Out of the Shadows

by Susan Lewis

  As she put the phone down Alan came through the door, stomping his feet on the mat and carrying a newspaper package of earthy bulbs he’d just taken from one of the beds. ‘Brr, it’s chilly out there,’ he said. ‘Seems someone forgot to tell the weather it’s May tomorrow. Who was that on the phone?’

  Susannah turned back to the sink. ‘Just Michael Grafton,’ she answered, making it sound as offhand as possible.

  Alan looked up from the bulbs he was about to plonk down on the floor. ‘On a Sunday afternoon?’ he said. ‘Doesn’t he have a personal life?’

  ‘I’ve no idea, but I don’t suppose making a phone call precludes one.’

  ‘So what did he want?’

  ‘To invite me to lunch on Tuesday.’

  There was a lengthy pause before he said, ‘I see. So would this be just you and him, or is anyone else going to be there?’

  Since she didn’t actually know the answer to that, even though she’d assumed it would be just the two of them, she prevaricated by saying, ‘He wasn’t very specific about who else he’s invited, but I think it’s a kind of welcome to the main cast. Anyway, I thought it was nice of him to ring and congratulate me, which was the other reason for his call.’

  Alan nodded slowly, then catching the plaintive expression in her eyes he sighed heavily and said, ‘I’m sorry. I promise to be more supportive and the next thing I know I’m down at the first hurdle. It’s great that he called, and that he’s invited you to lunch.’

  Knowing he didn’t really mean it, but appreciating the effort, she smiled affectionately and went to put her arms around him. ‘I think he might be giving me, or us, some pointers on what to discuss with the publicists,’ she told him, ‘or that’s how it sounded. Anyway, I’ll find out on Tuesday. Right now, I’m much more interested in taking advantage of having the house to ourselves for a while. Neve’s gone to Melinda’s and won’t be back until you pick her up at the same time as Lola.’

  His eyes narrowed with interest as they gazed down into her own. ‘Really?’ he murmured. ‘So exactly how were you thinking we might spend this free time we suddenly have?’

  With a coquettish smile she said, ‘Why don’t you tell me what you’d like to do?’

  ‘Mmm. You really want to know?’ he said, touching his forehead to hers.

  She nodded. ‘I really want to know.’

  ‘Well, the first thing I’d like to do,’ he said gruffly, ‘is make love to you right here, over the table.’

  As a bolt of desire flicked through her, she pressed herself to him and found him already hard. ‘Then I think you’d better go and lock the front door just in case Neve pops back for something,’ she whispered.

  ‘Consider it done,’ and after kissing her lingeringly on the mouth he went to turn down the latch.

  By the time he returned she’d removed her shirt and camisole top and was reaching behind her to unclasp her bra. He stood in the doorway watching, moaning softly as her beautiful breasts were slowly set free.

  ‘You’re amazing,’ he said huskily.

  She watched him coming towards her, feeling her hair falling loosely around her shoulders and the erotic sensation of air on her skin. As he stooped to suck her nipples into his mouth she gave a gasp of pleasure and slid her hands into his hair, loving the feel of his tongue and fingers, and wanting to be naked now, with his body enveloping hers.

  Neither of them had any thought for time as they finished undressing and began to make love tenderly, erotically, and even violently over the table. From there they moved to a chair where she sat across his lap; then they were against a wall with her legs around his waist, and eventually they were on the sitting-room floor panting and writhing as they began climbing towards an explosive climax. When they finally soared through the barriers of sensation she was sitting astride him, clutching his hands to her breasts and riding him with all her might.

  ‘That was incredible,’ he told her a while later, holding her close, his breath only now beginning to steady. They were still on the floor, naked and exhilarated and utterly exhausted.

  She smiled and stroked his face as she gazed into his gentle brown eyes. She was thinking of all the lonely Sunday afternoons she’d spent worrying and stressing and feeling so afraid nothing would ever change that she didn’t even dare to tell herself it would. And now here she was, in the arms of Alan Cunningham, her first big love, who’d rescued her from a well of sadness and difficulties too numerous to recall, and who made her feel so happy and cherished that she longed to do the same for him and more.

