by Miranda Lee
'Eight o'clock on the dot,' he called out to her as she hurried up the path.
She waved in answer and hurried in the front door, where she waited for him to leave, her back pressed up against the hallway, her heart hammering in her chest. Only when Gareth had reversed out of the driveway and accelerated away did she race down to her room, snatch up her purse and race out again.
Five minutes later she was standing at one of the payphones on the corner opposite the Commonwealth Bank, dialling a number she knew only too well.
'Sunshine Enterprises,' answered the receptionist after the beeps.
'Mr Woodward, please.'
She was put through to his secretary, as she knew she would be.
'Mr Woodward's office,' came Enid's coolly efficient voice. 'May I help you?'
Leah had always liked Enid, and had felt the liking was returned. She didn't think Enid liked Gerard, however. Leah had glimpsed the odd glance from
Gerard's secretary which suggested she pitied her boss's new bride. Now she understood why. '
'Enid. It's Leah.'
Enid's swift intake of breath betrayed her shock. 'Oh, my goodness!' she exclaimed. 'Leah...'
'Yes. Look, I'm sorry to ring you out of the blue like this, but I simply had to.'
'How...how can I help you?'
'Just answer a couple of simple questions for me, please, Enid.'
'I'll do my best.'
'Firstly, is Gerard there, in the office?'
'Well, no...of course he isn't, dear. It's Friday afternoon.'
Leah frowned till she recalled Gerard always wined and dined his top sales executives on a Friday, calling it a business lunch. It usually went on all afternoon.
'So he's not away anywhere?'
'Why would you think that?'
'What about Nigel?' she demanded to know. 'Is he in Brisbane too?'
'He's always where Gerard is, Leah. It would be more than his job is worth not to be on call. Why do you ask?'
'I...I thought I saw Nigel up here.'
'Up where? Where are you, Leah? Look, would you like to speak to Gerard? I could ring the restaurant and get him to call you back. I know he'd like to speak to you. Just let me jot down your number and...'
Leah hung up, appalled to find she was shaking from head to toe.
But she gradually calmed down, and once she did she felt so much better. Gerard was still in Brisbane. And he had no idea where she was. That hadn't been Nigel in town, watching her.
She was safe.
Gareth was safe.
At least...for the time being.
CHAPTER EIGHT
LEAH only had one dress in her limited wardrobe. A sundress which could double as a party dress—if you added high heels and jewellery and did your hair nicely.
Made of a cotton knit which didn't crush, the sundress was petticoat-style with a fitted bodice—thankfully lined—narrow shoulder straps and a short flaring skirt that showed off her long tanned legs. The material was a deep orange colour with a multicoloured floral border around the hem which flounced and swirled when she walked.
Leah had bought the dress at the markets again, along with the simple amber-stone pendant which nestled in the deep V of the neckline. The pendant and its matching drop earrings had cost less than some of the cocktails Gerard had used to buy her before dinner at one of his fancy restaurants. The price of the sundress wouldn't have paid for an entrée of oysters.
Despite the designerless quality of her gear, Leah knew she looked rather fetching, so she stayed in her bedroom till Gareth knocked on the door, reluctant to have to put up with her housemates' comments and questions.
Lisa, Cheryl and Dee were so stunned, both by the sight of Leah's handsome date and then by Leah herself, that she sailed past their open-mouthed faces and out through the door before the girls could draw breath.
'As I said,' Gareth murmured when he took her arm. 'You'd look gorgeous in anything.'
He looked pretty gorgeous himself, she thought. Dazzling, actually, dressed in navy trousers and a white open-necked shirt which had tan stitching and tan buttons. A narrow tan leather belt encircled his trim waist, and tan slip-ons covered his feet The white shirt highlighted his tanned face and arms, as well as his bright blue eyes and glossy black hair.
Gerard had been wearing all white that first day at Hidden Bay, when he'd so impressed her. Leah wondered if his twin knew how well the colour suited him, choosing his clothes deliberately to be at his most attractive for her.
