by Penny Jordan
‘Hasn’t it occurred to you that your surmises are a trifle indelicate, seeing we’re only just married?’ Chase remarked. His arm was resting against the back of Somer’s waist, his fingers curling round her hip, and Somer tried to move away, overpowered by the sheer masculinity of him. Every time she tried to draw a breath she seemed to breathe in the male scent of him, her senses acutely heightened and aware of him in a way which was extremely disturbing.
‘Indelicate?’ Helena laughed. ‘When did that ever worry you? And when are you coming down to see us? The kids have missed you.’
‘When we come back from our honeymoon.’
‘So when do you plan to move into Barnwell?’
‘Just as soon as we’re ready.’
‘Has he taken you to see it yet?’ she asked Somer. ‘Uncle Charles became something of a recluse as he got older. I used to go over and see him, but he didn’t like visitors. The house is basically solid enough but the furnishings…’ She pulled a wry face. ‘Still, Chase is well off enough for you to put it all right. Do you work at all?’
‘I write computer programmes,’ Somer told her, ‘but it’s very spasmodic and of course I can work from home.’ She felt rather than saw Chase frowning, and Helena who had seen it too laughed.
‘What’s the matter, big brother?’ she mocked. ‘Don’t you like the thought of an independent wife? He’s the most terrible chauvinist,’ she told Somer with relish. ‘You wouldn’t believe how bossy he was as a kid and all because he was ten minutes older than me. Don’t let him push you around. Like all men he enjoys the thought of having his wife all helpless and dependent on him.’
‘John, will you please take her away,’ he implored his brother-in-law mock defeatedly. Up until then Somer hadn’t felt the slightest twinge of curiosity about Chase’s background. It came as a shock to discover that he had this other side to him; that he was so plainly idolised by Helena’s two sets of twins, the four boys deluging him with questions until their parents shooed them away.
‘And I did so want at least one daughter,’ Helena mourned, watching them disappear in the direction of the buffet table, ‘but John says his nerves won’t stand another try. Still,’ she brightened up perceptibly, ‘if I had a niece or two…’
‘Take her away, John,’ Chase drawled, adding to Somer for the benefit of his family, ‘you have the most illuminating expression, darling. I could almost see you blenching at the thought of a couple of Amazons like my boisterous sister…’
‘Children…children…’ John’s mild voice teased them. He and Chase moved slightly away to talk about a business deal John was setting up, leaving the two women alone. ‘Seriously, I’m very fond of my brother,’ Helena said bluntly.
‘I expect you were very surprised when you heard about us getting married.’
‘Not once I’d seen you,’ was Helena’s cryptic response. ‘I recognised you from your photograph,’ she added. ‘Chase had a bad bout of tropical fever when he came back from Jersey—it’s a recurring thing he gets when he overworks. He was staying with us at the time, and I unpacked his case for him. The photographs were in it. I guessed then how he felt about you, although we never talked about it—twins don’t need to.’
Helena thought that Chase loved her! Somer opened her mouth to tell her exactly why she was marrying her beloved brother, and how he had compelled her to do so, and closed it again, impelled by some emotion she scarcely understood not to destroy Helena’s illusions.
Ten minutes later when Chase was back at her side, she bitterly regretted her magnanimity.
‘I hope you’ve told her how lovely she looks, Chase,’ Helena commented, before going to rejoin her husband. ‘I know people always say the bride looks beautiful, but this one really does. That dress is a dream,’ she added to Somer before moving away.
At last the speeches and cake-cutting were over, and it was time for them to slip away.
‘Where are we going?’ Somer asked Chase curtly before she went upstairs to change.
‘It’s a surprise, but I’ve taken Mrs McLeod into my confidence and I understand she’s packed a case for you.’
When she went up to her room Somer discovered this to be true. Moira was waiting for her, and had a pretty linen suit laid out on her bed. It was one Somer hadn’t worn before, its pale lemon colour bringing out the blue-black lights in her hair and emphasising the delicacy of her skin. She was ready with five minutes to spare, which was more to Moira’s credit than to her own. Chase knocked on her door and then walked into her room just as she was putting the finishing touches to her make-up. Their eyes met in the mirror and Somer felt herself colour up as her hand trembled betrayingly.
