New Year, New Man. Laura Iding

      ‘He hated it. And he hated me. I could feel his hatred hitting me in waves. Then, when he shook my hand he tried to crush my fingers.’

      Sarah shook her head as she walked over and placed Derek’s present on her pink quilt. ‘I don’t believe you,’ she said as she sat down next to it.

      ‘Why not?’

      ‘Because I…Because he…Just because!’ she snapped.

      ‘You know what, Sarah? I think you’re afraid.’

      ‘Afraid of what?’

      ‘Of success. You’ve lived with this fantasy for far too long. It’s time to either let it go, or try to make it real. Which is it to be?’

      Sarah thought of lying alone in this bed tonight whilst Nick cavorted with Chloe in his bed. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut for several seconds whilst she made up her mind. Then she opened them and looked into Derek’s patiently waiting face.

      ‘So what’s the plan of action?’

      Derek grinned. ‘Stay right where we are, for starters. What time is lunch served?’

      ‘Actually it’s not served as such. It’s a buffet. Nick usually tries to get everyone heading for the food at one o’clock.’

      Derek glanced at his watch. ‘In that case we’ll make a reappearance downstairs at around five to one.’

      Sarah frowned. ‘We’re going to stay up here till then?’

      ‘Yep.’

      ‘You do realise what Nick is going to think we’re doing.’

      ‘Yep.’

      ‘He’ll think I’m a slut!’

      ‘If I’m right about him, he’ll have trouble thinking at all. Now open your present. And make sure, when you come downstairs, you tell him what I gave you.’

       CHAPTER EIGHT

      NICK tried to hide his growing agitation, but where the hell was Sarah and what in God’s name was she doing? It didn’t take that long to open one miserable present. Damn it all, it was getting on for one o’clock.

      The obvious answer just killed him: she was up in her bedroom, doing unspeakable things with that lounge lizard she was madly in love with and who had obviously pulled the wool over her eyes.

      If ever Nick had seen a fortune-hunter it was darling Derek, with his fake smile, his fake blonde hair and his equally fake suntan!

      Unfortunately his muscles didn’t look fake, a fact that irritated the death out of Nick. He’d never thought Sarah was the sort of girl whose head could be turned by such superficial attractions. But clearly she was. She even seemed to like being called babe.

      Didn’t she know darling Derek probably called every one of his girlfriends babe? Saved him having to remember their names, since it was obvious he didn’t have enough brains to make his head ache.

      ‘Nick, Jeremy’s talking to you,’ Chloe said somewhat waspishly.

      ‘What? Oh, sorry.’ Nick dragged his mind away from his mental vitriol to focus back on the man talking to him.

      Jeremy was his production company’s location manager. Quite brilliant at his job, and gayer than gay.

      ‘What were you saying, Jerry?’

      Jeremy gave him a sunny smile over the rim of his martini. ‘Just that I’m super-grateful to you for inviting moi for lunch today. Christmas is the one time of year when gays are severely reminded that lots of people are still homophobic. We try telling ourselves that Sydney is a very sophisticated city these days, but it’s not as sophisticated as it pretends to be.’

      ‘Really?’ Nick said, his eyes returning to the foyer through which Sarah would have to come. If she ever came back downstairs, that was.

      ‘You’d think the world had more important things to worry about than what people do in their private lives, wouldn’t you?’ Jeremy rattled on. ‘I mean…what business is it of others who or what you have sex with, as long as you’re not hurting anyone?’

      But what if you were? came Nick’s savage thought. What if having sex with someone—right at this moment—was tearing someone else’s insides out?

      ‘Well said, Jeremy,’ his partner complimented.

      Nick’s eyes swung to Kelvin, who was a tall, skinny fellow of indeterminate age.

      Nick was about to open his mouth and make some possibly rude remark—he suspected he was on the verge of behaving very badly indeed—when the movement he’d been waiting for caught the corner of his eye.

      Nick’s guts crunched down hard as he watched the object of his agitation waltz across the foyer with a smug-looking Derek hot on her heels.

      That Sarah’s hair was down—and tousled—did not escape Nick. Neither did her flushed cheeks.

      ‘If you’ll excuse me,’ he said abruptly, ‘there’s someone I must speak to. Chloe, could you show our guests out to the terrace? The lunch is a buffet, but there are place cards on the table.’

      Nick ignored the flash of annoyance that zoomed across Chloe’s face, just before he spun away and marched across the family room to confront Sarah. What he thought he was going to say he had no idea. But he needed to say something; anything to give vent to the storm of emotion building to a head within him.

      ‘Sarah,’ he bit out when he was close enough to the lovebirds.

      Her eyes jerked round towards him.

      ‘I need to talk to you. Now. In private.’

      ‘But we were just going out to the terrace for lunch,’ she returned, oh, so sweetly.

      He gritted his teeth as his furious gaze fastened on her mouth, where her red lipstick was an even glossier red than it had been before. Courtesy, no doubt, of having had to be retouched.

      But the coup de grâce to his already teetering control was noticing that she’d removed his diamond earrings.

      ‘I’m sure you won’t mind not eating for a further five minutes,’ he snapped, his stomach turning over at the thought of why she wasn’t still wearing his Christmas gift.

      Her shrug seemed carefree, but he detected a smidgeon of worry in her eyes.

      ‘I won’t be long, darling,’ she said to her lover with a softly apologetic stroke on his arm. ‘The buffet’s all set up on the terrace out there. You go ahead and I’ll join you shortly.’

      ‘Sure thing, babe. I’ll choose for you. And get you some of that white wine you like.’

      ‘Would you? That would be wonderful.’

      The schmaltzy exchange almost made Nick sick to his stomach. The moment Derek departed he grabbed Sarah by the elbow and steered her back out to the foyer, then along the front hallway towards his study.

      When she tried to wrench her arm free, his hand tightened its hold.

      ‘Is this caveman stuff really necessary?’ she protested.

      Nick said nothing, just pushed her into his study, then banged the door shut behind them. When he glowered over her, she did look a little shamefaced.

      ‘OK, you’re mad at me for not coming downstairs earlier and helping you with your guests,’ she said. ‘That’s it, isn’t it?’

      ‘Not only was your behaviour rude, Sarah, it was embarrassing.’

      ‘Embarrassing! I don’t see how. I mean, it’s not as though I know any of the guests