Savage Interlude

by Carole Mortimer

He gave a lopsided grin. ‘You like calling me disgusting, don’t you? That’s the second time you’ve done it.’

  ‘Possibly because you are,’ Kate said coolly.

  ‘But I’m right, aren’t I?’ he taunted. ‘I’ve been watching you all evening. That poor sap you came here with has no idea what you’re like, has he? He’s been looking for you for the past hour. But don’t worry, I didn’t tell him about you and Damien.’

  ‘Well, thank you,’ she said sarcastically. ‘That was so kind of you.’

  Her sarcasm was lost on him in his drunken state. ‘If he doesn’t have the intelligence to realise you’ve been missing for the last hour then he doesn’t deserve to know,’ he slurred. ‘But I know, Kate. And I still want to know when it’s going to be my turn.’

  Her head snapped back angrily. ‘I don’t like you, Mr Strange. I never have. Now will you kindly take your hands off me or must I scream as I did the last time you tried something like this?’

  ‘I think that would be rather silly, don’t you?’ He bent to kiss her throat with wet lips. ‘I may not be Damien Savage, but I’m sure I could please you just as much as he does.’

  ‘I doubt it,’ she answered dryly, squirming away from those horrible lips, but her movements only seemed to excite him more.

  ‘So do I,’ drawled an icy voice.

  Matt Strange turned to face Damien, the drink giving him more courage than he might otherwise have felt against such a ruthless, arrogant man. ‘Get out of here, Damien,’ he ordered. ‘You aren’t wanted.’

  ‘I might agree with you if Kate looked a little more as if she was enjoying having you touch her. But she doesn’t,’ Damien added harshly. ‘And unless you want me to put you on the floor again I would advise you to get out.’

  ‘You mean you haven’t finished with her yet?’ Matt asked insultingly. ‘She’s lasted a long time. She must be good.’

  It was so far from the truth that Kate almost laughed, a hysterical laugh, but nevertheless a laugh. And she knew Damien was thinking along the same lines because of the mocking lift to his mouth.

  ‘Go and sober up, Matt,’ he advised. ‘You have to be on the set at seven o’clock tomorrow morning. And I won’t accept any excuses for your being late.’

  ‘One of these days, Damien …’ Matt threatened.

  ‘Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it all before. You can forget the insulting names too, save them for some other time.’

  ‘God, you’re an arrogant bast—’

  Damien’s jaw tightened. ‘I said I’d pass on the name-calling,’ he repeated softly. ‘You have precisely five seconds to get out of here.’

  Matt went, probably remembering the last time he had crossed this man. And also remembering the painful swollen nose he had sported for days, the bruising had taken weeks to fade properly.

  Kate gave a relieved smile. ‘It seems I have to thank you once again. And I do—most sincerely. He—’

  Damien gave her a look of utter disgust. ‘Don’t try explaining him away a second time. Matt was going to give you exactly what you’ve been asking for for weeks. I’d oblige you myself, but I’ve suddenly gone off the idea. Maybe now that I can see the full extent of what you are, the way you deliberately encourage a man and then watch as he squirms, maybe now I can forget you. I was right about you, you have a complex about men. You like to hurt us.’

  She gasped. ‘That isn’t true!’

  He ran a weary hand across his furrowed brow. ‘Emasculated for a little tease!’ He shook his head. ‘One of these days you’re going to push one of us too far and find yourself raped.’

  He slammed the door behind him as he left and Kate burst into tears. What a traumatic time it had been for her since Damien came into her life. But it didn’t have to be! All she had to do was say yes to him and everything would change. At least, that was all she had had to do; Damien denied even wanting her now.

  And the fact that he was dancing so close to a tall black-haired girl when she came into the room five minutes later seemed to confirm what he had said. He was nibbling the girl’s earlobe and she was giggling happily, her arms about his waist under his velvet jacket.

  Kate’s face twisted with pain as she turned away, searching much more avidly for Alan now. She couldn’t stay here and watch Damien with another woman, not when she wanted so desperately herself to be the one in his arms.

  ‘Here you are.’ Alan hugged her to him. ‘I’ve been looking for you everywhere. Where have you been?’

