Josey, trying to talk to the other guests, grew increasingly uneasy about her. She began to see what Thorne had meant by ‘floods of tears’. Elaine couldn’t take her eyes off her husband and her face grew more doleful.
Really, Josey thought exasperatedly, it was all Thorne’s fault. He had been the one to bring this trio together.” He knew Ralph’s brand of humour—she didn’t. Unless they were all such horrors, he had thought they’d cancel one another out. If so, he had been unsuccessful. Nothing could cancel out this miserable evening.
Zoe and Stephen stayed on after the others departed. Stephen and Thorne were deep in a business discussion and Zoe watched them, her hungry eyes fixed on Thorne in a look that was all-revealing.
‘How does it feel to have married the city’s most eligible bachelor?’ she asked bitterly. Josey didn’t answer, and she stood up abruptly. ‘How about showing me the powder room?’
‘I see you haven’t made any changes to the place,’ she remarked, pausing before one of the paintings with a covetous look on her face.
‘No. I couldn’t improve on perfection.’
‘That’s what Eve always said,’ Zoe drawled.
‘Eve?’
Zoe looked back over her shoulder at the entrance to the powder room. ‘Oh, didn’t I mention it? Eve Sanders is a great friend of mine. I must say, she’s right about you.’
Josey followed her, braced for what she was sure was coming. ‘Oh? In what way?’
‘I expected a looker—Thorne always went in for stunning women. Like Eve. He could take his pick. But you’re the last one I’d expect him to pick.’
‘Are you through?’ Josey asked politely, holding open the door.
‘Not quite.’ Zoe leaned forward and touched up her lips with lipstick. ‘I mean, you’re a looker, all right, but you haven’t got that extra—quality that someone like Eve has.’
‘I’m sure you don’t mean that as a compliment but I’m going to accept it as one,’ Josey said blandly.
Zoe’s hard blue eyes met hers in the mirror. ‘See? That’s what I mean!
If I’d said that to Eve, she would have lost her temper. Thorne likes a woman to be exciting, sexy.’ She ran her eyes over Josey’s dress. ‘You won’t keep him, of course, but I guess you know that already. A lot of woman have tried, but he’s .. .’ she hesitated, searching for the right word.
‘Fastidious?’
‘Yeah, I guess you could say that. You probably think I have a personal axe to grind in this
‘You shouldn’t try to read my mind,’ Josey said gently.
‘I really like you,’ Zoe added insincerely, ‘but I’ll give you a friendly warning—you’d better be careful around Eve.’
‘How kind of you,’ Josey drawled sarcastically.
Zoe’s eyes were avid on Josey’s pale face. ‘ She’s out to uncover some dirt on you. Anything she can give to Thorne. She wants to break you two up. She knows you’re hiding something about your past—she could tell you were nervous when she questioned you. And her father’s a judge—she has access to court records.’
Josey had had a shock but she struggled to hide it from Zoe’s greedy eyes. But not even for heir pride’s sake, would she stand here and listen to this a moment longer.
‘You’ll find everything you need in here,’ she said evenly, and walked out.
When she returned to the living room, she saw Thorne studying her pale face thoughtfully. She tried to act normally although it was difficult.
As a first attempt as a hostess, this party had been outstandingly unsuccessful, she thought bitterly. Suddenly, Thorne stood up and suggested brusquely to Stephen that they talk at his office. By that time, Zoe had returned languidly to the room and it was time to go, anyway.
‘What did Zoe Vinelli say to you?’ Thorne asked as soon as they left.
‘Zoe?’ she repeated vaguely, thinking fast. ‘She was talking about Eve Sanders.’
‘I can imagine,’ he said contemptuously. ‘What did she say?’
‘They’re great friends, you know.’
‘No one is Zoe Vinelli’s friend.’
Josey added bravely, ‘They wondered what you saw in me.’
He looked amused. ‘And did you tell her?’
‘I wasn’t sure I knew myself. She thinks it’s only a matter of time before you’re tired of me.’
‘God!’ he burst out cynically. ‘The bitchiness of women when they get together. It never ceases to amaze me. All right, beauty, come upstairs with me. I’ll show you what I see in you. Then, you can tell me if you think I’ll get tired of you.’
