The Convenient Lorimer Wife

by Penny Jordan

  ‘From the hotel register. I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind since you left,’ Andrew told her thickly when they were inside the cab. ‘Why did you leave like that?’ he asked as the cab moved off.

  ‘Chase had to come back,’ Somer replied almost absently, still grappling with the discovery that Andrew had come to London to seek her out. She examined the thought and it left her completely untouched. If anything all she felt was a faint distaste that he could so easily abandon his wife and family…or was he lying to her? Was his visit to London simply a fortuitous opportunity to see if he could take up where they had left off all those years before? Andrew was an opportunist, she recognised, witness the manner in which he had bundled her into the taxi while she was still too bemused to protest. His treatment of her had left her with a mistrust of nearly all men, she realised as she coolly retreated to her corner of the moving taxi.

  ‘Andrew, this is ridiculous,’ she said at last. ‘You’re a married man.’

  ‘And you’re a married woman,’ he countered huskily, ‘but that needn’t stop us finding happiness together. Oh, my darling Somer, if you only knew how often you’ve been in my thoughts…’

  ‘Me, or my father’s money?’ Somer asked him drily. ‘Really, Andrew,’ she continued, ‘you must think I’m still the same little fool I was at eighteen.’

  ‘I know you are,’ Andrew told her savagely, ‘otherwise why would you have married a man like Lorimer? I know all about him, Somer; all about his women…beautiful women…’

  ‘Whom I couldn’t hope to compete with? Thank you, Andrew,’ she said drily. Leaning forward she instructed the driver to take her back home. Andrew made as though to counter the instructions and then lapsed sulkily back in his corner. The journey was conducted in silence; an angry one on Andrew’s part and mildly reflective on Somer’s.

  Poor Judith, she thought ironically when the cab came to a halt and she got out. Life couldn’t be easy for her married to a man like Andrew. No doubt he made a career out of pursuing the more wealthy female guests. Her lips curled in a sardonic smile, quickly suppressed when Andrew climbed out of the cab to join her on the pavement.

  ‘Somer.’ He said her name urgently, grasping her arm.

  ‘Andrew, we really don’t have anything more to say to one another,’ Somer began, breaking off when she saw Chase’s familiar car coming down the road towards them. Why was Chase coming home? She glanced at her watch. Surely he couldn’t have had lunch already? He never came home during the day. Conflicting emotions of pain and pleasure chased one another over her expressive face. As Chase brought his car to a standstill Andrew muttered something beneath his breath and then his arms came round her, his mouth closing determinedly on hers as he told her thickly, ‘You might not want me now, Somer, but you wanted me once, and you owe me this.’

  His kiss left her completely cold. Andrew released her at her lack of response, and turned to step back into the taxi. Watching it draw away Somer knew that it was unlikely she would ever see him again. All she could feel was a vague sense of relief. She was just absorbing this when Chase reached her.

  ‘Somewhat less than gentlemanly, to leave you standing on the pavement to face my husbandly wrath,’ he drawled, watching her with an expression she couldn’t name, her body tensing in shock as she witnessed the contrast between his smoothly drawling voice and the cold ice of his eyes. Explanations trembled on the tip of her tongue and were firmly suppressed. Why should she explain anything to Chase? Especially in view of Clancy’s obvious involvement in his life.

  ‘When did he arrive?’ Chase demanded, staring after the disappearing taxi.

  ‘Not long ago.’ Somer averted her face. Chase’s fingers tightened painfully round her arm as he swung her round to face him. ‘And where were the pair of you planning to go, before I turned up so unfortunately?’

  On the point of denying his accusation Somer suddenly changed her mind, a vivid picture of him with Clancy Williams reinforcing her decision.

  ‘His hotel, I suppose,’ Chase said grimly. ‘Perhaps if you’d thought more about the instructions I gave you and less about your lover you’d be there with him. You brought me the wrong papers,’ he elucidated, as he hurried her towards the front door. ‘That’s why I came home.’

  ‘And your meeting?’

  ‘I cancelled it—so if you’re thinking you can sneak back to your lover the moment my back’s turned—think again.’