If he had, he'd succeeded. She had to make an effort to drag her eyes away from him as they walked down the path together. He made no such effort, his hungry gaze travelling openly over her from top and toe when he opened the passenger door for her.
'I like your hair done like that,' he complimented her once his eyes returned to her face.
She'd caught it up at the sides, so as to show the earrings, the rest falling down her back in a straight curtain. She hadn't had it cut since leaving Gerard, and her once shoulder-length hair now reached her shoulderblades.
'Thank you,' she said, refusing to look back up at him as she climbed in and clicked the seat-belt in place.
But when he climbed in behind the wheel and closed the door, her reluctant attention was grabbed, and her head snapped round so she could stare at him.
'Oh!' she exclaimed. 'You...you're not wearing it.
'The cologne,' she added, when he looked blank.
His scent was still very nice, but totally different, a fresh tangy pine perfume wafting from his skin.
His smile was wry. 'Well, a man would have been a fool to keep wearing the other one, don't you think?'
That depended on one's point of view, Leah conceded. It was as well Gareth didn't know why she didn't like him wearing it. Not that the change of cologne was working as well as she might have hoped. She was still overpoweringly aware of the man sitting beside her, especially with the way he kept looking at her.
'Well, do you like the new cologne?' Gareth asked, his admiring gaze giving her no peace.
'You smell very nice,' she said tautly. 'Do you think you might drive off? We're being gawked at through the front window.'
'What's the fascination?' Gareth asked as he started the engine and moved off down the road.
'They're not used to my dating. Or dressing up.'
His eyebrows arched. 'So you really haven't gone out with any other men since leaving Gerard?'
'No.'
'You must have been asked.'
'All the time. Especially when I was on the Riviera.'
His sidewards glance showed shock. 'The Riviera? What on earth were you doing there?'
'Scrubbing decks,' she said.
'Scrubbing decks?' he repeated, startled.
'Yep. It paid well, too. The equivalent of fifteen dollars an hour.' '
'Yes. but how on earth did you get there?'
'On a boat. A racing yacht.'
'Whose?'
'I have no idea. I was just part of the crew taking it back to France for its wealthy European owners.'
'Wasn't that dangerous?' he asked sharply.
'Not if you knew what you were doing. I've spent most of my life on boats, Gareth. It's as natural to me as breathing. Not only that, it was the best way to me to disappear for a while. Hard to find anyone on the high seas.'
'I can well imagine,' he muttered, and swung the Pajero across the road to the right and shot up a driveway which led to the Mangrove Hotel, an elegant establishment perched on a rise overlooking Roebuck Bay and not far from the place Gareth was staying at.
Leah had heard of its excellent seafood restaurant, but had never been there. In truth, she hadn't been to any restaurants for dinner since she'd arrived in Broome.
'Oh. You're taking me to the Charter's Rest,' she said smilingly,
'Yes. Do you know it?' He angled the car into a spot in the corner of the hotel carpark.
'Only by reputation.'
'I've booked a ta
ble for eight-thirty. I'm told there's a good bar next to it where we can have a pre-dinner drink.'
'Lovely.'
He snapped off the engine and turned his face her way, his eyes suddenly intent on hers.
'Yes,' he said huskily, 'you are.'
And, before she could do a thing, he leant over and kissed her on the mouth. Quite lightly, yet for some considerable time, and with devastating effect. She swallowed convulsively when his head finally lifted.
'You...you shouldn't have done that,' she said shakily.
'Why not?'
'Because...' Her eyes were clinging to his, her mind spinning. Because I wanted you to kiss me more than anything from the moment I saw you tonight; Because I know now you're going to kiss me again later this evening. But mostly because by then I won't want you to stop...
He smiled. It was a very Gerard-like smile and disturbed her greatly. 'All's fair in love and war, Leah,' he said.
And then he did something which truly shocked her. He didn't wait till later in the evening, but kissed her again right then and there, looming over her and pinning her to the seat by her shoulders, taking her mouth with a mind-blowing passion which blotted out everything but his lips, and that masterful, marauding tongue.
