He was intent on inflicting pain, and he was succeeding. Her whimpers sounded low in her throat as he ruthlessly crushed her against his hard body, bending her to his will.
Just when she thought she would break in two he released her, so suddenly that she fell back against the desk, bruising her thigh. But that was nothing to the painful throb of her lips, and the inside of her mouth felt ragged and sore as she raised her fingers to it.
‘Now that I’ve got that out of the way,’ he ground harshly, ‘maybe you wouldn’t mind telling me why you didn’t inform me of the fact that Judith Grant is your sister?’
CHAPTER FOUR
‘I—’ NATALIE faltered.
‘Well?’ he barked.
Her eyes flashed at his impatience. ‘If you’ll just give me chance—’
‘To do what?’ he demanded, towering over her ominously, the dark brown suit and cream shirt he wore emphasising the darkness of his skin. ‘To think of an excuse as to why your own sister was chosen as Beauty Girl? To think of a reason you kept quiet about that little fact even though you knew the cold-hearted little bitch could ruin my sister’s life?’
‘No!’ She had gone very white.
‘No?’ he bit out disbelievingly.
‘Once and for all—no!’ she glared at him furiously. ‘You know as well as I do why Judith was chosen.’ She wet her lips nervously. ‘Explaining why I didn’t tell you she’s my sister could be a little harder.’
‘I’m sure it could!’ he glowered.
‘But you’re coming here and—and manhandling me,’ she said agitatedly, ‘has certainly done nothing to help the situation.’
‘It was either beat you or kiss you—I preferred the latter,’ he told her grimly.
‘There was no reason for either—’
‘No?’ he mocked harshly. ‘I’ve just had a very unsatisfactory meeting with your sister.’
‘Judith…?’ Natalie swallowed hard.
‘Yes,’ he snapped. ‘And may I say that I hope to God you have none of your sister’s nature. So far I can see no similiarity, and I hope there isn’t any.’
She could see his disgust for her sister clearly revealed in the depths of those fierce blue eyes, the hard lines of his face appearing as if carved from granite. ‘I—what did she have to say?’ she asked hesitantly.
‘The—details of it need not concern you,’ he told her coldly. ‘Your sister has six months of her contract with us left to run, at the end of that time she’ll be dropped from our advertising campaign for Beauty Girl.’
It was no worse than she had expected, in fact it was better. She had thought Judith would be dropped instantly, in fact Adam Thornton had threatened as much. What had happened to change his mind? ‘And—er—Fantasy Girl?’ She looked at him as if waiting for the axe to fall.
And fall it did. Adam Thornton looked down his arrogant nose at her. ‘I’ve decided to go elsewhere for my Fantasy Girl,’ he stated coldly. ‘To a more—respectable and trustworthy agency.’
‘Oh, but—’
‘I trust I make myself clear, Miss Faulkner?’ he added haughtily.
She hated the way he raised his eyebrows so condescendingly, and a flush coloured her cheeks. ‘Very,’ she mumbled.
‘Good,’ he said with hard satisfaction, straightening his cuff. ‘Goodbye, Miss Faulkner.’
‘Er—goodbye,’ she echoed dejectedly, suddenly finding herself alone once more.
So much for her hopes and dreams of yesterday! Adam Thornton was more than angry now, he was thoroughly disgusted. And there was no way she could redeem herself, or her agency. She would have to wait and see if he would influence any of her other clients away from her, something he was perfectly within his rights to do. Judith’s behaviour had been unethical, to say the least.
‘Bad news?’ Dee had come in without Natalie being aware of it.
She grimaced, not wanting to show the seriousness of what had just happened, but in reality she felt like crying. ‘Well, it wasn’t good,’ she said lightly.
‘I thought he was going to beat you when he stormed in here!’
Dark colour flooded her cheeks as she recalled the punishment he had extracted instead of the beating, her lips still feeling swollen. She put her hand up to them selfconsciously, sure that she had no lip-gloss left. ‘He isn’t that uncivilised, Dee,’ she said awkwardly, knowing just how close she had come to that beating.
