wouldn’t any woman have crumbled as easily, faced with the Viking force of Lucien Knight and his crusade for the sexual liberation of unfulfilled wives?
Wouldn’t the threads of anyone’s relationship have been unpicked by the nimble fingers of such a beautiful, charismatic man?
Wouldn’t every woman have discovered her dark, carnal side when faced with Lucien? Or was she just an emotional lightweight?
Burdened by guilt, Sophie slid down the wall and let the shower rain onto her bowed head. It was hopeless. No amount of water could cleanse away the self-loathing from her skin and her self.
It didn’t even matter at that moment that Dan might be screwing someone else, because the horrible truth was that it would have changed nothing. From the moment she’d kissed that envelope and posted off her job application, Sophie had set the seal on her affair with Lucien Knight.
She passed out soon after her head hit the pillow, exhausted physically by Lucien and mentally by guilt. She’d expected to toss and turn, so was surprised to find herself blinking against the spindly fingers of dull morning light as they crept between the hastily dragged-together curtains.
The alarm clock beside the bed informed her that it was a little after nine. She could get up, but her bones and her heart felt too heavy. She wanted to close her eyes and stay in bed, in her own bed, until she felt like herself again.
How long would that take? A couple of days? A few weeks? A lifetime? Sophie turned on her side and pulled the quilt over her shoulder, rolling herself into a cocoon against the outside world. She might not be able to spend forever in bed, but she could damn well spend this morning there, and this afternoon too if she felt like it, because she had no intention of going anywhere near Knight Inc.
Had Derek already filled her old job? The idea of going back, cap in hand to him, made Sophie burrow even deeper into the quilt with misery, but at least it would be a step towards pulling her life back from the brink of disaster. She closed her eyes and forced herself to breathe deeply. In. Out. In. Out. Sleep crept back through her bones, and Sophie relaxed gratefully into it. In. Out. In. Out.
And that was when the telephone rang.
Sophie sat on the bottom stair and pressed rewind on the answering machine for the third time. Dan’s secretary’s panic-tinged voice broke the silence again.
“Hi Dan, it’s Elise… I’m so sorry to bother you when you’re on holiday, Bob’s having one of his emergencies.” Elise’s dramatic sigh spoke volumes. “Do you have any idea where the Matteson report is? Please say yes. I can’t find it anywhere and he needs it for a meeting in ten minutes. You know how he gets. Call me if you can. I tried your mobile but it’s off so I was just hoping you might be around at home. Sorry again.”
The line clicked as Elise hung up, and Sophie slumped against the wall. Dan wasn’t on holiday. Why would he be on holiday? He was supposed to be in Milan for negotiations. With Bob. But Elise would know that, wouldn’t she? There could be no mistake. There was no imaginable possibility of a misunderstanding.
Sophie frowned, and rewound the messages back a few days to listen to Dan. She dropped her head in her hands as his voice washed around the empty hallway. Dan. Her Dan. Someone else’s Dan. He talked of Bob as if he were with him, but now she knew better. She couldn’t explain this away, the conclusion was obvious. He was actually on holiday with his mistress. Shock stole the air from Sophie’s lungs.
She might have lost her claim to the moral high ground the moment she’d let Lucien touch her, but this thing of Dan’s… it was different. If they were on holiday, if he was lying to work… it was a proper relationship. Jesus, did he love her, whoever she was?
Scalding tears fell down Sophie’s cheeks at the idea of Dan saying those precious, sacred words to someone else.
He had
Wouldn’t the threads of anyone’s relationship have been unpicked by the nimble fingers of such a beautiful, charismatic man?
Wouldn’t every woman have discovered her dark, carnal side when faced with Lucien? Or was she just an emotional lightweight?
Burdened by guilt, Sophie slid down the wall and let the shower rain onto her bowed head. It was hopeless. No amount of water could cleanse away the self-loathing from her skin and her self.
It didn’t even matter at that moment that Dan might be screwing someone else, because the horrible truth was that it would have changed nothing. From the moment she’d kissed that envelope and posted off her job application, Sophie had set the seal on her affair with Lucien Knight.
She passed out soon after her head hit the pillow, exhausted physically by Lucien and mentally by guilt. She’d expected to toss and turn, so was surprised to find herself blinking against the spindly fingers of dull morning light as they crept between the hastily dragged-together curtains.
The alarm clock beside the bed informed her that it was a little after nine. She could get up, but her bones and her heart felt too heavy. She wanted to close her eyes and stay in bed, in her own bed, until she felt like herself again.
How long would that take? A couple of days? A few weeks? A lifetime? Sophie turned on her side and pulled the quilt over her shoulder, rolling herself into a cocoon against the outside world. She might not be able to spend forever in bed, but she could damn well spend this morning there, and this afternoon too if she felt like it, because she had no intention of going anywhere near Knight Inc.
Had Derek already filled her old job? The idea of going back, cap in hand to him, made Sophie burrow even deeper into the quilt with misery, but at least it would be a step towards pulling her life back from the brink of disaster. She closed her eyes and forced herself to breathe deeply. In. Out. In. Out. Sleep crept back through her bones, and Sophie relaxed gratefully into it. In. Out. In. Out.
And that was when the telephone rang.
Sophie sat on the bottom stair and pressed rewind on the answering machine for the third time. Dan’s secretary’s panic-tinged voice broke the silence again.
“Hi Dan, it’s Elise… I’m so sorry to bother you when you’re on holiday, Bob’s having one of his emergencies.” Elise’s dramatic sigh spoke volumes. “Do you have any idea where the Matteson report is? Please say yes. I can’t find it anywhere and he needs it for a meeting in ten minutes. You know how he gets. Call me if you can. I tried your mobile but it’s off so I was just hoping you might be around at home. Sorry again.”
The line clicked as Elise hung up, and Sophie slumped against the wall. Dan wasn’t on holiday. Why would he be on holiday? He was supposed to be in Milan for negotiations. With Bob. But Elise would know that, wouldn’t she? There could be no mistake. There was no imaginable possibility of a misunderstanding.
Sophie frowned, and rewound the messages back a few days to listen to Dan. She dropped her head in her hands as his voice washed around the empty hallway. Dan. Her Dan. Someone else’s Dan. He talked of Bob as if he were with him, but now she knew better. She couldn’t explain this away, the conclusion was obvious. He was actually on holiday with his mistress. Shock stole the air from Sophie’s lungs.
She might have lost her claim to the moral high ground the moment she’d let Lucien touch her, but this thing of Dan’s… it was different. If they were on holiday, if he was lying to work… it was a proper relationship. Jesus, did he love her, whoever she was?
Scalding tears fell down Sophie’s cheeks at the idea of Dan saying those precious, sacred words to someone else.
He had
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