‘She won’t let go, huh?’ Alix guessed.
‘Something like that. But I think she’s got the message now.’
‘Good,’ Alix said with feeling, which made Rhys laugh as he tucked her arm in his and took her out to lunch.
The rest of those six weeks were wonderful because Alix knew she had him to herself, socially, that was; he spent a great deal of time in meetings and conferences, and it was eventually announced that he had been made a director in the boardroom game of musical chairs. And he was still only thirty. When he took her out at first Alix thought it was merely to emphasise to Donna that he wasn’t interested, but after two weeks the company hummed with the news that Donna had got a new job and was leaving immediately. Whenever Rhys was free he took Alix to the theatre and concerts, to dinner in ethnic restaurants where he laughed at the doubtful face she pulled as she tried food she’d never heard of before, let alone tasted.
Although Alix had known him most of her life there were many things about Rhys that she had yet to discover; he had never treated her as an adult before, so their conversations were different, making her feel closer to him. And he seemed to have changed since she’d seen him last, become a little harder perhaps. For Alix these weeks became a period of learning about Rhys, and her own experience had broadened so that she was able to look at him with more mature eyes. And the same went for him, she supposed, but she had always been completely open and natural with him, so there was less for him to learn.
When he went back to Australia she went to his flat to collect him, so that she could drive him in his car to the airport and then drive it back to Kent, to garage it at his parents’ house. His flat was in a modern block with an entry-phone system. Because she was feeling unhappy at his leaving, Alix had bought a lurid witch mask and put it on when she rang the bell.
Rhys’s laugh crackled over the intercom. ‘A great improvement. Come on up, Alix.’
His bags were all packed and standing ready in the hall.
‘How long will you be away this time?’ she asked him.
‘Not sure. A couple of months, maybe.’ His eyes settled on her face. ‘Have you ever thought of getting yourself a flat in London instead of commuting every day?’
She thinned her lips expressively. ‘Flats in London cost the earth to rent.’
Rhys held up some keys. ‘How about using this one, then, while I’m away?’
Alix’s eyes widened with pleasure. ‘Rhys! Do you mean it? Oh, that would be great, great, great!’
He laughed and tossed her the keys. ‘Don’t have any rave-ups and don’t upset the neighbours. OK?’
‘Of course not.’
‘Let’s go, then.’
They reached the airport and he turned to her. ‘Goodbye, urchin.’
Alix swallowed and blinked hard. ‘I’m going to miss you, Rhys.’
He put a finger under her chin and tilted her face, looked down at her with strange intentness. ‘Then remember this,’ he said softly, and bent to kiss her.
At last it was a real kiss, not that of an indulgent friend, but the kiss of a man to a woman. Letting her know masculine curiosity and desire, softly exploring her mouth, drinking in its moist sensuality, deepening to demand a response. At first taken by surprise, Alix was completely still, but then she gave a low moan of wonder and joy, opening her lips to him, finding herself caught in whirling timelessness, clinging to him as she experienced overwhelming sexual need for the first time in her life.
When he lifted his head there were tears of happiness in her eyes.
‘Idiot,’ he said, and kissed the tears away.
‘Wow!’ she managed on a choking laugh. ‘That was really something!’
He grinned. ‘You should get me on a good day.’
‘Yes, please,’ she said fervently.
He laughed and tweaked her hair. ‘Goodbye, urchin. Take care of yourself.’
He unloaded his bags, turned to wave to her as he went through the doors. But it was a while before Alix had recovered enough to start the car and drive home.
Alix moved into his flat the next day, enjoying hanging her clothes beside his in the wardrobe, putting her things out as if they were sharing the place. Not that there was much of Rhys’s stuff there; he was hardly at the flat long enough to make it look lived in, and he seemed to take most of his clothes with him. She got into bed that night, her thoughts full of him, when the phone rang.
‘Hello, Alix.’
‘Rhys! How did you know I was thinking about you?’
‘Telepathy. You settled in OK?’
‘Yes, fine.’
‘I forgot to tell you to forward any post.’
‘Will do.’ A little disappointed, Alix said, ‘Is that why you rang?’