‘He comes over as very uncivilised to me,’ Dee murmured dreamily. ‘Sort of rugged and untamed. He would have made a good caveman!’
‘Too intelligent,’ Natalie said without thinking, surprised at the other woman also noticing that air about Adam Thornton, and flushing as she saw Dee’s speculative look. ‘Well, he is,’ she insisted. ‘If he had been a caveman he would certainly have been head man!’
‘Undoubtedly,’ her friend nodded. ‘I can just see him hitting the woman of his choice over the head and dragging her off by her hair to his cave! The thought gives me goose-bumps!’ She gave a pleasurable shiver.
Natalie raised mocking brows. ‘How is Tom today?’ she enquired dryly.
‘He’s fine, back at work—thank goodness! And there’s no harm in a little daydreaming,’ Dee grinned. ‘I’m too much in love with Tom to do more than that. It’s a pity you got off to such a bad start with him,’ she grimaced.
‘Yes,’ Natalie sighed. ‘Er—no,’ she denied once she had realised what she had admitted to. But she couldn’t help wondering what sort of effect she and Adam Thornton would have had on each other if they had met in different circumstances. ‘Not my type at all, Dee,’ she said briskly, evading the other woman’s probing glance as she moved to sit behind her desk.
‘Why?’
‘I—Well—Too bossy,’ she dismissed.
Dee’s smile deepened. ‘I would doubt he needs to be bossy with women very often!’
So did Natalie. Dee wasn’t impressed very easily by men, her attitude towards them was slightly cynical, something Natalie usually found amusing. They had both agreed that Jason Dillman was a shallow flirt, and now they both agreed that Adam Thornton was the opposite, that the man probably had depths no one was allowed to probe.
But she didn’t want to think of Adam Thornton any more, she had more pressing matters on her mind. ‘Could you try Judith’s flat again?’ she requested briskly. ‘And if she isn’t there just keep trying until she is. I want to see her immediately,’ she added hardly.
‘Okay. I—’
The outer office door slammed, and a flushed and angry Judith marched into the room. ‘Arrogant bastard!’ she snapped furiously, throwing herself down into a chair to glare up at them, her expression one of rebellion.
Dee gave Natalie a rueful shrug. ‘I’ll talk to you later. Good morning, Judith,’ she mocked.
‘’Morning,’ Judith muttered as the other woman left the room, looking more beautiful than ever in her anger.
‘And who is the arrogant bastard?’ Natalie enquired softly, sure she already knew who it was.
‘Adam Thornton,’ her sister confirmed, her blue eyes blazing, her mouth set angrily.
‘Why?’ she probed softly, sure she would get more out of Judith than Adam Thornton had been willing to reveal.
‘He had the nerve to tell me I have to give up Jason!’
‘Yes?’
‘He even threatened me when I refused!’ Judith sounded almost surprised.
Natalie didn’t find her sister’s surprise in the least puzzling. Ever since they were children Judith, as the younger, had been cossetted and cared for, never denied even her smallest wish, and Natalie knew that she had been as guilty of the spoiling as her parents had been; all of them had loved her too much for her own good. Judith simply didn’t understand why anyone should deny her anything, not even someone else’s husband.
‘How did he threaten you?’ she prompted quietly.
‘He told me he was sacking me as Beauty Girl!’ Judith revealed indignantly.
Natalie stiffened, knowing that Adam hadn’t carried out that threat. Why hadn’t he?
‘I soon told him,’ Judith added with satisfaction. ‘He’s so set on protecting his sister that when I threatened to go to her and tell her about Jason and me he backed down.’
Heavens, her sister was so stupid! Men like Adam Thornton didn’t ‘back down’. He was simply biding his time, and when he was ready, probably at the end of Judith’s contract with him, he would strike. He would probably make sure she never got another modelling job in her life.
She sighed her exasperation. ‘Only until your contract with him runs out—’
‘By that time it won’t matter,’ Judith dismissed confidently. ‘Jason will have left his wife by then.’
‘To do what?’
‘Marry me, of course,’ her sister derided.
‘And what will he do for a job?’
