‘You know I’ve always preferred living in the city,’ Deborah hedged. ‘The only reason I moved out here was because of you…’
‘Because of me and because the promotion prospects were better,’ Mark corrected her.
‘All right, all right… I admit it, Mark, you were right and I was wrong. The only reason Ryan offered me promotion was because he wanted to get me into bed. Satisfied…?’
‘What…? You—he’s trying to force you out because you wouldn’t sleep with him…?’
At any other time the outrage on Mark’s face would have been welcome, but it had hurt to have to admit the truth to him.
‘Not force me out exactly, but he’s made it plain that I won’t be getting any promotion,’ Deborah admitted wearily. ‘Go on, gloat, Mark… I’m sure you must want to…’
‘Gloat? That’s the last thing I feel like doing… You can’t let him do this to you, Deborah. It’s sexual harassment and——’
‘And what? I could take him to court? Would you, in my shoes…? Oh, yes… that would look good on my c. v., wouldn’t it? No, I shan’t do a damn thing about it and he knows it… He even had the gall to introduce me to the other girl whom he’s hired to train in my place. Apparently my managerial skills aren’t all that they might be… I don’t handle people very well…’ She gave a small bitter smile as her feelings broke through her control.
‘Balls,’ Mark told her forcefully. ‘That’s not true and you know it. You deserved that promotion, and if he’s trying to renege on it now… Why didn’t you let me know…?’
Deborah shrugged. ‘There didn’t seem any point. It wasn’t your problem… and to be honest,’ she added tiredly, ‘being told “I told you so” was the last thing I was in the mood for.’
His quiet, ‘Thanks,’ made her look at him. ‘Is that really what you think…? That all I’d have wanted to do was gloat?’
The pain in his voice caught at her own vulnerable emotions. She shook her head.
‘I don’t know. I just…’ She stopped, recognising the truth: that she hadn’t wanted him to know, not because she’d thought he would gloat, but because of the blow it would have given her own pride.
Her pride? Since when had that mattered? Since when had it been important for her to prove herself to Mark, to protect herself from the risk of his seeing her defeated?
Something in his expression made her add shakily, ‘I would have got in touch with you… told you…’
‘Would you?’ he asked her quietly. ‘What’s happened to us, Deb? I used to think our love was so strong; that we… that we trusted one another… that nothing could ever come between us…’
‘Perhaps we made the gods jealous,’ Deborah replied wryly, a ghost of a smile touching her mouth.
She looked older, thinner, drained of her normal vivacity and self-confidence. His heart ached for her and for the ability to restore them to her and his body ached even more with desire for her.
He took a step towards her and then another.
‘No,’ Deborah told him huskily as she put out a hand to hold him off. ‘This isn’t the answer, Mark… This isn’t…’ But her lips were already clinging hungrily to his and the hand she had put out to reject him was now resting against his body, feeling the heavy pounding of his heart.
* * *
It was like the early days when they had first met all over again, his touch on her body so lovingly tender that it seemed to make her very bones melt with longing for him.
‘This wasn’t supposed to happen,’ he told her ruefully as he leaned over her, gently circling her nipple with his tongue.
Stretching herself luxuriously beneath his caress, Deborah responded wryly, ‘It wasn’t exactly on my agenda for the evening either.’
She waited for him to ask her if she wanted him to stop, to put the onus of making any decision on her, but to her surprise he didn’t.
Instead he opened his mouth over her nipple and caressed it with such slow sweetness that it made her cry out in pleasure as she slid her hands into his hair and held him against her body.
She felt the slightly rough grate of his teeth against her flesh, the sensation so fiercely erotic that a shiver of pleasure gripped her. The weeks without him had made her body extraordinarily sensitive and responsive to his touch.
She heard him groan as his hand covered her sex and he buried his hot face between her breasts.
There was laughter as well as chagrin in his voice as he told her thickly, ‘Oh, God, Deb, I’m so sorry, but I don’t think…’
Against all the evidence that her senses were giving her to the contrary, she immediately thought that he was trying to tell her that he didn’t want her, that he couldn’t… It wasn’t just sexual frustration that was clogging her throat with tears and making her heart ache with pain, she recognised as she pulled away from him, shivering as she reached for the duvet.