Charlotte Lamb - Pagan Encounter

by Charlotte Lamb

  Matt grimaced. 'I thought I was pathetically obvious, Leigh. I waited for you to say something which would show you understood, but you never said a word.'

  She looked at him cautiously. 'Matt, there's something I have to tell you ...'

  He caught the wary note in her voice and looked at her sharply. 'What?'

  'You remember the typist in your office who was infatuated with you and had to be transferred?'

  He frowned. 'Well?'

  'She was my cousin,' Leigh said flatly. 'I'd heard all about you before I ever met you, and what I'd heard was not very attractive. I saw you as the man who had broken Ann's heart because of his cruel selfishness, and your behaviour in the lift that day merely seemed to underline the image I had of you.'

  He groaned. 'Oh, God, so that's it!' He looked at her soberly. 'I didn't flirt with that child. I took her out to dinner and bought her chocolates and flowers because she'd worked hard that week. It seemed harmless enough. But she started to hang about, looking embarrassingly adoring, and in the end the gossip got out of hand, so I had no choice but to shift her out of the office.'

  'Barbara told me that,' she said. 'And Ann seems to be over her crush on you now.

  She was always a softhearted girl.'

  He frowned. 'I didn't see her at the wedding.'

  Leigh smiled wryly. 'She didn't come. Too embarrassed, I expect.'

  The grey eyes studied her oval features. 'I told you once we were the same kind of people. I didn't intend to hurt Ann. You didn't intend to hurt your fiance. We both acted out of carelessness.'

  Leigh looked at him soberly. 'That's true. It's a terrifying business, love, isn't it, Matt? I refused to have anything to do with it because it frightened me so much, only to discover I loved you just as I was planning to get as far away from you as I could.'

  'The night Cathy scratched you?' His eyes questioned her. 'I could see it had affected you badly. Your face went white. After I'd got rid of her I went round to your flat and waited like a madman for you. I was desperate when you didn't show up and I had to go back to the Gazette to deal with that bloody strike. I sat there, trying to think clearly, when all I could think about was the possibility that you were already on a train to God knew where, and I might never find you again.'

  'I very nearly went,' she said huskily.

  'I knew that when I saw your cases afterwards,' he said, sighing. 'But when the board room door opened, and you came in, I felt the fear and tension drain out of me. I knew at that moment that I couldn't wait for you to fall in love with me. I had to marry you before 1

  lost you for ever. I was past caring whether you returned my love or not. All I knew was that if I lost you, I wouldn't feel alive any more.'

  Leigh buried her face against him, kissing him adoringly. His hand stroked her hair, pressing her closer.

  'I knew I loved you when I saw you on television in Sam's sitting-room, looking so desperately tired. Mrs. Sam said you needed me, and my heart told me I needed you ...

  so I came.'

  He held her close, both arms round her. 'Thank God you did,' he groaned.

  She lifted her face and their mouths clung endlessly. He gave a rough sigh. 'I can't believe I've got you at last. The months since I first saw you have been unceasing torture. It was only made worse by knowing that I could get you into bed whenever I liked. The temptation that offered was hellish. I told myself that sooner or later I'd have your heart as well as your body, but after I knew you'd tried to run away 1 gave up hope of that. I decided to settle for what I could get. If your heart eluded me, I'd have your body, I thought, and you can't imagine how bitter that thought was.'

  'I can,' she groaned. 'Tonight I was in hell at the same thought. Oh, Matt darling!'

  He held her face between his hands, letting the silken cloud of hair trickle over his skin. 'How the hell I'm going to work with you in the office I've no idea, but when you suggested it I jumped at the idea because I wanted to have you around all the time. I thought you might learn to love me if you were with me all day, and I was so damned jealous I couldn't bear the notion that you might be at a loose end while I was away, and someone else might capture your attention.'

  She looked amused. 'Were you afraid I'd be unfaithful to you, Matt?'

  'Don't laugh, damn you,' he muttered, his voice slightly grim. 'When you showed me your ring that day in the lift I was so sick with jealousy I wanted to hit you. You were so cold and distant. I used every trick in the book to break you down.'

  'And you soon did,' she said ruefully, remembering her own astonished inability to resist his Iovemaking that day.

  'I thought for a few hours that your response must mean I affected you the way you did me,' he said levelly. 'I soon realised I was wrong. I teased you to get a response from you. I could see that you would make short work of me if I tried to be serious. I had to annoy you, irritate you, bewilder you, to get your attention. And by hook or by crook I had to break your engagement.'

  She caught a curious look in his eyes and frowned.

  He made a wry face. 'There's one thing you still don't know, Leigh. I was in the lobby when I saw your fiance with his party from the conference. I heard him say he was going up to your room, and I got up there fast, hoping things would work out just the way they did.'