‘He’s always wanted to set up his own advertising agency. In America. Where Adam Thornton can’t touch him.’
Natalie held back her own anger with difficulty, knowing that there wasn’t a place where Adam Thornton ‘couldn’t touch him’. ‘Would he take you with him?’ she asked drily.
‘Of course.’
‘And what do you think that will do to Mum and Dad?’ she snapped.
Judith looked disconcerted for a moment, but only for a moment, her confidence returning with a dismissive shrug. ‘I’m sure they’ll love Jason.’
‘They may do,’ her parents would like anyone if Judith claimed them as a friend, ‘but I doubt they’ll love the fact that he’s married.’
‘He’ll get a divorce—’
‘Which will take years!’ Her anger got the better of her now. ‘You’re completely irresponsible, Judith—selfish, thoughtless, and irresponsible.’
‘And you’re just jealous!’ Her sister stood up. ‘Because Jason wants me and not you.’
‘I—’
‘I won’t listen to you any more,’ Judith told her furiously. ‘I intend to continue seeing Jason, no matter what anyone says—or does!’
‘Even if you hurt people in the process?’ Natalie almost shouted.
‘It would hurt me too much to give him up!’
The two of them continued to glare at each other, then Judith suddenly turned on her heel and left, leaving the smell of her heady perfume behind her.
Natalie sat in stunned silence, more sure than ever now that she didn’t really know her sister any more. They had come a long way from the time they had lived in Devon with their parents, sharing a bedroom, sharing secrets of current boy-friends as they talked long into the night. She could no longer reach her sister, not even the disillusioned hurt of their parents could do that now.
How could Judith have threatened to tell Tracy Dillman about her affair with her husband? And how dared she make that threat to Adam Thornton? Judith might not realise it, but the payment for that threat had already started, in Adam Thornton’s withdrawal for a Fantasy Girl. How much more vengeful he would be when Judith’s contract ran out!
* * *
It was Natalie’s turn to telephone her parents that weekend, and in the circumstances she wished she didn’t have to. They were sure to ask how Judith was, and with the disgust she felt towards her sister she didn’t think she could answer them rationally.
‘Your mother is just having a lie-down,’ her father told her. ‘She’s feeling a little tired now that the season is over.’
Her parents ran a small hotel on the sea-front in the Devonshire town they had lived in for the last thirty years, despite the fact that her mother had suffered from high blood pressure for the last ten years.
Natalie frowned, knowing how rarely her mother admitted to the weakness of being tired, seeing the chance to be able to discuss her worries over Judith fast disappearing. Her father already had enough to worry about.
‘We didn’t hear from Judith last weekend,’ her father added almost wistfully.
‘She’s very busy with Beauty Girl at the moment,’ she answered vaguely, angry that her sister had missed her turn to telephone their parents. She knew how they worried about their daughters.
‘We’ve seen her photographs in the newspapers, and she was even on television the other day,’ their father said proudly.
‘Yes,’ Natalie said dully.
‘It’s so nice to know that we have no worries with our two girls,’ he added confidently.
No worries! Judith was conducting an affair with a married man, was also ruining Natalie’s agency in the process. No worries? God!
‘Natalie?’ Her father sounded concerned at her silence.
Her reply was bright and reassuring. ‘No, we’re both doing very well.’
‘Good. And don’t mention your mother’s tiredness to Judith, it would only upset her.’
With the wholly selfish attitude she had discovered in her sister lately Natalie wasn’t so sure it would worry Judith at all. Although perhaps she was being unfair, Judith had always been close to their mother, just as she had always been closer to her father. How she wished she could unburden her troubles to him now!
But she couldn’t, and wouldn’t, not even mentioning the mess Judith was making of her life. Surely at twenty-two Judith was old enough to control and decide her own life. If only she hadn’t decided on a married man, a married man who could cause nothing but trouble!
* * *
Lester called her towards the end of the following week, and out of desperation she accepted his invitation to the theatre, then wished she hadn’t, as it turned out to be one of those plays she detested, a handful of actors debating on the reason for mankind.
