His eyes were still on her body and she forced herself not to move. Since Nicky’s birth her breasts had become slightly fuller, but her waist and hips were still as slender as ever, her skin smooth and firm.
‘You could have kept it until Monday,’ she said in a shaken voice. ‘Or are you just checking up on me? Making sure my migraine wasn’t just an excuse not to come to work?’
As she spoke her eyes went instinctively to Nicky’s bedroom window which overlooked the garden, and her voice automatically lowered. She daren’t think about what might happen if the little boy woke up and saw them.
‘Don’t be stupid,’ Kieron said in clipped accents. His gaze had shifted to her lips, still sore and swollen, and as Briony moved uncomfortably under his look she realised that he had suddenly gone pale, his eyes fixed on the creamy swell of her breast. Her bikini top was brief and revealing, the marks of his fingers plainly discernible against her pale flesh.
‘Did I do that?’ he demanded tersely.
Anger blazed briefly.
‘Are you in any doubt? Do you think I enjoy being mauled about like that? Encourage it even?’
‘Well, if you do, you can’t get much satisfaction out of Matt,’ he said cruelly. ‘Adoring reverence is more his style.’
‘Perhaps I find that a pleasant change.’
He reached for her before she could stop him, grasping her wrists and pulling her to her feet.
‘Well now, let’s just put that to the test, shall we?’ he began pleasantly.
Her heart thundered against her flesh, the tip of her tongue moistening the lips nervously, a sensation close to terror shivering across her skin.
His hands left her wrists and slid gently round her waist, his eyes holding her captive like a fly in amber. The creaking of the gate freed her. Gina and Paolo were standing there staring in astonishment, and Briony’s heart sank. One look at Gina’s face was enough to tell her that her friend had guessed the truth.
She introduced them to Kieron curtly, her eyes darkening with pain when he bent to pick up Caterina, who was gazing at him in wonder.
She gurgled something approving, her tiny hands fastening on to his shirt, and Briony was unaware of the anguish in her eyes, until Gina touched her lightly on the arm, jolting her into awareness.
‘I just dropped by to return Briony’s lipstick’ Kieron explained. ‘She dropped it in my car the other night. I was hoping to be offered a cold drink,’ he added tauntingly, ‘but somehow we never got round to it.’
He was making his meaning plain, but there was no way she could invite him into her flat, Briony thought on a wave of fresh anxiety.
Gina came to her rescue.
‘I made some fresh lemonade before we went out. Why don’t we all go upstairs and have some?’
‘I’ll put a wrap on first,’ Briony muttered, anxious to escape and check up on Nicky.
Fortunately he was still asleep. She dropped a light kiss on his nose as she changed into a cotton dress, wondering feverishly how quickly she could get rid of Kieron.
He and Paolo were talking about cars when she went upstairs. She was thirsty herself and Gina’s lemonade was coolly refreshing. Gina started to tell her about their afternoon, when Caterina who had been playing contentedly on the floor with her toys suddenly electrified Briony by looking up at Kieron and saying quite clearly, ‘Nicky’. It was her first proper word and she sat back looking very pleased with herself at having silenced so many grown-ups. Paolo was the first to recover, swinging her up into his arms and tickling her until the flat rang with her giggles.
‘Who’s Nicky?’ Kieron asked in amusement. ‘He seems to have had a profound effect on your daughter.’
‘Oh, he’s just a little boy she plays with,’ Gina said hurriedly. ‘She isn’t talking properly yet. All men are “Nicky” to her at the moment,’ she improvised wildly.
Briony couldn’t have said a word to save her life. After that first awful moment when her eyes had flown automatically to Kieron’s face she had been incapable of saying anything. If Nicky himself had suddenly appeared in the room and claimed Kieron as his father she couldn’t have been more shocked.
Kieron left shortly afterwards, Paolo going with him to inspect his car. When they had gone Briony remained standing by the window staring into the garden.
‘He is Nicky’s father, isn’t he?’ Gina said softly.
It was pointless lying.
‘Does he know?’ Gina answered her own question. ‘Of course not. But you introduced him to us as your boss?’
‘It’s a long story,’ Briony said dryly. These people were her closest friends, and yet even to them she felt she could not confide the whole truth. Once one’s ability to trust had been destroyed, nothing could restore it, she reflected unhappily, making her escape by reminding Gina that Nicky would be waking up.