by Penny Jordan
‘I’m sorry if you feel that I've let you bring me here under false pretences.’ Emily told him. ‘Maybe I should have said something to warn you?’
‘Maybe?’
The scorn in his voice made her flinch visibly. 'I didn't want to play the Im-still-a-virgin card for the reasons you've just mentioned yourself,’ she defended. ‘I didn't want it to be an issue and. besides. I wasn't even sure that you d notice.’
Marco remembered how she had coloured up hotly when he had looked at her in disbelief.
‘I really am sorry.’ she told him apologetically.
‘You're sorry? I'm so damn frustrated...’ he began.
‘Me too.’ Emily interrupted him with such candour that he felt his earlier irritation evaporating.
Frustrated, but virginal and apprehensive? he felt bound to point out.
‘Yes but not one of those has to remain a permanent state, does it?’ she responded.
'You trust me to deal effectively with all three?'
‘I trust you to make it possible for us to deal with all three. she corrected him softly. ‘I'm a woman who believes that participation in a shared event makes for mutual enjoyment, even if right now in this particular venture I am the junior partner.’
He wasn't used to being teased, or to sharing laughter in an intimate relationship and as he quickly discovered, shared laughter had its own aphrodisiacal qualities.
He made love to her with a slow intimacy which, he was the first to admit, had its own reward when in the end she showed him such a passionate response. It was she who urged him to move faster and deeper, until he was as lost in the pleasure they were sharing as she was. But not so lost that he couldn't witness the shocked look of delight widening her eyes as her orgasm gripped her...
What the hell was he doing, thinking about that now? It was over; they were over; or rather they soon would be.
Someone was knocking gently on his office door. Marco frowned. He wasn't expecting anyone and he had expressly told his PA not to disturb him. He was still frowning when the door opened and Emily stepped through, smiling at him. It wasn't often that Marco was caught off guard by anything or anyone, but on this occasion...
‘My meeting finished early.’ he could hear Emily saying breezily. So I thought Id come over and see if you were free for lunch?’
When he didn't answer her she closed the office door and came towards him. dropping her voice to a playfully soft tone as she told him. Or maybe we could forget the going-out and the lunch. Remember. Marco, how we used to...What's wrong?' she asked him uncertainly.
Her smile disappeared and Marco recognised that he had left it several seconds too late to respond appropriately to her arrival.
Normally, the fact that his timing was at fault would have been his main concern. But for some reason, he found that, not only was he acutely aware that he had hurt and upset Emily, he was also suppressing an immediate desire to go to her and apologise. Apologise? Him? Marco was astounded by his own uncharacteristic impulse. He never apologised to anyone, for anything.
'Nothing's wrong,' he told her flatly, knowing that something was very wrong indeed for him to have felt like that. It couldn't be that he was feeling guilty, could
it? A traitorous, critical inner voice suddenly challenged, pointing out: After all, you've lied to her and you're about to leave her...
She knew the ground rules. Marco answered it inwardly. That his own conscience should turn on him like this increased his irritation and. man-like, he focused that irritation on Emily, rather than deal with its real cause.
‘Yes there is.’ Emily persisted. ‘You were looking at me as though I'm the last person you want to see.’
'Don't be ridiculous. I just wasn't expecting to see you.' He flicked back the sleeve of his suit—handmade, it fitted him in such a way that its subtle outlining of his superb physique was a whispered suggestion caught only by those who understood. ‘Look. I can't do lunch. I've got an important call coming through any time now and after than I've got an appointment.' That wasn't entirely true, but there was no way he wanted Emily to suggest she wait around for him whilst he spoke with his grandfather. For one thing, he had no idea just how long the call would last and. for another...For another, he wasn't ready yet to tell Emily what she had to be told.
Because he wasn't ready yet to deny himself the pleasure of making love to her. his inner tormentor piped up adding mockingly. Are you sure that you will ever be ready? He dismissed that unwanted thought immediately but its existence increased his ire. ‘Mrs Lawson should have told you that Id said I didn't want to be disturbed.’ he informed Emily curtly.
She heard the impatience in his voice and wished she hadn't bothered coming. Marcos arrogance made him forget sometimes how easily he could hurt her, and she certainly had too much pride to stay here and let him see that pain.
'Mrs Lawson wasn't there when I came in.'
'Not there? She's my PA for heaven's sake. Where the hell is she?'
She'd probably just slipped off to the cloakroom. Marco. It isn't her fault.' Emily pointed out quietly. Look. I'm sorry if this isn't a good time.' She gave a small resigned sigh. I suppose I should have checked with you first before coming over.'
Yes you should have.' Marco agreed grimly. Any minute now the phone was going to ring and if he picked it up she was going to hear his grandfather's most senior aide's voice booming out as he tried to compensate for his own deafness. Is that you Your Highness?' The Comte had never really accustomed himself to the effectiveness of modern communication systems and still thought his voice could only travel down the telephone line if he spoke as loudly as he possibly could.
