What a weekend. Chad had requested toothbrushes-everything else had been provided by the hotel when they got there. Obviously clothes had not been a problem. They merely put on what they had worn on Friday. Luckily Jennifer had had the foresight to hang up their clothes so that they didn't look too wrinkled.
Her hair had been something of a problem. Without a drier it had dried naturally, allowing the natural wave to have its way. She had managed to subdue it with some pins she had in her purse. Anyone looking at the two of them in their sober suits would assume they were business associates returning from a meeting.
And what a meeting that had been!
Jennifer glanced down at her bare hands. He hadn't given her a ring. When had he had time to get one? She wasn't sure when he'd made up his mind to marry her, but had a hunch it was during the last sleepless night they had both spent when she'd been so explicit in her fantasies.
He had an amazing memory, come to that. He had done everything she had ever suggested in her wildest fantasies, plus some things she had never read about in Masters and Johnson. No wonder he could say he hadn't slept with very many women. When did they have time to sleep?
Jennifer glanced at Chad from the corner of her eye and noted a slight grimness around his mouth. Perhaps it was normally there but she hadn't noticed it during the past two days. His lips had been anything but grim.
After arriving back in Los Angeles Chad guided her to where they had left the car. His experience at airports and in airport parking lots was understandable-and welcome.
Jennifer was curious to know where he intended them to spend the night. She would need to go home and feed Sam. Poor Sam. She'd also need clothes for work tomorrow. However, he might prefer staying at his place. She would wait and see what he suggested.
However, his suggestion was the last thing she expected.
They pulled into the office parking lot and Chad parked next to her car. For the first time since they left Las Vegas he turned around and looked at her fully. Jennifer felt a sudden premonition that she wasn't going to like what he had to say.
She didn't.
"I'm going out of town early in the morning. I need to go home and pack. I should be back by the end of the week. That should give us time to decide what to do about our marriage."
She stared at him, stricken by the lack of any emotion in his voice. "What do you mean, what we should do about our marriage?"
Chad ran his hand through his hair. "This isn't really the time to discuss it."
"I agree," she said. "We should have discussed it before we got married. However, we didn't, so it looks like now is the time."
Chad leaned his arms on the steering wheel and rested his chin on them. She'd never noticed his profile before. The clean, strong lines intrigued her. This man of the many different personalities intrigued her. If she ever figured him out, she would probably be able to write a book about hirn. There was no one else around like him.
"You made me angry," he finally admitted to the windshield.
She thought about that for a moment. "So you married me as punishment?" she asked.
"You have been slowly driving me out of my mind for months with your lovemaking fantasies. I couldn't take them anymore."
Jennifer didn't know what to say. She sat there, staring at him.
"You've been a part of my life for too long, Sunshine. I couldn't take advantage of you. I knew exactly how you felt about sex and lovemaking. And why not? I helped to instill those values in you. Yet you had pushed me past my limit of tolerance. So I married you. I didn't feel I had a choice."
"You married me so you wouldn't feel guilty about making love to me?"
"Yes."
"I see."
"But I don't like being manipulated. Nobody does. You took something special that we shared, something so unique that I have never been able to explain it in words, and used it against me. Okay. You won.
I'm not sure what it was you wanted but if it was to make me want you so much that I never seemed to be able to get over aching for you, then you accomplished what you set out to do."
He never looked at her. His entire conversation was directed to the windshield in front of him. She might not even have been in the car with him for all the notice he gave her.
"I decided to solve both our problems. By marrying you, I.felt it was acceptable for me to make love to you, something you have obviously been determined to have happen."
"But you don't want to be married to me."
For the first time he looked around at her. "If you would stop and think about it, I don't lead a life that is conducive to marital harmony. I'm gone more often than I'm here. I put in long hours at the office. I don't have the time nor the energy to work on a relationship . . . with you, or anyone else."
As far as that was concerned, Jennifer hadn't given much thought to marriage, either. She enjoyed her life, her freedom and her ability to do whatever she wanted.
"Why does marriage have to change anything?" she asked in what she hoped was a reasonable tone of voice.
"It just does, that's all."
"It doesn't have to. Look at it this way. Nothing that we like about our lives has to change. You travel, I have my time to myself. But when you're home, we're together. What's wrong with that?"
He thought about her suggestion for a few moments. "What about children?"
"You made very sure that we were protected this weekend. I think that's a choice we can make. Who knows? Maybe you'll get tired of traveling one of these days. Stranger things have happened, you know."
He shook his head. "I think we need some time to think about it. I'll see you later on this week."
So she was dismissed, just like that. Jennifer got out of his car with all the dignity she could muster. Marriage ceremony or not, she felt that she had just participated in a wild, weekend fling that he regretted now that it was over.
She wasn't sure how she felt at this point. There was a blessed numbness that seemed to have wrapped around her.
Without saying another word, she got into her car and drove away.
This time Sam didn't let her off the hook for going away and leaving him alone. He had run out of food, although there was still some water left. As far as that went, he could go on a diet and it wouldn't hurt him any.
But his angry greeting seemed to be all Jennifer needed. She closed the door of the apartment, looking around to see that nothing had changed. Not a thing. Only her. She had changed and she knew she would never be the same again.
Chad had been right. She had exerted pressure on him, unfair pressure, to get him to acknowledge how he felt about her. He had acknowledged it, all right. Although he had wanted her physically, he resented her as well. Resented her for using his feelings for her to get what she wanted.
She couldn't blame him, really. She could remember several instances in the past when he had bullied her into doing something she didn't particularly want to do. She had resented his interference.
Now he felt the same way toward her.
Jennifer lay awake that night for hours, staring at the ceiling, thinking of everything that had happened. She had been on an emotional roller coaster these past few days. She tried to decide her best course of action, but nothing seemed suitable.
She was married to the man of her dreams, to her very secret lover, and he felt that she had trapped him into the relationship. In the small hours of the morning, Jennifer took a long, hard look at what she had done and was forced to agree with him.
The question was, what could she do about it now?
When Jennifer walked into the office Monday morning nothing had changed. Everyone greeted her as they always did, her desk was stacked with mail, as it always was, and the phone was ringing. Nothing new.
Only she was different. She wasn't the same woman who had walked out Friday morning, mystified as to why her employer had told her to leave with him.
If he wanted to punish her for what she had done, he could have found nothing more fitting than to give her a glimpse of what life would be like living with him, then to close the door.
She looked into his office. His out box was overflowing. He must have put in several hours of work before she arrived last Friday. Going into his office was difficult. It was so much a part of him and reflected his personality-organized, neat-and like her, waiting for his return.
By noon Jennifer knew she would have to talk to someone or go crazy. She called her mother and suggested dinner that night. Her mother was delighted.