Their coming together that night was wild and passionate—almost savage—and she thought she would die from the glory of it. Afterwards, they lay side by side, trying to get their breaths back.
His hand sought hers, and he raised the palm to his lips. ‘Well, my darling, do you see why I won’t get tired of you?’ There was an undernote of laughter in his soft, caressing voice.
She said nothing, and with a contented little murmur, he pulled her into his arms. Later, his head pillowed on her breast, she lay awake for a long time, her eyes wet with tears. She knew now why Thorne had married her.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ONE thing had been accomplished by Zoe Vinelli—she had made Josey determined not to be ‘hidden’ away any longer. Pregnant and barefoot, indeed! Josey hadn’t missed the sidelong glance the other woman had cast at her waistline.
Josey knew from the size and shape of the envelopes that much of the mail that came to the apartment included social invitations, although Thorne probably received his share at the office or in phone calls. The mail was placed on his desk, where he usually pushed part of it aside unread. The morning after the dinner party, Josey went in to his desk and for the first time, investigated those unopened envelopes that bore the ‘and Mrs’ inscription. One that sounded promising was for a party the following weekend, and when she approached Thorne about it, he agreed to go after a quick sardonic look at the name of the hosts.
It was for one of those large cocktail parties where one goes to see and be seen, not for intelligent conversation and certainly not for a pleasant relaxed evening. On the way there, Thorne casually mentioned that the host was a client, then added that they had known each other since they were boys. He did not say anything about the hostess.
As soon as she saw the house, Josey knew that Thorne’s old buddy had money. She was glad that she had chosen the dress she wore—a rustling jade green with a wide cummerbund of navy blue. With it, she wore the necklace Thorne had given her, matching jade earrings, and her diamond bracelet. This time, there was nothing understated about her appearance, or her dress.
‘Are they millionaires?’ she breathed, as they mounted the steps to the front door.
‘Yes,’ Thorne replied shortly. She was clinging to his arm, and he smiled at her. ‘Relax. Millionaires don’t bite, either.’
It was a beautiful house, but if she had thought Thorne’s apartment cold and impersonal, this house multiplied that impression a dozen times over. The rooms were vast and beautifully furnished, a perfect background for all the beautiful people who were crowded in them.
They were stopped many times by friends of Thorne’s who wanted to meet her, but gradually, they were moving towards the back of the house, where the lesser crowd was.
When an elderly gentleman stopped Thorne to talk about a case, Josey listened for a while, then growing restless, accepted a glass of wine from a waiter passing with a tray. From where she stood, she could see a table filled with goodies, and finally, she was tempted to go and investigate.
She wandered around the table, holding her glass of wine, observing the food, then finally decided to choose a stuffed mushroom.
‘I wouldn’t, if I were you.’
He was standing beside her, watching with a lazy, relaxed smile. As good-looking as Thorne, he also had that easy air of assurance that distinguished Thorne, and made him so formidable. There was a gli
nt of masculine appreciation in the eyes that were observing her. Smooth!
though Josey ironically. But compared to Thorne, a lightweight.
‘Why not?’ She was holding the mushroom to her mouth.
‘I have it on good authority that our hostess uses glue in her fillings.’
‘What shall I do with it, then?’ She gravely held out the offending mushroom.
‘Give it to me.’ He nonchalantly returned it to its tray. ‘There. If you do it with aplomb, no one dares question you.’
‘Will aplomb work if you’ve already bitten into it?’ Her eyes danced.
The appreciative glint deepened as he gazed into their dancing golden lights. ‘Ah! Then it is even more important that you let nothing faze you.
You stare haughtily if anyone dares to look surprised until they begin to doubt what they’ve seen.’ He grinned wickedly. ‘Of course, it helps if you’re the host.’
‘Oh, are you the host?’ Josey’s face lit with a smile. ‘Then, you’re an old friend of Thorne’s?’
‘Yes. I saw you standing with him.’
‘He told me he had known you since you were boys,’ she added eagerly.
He smiled wryly at her eagerness. ‘Yes, we were two rich motherless little boys. Does that make you feel sorry for me?’
