Lovers In The Afternoon

‘Henri,’ Adam put in softly, his mouth quirked with amusement.

‘He already thinks I’m some sort of escapee from a lunatic asylum.’ She hadn’t missed his covert glances in her direction during the evening. ‘I just can’t go back there,’ she shuddered.

‘You don’t have to——’

‘And I don’t need any of your high-handed interference either,’ she cut in rudely. ‘Why should one more visit to that place bother me!’ she told herself defiantly.

‘Because it does,’ Adam soothed. ‘And there’s no need to torture yourself with the thought of having to do it; your handbag is in my car.’

Her eyes widened. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Very,’ he replied with satisfaction. ‘You were so eager to get up here that you left it next to your seat.’

‘I was not eager to get up here,’ she defended indignantly.

‘Maybe I should rephrase that,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘I was so eager to get you up here that I didn’t give you chance to think of such mundane things as a handbag. Better?’ he quirked dark brows in amusement.

It was that amusement that confused her; there had been little to laugh about during their marriage, Adam always so grim. But no one knew the deviousness of his mind as well as she did, and she wasn’t fooled by this charm for a moment.

‘What are you up to, Adam?’ she demanded impatiently. ‘Why are you doing this?’

He strolled across the room to her side, his movements gracefully masculine, as they always were. ‘I want a lover, Leonie,’ he told her softly, only inches away from her as he stood with his hands thrust into the pockets of his robe. ‘I want you.’

She shook her head. ‘You had me for a year, and it was a disaster,’ she recalled bitterly.

Adam nodded in acknowledgment of that fact. ‘Nevertheless, I want you.’

‘You’ve only just got rid of me!’ she reminded desperately.

‘Of the marriage, not you, Leonie.’

‘It’s the same thing!’

‘No,’ he smiled gently. ‘We both found the marriage stifling, the sort of relationship I’m suggesting——’

‘With me as your mistress!’ she scorned.

‘Lover,’ he insisted. ‘We would be lovers.’

‘No!’

‘Why not?’ his eyes had narrowed, although he remained outwardly relaxed.

‘I don’t want a lover!’

His mouth quirked. ‘You just proved, very effectively, that you do.’

Colour heightened her cheeks. ‘That was sex——’

‘The best sex we ever had, admit it,’ he encouraged.

She drew in a ragged breath. ‘Yes.’ ‘And as I said before, what’s wrong with that?’

She sighed her exasperation. ‘You just don’t understand——’

‘I understand perfectly,’ he cut in soothingly. ‘This has all come as a bit of a shock to you——’

‘That has to be the understatement of the decade!’

Adam chuckled, at once looking younger. ‘Poor Leonie,’ he smiled. ‘What’s shocking you the most, the fact that we found such pleasure in bed together for the first time, or the fact that I want it to continue?’

She couldn’t deny that she was surprised at the amount of pleasure she had known with Adam tonight, a pleasure she had known beyond all doubt that he felt too, his responses open and complete. Their sex-life during their marriage, as with everything else during that year, had been a disaster. Adam had been so experienced that in her innocence she had felt inadequate, and she had resented the way he had tried to control her body, her responses automatic and emotionless, refusing to be dominated by him. But the lovemaking they had shared tonight hadn’t been restricted by any of that resentment, had been uninhibited. But that Adam should want such a relationship to continue she couldn’t accept, not when the breakdown of the marriage and subsequent separation had been such a traumatic experience for her. They simply couldn’t pretend they were two people they weren’t.

‘The first shocks me,’ she replied coolly. ‘The second surprises me. Do you honestly not remember what it was like between us, the bitterness, the pain of knowing we were all wrong for each other from the start?’

‘As a married couple, not as lovers,’ he insisted forcefully.

‘Have you forgotten what that was like between us?’

‘Didn’t this evening prove that it doesn’t have to be that way?’ he reasoned.

‘I’m still the same person, Adam,’ she told him with a sigh. ‘I’m still sixteen years younger than you are, with the same inexperience—no matter what happened here tonight,’ she added pointedly. ‘I’m still the same klutzy person I was when we were married——’

‘That’s a new name for it,’ he laughed softly.

‘I read it in a book somewhere,’ she dismissed impatiently. ‘It seemed to suit me perfectly.’

‘It does,’ he nodded, still smiling, his eyes a warm grey, crinkled at the corners.

‘Don’t you remember how angry all those “incidents” used to make you!’

‘You’re right, I was intolerant——’

‘You’re missing my point, Adam,’ she said frustratedly. ‘It would take a saint to put up with all the things that happen to me in one day—and that’s one thing I know you aren’t!’

‘Have I been angry tonight at all?’

‘That was only one night,’ she sighed her impatience. ‘It would drive you insane—it did drive you insane, on a regular basis.’

‘Haven’t you heard, lovers are more tolerant?’

‘Adam!’

‘Leonie?’

She glowered at him. ‘You aren’t listening to a word I’ve been saying.’

‘Of course I am,’ he placated. ‘You’re young and klutzy.’ He smiled. ‘I really like that word, it describes you exactly.’ He sobered. ‘As a husband I was rigid and intolerant, lousy at making love to you. As a lover I will be generous and understanding—and very good in bed.’