‘I’ll take your case down,’ Chase murmured easily. ‘You’ve got five minutes.’
‘Or you’ll do what? Leave without me?’
Moira laughed, not noticing the murderously cold glance the newly married pair exchanged.
Downstairs they had to run the gauntlet of well-wishers. Somer kissed and hugged her father. He was leaving for Qu’Hoor at the end of the month. For the first time it hit her that she was leaving her home for good; that she would be sharing the home of a man who was virtually a stranger to her; a man she loathed and despised, and who had tricked her into this travesty of a marriage for his own purposes.
Chase helped her into his car, a silver-grey Mercedes, and then slid into the driver’s seat. The traffic blurred round them as Somer tried to concentrate on calming her overwrought nerves. They had gone several miles before she recognised the route. They were going to Heathrow.
Chase parked the car and helped her out of it. ‘I’ve arranged for someone to pick it up later. This way.’
The departure lounge was thronged with people as might be expected during the peak holiday season. Somer felt tired and drained, barely glancing round her as she followed Chase. Like a dog with a new master, she thought bitterly, watching the way in which the crowds seemed to part automatically to let him through, while she was swallowed up in his wake. The girl handling passenger arrivals gave him a dazzling smile and Somer felt a painful twinge seize her middle. Indigestion, she told herself solidly, looking away.
‘Your flight will be boarding shortly, sir,’ the girl told Chase with another admiring smile. ‘If you’ll just weigh in your luggage.’ Somer glanced indifferently at the departures board. It mattered little to her where they went, and then she felt as though her stomach were plunging crazily downwards, like a lift suddenly out of control.
‘Jersey,’ she accused Chase huskily, ‘we’re going to Jersey?’
‘Why not? I thought it the romantically appropriate choice.’
Somer’s fingers dug into her palms. It was the only way she could stop herself from screaming at him. Oh, he had chosen Jersey deliberately all right, but not for any romantic reasons. No, he wanted to underline the hold he had over her; he wanted to torment her with the past, with her folly in believing that… That what? That she was desirable enough for a man to want to make love to her? The very way in which he agreed that their marriage should be in name only had proved how undesirable he found her, and yet he obviously believed that she had had lovers. And she would make sure that he continued to think so. How he would mock her if he knew the truth; if he knew that after his rejection she hadn’t allowed any man close enough to her for it to happen again.
‘Would you like a cup of coffee or something before we board?’ Somer nodded briefly, anything to get rid of him, to be alone for a few precious minutes.
‘No running out on me, Somer,’ he warned tautly. ‘Because if you do I’ll only come after you.’
Where could she run to? Back to her father who believed that she and Chase were deeply in love? Somer sat down and leaned back in her seat closing her eyes, unaware of how pale and fragile she looked beneath the artificial lighting. Mauve shadows lay under her eyes, her skin pulled tightly over the high cheekbones.
They boarded in mutual silence, Somer taking the window
seat Chase proffered even though she didn’t want it. She closed her eyes automatically as they took off, her fingers instinctively groping for and finding Chase’s. When they were safely airborne and her panic was over she tugged her hand away tensely. ‘Well, well, you do have some human tendencies after all. I was beginning to think I’d married a robot.’
‘You married someone you could get rid of in twelve months so that you could claim your inheritance,’ Somer reminded him, ‘and you blackmailed me into marrying you.’
‘So I did, and perhaps if you’re very good I’ll reward you with a nice cheque the day our divorce becomes final.’
‘The only reward I want is the return of those negatives…’
‘Ah yes, those.’ He smiled mockingly at her. ‘How you’ve changed. You’ve become so cold and hard I barely recognise you. What happened?’
How dared he ask her that after the way he’d rejected her? ‘You should know,’ she spat out angrily without thinking.