‘For him, perhaps, but not for you,’ she reproved.
*Ah, I had hoped to gain your sympathy. Foiled again by my old chum! He always finds the most beautiful women first, then I have to take second choice. Where did he find you?’
Josey knew, of course, that he was married, but this was the sort of foolery that meant nothing, so she was still smiling as she explained3 ‘I met him through his aunt.’
‘Maud?’ He sounded surprised. ‘That’s a switch. Tell me, you don’t mind sharing him?’ ‘Sharing him?’
‘With your predecessor. The girl he’s talking to now. Now, me,’ he added persuasively, ‘you won’t have to share. I believe in being faithful to one girl at a time. How about it?’ he smiled at her outrageously.
Josey turned and stared dumbly. The elderly man was gone and Thorne was deep in conversation with Eve Sanders. She watched with darkening eyes as Eve put her hand on his arm, and smiled cajolingly into his face. Her companion had been watching her closely, and now, he sighed dolefully.
‘Ah, me, looks like I’ll have to wait a while for my chance with you.
You’re hooked, aren’t you? Her name is Eve Sanders,’ he added, as Josey continued to stare at him blankly. ‘I know.’
‘And you mustn’t trust her,’ he continued smoothly. ‘She’s a real cool lady, and she doesn’t accept defeat easily. Why not pay him back with some of his own medicine and leave the party with me?’
She stared. ‘I couldn’t do that! Are you crazy? Besides, it—you’re the host! How could you leave?’
‘Oh, I could, very easily, my dear. Do you have an arrangement with him?’ he added abruptly. ‘An arrangement?’
‘Are you just a casual date, or living with him? But Thorne doesn’t have live-in companions, so … ‘
‘As a matter of fact, I do live with him Josey said demurely. ‘So, I’m not really available.’
‘So what? That won’t stop him cheating on you. Look …’ He stopped.
‘I don’t really know your name?’
‘Her name is Josey Macallan, Jake, and don’t you forget it.’ Thorne slid a possessive arm around Josey’s waist. ‘She carries my brand on her.’ He held up the hand wearing the wedding ring.
‘Hell, old man, I didn’t know you were married!’
‘The hell you didn’t— old man Darling,’ he added to Josey. ‘I think you’d better display this more openly, especially when you are around someone as rapacious as Jake Lawton. Not that he’d let a little thing like a wedding ring stop him, but it might slow him down a little.’
Jake chuckled, his eyes gleaming with mischief. ‘I never thought I’d see you take the plunge, buddy. Not an old bachelor like you. She’s gorgeous and I’m smitten with her. Really,’ he added, at the look on Thorne’s face, ‘I didn’t know. I’ve been in California for weeks. When did it happen?’
‘Last month.’
‘Well, well. Just remember one thing—you’d better keep her happy, or I’ll do my damndest to take her away from you.’
Thorne froze, his eyes a savage blaze. ‘Perhaps you’d care to explain that?’ he asked icily.
‘I don’t think so,’ Jake said irresistibly. ‘You might be tempted to take me outside and beat me, like you used to in the old days—er—Will you be going out for our usual golf foursome Sunday?’
‘I sleep late these Sunday mornings.’ Thorne’s arrogant drawl was a blatant sexual statement made by one male animal to another. ‘Let’s go,’ he added to Josey, rattling the chains of possession.
She looked at him stonily. ‘I don’t want to go now.’
‘I don’t give a damn what you want,’ he said inflexibly, taking her arm with a firm grip.
As soon as they arrived home, she exploded with temper. ‘Damn you, Thorne Macallan, I don’t like the way you acted! Anyone would have thought I was a bone, the way you two were snarling over me! I didn’t know who the wretched man was at first, until he ‘ She stopped
abruptly.
‘ Yes! Until he told you he was your millionaire host, whereupon little bells—golden bells— started ringing in your head!’
‘Are you trying to be insulting?’ She was ominously quiet.
‘I’m trying to be realistic!’ he said bitingly. ‘He made it clear he wanted you, didn’t he?’
‘I—yes—oh, I don’t know.’
