Deception (24 page)

She stirred, trembling
under- his exploratory mouth and hands, doubtful if she would be wise to try to
explain something he needn't know about. 'It was when I first arrived,' she
tried to be light and brief, 'when you were delirious.'

He frowned, but not
angrily. 'Do you mind telling me
exactly
what happened? I didn't frighten you, did I?'

'You
did a little, at the time,' she confessed, 'but you
didn't
hurt me. You just grabbed me and kissed me, more
or less.'

'More
or less?' Slowly he frowned again, yet sounded
bemused. 'Do you
know, I had vague recollections of some
thing like that, but I
thought I must have been dreaming.
You're sure that was all,
that I didn't hurt you?'

'Quite
sure.' She couldn't possibly tell him the whole
of it, how his
embrace had excited her unbearably even
then, how she had felt herself responding.

'I
wonder,' he said remorsefully, 'that you didn't decide
to leave there and
then.'

'Perhaps,'
her breathing became ragged as she moved
nearer to him, 'it made me want to stay.'

'Shameless
hussy!' he teased, but his voice deepened
as his eyes went over
her, taking in all her fresh, young
morning beauty, her
flawless skin, her shining, tumbled
hair. Far from gently,
his fingers pushed through it, to
curve the back of her
head. 'Do you know,' his voice was
husky, 'I believe I'm glad.'

'You
only believe you are?' she teased back, running
an indignant hand
over the mat of dark hairs on his broad
chest. She hadn't dared
do this before and wondered now
at her own temerity. So
quickly was being married to
Logan changing her that when she was
close to him like
this she scarcely recognised herself.

With
a half smothered groan he brought her to him,
but the gasp she
heard was her own startled breath as he
kissed her. 'Stop asking
silly questions,' he muttered against
her mouth.

His
eyes smouldered and he was no longer teasing. His
breath
quickened with hers as he laid her roughly back
against the
pillows and bent over her. Instantly all her
young, feverish
passion leapt to meet his, then there was
nothing but the urgent
clamour of her blood, as she re
sponded to the strength and hardness
of his body.

Later,
temporarily at peace, they lay quietly. How soon,
Thea thought drowsily,
she was coming to feel almost
a part of him.
Like a satisfied but still hungry cat, she
stretched her hands
sensuously over him.

'Thea!'
His arms tightened, then, with a groan of regret,
he put her just as suddenly
away from him. 'I'm for
getting. I have
an appointment in, I should think, no more than an hour's time. If I do manage
to make it, I'll need all
my wits
about me—not scattered all over the place, as they
appear to be now.' He sounded stern, but a wry
smile touched the corners of his mouth as he disentangled his
legs from hers and swung himself out of bed.

'I
remember you told me.' Thea had forgotten this was the reason why he had come
to London. Now she wondered how this business could be urgent enough to
inter
rupt their brief honeymoon. Yesterday she had been glad
he had business to attend to. Today she felt curiously
resentful,
and it showed. Her grey eyes were stormy as
she gazed at him.

Reading
her betraying face, he said gently, 'I didn't
know it would be
like this, Thea, or I'd have tried to ar
range things
differently. This is too important to put off,
however, and we
still have this evening and tomorrow, the
rest of our lives, I guess.'

He
came back to where she sat hunched up, as if de
fensively
against the world. A small smile played at the
side of his mouth
as he bent to kiss her. It was a gentle
kiss, but as it appeared
to alter his breathing he drew
sharply back. 'Tonight I'll make up
for my absence,' he
promised hoarsely.

Although
he hadn't said he loved her, because he obviously didn't, Thea felt a
little happier, something about
the expression in his
eyes making her more confident
about the future. Certainly Logan
seemed to be changing.
She could scarcely believe he was the same
man whose
air
of grimness and cynicism had turned him almost into a stranger over the past
week. Her response to his love-making she sensed had surprised him, as much as
their mutual ability to please each other might have done. It could have been
perfect, she thought sadly, if he had loved her, but perhaps she was asking too
much. Any man might be pleased with a young bride who had proved, if
unintentionally, that she was far from indifferent to him, but that wouldn't be
enough to command his love.

Before he left, Logan
pressed into her hands a wad of notes with strict instructions to go out and
enjoy herself but not to wander far away. Before he went to keep his
appointment, she shared a hurried breakfast with him, but he still refused to
satisfy her curiosity as to where he was going. Who could he be seeing in
London on a Saturday, she wondered, when most business premises must he closed
for the weekend?

After hanging around
the hotel until after lunch, when it was obvious he wasn't returning, she
decided to take a walk to get some fresh air if nothing else. Being at
Drum-larig must have spoiled her for cities, as she realised she was longing to
be back there.

Logan had told her to
spend what he had given her, but she couldn't bring herself to do this. There
was nothing she particularly needed for herself, anyway. If he insisted she
keep the money, she would put it aside and buy something for Drumlarig,
later. In the meantime she contented herself with buying a few small presents
to take home. She thought it wiser to pay for these from Logan's money, although
she would rather have spent her own.

She could have gone
and checked up on her flat. Perhaps she ought to have collected some of
her clothes while she had the chance. Being a man, Logan would never notice a
few additional items in her wardrobe. If he did, he would only suppose she had
bought them with the money he had given her. Yet she couldn't bring herself to go
near the fiat. If she didn't visit jt, she reasoned, it might be easier to go
on pretending it didn't exist. Her conscience was already too troubled by the
things she was keeping from Logan. Even now she dared not tell him about her
inheritance. Particularly now that she was beginning to realise just how
much she would suffer if he was to throw her out because of it.

