she had to behave as if everything was normal. Just for a little while, until the pressure was off Lucas.
After she had washed and dressed in record time, Sofie went down to the kitchen, where Lucas was sitting at the table eating a bowl of cereal. Her heart turned over, for he was so very precious to her.
Lucas looked up, frowning a little when he saw her standing watching him. ‘What’s up, caro?’
Smiling to hide her worries, she shook her head. ‘Nothing. I was just thinking how much I love you,’ she told him, and he immediately held out his hand invitingly.
‘Come over here and tell me that.’
She went, allowing him to pull her down on to his lap. Combing her hand through his hair, she looked deeply into his eyes. ‘I love you, Lucas. Nothing will ever stop me loving you.’
He smiled. ‘I’m glad you feel that way, because it’s how I feel, too. I couldn’t imagine life without you now. I’d show you, if I didn’t have that meeting in an hour.’
How Sofie wished they could simply go back to bed and shut out the world, but they couldn’t. So she cocked her head flirtatiously and smiled back. ‘Well, you can give me a little something on account, couldn’t you?’
Laughing, he moved so that she was lying back with only his arm to support her. ‘Oh, yes, I could most certainly do that,’ he growled sexily and kissed her.
It was the kind of kiss that raised their temperatures to boiling point and took their breath away at the same time. When Lucas raised his head again, they were both left wanting more.
‘Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. Remember where we were and we’ll take it from there later,’ he told her in a gruff voice, and Sofie hopped off his lap with a groan.
‘It’s going to be a long day.’
He grinned wolfishly and stood up. ‘Yes, but keep your thoughts on the night,’ he advised as he took his jacket off the back of the chair and slipped it on. ‘I have to go, caro. Think of me toiling away at the mill whilst you’re having fun snapping photos.’
She would. She always did. He was never far from her thoughts.
Sofie walked him to the door of their Hampstead home and waved him off in his car as she did most mornings. However, as she turned away to close the door, a movement across the road caught her eye and she looked back. Immediately her blood ran cold when she recognised the man standing in the shade of a tree. As she stood, transfixed, he started to walk across the road towards her. Though he was the very last person she wanted to talk to, she had to face him. Had to know why he had come back. Descending the steps, she walked to the gate and waited, arms folded defensively.
Gary Benson stopped on the other side. He was a nondescript man, who was already running to seed. ‘Hello, Sofie,’ he greeted her as if only days had passed, not years, and she looked at him coldly.
‘What do you want, Gary?’ she asked abruptly, but her coldness, as ever, went unheeded.
‘You. Only you.’
She knew from before that anger got her nowhere, so she strove to remain calm. ‘You can’t have me. I’m spoken for, remember.’ The broad hint made him laugh delightedly.
‘You saw me in the photo. I hoped you would. You looked lovely in white.’
Sofie drew in an angry breath. ‘You had no right to be there. It was a private wedding.’
Gary did as he always did and ignored what he didn’t want to hear. ‘How could you marry him? You belong to me! You love me!’
She shook her head, heart quailing as she heard the same old words. ‘No, I don’t. I love my husband, not you.’
‘You think you do, but once he’s gone you’ll realise you made a mistake. Things will be better then. You’ll see,’ he informed her complacently.
To Sofie he was making no sense at all. ‘He’s not going anywhere. You’re the one who’s going to go away. Go away and stay away,’ she commanded him, in as firm a voice as she could muster. Gary merely smiled.
‘You know you don’t mean that, Sofie.’
There was no getting through to him, and that made her want to scream with frustration. ‘I do mean it and, if you don’t stop bothering me, I shall call the police.’
He grinned, with the supreme confidence of the sick mind. ‘They’re useless. Besides, I haven’t done anything. You know I’d never hurt you. I adore you. I just want us to be together.’
She laughed in his face. ‘You can’t be serious!’ she derided and for perhaps the first time she really saw him angry.
‘Don’t laugh at me, Sofie. I don’t like people laughing at me!’ he berated her, then turned and stomped away, anger in every step.
Sofie watched him go down the road and around the corner. Her mind was seething. Somehow she had got through his thick skin and hurt him. Maybe that would be enough to make him stay away. A seed of hope started to germinate inside her. Maybe this time she had actually won. Smiling to herself, she ran up the steps and into the house, feeling more hopeful than she had been an hour ago.
That evening Sofie prepared one of Lucas’s favourite meals, as this was to be their last evening together for at least a week. He had to go away on business and she wanted to make tonight special. Whilst the dinner was cooking in the oven, she slipped upstairs to take a long, relaxing bath, leaving her skin soft and delicately scented. Then she changed into cream lounging trousers and a silky vest top. Glancing at her wrist-watch, she saw time was getting on and, humming to herself, she skipped down the stairs and went into the lounge to mix a pair of fancy cocktails.
Lucas arrived home some fifteen minutes later and, as soon as she heard his key in the door, her body began to tingle with anticipation. Picking up a glass in each hand, she walked out into the hall to greet him.
‘Hi,’ she said huskily and, setting the glasses down on the hall table, slipped into his arms before he had even set his briefcase down. Arms around his neck, she hugged him tightly, taking in the scent and feel of him so that she could remember this moment during the long days he would be away.
‘Hi yourself,’ Lucas replied with a laugh, dropping his briefcase and enfolding her in his strong arms. ‘What brought this on?’
Sofie let her head fall back so that she could see him and laughed softly. ‘I missed you, that’s all,’ she told him, pressing her lips to his neck and jaw in a series of tantalisingly brief kisses.
‘I missed you, too, caro,’ he told her, and moved his head just enough to capture her lips with his own.
There was no way Sofie could hold back when she knew they were about to be parted for the first time since they had married. She kissed him with all the depth of love she felt for him, igniting the passion that was never far from the surface. If Lucas was surprised, it didn’t last long. Soon he was swept away, returning her kisses with the equally powerful love he felt for her.
When they drew back a short while later, neither had any interest in eating.
‘I
