Anna was frightened by the oddly unfocused expression in his absinthe eyes as he stared down at her.
‘Enough, Adam!’ she said in a hoarse voice. One of them had to call a halt to this situation, and he didn’t look as if he could.
‘I want you.’
‘That’s not enough, not nearly enough,’ she told him, hoping she sounded firmer about this than she felt.
Adam closed his eyes and muttered something from between compressed lips. After a few moments he seemed to regain some degree of control. He moved, but only to roll on his side beside her. He raked his fingers through his blond mop of hair. She’d dreamt about his head occupying the pillow beside her, but now it was happening she couldn’t look at him.
‘What are you saying?’ he demanded flatly.
‘I’m saying wanting me isn’t enough. I’m not into empty sexual experiences, and you’re not into one-night stands. Wasn’t that what you told me?’
She heard the sharp inhalation as he caught his breath, and allowed her head to turn when he captured her chin between his thumb and forefinger. She met his turbulent gaze with all the calm she could muster, even though her nerves were breaking new records for endurance.
‘Great!’ she said bitterly. ‘It’s fine for you to look insulted now, but I’m not supposed to care if all you want from me is a quick tumble. I’ve heard all about your suffering as you try and control these primal lusts,’ she drawled sarcastically. ‘But not once have you asked me how I feel.
‘Do you think I’m flattered? Just because you’ve decided to put your principles on hold for the duration, what makes you think I’m happy to do the same?’ She gave an angry snort at the look of disdain that flickered across his handsome features. ‘Just because I’m not as narrow-minded or as conventional as you doesn’t mean I don’t have a sense of morality.’
‘I’m not talking philosophy, Anna. It’s more relevant that I know how you feel every time I touch you! I don’t need to ask you,’ he retorted confidently, his colour heightened. ‘Or are you now going to tell me this is all one-sided?’
‘I’m trying to tell you I don’t indulge in shallow, superficial affairs which might be satisfying at the time, but leave a nasty taste in the mouth. Neither do I sleep with married or engaged men.’
‘When did you formulate this worthy philosophy?’ he demanded contemptuously. ‘In the last sixty seconds? Isn’t it a bit late to be setting arbitrary rules? Do you get some sort of kick out of pushing men to the limit? It’s a dangerous game, Anna,’ he warned grimly.
‘I’m only telling you the truth,’ she said unhappily. ‘Did I engineer any of our encounters? They’ve just happened. I can’t change the way I feel about things just because you make me feel…’ She stopped, biting her full lower lip in anguish.
‘How do I make you feel?’ he demanded, his fingers tightening painfully around her jaw.
She shook her head, refusing to answer that one. ‘When I share my body I want it to be with someone who is interested in me—not someone who is opposed on principle to everything I believe in. You see, basically we’re in agreement that it takes more than a chemical reaction to make a relationship, Adam. You may be prepared to settle for something less, but I’m not!’
Both were so involved with one another that they didn’t hear Beth until she was halfway into the room. She took one look at the pair on the bed and her eyes widened.
‘So sorry, Simon, we’d better make it tomorrow,’ she said in a loud voice, and backed swiftly from the room. ‘She’s still busy with the doctor,’ Anna heard her say in the hallway.
‘I’ve never been so humiliated in my life!’ Anna groaned, sliding off the opposite side of the bed.
“‘She’s still busy with the doctor,”’ Adam repeated, sitting up. The sound of his ironic laughter rang out. ‘That sort of bedside manner could get a man in trouble. She really does have a nice sense of irony, your mother.’
Anna stopped wringing her hands and glared at him with distaste. ‘I’m so glad you find it amusing,’ she spat furiously. ‘Stop laughing,’ she added urgently. ‘What will Simon think?’
Adam’s face abruptly hardened, and she hated the silky sound of his voice when he spoke. ‘Simon—of course. Is that why you’ve suddenly come over with a case of morality? I take it a married man who’s separated from his wife doesn’t enter the restricted zone?’
Anna picked an amber-headed hat pin from the red heart-shaped pin-cushion that housed part of her collection of decorative pins. She looked pointedly at the tip and then at Adam.