‘He wanted you, all right; But don’t take all the credit,’ he added with insulting precision. ‘He has a habit of wanting my women.’
She flinched. ‘Yes,’ she agreed coldly. *I understand you two have the same tastes.’
‘Why didn’t you tell him you were married?’
‘Because it was just fun—party fun—the kind I haven’t had lately,’ she reminded him bluntly.
‘And won’t again if you can’t refrain from making dates as soon as my back is turned,’ he said savagely.
‘Surely you know me better than that, Thorne?’ she asked wearily.
‘I don’t know you at all.’ His hand went up to loosen his tie with a tired gesture. His face was exhausted, his eyes dark with disillusionment. ‘You don’t let me know you, Josey. Jake Lawton has one of those modern marriages, the kind I don’t intend to have. Rachel Lawton is a very predatory female but he doesn’t care how many men she takes to her bed or what she does, so long as she leaves him alone to play his own little games. It’s true, he .has been in California, and perhaps he didn’t know I was married. But it wouldn’t make any difference if he decided he wanted my wife. His friendship for me isn’t that loyal. In fact, it would be a challenge.’
‘I can’t believe I’m hearing this,’ she breathed. ‘My God, Thorne, do you think it depends on him I’m not available1—to him or any man! Don’t you trust me?’ Her face was anguished.
‘Do you trust me?’ he asked quietly. ‘Or am I merely the man who provides you with beautiful things for your body and the sex you crave?’
‘I don’t give a damn about things? she sobbed. ‘Take them all back! I don’t want any of it.’
‘Then you don’t like the jewellery I gave you?’ he taunted, pulling her into his arms and running a tentative hand across her throat, where the delicate little necklace lay. ‘Rachel Lawton wears a diamond necklace worth a fortune around her neck.’
‘I wouldn’t want it, unless you went with it.’ She put her arms around his neck and clung, beseechingly. ‘Love me, Thorne. Let me prove to you that it’s only you I want.’
‘Why did you marry me, Josey?’ he asked curiously, almost impersonally, as though her answer didn’t matter. He held her loosely, his pale grey eyes probing her flushed face. ‘It certainly wasn’t because you loved me, was it?’
She avoided his eyes. ‘You didn’t love me, either.’
‘I was honest with you. I wanted you most damnably. I still do. Was that it, Josey?’ His eyes were bleak. ‘I believe the appropriate word is lust?’
‘That’s all you want of me, isn’t it?’ she asked desolately, shivering a little.
‘It’s all I asked for, and I must admit, you’ve exceeded my wildest expectations,’ he agreed quietly. His head swooped and his mouth found the little pulse that was throbbing wildly at the base of her throat. ‘How does this pretty thing work?’ he added thickly, his fingers fumbling with the cummerbund in the back of her dress. ‘I wouldn’t want to tear it.’
She showed him how it worked, and slowly, with consummate skill, he removed her clothes, then his own. She lay on the bed, looking at him, and flushed as she watched him observing her with the clinical detachment of a stranger. ‘How beautiful you are,’ he remarked unemotionally. ‘Right now, that little pulse is going like a metronome.’ He knelt beside the bed. ‘I love to see it—it’s a dead giveaway.’ ‘What does it tell you?’ she whispered. ‘That you want me,’ he replied coolly. He put an idle hand and fingered the necklace.
‘Oh, I forgot it!’ She sat up and started to remove it. - , ‘No, leave it.’ He added derisively, ‘It reminds me of my place in the scheme of things.’
She struck at him then but he caught her hand and bore it back to the bed. Then, he took her quickly, savagely, without preparation. To her everlasting shame, she met him with a passion that equalled his own.
Are you hungry?’ he asked afterwards, as they lay quietly on the bed.
‘Yes. I’ll cook something.’ She half-rose.
‘No, let me. There’s sure to be something in the refrigerator. Poor darling,’ he added consolingly. ‘I should be the one to get the food as a penance. I meant to take you out to dinner after the party, but my bad temper got in the way.’
She watched smilingly as he returned with a bed-tray that was stacked with a tempting pile of corned beef on rye sandwiches with beer. She had propped herself on pillows, and he placed the tray betweeen them, then turned on the television set.
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