Sinful Nights(11)

Without her being aware of how it had happened her arms were round his  neck, her fingers stroking the thick softness of his hair, and yet it  was pain she wanted him to feel-not pleasure, and it was anger she  wanted to show him as she returned the fierce intensity of his kiss, and  not love.

You want me.' It was Blake's thick utterance of the words that brought  her back to reality. That, and her own bitter mental acknowledgement  that somehow he had aroused her, had touched a deep core of need inside  her that none of Alan's gentle caresses had ever revealed.

I want Alan,' she lied curtly, but since he's not here  … '

Blake withdrew from her immediately as she had known he would. His pride  would never allow him to be a substitute for someone else, but what did  surprise Sapphire was that he believed her. But then he could not, as  she could, compare her reaction to him with her reaction to Alan. She  did love Alan. What she had just experienced in Blake's arms; that  bitter tension that had made her body ache and her eyes sting with  suppressed tears was just something left over from the past, that was  all.

Are we going to eat, or do you want to spend the rest of the evening in the car?'

The harsh words rasped over too-sensitive nerves. Sapphire pushed  Blake's hand away as he reached out to help her with her seat belt, and  knew by the tension in his body that she had annoyed him. How on earth  were they supposed to live together, supposedly as man and wife,  preserving the fiction that they had been reconciled when they reacted  so explosively to one another? If only she hadn't made that stupid  comment to her father, but he had looked so ill  …  and he had been so  pleased, almost as though she had given him a reason to go on fighting  to live. And so she had.

The restaurant was just as attractive as she remembered. The old barn  had been sensitively restored, and while the atmosphere was not one of  luxurious glamour there was something about it that Sapphire found more  appealing than any of Alan's favourite haunts.

The Head Waiter recognised Blake immediately and they were swiftly shown to a table for two.

The restaurant wasn't a large one, the proprietors preferring not to  expand and risk losing their excellent reputation. As they studied their  menus, Sapphire glanced covertly round the room, wondering if she would  recognise any of their fellow diners. A couple sat at one table talking  and Sapphire stiffened as she recognised Miranda.

Four years ago this woman had been her husband's mistress, and she was  still as beautiful as ever Sapphire recognised, and still obviously  bemusing the opposite sex if her table companion's expression was  anything to go by. Just as Sapphire was about to look away, she raised  her head, her eyes narrowing as they met Sapphire's. Conscious that she  was staring Sapphire tried to look away and found that she could not. A  familiar nausea started to well up inside her, and she fought it down.  She was over all that now. She wasn't going to let it happen again, and  yet against her will her mind kept on relaying to her mental images of  Blake and Miranda together, of Blake's long-legged, narrow-hipped body  making love to Miranda's, in all the ways it had never made love to  hers. The menu dropped from her fingers as she tried to stem the flood  of images. She was over this; she had been over it for years  …  She knew  now that most of her anguish sprang not from the fact that Blake and  Miranda had been lovers, but rather from the knowledge that he had  desired Miranda as intensely as he had not desired her. If Blake had  made love to her she would not have suffered this torment; she and  Miranda would have met as equals; as women, not as adult and child.    

 



 

Sapphire?'

She realised that Blake was talking to her; watching her and her face  closed up. How much had she already given away? She glanced desperately  at him but he was looking at Miranda.

Sapphire followed his look, tensing as she saw the other couple stand up and head towards them.

Blake.' Miranda's companion held out his hand to Blake, who rose to shake it, but it was at Sapphire that he looked.

Sapphire.' Miranda's greeting to her was coolly mocking. You've barely changed.'

The words were designed to hurt, but Sapphire chose to turn the barb  back on its sender. In four years?' she murmured, How flattering. I  must confess I barely recognised you.'

A blatant lie, but she could always use it to explain away her too  lengthy scrutiny of the other woman. And she had aged, Sapphire noted  now. Although she was still very beautiful, she was now more obviously a  woman well into her thirties. She must be a year or two older than  Blake. Her companion was in his forties, and although he looked pleasant  enough, physically he could not compare with Blake.