Emilys eyes widened as she registered Marcos rejection and then she stood still staring blankly at him the colour leaving her face. He was treating her as though she were some casual and not very welcome acquaintance.
'Don't worry about it. I'm sorry I disturbed you.' she managed to say but she could hear the brittle hurt in her own voice. Right now she wanted to be as far away from Marco and his damn office as she could get! She was perilously close to tears and the last thing she wanted was the humiliation of Marco seeing how much he'd wounded her. To her relief, she could hear sounds from the outer office suggesting that his PA had returned, enabling her to use the face-saving fib that she didn't want to have Mrs Lawson coming in to shoo her out. Emily opened the door and left, barely pausing to acknowledge the PA's surprise at seeing her.
Emily hurried out of the office, her head down and her throat thick with unshed tears.
What was it with her? she asked herself wretchedly, five minutes later as she hailed a taxi. She wasn't a young girl with emotions so new and raw that she overreacted to every sucked-in breath! She was in her twenties and divorced, and she and Marco had been together for nearly three years, the intimacy of their sex life having given her an outward patina of radiant sensuality. It had been so palpable in the first year they'd been together, one of her clients had told her semijokingly. ‘Now that you're with Marco you're going to start losing clients if you aren't careful.'
‘Why?' Emily had asked.
‘Jealousy.' had been the client's succinct answer.
Emily remembered how she had smiled with rueful acknowledgement. You mean, because I'm with Marco and they'd like to change places with me?' she had guessed.
They may very well want to do that, but I was thinking more of their concerns that their husbands might be tempted by the creamy glow of sexual completion you're carrying around with you right now. Emily.'
Emily remembered she had blushed and made some confused denial, but the client had shaken her head and told her wisely. You can't deny or ignore it. That glow shimmers round you like a force-field and men are going to be drawn to you because of it. There is nothing more likely to make a man want a woman than her confident wearing of another man's sexual interest in her.'
She doubted that she still wore that magnetic sexual aura now. Emily admitted sadly. That wa
s the trouble: when you broke the rules, it didn't only make you ache for what you didn't have, it also damaged what you did.
The taxi driver was waiting for her to tell him where she wanted to go. She leaned forward and gave him the address of Marcos apartment. Marco's apartment, she noted—for that was how she thought of it. Not as their apartment, even though he had invited her to make it over to suit her own tastes and had given her a lavish budget for its renovation. Material possessions, even for ones home that evoked deep-rooted attachments, were nothing without the right kind of emotions to surround them.
Why had it had to happen? Why had she fallen in love with Marco? Why couldn't she have stayed as she was thrillingly aware of him on the most intimate kind of sexual level, buoyed up by the intensity of their desire for one another, overwhelmed by relief and joy because he had brought her from the dark, wretched nowhere she'd inhabited after her divorce to the brilliant glittering landscape of unimaginable beauty that was the intimacy they shared together? Why. why. why couldn't that have been enough? Why had she had to go and fall for him?
Emily shivered, sinking deeper into the seat of the taxi. And why. Having fallen for him did she have to torment herself by hoping that one day things would change, that one day he would look at her and in his eyes she would see his love for her? The hope that, one day it would happen sometimes felt so fragile and so unrealistic that she was afraid for herself, afraid of her vulnerability as a woman who needed one particular man so badly she was prepared to cling to such a fine thread. But what else could she do? She could tell him honestly, how she felt.
Emily bit her lip guiltily aware that she wasn't being open with him. Because she was afraid in case she lost him...Why was she letting herself be dragged down by these uncomfortable, painful thoughts and questions? Why did they keep on escaping from the place where she tried to incarcerate and conceal them? What kind of woman was she to live a lie with the man she loved? What kind of relationship was it when that man stated openly that there was no place for love in the life he wanted to live?
The taxi stopped abruptly, catching her off guard. She didn't really want to go up to the apartment, not feeling the way she was right now but another person was already hurrying purposefully towards the taxi, wanting to lay claim to it.
Emily got out and paid her fare to the driver, shivering as she waited for her change. Her stomach had already begun its familiar nauseous churning this time, it had to be a result of Marco's rejection of her appeal to him, though she had to admit she had also felt too nauseous to want any breakfast this morning. She was definitely beginning to feel slightly dizzy and faint as well as unwell now.
Psychosomatic, she told herself unsympathetically as she headed up to the apartment.
It had started to rain while Emily was getting out of the taxi. Yes the miserable weather was adding to her feelings of lowness. Why couldn't she talk to Marco? They were lovers, after all sharing the closest of physical intimacy. Physical intimacy—but they did not share any emotional intimacy. Emily’s experiences as a child had made her wary of appearing needy. It was now second nature to her to hide the most vulnerable part of her true self. Only in Marcos arms, at the height of their shared passion, did she feel safe enough to allow her body to show him what was in her heart, knowing that he wasn't likely to be able to recognise it.
