Chapter Three #2
‘Depends what you call for real,’ Leo replied drily.
‘If by for real you’re asking whether I’ll ever throw caution to the winds and nurture unrealistic expectations about fairy-tale romances lasting a lifetime, then no.
Not a chance. If, on the other hand, you’re asking whether I may one day seal a union with a woman with whom I can enjoy some intellectual banter, a woman who is financially self-sufficient in her own right and who has enough of a life of her own to not need constant attention, then who knows?
It’s a possibility, although it has to be said that it’s nowhere near being on the horizon at this moment in time. ’
‘That sounds like a lot of fun,’ Sammy couldn’t resist saying and he burst out laughing, a rich, sexy laugh that made her bloom with confusing, forbidden pleasure inside.
‘Of course,’ he murmured, ‘there would also have to be certain things in place for the equation to work.’
‘Like what?’
He briefly took his eyes off the road to look at her and Sammy felt bright colour crawl up from the tips of her toes to her hairline because she realised immediately what those certain things were.
Flustered, she looked away and stared straight out through the window, out into an unlit blackness, and heard him burst out laughing again.
‘So you see,’ he murmured when his laughter had trailed off, ‘this little rescue package is as much of a hardship for me as it is for you. Not only will my working habits have to be constrained but so will my—’
‘I get it,’ she interrupted hastily.
He laughed again and then asked conversationally, ‘Not the same for you?’
‘I don’t change boyfriends,’ Sammy retorted coldly, ‘the way I change outfits.’
‘Now, now, are you implying that I do?’
‘Don’t you?’
‘I’m not looking for love ever after,’ he told her. ‘But I enjoy having fun and I enjoy being in the company of women who like having fun with me.’
‘It’s just as well this is a fake engagement,’ Sammy told him airily, while her mind toyed feverishly with images of him having fun with his fun women.
‘Because you’re looking for your soulmate?’
‘That’s right. There’s nothing wrong with that.
’ She thought of her ex-boyfriends and marvelled that the theory of the perfect soulmate could be so different from the reality.
It didn’t mean that the guy for her wasn’t out there.
It just meant that she had to kiss one or two frogs before she got to him.
‘Well, to each their own.’ Leo shrugged indifferently.
‘And that, as I said before, is just one of the reasons why this is such a good fake engagement. We’re not even beginning to sing from the same song sheet when it comes to relationships.
Now, let’s talk about how we met and how long we’ve been seeing one another. ’
* * *
The sleet had turned to snow by the time they made it to Happenden Court, which crested a hill and was reached via a long tree-bordered avenue.
In summer, it was a glorious approach to the magnificent country estate but now, in the bitter, biting wind, it was no less impressive but rather a bleak and haunting view, especially with nightfall fast approaching.
The house ahead, however, was bathed in light.
Sammy absolutely loved the house. Admittedly, it was way too big for one man on his own, but Harold had lived in a small group of rooms in the massive property, only opening up the rest of the house on special occasions.
In summer, people actually paid to visit the gardens and the part of the historic house which was largely unused.
He claimed he couldn’t part with it even though it was huge and expensive to maintain. Too many memories, he had told Sammy once.
‘He needs to downsize.’ Leo read her mind as he swung the car into the courtyard. ‘He might be emotional, but he’s as stubborn as a mule. Remember to look surprised when you walk through the door.’
‘The entire village won’t be there, will they? Hiding in the living room with the lights off?’
‘That could be a dangerous approach to take, considering most of the assembled crowd are in their seventies and eighties. And remember to look as though you’ve found true love with me.’
‘Why? Do you think they’ve got a hotline to the paparazzi?’
She knew how she sounded. Petulant and sulky and childish.
And yes, she’d signed up for a deal with the devil and she knew that she should be taking it on the chin instead of moaning and groaning.
And yes, he was right. Whether she liked to admit it or not, the financial pressures that had been keeping her awake for over a year would be erased.
Like a teacher sweeping into the classroom, he would wipe the whiteboard clean and she would be able to start afresh.
How many times had she fantasised about this very thing?
But every time she looked at him, it hit home just how steep the price she would be paying was. He did something to her. He unsettled her. Between that and her conscience, the next few weeks were not going to be a walk in the park.
How could she pretend to be in love with someone who unsettled her?
When she fundamentally disliked what he stood for?
When his approach to life was so different from hers?
Surely one glance and anyone would see through the sham.
Especially Gail Jamieson, who had a lot to lose if she didn’t gain custody of her granddaughter.
They would be going to Australia and she would be playing out this charade in front of people who wouldn’t be as forgiving and thrilled to see him engaged as the people waiting inside the house.
Plus, deceiving people she had known since childhood didn’t sit right and that, in itself, filled her with anxiety.
Thrilled they might be, but wouldn’t they be able to see through her phoney smiles in a second? She could only hope that they would take their cue from her mother, who, after a long phone call with Sammy, knew the lie of the land.