‘If you don’t want to have more than a scratched face to explain to your lady love, I’d make tracks,’ she said with soft fury. How typical that male vanity had to rationalise rejection, she thought darkly, stabbing the point back home into the velvet.
‘My God, you may have lost your ability to dance, but you sure as hell kept your artistic temperament intact.’ He saw her flinch and her slender back visibly stiffen. ‘That was uncalled for.’ The flicker of distaste that crossed his face was not aimed at her.
‘It’s nothing less than what I’ve come to expect of you in the short time I’ve known you.’
‘I’m not usually such a brute.’
‘I feel uniquely privileged,’ she snapped sarcastically.
‘I’ve tried ignoring the way you make me feel…’
‘And what way is that?’
‘Hungry.’
The single word was raw and needy. She shuddered under the impact of his hot, fixed stare which was filled with as much resentment as desire.
‘The solution is obvious,’ Adam continued.
She had to hear this one. ‘Would you like to share it?’
‘If we feed the hunger it should vanish as swiftly as it occurred.’
‘Let me get this straight,’ she said, forming the words with care. ‘I should sleep with you so that you can marry Jessica and be the perfect father figure, with this temporary insanity put firmly behind you.’
‘I wouldn’t have phrased it quite like that…’
‘I just bet you wouldn’t!’ He really is serious! she thought incredulously.
‘You’re the one who prides herself on a straight-forward approach. A lot of men would have taken what you were offering and run. I’ve tried to be straight with you. Be realistic, Anna.’
‘You’re mad!’ The casual way he insulted her defied belief.
‘Believe me, it doesn’t give me any pleasure to admit to this weakness,’ he said harshly. ‘In fact I wish I’d never set eyes on you!’
‘And the maiden, overcome by his romantic declaration, fell into a swoon,’ she trilled angrily. ‘You have a novel way of propositioning a girl, Adam. Ten out of ten for originality.’
‘I suppose you’d prefer me to be mawkishly sentimental?’ he suggested, his eyebrows lifting as if he was mildly surprised by her reaction.
‘Heaven forbid,’ she choked. ‘You’re the most arrogant, insensitive man I’ve ever met!’ she breathed furiously.
‘I don’t much like you either, but we’re not talking about our undeniable incompatibility here. The common denominator which draws us together appears to be lust, pure and simple, and you’re fooling yourself if you think you can hold out against it.’
‘You think you’re that irresistible?’ she jeered.
‘No, you are!’
Anna was still recovering from his parting shot when her mother returned. Beth replaced the cold cup of tea with a steaming one, and regarded her daughter quizzically.
‘I suppose you’re shocked.’
‘Shocked?’
‘I was kissing a man engaged to someone else.’ I deserve to be despised, she thought dolefully.
‘Well, I didn’t see that part, but I did assume.’
‘It was my fault,’ Anna confessed miserably.
‘Not according to Adam. He said you were entirely blameless.’
Anna’s eyes opened wide. ‘He said what?’
; ‘He said you were a blameless victim, or words to that effect, when he was apologizing for abusing my hospitality.’
‘I don’t believe it… What did you say?’ The man was a constant source of surprise to her. Old-fashioned chivalry and lethal lust made an uneasy combination, and a painful one, she suspected.
‘I assured him that my Anna didn’t know how to be a victim, and that as much as I would like to protect all my daughters you were past the age where that was possible or practicable. I did make it pretty clear that we take a dim view of anyone who hurts our girls.’
‘Oh, Mum,’ Anna breathed, tears shining in her eyes. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without you.’ She buried her face against a motherly bosom as she choked back a sob.
‘I also told him that you were capable of deciding who you wanted to kiss. We always let you take your friends up to your rooms when you were teenagers; I can hardly start laying down the law now.’
‘You always were a liberal parent,’ Anna responded with a watery smile. ‘I don’t think Adam is as openminded as you. Wanting me is tearing him to bits. He’ll end up hating me, if he doesn’t already.’
‘And what is it doing to you, darling?’
