before going on to dinner.'
It was useless arguing with him; Eve already knew that. Short of refusing to have anything more to do with him, and getting someone in to help her show him the door, she either went along with him or sat here twiddling her thumbs all night. She wanted, desperately, to be with him, but not alone as they were now. She wasn't sufficiently sure of herself for that. Helplessly she picked up her coat and
handbag from the chair where she had slung them and accompanied him from the flat.
Drinks at the Waldorf were followed by dinner at the Talk Of The Town. Sipping champagne and eyeing her companion across the lamp-lit table, Eve could finally bear the waiting no longer.
'Aren't you going to ask me about Gavin?' she demanded on a belligerent note which brought a smile to Ramon's lips.
'I don't need to ask. You will have told him very gently and considerately that you can't marry him because you've found out that there is more you want from life than he can offer.'
The champagne, the soft lights, the music, were all combining to make Eve's head spin a little. She had not been slow to notice the way other women had looked at Ramon when they were being shown to their table, yet he himself appeared to have eyes for no one but her. That was one of the good things about him: he could make a woman feel she was the only one he wanted even while she knew in her heart that she was merely a passing phase. It was the knowledge that she was envied which helped to make her reckless.
'Such as?' she asked with soft deliberation.
He quirked an eyebrow. 'You wish me to put it into words?'
'Why not?'
'Why not indeed?' He reached across and took her hand, turning it over so that it lay palm uppermost on the cloth between them. 'It's all in there; the pattern of your life. I see a strong will and a
stubborn nature blocking the lines of fulfilment, but not for long. The girl is becoming the woman, warm and passionate and yearning for love.' His voice was low, taunting. 'She needs a man who will match her, not one who would find such strengths of emotion beyond comprehension. A man who can teach her to love without fear or reticence, bend her to his will yet never break her.'
'Now who do I know who might fit that bill?' Eve murmured with a thoughtful frown. 'He'd have to be attractive, of course, and very knowledgeable ... and compassionate.' She gave him a sweet smile. 'That cuts you out, anyway.'
He regarded her equably. 'You think I lack compassion?'
'Let's say you haven't shown many signs of it.'
'No? I think I showed a great deal of it both on the night when you taunted me in the garden and the day we went to Teide.'
'You're confusing it with caution. You would have hated your mother to know that you'd seduced —if that's the word for what you're talking about—a guest in her home.'
'You would have told her?'
'I wouldn't have needed to. She'd have known. A very perceptive person, your mother.'
'Yes.' Ramon was smiling. 'Is it the champagne which is making you so clear in your thinking tonight?'
'Is that what I am? Then perhaps I should have some more.'
'I think not. I don't want to have to carry you
home.'
She gave what was meant to be a low laugh, saw several heads turn towards them and sobered abruptly. 'I think I might be getting just a little bit tight.' she said. 'It's a long time since I had champagne.'
'A little over two weeks, to be accurate. You didn't get tight that night. On the contrary, I seem to recall that you were most sober.'
'That was because I'd just begun to realise how necessary it was going to be to keep my wits about me. Mind over matter, and all that.'
He looked interested. 'And tonight you no longer feel the same necessity?'
'No ... Yes ! ' She felt suddenly confused. 'You're putting words into my mouth.'
'There wouldn't be room. Your own seem to be spilling over.' He stubbed out the remains of his cigar. 'Come and dance.'
Out on the floor she had melted into his arms before she realised what she was doing. When she tried to pull back a little he held her firmly, smiling into her eyes. After a brief moment she relaxed again, leaning against him with closed eyes. Later could look after itself. This was now, and she was going to enjoy it while she could.
Ramon took her back to their table when the music finished, but he didn't pull out her chair
for her to sit down. Instead he took hold of her purse and gave it to her. 'Time to go,' he said.
'But we'll miss the cabaret,' she pointed out, and he shrugged.
`So we miss the cabaret. We have things to sort out.'
Of course. The hotel room. Eve argued no further but went with him meekly. It wasn't until she got out into the fresh air that the full effects of the champagne began to make themselves felt. She climbed unsteadily into the taxi which the doorman procured out of thin air, and made no demur at all when Ramon put his arm about her and held her close. The drive over to Lambeth seemed unusually short. In no time at all Ramon was paying the driver and taking her arm up the front steps and then the stairs.
