She lost count of how many outfits she had tried on before they finally decided on the right one. The fabric was soft and swirly, and clung to her body without cutting into her, and the cut of the dress, with its teasingly daring neckline, revealed a cleavage that most women, Beth assured her, would have died for.
Heather allowed herself to be reassured.
It was also a vibrant turquoise, and against that striking colour her skin looked radiantly healthy and her hair looked more positively fair.
It took less time to find the shoes.
‘I’ll never be able to actually walk in these,’ Heather said, eyeing them sceptically. They were cream and high, and reminded her of the delicate things Claire had used to wear as a teenager—shoes she had always thought she was way too heavy for.
‘You don’t need to walk. You need to sashay.’
Heather decided that sashaying would be just about all she could manage. Hopefully there wouldn’t be a fire alarm at any point.
She was beginning to feel transformed already, and, although she wouldn’t have dreamt of saying so to Beth, she hoped that Theo would sit up and take notice, maybe have his head turned. She played with the thought as she sat through a stint at the hairdressers, which had been booked earlier in the day.
Her fair hair was dyed to an impossible blonde, although Simon—very camp and very theatrical—left the rebellious curls, deciding in consultation with Beth that it gave her a provocatively wild look, at odds with her look of wide-eyed innocence.
She laughed when he asked whether she had a brother, but really the makeover had boosted her confidence enormously.
Three hours previously Beth had told her to switch off her mobile phone. Now she itched to switch it back on, so that she could share some of her happiness with Theo. She didn’t. She went back to the apartment with Beth, studiously avoiding any talk about the one that was still vacant. That momentary depression had lifted, like clouds on a summer day, and as the time drew nearer not even the tingling of nerves in her stomach could stanch the healthy appreciation of how she looked.
Beth let out a long whistle as Heather stood in front of the full-length mirror and gaped at the stranger staring back at her.
She was striking. The opposite of invisible. Beth had applied her make-up and it was bold without being clownish. Grey eyeshadow, mascara, blusher, lipstick and eyeliner. She looked…sexy!
There was a list of don’ts to accompany the look. Don’t walk fast, don’t get drunk, don’t talk too much, don’t talk too little, don’t flirt with the juniors, and, most of all, don’t sleep with the boss!
‘This was a good idea,’ she confided to Beth, as the car pulled up in front of the hotel. ‘I mean, I’m terrified of going in on my own, but…’
‘But you need to do that once in a while. It’s called independence. Now, shoo!’
Heather walked into the hotel, with very small steps for fear of spoiling her new-found image by toppling over on her heels, and discovered for the first time in her life that eyes were swivelling round to look at her.
So this was what it felt like! To walk into a place with your head held high and feel those sidelong interested glances! Instead of shuffling in, hiding behind a group of people, self-consciously aware of your unappealing outfit and hideously aware of what was underneath. Ashamed not to be skinny.
She was shown to the rooms that had been booked for the night, and already crowds were spilling out. A typical office crowd of mixed people, ranging from early twenties to near retirement.
Heather walked in and peered around, and spotted Theo almost immediately. He was standing in a group of people, doing his thing for the younger members of the organisation who were either laughing because they genuinely appreciated his wit or else laughing because they were in the company of the Great Man.
She shimmered through the crowds, noting that the interested glances hadn’t stopped, until she was standing directly in Theo’s line of vision.
As he registered her presence, Heather gave fulsome thanks to her friend for having ridden roughshod over her wishes and engineered a look that she had tried her hardest to avoid. It was worth every second of those embarrassing moments in dressing rooms, squeezing herself into outfits she would never have considered in a thousand years. Because the way he was looking at her now made it all worthwhile.
Then he was introducing her to the group, moving on to introduce her to fellow directors, and to his personal assistant Jackie, who grinned and whispered to her at some point during the evening, when the drink was beginning to get the better of everyone, that it was such a change to meet one of Theo’s dates who actually had something to say for herself.
Heather was in her element. She couldn’t remember why she had been so gutted earlier on, because as the evening wore on she could feel his eyes restlessly roving over her, and when, towards the end of the evening, he growled into her ear that if they didn’t leave soon he might have to excuse them both to the nearest cloakrooms, so that he could have his wicked way with her, she thought she might die on the spot.
She had obeyed Beth’s instructions to the letter, and had made sure not to drink too much, but the little amount of the wine she had imbibed, combined with the fizzing excitement running through her, had put her on a high.
They left towards the very end, after the witching hour. Theo had booked his driver, who was waiting patiently outside.
‘You were brilliant,’ he murmured, massaging the back of her neck with his thumb. She had been, too. No boredom or whingeing about wanting to leave, no shying away from mixing with his employees from the highest to the lowest. She had stalked into the room looking magnificent, and he had been impressed and amused to see how she had handled the evening. He also hadn’t failed to notice the looks she’d got from some of the guys when they’d thought it was safe to look.
Of course he was comfortably safe in the knowledge that no one would have dared make a pass at her, or even flirt, however tempting she looked. And she certainly had looked tempting.
