‘Let me,’ Tracy offered as the telephone rang once again, taking over the small switchboard with cool competence.
Natalie watched with wonder as Tracy dealt with a recalcitrant client as efficiently as Dee would have done, the person on the other end of the line seeming to be apologising to Tracy before they rang off.
‘How did you do that?’ she gasped.
‘I took a secretarial course at school,’ Tracy told her proudly. ‘I watched you use the switchboard a couple of times, and it doesn’t seem too complicated. The soothing manner was easy. I used to use it all the time when I lived with Adam. He seemed to have rejected women calling him day and night,’ she grimaced.
Pain flickered across Natalie’s set features. Soon she would just be another of Adam’s ‘rejected women’.
Contrition washed over the other girl’s face. ‘Hey, I’m sorry—I mean—Well, it was years ago. I’m sure that will never happen to you.’
Natalie’s smile was bitter. ‘I’m equally sure it will, in time.’
‘No, I—’
‘I haven’t deluded myself about Adam and me,’ Natalie lied coolly. ‘When it ends I’ll be ready for it.’ Because she was going to have to end it herself, if she wanted to regain her self-respect.
Tracy frowned. ‘I thought you and Adam—’
She gave a dismissive laugh. ‘We’re both adults, Tracy.’
‘But—’ The telephone began ringing again. ‘Let me,’ Tracy offered once more. ‘You go through to your office, I’ll deal with this.’
‘Do you type too?’ Natalie asked dazedly.
‘Do I!’ Tracy smiled confidently.
‘Like a job for the day?’ she queried half teasingly, half seriously.
‘I’d love it.’ Tracy settled herself behind Dee’s desk. ‘Don’t worry about a thing, it’s all under control,’ she grinned.
The ringing of the telephone seemed to be becoming insistent to Natalie’s ears. ‘I don’t imagine our caller thinks so,’ she derided.
Tracy winked at her, picking up the receiver to deal with this second caller as deftly as she had dealt with the last one. After the first few seconds Natalie left her to it. She felt sure Adam hadn’t had this in mind when he asked her to help his sister, she doubted if a secretarial job was what he had in mind at all!
And Tracy was capable of more, had the confidence, away from Jason, to make a career for herself in any field she cared to.
A germ of an idea began to form in Natalie’s mind, and grew to gigantic proportions. It was a fantastic idea, unbelievable, and yet the more she thought about it the more excited she became. She would discuss it with Adam when next she saw him. If he said no she would understand, but it was the perfect idea. Tracy would be perfect.
The morning passed quickly with the backlog of work from yesterday, with Tracy proving just how well she could type and smoothly handle impatient clients.
For Natalie the rushed morning was exactly what she needed to take her mind off Adam, and when Tracy put through a call to her mid-morning she had no thought of its being him. She began to tremble as soon as she heard his voice.
‘How are you?’ he asked huskily.
‘Fine,’ she answered briskly.
‘How did Tracy’s visit go?’
‘Er—very well.’
‘Did she enjoy it?’
‘I think so,’ she answered evasively, not too sure how he was going to react to being told his sister was acting as her secretary—if only for a day.
‘You don’t sound too sure?’ he chided teasingly.
Natalie chewed on her bottom lip, not knowing how she was going to live without this man. ‘Why don’t you ask her yourself?’ she suggested jerkily.
‘I called her at home, but she isn’t there. I think she must have gone shopping or something. That seems to be something you women—’
‘Er—Adam,’ she interrupted.
‘Yes?’
‘Tracy is still here.’
‘She is?’ His surprise could clearly be heard.
‘Yes. You see—’
‘I hope she isn’t bothering you, she must have arrived very early. I thought maybe she would arrive half an hour before lunch or something. She must be enjoying herself,’ he sounded pleased.
‘She is,’ Natalie grimaced.
‘Can I talk to her?’
‘You just did.’
‘No, I—That was Tracy?’ he sounded incredulous. ‘That was Tracy who put my call through?’ he wanted confirmation.
