Tempted By Desire. Carole Mortimer

thirty-two, thirty-three, she wanted to appear as worldly as possible.

      Her hair was another problem, a golden mass of riotous curls, it was difficult to tame into any semblance of order. Pinning the majority of the curls on to the top of her head, she allowed one or two tendrils to curl provocatively at her temples and three or four at her slender nape. It gave her a look of childish sophistication and she knew it was as good as she was going to get. A light make-up and pale lipstick to add colour to her face and she was ready to face even the watchful Celeste.

      A hasty look in the mirror showed her that she had what Robert would call her ‘adult look’. Robert! She had completely forgotten him since her meeting with Vidal Martino. As she had thought, Robert paled to insignificance when compared with her ideal man. And since meeting the vibrant masculine man in the flesh, Robert had been put completely out of her thoughts.

      Her hotel room door swung open without any warning and she didn’t need two guesses who it was, in fact, she didn’t even need to turn round. Nevertheless she did turn round, only to come under the scornful gaze of Celeste.

      ‘Well, well, well,’ she drawled silkily, swaying gracefully into the room to walk mockingly round Suzanne as she willed herself not to be bothered by Celeste’s taunting. ‘And who is this little lot for?’ she flicked one of the curls caressing Suzanne’s temple.

      Suzanne flinched away from her stepmother. ‘What’s what little lot for?’ she asked steadily.

      ‘Why, the outfit, darling,’ purred Celeste. ‘Do you have an assignation with one of the waiters? Carlo perhaps?’

      ‘Don’t be childish,’ she snapped, picking up her evening bag in preparation to leave the room. ‘I’m merely dressed for dinner, nothing more.’

      ‘Really?’ I haven’t noticed such an effort on any other of the evenings we’ve been down to dinner.’

      ‘Are you trying to tell me I usually look a mess?’

      ‘Of course not, Suzanne. I would have told you so if you did. So who is it for?’

      ‘No one,’ Suzanne said sulkily. ‘I just felt like making an effort. Do you object?’

      ‘Oh, no.’ Celeste shook her head, her vibrant auburn hair gleaming as she moved. ‘I just hope you aren’t getting any big ideas about your own future. I made it obvious to you before we came here that it was my fortune we were seeking. Have you forgotten?’

      ‘How can I forget anything so disgusting?’

      ‘Quite,’ Celeste’s mouth twisted sneeringly. ‘And I think it’s just arrived.’

      ‘Really?’

      ‘Yes, really. You don’t have to sound quite so eager to get rid of me.’ Celeste looked at her stepdaughter suspiciously, picking up bottles at random from the dressing-table to study their contents.

      Suzanne saw her mistake as she felt Celeste’s keen looks in her direction. It was just that it would be so convenient if she didn’t have Celeste watching her every move over the next few days. But she mustn’t let Celeste know that; already she had given away too much to this perceptive woman.

      ‘Come along, Suzanne, we can discuss this better over dinner. Well, perhaps not better, but at least in comfort.’

      ‘All right,’ agreed Suzanne, herself eager to get dinner over with as soon as possible. The sooner she had eaten the sooner she could go to the lounge and wait for Vidal.

      Dinner was delicious as usual and Celeste in her more mellowed mood was quite convivial company. They even laughed together a couple of times, something they had never done before. Celeste often laughed at Suzanne but never with her.

      ‘You many not believe this, Suzanne,’ Celeste said quietly as they drank their coffee at the end of the meal. ‘No, I’m sure you won’t believe it. But in my own selfish way I loved your father very much.’

      ‘You can safely say that now, can’t you, now that he’s dead and can’t refute such a statement?’ Suzanne said vehemently.

      ‘Are you trying to say I didn’t make your father happy?’ Celeste gave a slight smile. ‘I don’t think you can say that with any degree of honesty.’

      ‘Maybe not. But I was his daughter, didn’t I deserve to be included in his life too?’

      ‘I said in my own selfish way, Suzanne, and that didn’t include you. Children have never entered into my plans for my future, and that means other people’s as well as my own.’

      ‘Surely this wealthy man will want children?’ Suzanne pointed out spitefully. Celeste certainly brought out the worst in her.

      ‘Perhaps. It may be a necessary evil,’ she said in a bored voice. ‘Perhaps just one, to satisfy the man’s vanity.’

      Suzanne looked about her curiously. The only man she could see who remotely fitted into Celeste’s mercenary plans was a man sitting at a corner table of the dining-room, but even he didn’t have to be the man, this dining-room was open to the public and he could just be a visitor, not an actual guest. He was a man in his mid-sixties, with grey streaked hair and a body that was running to fat. He was quite handsome for a man of his obvious years, but surely Celeste couldn’t be contemplating marriage to a man so much her senior.

      But why not? Suzanne’s father had been eighteen years her senior, so what did it matter that this man could give her at least thirty years? It didn’t matter in the slightest to Suzanne, Celeste must make her own future, in any way she wanted. But to marry a man like that! It made her feel slightly sick.

      She looked at her stepmother. Celeste might be hard and grasping, but surely she deserved something better than that. Her father had loved the woman, so she couldn’t be all bad. But she couldn’t be all good either, not when she could shut out a child of ten from her own father’s love.

      ‘What on earth is the matter now?’ Celeste asked impatiently. ‘Surely I haven’t shocked your puritan little mind again? Dear, oh dear, Suzanne, you’ll have to toughen up if you want to survive in this harsh cruel world your father and mother introduced you to. It’s a rough world out there and you have to be the same if you want to survive, and I intend to do just that.’

      ‘I’m not shocked, Celeste,’ Suzanne gave a rueful smile. ‘I think I’m past that where you’re concerned.’

      Celeste laughed, a completely natural gesture that added to her already considerable beauty. Blue, often mercenary eyes were filled with amusement and Suzanne wished that Celeste would act this naturally all the time. How much more attractive it made her. Not that her stepmother needed any extra attraction tonight, dressed as she was in a clinging russet-coloured gown that should have clashed with her rich auburn hair, but somehow didn’t.

      ‘Why were you looking so serious, then?’

      Suzanne shrugged, unwilling to start another argument. ‘I was—I was just looking round to see if I could spot the man—you know, the man you—–’ she broke off in embarrassed confusion.

      ‘The man I’ve picked out to be my husband,’ finished Celeste, completely unembarrassed herself. ‘And who did you decide it was?’

      ‘Well, I—–’ Suzanne looked at the elderly man she had picked out earlier and Celeste followed her gaze.

      ‘Not him, Suzanne!’ she burst out laughing. ‘Give me credit for a little taste!’

      ‘Then who?’

      ‘Oh, he isn’t here, darling,’ again Celeste affected that false drawl. ‘He’s otherwise engaged this evening, but I’m meeting him tomorrow. He’s absolutely fascinating, Suzanne, a shame he’s only a means to an end.’

      ‘So who is he, Celeste? Don’t keep me in suspense!’

      ‘You are interested, aren’t you? Well, I suppose it makes a change from your