Anna shook her head mutely. Her own feelings were too confused to share with anyone just now—even her mother. She knew just how lucky she was to have her parents there when she needed them.
‘I do trust your judgement, Anna.’
Anna lifted her head, and tears were streaming down her cheeks. ‘I’m not sure I do,’ she said simply.
CHAPTER FIVE
ADAM turned the corner and found himself at the end of a long queue of cars. ‘This is the sort of thing I was supposed to have left behind in the city.’ He glanced impatiently at his wristwatch.
Jessica laid a pacific red-nailed hand on his arm and smiled sympathetically. ‘Poor darling.’
A relationship which up until recently had consisted of civilised excursions to the theatre and restaurants followed by intimate evenings alone meant Jessica had never experienced the more difficult side of Adam’s nature. She carefully kept her displeasure to herself.
The teenaged girl in the back of the Range Rover saw the possessive gesture and grimaced at her elder brother. Jake, aware that his uncle was watching them through the rear-view mirror, shot her a warning glance. On balance they’d decided that subtlety might be a better bet than outright hostility to get rid of the ghastly Jessie. The little ones were too young to be of any use, but Jake and Kate were determined to throw a few spanners in the works.
‘I need to go!’ a small but determined voice announced.
‘You only went just before we left the house,’ Kate observed, frowning at the youngest of her siblings.
‘I want to go too,’ an identical voice announced sleepily.
Kate and Jake glanced at the mutinous expressions on their three-year-old twin brothers’ faces and said in unison, ‘They need to go, Uncle Adam!’
‘What am I supposed to do about it?’ Adam appealed for guidance as a large van pulled up behind them, effectively blocking them in.
‘I don’t know,’ Jake said cheerfully. ‘But sooner might be better than later,’ he added as his brothers both began squirming in their seats.
‘They’ll have to wait,’ Jessica announced, as though that put an end to the matter. ‘Are those television cameras?’ Her attention was diverted as a group of people lugging equipment jumped from the van behind them and headed off in the direction of the town. She glanced at her reflection in the mirror with a thoughtful expression. ‘Perhaps we should go and find them a lavatory, darling,’ she suggested.
‘Good idea, Jessie,’ Jake said as she examined her perfectly applied lipstick in the mirror.
‘Jessica,’ Adam corrected grimly as his fiancée shuddered at the detested diminutive. The constant sniping was trying his patience.
‘It just slipped out,’ Jake said apologetically.
‘Don’t let it slip again,’ came the dry advice. ‘There’s no need for everyone to come,’ he added as all the occupants of the vehicle followed him out of the car.
‘We’re not coming to help you,’ Kate said. ‘We want to find out why the cameras are here. Like everyone else,’ she added as the occupants of most of the cars trapped in the jam made their way along the road.
‘Children are so curious.’ Jessica smiled tolerantly. She couldn’t resist a last glance at her reflection in the wing mirror.
‘Jess…Jessica can look after the boys as she’s not interested,’ Kate observed helpfully. She placed one of her brother’s hot and grubby paws firmly in the tall blonde’s manicured hand. ‘Don’t worry, it’s only chocolate,’ she said sweetly as Jessica examined with ill-concealed horror the dark stain on her pale linen skirt. ‘Nothing toxic.’
‘Sam doesn’t want to go with her,’ the twin with his hand in Adam’s announced.
‘No, I don’t,’ his more placid twin agreed readily. Jessica gave a brave smile, but didn’t resist when the boy twisted his fingers from her own.
‘Poor little things. All this trauma is bound to have an impact, but I do think it’s a mistake to let discipline suffer.’ The tinge of martyrdom in her smile was nicely judged.
Adam’s expression remained impassive as he turned and caught his niece doing a passable mime of gagging behind his fiancée’s back. He kept silent on the subject of discipline. ‘Let’s get this circus on the road,’ he said briskly, taking a twin in each hand and heaving them up into his arms.
About two hundred yards down the road it became clear that more than one camera crew was present. It seemed a safe bet that the fifty or so protesters clad in Regency dress and wielding large placards might have something to do with this fact.