Once in the car, he said something to his driver and slid the dark screen across, enclosing them in a cocoon of privacy.
‘So,’ Heather said smugly, ‘you thought I was brilliant? Did the outfit have anything to do with it?’
‘You mixed like a trouper,’ Theo drawled, pulling her towards him. Not only clothes, but perfume as well. A light, delicate aroma that was subtly tantalising. ‘And, yes, the outfit is definitely…’ he slid his hand across her waist, curving it up towards the tempting cleavage pouting at him ‘…very striking indeed…’
Heather shuddered in pleasant expectation of being touched—in the back of a car no less, another first experience for her. He had, he whispered into her ear, as his hand traced the exposed cleft between her breasts, told his driver to take the long route back to his apartment, the very long route.
Theo’s lovemaking was slow and languorous, though stopping short of full sexual intercourse, which he said would be an uncomfortable shambles because he was simply too big a man to do anything effective in the back of a car, no matter that the car was a big one.
Nor were any clothes shed—which just went to show how erotic touching could be over a forty-five-minute period, at the end of which Heather thought she was going to swoon from being teased with such expertise.
Through the flimsy fabric of her dress he’d managed to send her erogenous zones into hot overdrive. She squirmed, trying to quell the urgent demands her body was making on her, and he continued, ruthlessly turning her on.
It was just as well that Litsa wasn’t a particularly light sleeper, and that her room was not too close in proximity to Theo’s, because their arrival back at the apartment was a hasty dash towards the bedroom, peeling clothes off along the way, both of them greedy for what had been promised on that very long ride back home.
CHAPTER SIX
HEATHER tried hard to bury the doubts that had sprung up after her shopping trip with Beth. With Litsa ready
to leave, they surfaced thick and fast. Just as quickly, she told herself that, yes, she really would address them, but not just yet—not until Theo’s mother had left.
She had half hoped that at some point Litsa would decide to tread on unexplored territory and ask Theo what his intentions were, which might have given Heather an opportunity to gauge the ground, but no such luck. Having counted her blessings in seeing her son involved in a relationship with a woman of whom she approved, Litsa was discreet enough not to venture further with her questioning.
And there was no convenient airport wait during which the conversation might have been broached. She was returning to Greece on the family’s private jet.
Her heart went out to Theo as he quizzed her on her health, asking her repeatedly whether she wanted to return to Greece, whether it might not be an idea to stay on in London for just a short while longer. But Litsa, like so many older people, missed the familiarity of her normal surroundings. She wanted to return to the peace of the Greek countryside and the routine of friends and old family members.
Theo had arranged for someone to come in daily and take care of her, but he was still worried. Heather wanted to reach out and take his hand, just to give him a bit of reassurance, but she was too uncertain as to how this simple gesture might be greeted.
Which said a lot, she thought. Yet another indication of her doubts, but she succeeded in squashing it.
Hadn’t they just spent the most wonderful couple of days? By day, they had capitalised on the few remaining hours of his mother’s stay, but the nights had belonged to them, and they’d slaked their passion through into the early hours of the morning.
Now, watching as Theo helped his mother out of the car, Heather attempted to convince herself, yet again, that their soaring passion must surely be a pointer to emotions as yet undisclosed. She smiled brightly at Litsa, pleased that she looked so much better than she had a few weeks ago and sorry that she was leaving.
The hug they gave one another was one of genuine warmth.
‘Now, you take good care of my son for me,’ Litsa murmured, and Heather’s eyes flew to meet Theo’s, which were regarding her with some amusement.
‘I think it’s safe to say that I’m capable of taking care of myself, Mama,’ he drawled.
‘Every man needs a woman,’ Litsa said stoutly, in the tone of someone flatly stating a certainty. ‘He may not realise it, but he does. And I am very glad that you have found someone.’ Her voice lowered with gentle pleasure.
Heather, watching Theo’s face closely, was trying to see how those words were affecting him, but if they were at all then he was keeping it to himself.
‘I will be on the phone to you every day, Mama, and don’t think that you can tell any untruths about how you are feeling because I will also be on the phone to the nursemaid that I’ve hired, and to both my uncles.’
‘Spied on as though I am not capable of taking care of myself!’ Litsa grumbled, allowing herself to be assisted onto the plane. She gave Heather one last backward glance, and they shared a moment of amusement at Theo’s authoritarian voice. ‘And when will I be seeing you both again?’ Litsa demanded. Heather breathed a sigh of relief that some kind of target question had been finally asked.
‘Let’s jump one hurdle at a time,’ Theo murmured. ‘Get fully better before you begin issuing invitations.’ He broke his non-answer with a smile. ‘I have been to enough of your little get-togethers to know that you spend far too much time catering for your guests yourself while your caterers relax with cups of espresso and enjoy the scenery.’
They watched the jet from a distance as it taxied and took flight, and when it finally disappeared into the vast blueness of the sky Heather felt nervous tension swamp her in a way it hadn’t done before. She had spent a long time living under the same roof as him, adoring him from a respectable distance, working for him and not once had she felt this sudden terrifying awareness of his proximity. But, then again, when things had been on a safe footing she had been able to exercise a certain control over her emotions.
