Part Time Marriage (10 page)

She did not want to still be there, should he gIance over to her when he got to the driver's door. Abruptly she went in and quickly closed the door behind her. She ignored the stairs for once and went to the lift. It had been quite a day.

For the first time ever, Elexa found Sunday unbearable. So far as anyone knew, she and Noah would not wish to be disturbed-wherever they were. Consequently her telephone stayed silent. Not that, under the circumstances, she would have answered it had it rung. By the same token, she was unable to telephone anyone for a chat.

That initself did not bother her unduly. It was just that she had started to feel very unsettled-restless, somehow. She took herself off for a walk, but still felt as unsettled and restless when she returned.

She supposed the fact that yesterday had been so eventful could have something to do with it. Many were the times she thought of Noah. Was he having a not- answering-the phone-day too? Another thought struck-and she didn't like it-was he perhaps on the phone at this very minute talking to one of his lady-friends? She hardly expected him to give them up. Perhaps he was out with one of them right at this very moment. Without another thought Elexa snatched her wedding ring from her finger.

She was glad to see Monday. Glad to be going to work. She had last week told Des Reynolds when he came on the prowl that she was going out with someone, but, because she didn't want any fuss at the office, she'd thought she would leave telling anyone there that she was going to be married until it was fait accompli. `You've forsaken me for another!' Des had gasped, clutching his heart.

`Clear off-and bother somebody else.'

With Jamie Hodges, when he had come into her office with that light in his eyes that hinted he was about to ask her out, she had been a little more diplomatic. `Jamie, I've met someone,' she'd told him quietly, and had gone on to tell him that she was going steady.

He'd argued that it was quick, that she hadn't said anything about it the last time he'd asked her out. `Why didn't you say something then?"

'How could I? I didn't know if anything would come of it at the time.'

Elexa drove to the offices of Colman and Fisher having decided not to wear her wedding ring or her engagement ring. Her wedding was too recent still. Perhaps as a passing kind of comment she would mention some time-if she remembered, she thought sniffily that she had married. Idris Young, one of her team, stopped by her office that Monday to invite her to a party he and his wife were having on Saturday. She enjoyed parties, but somehow didn't feel in a partying mood. Absurdly she suddenly thought of Noah, of Noah partying-he worked hard; he probably played with equal vigour.

`I'd love to come,' she accepted Idris's invite cheerfully.

Annoyingly, when she had always before found her job completely absorbing, thoughts of Noah Peverelle seemed to constantly come between her and her work. She supposed it must be quite natural. For goodness' sake, she was married tohim ! Only last Saturday she had married him. Grief, she hadn't been married to him for a week yet!

Elexa went home in a solemn frame of mind. Hers was not a proper marriage. But, she reminded herself, Noah had married her, and in doing so had completed his part of the bargain they had made. He was now waiting to hear from her so she should begin to complete her part.

Relieved that she had a computer at home, and that she wasn't at risk of anyone coming in and spotting what she was doing, Elexa switched on her computer as soon as she got in. She owned that, though intelligent enough to cope easily with her very stressful job, she was totally at sea when it came to knowing when her fertile period was-she hadn't a clue how to work it out. If they'd taught it at school she must have either been away that day, or had her head filled with other matter.

The Internet gave her the answer. At least, she thought it did. She printed off various pieces of information, read everything through several times, and got on with calculations. By the time she had worked out what she was fairly certain must be the right dates, Elexa was all churned up inside. It would seem that she would be in a position to contact Noah next week.

Elexa full well knew that she could have phoned him at any time to tell him of her findings, but the rest of the week went by without her once dialling his number. She wasn't trying to get out of it, she told herself. It was purely that it seemed to her to call for a little more delicacy than just to ring him with the hold request that he leave next Wednesday evening free.

By Saturday night, the night of Idris Young's party, Elexa had still not telephoned Noah. `Enjoyingyourself ?' Paul-that was what she thought his name was-asked.

`Super,' she replied, and listened with half ,in car as he chatted away, until it became obvious he was leading up to asking her out. `I'm spoken..." she interrupted him. `Where is he?' Paul asked looking around. `I wouldn't neglect you if...'