  ‘I wish we could spend whole weekends like this,’ he murmured, ‘never bothering with clothes, making love whenever we feel like it.’

  ‘We’ll make them happen,’ she promised, ‘because it’s what I’d love too.’ Not that she wanted to shut Neve out, but if she was going to be away most weeks from now on, the time she spent with Alan was going to be more precious than ever.

  Eventually they made their way back to the kitchen and had barely finished dressing when the front door burst open and Neve rushed in shouting, ‘Hi! It’s only me! Have to go to the loo.’

  As she charged up the stairs Susannah turned to Alan, her eyes wide with disbelief. ‘I thought you put the latch down,’ she whispered.

  ‘So did I,’ he whispered back.

  She looked along the hall again, and feeling the dizziness of such a narrow escape coming over her she started to laugh.

  ‘Don’t,’ he said, laughing too. ‘That was way too close for comfort.’

  ‘You’re telling me.’ Pressing her hands to her cheeks, she took a couple of deep breaths. ‘OK, it didn’t happen,’ she told herself firmly. ‘She didn’t catch us, so no need to be embarrassed, or to go on standing here like a couple of kids whose parents have just walked in on them.’

  Putting an arm around her he went on laughing. ‘I think we’ve been here before,’ he reminded her drily.

  ‘Oh my God,’ she groaned as the memories came flooding back. ‘Haven’t we just? You must remember the time we bunked off school and went over to your place, and it turned out that all the time we were doing it your dad was asleep upstairs?’

  He laughed as he cringed. ‘How could I ever forget? He’d come home with the flu, and we only found out when Mum rang to check up on him and I answered the phone.’

  ‘I wish you could have seen the look on your face,’ she gasped, finding it as hilarious now as she had back then. ‘You went completely white when you realised he was upstairs. I think you might even have whimpered before you managed to get any words out.’

  With a roll of his eyes, he said, ‘You know, I often wondered if he heard us and never said anything. He must have, unless he was in a coma.’

  ‘Oh and then there was the time with Lola and Fred,’ Susannah cried. ‘Do you remember? They came back from bingo early and we were in their bed? How terrible was that, getting into their bed, but we didn’t think anything of it then.’

  ‘It might not have been so bad if our clothes hadn’t been in your room,’ he added. ‘Creeping along the hall in the buff, with the living-room door open and them sitting there watching TV, is emblazoned on my memory for all time.’

  ‘Mine too,’ she replied breathlessly. Then, hearing Neve coming back down the stairs, she attempted a rapid sober-up.

  ‘What’s so funny?’ Neve demanded, as she came into the kitchen. ‘I could hear you all the way upstairs.’

  ‘Nothing,’ Susannah answered. ‘Just a few old memories.’

  Neve eyed her suspiciously. ‘Well, as long as it wasn’t about me,’ she said, and going to tug open the fridge door she snatched out a packet of crab sticks and a seafood dip.

  ‘Why would it be about you?’ Susannah said, glancing at Alan before turning her attention to preparing their meal. ‘You’re not even funny.’

  ‘Oh, and I suppose that was. Ha, ha, very good. Please excuse me while I get hysterical.’

  Raising her eyebrows Susannah decided to let
it drop, and said, in a chatty sort of way, ‘So how come you’re back early?’

  ‘If you must know, we finished our homework so Janey’s mum came to get us. Anything wrong with that?’

  Not bothering to bite her tongue again, Susannah said, ‘No, but something seems to be with you.’

  Neve’s cheeks flushed angrily. ‘There’s nothing wrong with me,’ she said tartly. ‘I just happen to find all this joking about and giggling a bit childish, frankly.’

  ‘Oh, do you now? Well, there’s a coincidence, because I’m finding your attitude a bit childish too, frankly.’

  Neve glared at her in fury, but after her eyes flicked to Alan she only wrapped up the crab sticks again and stuffed them back in the fridge.

  ‘Has someone upset you?’ Susannah ventured, feeling certain it was her, though unable to think how she’d managed it.

  ‘What’s it to you?’

