The Right Kind Of Man
Page 17
‘I am desperate,’ said Lorimer. ‘I’ve been desperate ever since I drove off and left you standing on the pavement.’ Reaching out, he tucked a curl behind Skye’s ear and caressed her cheek very gently. ‘If I promise to make it up to you every single day, will you forgive me for the things I said to you that day?’
Her anger evaporated as quickly as it had flared. ‘Forgive you?’ Skye pulled resolutely away from the tantalising, distracting warmth of his fingers. ‘I was the one who told Charles about the Buchanans. I didn’t mean to be so stupid, but somehow I always seem to end up being that way.’ She swallowed. ‘I really am sorry.’
‘Charles would have found out the information somehow,’ said Lorimer gently. ‘If I hadn’t been so wild with jealousy on Monday, I’d have realised that then.’
Skye stared at him, hardly able to believe what she had heard. ‘Jealousy?’
‘Didn’t you realise?’ Lorimer gave a wry smile. ‘I’ve spent the last two months so snarled up with jealousy I could hardly think straight.’
‘You mean you were jealous of Charles?’
‘You told me you were in love with him,’ Lorimer reminded her. ‘And whenever I thought that I just might be able to persuade you to change your mind, you’d make it very obvious that you were only interested in him.’
‘But…but…’ Skye was torn between tears and laughter’… I only pretended to be interested in Charles because I thought you were in love with Moira.’
‘Well, you were wrong,’ said Lorimer, taking her hands in his warm clasp. ‘I’m in love with quite a different sort of girl.’ His voice was very deep as he drew her closer. ‘I’m in love with a girl with sunshine in her smile, a girl with the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen. I’m in love with the funniest, the most infuriating, the most irresistible girl in the world.’
Skye’s eyes shimmered with tears and a smile trembled on her lips as a glorious, incredulous happiness seeped through her and dissolved the last shreds of unhappiness. ‘Me?’ she whispered, and Lorimer smiled a smile that left her weak at the knees.
‘You.’ he confirmed softly and pulled her into his arms. It was a kiss of indescribable sweetness that went on and on, and they were both so lost in dizzy enchantment that neither of them heard the footsteps coming up the stairs.
‘Excuse me,’ said an arctic voice and Skye jerked away from Lorimer to see Mrs Forsyth regarding them with disfavour. ‘You’re blocking my way,’ she pointed out acidly when they both simply stared at her with dazed expressions.
‘Oh, yes, I’m so sorry…’ Skye moved hastily aside to let her stalk past.
Mrs Forsyth turned at her door and gave them a quelling look. ‘You’ve got a perfectly good flat to do that sort of thing in.’ Her nostrils flared in disgust. ‘There’s no need for you to be cluttering up the stairs,’ she added pointedly and shut the door firmly in their faces.
Skye threw Lorimer a dancing look. ‘You’ve ruined my reputation!’
He grinned. ‘In that case, I’ll just have to make an honest woman of you! Not that she’s not right. We’d be much better off inside. I’ve been waiting for you on this freezing landing all afternoon and I need to sit down!’
The sitting-room was cluttered with washing and magazines and discarded clothes but Lorimer didn’t seem to notice. He sank into one of the armchairs and pulled Skye down on to his lap. ‘Where were we before we were so rudely interrupted?’
Skye smiled, put her arms around his neck and reminded him. ‘How long had you been waiting?’ she murmured against his ear long, breathless minutes later.
‘It felt like hours, but it probably wasn’t that long. I’d been sitting in my office feeling as if the world had come to an end when Fleming rang. He told me you’d just been round to beg him not to withdraw his investment for my sake and he thought I’d like to know.’
‘I particularly asked him not to tell you anything!’
‘I’m glad he did. I’d been so convinced that you were in love with Charles, but when I heard that you’d done that for me I began to hope that I might have been wrong after all. So I came straight round here and waited…and waited… and waited! Where were you?’
Skye rested her head against his shoulder with a sigh. ‘Just wandering around being miserable and imagining how happy you’d be with Moira.’
‘What on earth made you think I was in love with Moira?’
‘She seemed exactly the kind of girl you liked,’ she explained. ‘And I saw you with her that night when we got back from Kielven. The next day she was wearing that scarf you’d bought her, and she looked so radiant. She was so obviously in love.’
‘She is,’ Lorimer agreed unexpectedly. ‘Very much so, but not with me, you idiot! I took Moira out to dinner to celebrate the fact that she’d just got engaged to Andrew Peters. If you knew anything about golf, you’d know he’s Scotland’s up-and-coming player. Moira met him when she was organising the Pro-Am competition. Andrew’s done very well on the international circuit this year. He’s in the States at the moment, which is why I took Moira out on her own. She’s one of the nicest people I know, and a good friend. The scarf was an engagement present for her.’
