Elusive as the Unicorn

by Carole Mortimer

  At that moment so was she, seduced by him once again, loving the feel of his mouth against hers. He nibbled softly and then feasted on her lips, one moment tormenting her with the gentle nip of his teeth, the next moment possessing her with velvety gentleness.

  ‘We were made for each other, Eve,’ Adam groaned against her. ‘Made to love like this, to lie in each other’s arms——’

  ‘Like hell you were!’

  Adam was wrenched abruptly away from her, and then followed the loud cracking of knuckles against hard flesh.

  It was all happening too quickly for Eve to be able to take in what was going on, her senses still whirling from Adam’s kisses.

  By the time she had recovered enough to realise Paul had been the one to burst into her studio and cause all the mayhem, Adam was lying amongst several of her canvases that lay propped against the wall, where Paul had knocked him.

  She couldn’t believe this was happening; she’d had no warning, too enrapt in Adam’s lovemaking to be conscious of anything else.

  Her eyes widened with renewed horror as she saw what was about to happen next, Adam’s face full of glowering anger as he rose slowly to his feet, his gaze fixed belligerently on Paul as he gingerly rubbed his jaw where it had taken the full force of the other man’s painful blow.

  Paul stood across the room from him, breathing hard, a look of satisfaction on his face.

  ‘Adam, no!’ Eve cried desperately as he made a lunge towards the other man, his intent obvious. ‘Please,’ she added achingly as he turned to her frowningly.

  He drew in a ragged breath, nodding slowly, reluctantly. ‘This isn’t the place for this,’ he conceded, his jaw obviously paining him as he worked it slowly round to feel the damage that had been done. ‘The work in here is priceless——’

  ‘I wasn’t thinking about the paintings,’ she protested impatiently. ‘The two of you fighting isn’t going to solve anything.’

  She still had trouble coming to terms with the fact that Paul had burst in here and behaved in this way. He had been angry earlier, yes, but before she had left his flat she had believed he had understood, if not completely accepted, what she had tried to explain to him. And how true had her fears concerning her weakness to Adam been; only a few hours later and Paul had found her in the other man’s arms!

  ‘Hitting him made me feel a hell of a lot better,’ Paul ground out with a scornful glance at the other man.

  ‘That form of backstabbing would appeal to a man like you,’ Adam returned scathingly.

  Adam’s derision might be justified, Eve accepted; after all, Paul had taken him completely unawares. But the two of them acting like schoolchildren wasn’t going to help the situation at all.

  ‘Please.’ She sighed wearily. ‘Paul, why are you here?’ She frowned.

  His jaw tightened. ‘Well, certainly not to walk in and see you in his arms!’

  ‘Then maybe you shouldn’t have just “walked” in,’ Adam rasped as Eve blushed uncomfortably at the accusation in Paul’s tone.

  Paul’s eyes gleamed palely as he looked at the other man. ‘Evelyn told me I would find Eve up here,’ he bit out tautly.

  Adam’s mouth twisted. ‘Only because Eve hasn’t yet found an opportunity to tell her grandmother the wedding is off.’

  Paul’s head went back challengingly. ‘As far as I’m concerned, it isn’t!’

  ‘Fortunately, what you think doesn’t come into it,’ Adam returned hardily.

  Eve gave a pained wince as he deliberately taunted the other man, knowing she was the cause of this awful scene. But Adam had been so understanding with her earlier concerning the decision she had been forced to make; unfortunately, his dislike of Paul prevented him according the other man the same dignity. It didn’t really help that she knew the reaction would probably have been even worse if the roles had been reversed; they were worse than schoolboys.

  And poor Adam’s jaw was already beginning to show signs of discoloration.

  She frowned at him worriedly. ‘I think you should go and get a cold compress for that to try and keep the swelling down.’

  He glanced at the other man with narrowed eyes. ‘It can wait,’ he decided dismissively.

  ‘Don’t delay on our account,’ Paul taunted hardily.

  ‘I wouldn’t think of leaving just yet,’ Adam returned mockingly.