She flinched when his right hand, left her shoulder to cover her knee, then began to move inexorably upwards. Her mind was spinning by the time it reached mid-thigh, sliding over to the smooth soft skin of her inner leg, heading for that part of her which was already burning. She gasped into his mouth, stiffening in a futile defiance of the feelings rampaging through her.
God, but she wanted him to touch her there, wanted his hand to slide inside her underwear and find the hot, wet core of her sex, wanted him to caress it, invade it, seduce it.
Her moan betrayed everything she felt when his hand stopped, then slid back down her leg again. Her desire. Her disappointment. Her dismay.
So when the hand started to slide back up again, her breath caught in her throat, her stomach curling over once more.
But he didn't do what she wanted, just kept caressing her thigh, teasing and tormenting her with his nearness, making her ache with longing as she'd never ached before.
Leah's dismay increased as she accepted how powerless she was to resist him. Utterly powerless. He was an even more skilled seducer than Gerard, she thought dazedly, taking her ever closer to edges in her mind, then leaving her dangling, over and over.
'Sorry,' he said, and abruptly abandoned her. 'I didn't mean things to go quite that far.'
He stared down at her trembling lips, touched them with his fingertips, his head bending slightly again before he jerked himself back into his seat.
'Come on,' he grated out, yanking open his door. 'Let's go get a drink. I think we both need some cooling down.'
Leah's jellied knees almost gave way when her feet touched the ground. Her struggle to stay upright reflected her inner struggle as she battled to put aside the most unnerving sexual arousal she'd ever experienced. It rattled her that Gareth could have done anything he liked to her in that car and she would not have objected. It seemed she was as much a slave to him in that regard as she had been to Gerard.
'Don't be angry with me,' Gareth said as he took her arm and led her tensely silent self across the carpark.
She sighed and halted. 'I'm not angry with you. It's myself I'm angry with.'
'For what reason?'
For being such a weak-willed fool, she thought bitterly. For not knowing what I feel, or for whom. For letting myself get into this impossible situation in the first place.
'For not having stayed and asked Gerard for a divorce,' she said instead. 'I should never have run away. I've only complicated my life terribly.'
'Oh, I don't know, Leah. If you'd never run away, you would never have met me.'
She shook her head. 'I don't think I'm doing you any favours here.'
'Let me be the judge of that.'
'No,' she said. 'I can't keep doing that.'
'What?'
'Letting some man make my decisions for me. I have to start making decisions for myself. And my first is that I'm going to go back to Brisbane next Monday and ask Gerard for a divorce. It's the right thing to do. The only thing. And then I can come back and go out with you with a clear conscience.'
She didn't add that she would know then if Gerard still had any hold over her heart, would know once and for all if this attraction she felt for Gareth was real, or only a cruel illusion. If Gerard could still get to her, then that would be the end of any relationship with Gareth. She would not use him to assuage a sick obsession for his brother. And it had to be sick. What woman would continue to love a man who had treated her so shamefully?
Gareth didn't say a word for several moments, but Leah could tell he wasn't happy with her decision.
'Next Monday, you said?'
'Yes, I have most Mondays off. I could fly down first thing in the morning and be back by cruise time on Tuesday evening. I wouldn't like to let Alan down after giving my word to work the full season.'
'Why now?' he said abruptly. 'Is it because of me?'
'Partly.'
'You want to be with me, but you have to be sure you don't still want Gerard too. Is that it?'
'I just want to be free,' she said frustratedly.
'But you are free, Leah. Okay, so you're not officially divorced, but you're no longer Gerard's wife. You don't live with him. You left him and you have no intention of ever going back to him. Isn't that right?'
'Yes.'
'Then you're as divorced as any woman with a piece of paper saying she is.'
'I suppose so.'
'Look, if you must go,' he said, 'then I can't stop you. But I don't understand the sudden hurry. We're not lovers yet. I said I wouldn't rush you and I meant it. Trust me, Leah.'