‘Should I?’ The green eyes narrowed and studied her closely. ‘Oh, you mean you could hardly be expected to retain the air of innocence I remembered when you’ve slipped in and out of as many beds as you must have, although curiously you’ve managed to convince the gossip columnists that you’re whiter than white. Very clever of you. How do you do it?’
To Somer’s relief the stewardess came round asking if they would like a drink before Chase could goad her any more and shortly after that came the announcement they would soon be landing.
Chase had arranged a hire car which was waiting for them at the airport. Somer felt the same indefinable tension which had gripped her at the reception, coiling through her as they set out for the hotel.
‘Where are we staying?’ she asked casually, dreading hearing the answer. ‘Where do you think?’ Chase shot her a mocking look. ‘Only this time we’ll be sharing.’
‘The Hermitage?’ Her voice was dry and husky.
‘Where else? Romantic of me, wasn’t it? Perhaps we’ll even return to that beach and…’
‘Stop it!’ Somer gripped the sides of her seat, her face white with anguish.
‘What’s the matter?’ Chase drawled. ‘Don’t you like being reminded of how we first met? Or is it something else you’d rather not remember, Somer? How many men did you have to beg to make love to you until you found one that was willing?’
He might just as well have struck her physically, the effect was much the same. She winced away from him, her eyes almost black with shock and pain.
‘You bastard,’ she said hoarsely, reaching blindly for the door handle, not thinking beyond her overpowering need to escape not only from Chase but from her own thoughts as well.
The car screeched to a halt as Chase braked and pulled off the road, his face white with temper as he reached across her gripping her shoulders. ‘You crazy little fool,’ he grated, shaking her. ‘What the hell were you trying to do? Kill yourself?’
‘Why should that bother you? I should think it would be the perfect solution to all your problems, you wouldn’t even need to wait twelve months to get rid of me that way,’ Somer retaliated wildly.
Suddenly the pressure of Chase’s grip slackened a little, his mouth a grim line as he studied her flushed face and too-bright eyes. ‘This is crazy,’ he muttered, withdrawing one hand to push it irately through his hair. ‘We can’t go on baiting one another like this.’
‘We?’ Somer allowed her eyebrows to lift in chilling disdain.
‘You don’t exactly turn the other cheek,’ Chase reminded her silkily, ‘but I suggest we try to call a truce—at least for the time being. We’re supposed to be on our honeymoon—remember?’
‘Only when I have to,’ Somer retorted without thinking, watching the anger darken and narrow his eyes. ‘All right,’ she agreed weakly. ‘I agree—let’s have a truce by all means. Does the hotel know…I mean…?’
‘Do they know we’re a honeymoon couple?’ Chase finished sardonically for her. ‘No. And I’ve booked us a suite,’ he added, comprehensively, ‘with two bedrooms, so you’ll be quite safe.’
‘I never doubted that for a moment,’ Somer responded tartly, not liking the amusement in his eyes. The Hermitage. Did Andrew still work there?
How strange it was that while her thoughts had returned to Chase many many times during the intervening years, she had rarely thought about Andrew, and yet he had been the one she had been engaged to; the one whose defection and rejection she ought to have felt the most. Instead it had been Chase she had dreamed of during those awful nightmares when she cried and clung to him, begging him to make love to her and he pushed her away, turning his back on her, walking away from her…
‘What’s the matter now?’
‘Nothing.’ Her response was clipped and short. She glanced up just in time to see Chase bending towards her, and read the purpose in his eyes panicking and trying to turn away, but it was too late. Lean fingers cupped her jaw, curving along the bone and holding her prisoner, his breath warm against her skin. It was impossible to tear her glance from his, and the pulse in her throat jerked spasmodically as she tried to control her breathing.
His mouth brushed hers, cool and firm, registering the betraying quiver of her lips. She tensed and drew back from him. ‘Why did you do that?’ she began huskily. ‘We agreed…’
‘Why?’ His softly amused voice cut across her protest, his thumb probing the vulnerable curve of her lips. ‘Perhaps it was because you looked so…hungry.’