‘I wish I’d known,’ said Skye. ‘She was the only reason I agreed to have dinner with Charles. It was one of the worst evenings of my life! And worst of all was coming face to face with you at the end of it and knowing that you’d seen him kissing me and wouldn’t believe that I’d hated every second of it!’
Lorimer’s arms tightened around her. ‘You thought it was the worst evening of your life, but it was nothing to what I felt! I hadn’t been to visit friends at all. I’d finally decided to give in and tell you how I felt about you. I’d tried despising you but it just didn’t work. I think I’ve been in love with you ever since you sat in my office and told me all those absurd stories to try and make me give you the job!
‘I didn’t want to fall in love with you, Skye. My parents’ experience had made me very cynical about marriage, and I’d decided that I wasn’t going to risk going through that myself, but meeting you changed everything for me. I discovered that I didn’t want a safe, lonely future after all. I wanted you. In spite of everything I thought I knew about marriage, in spite of everything I thought I knew about you, you were my one chance of happiness. I didn’t know how it had happened, or why, I only knew it was true. It didn’t matter how infuriating you were, I couldn’t get you out of my mind and that weekend in Kielven only made things worse. Do you know what it was like for me to hold you in my arms all night and know that it left you stone-cold? It took all my self-control to keep my hands off you. I nearly told you on the beach in the dark, but I lost my nerve. Partly pride and partly because I didn’t want you to withdraw just when I thought we were becoming friends.
‘You didn’t make things easy for me, Skye,’ he said, taking her hand and pressing a kiss to her palm. ‘You felt so right in my arms and looked so right in my house. I only took you there because I wanted to see how the rooms looked with you in them, and I knew then that if you weren’t there the house would always seem empty without you, no matter how much furniture I bought. Then I saw you crying and thought you were thinking about Charles.’ He paused. ‘I was furious with myself for letting myself dream and told myself I’d be far better off if I could just ignore you, but it didn’t stop me wanting to thump every man who asked you to dance that evening, and when we danced and I felt you so soft and warm in my hands…well, I lost my head.’
He tilted back Skye’s head and smiled ruefully down into her eyes. ‘It wasn’t fair to kiss you like that, I know, but I had to hold you somehow and if it’s any comfort I felt terrible afterwards. That’s why I came round that evening, to apologise and to ask if there was any way we could start afresh, but instead I saw Charles kissing you.’ He hesitated, then asked abruptly, ‘Were you really in love with him, Skye?’
‘I thought I was,’ she said, ‘but it was just a girlish infatuation. I wasn’t in love with the r
eal Charles. I think I was in love with the idea of being in love.’ She looked deep into Lorimer’s eyes, her own blue and warm and shining with happiness. ‘That was before I met you and knew what being in love was really like,’ she explained and kissed him again. ‘Go on,’ she said after a while, resting her face against his throat with a contented sigh.
‘There isn’t much else. I went home thinking what a fool I’d nearly made of myself, and I’ve been thoroughly unpleasant to you ever since… but it was only because I’m so deeply, desperately in love with you and life just didn’t seem worth living without you there to drive me to distraction!’
He held her tightly to him, kissing her until Skye felt as if she was about to dissolve with happiness. ‘Are you sure you love me?’ she asked, breathless beneath the delicious assault of his hands and the drift of his lips down her throat. ‘I’m quite the wrong kind of girl for you. I’m hopeless and scatty and bad at golf and I’m English and I’ve got terrible taste in earrings.’
Lorimer raised his head and took her face firmly between his hands. ‘I know. Those are severe drawbacks, of course. You’re absolutely the last girl I expected to fall in love with, but somehow, in spite of everything, I realised that the wrong girl was the right girl for me after all. The only girl.’ He smiled lovingly into her eyes. ‘And who knows? You might change,’ he teased. ‘With a little practice, you just might improve at golf, and acquire a taste for pearl studs, but, for the rest, I love you just the way you are.’
‘I could try and be more efficient and work harder on my typing,’ offered Skye, prepared to make any sacrifice to please him.
Lorimer considered. ‘I don’t think it’s worth honing up your secretarial skills just for a week,’ he decided. ‘After all, Moira will be taking over after Christmas.’
She pulled back and eyed him uneasily, suddenly uncertain. ‘You mean you really do only want me for a week?’
‘I only need you as a secretary for a week,’ said Lorimer. ‘After that, I need you as a wife, which calls for quite different skills!’
Mollified, Skye relaxed back against him with a sigh of happiness and kissed his ear. ‘How long for?’ she whispered, and his arms closed hard around her.
‘Forever.’
eISBN 978-14592-7712-0
THE RIGHT KIND OF MAN
First North American Publication 1996.
Copyright © 1994 by Jessica Hart.
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Table of Contents
Cover Page
Excerpt
Dear Reader
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Copyright