‘No.’ His voice changed a little. ‘I called to ask you to marry me.’
CHAPTER TWO
‘ALIX? Alix, are you still there?’ Rhys demanded when the silence had lengthened and she still hadn’t replied.
‘Y-yes, I’m here,’ she said faintly. Then, on a note of understanding, that was, however, unable to hide the disappointment, ‘It was a joke, right?’
‘No joke, urchin. I’m asking you to be my wife.’ Again there was a long silence. ‘Alix, don’t do this to me. Is it yes or no?’
From somewhere, out of the overwhelming joy that filled her heart to bursting, out of the dizzying happiness that filled her head, her every sense, Alix was able to say with some dignity, ‘I shall have to think about it.’
‘You’ve got two minutes,’ Rhys said in amusement.
This time she was silent for only two seconds. ‘Yes, of course I’ll marry you, you idiot! Oh Rhys, oh Rhys, oh Rhys!’ The happiness bubbled in her voice, then changed to awe as the future she’d always dreamed about shone before her. ‘Oh, Rhys!’
‘Can’t you think of anything else to say?’ he complained.
‘I’ll try.’ She gave a watery chuckle.
‘And if you start to cry the deal’s off,’ he warned.
That made her laugh properly. ‘I do wish I could see you.’ She rolled on to her stomach. ‘Tell me where you are,’ she commanded. ‘I want to picture you there, proposing to me.’
‘It’s just a hotel room like any other—except that the fridge is bigger to hold all the beer.’
‘I’m in your bed,’ she told him with satisfaction. ‘And I’m wearing the top of a pair of your pyjamas that you left behind. The dark blue silk one.’
‘I never wear the tops,’ he told her.
‘Oh, good. Think how much money we’ll save,’ Alix said happily.
Rhys chuckled. ‘We’ll get officially engaged when I get home,’ he told her. ‘In the meantime keep it under your hat.’
‘Can’t I even tell the parents?’
‘Oh, sure.’ His voice changed a little. ‘But don’t expect them to be surprised.’
‘You think they’ll have guessed?’
‘They knew I didn’t stand a chance.’
Alix laughed richly. ‘When did you realise?’
‘Realise what?’
‘That you were in love with me, of course.’
‘Oh…’ His voice became flippant. ‘When you glared up at me and told me you weren’t a boy, you were definitely a girl, of course.’
‘Really? Was it that long ago for you, too?’ Alix’s voice was all eagerness.
‘No, idiot. I was only kidding. I’ll tell you when I get home. OK?’
‘OK,’ she agreed, a little wistfully. ‘Will you write to me—a proper letter?’
‘Wouldn’t you rather I called?’
‘I’d like you to do both. Oh, Rhys. I wish you were home. I wish you were here with me.’
‘It won’t be long, just a couple of months.’ There was a noise in the background. ‘Alix, I have to go now. My car’s arrived to take me to work.’
‘You’ll call me tomorrow?’
‘As soon as I can. Bye, urchin.’
‘Goodnight, Rhys.’
Then, experimenting with happiness, ‘Goodbye, darling.’
Being an only child, Alix was used to sharing everything with her parents, and it wasn’t in her nature not to, so, even though it was almost midnight, she hugged her joy to herself for only a short time before picking up the phone to call them.
‘Daddy,’ her voice was still breathless with excitement. ‘I’ve got something to tell you. No. No, I haven’t been mugged. I’m quite all right. Fine. Yes, I know you told me to be careful.’ She raised her voice. ‘Daddy, will you please listen?’ Alix paused till he was quiet. ‘I’m going to get married. I’m engaged!’ she told him, the thrilled wonder of it still in her voice. But then she frowned. ‘No, I am not at a party and I’m not drunk. Of course it’s someone you know—it’s Rhys.’