  She deliberately didn’t look up into his honest uncomplicated face, hating herself for having to lie to him. But she could hardly tell him the truth! ‘I’ve been looking for you too. We must have kept missing each other.’

  ‘I suppose so,’ he agreed slowly.

  ‘I’d like to leave, if you don’t mind?’

  ‘No, I don’t mind at all. I’d like to be alone with you for a while.’ The gleam in his eyes told her the reason why.

  Kate just wanted to get away from the sight of that girl snuggled in Damien’s arms as he whispered in her ear. She just couldn’t bear to look at them another moment longer.

  She laughed up at Alan. ‘Okay, let’s find James and make our excuses.’

  They were soon on their way back to her flat and the tension began to leave her rigidly held body. She would have to stop tormenting herself with thoughts of Damien. It would have to stop!

  ‘That man,’ Alan broke into her thoughts. ‘The one who asked you to dance. Who was he? He looked familiar, but I can’t place him.’

  ‘Damien Savage,’ she supplied shortly.

  Alan whistled through his teeth. ‘And how do you know him?’

  ‘He’s a friend of James’,’ she replied abruptly, staring straight ahead.

  ‘He’s a handsome specimen.’ He looked at her probingly.

  ‘If you like men who are bossy and overbearing.’

  ‘And don’t you—like him, I mean?’

  ‘Why should I?’ she asked tardy.

  ‘I asked first,’ he said softly.

  Kate gave a short mirthless laugh. ‘Why all the questions, Alan? Surely you aren’t jealous, are you?’

  ‘Of Damien Savage?’ He shrugged nonchalantly. ‘Of course I am! Someone like him comes up and walks off with my girl, how do you expect me to feel?’

  ‘Surely you could tell I didn’t want to dance with him?’

  ‘That was what I thought. But then you disappeared with him—at least, I suppose it was with him. You both disappeared at the same time.’

  ‘Damien can be very—dominant. But I got away from him as soon as I possibly could. Are you coming in for coffee?’ she asked as they reached her flat.

  He nodded his agreement, locking the car before following her into the lift. The coffee made, they sat down to chat. Alan stayed for an hour or so, lingering over their parting.

  ‘See you tomorrow?’ he murmured against her lips.

  ‘Mm, come round for lunch. Josie’s going down to Kent tomorrow to meet Paul’s parents, so we’ll have the flat to ourselves.’

  He quirked an eyebrow. ‘That sounds nice.’

  Kate laughed huskily at his expression. ‘I hope I can trust you to behave.’

  ‘Don’t I always?’ He kissed her gently.

  ‘Yes.’

  He lifted her chin, laughing a little. ‘Hey, don’t sound so disappointed!’

  She wasn’t disappointed, she just wished that for once, he would try to sweep her off her feet. That way he might erase Damien from her mind and body.

  She pretended to be asleep when Josie got home, her face turned firmly against the wall, not in the mood for girlish chatter this evening. But she lay awake long after Josie had gone to her own room, her eyes wide as she admitted to herself that Alan’s kisses had in no way helped to blot out the feel of Damien’s burning lips upon her own. She doubted that any man’s kisses could do that.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ‘I INSIST that you stay to dinner,’ Sheri told her. ‘J
ames should be home soon and I know he’d love to see you. You haven’t been over much lately.’

  Kate hadn’t been over because she didn’t want to run the risk of accidentally running into Damien here. ‘Well, I have started my secretarial course now and I go out with Alan quite a lot in the evenings.’ Although not so much of late.

  ‘How’s the secretarial course going?’

  ‘All right, but there’s an awful lot to learn, much more than I realised.’

  ‘And how are things with Alan?’

  Kate wished she knew. They went out together two, maybe three times a week, she enjoyed being with him, and she responded reasonably well to his kisses. But that was where the trouble between them lay. She knew Alan was starting to wonder at her lack of ardour, that the light lovemaking between them did not fire her as the merest touch from Damien could do.

  She was beginning to wonder if she was being fair to Alan, if she wasn’t using him as a shield against her real feelings. She did enjoy being with him, yes, but she enjoyed being with Damien more.