  ‘Will you two just stop this?’ Eve put up a hand to her throbbing temple, the strain of the day beginning to tell on her. The last thing she felt in the mood for was being emotionally dragged about by these two men like a rag doll!

  Adam’s expression instantly became one of concern, and he moved protectively towards her.

  Eve stepped back instinctively as she saw the anger snapping in Paul’s eyes.

  The movement had been pure force of habit, but nevertheless she didn’t want a repeat of the violent outburst of a few minutes ago.

  ‘Adam, I really think it might be better if you went downstairs and got something for that bruising,’ she told him firmly.

  His mouth tightened, and he looked from Paul’s triumphant face to her wearily resigned one before nodding reluctant acquiesence.

  But, being Adam Gardener, he couldn’t just leave. Oh, no, that would have been too easy!

  ‘Don’t let him get to you,’ he murmured, before bending his head to lightly brush his lips against hers.

  Eve glanced over his shoulder at Paul’s furious face, knowing that, however much Adam might have enjoyed the kiss, he hadn’t done it for that reason. ‘Swine,’ she muttered, for Adam’s ears alone.

  He was grinning as he stepped back. ‘Just call if you need me,’ he said, provocatively loud enough for the other man to hear.

  Paul was still scowling when the two of them had been left alone up in the studio. ‘What was that supposed to mean?’ he ground out.

  She shook her head impatiently. ‘Adam was deliberately trying to goad you.’ And he had more than succeeded, she conceded wearily. Would today never come to an end?

  Paul thrust his hands into his trouser pockets, a pair of the expensively tailored variety that he always wore, a navy blue pair this afternoon, with a sports jacket bearing a grey and navy blue check. Paul always looked perfectly tailored, no matter what the occasion.

  ‘I resent the fact,’ he bit out, ‘that a man like Adam Gardener believes he has the right to do that. How could you, Eve?’ He looked pained. ‘How could you come straight from shattering all my hopes and plans into Adam Gardener’s arms?’

  Not literally, of course; a few hours had elapsed since she saw Paul at his flat, but it was close enough to make her feel heavy with guilt. How could she have done that? If she knew the answer to that, there would probably never have been the need to cancel her plans to marry Paul. It was not knowing how she felt about Adam that confused her so much.

  But an answer like that wouldn’t satisfy Paul, as it hasn’t earlier. And why should it? The two of them had given almost a year of their lives in commitment to each other, and yet within a few days of her meeting Adam it had all been destroyed. She acknowledged that she owed Paul more than that, and yet she couldn’t think of any other answer than releasing him from his unspoken promises to her. And releasing herself from her unspoken promises to him. Because she could no longer keep them.

  Paul looked haggard, a white line of tension about his mouth. ‘I came here to tell you I still love you, that this—madness, with Adam Gardener, changes nothing for me.’

  And he had found her in the other man’s arms! ‘I’m so sorry,’ she choked.

  ‘I’m not giving up, Eve,’ he told her evenly. ‘Adam Gardener was wrong a few minutes ago; we’re the ones who were made for each other.’

  Eve blushed at the thought of Paul overhearing that conversation, of the things Adam had said next. It must have seemed to Paul as if at any moment she and Adam were about to go to bed together. And, despite her attraction to Adam, she liked to believe they wouldn’t have done.

 
; ‘Just think, Eve,’ Paul persuaded lightly, ‘We come from the same background, have the same friends, the same interests, want the same things out of life.’

  Except when it came to her career and anything connected to it.

  Strange, how even since this morning she had realised the fundamental differences they had when it came to that. And, important as Paul was to her life, her painting was important to her too, not in competition with him as he almost seemed to regard it, but as a way of enriching their lives through her own sense of self-achievement.

  ‘You’re thinking of all this, aren’t you?’ Paul made a sweeping movement with his arm around the room as he seemed to read her thoughts. ‘Maybe I have been wrong in the way I’ve handled your career, but it’s true that we learn from our mistakes. Eve, if you want publicity, then you’ll have publicity. If you want to travel, then we’ll do that too. I’m not in that much of a hurry to enter politics, I can take a few months off——’

  ‘It’s too soon for any of this, Paul,’ she stopped him before he went any further, overwhelmed by his sudden change of heart. Not because she wanted any of what he was offering, but because he had always been so adamantly opposed to it before. His change of mind made her feel slightly off balance.