  ‘I’m just trying …’

  ‘I’m cool, OK, so drop it.’ With a tight, stony face she grabbed an apple from the bowl and bit into it. ‘So when are you off to Derbyshire?’ she asked, as Susannah went back to scrubbing the potatoes.

  ‘The last week of May. Why?’

  Neve banged down the apple. ‘For God’s sake, I’m just trying to make conversation …’

  ‘OK,’ Susannah cut in, ‘maybe we should start this again. I’m leaving …’

  ‘Oh forget it. I’m not staying around here to be got at. I’ll be upstairs in my room if anyone wants me. Let me know when dinner’s ready.’

  ‘Actually,’ Susannah said, as she started to flounce off, ‘you might think about helping to prepare it. We’re not slaves …’ She looked down as Alan put a hand on her arm.

  ‘Let her go,’ he said softly. ‘There’s no point getting into an argument about nothing.’

  Not feeling at all inclined to take his advice, Susannah watched Neve stalk off down the hall, annoyed and baffled and still on the brink of calling her back.

  ‘For what it’s worth,’ Alan said quietly as Neve stomped up the stairs, ‘I think it’s me she’s unhappy with, she’s just taking it out on you.’

  Susannah looked at him in surprise.

  ‘It was something that happened last night in the car,’ he said with a sigh. ‘When we got back here she gave me a hug to say thanks for picking her up, and then she kissed me in a way that was borderline inappropriate.’

  Susannah’s mouth fell open. ‘Oh my God, she’s taking this crush too far,’ she said harshly. ‘I’m sorry. I’ll talk to her …’

  ‘No, don’t do that. It’ll only embarrass her further if she knows I’ve told you, and she’s clearly already having a hard enough time. She’ll get over it. Any day now she’ll fall head over heels for someone her own age, and along with all her father issues I’ll be forgotten. Now, shall I put the chicken in?’

  Susannah nodded distractedly. ‘Tell me,’ she said after a while, still appalled by the image of it, ‘how did you handle it when she did that? What did you say?’

  He shrugged dismissively. ‘I just made light of it, as though it had been a mistake,’ he answered, ‘and for all I know it might have been. So the best thing now is to let it drop, because blowing it out of proportion won’t help at all.’

  ‘No,’ Susannah mumbled, ‘I don’t suppose it will.’

  With merriment in his eyes he said, ‘Will you please take that frown off your face, beautiful woman, while I go and get Lola?’

  After he’d gone Susannah went on debating whether to go and talk to Neve, feeling she ought, but unable to work out how to broach the matter without putting Neve on the defensive. Embarrassment would inevitably make her prickly, and when put together with teenage hormones and the angst of unrequited love the scene was very likely to flare up into something they’d both rather avoid. However, to think of Neve bewildered and imagining herself in love, without trying to do something to help her, was going right against her maternal instincts.

  ‘Hello?’ she said, drying her hands as she answered the phone.

  ‘I swear there’s a conspiracy going on somewhere to throw me together with this idiot at every possible opportunity,’ Patsy declared angrily.

  Susannah burst out laughing. ‘Where are you?’ she said. ‘I thought you’d be on your way back to Paris by now.’

  ‘So did I, but the flight’s been delayed so I have to go on suffering this twit for many more hours than is humanly possible without one of us ending up injured.’

  ‘I take it he still hasn’t told you what happened last night?’

  ‘No. He just gives me a knowing little wink every now and again and says it has made him very, very ’appy. Bastard! It didn’t happen though. I know it didn’t.’

  ‘Then you’ve nothing to worry about.’

  ‘Exactly. He just wants me to think it did, because it amuses him to watch me suffer. And if he bangs on about discretion one more time I’ll knock his flaming teeth out. In fact, I might anyway, because they’re getting on my nerves. OK, now that’s off my chest, how are things your end?’

  Still laughing, Susannah said, ‘Believe me, nowhere near as entertaining as at yours, but you’ll probably be interested to hear that Michael Grafton rang earlier.’

  ‘I certainly am. What did he say?’

  ‘He’s invited me to lunch on Tuesday. I’m not entirely sure whether it’s just the two of us, but I kind of got the impression it is.’

