‘But for me,’ Rose said on a sigh, ‘a relationship is so much more than just sex.’
‘And yet sex, like it or not, is so much a part of any relationship. Too much talking. I get the picture. We’re here and this is something we have to do and I can’t tell you how much I’m going to enjoy doing it.’
* * *
He’d just never mentioned a timeline...
Rose lay in bed, half dozing, drinking him in as he strolled through the bedroom of his penthouse apartment, completely naked, hunting down his laptop computer because, even though it was still only six in the morning, he was up and ready to work.
She was warm and replete and contented. He’d roused her an hour earlier, nudging her into compliant wakefulness, and they had made love oh, so slowly. Caught in that hazy, half asleep place, Rose had let him take her to places that had left her crying out with pleasure. When, after touching her everywhere, after exploring her soft, warm body, he had finally thrust into her, filling her up, she had felt tears leak down her cheeks and had had to surreptitiously wipe them away because that definitely wasn’t part of the deal.
The package deal had kicked off three days previously, when she had fallen into his arms like a starving woman deprived of food who suddenly found herself with a ticket to an all-you-can-eat banquet.
They had made love and then, after a handful of hours’ sleep, had made love again and the very next morning she had moved in with him.
They hadn’t discussed how long this arrangement was going to last. How did you talk about something like that? How did you work out the length of time it would take for one person to get sick of the other?
How long would it take for him to get bored with her?
Rose knew that that was the way it was going to play out because she wasn’t close to getting him out of her system. Indeed, with every passing minute spent together, he became more embedded in her bloodstream.
They’d talked about sex. He did that a lot. When they made love he would whisper things in her ear that made her whole body burn. He would tell her, in a husky, shaky voice, how much he wanted her and what he wanted to do with her.
He was ruled by lust. He couldn’t keep his hands off her and the more he showed that want, the more she needed something more. Something more powerful than want.
But that was off the cards and it was always going to be off the cards.
Except...now...looking at him and his careless elegance, Rose felt her heart twist and she knew with an awful sense of despair that she was powerless to initiate the necessary break-up.
She was held in place by something far bigger than lust.
Somehow, against all odds, she had fallen in love with him and she was as powerless now as a speck of flotsam being tossed around this way and that on an unpredictable, fast-flowing current.
She could only make sure he never saw her vulnerability because if he did he would run for the hills.
Love was not on his radar. Not with her. And it never would be. The novelty value that had drawn him to her might not have yet released him from its hold but, now that she was immersed in his life, she knew with dreadful certainty that she was only ever going to be a distraction for him.
He didn’t do love. The highs and lows of emotion were things he would seek to avoid. Above everything, he enjoyed the power of control and that included control of his emotional life. He would find someone but she knew in her heart that he would not want someone who was as emotional as she had turned out to be.
Far from being the level-headed woman she’d imagined she was, love had turned her to mush and she wasn’t ashamed of it.
Even though she knew that hurt was lurking around the corner, waiting for her.
He produced the laptop from where it had been residing under a bundle of discarded clothes on a chair in his bedroom with a grin of triumph and turned to her. ‘First time this hasn’t been at my fingertips.’
‘You were in a hurry last night.’ She forced herself to grin back, keeping it light.
‘So I was,’ he murmured, dumping the computer and making his way back towards the bed to lean over her, then dropping a kiss on her forehead. ‘You do that to me.’
‘Make you want to run?’ Rose teased, playing with words.
‘I can’t get to you fast enough.’
Art looked at her for a few serious seconds and Rose had the feeling that there was something he wanted to tell her. A cold chill spread through her but she kept smiling, keeping it light. There could only be one thing he could have wanted to tell her that would have put that serious expression on his face and those words were not ones she wanted to hear. She swallowed down the nasty lump of desperation.
‘Stay in bed with me,’ she urged. ‘Surely work can wait.’
‘Not this.’ He was still looking at her with that expression on his face.
‘Big deal you have to close? I can’t imagine there’s any deal big enough that you can’t ignore it for a few more minutes.’
His expression lightened. ‘And to think I’ve always prided myself on being the kind of guy who can hold out for longer than a couple of minutes...although,’ he mused, ‘fast and furious does hold a certain appeal, I have to admit.’ He sighed, glanced at his cell phone and looked at her again with that pensive expression, thinking thoughts she couldn’t begin to fathom. ‘Unfortunately, this has nothing to do with work, as such...’
‘Why am I getting the feeling that you’re speaking in riddles?’
For a few seconds Art remained silent and during those few seconds Rose felt her heart clench tightly, painfully in her chest. Now was the time for her to voice her thoughts and either give him permission to walk away or else pre-empt his departure by announcing hers first.
She was spared any decision because just at that moment his phone buzzed. He looked at the number, then at her.
‘Private call,’ he said lightly, turning away.
He’d never done that before. Fighting down a wave of nausea, Rose hurriedly leapt out of the bed the second he had left the bedroom, shutting the door quietly behind him. She flew into the bathroom and had a very quick shower. She was dressed and ready for the day and he still had not returned.
Was the call so important that he had to take it at this ungodly hour, without even taking time out to get dressed?
Was it another woman?
She knew that he had conference calls at strange hours from people in a different time zone, but he had always been fully prepped for those. He’d always conducted them in front of his computer, accessing information while talking to whoever might be on the line.
This was...different.
Rose couldn’t credit that he might sleep with her whilst having something going on with someone else. He just wasn’t that kind of guy, but then maybe, quite by
