Lovers In The Afternoon. Carole Mortimer

Adam.’ She pushed away from him, breathing hard, knowing by his own ragged breathing that he was as aroused as she was. ‘There’s something else lovers can do,’ she told him tautly. ‘They can end the relationship at any time; I’m ending it.’ She turned on her heel.

      ‘Where are you going?’ Adam asked softly.

      ‘Home!’ She didn’t even turn.

      ‘How?’ his gentle question halted her. ‘Your car is still at Thompson Electronics, your keys to the car are in your handbag, your money, too, in case you were thinking of taking a taxi home, and your bag is in my car downstairs,’ he reminded softly.

      She had done it again! ‘So much for my grand exit,’ she said dully as she turned around.

      His smile was sympathetic. ‘It really was very good.’

      ‘Don’t humour me, Adam,’ she snapped.

      ‘Lovers——’

      ‘We are not lovers!’ she bit out between clenched teeth. ‘And we never will be. Now if you’ll give me your car keys for a few minutes I’ll go down and get my bag.’

      ‘No.’

      ‘You can’t keep me here by force, Adam!’ There was an edge of desperation to her voice.

      ‘I don’t intend to,’ he soothed. ‘I’m going to get dressed and drive you home.’

      ‘My car——’

      ‘Will be locked into the car park by this time of night,’ he pointed out.

      She looked at her wrist-watch; it was after midnight! ‘If you will just let me get my bag I can get a taxi home.’

      Adam shook his head. ‘I can’t let you do that this late at night.’

      ‘That doesn’t sound possessive, Adam, it sounds autocratic,’ she taunted him.

      He smiled. ‘It’s concern for your welfare,’ he mocked. ‘Lovers are like that,’ he told her softly before going back into the bedroom.

      Leonie stared after him frustratedly; she should have known that today was going to end as disastrously as it had begun. She should also have known Adam would have something to do with it, had felt a premonition of his presence while waiting to be rescued from the lift, her clumsiness always more pronounced whenever he was around.

      She had been too stunned, too conscious of Mrs Carlson’s presence, to do any other than follow Adam’s lead of it being their first meeting when the other woman introduced them in his office. And once she recovered from the shock of seeing him again after all this time she was too intrigued by his behaviour to do any other than go along with the pretence. And as she had admitted to him, it was easier too. But the pleasant atmosphere of their evening together had seduced her into doing something she would rather forget, something that she wouldn’t allow to be repeated, her reaction to Adam totally unexpected, given their history together.

      Her breath caught in her throat as Adam returned to the room, the business suit replaced with a fitted black shirt and black cords. Adam never dressed this casually!

      ‘Changing your image, Adam?’ she taunted to hide her reaction to him.

      ‘Like it?’ he smiled, not fooled by her attitude for a minute.

      She more than liked it, she wanted him again! It was ridiculous when she had been married to this man for a year, when they had been separated for over eight months, to feel the same instantaneous flood of emotion towards him as she had when she first met him almost two years ago. And yet looking at him now she did feel it, her mouth dry, her palms damp.

      ‘You look very handsome,’ she told him primly. ‘Now could we please leave?’

      ‘Certainly.’ He picked up his car keys.

      ‘Lovers are obliging too, are they?’ She couldn’t resist taunting as she preceded him out of the apartment and into the lift.

      ‘Any time,’ he said suggestively, his body pressed up against the back of hers. ‘Just say the word,’ he encouraged throatily.

      She frowned her irritation, moving gratefully away from him as they walked over to the car, their footsteps sounding loud in the black stillness of the night. Adam proved to be right about her bag, it lay on the floor of the car as he opened the door for her to get in.

      ‘You can pick your car up tomorrow,’ Adam suggested during the drive to her home, the car roof up now in the cool of the night.

      ‘Tomorrow?’ she frowned.

      ‘When you come for our meeting,’ he nodded.

      Her eyes widened. ‘You don’t seriously expect me to still come to that?’

      He glanced at her, his brows raised. ‘Of course.’

      ‘But I—Wasn’t that just a set-up?’ she frowned.

      ‘I wanted to see you again,’ he acknowledged. ‘And it seemed a good way to arrange it in view of the way you’ve felt about seeing me again, but I do also want my office decorated.’

      ‘Not by me,’ she shook her head determinedly, quivering at the thought of having to see this man on a day to day basis in connection with her work.

      ‘By you,’ he said firmly.

      ‘No!’

      ‘Yes,’ he insisted softly. ‘I really was impressed by your work on the lower floor.’

      ‘Adam——’

      ‘Yes, Leonie?’

      She drew her breath in sharply at his tolerant tone. ‘I am not going to work for you,’ she told him stubbornly.

      ‘Yes, you are,’ he nodded confidently.

      ‘You can’t force me!’

      ‘I wouldn’t even attempt it,’ he assured her mildly. ‘But I think you might find it a little awkward explaining to your boss, David isn’t it, the reason you won’t work for me.’

      ‘You wouldn’t make me do that?’ she groaned.

      Adam shrugged. ‘I don’t see what else you can do.’

      ‘But David has plenty of other designers, much more capable ones than me!’

      ‘I don’t want them,’ he stated calmly. ‘I want you.’

      ‘Please don’t involve my career in this, Adam,’ she pleaded desperately.

      ‘All I want is my office decorated, is that too much to ask?’

      His innocence infuriated her! ‘You aren’t just asking anyone to do it, I was your wife!’

      His expression softened into a reminiscent smile. ‘I’m not likely to forget that.’

      ‘But I’ve been trying to!’ She was twisted round in her seat as she tried to reason with him. ‘I’ve put my life back together, made the career for myself that I gave up when I married you. I am not about to let you jeopardise that.’

      ‘But I don’t want to.’ He shrugged broad shoulders.

      ‘You’re forcing me into a situation I don’t want. You deliberately sought me out for this job, didn’t you,’ she accused.

      He nodded. ‘I bought the company because I knew you had worked there once.’

      ‘You—you did what?’ she gasped.

      ‘Well, I had to have a valid reason for seeing you, I knew you would flatly refuse to go anywhere where you knew I would be.’ He shrugged. ‘So I bought Thompson Electronics.’

      It was an example of the arrogance she had always associated with him in the past; if he wanted something