Cruel Legacy

ingly.

They had reached the corridor’s second set of security doors and as Mark paused to open them for her, even though he was now the one carrying most of the files, she leaned closer to him, ostensibly trying to squeeze through the small gap in the half-opened door, but in reality pressing her body so close to Mark’s that he could feel the soft, warm weight of her breasts against his arm.

Deborah had neat, firm and very pretty breasts which at work she kept discreetly concealed beneath heavy silk shirts; the temporary clerk’s were much fuller, softer, momentarily conjuring up in Mark’s memory echoes of the lustful yearnings of his young teenage self.

‘Hey… what’s going on here…?’ Abruptly Mark turned his head as he realised that a couple of the other accountants were walking towards them down the corridor. Younger than Mark and newly qualified, they were working in the general office, and as the clerk drew away from him, all pouting arch confusion as she thanked him for his help and made a great play of smoothing down her blouse before taking the files from him, Mark could see the look in the men’s eyes change from one of mockery to that particularly male kind of respect which was grudgingly given to another man seen to be more sexually successful.

As the clerk disappeared they lingered, turning their heads to watch her undulating progress towards her office.

‘Nice work,’ one of them commented enviously, adding with a grin, ‘Come on, tell us the secret. What is it… your aftershave… ?’

Mark grinned and shook his head. ‘Sorry, boys,’ he told them mock-despairingly. ‘But it isn’t something you can buy in a bottle… you’ve either got it or you haven’t…’

It felt good knowing that they were slightly envious of him, that they couldn’t just dismiss him as a professional no-hoper who had to stand aside and watch his lover fast-track past him, even if the way he was behaving, the comments he was making were somewhat out of character for him.

Since he had grown up, become mature, he had put aside his old macho teenage need to flex his sexual muscles and show off in front of his peers, and he knew exactly what Deborah would think of such behaviour.

Deborah didn’t flirt; she simply wasn’t that sort of woman. She was too honest and straightforward, and abhorred any kind of deceit or pretence within a relationship. The last thing she would ever do would be to indulge him with a bit of harmless massaging of his ego, either in private or in public.

‘Come on, don’t hold out on us… Tell us your secret…’

‘Yeah… you’re a dark horse all right… There we were thinking that——’

‘What’s going on here? Haven’t any of you got any work to do?’

Mark tensed as he recognised Ryan’s voice coming from behind him.

‘What the hell are you two doing?’ he demanded of the two juniors. ‘And where’s that file I asked you for?’

‘Sorry… just going to get it…’ one of them apologised, shuffling his feet.

Without waiting for them to be out of earshot, Ryan turned to Mark.

‘Look, I know you aren’t exactly carrying a full workload at the moment, and I appreciate that time must be hanging heavily on your hands, but, if you’ve got time to waste, try wasting it with someone from your own department and not mine, would you? We do have work to do.’

He turned on his heel, striding down the corridor before Mark could make any retort, his comments completely wiping out the good feeling that Mark’s brief flirtation with the clerk had given him, leaving him with the bitter taste of anger and resentment souring his mouth.

‘Made any plans for the long weekend?’ Peter asked him as he walked slowly back into his office and to the empty desk which was beginning to feel like a prison to him. ‘The wife and I thought we might take the camper down to the coast.’

‘Mmm… what…? No, we’re not doing anything,’ Mark replied absently, and then frowned.

How long was it since he and Deborah had had time away together, just the two of them? Last year they had holidayed with friends and this year they hadn’t as yet made plans for their main holiday. Deborah had been too busy to talk about it… Just as she was too busy to talk about anything that didn’t concern her work and her promotion.

‘I’m going to take an early lunch-hour,’ he told Peter, suddenly coming to a decision.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

‘WHAT do you mean, you’ve booked a holiday? Mark, how could you? You know I’m up to my eyes with this liquidation. I can’t go… I’d planned to spend the break getting up to date with my other work…’

Deborah stopped her angry pacing of their living-room and turned round to face Mark, pushing her fingers into her sleek hair in an irritated gesture of impatience. ‘Why didn’t you tell me first… ?’

‘I wanted it to be a surprise,’ Mark told her stiffly.

‘A surprise!’ Deborah made a small explosive sound of disbelief. ‘You know how important this liquidation is to me,’ she protested. ‘I can’t just drop everything and go off with you. You should have consulted me first, before you booked this holiday—surely you can see that?’

She stopped, frowning as she saw the look Mark was giving her.

‘I should have consulted you?’ he repeated grimly. ‘Doesn’t that go both ways, Deb—does this equality thing you women are so keen on only work in your own favour? Now that you are the major wage-earner, you get to make all the major decisions—is that it… ?’