Even when they had become lovers, thrown into the same bed by circumstances thrust upon them, his mother had always been there as an invisible chaperone against her fragile peace of mind.
No mother now, and no more safety of a relationship that knew its limits. She was in uncharted territory and it scared her to death.
‘I hope your mother is all right when she gets over to Greece,’ Heather said, to break the suffocating silence.
Theo, focusing on the road, frowned. ‘Why should she not be?’ He glanced over at her. ‘I have arranged everything. She will be met by one of my uncles and the woman I have employed to look after her, and there will be no need for her to lift a finger to do anything.’
‘She’ll miss having you around, I guess.’
‘But she understands that I work here and find it very difficult to get away for holidays.’
Heather chewed her lip and applied herself to thinking of something light-hearted she could say. It was crazy that she had shared so much with him and yet…
The silence between them seemed thunderous. She took a deep breath and began chatting aimlessly about Greece, asking questions about his mother’s house and what it was like. When it dawned on her that he might think she was inveigling for an invitation, she branched out, embarrassed, and began to talk about holidays in general.
Meanwhile, under the surface of her chatter, she was aware of the tension building up inside her. She had no idea whether he was feeling the same, but she doubted it. He seemed a little distracted, but that was all, and that was fully explainable considering he had just put his mother on a plane back to Greece and was probably thinking about her, whatever he said about the expertise of his arrangements.
Walking back into the apartment notched up the tension levels substantially higher.
The bedroom they had shared for the past few weeks was just there, to her right. She was aware of it even if she wasn’t actually looking at the bed.
Over time, most of her clothes had found their way into his room—a natural migration because it was so much easier changing there, especially when there was no longer any reason not to. She thought of the intimacy of her toothbrush next to his and felt a little sick at what she knew she had to do.
‘Drink?’ Theo asked, heading towards the kitchen while Heather trailed along behind him in anxious thoughtful silence.
It was a little after six-thirty. Too early for her to be contemplating wine. But she needed it. She nodded and sat down at the kitchen counter on one of the bar stools.
She waited until he had handed her a glass and then she blurted it out—no preparation, no thinking about how she would phrase what she wanted to say.
‘Theo, what happens next?’
Theo paused for the merest breath of a second and looked at her over the rim of his wine glass.
‘What do you want to happen?’ he asked mildly.
Heather met his gorgeous eyes and willed herself not to weaken. ‘Your mother’s gone now, Theo. There’s no need for us to…’
‘Carry on being lovers?’
Put like that, their relationship, which meant so much to her, seemed reduced to the level of two consenting adults sharing a bed for the fun of it. Force of habit and her own upbeat nature immediately kicked in, allowing her to put the most forgiving spin on his baldly enunciated statement. Words of affection did not come easily to a man like Theo. He was depressed, as well, over the whole business with his mother, even though it was something he had not shared with her.
She had to will herself to stop.
‘You do me a disservice if you imagine that the only reason I slept with you was to perpetuate a charade for the sake of my mother. You also do yourself a disservice.’
Heather smiled, relieved. ‘I’m so glad you said that, Theo. I thought that perhaps…’
‘What we have would come to a premature end?’ His sexy mouth curved into one of those devastating smiles t
hat could knock her sideways. Heather gulped down a mouthful of wine to steady herself against the temptation to let the conversation go. It was shockingly easy to lose focus when Theo turned on the charm, just like he was doing now, as he strolled towards her, eyes locked into hers, every movement confident of his own massive sex appeal.
Trying to concentrate was like trying to remain upright in a pool of treacle.
He gently removed the wine glass from her hands and leant on the counter separating them so that he could kiss her. This wasn’t one of his hot, urgent kisses. There was something touchingly gentle about it, and Heather lost herself in his caressing mouth, distracted for a while from her ground plans.
When he finally drew back her eyes were brimming with compassion.
‘I know you were shocked by what happened to your mother, Theo. We never expect any harm to come to our parents, and even when we do we’re still never quite ready for it. But she’s going to be fine. I know it.’
Coming from anyone else, this expression of sympathy would have been unacceptable and would have immediately frozen his passion, but he looked into her huge blue eyes and was touched by what he saw there.
‘I’m so glad I have my very own fortune teller living with me,’ he murmured, but not unkindly. ‘Would you like to express your sympathy more than just verbally?’ He drew back, finished his wine in one long mouthful, and smiled at her with lazy intent.
Heather’s determination became a little fuzzy. When he headed towards the bedroom she found that she was following him, as though propelled by legs that had a mind of their own.
‘It seems odd…’ she said, looking around the bedroom that bore little traces of her everywhere. Her alarm clock, which sat on the table by her side of the bed, the vase of flowers she had put by the window to brighten up the room, the furry bedroom slippers that were tucked under the chair.
‘What seems odd?’ Theo had moved over to the window to stare outside for a few seconds, before spinning back round to face her.
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