The whole town square had been turned into a scene from Jane Austen, and the crowd of onlookers watched in bemused fascination as ladies in pastel-coloured, high-waisted dresses wafted past beside men in skin-tight pantaloons and high collars.
‘Bringing the town to a standstill on market day is typical of the selfish behaviour of this bizarre group who are opposed, on principle, to progress. What about the jobs? What about the…?’ A large man whose grey suit didn’t quite cover his spreading middle and also proclaimed he had nothing to do with the demonstrators spoke into the microphone with an air of authority.
A small figure stepped forward from the other side of the young man holding the microphone. ‘We don’t need another supermarket. We don’t need a carpark. Those cottages are a legacy,’ she said earnestly, looking into the camera.
The breeze blew the folds of her lavender muslin gown against her legs, and she held tightly onto her swansdown-trimmed bonnet. Her bosom heaved effectively in the low-cut gown, a fact that kept drawing the cameraman’s attention.
If she lost any of the costumes the local amateur dramatic society had lent them from their forthcoming production of She Stoops to Conquer Anna knew she would be dead meat.
‘If they were listed…’
‘Mr Shaw is aware that we are in the process of applying for historical listing.’
‘We’re not talking Bath’s grand parade here, just a sad group of neglected tithe cottages.’ He gave a disdainful laugh, and Anna resisted the strong impulse to kick his shins. She had a much better way to take that condescending smirk off his face.
‘Tell me, Mr Shaw, am I right when I say you have a close personal interest in this supermarket going ahead?’
‘I’m interested in the good of this town, young lady, which is more than you and your group of crackpots are.’
‘I ask,’ Anna continued in a clear voice that could be heard across the square, ‘because I have learnt that the successful building contractor for the scheme is your son-in-law.’
‘My son-in-law isn’t a builder.’ The reply was firm enough, but the man’s pale eyes held the first signs of caution.
‘And you would have declared any conflicting interest you had, I’m sure. Your son-in-law is an exe
cutive director of the building firm which has won the very lucrative contract for the supermarket development. You and he have several joint financial ventures, I understand…’
Anna stepped back happily. The reporter had enough Rottweiler in him to scent blood. She heaved her banner onto her shoulder and joined the chanting group that was blocking the highway.
Something made her look to her right; on the perimeter of the crowd her eyes paused and stopped. Tall and blond-headed, the man stood out from this crowd as he would from any. He held two angelic-looking boys and he was staring straight at her. Their eyes met, and her heart seemed to stop. Her stomach muscles contracted painfully and all the strength rushed from her limbs, leaving her feeling strangely empty.
The smile faded dramatically from her face and it took her several moments to tear her eyes away. She responded to an anxious enquiry at her side with a firm nod.
‘I’m fine,’ she lied.
‘You looked so odd just then. I thought you were going to pass out,’ Ruth Thompson confided.
‘I was nervous with the cameras,’ Anna improvised, keeping her profile firmly averted from a certain tall figure. In truth she would have preferred to face a thousand cameras than Adam Deacon. Was it always going to be like this? she wondered bleakly.
‘Well, it didn’t show, you were so natural. I think the period costumes were a brilliant idea, and who’d have thought all these TV people would turn up?’
Anna’s smile held a hint of irony. After the hours she’d spent ringing around to ensure the press coverage today she would have been devastated if they hadn’t turned up.
‘It looks like Mr Shaw has had enough.’ Anna watched as the big man shouldered his way past the media and got into his official chauffeur-driven limousine.
The driver inched his way forward, his hand on the horn. People leapt hastily to one side as the vehicle gathered momentum. It all happened so quickly that Anna couldn’t recall the precise sequence of events afterwards.
It looked as though Ruth had plenty of time to move aside, but Anna knew that the elderly woman’s arthritic hip made her slow. She shot forward, a cry of warning on her lips. Somehow she was between the car and the grey-haired figure, and the next thing she was thrust violently forward. Her hands saved her face from the tarmacked surface, but her knees took most of the impact.
Wild and Willing! Page 7