  ‘But I love you,’ he ground out.

  She knew that he had to, otherwise he would never have come to her in this way after what she had said to him this morning. She knew he was a proud man, and that it must have taken a lot of effort on his part to come here at all.

  And he had found her in Adam’s arms.

  She couldn’t forget that fact, and felt mortified at the thought, hot all over at the memory.

  But guilt and remorse couldn’t make her do something that would probably ruin all their lives. She had to be more sure.

  ‘And I love you,’ she told him quietly. ‘But, as you saw,’ she gave herself no mercy, ‘I feel something for Adam too.’

  Paul’s mouth tightened. ‘If he wants a fight, he’s going to get one!’

  ‘I think you’ve already had one,’ she reminded heavily.

  ‘On the contrary,’ Adam drawled as he walked back into the room, the ice-pack held against his jaw. ‘I haven’t even begun to fight,’ he added tensely.

  ‘You think you’re so damned clever, don’t you?’ Paul rounded on him, his eyes glittering furiously. ‘Eve may be fooled by you now, but she’ll soon realise what you’re really like when you walk out of her life, leaving it in tatters!’

  Adam faced him coldly, his gaze steady. ‘But I have no intention of walking out of Eve’s life, either now or in the future.’

  ‘But you’ll do it anyway,’ Paul scorned. ‘Once you’ve taken what you want.’

  Dark blond brows rose menacingly. ‘And just what is it you think I “want” from her?’ he queried mildly, only the pulse in his cheek telling of his anger.

  Paul’s mouth twisted, as yet unsuspecting of the other man’s fury. ‘Isn’t it obvious?’ he said disparagingly.

  ‘Not to me.’ Adam shrugged, still remaining deathly calm, although Eve could see he was becoming more coldly angry by the minute. ‘You see,’ he continued softly, nothing in his tone to betray the blow he was about to give, ‘I want Eve to marry me.’

  To say Paul looked stunned was an understatement; he looked shattered, as if Adam had lethally dealt him the vicious blow he had been prevented from giving him earlier. All the breath seemed to be knocked from Paul’s body as he paled to a sickly grey colour.

  Eve moved forward concernedly. ‘Paul——’

  He shook off her concern, his attention all on the other man. ‘What did you say?’ he managed to choke, still that awful grey colour.

  ‘I said I want to marry Eve,’ Adam repeated calmly, the ice-pack discarded on the table. ‘And I resent the remarks you made implying that she could be seduced into a physical relationship with me.’ His eyes were steely.

  Paul ignored the threat in the other man’s voice, turning to Eve now, groaning her name in questioning disbelief for what he had just been told.

  ‘I haven’t accepted him,’ she hastily assured him; Adam hadn’t exactly made a proposal yet, more stated it as a fact as he saw it. Which wasn’t necessarily the same way everyone saw it!

  ‘I should hope not,’ Paul gasped, outraged at the thought. ‘You’ve only known the man a few days, you know nothing about him!’

  Thanks to Adam, the time before Paul arrived had been taken up with finding out more about him than some women perhaps learned in a lifetime with a man.

  She felt she knew him rather well after that. And she could see by the mocking smile on Adam’s lips that he thought so too.

  ‘I’ve told you, Paul,’ she spoke more sharply than she intended because she was so conscious of Adam’s speculative gaze on them both, ‘I just need time to think.’ Without pressure from either of these two men, she might have added, but didn’t, because she knew them both well enough to realise it would do no good; they were equally strong-willed in their individual ways!

  ‘Well, I don’t intend to be far away while you’re doing it.’ Paul’s words were meant for Eve, but he continued to look challengingly at the other man.

  ‘It goes without saying that I’ll want to spend as much time with Eve as I possibly can.’ Adam met the challenge—and more! ‘After all, we have the New York exhibition to discuss in fine detail,’ he added with deliberate provocation.