Once inside the flat, Eve sank to a seat in the nearest armchair and put her hands to her cheeks with a little laugh. 'You know, I feel quite lightheaded!'
Ramon moved towards the kitchenette. 'I'll make some coffee.'
She was still sitting in the same position when he came back with the tray. She watched bemusedly as he set out cups and saucers and poured, meeting amused dark eyes as he handed her a cup.
'I'm fully house-broken,' he said. `If pressed, I can turn out a quite superb paella.'
'Only quite?'
'Cooking isn't my main interest.' He smiled at the run of warmth under her skin. 'You're feeling more yourself?'
'Yes.' She was, and it wasn't the coffee alone that had done the trick. She put down the cup and nodded towards the telephone. 'Hadn't you better
start trying?' Her mouth firmed when he didn't move. 'You never had any intention of finding yourself a room, did you?' she demanded. 'You planned this! '
He hadn't sat down since bringing in the coffee, neither had he touched his own cup. Now, he stood looking at her for several seconds before saying softly, `No, I didn't plan it. But if that is what you want to believe I'll go along with it.' He took off his suit jacket and slung it over a chair back, loosened off his tie and regarded her with deliberation. 'Time for bed.'
Eve shrank back involuntarily in the chair. 'Stay away from me! Do you hear me, Ramon! Don't you dare ...'
'Now you're acting like a child again.' He took a couple of swift steps and scooped her up in his arms, then walked across to the bedroom door and kicked it open. Eve struggled wildly as he carried her over to one of the twin beds and put her down on it, but he held her securely, kneeling on the edge of the mattress to pin her helplessly down, much as he had that afternoon in the forest glade. 'Now what have you to say for yourself ?' he asked mockingly.
Her eyes were twin emeralds. 'If you don't take your hands off me,' she flashed, 'I'll scream my head off ! '
He shook his head. 'You wouldn't do that. You'd hate your neighbours to know that you had a man here with you. Eve Raynor succumbs to no such temptation.' A pause. 'Of course, you could always say that I forced my way in without invitation, and
that the suitcase out there belongs to someone else entirely. The girl next door may take a little convincing, as she saw me here this afternoon, but if you want to risk it ...'
'Stop it ! ' Her voice was unsteady. 'Ramon, you wouldn't! '
The mockery hardened suddenly into something else. 'Don't be too sure. You've done enough blowing hot and cold tonight to give any man reason. A salutory lesson could be what you need.' He studied her, his lips twisting again. 'Perhaps in future you'll at least give me the benefit of the doubt before jumping to hasty conclusions.'
'All right,' she said in low tones after a long moment, `so I'm suitably chastened. But you're as much at fault.'
'Because I've always made it obvious that I want to make love to you?' He tapped her cheek with a finger tip, humour restored. 'That's not a fault, chica, but a fact. And the question of when still has to be resolved between us.' He let her go, and straightened. 'I'll prove my good intentions by spending the night on your couch in the other room, or would you deny me even that much?'
Eve sat up and ran a hand over her hair, not looking at him. 'You can take the blankets from Lynn's bed, and there's a pillow in the cupboard over there.'
With his arms full he went to the door, pausing to look back at her before he closed it. 'Sleep on what I said.'
Sleep on it. Eve closed her eyes for a moment,
fighting the urge to call him back. A few minutes ago she had struggled to get out of his arms. Now, suddenly, she could think of nothing she wanted more than to spend the night in them. Only tomorrow would come, and Ramon would go, and then where would she be. It was no use. She just didn't have the kind of courage it took to accept the limitations of his kind of love. She got up quickly from the bed and began to undress.
Sleep was a long time in coming, and when it did it was plagued by dreams At some point during the night she opened her eyes to find herself sitting up in the bed with her heart pounding like a steam hammer and her mouth open as if in a shout, but with only the vaguest recollection of what it was that had scared her awake. She blinked in the stream of light from the room beyond as the door opened, still not fully enough in possession of her senses to sort out what Ramon was doing here in the flat in the middle of the night.
