Fever

by Charlotte Lamb

  She regarded him oddly. 'Believing that I was liv­ing with Greg I'm surprised you still wanted me.'

  His mouth tautened, 'You're surprised? I was dis­gusted with myself. I tried never to see you. I really fought it. But when I saw you at Annabel's party, it started up again. I didn't give a damn that night how many others there were. Once I had you alone I knew I'd take anything you let me take.'

  Her face wry, she shook her head at him. 'How unprincipled!'

  'Weak,' he supplemented. 'You had me on my knees.' His eyes held hers as he slowed and pulled into a leaf-shaded layby. He turned, his arm along the seat, smiling. 'And you knew it, didn't you?'

  The green eyes danced. She put a lazy finger on his cheek, smiling. 'I knew you fancied me. That was obvious.'

  His smile vanished. 'Yes,' he said in a low voice. 'After you came to the bank I realised just what I'd done. If I hadn't made such a heavy pass at you in the beginning, you wouldn't have let me go on thinking you were Halliday's mistress, would you? I dug my own grave. My God, I hated knowing that!' A hard red lay along his cheekbones, the blue eyes were self-condemning. 'When you wouldn't see me; speak to me, I only had myself to blame. I de­served these last weeks, darling, but I went through hell.'

  She could see that. The shadow of that pain lay in his eyes now. He had lost weight, his face more forceful and fleshless than ever. Sara touched his cheek again, looking into his eyes.

  'Did we stop to have another post-mortem?'

  Nick's face lightened, his smile flashing out. 'You know why we stopped,' he said, pulling her over into his arms. 'Come here, you thorn in my flesh.' His hands framed her laughing face. 'I promised myself a long time ago that one day I'd kiss the smile right off your face. You've laughed at me once too often.'

  His mouth closed over hers possessively and Sara stopped smiling, but inside her the laughter spread out like oxygen through her blood, dancing and exulting, until with a sudden clamour passion cut off everything but a blind response which had her trembling in Nick's arms under the shadowy trees.