She grinned with supreme pleasure as she heard her father excitedly telling her mother. Then of course her mother came on the line, wanting to know every detail. ‘Yes, he phoned me from Australia. I know, isn’t it wonderful? What do you mean, you’re not surprised? I was. But Rhys said you wouldn’t be.’ She listened, then said, laughing with excitement, ‘No, Ma, of course we haven’t set a date yet. Rhys didn’t even talk about that. We only got engaged half an hour ago, for heaven’s sake! Oh, and he said we weren’t to tell everyone yet, not till he comes home and makes it official. No, you can’t tell Uncle David and Aunt Joanne because I want to tell them myself. No, Rhys had to go to work. OK. Yes. I promise to ring them right this minute. Yes, I am brilliantly, fantastically happy. More happy than it’s possible for anyone to be. Yes, tomorrow. Goodnight, Mum. Love to Daddy. Night.’
The next twenty minutes and more were almost exactly identical as Alix told Rhys’s parents the news. Next to her own parents, she was closer to them than to anyone, even her own relations, and had always called them aunt and uncle; the knowledge that their relationship was soon to become even closer gave them all the greatest of pleasure. ‘We’re so pleased, darling,’ Aunt Joanne told her. ‘We’ve been looking forward to this day for years.’
Alix accepted their happiness as perfectly natural, quite sure that their pleasure wouldn’t have been half so great if Rhys had chosen to marry some other girl. She had been a proxy daughter to them for so long, and now she was to officially become part of their family. Everything was perfect for them all.
It never occurred to Alix that his parents’ love for her might have influenced Rhys’s decision to propose to her. And it certainly never occurred to her that her own overwhelming love for him wasn’t reciprocated a hundredfold. Everything in the world was wonderful—except for the long, long wait for Rhys to come home and claim her as his own.
Keeping her engagement a secret for the next two months was terribly difficult, especially as her happiness shone from her face and was obvious for all to see.
‘You’re in love,’ Kathy accused her when she went into work the next day.
‘Yes,’ Alix admitted. ‘I am.’
‘Who with? Who did you meet over the weekend? It must have been love at first sight,’ Kathy said enviously.
‘Yes, it was. Isn’t life wonderful?’
‘I thought you were crazy over Rhys,’ the other girl said shrewdly.
‘Good heavens, what on earth gave you that idea?’
‘What’s this new man like?’
‘Oh, you know—just fantastic.’
More than that she wouldn’t say, but her whole outlook changed. Instead of window-shopping outside clothes shops in the lunch hour, Alix now wanted to look at cutlery and linens, at china and saucepans.
‘That’s boring,’ Kathy protested. ‘You’re too young and attractive to become a hausfrau. Anyone would think you were going to live with this guy.’
Alix protested, but was inwardly excited at the idea. Surely that was what Rhys had intended by letting her live in his flat while he was away? When he came back he would just move in with her and they would live together, eventually getting married, eventually having children, and definitely living happily ever after.
The rest of the day went past all too slowly. At the end of it Alix would dearly have loved to have gone home to share her excitement with her parents, but Rhys had said he would phone her again at the flat, so she had to stay in town. Only when he didn’t call that evening did Alix remember that he hadn’t promised definitely for that night, just said he’d ring as soon as he could. She fell asleep disappointed, and turned down an outing with some of the girls from the office to stay in the next night, but was overwhelmingly glad she had when Rhys rang again, earlier this time, at ten o’clock.
‘Hi, urchin. Have you changed your mind?’
‘What about?’ she asked, deliberately not understanding.
Rhys chuckled. ‘Marrying me, of course.’
‘Oh, that. No, I guess I’ll make do with you.’
‘Only two days and the woman’s blasé already.’
‘Oh, I’ll never be that,’ Alix assured him, immediately abandoning her mock coolness. ‘I told the parents. They were so pleased, Rhys. You wouldn’t believe.’
‘Oh, yes, I would. They rang me at some Godforsaken hour in the morning yesterday to congratulate me. All four of them. Your father said I should have asked his permission first.’
‘He didn’t!’ Alix exclaimed delightedly. ‘What did you say?’
‘I told him that if he’d refused to give it you would probably have disowned him.’
She burst into laughter. ‘I would, too. Oh, Rhys, I am so happy. But I do wish you were here. Do you wish I was there with you?’ she asked, expecting a tender reply.
‘No, you’d be completely in the way and I’d never get any work done,’ he said prosaically.