  ‘Andrew isn’t my lover,’ Somer blurted out the admission as Chase urged her into the hall.

  ‘No,’ he agreed softly. ‘I’ve been wondering about that.’ Somer was half way upstairs, and halted, alerted to something in his voice that warned her of a danger she could not see, but which she knew instinctively was there.

  ‘Why wasn’t he, Somer? After all, by your own admission you love him, and he obviously wants you. You could have gone to him any time during these last five years, but you didn’t, did you? You didn’t go to any man.’

  He was right behind her on the stairs and Somer had no option but to continue upwards. She reached her bedroom and turned to close the door, only to find that Chase had followed her inside.

  ‘Why, Somer?’ he pressed. ‘Why?’

  ‘Why?’ Somer trembled with the force of her emotions. ‘How could I give myself to anyone, after the way you rejected me?’ she cried out painfully. ‘How could I give any man I loved what you had taught me was so completely worthless?’ Once she had started it was impossible to stop, words, emotions she had dammed up for years spilled out until she forgot where she was and why she was there, and only knew that the pain inside her couldn’t be suppressed any longer. ‘I wanted you to make love to me,’ she whispered painfully, ‘but you rejected me. You’d made love to hundreds of women, but you rejected me…’

  ‘And because of that you remained a virgin?’

  ‘Yes,’ she whispered fiercely. ‘How could I give to Andrew what you had shown me was so worthless?’

  Somer felt as though she were in a dream—as though nothing that was happening was real. The explosive burst of temper which had precipitated her outburst had gone, leaving in its place an aching lethargy; a desire to be alone.’

  ‘Somer, we have to talk.’

  ‘What about?’ she asked listlessly. ‘We have nothing to talk about, Chase.’

  ‘On the contrary,’ he countered crisply, ‘I should say we have a considerable amount to discuss.’ There was a grimness about his mouth that she didn’t recognise, an anger darkening his eyes that made him seem more alien than ever. ‘If it’s true that you couldn’t allow anyone to touch you because of the past… Is it true, Somer? Is that why you were still a virgin—because of me?’

  Beneath his tan his skin was oddly grey, a tension in his jaw that gave her the impression that he was holding some emotion in check so powerful that it made his muscles clench in protest. Was he angry because of what she had said?

  ‘Yes,’ she said huskily.

  ‘And even though you love Hollister you never contemplated inviting him to become your lover?’

  ‘And risk being rejected; being humiliated, the way you humiliated me? How could I give the man I love what you so obviously didn’t want?’ she asked wildly.

  ‘Somer…’

  ‘Don’t touch me…don’t come near me,’ Somer cried almost hysterically as he made a move towards her. ‘Just go…’

  She heard her bedroom door closing softly behind her as she hugged slim arms round her shivering body. What on earth had possessed her to say those things? That they had sprung more from a desire to verbalise her pain on seeing Chase with someone else, rather than because she wanted him to believe she loved Andrew, she couldn’t deny, but she had never meant to admit so much; to let him know how much his rejection had struck at her essential femininity, blunting and almost destroying it.

  When she heard Chase’s car start up outside she went over to the window. Did he really glance up at her before he drove off, or wa
s she just imagining it?

  The afternoon dragged by and when Chase hadn’t returned by eight o’clock Somer toyed unenthusiastically with her meal. At ten she went to bed, wondering if he was with Clancy Williams, and then deriding herself for wondering rather than knowing. Of course he would be. Chase wasn’t a man to refuse any of the opportunities life presented him with, surely she knew that?

  * * *

  SHE WOKE UP feeling muzzy, not knowing what had disturbed her sleep. Outside it was still dark, her curtains moving in the light breeze through the open window. A small alien sound made her tense, her eyes searching the silent darkness. Something moved in the shadows. Still half asleep, thoughts of burglars made her go rigid with fear and then as he came towards her she recognised Chase’s lithe frame and realised that the small sound which had awoken her had been the communicating door opening.