'I'm sure you wouldn't,' she smiled, and, since she'd accepted the invitation, made a great effort to be a good guest, and went through the motions of asking him what sort of work he did, and appeared to listen intently until a moment came when she could make her escape.

She arrived home around midnight, the party long gone from her mind. She went to her bedroom and, slipping her shoes off, spotted her wedding ring where she had left it on her dressing table. For no reason, she slipped it on. Noah Peverelle, and how she must give him a call, again occupied her mind, much as it had all that week.

But, in the act of unzipping her dress, she stopped, startled, when her phone suddenly rang. She looked at her watch: ten past twelve! Who on earth- The sound of the telephone ringing had been remarkable by its absence thatweek. Fearing some emergency, she hurried to answer it.

`Hello?' she enquired urgently.

`Where the hell have you been?' snarled an aggressive harsh male voice. Noah? He sounded more annoyed than worried, so Elexa realised that nobody had fallen down and broken a leg. `I've been to a party,' she replied, as evenly as she could in the circumstances.

`Who with?' he gritted bossily.

She'd had enough of him! Nobody bossed her around. `You sound like some irate husband,' she answered acidly.

`That's because I am a husband. Yours! If you're playing around-' He broke off, but only for a moment, because in the next instant he was snarling, `When you have that baby, I want to know for certain that it's mine!'

If he was furious, she was outraged. `You pig!' she yelled, and slammed the phone down on him.

Tears spurted to her eyes. How could he? How could he? The phone rang again; she ignored it. It carried on ringing-she went into the bathroom and drowned out the sound by taking a shower. She was stilll outraged when, nightdress-and dressing-gown-clad, she paced about her sitting-room. Then the door buzzer sounded. She stopped pacing and automatically glanced at her wrist. She wasn't wearing a watch, but knew,if it wasn't Saturday-night revellers going along ringing doorbells for a lark, that it would have taken Noah Peverelle half an hour to get here.

She went to the intercom. 'Yes!' she snapped.

`I don't find apologising very easy.'

`Don't strain yourself!"

'I think I should do it face to face.'

'I'll get the sackcloth and ashes ready!' she hissed, but thumped the button to let him up.

He wasn't long in getting there. She had left the door ajar and he came straight in, quietly closing the door behind him. `I rang earlier to let you know I was back.' `I didn't know you'd been away!'

`You're determined to give me a hard time.'

`Nobody talks to me like that!' she flared.`Nobody!' She wanted to hate him, but found that she didn't.

`I was out of order. I can't tell you how sorry I am.'

`You still don't trust me."

'That's the hell of it,' he answered. `I rather think I do.'

`Rather?' `Okay, then, yes, I do. I suppose, after chasing around this week sorting out various crises, for some unknown reason I imagined you enjoying a phone-free week staying home in your apartment.' He had thought about her-as she had thought about him? It weakened her anger-briefly. No doubt he'd only thought of her in the context of when the Dickens she was going to contact him. `I never gave thought that you might be living it up somewhere. It annoyed me that I'd made several phone calls to you this evening and that it was gone midnight before you came home.'

Elexa studied the tall, grey-eyed, stern-faced man in front of her. They had spoken of honesty with each other and, in hisapology, he couldn't have been more honest. `The party was just getting going when I left.'

`You weren't enjoying it?'

She smiled. Against her will, she smiled. `Does that please you?"

'Why should you have all the fun?"

'While you slave?Er...' She hesitated. `Do I take it that you haven't partied recently?' Noah gave her a steady look. `If you're asking have I taken anybody out since we married, then the answer is that I haven't. Nor do I intend to while we are married.'

Elexa stared at him for a moment or two, and then found she was asking, 'Er-can I get you a coffee?"

'Am I forgiven for my swinish remark?'

She looked into his sincere grey eyes. He had said he trusted her. What was to forgive? He wouldn't have said that he trusted her if he didn't mean it. `Of course,' she replied.

He half smiled then, though his smile didn't fully make it. `Then I'll go,' he said. He was halfway to the door when he abruptly turned back, and, scrutinising her face, `You know, of course, that you're just as beautiful without make-up.'

