Mystery Lover(21)

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.