by Helen Brooks
Suddenly the beautiful brunette's attention turned to Lydia, her eyes as hard as glass as she looked into her face.
"Is that a wedding-ring I see?" She glanced pointedly at Lydia's left hand.
"You're married?"
"Separated." Wolf had answered before she could speak, his tone infinitely cold.
"Oh, what a shame..." The narrowed blue eyes flickered a moment. Wolf had made it perfectly plain that further questions would be an intrusion, but his hostess chose to ignore the warning.
"Had you been married long?" she asked silkily.
"I got married when I was twenty-one." This time Lydia forestalled Wolf.
The look on his face indicated that his reply wouldn't have been conducive to harmonious relations.
"Any children?" the smooth voice persisted.
_"Sue..." Doug spoke quickly, with a meaningful glance at Wolf's dark face.
"A little girl." Lydia smiled brightly.
"She's three now and absolutely gorgeous."
"Is she?" It was clear the last thing Sue wanted to talk about was Lydia's child, so for that very reason Lydia detailed Hannah's life from birth to present and the diversion worked as she had thought it would. Immediately
Lydia paused for breath Sue launched into a description of her latest modelling assignment with great gusto, and as the other three listened patiently Lydia caught Wolf’s eye. He winked, slowly and very sardonically, before turning away. He had recognised the manoeuvre and given her due acclamation. She quickly checked the surge of pleasure she felt. Careful,
Lydia, careful, she told herself silently. It doesn't mean a thing.
All in all she felt overwhelming relief when Wolf glanced pointedly at his watch as they finished dinner and made their apologies.
"It's been a long day," he drawled lazily as Sue pouted in his direction.
"We're all dead on our feet."
"A quick coffee, then?" Sue smiled beguilingly.
"It's ready and will keep you awake on the drive back to the hotel."
Wolf raised enquiring eyebrows at Lydia and, much as she would have liked to shake her head and agree they go immediately, she found herself politely acceding to just one cup. It seemed unnecessarily rude not to.
"Come and help me, Lydia," Sue invited surprisingly. "Many hands make light work, and all that."
Once in the huge fitted kitchen, that was the ultimate in elegance.
Sue shut the door carefully, her eyes narrowed as she turned to Lydia and indicated the tray and cups and saucers on the work-surface.
"Have you known _Wolf long?" She removed the aromatic pot of coffee from its stand and waited while Lydia set the tray.
"Not really." Lydia felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle as though in warning of a confrontation, but told herself she was imagining things.
"His secretary is on maternity leave and I'm standing in for her," she explained quietly.
"Really...?" Sue stood back a pace and surveyed Lydia's blonde beauty through half closed eyes.
"You aren't the normal sort of office girl, are you?" It was meant to insult, and Lydia stared back steadily as she felt herself stiffen in readiness for the attack. Their glances held for a long moment and Sue was the first to look away, a sudden flush of colour flaring across the high cheekbones.
"There has been a steady stream of young hopefuls in Wolfs life since Miranda died," the hard voice continued nastily as Sue walked across to a cupboard at the far end of the kitchen.
"You know he was married, of course?" she added as she suddenly swung round to face Lydia, eyes narrowed like a beautiful cat about to pounce.
"Of course." Whatever impulse had made Wolf share the confidence she blessed tenfold. Sue had obviously hoped and expected it would be a shock.
"The accident must have been a shock for everyone," she said expressionlessly.
"The women absolutely adore him, you know." Sue clearly wasn't going to be deflected from her chosen form of attack.
"Well, it isn't surprising, is it? He has to be the most gorgeous man in the whole of London."
"Well, as his secretary, my job is to organise and help as far as I can in me office," Lydia said calmly, keeping _her temper in check with considerable effort. The woman was a monster.
"Oh, of course..." The words were delivered in such a way as to make them a subtle insult.
"His secretary..." Sue turned and extracted some fresh napkins from the well-stocked cupboard, her movements graceful and cool. She really was elegance personified, Lydia thought dispassionately as she watched the regal brunette carefully, and she had never met anyone she liked less.
She waited quietly for the next attack and it wasn't long in coming as Sue walked over to the tray, slinging the napkins carelessly by the side of the expensive bone china.
"I was his wife's best friend, you know." She had obviously changed the direction of the assault, Lydia thought warily as Sue spoke again.
"We were both models, of course, and quite inseparable when Miranda married
Wolf. She was just so beautiful, everyone adored her."
"Did they?" Lydia prayed for composure as she watched the other woman open a box of after-dinner mints and place them on the tray. She didn't want to hear any of this, but she had the feeling there was no escape.
"He was just so devastated after the accident, I was so glad I was around."
Sue turned hard green eyes on Lydia's pale face.