‘That’s exactly what I’m talking about,’ Leo grated, grinding the powerful car to a stop and turning to look at her as he killed the engine.
Sammy’s thoughts were on her mother. She had been surprisingly upbeat about the situation, given the fact that it had been relayed by her daughter in a tone of voice that had been thick with resignation, doom and gloom.
But then her mother, Sammy reasoned, would have spent many more long hours as witness to Harold’s despondency at not having his granddaughter in the same country.
She would have lived through the nightmare of Gail’s interference and demands and the horrible prospect of those demands continuing while any supportive role to Adele was shoved aside.
Plus she would have never argued that Sammy had made the wrong decision. If she had disagreed with her daughter, she would have kept her opinions to herself because the habit of being supportive of the decisions Sammy made was just too ingrained.
They had operated as a unit for a very long time.
‘Sammy!’
‘Huh?’ Sammy blinked and surfaced out of her thoughts to focus on the man frowning at her.
Leo raked frustrated fingers through his hair and continued to frown at her because she’d been a million miles away just then. He’d been talking to her and, instead of paying attention to what he’d been saying, she’d blanked him out.
‘I was talking to you,’ he said grittily.
The surly edge to his voice suddenly lightened her mood and snapped her out of her thoughts. She looked at him, amused, because he had sounded, just then, like a sulky child.
‘Care to share the joke?’ He scowled and she grinned.
‘You’re angry because I wasn’t giving you one hundred per cent of my attention? I guess,’ she said shrewdly, ‘you’re not accustomed to women who don’t give you one hundred per cent of their attention.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Leo growled.
‘I’m not! But just because you’re my fiancé doesn’t mean that I have to agree with everything you say and snap to attention the second you give a command.’
‘Rebelling and being argumentative isn’t going to persuade anyone that we’re an item. Now, out we go. They’re waiting for us and don’t forget to look shocked. There’s nothing worse than someone who isn’t suitably flabbergasted at a surprise party thrown for them.’
Almost at the door, she paused to rest her hand on his arm.
Leo looked down at her, expecting defiance and that mulish stubbornness he was fast becoming accustomed to. Instead, she looked suddenly vulnerable and defensive.
Her complexion was so satiny smooth that he found himself staring. She had carved a niche for herself in the background and she had done that by deliberately making sure to downplay every single asset she had.
But the more he looked at her, the more appealing her attraction seemed to be.
He shook himself out of this strange line of thought, inserted his key into the lock and turned it, pushing open the front door and stepping back to allow her past him.
It had been several weeks since Sammy had visited the house but, as always, she stood for a few minutes breathing in its spectacular, unique magnificence.
Despite the historic interest of the building, it still managed to look lived-in, probably because of the eclectic mix of period furniture and the scattering of beautiful objects which Leo’s parents had gathered over the years.
Mariela, having come from some wealth herself, had brought with her paintings and art pieces that were wonderfully exotic and there were unique touches everywhere that gave the house a very special feel.
On the highly polished circular table in the hallway there was a massive arrangement of fresh flowers and Sammy breathed in the wonderful floral scent, as powerful as incense, temporarily forgetting why she was here.
Blissful oblivion didn’t last long. She heard the babble of voices from behind one of the doors and quailed.
‘Chin up,’ Leo commanded. ‘We’re in love. Don’t look as though you have a hot date with the hangman.’
He was walking briskly towards the sitting room and she hustled in his wake, horribly self-conscious and frantically wondering how she was going to pull this all off whilst looking suitably surprised.
And, of course, delighted. She hoped that she might discover award-winning talents she had hitherto never suspected.
Leo knocked on the sitting room door then pushed it open and stood aside and, as she took a deep breath and hesitated, he pulled her into him and swung her round to face him.
He was smiling.
For a second, everything flew out of her head. This was a smile meant for her and, as she looked at him, she felt the whole room in front of her disappear—the voices, the people, the clinking of glasses, the laughter.
Her breath caught. Could she have forgotten how to breathe? Was that possible?
Her body was burning, her breasts aching and a strange sensation pooling between her thighs.
‘Darling—’ Leo laughed ‘—a little surprise party for us. I wanted to tell you but I was sworn to secrecy...’
This in a voice just loud enough to generate a round of delighted applause from, as she’d feared, at least forty of the great and the good from the village, all people she had known since forever.
And now she was going to have to look rapturous.
She began to turn and then he caught her face in his hands and lowered his head...
And kissed her. The tip of his tongue teased her full lower lip and Sammy instinctively opened her mouth, her whole body leaning into him, wanting the feel of his hard masculine body against hers.
The taste of his tongue against hers sent desire ripping through her with the force of a raging inferno.
She didn’t understand her powerful, immediate response to his caress. She just knew that it owned her.
And then he drew back, leaving her trembling and dazed, mouth swollen from his kiss, eyes over-bright and glittering.
‘Excellent,’ he murmured into her ear. ‘I think it’s safe to say that you don’t have to worry about stage fright any more. We couldn’t have been more convincing.’