Natalie explained as quickly as she could how Tracy came to be acting as her secretary. Once she had finished she waited for his explosion.
‘She sounded wonderful,’ Adam said excitedly. ‘Very cool and competent, very sure of herself.’
‘She has reason to be.’ Natalie felt more sure of herself now that Adam hadn’t lost his temper. ‘She’s very good. But I’m afraid I won’t be able to make lunch. I can’t leave the office now.’
‘No, I understand that. I’ll pick you up from work tonight—’
‘No! I mean—no,’ she said more calmly. ‘I have such a lot of work to do and I—’
‘I need you, Natalie.’
She shivered pleasurably at the raw passion in his voice, unable to dampen the wild sensations quivering through her body. She had to see him, be with him, one more time at least.
‘Natalie!’
‘All right,’ her voice was huskily soft. ‘Pick me up from work. About six?’
‘I’ll be there. But I’ll talk to Tracy now.’
‘Adam, I have something I want to talk to you about, concerning Tracy. It’s something important.’
‘Can it wait until tonight?’
‘Oh yes!’
‘I’m not sure I can,’ his voice was ragged. ‘God, darling, I miss you. I never knew a day could be so long.’
Natalie had never doubted Adam’s desire for her, and she didn’t now. She didn’t doubt her own desire for him either, could feel her whole body tingling in anticipation of him. She needed him as badly as he needed her, for tonight at least.
‘Darling, are you all right?’ Adam sounded concerned. ‘You don’t seem to be with me.’
‘Oh, I am,’ she shook herself out of her self-torture. ‘I’m very much with you.’
‘I hope so. I certainly can’t start without you,’ he teased.
‘Oh, Adam!’ Natalie felt some of her tension leave her as she smiled. Tonight, just tonight, she promised herself.
She could hear Tracy laughing in the other office as she spoke to her brother on the telephone, and wished she could laugh with him as lightheartedly as that, that she hadn’t had the truth thrown at her so cruelly.
Tracy came in a few minutes later, an excited flush to her cheeks, looking even more beautiful than ever. White was definitely her colour, seeming to give her an out-of-this-world delicacy, and all the time her eyes seemed to simmer with the same sensuality that her brother possessed in an even greater degree. It was this rare, even unique combination that had convinced Natalie that Tracy would make the perfect Fantasy Girl! Of course, she had no idea whether Adam would welcome such a career for his sister, but to her Tracy seemed perfect for the part. She intended putting that idea to Adam tonight.
‘He thinks I’m doing very well,’ Tracy told her breathlessly.
‘You are,’ she nodded. ‘These letters are perfect.’ She had been checking through the half a dozen letters Tracy had typed for her when Adam’s call had come through.
Tracy flushed her pleasure. ‘My typing is a little rusty, but I was picking up speed towards the end.’
‘It’s very good,’ Natalie assured her, seeing how Tracy needed this boost to her confidence. ‘I’m sorry about lunch.’
‘That’s all right,’ the other girl dismissed. ‘I’m having such fun here!’
Natalie grimaced. ‘You wouldn’t if you did it all the time.’
‘Maybe I could come back and help out tomorrow if your secretary
is still going to be out?’ Tracy queried tentatively.
It would certainly be a help to her, but she wasn’t the only one to consider. ‘Maybe you should talk it over with Jason first,’ she suggested softly.
A rebellious flush heightened the other girl’s cheeks. ‘It won’t affect him, he’s out at work all day anyway.’
‘Nevertheless…’
‘All right,’ Tracy sighed, ‘I’ll call him now and tell him.’
Natalie had to smile at herself for the way Tracy intended ‘talking it over’ with Jason! It seemed Tracy could show some of Adam’s determination when she wanted to.
From the bright glitter of tears in Tracy’s eyes when she came back a few minutes later she didn’t think the conversation with Jason had exactly gone smoothly. Nevertheless, Tracy informed her that she would be in to help her tomorrow too. Jason Dillman wouldn’t be pleased by his wife’s further rebellion at all.
