The Ultimate Betrayal

‘Are you?’ she insisted.

‘If I say yes, will it gain me a bit of respect around here?’ His smile was wry.

‘It might do.’

‘Then yes,’ he nodded. ‘You’re looking at a cash millionaire—several times over, I might add, just to push up my rating, you understand.’ It was said lightly, meant entirely as a tease, but it hurt something deep down inside her because she recognised that underlying the teasing was the real truth, that Daniel was indeed a very wealthy man and she hadn’t even reali

sed it. He was just Daniel to her. The man she had loved for what seemed all of her life.

‘Truce?’ he asked, lowering his mouth to nibble sensually at the corner of her mouth.

‘Yes,’ she mumbled, eyes closing in languid pleasure.

He lifted his head. ‘Because of my millions?’ he quizzed.

‘Of course,’ she smiled. ‘Why else would I give in to you?’

He laughed, his manner at ease because, if he knew anything about Rachel, then he knew she was not mercenary. He dropped a kiss on the top of her head, then turned them both towards the kitchen door. ‘Then come and talk to me while I change,’ he invited, and led them both back up the stairs.

The bedroom was lit by its usual warm peachy glow. Daniel sent the bed a wistful glance as they passed by it.

‘We can keep to our usual beds for tonight, of course,’ Rachel remarked casually, and received a stinging slap to her behind for her tease, and they entered the bathroom laughing as light-heartedly as they used to do.

It was a nice Christmas, happy, relaxed, light-hearted— but soon over. And the time came for Rachel to decide if she was going to go back to Zac’s class. Daniel made no comment, but his opinion was written all over his face whenever he caught her with her sketch-pad in her hands—which she in turn refused to comment on, simply because she wanted it to be her own decision with no manoeuvring from him.

So slowly, slowly, they slipped back to being guarded strangers in the same house. Rachel had to be aware that ninety nine per cent of the blame for this had to be because of their unsatisfactory achievements in bed. Daniel was a very sensual man, and her continued inability to give him all of herself challenged his virility. He hated the restrictions she placed on him: the darkness, the silence, the reluctance to go where their senses instinctively led them. And Rachel was afraid that if she didn’t do something about it, then he might go in search of a fuller satisfaction elsewhere. Again.

Would that fear ever leave her now? she asked herself one morning, after a particularly disastrous loving the night before.

Daniel had been as wretched about his affair as she had been. But the knowledge that he could actually fall when the pressure became too great took away that necessary trust she needed to feel safe with him again.

Which left her with the most horrendous feelings of insecurity. An insecurity that played on her nerves to the extent that she was almost constantly plagued by an upset stomach that had never really improved in months.

The kind of months that started her thinking along lines that congealed the blood in her veins…

CHAPTER TEN

TWO o’clock Wednesday afternoon, and Daniel was gathering together the stack of papers he had been working on for his next meeting when the telephone on his desk began to ring.

‘A lady on the line for you, Mr Masterson. She says she’s Mrs Masterson?’

An icy shiver shot down his spine. Rachel never called him here. An accident? he wondered with alarm. One of the children? ‘Put her through,’ he commanded tautly.

By the time his secretary connected him, his mind had conjured up so many lurid things that could have happened to one of his offspring that he was momentarily confused when it wasn’t Rachel’s voice he heard speaking, quick with urgency, but someone else entirely.

He shook his head to clear it. ‘Will you begin again, Mother?’ he requested of that other Mrs Masterson. ‘I’m afraid I didn’t take a single word of that in.’

Within minutes he was in his car and heading at speed for home. His mother had the door open for him even as he climbed out of the car, and he strode quickly inside.

‘She’s in there,’ Jenny told her son, her lined face crinkling with concern. ‘She’s so upset, Daniel,’ she whispered tearfully.

His face clenched as he turned to open the door, to find Rachel huddled into the corner of the sofa. Her face was buried in a cushion, deep broken sobs racking her slender frame. He approached her carefully, his hands trembling a little as he shrugged out of his jacket and loosened his tie before attempting to touch her.

‘Rachel?’ he prompted huskily, squatting down in front of her and reaching out to clasp one heaving shoulder gently.

‘Go a-way,’ she sobbed into the cushion.

He frowned, puzzled and just a little frightened. He had never seen her like this before—so broken up that she couldn’t even tell him what was wrong. And he remained where he was, gently rubbing her shoulder while he tried to think what could have caused her to break down like this? The name Zac Callum hit his mind, and his chest tightened on a hot band of anger. If that bastard had done this to her! If the swine had dared to hurt her when she was only just recovering from the hurt he himself had inflicted on her…