She had agreed to the date out of a need to take her mind off her other problems, and at the end of the first act she was so bored with the play that her mind kept wandering to her problems anyway. Despite what her father had said about Judith not being told of their mother’s tiredness she had casually mentioned it to her sister. Judith’s answer had been that she would go home ‘some time’ to see their parents. As it was almost a month since she had last been home Natalie wondered when ‘some time’ would be.
‘Natalie!’
She blinked up at Lester as he stood in the aisle next to her. ‘Hmm?’
‘I said would you like to go for a drink during the interval?’ he repeated impatiently.
‘Yes, please.’ She followed him out to the bar, glad of a reason to stop thinking.
‘I’ll just go and get our drinks,’ Lester told her once they had reached the crush of people in the lounge area, the people about the bar seeming to be about four deep. ‘You wait here.’
Gladly. She had no wish to get caught up in that crowd. But the time alone gave her even more time to think. It had been a terrible week so far, and she still had Friday to go! As she had suspected, Adam Thornton hadn’t stopped with the dropping of Fantasy Girl, she had received several cancellations this week from clients she had received through the promotion of Beauty Girl, and several of her other long-standing clients were suddenly unavailable when she telephoned them. She had no doubt that Adam Thornton was behind it, she knew what a powerful man he was in the world of business.
She felt a little conspicuous standing here alone in the crowd, almost as if she were being observed. She slowly looked about the room, her eyes widening as she saw Adam Thornton standing a short distance away, a beautiful redhead clinging to his arm, her figure and features almost doll-like. But Natalie spared only a glance for his beautiful companion, finding fierce blue eyes watching her intently, making her very conscious of her own appearance, although she had no need to be. The black and grey dress she wore fitted perfectly, the grey evening bag and matching high-heeled sandals complementing the outfit. She looked cool and attractive, although the white-gold bracelet she wore, her only jewellery, couldn’t hope to compare with the emerald and diamond necklace and bracelet the other woman wore.
Her heart leapt in her throat as Adam Thornton turned to say something to his comp
anion before coming towards her, carrying his glass of whisky with him. Of course he would have a drink, Natalie thought bitchily, no queueing up at the bar for him!
‘Miss Faulkner.’ He stood in front of her now.
‘Mr Thornton.’ She met his gaze unflinchingly.
‘Enjoying the play?’ he drawled pleasantly, almost as if he hadn’t threatened her the last time they had met.
‘Yes, thank—No,’ she admitted ruefully.
‘Terrible, isn’t it?’ he surprised her by agreeing.
‘Yes. But if you don’t like it—’
‘Unfortunately my companion is a patron of the arts,’ he gave rueful sigh. ‘She helped finance this play.’
Natalie looked past him to the tiny but beautiful woman, the dark green dress she wore of the finest silk. ‘The princess?’ she guessed, remembering what Judith had said about this man’s latest woman-friend.
‘Who told—Your sister,’ he derided. ‘Yes, Maria is a princess—an Italian princess.’
Her eyes widened. ‘I didn’t know there were any.’
‘Oh yes,’ he sounded amused. ‘Although she rarely uses the title.’
‘It could come in useful when booking into a hotel or restaurant,’ Natalie smiled.
‘No doubt,’ he nodded, not returning the smile. ‘I’ve been meaning to call you, Miss Faulkner.’
She instantly stiffened. ‘You have?’ Her tone was instantly apprehensive, forcing a smile to her lips as Lester turned and caught her eye, at the bar now, waiting for their drinks to be served. He frowned slightly as he saw Adam Thornton standing at her side, turning away as the barman demanded his attention.
‘Lester?’ Adam Thornton asked softly, having followed her line of vision.
‘Er—yes,’ Natalie confirmed awkwardly. ‘What were you going to call me about, Mr Thornton?’
He shrugged, looking magnificent in the dark evening suit, the grey hair at his temples giving him a very distinguished look. ‘I hardly think this is the place for a business talk,’ he drawled mockingly as the crowds of people jostled noisily about them. ‘Perhaps you could call me in the morning?’
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