She was still working at her desk, Tracy having left almost an hour ago, when Adam came quietly into the office at five-thirty. Natalie looked up at him with hungry eyes, eating up everything about him, the warm blue of his eyes, the dark thickness of his hair, his beautiful mouth and powerful body.
‘I know I’m early,’ he said huskily, his eyes devouring her in return, ‘but I couldn’t stay away any longer.’
She stood up as if in a dream, moving into the warm possession of his arms with a satisfied sigh. ‘I’m glad,’ she told him huskily.
He curved her body into his. ‘Let’s go home, hmm?’
‘Yes,’ she agreed gladly, wanting him to make love to her more than anything else in the world.
She was aware of a fierce desperation in her lovemaking that evening, a need to make herself actually a part of him, so that nothing and no one would ever be able to take him away from her again.
‘Darling!’ Adam shuddered beneath the sure caresses of her hands and lips, and lay back on the bed as she gave him exquisite pleasure.
He was nearing the end of his control, she could feel his body trembling with the sweet desire that would shortly send them both reaching for the brightness of the stars.
‘Natalie!’ He rolled over, pressing her into the bed beneath him, parting her lips with his, encouraging her to return the caress.
Natalie didn’t need any encouragement, her caresses wild and abandoned as she felt the warm pleasure surging through her body, the excitement building up to such a pitch that when the hard thrust of his thighs melted into hers she felt herself dissolving in wave after wave of mindless ecstatic pleasure.
And Adam was far from finished with her yet, his body suddenly still on hers as he began to caress her breasts with his lips and tongue, sucking the nipples into his mouth as his hands curved her thighs into his and he began the slow movements of his muscled hips to bring her once again to the nerve-shattering fulfilment of her body with his.
He held her against his side in warm protectiveness as their breathing slowed and steadied to normal, their bodies still sensitised to the merest touch of the other.
‘I can’t believe this is happening.’ His chest vibrated beneath her as he spoke. ‘I’m thirty-nine, Natalie, and if I’m honest I’ll admit to sleeping with more women than I care to think about.’ His voice had hardened grimly. ‘And yet this is the first time, every time with you, that I’ve known such a complete passion, a certainty that every caress, every kiss is right.’
Natalie felt that too, knew that a woman’s first physical relationship could often be very disappointing, that often it took time and patience to reach the point of physical oneness they had achieved from the first.
Adam turned to look at her. ‘Everything is right with you.’
She blinked back the tears, cuddling into him, his skin firm and smooth beneath her touch, her body curved against his as she felt too disturbed to speak. Once again she didn’t doubt his words, she knew that Adam would never lie to her, that he would always give her complete honesty. Just as he had never tarnished their relationship with false declarations of love.
‘Tired?’ he asked gently at her continued silence.
‘A little,’ she invented.
‘Would you like me to cook dinner?’
‘You can cook too?’ she attempted to tease.
He grinned down at her, looking young and boyish. ‘I’m very accomplished—as long as you don’t mind eggs.’
She laughed, because she knew she had to. ‘Strangely enough, I think eggs are all I have in the fridge.’ She hadn’t thought much about buying food lately.
‘Thank God for that!’ He got out of bed, pulling on his trousers once he had retrieved them from the lounge. ‘I’ll make you an omelette. I wonder if I’ll ever have made love to you enough to take the time to put my suit on a hanger before I go to bed with you?’ he mused ruefully.
Natalie leant on her elbow to watch him, the rose-red tips of her breasts jutting out temptingly. ‘I don’t know, will you?’ she teased huskily.
‘I doubt it,’ he grimaced, standing up. ‘Get yourself dressed, woman, before I change my mind about cooking dinner and come back to bed.’
‘I wouldn’t mind,’ she encouraged throatily.
‘I know you wouldn’t.’ He touched her cheek with gentle tenderness. ‘I love the way you enjoy me too, the way you don’t make me beg for your body. So many women believe that there’s a price for their body, but not you. You want to give, and so you do. But my reason for wanting to feed you is perfectly selfish—I want you to have the strength to make love with me for the rest of the night!’ He ran a thumb-tip erotically over the hard tip of her breast.
