The Ultimate Betrayal

Then he nodded and let go of her arm. ‘Five minutes,’ he promised, and walked away, leaving her standing there doing battle with whatever was niggling at her conscience.

Still, she enjoyed the hour they spent in the pub. The place was crowded because more than half the people who had been to the talk had crossed the road into it, and she and Zac stood leaning against two bar-stools with a glass of lager each.

It was nice, she decided, being here like this, being at ease and talked to as a reasonably intelligent human being rather than as a housewife or mother. She liked his relaxed manner, and the way he listened intently when— shyly at first, then with more enthusiasm when he didn’t immediately shoot her down—she put her own ideas forward, surprising herself by what she had retained from her school days.

Daniel’s name did not come into things until they were just about to part company, when Zac asked quietly, ‘How long have you and Daniel been married, Rachel?’

She sighed, feeling the pleasure of the evening seep out of her. ‘Seven years,’ she answered, then, with a defiant lift of her small chin, ‘We have three children. Two boys and a girl. And no, he doesn’t keep me barefoot and pregnant. Sammy and Kate are twins.’

He smiled at the quip, but not with any humour. ‘I think I owe you an apology for the first time we met,’ he said.

He meant his references to Daniel’s other women. Rachel felt an ache clench at her chest, but shrugged it and his apology away. ‘No, you don’t,’ she answered. ‘You were just being open and honest. It was Daniel and I who were being deceitful. Goodnight, Zac,’ she added, before he could say anything else. She didn’t want to talk about that night. She didn’t want to know what else must be running through his mind right now. ‘I enjoyed tonight very much. Thank you.’

Turning away, she went to unlock her car door when his voice stalled her. ‘Listen,’ he said. ‘I’m thinking of doing a twelve-week course on Caricature here at this college one evening a week. Would you be interested in coming along to it?’

Would she? Rachel took her time turning back to face him, suspicious—well, half-suspicious—that he’d just thought of that on the spur of the moment.

Which meant—what exactly?

‘I don’t know,’ she therefore answered warily. ‘Is there enough interest here to make it worth your while?’

His cynical smile mocked her naivet6. He was, after all, a celebrity. People didn’t need to be interested in what he did. Who he was would be enough to have them flocking to his class.

‘You would enjoy it, Rachel,’ he added softly when she said nothing. ‘I can certainly promise you that.’

A small fizz of sensation erupted low down in her stomach, warning her that there was more to his promise than he was actually saying.

He was attracted to her. He had, in fact, made no effort to hide it.

The thing was, did she want to encourage something she knew had the potential to become very dangerous?

No, she answered herself flatly. Her life was complicated enough at the present without further complicating it with a man of Zac Callum’s ilk.

Which was a shame, really, because if the man himself didn’t appeal, the idea of taking up a sketch-pad and pencil again did.

‘Let me know what you decide,’ she prevaricated in the end, ‘and I’ll think about it.’

‘Zac Callum teaching at a local art college?’ Daniel was scornful to say the least. ‘Why should he be bothered with small fry like that?’

‘Maybe because he cares,’ Rachel said, offended on Zac’s behalf by Daniel’s deriding tone.

He wasn’t pleased that she’d gone out that night without his knowledge, but discovering that it was none other than Zac Callum who had tempted her out had turned him into a rather intriguingly surly brute!

‘How did you know he was giving a talk?’ he demanded.

‘Local Gazette,’ she replied. ‘Have you eaten?’ she asked, diplomatically changing the subject. ‘Or do you want me to get you something?’

‘No! I want to talk about you going out with Zac Callum!’ he barked at her.

‘I didn’t go out with him!’ she denied. ‘I went to listen to him!’ There was an ocean of difference between that and what Daniel was implying. ‘What the hell are you trying to say, Daniel?’ she demanded, beginning to lose patience. ‘That we arranged some kind of elaborate setup just so we could meet each other?’

The sudden flash of dark heat in his cheeks told her that that was exactly what he was thinking. ‘He’s capable of it,’ he grunted. ‘He fancied you from the first moment he laid eyes on you!’

My God, she thought, as an angry sense of elation whistled through her blood, the invincible Daniel Masterson was frightened that his little wife was considering taking on another man!

‘It’s you who is the untrustworthy person in this marriage, Daniel,’ she reminded him bluntly. ‘Not me.’

‘But you could be out for revenge.’