"To help ... you know." She smoothed her dress suggestively.
Oh, she knew all right, Lydia thought painfully as the green eyes narrowed into feline slits in which the meaning was unmistakable.
Suddenly a whole host of little incidents that had bothered her all night fell into place. "I'm sure your friend would have been very grateful,"
Lydia said coolly, with biting scorn.
"Shall I carry the tray through?"
"And we're still such good friends." Sue's face was poisonous with a mixture of dislike and virulent malicious ness
"Doug got this job on my recommendation," she added meaningfully.
"Did he?" Lydia had had enough. She took hold of the tray and walked across the room.
"Well, your husband is very good at his job, so I understand, Mrs. Webb, and
I'm sure he got the position because Wolf knew he could do the job, not because you were available to sleep with the boss." She flicked open the door-handle with her hip, almost dropping the tray in the process, and stalked into the lounge with her head held high.
The next few minutes were painful in the extreme. Lydia sat in regal silence, sipping her coffee without looking to left or right, aware of Sue's tight-lipped face as she made desultory conversation with the two men, although it was obvious her heart wasn't in it. Wolfs razor-sharp gaze had flashed over Lydia's face more than once, but she was determined not to give him the chance to enquire what was wrong until they were in the car. And then she'd let him have it. Hot and strong. Her lip curled as she thought of the implications of what Sue had revealed. He'd slept with his wife's best friend for nothing more than sexual gratification, that much was obvious, and then secured her husband a post in his firm. It stank.
Whatever way you looked at it, it stank. Was he still sleeping with her when he felt like it? Well, he'd said he wanted relationships with no ties, and what better way to ensure that than to have an obedient husband to take charge when he felt he'd had enough? Her eyes flashed over Doug and she saw he was looking at her with a faintly bewildered expression in the blue eyes.
It was awful. Poor Doug. A flood of self-righteous anger added to the sense of outrage. Whatever his first wife had been like, she couldn't be worse than Sue.
They left the house shortly afterwards, Sue effusive in her goodbye embrace with Wolf and stiffly rigid with Lydia.
Once in the car Wolf turned to her, his eyes silver in the dim moonlight trickling in through the car window. "OK, let's have it."
The deep voice was dry b
ut not unfriendly.
"Obviously Sue's got under your skin in some way? She has a knack of offending practically every woman she comes into contact with." The conciliatory note was the last straw.
"I can't imagine why." She glared at him angrily, her eyes black with furious rage.
"But apparently that wasn't the case with your wife? I understand the two were great friends."
They had been travelling along The neat, newly made road that led on to the small private estate in which Doug's house was situated, but now Wolf turned into a bus pull-in, parking the car with cool controlled movements and turning to her once the engine had died.
"Sue knew Miranda, yes," he said with studied calm, his eyes stroking over her hot cheeks and glittering eyes. "Great friends is probably a bit strong, but I think they got on OK."
"And Sue was so comforting after the accident." She knew she was going to regret this, but somehow, after all that had gone before, it had to come out.
"Was she?" He eyed her grimly.
"I take it that should mean something?"
"Well, it clearly didn't to you." How could he be so icy cold, so calm?
"Lydia..." He paused and settled himself further into _the seat, studying her through narrowed eyes.
"Would you like to tell me exactly what the hell you're talking about?"
"I'm talking about sleeping with your wife's best friend and then giving her husband a job to keep her available," she said scathingly.
"What? The word was a pistol-shot in the close confines of the car but his face had frozen, the lines round his mouth and eyes standing out in startling contrast to the rest of his tanned skin. And as she looked into his face, into the icy blue eyes, she knew she had made a terrible mistake.
"Sue said--' “I don't care what the hell Sue said," he snarled softly. "
Surely it didn't take you above one minute to see the sort of woman she is?
She's rotten, Lydia, right through. Life has soured her to the point where she is no good to herself or anyone else. She makes Doug's life hell. “He took a deep breath and then spoke more softly, but still with a cold, deadly intensity that frightened her half to death.
"I knew her long before I met Miranda, when she was just seventeen and I was nineteen, and for a time we had some fun together. Then she got on to the model circuit and everything changed. She changed. But we still moved in the same set and when Miranda came along. “He shrugged tightly.
"I guess they had the work in common. She married Doug three years ago when the modelling contracts began to dry up, and when he lost his job eighteen months ago she suggested I give him an interview. Suggested. That all.
Doug got the job on his excellent capabilities. He knows that and I know it and, for the record, Sue knows it too," he added grimly.
"Wolf--' " Doug is not just an employee, he's a friend," he _growled softly.
She shrank back against the cushioned seat and he gave a small, mirthless smile.