He couldn’t have said anything more calculated to bring her back to earth. Her body tensed back against her seat, her eyes flashing bitter fire.
‘If I am it isn’t a hunger that you could satisfy,’ she threw at him ignoring the danger signals leaping to life in his eyes. ‘I don’t want you touching me, Chase Lorimer, I don’t want you kissing me, and I…’
His mouth closed on hers with devastating intensity, forcing her into silence beneath its crushing pressure.
When Somer eventually managed to wrench her head away her senses were swimming. Darkly purple eyes glared with impotent fury into taunting green.
‘I just thought we’d better seal our pact before hostilities broke out again,’ Chase murmured smoothly, adding with silky determination, ‘and if you give in to that fierce MacDonald temper your father assures me you have and try to hit me, I promise you you’ll regret it.’
‘No real man ever hits a woman,’ Somer retaliated scornfully, dredging up something she had once heard said.
‘Who said anything about hitting,’ Chase drawled softly, ‘and be very careful about questioning my manhood, Somer. I might take it as a challenge that overrides any agreement about the consummation of our marriage.’
The thought of his possession of her fuelled by the cold pride she could see glittering in his eyes brought a weak shudder to her body. She turned away, almost sagging with relief when she heard him re-start the car.
‘Sensible of you, if somewhat unexpected,’ Chase taunted as he drove on, and somewhere deep down in her subconscious Somer felt the suspicion stir that he might have deliberately provoked her angry response to him so that it would give him an excuse to…to make love to her? Hardly that. To afford him another opportunity to humiliate her? She shook her head, muzzily disturbed by thoughts too complicated for her to unravel in her present exhausted state. All she wanted to do right now was take a shower and then fall into bed. How nice it would be when she woke up if she were to discover that Chase Lorimer and her marriage to him were both merely bad dreams.
CHAPTER SIX
THE foyer had been decorated since Somer last visited the hotel and was now coolly attractive in crisp green and white with white cane furniture and banked displays of plants. She didn’t recognise either of the girls behind the reception desk, and mocked herself for her tiny sigh of relief. Andrew and Judith must surely have been transferred to another hotel years ago if indeed they were still working for the same chain. Once it had been her ambition for Andrew
to see her with Chase; to realise that even if he did not want her, other men did, but now…
‘Somer?’
She hadn’t realised he was watching her, the dark brows drawn together in query as he searched her face.
‘Re-living old memories?’ he asked her as he guided her towards the lift. His question caught her by surprise, her eyes widening. ‘Perhaps he was the one you lost your virginity to?’
‘I don’t want to talk about it.’ She wasn’t going to tell Chase that after that afternoon with him she had left the hotel without seeing Andrew again.
‘Why? Not still nursing an adolescent crush on him, are you?’
‘And if I am? Don’t they say that a woman always remembers her first lover? That he always holds a very special place in her heart.’
As she said the words it struck Somer with a sickeningly illuminating blow that Chase was the closest thing she had ever had to a lover, and that he was the one she remembered—not Andrew. Chase was the one who haunted those feverishly unhappy dreams that still tormented her.
‘Stop thinking about him.’ The harsh command splintered her thoughts, her face turning automatically in obedience to it. The lift stopped, the doors opened, depositing them on a floor of the hotel she hadn’t visited before. Thick, expensive carpet muffled the sound of their footsteps. Three doors opened off the square foyer, each one bearing a discreet plaque. ‘Versailles Suite’ Somer read on the door Chase was opening. Thank God he hadn’t booked a bridal suite, was the hysterical thought as she preceded him through the open door.
She was in an elegant sitting-room, with huge patio windows and a view over the sea that made her gasp her pleasure out loud. Outside the windows was a small terrace equipped with a wrought-iron table and four chairs. Two other doors led off the sitting-room, and Chase gestured towards them.
‘I believe both bedrooms are the same, take whichever one you want. Would you like a drink?’ He walked over to the small bar and removed two glasses while Somer hesitated, glancing towards the bedroom doors and then back at the tall dark man who was now her husband. The word was like a cold shock of water icing down her spine.