She was wearing his white shirt when she joined him in the kitchen a short time later, loving the sensual feel of the silk material against her chin. Adam’s eyes darkened as he looked at her, the shirt reaching to her thighs, her bare legs long and shapely.
‘Suddenly I’m not hungry for food any more,’ he murmured.
Natalie sat down on one of the bar stools, her bare legs under the breakfast bar now. ‘I am,’ she grinned at him impudently.
‘Temptress!’ he muttered.
‘We have to be sensible and build our strength up for later,’ she teased.
‘So we do.’ He put the plate of food in front of her, sitting at her side, his hand slowly caressing her thigh.
‘Adam!’ She squirmed as his caresses grew too intimate for her to even think of eating.
He held up both of his hands defensively. ‘All right, I’ll behave.’
Natalie made little attempt to eat the omelette and salad he had prepared, not being really hungry, although Adam obviously was, doing full justice to his own meal.
‘And, as once promised, I’ll have you for dessert!’ He watched her with laughing blue eyes.
‘I seem to remember already carrying out that promise!’
‘So?’
‘So,’ she smiled her capitulation. ‘Can we talk about Tracy first?’ she sobered.
Adam grimaced. ‘If we have to.’
‘We do.’
He sighed. ‘I knew I should have got that problem out of the way before I made love to you. But at the time I was going quietly insane.’
‘And now?’
‘Now I don’t even want to think about Tracy.’
Neither did she, but she had to. ‘I believe I’ve found a suitable job for her,’ she told him.
He frowned. ‘As your secretary? But I thought Dee—’
‘No, not as my secretary,’ she dismissed lightly. ‘Although she’s well qualified to be anyone’s secretary if she wants to be. No, I have something more glamorous in mind.’
‘Modelling?’
‘Of a sort,’ she nodded, watching for his reaction. There didn’t seem to be one yet.
‘She’s had no training—’
‘Tracy is ideal to be your Fantasy Girl, training or no training,’ she told him breathlessly, watching the incredulity on his face, the rejection, then the frowning uncertainty. ‘She
’s perfect, Adam, so naturally beautiful, a child and yet a sensuous woman. I’ve never seen anyone like her,’ she finished excitedly, feeling some of the old adrenalin begin to flow at the thought of a success. And she had no doubt that Tracy would make a success of Fantasy Girl.
‘Tracy…’ Adam repeated disbelievingly.
‘Yes. Think about her, Adam, not as your sister, but as a woman. I don’t know if you want that sort of career for her, but as far as I’m concerned no one else could do it like she could.’
‘Tracy,’ he said more firmly, now, ‘I have to admit I never gave her a thought as Fantasy Girl.’
‘And now that you have?’
He nodded slowly. ‘You could be right,’ he murmured slowly.
‘I know I am.’
Adam smiled at her. ‘My efficient little businesswoman! You may just have solved two problems in one go.’
Three. If she found him a Fantasy Girl she had nothing to do with, someone who wasn’t connected to her agency, maybe he just might come to realise that she had given herself to him because she wanted to, and not for any reasons of ambition. It was a distant hope, but it did give her the hope that perhaps she wouldn’t have to lose him after all.
* * *
Natalie took her own car to work the next morning, having a ten o’clock appointment that she had to drive to. The night in Adam’s arms had passed all too quickly, and although they had slept little, she didn’t feel tired, but revitalised by Adam’s lovemaking. Their parting had been as reluctant as ever; Natalie had been unable to refuse when he said he would meet her at her flat tonight.
‘Will you be able to manage on your own?’ she asked Tracy concernedly before going to her appointment. ‘I shouldn’t be longer than an hour or so.’
‘Don’t hurry back on my account,’ Tracy told her confidently. ‘Ill be fine.’
‘Dee’s going to be so mad when she sees how competently you’ve coped in her absence,’ Natalie grinned.
The other girl gave a rueful smile. ‘I don’t think she has anything to worry about from me. I wouldn’t want to cope at this pace all the time.’
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