'Words will never be enough for me any more, Gareth. Actions speak much more loudly. What you did to me in that car was the action of a man intent on having his way. I know seduction when I feel it. I was well acquainted with it in my marriage.'
He winced at her last words. 'It wasn't my intention to seduce you,' he muttered. 'Believe me, if it was, I would not have stopped. I simply got carried away with the moment. That's the truth of the matter. You're a very beautiful and desirable woman, Leah, and I'm only human. But I promise to do better in future. Come on, let's go inside, with other people and out of temptation.'
CHAPTER NINE
THE bar was separate from the restaurant, quite a large room, with a tropically colonial feel to its decor.
Called The Palms, it had a large bar with brass railings across one end, where a few people were perched up on fabric-covered stools, with serviceable grey tiles underfoot. Dark carpet covered the rest of the floor on which stood cream-coloured tables surrounded by pale cane-backed chairs. Three upturned beer barrels down the middle of the room also served as tables, one flanked by two elderly gentlemen playing a game of chess.
The far wall was mainly glass and overlooked a terrace beyond which lay a lawn courtyard, fringed by palms and lit with ball-lights on tall green poles. The bay beyond was not visible, its mangrove-lined waters as dark as the night sky.
'Where would you like to sit?' Gareth asked.
Hardly any of the tables were occupied, most of the evening's patrons probably having moved on to dinner by then.
Leah chose one of the empty tables against the glass wall.
'What would you like to drink?'
His offer startled her. Gerard had rarely asked her what she wanted to drink, though she conceded that was partly her own fault. In the beginning she hadn't known what to order, always deferring to him.
'A gin and tonic would be nice.' Gin and tonic had become her favourite drink during her travels abroad. Her time had mostly been spent in hot humid harbours. A tall gin and tonic with plenty of ice had been a refreshing drink at the end of a hard day mending sails or swabbing decks.
When Gareth turned to walk over t
o the bar she watched him go, her gaze running over nun from behind. He had a very nice behind. No doubt he had a very nice everything, just like his brother.
Leah pursed her lips in aggravation at always comparing the two brothers. It really was an impossible situation, one which asking Gerard for a divorce would probably not cure. Gerard would always lie between any relationship she formed with Gareth. It would be like having a ghost around all the time, a third in their bed. At least for her...
Leah put her elbows on the table, her head coming to rest in her hands, her eyes closing. Whatever was she going to do?
'You're thinking of Gerard again.'
Leah's head snapped up at Gareth's voice, her elbows shooting back off the table.
'You were quick,' she said, ignoring his comment about Gerard.
His face showed extreme irritation as he placed her gin and tonic in front of her and sat down with a beer.
'Let's get one thing straight,' he said firmly. 'Do you or do you not still love him?
'I want the truth now,' he demanded when she hesitated.
'I don't honestly know, Gareth,' she admitted, and started sipping her drink through the straw. 'Maybe. Maybe not.'
'You said you despised him.'
'I do.'
'In that case you don't love him.'
She could only shake her head. 'He was my first love, Gareth. My first lover...'
'But surely when you heard what you heard any love for him would have died.'
'Yes, you would have thought so. It's just that...'
'Just what?'
'I don't think you will want to hear this next part.'
'I want to hear everything about you and Gerard, Leah. What happened between you two is vital to what happens between us.'
'Yes, I suppose so,' she said, returning to her drink for a deeper swallow.
'Then just spit it out. I can take it.'
Leah put aside the straw and looked into Gareth' s eyes. 'I was going to confront Gerard the night I overheard him saying what he said. I meant to. But when he came upstairs that night he. ..he didn't give me much of a chance. He started making love to me and..
'Yes?' Gareth asked tensely, the beer clutched, untouched, between his hands.
'I simply forgot about what he'd said. I forgot everything but the moment... the pleasure. Then afterwards I felt so humiliated, so. ..ashamed. I realised then I wasn't strong enough to fight Gerard on open terms. Whether it was love or not, whatever I felt for him was too powerful. He was too powerful.'