That made her laugh again. ‘When do you think you will be home? I want to know the exact date.’
She could almost hear him shrug. ‘Some time at the end of next month; I can’t be any more exact than that at the moment, but everything is going well, no holdups.’
‘Tell me about it.’
‘It would take too long, and these calls cost the earth.’
‘When will you call again?’
‘Some time next week probably.’
‘OK. If I’m not here I expect I’ll be at home,’ she ventured, not wanting him to phone and wonder where she was.
But Rhys merely said, ‘Fine. Listen, will you collect a couple of jackets I left at the cleaners? You’ll find the ticket in the top drawer of the chest in the bedroom.’
‘Do you want me to send them to you?’
‘No, just put them in the wardrobe. Thanks. I’ll have to go. Take care of yourself, little one.’
‘And you, Rhys. I miss you so much. I——’
‘And you, urchin. Bye.’
Alix heard the phone go dead and slowly replaced her own in disappointment. She had been about to tell him she loved him but he had been too quick for her. But that was Rhys, brisk and to the point; and anyway there was really no need to tell him because he already knew, there was nothing in the world he could be more sure of.
Rousing herself, she went over to the chest of drawers to look in the top one. Rhys had cleared several of them out for her, but this wasn’t one of them. There were a lot of things in it that he hadn’t needed to take to Australia: his gold twenty-first birthday watch, several membership cards, a combined address book and diary. Alix fingered the latter, was strongly tempted to look inside but resisted it. Rhys was hers now; she trusted him implicitly and had no wish beyond curiosity to know about his past.
On Friday Alix went home to Kent and had the most marvellous weekend. To be secretly engaged was wildly romantic, but to be able to share the secret, and discuss it with all the parents, was even better. Her mother and Aunt Joanne were already discussing wedding plans, de- ciding where and when, drawing up lists of guests. Uncle David picked up their combined list and pretended to be terribly shaken. ‘Good lord, John!’ he said to her father. ‘At this rate we’re both going to have to work till we’re ninety t
o pay for all this.’ But it was said in fun, and they were all as openly delighted as Alix.
The next two months went by agonisingly slowly. Alix didn’t go out much in case Rhys rang, which he did a few times, but the calls were, to Alix, frustratingly short. Instead she sat at home and relieved her feelings somewhat by writing very long letters to Rhys, trying to restrict herself to one a week, but often ending up sending two or three. In return, Rhys sent her several postcards, but she didn’t receive the letter she had so longed for; a love-letter, her very first from the man she was to marry.
Life became full of excitement again when Rhys at last rang his parents to say he was coming home in just a few days, he wasn’t sure exactly when, though. Alix had finally succumbed to Kathy’s persuasion and had gone to see a film with her, so missing Rhys’s call to the flat, to her bitter disappointment. And when she tried to ring him back someone with a strong Australian accent said he wasn’t available. Trying to control her impatience, trying without much success to hide her happiness and excitement, Alix somehow got through the next couple of days, expecting every night to hear from Rhys so that she would know when to collect him from the airport. But on the Thursday afternoon Alix got a call, not from Rhys, but from his mother.
‘Rhys is home, dear. He flew into Gatwick this morning, and it was so near home that he just rang and asked me to collect him. He expected to be here last night and surprise us all, but unfortunately his plane was delayed for hours in Singapore.’
‘He’s home?’ Alix didn’t know whether to be pleased or disappointed; she’d rehearsed going to meet him so many times in her mind. ‘I’ll come straight away.’
‘There’s no point in rushing, Alix dear; he’s so jetlagged that I’ve made him have a rest. Come at the usual time and we’ll all have a celebration dinner together.’
Alix would much rather have had Rhys to herself that evening, that night, here in London, but realised that if he was at home she wouldn’t stand a chance. Even though Rhys’s mother had told her not to rush back, Alix still wanted time to wash her hair and get ready for tonight, so she decided to ask to leave early anyway. But unfortunately her own boss was away sick that day, so she had to go to the head of the department to ask permission, and also ask to have the following day off.
To Have And To Hold (Mills & Boon Vintage 90s Modern) Page 3