Sapphire, let me introduce you to Miranda's husband.' Blake's words  were a shock. Her husband? Her eyes went automatically to Miranda's ring  hand where a huge diamond solitaire nestled against an obviously new  wedding ring.

Jim is the Senior Registrar at Hexham General.' Blake told her. He and Miranda got married a couple of months ago.'

What brings you back up here Sapphire?' Miranda questioned her.

She stared to reply but Blake beat her to it, drawing her hand through  his arm, pulling her into the warmth of his side as he said calmly,  We've decided to give our marriage another try.'

A rather sudden decision surely?' Icy blue eyes swept over Sapphire, Miranda's tone intimating disbelief.

Not really.' Blake's voice was as smooth as silk and for the first  time, Sapphire was grateful for his ability to conceal the truth. It's  been on the cards for some time. Sapphire just took a bit of convincing  that's all.' His possessive smile was meant to indicate that he  considered himself lucky to get her back, but Sapphire wasn't deceived  for one moment. There was a subtle tension between Blake and Miranda  which suggested to Sapphire that getting her father's land wasn't the  sole reason Blake wanted a reconciliation'. Had Miranda married to  spite Blake? To prove to him that if he didn't want marriage then other  men did, and was he now retaliating by announcing their reconciliation?  Even worse, had he known that Miranda and Jim would be here tonight?

Well congratulations to you both.' Jim smiled warmly at them, and took Miranda's arm.

Yes indeed, better luck this time.' The words were innocuous enough but  Sapphire wasn't deceived. She read the venom behind them, and knew that  Blake had too.

When the other couple had gone she sat down and picked up her menu.  Eating was the last thing she felt like but she was determined not to  let Blake see how much seeing Miranda again had disturbed her.

I'm sorry about that.' His terse apology stunned her and Sapphire  looked up at him. There were deep grooves of tension running from his  nose to his mouth. I didn't know they'd be here.'

Sapphire shrugged dismissively, It doesn't matter. I didn't realise Miranda was married.'

Why should you?' Blake was curt and abrupt, I didn't realise that  … '  He broke off, his mouth grim. Look I don't think coming out tonight was  such a good idea. Let's leave shall we? I don't think either of us is  in the mood for the type of celebration your father had in mind.'

But what about Miranda?' Sapphire objected. If we leave now, she'll never believe what you said about us being reconciled.'

Blake shrugged, standing up to come round and hold her chair as she got  to her feet. Does it matter what she thinks?' He sounded tense. As a  matter of fact, what she probably will think is that we've decided we'd  rather be making love than eating.'

Because that's what you'd be doing if you were with her?' The words  were out before Sapphire could stop them. Aren't you forgetting  something,' she added bitterly. Miranda knows exactly how undesirable  you find me. You told her-remember?'

I told her nothing,' Blake grated back. She tricked that admission out  of you, but if it worries you so much I can take you back to Sefton  House right now and make you my wife in every sense of the word.'    

 



 

Thanks, but no thanks.' Somehow she managed to inject just the right  amount of scathing indifference into her voice, but it was hard not to  react to his words; not to shiver beneath the rough velvet urgency of  his voice, nor to turn to him in blind acceptance of the pleasure it  promised, but instead to simply precede him and walk out of the  restaurant as calmly as though she were completely unaffected by his  words.

Were he and Miranda still lovers? Somehow Sapphire didn't think so;  there hadn't been the complicity between them she would have expected  had they been. Instead there had been something almost approaching  antagonism.

They drove back along the road they had come in a silence which remained  unbroken until Sapphire realised that Blake had taken the turning for  his own house instead of carrying on to her father's farm.

Don't worry, I'm not kidnapping you,' he told her sardonically as she  turned to him in protest. It's barely ten o'clock. If I take you home  now your father will think there's something wrong.'

And he'd be right.' Sapphire muttered the words under her breath but Blake heard them.