Her hand went straight to her scrubbed cheek. `My stars, Mr Peverelle,' she managed, `when you apologise you certainly do it in style.' His lips twitched, and this time he did smile. It gave her the spurt of courage she needed to tell him what she had to tell him. Albeit that he had reached the hall door of her apartment before she cried, 'Noah!' a touch croakily, it had to be admitted.

He turned, his attention all hers. `Elexa?' he queried, perhaps picking up that note of tension.

`I-er... I -um... I've been-er checking...' she blurted out in a sudden rush, feeling red right down to her toes but forcing herself on.`And ... and ... and Wednesday night seems-er-favourable.' If he asked `favourable for what?' she was going to die on the spot.

He didn't ask, but was as quick on the uptake as she knew him to be. But, when she was just about drowning with embarrassment, he asked coolly, `Would you like to come over to my place, or would you prefer I came here?' calmly giving her the choice of venue.

She hadn't got that far in her thinking, but quickly realised that, once 1t was over, she would probably want to be by herself." I'll come over to you,' she opted. That way she could say thank you very much, or whatever it was that one said on those occasions, and get out of there.

`Come and have some dinner with me,' he invited. 'I'm working late on Wednesday,' she invented rapidly. 'I'll have a sandwich sent in, and get to your place as soon as I can.'

His steady grey eyes stayed on her face. `Till then,' he said-and left her desperately trying to getherself back together again. If she was feeling shaky now, what in creation was she going to be like on Wednesday?

CHAPTER FIVE

BY MONDAY Elexa was close to being a nervous wreck. She didn't want to go through with it, she knew that she didn't. Had anyone offered her an alternative, she would have grabbed at it. But nobody did. There was no alternative.

Again and again during sleepless hours she had made herself remember that Noah trusted her. He had completed his side of the bargain, and he'd trusted her to go to him and begin to fulfil her side. It was of no help to her, however, to also remember the strength of Noah's firm arms around her that night at the Falcon Restaurant. She remembered, too, the feel of his warm mouth against her own in that decorous, chaste kiss. Oh, Lord, the time for chaste kisses was over!

Elexa was pleased to get into work, to be able to fix her thoughts elsewhere. `Terrific party, Idris,' she complimented him warmly when she stopped by his desk.

`Paul said you were serious about someone. You should have brought him.'

`He works away a lot,' she answered, and went to her own office wondering, had Noah been home by then, would he have accepted to go to the party with her?

Suddenly she realised the way she was thinking. For Heaven's sake, she and Noah didn't have that sort of relationship. They were married, yes, but in a platonic, not even friends, kind of way.Platonic? Oh, crikey!

By Wednesday, having thrown herself into her work in the hope of forgetting that payback time was at hand, Elexa had achieved all that she could achieve. At seven o'clock that evening, with all other offices she might have wanted to contact now long since closed, there was little more she could do. She looked at herwatch, at what she was sure was an hour later, only to see that it was not yet seven-fifteen. Feeling extremely fidgety, she cleared her desk and went to the car park.

She wasn't using delaying tactics, she convinced herself as she started up her vehicle, but she did not want to get there too early and find Noah in the middle of eating his dinner. She drove to her flat and, the hours seeming to have stood still, leaving her with ample time to spare, she took a shower. With her nerves starting to fray, she suddenly wanted it over and done with.

She was about to leave her apartment when it dawned on her that she didn't know how these things went. What she suddenly did know though, was that there was no way she could get into his bed without a stitch on.

Elexa went hot and then cold at the thought and speedily emptied out her briefcase, collected a fresh nightdress from a drawer, added her toothbrush and paste, and hurriedly departed her flat before her feet became cemented to the floor.

She drove on autopilot, trying to keep her mind a blank-an impossibility, she discovered. And all at once-unfairly, she owned, even as her thoughts raced-she started to blame Noah Peverelle because she felt as jumpy as a kitten. Had he consented to scientific means rather than natural she wouldn't be in this almighty stew. Perhaps she would feel better once she was there, once she saw him.