  Damien! Why did he have to keep intruding into her life? That he was back on his usual social whirl she knew, pictures of him dining out or at the theatre with one girl or another often appearing in the daily newspapers. He was a celebrity and his activities were definitely news, red-hot news some of it.

  Actually she hadn’t seen Alan for the last three days, but they were meeting later this evening. She would have to make sure she was back in town for that. ‘Things are fine between Alan and me,’ she finally answered.

  ‘And Damien?’ Sheri probed.

  ‘What about him?’ she asked sharply.

  Sheri shrugged. ‘I had the feeling a couple of months back that you were rather keen on him.’

  Kate attempted a light laugh. ‘He’s every girl’s dream. I was bound to be bowled over by his interest in me. I used to dream about meeting him when I was a child—you know the fantasies we have at twelve and thirteen.’

  ‘And he didn’t live up to them?’

  He more than lived up to them! He was larger than life, very sexy, and totally immoral. He was the sort of man who didn’t think marriage was necessary and indulged in numerous affairs.

  ‘You know he did,’ she admitted softly. ‘But you must know what he’s like.’

  ‘I know what he’s like now. James hardly ever gets home before eight o’clock in the evening, and he’s always tired out when he gets in. Damien’s just gone overboard for work.’

  ‘So James said the other week. I suppose that’s how Damien got to the top in his profession.’

  Sheri frowned. ‘He’s playing hard too. He never goes out with the same woman twice.’

  Kate gave a bitter laugh. ‘I don’t suppose he needs to if he gets what he wants the first time around.’

  ‘Oh dear, he has made a bad impression with you! I told you from the first that he’s a very blunt person.’

  He was blunt to the point of being rude, never mixing his words when talking to her, making his impression of her very clear. ‘How’s the film going?’ Kate changed the subject.

  Sheri shrugged. ‘James says very well. But the tension between Matt and Damien is reaching exploding point.’

  Damien again! She grimaced. ‘Couldn’t we leave him out of the conversation?’

  Sheri giggled. ‘It’s impossible with James. For the first ten minutes when he gets home he does nothing but complain about him. You wait and see—I don’t think tonight will be any different. He was going to insist on getting home by seven tonight, so he’ll probaby have a blazing row with Damien so that he can get away.’

  ‘Is he really that bad?’

  ‘Impossible,’ Sheri confirmed.

  The two of them were seated in the lounge, Kate having arrived after lunch to spend the afternoon with Sheri. Her sister-in-law was occasionally a little lonely during the day now that she had given up her modelling career and so Kate had decided to help occupy one afternoon for her.

  James had asked Sheri to give up her career so that they might be together when he Wasn’t working. Sheri had enough sense to realise that two people working extensively here and abroad, often at different times, found it difficult to make a success of a marriage. She acknowledged the fact that while her career had been enjoyable it wasn’t to be her whole life. They hoped to have a family soon, so it was James’ career that was important for the moment.

  ‘I can’t be too late home,’ Kate said. ‘Alan’s coming over about eight-thirty.’

  ‘James promised he would get home early, and I’m sure he will because I told him I was going to try and persuade you to stay for dinner. He misses you, you know.’

  ‘I miss him too,’ Kate admitted.

  ‘We would like you to move back here with us.’

  Kate was touched by the sincerity of her words, but she shook her head firmly. ‘I couldn’t let James take over my life again. You know what he used to be like.’

  ‘Mm, I—’ Sheri broke off. ‘I think that’s him now. Go and meet him,’ she encouraged.

  ‘Wouldn’t you like to go?’

  ‘I’ll see him in a minute. I know he’s been looking forward to seeing you. You found each other so late in life that I’m afraid he’ll always be this protective of you. He loves you, Kate. Try to understand him.’

  Kate swallowed an emotional lump in her throat, standing up to go and meet her brother. ‘I wonder if he realises how well you know him.’

  ‘I think so,’ Sheri said softly.

  ‘Well, I hope he realises how lucky he is.’

  She laughed. ‘Go and meet him.’