  ‘Chase,’ she said his name hesitantly, ‘what are you doing here?’ Her question died away as he bent towards her, pushing back the bed-covers. He was wearing a robe which he threw casually on to a chair before sliding his lean body into her bed.

  ‘Chase…’ she protested.

  ‘Yes,’ he said calmly, ‘I heard you the first time. If you want a name for it you could say I am trying to put right a wrong I did five years ago.’ His arm came round her before she could move, imprisoning her against the bed. ‘I rejected you, you said, Somer, and because of that you were never able to give yourself freely to any other man.’

  Somer sensed the tension in his body, and her first thought that he had come to taunt and mock her evaporated as her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she read the serious intent in his.

  ‘Tonight if there’s any rejecting, you’ll be the one to do it,’ he said softly.

  She was trembling and Somer knew that he must be able to feel the betraying vibrations of her body.

  ‘Chase, no,’ she moaned softly, ‘that was five years ago, and…’

  ‘And no man has touched you ever since.’

  ‘You have,’ she reminded him indistinctly, ‘when we were on Jersey.’

  ‘Forget it, Somer,’ Chase insisted. One arm, with all his weight behind it, still pressed her to the bed, his free hand cupping the side of her face. ‘You and I are going back,’ he said softly in the same mesmerising voice he had used earlier. ‘Close your eyes, and forget everything else.’

  ‘I can’t.’

  To Somer’s sensitive ears her whispered admission confessed how much she would like to obey him, but Chase seemed unaware of it. His husky, ‘Then perhaps this will help you,’ seemed to reach her through a thick fog of indecision, and although she was fully aware of the downward descent of his mouth, she felt too languorous to avoid it. In some strange way it was almost as though Chase had managed to take her back in time, all her bitterness and torment forgotten as her lips parted hesitantly in obedience to the proximity of his, quivering slightly as though she were indeed that girl of eighteen again.

  The pressure of Chase’s mouth was warmly reassuring, gently explorative, slowly drawing her into a warm, womb-like place of safety, where her body knew instinctively that it could relax and reach out to explore the sensations his touch was invoking. The kiss deepened, and Somer followed the silent commands of Chase’s mouth without question, sighing her acceptance from lips that parted instinctively.

  Chase was lying full length against her, but she felt no alarm, no sense of fear, or excitement, merely one of acceptance. His arm ceased to imprison her body and he stroked the tumbled hair off her face as he released her from the captivity of his kiss.

  Gradually, like the building of a tide, Somer became aware of the insidious drag of her senses. The brush of Chase’s thumb against her lips was pleasurable and yet it made her ache to… She opened her mouth and touched the pad of his thumb experimentally with her tongue. His breathing quickened minutely and her heartbeat accelerated in response.

  Slowly, leisurely Chase allowed his lips to drift across her skin. They lingered for intensely pleasurable seconds on the soft flesh beneath her ear and his tongue explored its delicate convolutions while she writhed helplessly in the grip of a bemusing response, her hands reaching out instinctively for the support of Chase’s shoulders.

  ‘We don’t want this between us, do we?’ Chase’s fingers caught at the satin ribbons of her nightdress. Somer knew she ought to protest as he slid it from her, but his eyes burned darkly on her skin and she knew beyond all reason and rightness that she wanted that hungrily possessive male glance to devour every inch of her. As she felt his fingertips gently moving the gown away she protested weakly, ‘Chase, this is wrong…’

  ‘No,’ he denied, letting his gaze rest on the twin peaks of her breasts. ‘No, Somer,’ he said huskily, ‘it’s right. It’s what we both wanted all those years ago.’

  ‘No…’ Somer struggled against the sensuous response his words and touch invoked, trying to remember why it was she shouldn’t feel like this; shouldn’t be like this, with this man, but Chase was overruling her. Her skin felt scorched by his open study, her nipples tingling. When his hands cupped her breasts, holding them worshipfully, the last of her resistance melted away.

  ‘Yes…’ he muttered thickly, ‘my Somer, yes. Tonight, I’m going to make love to you as I should have done five years ago. As I…’ He groaned suddenly, leaning forward to kiss her hungrily, his hands freeing her breasts and gathering her up against him. The rough abrasion of his chest hair against her nipples made her ache with a wanton need to increase the sensual pressure, her body moving with unconscious provocation against his, until she was aware of the heat of him with every muscle.