  ‘How cosy. Did he say anything else?’

  ‘Only that they were all thrilled to have me on board.’

  ‘And privileged,’ Patsy added, ‘but they might not fully realise that yet. Have you told Alan about the lunch?’

  ‘Yes. He didn’t take it too well at first, but then he remembered his promise to be supportive and we’ve just had a lovely afternoon together, so I think he’s finally beginning to realise that he has no need to be jealous. Whereas Neve, on the other hand, is a different story. I can’t go into it now, because she’s in the house, but basically she might have come on to Alan last night.’

  ‘Oh God,’ Patsy groaned in dismay. ‘I was afraid of something like this. What happened?’

  ‘She tried to kiss him, apparently. He seems to have got out of it pretty well, but she’s obviously been left feeling hurt and angry and I don’t know whether to try discussing it with her, or to do as Alan says and leave it. What do you think?’

  ‘Mm, I’m not sure. It’s a tricky one. I guess my initial instinct is to agree with Alan, but left unchecked there’s no knowing how far she might go. Still, she’s got her head pretty well screwed on, so I can’t really see her doing anything too stupid.’

  ‘No, me neither, which is why I’m daring to hope that it was just a rash moment that might have the happy outcome of sobering her up enough not to want to try anything like it again.’

  ‘I’m sure it will,’ Patsy said. ‘Now I have to go, I’m afraid, our flight’s finally boarding. I wonder if I can bribe someone to give Fronk an al fresco row all to himself?’

  Chapter Fourteen

  SUSANNAH WAS FINDING it so energising being in the heart of the West End that she was unable to keep the smile from her face as she strode through the warm, cluttered streets of Soho. She could have been walking on air. Everything, from the noise of the traffic to the decrepit stateliness of the buildings, to the sheer vibrancy of the people rushing about, was like an electric charge shooting straight into her veins. She was someone at last, not just a blonde making a few heads turn with her long legs and captivating smile, but an actress soon to be on their screens and in their papers virtually every day of the week. More than that, she was someone with somewhere to go and not just anyone to meet, because Michael Grafton would be known to virtually everyone who worked in the numerous production and facility houses all around her. His name was one of the most highly respected in the business for the many successful dramas his company had produced. Knowing that he had chosen her, was actually trusting her, to take on his next m
ajor project was so exhilarating that the emotion of it all was as dazzling as the bright sunlight in her eyes.

  ‘Mr Grafton’s already at the table,’ she was told as she entered the busy restaurant on Poland Street. The deliciously pungent smells of sautéing garlic and sizzling herbs was as prevalent in the air as the persistent burble of voices, mainly male, and the path she was shown through the tables was as crowded with briefcases, handbags and laptops as the ochre-coloured walls were with hazy paintings and soft lighting.

  Seeing her coming, Michael Grafton put aside his menu and rose to his feet. ‘Hi,’ he said, leaning forward to kiss her cheek. ‘I think you’ve just made me the envy of every man in the room.’

  Feeling herself sparkle, she said, ‘I’m sure you manage that without my help.’ Then, realising he might not have understood she was referring to his success, she was about to explain when his smile reassured her and caused her to laugh.

  After she was settled at the table and the maître d’ had vanished, Michael regarded her in a way that made his dark eyes seem even more intense than she remembered. The rest of his features were large and slightly crooked, and seemed to emanate an easy confidence that made her feel relaxed and safe. This was an odd thing to think, she acknowledged, but it was due to him that she was about to enjoy the kind of financial security she’d hardly even dared dream about these past few years. His thick, greying hair conformed to no real style or length, nor did his casual attire, making him entirely his own person, both in character and look, and why not? Being as successful as he was, he had nothing to prove and no reason to waste time caring about trends or images, or what anyone else might think.

  ‘Why don’t we start with a glass of champagne to toast your success?’ he suggested. ‘Unless you’d rather keep a clear head for your meeting later.’

  ‘I doubt one glass will do much harm,’ she replied, ‘and if I can’t toast this amazing turn in my fortunes, never mind my life, with you, then I shouldn’t be toasting it with anyone.’