  Kate hurried to the door, hearing the faint murmur of voices in the entrance-hall. ‘Now then, James,’ she laughed, ‘Sheri and I have decided that we don’t want any talk about your demonic director this evening,’ she laughed lightly. ‘We all know what a bully and a tyrant he—’

  She broke off in dismay, a dark colour staining her cheeks as she saw who was with her brother. Damien Savage! And look at the way she had just spoken about him!

  James gave a throaty chuckle at her confusion. ‘As you can see, I brought Damien with me.’

  ‘The demonic director,’ Damien drawled mockingly.

  The colour stayed in her cheeks. ‘I didn’t realise you were with James.’

  ‘Would it have made any difference if you had?’

  She held her head high. ‘Probably not.’

  He gave a half smile. ‘I didn’t think so.’

  Sheri had left the lounge to see what was going on, moving over to kiss her husband before greeting her guest. It gave Kate the chance to study Damien without being observed.

  He was still as attractive as ever, but he looked different. The lines of cynicism about his mouth and nose had deepened and there were lines of strain about his eyes. His hair was still as thick and vital, but she could see a few strands of grey among its blackness. And he looked leaner too, his muscles more pronounced. As Sheri had already said, he looked as if he was working and playing too hard, mainly playing, she would hazard.

  ‘It’s lovely to see you again, Damien,’ Sheri said with a smile.

  ‘Even if I am the demonic director?’ he taunted.

  She laughed. ‘Don’t be cruel and remind Kate of her mistake,’ she rebuked him.

  ‘She seems to make a lot of them where I’m concerned,’ he drawled.

  Kate blushed, her embarrassment momentarily covered by James’ bear-like hug and the firm kiss he planted on her cheek. He stood back, surveying her censoriously. ‘You don’t look well,’ he stated abruptly.

  She put up a hand to her pale cheeks, the surprise of seeing Damien beginning to fade. ‘I’m fine, James.’

  ‘No, you’re not. Are you working too hard?’

  She could sense Damien watching the two of them and it took a strong effort of will not to meet that challenging look. ‘I’m not working at all, I’m only learning at the moment.’

  ‘Well, it doesn’t agree with you.
With your allowance you have no need to work. By the time you’ve finished this course you’ll probably decide to get married, then you won’t need it.’

  ‘I have no intention of getting married.’

  ‘That’s what I said,’ he scoffed, ‘and look what happened to me!’

  ‘What course are you taking?’ Damien interrupted harshly.

  ‘A secretarial course,’ she supplied unwillingly.

  The mockery increased in his green eyes. ‘I don’t think you’re the secretary type.’ The look in his eyes told her he pictured her in quite another role.

  ‘I’d better go and change for dinner,’ James said ruefully.

  ‘That reminds me,’ Damien voiced softly, ‘I still have a pair of your trousers.’

  James frowned. ‘A pair of my— How on earth did you get a pair of my trousers?’

  Damien quirked an eyebrow. ‘I should ask Kate that.’

  So it was to be that way, was it! Well, she was far from admitting defeat. She threw back her head defiantly. ‘I let Damien borrow a pair of your trousers when he got his own wet at your apartment.’

  Sheri looked puzzled. ‘How did he do that? Or is that an embarrassing question?’

  Damien gave a soft laugh. ‘I believe it is.’

  ‘I see.’ James bit his lip, obviously remembering the occasion alluded to. ‘I’ll go and change.’

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ his wife said hurriedly, feeling an unwanted third.

  ‘Does James always try and ignore your little discrepancies?’ Damien rasped once they were alone.

  ‘I’ve already explained to him about that night and morning.’

  ‘And he believed you?’

  ‘He had no reason not to,’ she said softly.

  ‘I would have thought there were two very good reasons—I’m a man and you’re a woman.’

  ‘I’ve told you before, that doesn’t necessarily mean what smutty little minds take it to mean. Shall we go into the lounge and wait for the others?’

  He followed her, sitting down as she did the same. ‘I’ll never understand this set-up.’

  ‘I wouldn’t even try,’ she derided.

  ‘Are you still seeing—what’s his name, Alan, was it?’