  Completely without check she gave herself up to his kiss, abandoning herself to the sweet storm of passion. Her hands moved eagerly over his body, shaping his shoulders, and sliding down his back to the indentation of his waist, and below to the narrow hardness of his hips and the flat muscular buttocks that clenched beneath her stroking fingers.

  Gradually she became aware that both of them were breathing heavily; that their bodies were moistly fragrant and she wondered bemusedly if Chase found the softly feminine perfume of her skin as arousing as she found the heady masculinity of his.

  Her lips, released from the captivity of his, quested along his throat, gradually growing more adventuresome as they met with no resistance. Indeed the moaned sounds of pleasure Chase muffled against her skin were an enticement as heady as newly fermented wine, and when Chase rolled over on to his back, taking her with him, Somer gasped at the pleasure of his lean body beneath her.

  ‘Somer.’ His thighs parted to cradle her in hard intimacy, and a suffocating heat seemed to burn through her body. She trembled violently and mistaking the cause of her reaction Chase muttered thickly, ‘Somer, don’t be afraid… I won’t hurt you or reject you… You’re so very beautiful, do you know that? So infinitely desirable… Let me show you how much. Let my body tell you all the things it’s impossible to put into words.’

  He moved and she felt the aroused throb of his body. He moaned as her fingers stroked uncertainly over his skin, pushing the upper half of her body slightly away from him. The hard contact with his thighs made Somer arch instinctively, her body seeking surcease from the dull ache building up inside her. Desire exploded inside her in waves of fierce heat. Throwing back her head Somer arched her back, unconsciously seeking completion of the union of their bodies. Her breasts filled Chase’s hands, a dark tide of colour staining his skin, his eyes glittering feverishly, as he reached up towards her and caught one tender nipple gently between his teeth.

  Somer cried out in surprised response, gladly allowing Chase to mould her thighs to the rhythm of his as his hands slid down to her hips. His tongue anointed the ripe crests of both breasts, and Somer was filled with a fierce elemental elation, responding to the wanton rip-tide that roared through her blood, gasping her pleasure at Chase’s heated suckling of her breasts, conscious of the aroused heat of his body beneath hers and the harsh
thud of his heart.

  ‘Somer, sit up, I want to see all of you.’ Chase’s voice was so thick with arousal that Somer barely recognised it, but she had gone far beyond resisting now, or even remembering why she should resist. In obedience to his words, she let him push her into a kneeling position between his thighs. Sitting up so that they were almost breast to breast Chase’s hands skimmed lightly over her body, setting off small tremors of response wherever they touched.

  His lips caressed her shoulder and then her breasts and Somer ached with the pain of loving him as she looked at the darkness of his head against her breast. His hands moved lower and she shook with reaction to his intimate invasion of her body. She wanted to cry out in protest, but somehow the only sound she made was one that Chase seemed to construe as one of pleasure, because he made a thick murmur of response and his body trembled visibly as his mouth sought urgently for the turgid peak of her breast.

  ‘Now,’ Chase instructed thickly when he released her, ‘I want you to look at me, I’m vulnerable too, Somer. Look at me,’ he commanded softly, ‘and you will see how much my body desires you. You have the power to reject me if that is what you want.’

  He lay down watching her, and Somer felt her body shake in response to the feverish glitter in his eyes. She wanted to look away, but his body was a magnet drawing her bemused eyes.

  Unconsciously Somer curled her fingers into her palms as she realised that Chase had spoken the truth when he said that he too was vulnerable. Slowly her fingers uncurled and she reached out to touch him, conscious of the aroused heat of his body beneath her finger tips. Her touch was one of discovery more than anything else, but Chase moaned and moved urgently against her, sending quivering bolts of lightning through her body overwhelming her with her need to know the fullness of his possession.

  As though he knew her thoughts Chase said hoarsely, ‘See how much you make me want you. Somer… Somer…’