"I've never raised a hand in anger to a woman before but you, Lydia, you push me to the limit. Have I cross-questioned you about Mike Wilson? Have I?
And I had every right, believe me, but I tried to believe--' He stopped abruptly.
"Oh, to hell with it."
Mike Wilson? she thought helplessly. What had he got to do anything?
What was he thinking about her? "Wolf, I don't understand--' " What do you see when you look at me? “He cut into her voice savagely, his face ruthless.
"Some creature from the pit with horns and a forked tail? Do you seriously think I would employ a man, a good, honest man, for the sole purpose of sleeping with his wife when I felt the need? I haven't touched Sue in eighteen years, although for the whole of that time she's made it very clear she was ready and willing, even before Miranda died." He gave her a last scathing glance of biting disgust and turned the ignition key, his face white.
They drove back to the hotel in absolute silence, and mercifully Lydia was numb with shock. She realised she had played right into Sue's hands.
Somehow the tall brunette had sensed the attraction between Wolf and his secretary and had been determined to destroy what she didn't quite understand. And Lydia had believed her, or tried to believe her. The thought pierced the numbness as they reached the hotel grounds. She had wanted to believe the worst of Wolf, needed to; it had been protection against this deadly, overwhelming attraction that made her putty in his hands. If she could despise him, work up some disdain and scorn for the man she thought he was, it would have been a defence against her own feelings for him. Because, although she knew he didn't _want any lasting commitment with a woman, although she knew his heart, if he had one, was as cold as ice, everything in her wanted to throw herself at his feet. And that had been what she was fighting, not him.
"Goodnight, Lydia." He left her immediately they entered the suite, without giving her a chance to say anything, walking into his bedroom and shutting the door with a dismissive controlled click. She would have preferred he slam it hard. At least that way it would have shown he had some feeling about her left. She stood in the lounge for a few seconds more, her head whirling, and then went to her own room on leaden feet.
Well, she had what she wanted now. She stared at her reflection in the full-length mirror, misty through her tears. He would leave her alone. She had killed even that strange animal passion he had felt for her. She hugged herself tightly round the waist, the image in the mirror blurring still more.
So why didn't she feel relieved, comforted, reassured? Why did she feel as though the world, her world, had just shattered into a million tiny, sharp, piercing little pieces?
CHAPTER EIGHT
Surprisingly, when she surfaced from a thick, deep, heavy sleep the next morning, she realised she had slept the night away. A combination of mental and physical exhaustion along with practically no rest the night before had worked like a powerful sleeping-draught in spite of her overwhelming misery.
She glanced at the clock and then looked again more sharply. Ten o'clock?
It couldn't be saying ten o'clock? She leant closer and heard the steady rhythmic tick. She must have slept through the alarm at half-past six. She turned the small clock upside- down and saw to her dismay she hadn't set it the night before. Damn! She leapt out of bed with her heart pounding.
What would Wolf think? Why hadn't he called her, knocked on the door?
Where was he?
She hastily pulled her silk dressing-gown over the matching pale blue nightie and felt for her fluffy mules under the bed, catching sight of her ruffled reflection in the mirror as she did so. She looked a mess but she hadn't got time to worry about that now. Was Wolf at the office? She'd have to ring this was awful.
She wrenched open her door and had taken two or three steps into the lounge before she realised Wolf was sitting at the table in a replay of the previous morning, newspaper open, table full, and a steaming cup of black coffee in front of him.
"Good morning." The newspaper lowered, and just for an instant she saw surprise at her. attire flash across the hard, handsome face before the
_blank mask settled again.
"The waiter's just left. Did he wake you?"
"No... Yes... I don't know..." She stared at him as she struggled to compose her racing thoughts.
"I didn't know you were here, it's so late..." She glanced desperately towards the phone.
"I was going to ring you at the office."
"And now there's no need." The dark voice was quite expressionless, his whole manner one of cool, reserved control and careful politeness, but she sensed somehow that below the surface it was a different story. The black eyebrows rose a fraction as his blue eyes wandered over her ruffled hair and sleep-flushed face.
"I had a mental picture of what you would look like in the morning and I'm not disappointed." She stared at him helplessly, quite unable to move, let alone reply, and after a long moment the newspaper was raised again.
"Why don't you si
t down and have some coffee now you're out here?" It was obvious and reasonable and she couldn't think of a reason not to, so she walked gingerly across to the table, pulling the belt of the dressing-gown still tighter round her slim waist as she slipped into a vacant chair.
"There's toast and preserves and a variety of cooked dishes under the covers," the cool voice behind the newspaper said.
"I ordered enough for two in case you joined me."
"I'm sorry I'm so late," she said stiffly to the black and white print.