He came swiftly across to the bed. 'You cried out,' he said. 'Were you having a nightmare?'
'I think I must have been.' Memory came crowding back. She swallowed thickly. 'I'm sorry if I woke you.'
His smile was dry. 'I wasn't asleep. I've been reading for the last couple of hours. Are you all right now?'
'Yes.' He was wearing judo-style pyjamas in dark blue silk, the vee of the jacket front reaching almost to his waist. Eve could see the silver medallion against his chest, half hidden among the curling
dark hair, the ripple of muscle as he moved an arm. She lifted her eyes to his face, lingered for a pulsating moment on the strong line of his mouth, and finally met his eyes, her own wide and dark. When he sat down on the bed and took her in his arms she didn't resist but met his lips with honesty, feeling the strong beat of his heart against her breast, the tingling assurance of his hands. She slid her own arms up and around his neck, curled her fingers into the roughness of his hair and shut her mind to everything but the exquisite intoxication of the moment.
It was Ramon who did the pushing away this time, holding her from him with hands gone suddenly harder. 'No,' he said roughly. 'Not like this to comfort a child in the dark. You come to me as a woman or not at all.'
She looked at him with quivering lips, bewildered, hurt. 'I don't know what you want,' she whispered, and then gave a small cry as he cruelly tightened his grasp.
'I want you. Not just your body, but all of you! I want to know your thoughts, your feelings, to hear you tell me what I am to you. I'll settle for no less than that.'
Surrender. Total and complete. That was what he
meant. Eve gazed at him shakily, searching his face
for some sign of softening. But there was none. He
was merciless, unshakable, offering her the single
choice. And if she gave him what he asked for? If she
sank her pride and told him what he meant to her
what then? A few days together, perhaps. A few
days of watching him grow gradually restless and then bored. To give everything was to leave herself defenceless.
Her head lifted. 'All right,' she said, 'I love you, Ramon. I think you're inhumanly cruel and quite without feeling yourself, but I can't help it. You're the only man I've ever loved, and probably the only one I ever will love. Now get out of my room! '
He didn't move. 'You said probably the only man you will ever love,' he said, and then his expression was changing, his mouth widening, his eyes glinting. 'Dios, woman. I'd better be the only one ! I'll have no wife of mine so much as look sideways at another man ! '
Eve stared at him, too stunned at first to even begin to think straight. Then, suddenly, she came back to life, scrambling to her knees on the bed with her fists clenched and her eyes blazing. 'I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man on ear
th! Of all the conceited, arrogant, insufferable, overbearing ...'
'Irresistible?' he suggested as she cast around for some further epithet. 'Lovable, dependable, agreeable?' He was laughing, fending off her descending fist with his arm. 'I warn you, Eve, if you slap me again I'll spank you! '
For the first time Eve became aware of the flimsiness of her nightdress, and subsided abruptly into the bedclothes again. 'I hate you, Ramon,' she said tremulously.
'I know.' He put his arms about her and held her close, kissed her bare shoulder, her throat, feathered
his lips along the line of her cheek and found her lips with an urgency which stimulated the kind of response she hadn't known herself capable of. Then he was putting her away from him firmly. 'And I'm going to hate myself when I get back to the other room. But if you can give in to me then I must sacrifice too. Only not for long, amada mia. Not for us the strain of waiting weeks for a day and a time. You're going to marry me here in England, as soon as it's possible, and return home with me as my wife. How soon is it possible?'
She felt dazed, unbelieving. Was this really happening or was it all part of the dream? But no, because that had been a nightmare while this was everything wonderful.
'I think it's something like three days,' she said. 'But Ramon, we can't ...'
'We can, and will. Unless, of course, you feel that you're being robbed of your bridal role?' with a twist of his lips. 'If such things mean more to you ...'
She smiled, shook her head. 'I wasn't even thinking about that. I couldn't care less about all the trappings. It's just that ... well, at the risk of sounding trite, so sudden. When did you decide that you wanted to marry me?'
'About three minutes after we first met. You were aware of the current which sprang between us too, although you wasted so much time in denying it.'
'I should think I did, the way you made it seem.' She paused, looking into the lean, striking features. 'And you let me go without a word. If you really did