She let herself into the apartment, mutely aware of how empty and impersonal it felt, for all her attempts to turn it into a shared home.
‘Yes Grandfather. I do understand, but I cannot work miracles. It is impossible for
me to return to Niroli before the end of the month as we had already tentatively agreed.’ Marco managed to hold onto his temper as his grandfathers complaints grew louder, before finally interrupting to say dryly. ‘Very well then. I accept that whilst I had talked about the end of the month, you had not agreed to it. But that doesn't alter the fact that I cannot return sooner.’
The sound of his grandfather slamming down the receiver reverberated in Marco’s eardrum. Replacing his own handset, he stood up and turned to look out of the window of his office. It was raining. In Niroli the sun would be shining.
Marcos grandfather was obviously furious that he had refused to give in and alter the timing of his return and bring his arrival on Niroli forward. But his grandfather’s rage did not worry Marco. He was used to it and unaffected by it apart from the fact that he too didn't like having his plans challenged. He looked irritably at his watch. He was hungry and very much in need of the gentle calm of Emilys company. That, plus the natural reserve that made her the kind of woman who was never going to court the attention of the paparazzi, or expose their relationship to the avid curiosity of others, were two other major plus-points about her. But not quite as major as the sensuality that spilled from her like sweetness from a honeycomb, even if she didn't realise it.
The direction his thoughts were taking surprised him. It was nonsense for him to be thinking about Emily like this when he was about to end their relationship! Far better that he focused on the things he didn't like about her. such as...Such as the way she insisted on keeping professional commitments even when he had made other plans. Is that the only criticism you can make of her? an increasingly voluble and irritating inner voice demanded sardonically. Marco sighed, mentally acknowledging the irony of his own thoughts. Yes it was true that, in many ways. Emily was the perfect mistress for the man he had been whilst he'd lived in London. But he wasn't going to be that man for much longer.
When the time came for him to take a royal mistress, she would have to have qualities that Emily did not possess. Chief amongst those would be an accepting, possibly older husband. This was an example of the kind of protocol at the royal court of Niroli which, in Marco's opinion, kept it in the Edwardian era. He certainly planned to bring about changes that would benefit the people of Niroli rather than its king. But perhaps there were certain traditions that were better retained.
No. Emily could not continue to be his lover, but even so he could have responded better to her arrival in his office earlier. Marco admitted. He could, for instance, have suggested that she go ahead to one of their favourite restaurants and wait there for him. It had, after all, been predictable that his grandfather would lose his temper and end their conversation so abruptly, once he realised that he wasn't going to get everything that he wanted.
Marco toyed with the idea of calling Emily now and suggesting that she meet him for a late lunch, but then decided against it. She wasn't the kind of woman who sulked or played silly games. But honesty compelled him to accept that some measure of compensatory behaviour on his part would be a good investment.
Ridiculously in many ways, given the length of time they had been together, just thinking about her triggered that familiar sharp ache of his desire for her. He picked up the phone and rang the number of her shop.
Her assistant answered his call, telling him. ‘She isn't here. Marco. She rang a couple of minutes ago to say that she's going to spend the rest of the day working at the apartment. Poor Emily, she still isn't properly over that wretched virus, is she?'
Marco made a noncommittal reply. He himself was never in anything other than the very best of health, but right now his mood was very much in need of the soothing touch that only Emily could give. She had an unexpectedly dry sense of humour, which, allied to her intelligence and acute perception, gave her the ability to make him laugh, sometimes when he least felt like doing so. Not that her sense of humour or his laughter had been very much in evidence these last few weeks, he recognised, frowning a little over this recognition. It surprised him how sharp the need he suddenly felt to be with her was. It was amazing what a bit of guilt could do he decided as he told his PA that he, too would be spending the afternoon working at home.
The best way to smooth over any upsets, so far as Marco was concerned, was in bed where he knew he could quickly make Emily forget about everything other than his desire for her and hers for him...
Emily scowled as she worried over the message she had just picked up from one of her clients. The lady in question was a good customer, but Emily had still felt slightly wary when shed been asked a while ago to take on the complete renovation of a property in Chelsea.
‘Darling, darling. Emily.’ Carla Mainwearing had trilled. ‘I am so in love with your perfect sense of style that I want you to choose everything and I am going to put the house totally in your hands.
Knowing Carla as she did. Emily had taken this with a pinch of salt and had therefore insisted on having her work approved at every single stage. Now Carla had left her a message saying that she hated the colour Emily had chosen for the walls of the property's pretty drawing room, and that she wanted it completely redone—at Emilys expense. Emily recalled that Carla had previously sanctioned the colour of the paint. But discretion was called for in telling her this, so rather than phone Carla back she decided to e-mail instead. Her laptop was in the study she shared with Marco, as were her files, so she made her way there, firmly ignoring the leaden weight of her earlier disappointment at Marcos refusal to join her for lunch.