  Paul’s eyes narrowed to icy slits—as expected! ‘What New York exhibition?’ he grated.

  ‘Oh, hasn’t Eve told you about that?’ Adam feigned surprise. ‘In that case, just forget I ever mentioned it.’

  She was going to scream at the two of them in a minute. Much, much worse than schoolchildren! And she hadn’t mentioned the New York exhibition, because she had no intention of doing it.

  Paul gave Adam a coldly dismissive glance before turning to Eve. ‘I’ll call you tomorrow and we can arrange a time for me to come over so that we can discuss the business details that are outstanding,’ he told her softly, affectionately. ‘In the meantime, darling, take care.’ He moved to kiss her lightly on the lips. ‘Gardener,’ he rasped dismissively as he raised his head, preparing to leave.

  ‘Lester,’ Adam returned icily.

  ‘I’ll walk you to the door,’ Eve offered quickly, moving to join Paul.

  His eyes blazed briefly with triumph, although he quickly had the emotion under control. ‘I’d like that,’ he told her warmly.

  She glanced briefly at Adam, but he made no effort to either join them or leave the studio, just stood and watched them go with an expressionless face.

  She barely heard what Paul was saying to her on the way downstairs, absently returned the brief kiss he gave her at the door, the second time he had done so in the last few minutes, although Eve hadn’t really registered the fact, but simply responded out of force of habit. Her thoughts were on Adam, on the fact that he was still up in her studio. And that the charcoal sketch she had done of him earlier lay exposed on the top of her pad, if he should care to look at it.

  He was standing with the pad in his hands as she came back into the studio. ‘This is very good,’ he told her without looking up, instantly aware of her presence in the room as soon as she quietly entered. ‘A little flattering, perhaps, but then you do create images that are more beautiful than life in all your paintings.’ He put the pad down, looking up at her at last.

  Her sketch of Adam was completely true to life, without even an ounce of poetic licence attached to it.

  ‘I didn’t like him kissing you,’ he finally bit out.

  ‘I know,’ she acknowledged flatly.

  He nodded abruptly, watching her with narrowed eyes. ‘You were very quiet while he was here.’

  She shrugged. ‘You two seemed to be saying it all.’

  His mouth twisted. ‘We were acting like a couple of idiots.’

  Eve raised her brows. ‘As long as you realise that.’

  He gr
imaced at her derision. ‘Man’s natural urge to protect what he considers his.’

  ‘Except that I don’t belong to either of you,’ she reminded waspishly.

  ‘Man’s natural urge to protect what he hopes to be his?’ he corrected hopefully.

  She couldn’t help smiling at his wistful expression. ‘How’s the chin?’ she teased.

  ‘Sore as hell,’ he admitted ruefully. ‘For an idiot, Lester packs quite a punch.’

  ‘For an idiot, you take quite a punch,’ she returned pointedly. ‘And did I forget to mention the fact that Paul used to be some sort of boxing champion when he was at university?’

  ‘You little——’ Adam broke off, chuckling softly. ‘It seems,’ he gave her a considering look, ‘that there’s a tigress on the loose—and I don’t even have you by the tail yet! I’m beginning to wonder if there wasn’t something in the way Lester kept you subdued and obedient, after all. Now, come on, Eve, you wouldn’t strike an injured man?’ He backed away as she began to advance purposefully towards him, mocking laughter glowing in the dark depths of his eyes. ‘You would,’ he decided, beating a hasty retreat. ‘I think I’ll just go and get a fresh ice-pack for my jaw!’ He made no effort to touch her, realising he had already pushed his luck enough for one day.

  Eve’s smile faded as soon as she heard his footsteps going down the stairs.

  He had only stated that he didn’t like Paul kissing her and left it at that, but she had been all too aware of the furious glitter in his eyes. A repeat of the intimacy in front of him was likely to evoke a serious reaction, although Adam had done everything in his power after making the statement to dampen his anger and bring their conversation on to a lighter note.