For the next few hours
she wandered rather aimlessly about the West End before returning to the hotel,
but Logan didn't get in until well after six.

'I thought you were
never coming!' she accused him, as he strode into the suite, looking extremely
well.

'I did ring, darling,
but you must still have been out.' Frowning, he touched her pale cheeks with
gende fingers. 'You didn't imagine I'd had an accident or something, did you?'

'Well, how was I to
know?' Quickly she turned from him, her nerves taut. 'You've been gone a long
time.'

'I know.' He ran a
hand round the back of his neck ruefully, yet he didn't look all that
sorry.

Men! Stiffly Thea
tried to hide her anger. They were all alike, capable of putting everything
else from their minds when it came to business. All the same, she was slighdy
stunned by the depth of terror that had flooded her when she had started to
think that something might have happened to him.

'Look, Thea,' he
withdrew thoughtful eyes from her averted profile to glance reluctantly at the
time, Til have to hurry if we want to eat before the show.' He had booked seats
at a famous West End theatre.

As he paused, his eyes
appreciative of the lovely picture she made in the gold sequinned top she wore
over a skirt composed of masses of scarlet chiffon, she was reduced to a half
anxious perversity. 'You haven't said where you've been, or even kissed me. Do
you like my dress?'

Having torn his eyes
away from her, to begin removing his jacket, he glanced at her again, ironically.
'Three questions, when there isn't really time to answer one. All right,
woman! First, you look beautiful and I imagine you know it. Secondly, if I
kissed you, I couldn't guarantee we'd get further than the bed. Lasdy, as to
where I've been. That I fully intend explaining later, after the show. After we
come back here I have two things to tell you,'
again he paused, allowing her to glimpse at the warm sensu
ality
in his eyes as they went over her, 'two things which. I'm hoping sincerely will
please you—and make a great difference in our lives.'

'Why not until later?'
she persisted curiously, her face suddenly flushed.

'Because they're so
important we might not want to think of anything else.'

'Then we needn't go
out at all.'

'We do.' He might have
wavered, but his eyes were immediately steady on hers. 'You wanted to see
this show and I think we have something to celebrate. And I want you to have
something to remember until I can take you on a proper honeymoon, which might
not be as long as you think. Just have a little more patience, darling, and
you'll see, it will all come right.'

Thea was surprised to
find just how much she did enjoy the show, until she realised that Logan
constituted the greater part of her pleasure. Being with him like this was
indeed heady magic. He might not love her, but he appeared to enjoy her
company. Wistfully she found herself hoping that if he had any affection for
her, it might grow.

During the
intermission he bought her a drink and they strolled in the foyer. 'You are
enjoying yourself, aren't you?' Logan asked, a litde tersely, as if it mattered
to him.

Thea's smile was
radiant, yet when it came to it she found she couldn't explain the true cause
of her happiness. *Yes,' she hedged, 'I'm glad we came.'

Flicking her a quick
glance, his voice hardened. 'Per
haps you'll
miss this sort of thing too much after we re
turn to Scotland. After the novelty of living at Drumlarig
wears
off, it might be too quiet for you.'

Thinking
immediately of his first wife, she hesitated, a
shadow which Logan
was not to know was because of Kay
moving over her face. She
didn't guess he had looked for
an instant denial, nor did she
notice his eyes grow cold
as she searched over long for tactful
words with which to
convince him she wasn't at all like Kay.

'Let's
get back to our seats,' he said abruptly. Uncer
tainly,
she followed him, murmuring rather belatedly that
she
would never find Drumlarig too quiet, which even to
her
own ears sounded strangely unconvincing.

During
the intermission, while they stood in the foyer,
Logan had nodded
to several people, but there had been no
one she had known. It
was only as they were leaving that
she was horrified to
find Jerry Banks at her side. Feeling
desperate, she would have
walked straight past him, but his
hand was on her elbow,
clutching it, and without an ob
vious struggle she
couldn't free herself. Logan paused
politely. She could see
he noticed her apprehension and
wondered at it.

Too
quickly she spoke. 'Oh, hello, Jerry. I'm sorry, but
we're
in a hurry. It's been—been nice seeing you'

Jerry's thin brows
shot up. 'Hi, wait a minute, my
darling,
you can't brush off old Jerry like this! I know you
haven't forgiven me for running out on you at St
Moritz,
but if you'd only waited!'

TIease,
Jerry,' she shot an anguished, panic-stricken
glance at Logan's
frowning face, 'you know it wasn't like
that.'

,
Charmingly, he went on, as if she had never spoken, 'I've
been
ringing your flat. I've been around there plenty of
times,
too, but you haven't been in. I even rang your
solicitor, but all
he would say was that you weren't at home,
the silly old twit! I
must say,' his smile turned into a sneer,
'it must be nice to be
able to afford to go off when you like,
where you like.'

'I'm
married now, Jerry,' she exclaimed starkly. 'This is
my
husband.' She was so shocked she forgot to introduce
them properly.

'Really,
Thea my darling,' again Jerry's eyebrows jrose mockingly, 'some men do fall on
their feet I'