Lovers In The Afternoon. Carole Mortimer

it was a disaster,’ she recalled bitterly.

      Adam nodded in acknowledgment of that fact. ‘Nevertheless, I want you.’

      ‘You’ve only just got rid of me!’ she reminded desperately.

      ‘Of the marriage, not you, Leonie.’

      ‘It’s the same thing!’

      ‘No,’ he smiled gently. ‘We both found the marriage stifling, the sort of relationship I’m suggesting——’

      ‘With me as your mistress!’ she scorned.

      ‘Lover,’ he insisted. ‘We would be lovers.’

      ‘No!’

      ‘Why not?’ his eyes had narrowed, although he remained outwardly relaxed.

      ‘I don’t want a lover!’

      His mouth quirked. ‘You just proved, very effectively, that you do.’

      Colour heightened her cheeks. ‘That was sex——’

      ‘The best sex we ever had, admit it,’ he encouraged.

      She drew in a ragged breath. ‘Yes.’ ‘And as I said before, what’s wrong with that?’

      She sighed her exasperation. ‘You just don’t understand——’

      ‘I understand perfectly,’ he cut in soothingly. ‘This has all come as a bit of a shock to you——’

      ‘That has to be the understatement of the decade!’

      Adam chuckled, at once looking younger. ‘Poor Leonie,’ he smiled. ‘What’s shocking you the most, the fact that we found such pleasure in bed together for the first time, or the fact that I want it to continue?’

      She couldn’t deny that she was surprised at the amount of pleasure she had known with Adam tonight, a pleasure she had known beyond all doubt that he felt too, his responses open and complete. Their sex-life during their marriage, as with everything else during that year, had been a disaster. Adam had been so experienced that in her innocence she had felt inadequate, and she had resented the way he had tried to control her body, her responses automatic and emotionless, refusing to be dominated by him. But the lovemaking they had shared tonight hadn’t been restricted by any of that resentment, had been uninhibited. But that Adam should want such a relationship to continue she couldn’t accept, not when the breakdown of the marriage and subsequent separation had been such a traumatic experience for her. They simply couldn’t pretend they were two people they weren’t.

      ‘The first shocks me,’ she replied coolly. ‘The second surprises me. Do you honestly not remember what it was like between us, the bitterness, the pain of knowing we were all wrong for each other from the start?’

      ‘As a married couple, not as lovers,’ he insisted forcefully.

      ‘Have you forgotten what that was like between us?’

      ‘Didn’t this evening prove that it doesn’t have to be that way?’ he reasoned.

      ‘I’m still the same person, Adam,’ she told him with a sigh. ‘I’m still sixteen years younger than you are, with the same inexperience—no matter what happened here tonight,’ she added pointedly. ‘I’m still the same klutzy person I was when we were married——’

      ‘That’s a new name for it,’ he laughed softly.

      ‘I read it in a book somewhere,’ she dismissed impatiently. ‘It seemed to suit me perfectly.’

      ‘It does,’ he nodded, still smiling, his eyes a warm grey, crinkled at the corners.

      ‘Don’t you remember how angry all those “incidents” used to make you!’

      ‘You’re right, I was intolerant——’

      ‘You’re missing my point, Adam,’ she said frustratedly. ‘It would take a saint to put up with all the things that happen to me in one day—and that’s one thing I know you aren’t!’

      ‘Have I been angry tonight at all?’

      ‘That was only one night,’ she sighed her impatience. ‘It would drive you insane—it did drive you insane, on a regular basis.’

      ‘Haven’t you heard, lovers are more tolerant?’

      ‘Adam!’

      ‘Leonie?’

      She glowered at him. ‘You aren’t listening to a word I’ve been saying.’

      ‘Of course I am,’ he placated. ‘You’re young and klutzy.’ He smiled. ‘I really like that word, it describes you exactly.’ He sobered. ‘As a husband I was rigid and intolerant, lousy at making love to you. As a lover I will be generous and understanding—and very good in bed.’

      ‘In your experience,’ she snapped waspishly.

      He raised dark brows. ‘You sound jealous, Leonie.’

      She felt the heat in her cheeks. ‘I most certainly am not!’

      ‘It’s all right if you are.’ His arms came about her as he moulded her body to his. ‘From a wife it would sound shrewish, from a lover it sounds possessive. I like that,’ he stated with satisfaction.

      That wasn’t all he liked from the feel of his body pressed so intimately against hers, aroused for the third time tonight. Leonie couldn’t pretend not to be shocked by this evidence of his renewed desire; their sex life had deteriorated so badly at the end of their marriage that it was an effort for them to make love once a week; Adam had never wanted her three times in one night before!

      ‘Adam, please stop this.’ She pulled agitatedly away from him as her own body quivered in reaction to his. ‘You’ve had your fun——’

      ‘It was mutual,’ he drawled confidently.

      ‘Not that sort of fun!’ she snapped. ‘God, I can’t believe this is really you proposing this preposterous arrangement! Have you thought of the consequences of your actions?’

      ‘I already know you’re on the pill to regulate your periods.’ He dismissed the idea of pregnancy.

      ‘Not those consequences!’ It was embarrassing how intimately this man knew the workings, and malfunctions, of her body! ‘We both have families, Adam, have you thought of their reactions to the relationship you’re suggesting?’

      ‘My father and your sister.’ The amused glow to his eyes left for the first time that evening. ‘I’m thirty-nine and you’re twenty-three, do you really think either of us needs their permission?’ he ground out.

      ‘Your father hates me.’ She deliberately didn’t mention her sister’s feelings towards Adam, although she was sure they were both aware of those feelings; it had been one of the reasons their marriage had proved such a failure.

      ‘My father doesn’t understand you,’ Adam corrected gravely.

      ‘There’s nothing to understand,’ she dismissed scornfully. ‘I am what you see. A little more accident-prone around you and your father, but otherwise I’m an open book.’

      ‘Then a few of the pages must have got stuck together, because I never felt that I knew you completely either!’ He gave a deep sigh. ‘I don’t intend to argue about the past with you now, Leonie.’

      ‘Lovers don’t argue?’ she mocked.

      His mouth quirked. ‘Only when they know it will take them back to bed to make up.’ He took her back in his arms, his mouth claiming hers.

      Her lips parted of their own volition, allowing access to the thrust of his tongue, trembling as desire claimed her, clinging to the broad width of his shoulders as she swayed weakly against him.

      ‘Stay