  She stared at him, dumbfounded. 'Then you did plan it?'

  He grimaced, it was a despicable, underhanded trick, but I knew in every nerve of my body that you weren't in love with him, and I was frantic to get you away from him. So I walked in there and started making love to you, and you responded exactly as I'd hoped.

  He walked in at the perfect moment.'

  She stared at him, speechless.

  He gave her a rueful smile. 'Hit me if you like, and this time I won't hit back. When I left you that day I was crowing with triumph. I thought I'd ruined your engagement and left the field free for myself. That was why I sent you that letter inviting you for an interview.' He grinned. 'I was delirious with amusement as I imagined your face when you read it. I wanted you to come so badly, but I was afraid you might just tear it up. I would have found some other way of getting at you if you had, but the idea of making you my secretary was heady.'

  'I couldn't resist coming.' she admitted. 'You annoyed me, but I was intrigued. You'd got under my skin.'

  'I hoped desperately I had,' he said drily. 'What I hadn't bargained for was your honesty. When you told me you'd gone to his room I was terrified. For one moment I really thought he'd taken you, and you know, you cruel little cat, that that blow went right home.'

  She looked at him yieldingly, her face soft. 'Yes.' she admitted, 'I suppose I knew that even then. You went quite white.'

  'I felt sick,' he said harshly. 'For a while I could feel the physical after-effects of shock.

  You dealt me that blow deliberately and I saw your eyes register my pain.'

  Her blue eyes were submissive under his look. 'Darling, I'm sorry. I didn't understand the instinct that made me try to hurt, but I wanted to see you wince.'

  'Wince?' His mouth hardened. 'I nearly died of pain! That was the moment when I knew with certainty that I must never let you guess how I felt about you. If blind intuition had helped you to stab me like that, I shuddered to think what you would do to me if you ever found out I was helplessly in love with you.'

  Leigh slid her palms up his bare chest, her fingertips caressing. 'I swear I'll never hurt you again,' her voice promised softly. 'Matt, let me stay as your secretary. I want to be with you all the time, and I want to look after you. You work too hard. You need someone there to protect you.'

  He looked at her through his dark lashes. 'You can stay, for the time being,' he promised. 'But only until the final phase of my private war against you is concluded.'

  She was amused and puzzled, her blue eyes searching his hard, smiling face. 'You alarm me, Matt. What is the final phase of our war? I thought the war ended last night when you took both my citadels at once?'

&
nbsp; His eyes teased. 'The first act of the conqueror is to storm the citadel,' he whispered.

  'Afterwards, he makes certain it stays his property by leaving an army of occupation.'

  She began to laugh, her blue eyes brilliant. 'An army, Matt?'

  'Well, just one occupant to begin with,' he said wickedly. 'And until you're pregnant, darling, you can run my office as well as my home. Once we know you're going to have my baby, that's it. You'll have to choose your own replacement.'

  Her eyes were taunting. 'Someone in her forties who's efficient and incorruptible and won't even look at you twice. Matt,' she said lightly.

  His eyes burnt on her face. 'Could I make you jealous, Leigh? You were never jealous of Cathy, were you? I used to watch you to see the slightest hint of it, but you just looked at me coldly and so disapprovingly.'

  'Cathy wasn't for you. Matt,' she said seriously, 'any more than I was for Phil. Even when I thought you meant to marry her, I knew you didn't love her.' Her lashes flickered on her cheek. 'But yes, you could make me jealous ... if I thought you showed any interest in a woman, in fact. I always knew you only felt amused affection for Cathy, and that didn't make me jealous. I was sorry for her.'

  His face was grim. 'I was sorry for your fiance, but my God! I was jealous of him, and of Lianos, and any man who so much as looked at you. That was why I moved fast to make sure the whole building knew you were mine. Do you think I didn't notice the way men looked at you everywhere we went? I wanted to surround you with a ten foot high wall.' A flickering wildness showed in the grey eyes. 'Tell me again that you love me. I want to hear you say it. I've waited to hear it for so many months.'

  She kissed his shoulder, her blue eyes gently loving, I love you. Matt,' she said huskily. 'I came the night of the strike because I thought you needed me, and I married you for the same reason. I didn't believe you loved me. and it hurt like hell to become your wife thinking you would never feel the way I did, but when I took our wedding vows I was mentally handing myself over, lock, stock and barrel, for whatever you wanted, for the rest of my life.'

  His eyes closed on a long sigh. He held her against him, his hand shaping and possessing the silken head, I accept the gift, Leigh, and I'll never let you go. You're mine at last, and it's for ever.'

  She surrendered, relaxed against his hard body cradled in total security in his arms,

  feeling the future flow like silk through her fingers.

  ISBN 0-373-70828-9