She took the path that led to his suite of offices, thrilled that he couldn’t make it through a working day without seeking her out.
He might not have said he loved her, but he was showing all the signs.
She pushed open the door, expecting to see one of the secretaries, but the reception area was empty, a half-drunk cup of coffee abandoned by the computer.
Wondering why the place was so empty, Lauranne made straight for his office, tapping lightly on the door and pushing it open.
For a moment she thought this room was empty too. And then she saw her.
Wearing only a bathrobe, her blonde hair tousled, her lipstick smeared across her mouth.
‘Marina?’ Lauranne choked the word out and her boss clutched the bathrobe.
‘Lauranne.’ Her gaze flickered guiltily towards another door that Lauranne knew led to a bathroom. She heard the sound of a shower running and then Zander’s deep voice, instructing Marina to leave the papers on the desk.
Feeling physically sick, Lauranne stared at her boss in disgust and disbelief. ‘How could you?’
‘You didn’t really think he was exclusive to you, did you?’ Marina’s eyes flashed bright with triumph. ‘When I wanted him, he came right back to me.’
The noise from the shower stopped and Lauranne knew that any moment now Zander would be coming back into the room and she’d have to face him.
Her emotions and her faith shattered into tiny pieces, she backed out of the office and then turned and ran down the path, her blonde hair flying across her face as she fled from betrayal.
‘Lauranne?’ Tom’s voice penetrated her shocked brain and she stopped dead, looking at him blankly.
‘Lauranne!’ Tom’s voice was urgent. ‘What’s wrong?’
She was shaking so badly she could barely stand and Tom slipped an arm around her shoulders. ‘You’d better come back to my room—it’s closest.’
Without questioning his intentions she followed him like someone in a trance and only when the door closed behind her did she start to cry.
And then she couldn’t stop.
She sobbed on Tom’s chest, clutching at his shirt as she tried to tell him what had happened, incoherent with grief.
For a moment he stood there, rigid, and then he gave a groan and the next minute she was on the bed with him and he was muttering drunkenly into her neck.
‘Forget him, Lauranne. He’s not worth it.’
‘Tom?’ Totally shocked for the second time in one evening, Lauranne tried to wriggle from underneath him but he slid his body over hers, pinning her to the bed.
‘You’re so beautiful. I’ve always wanted you—you must know that.’
No, she didn’t know that. Horrified by his announcement, Lauranne surfaced from the depths of misery.
‘Tom, for goodness’ sake!’ She pushed at his chest and wriggled under him but before she could free herself she heard the door to the room open and she looked up to see Zander standing there, his eyes black with anger.
Flayed raw by his betrayal, she froze and thought, you bastard, and then turned her mouth to Tom’s.
* * *
Zander watched her in silence, his whole body vibrating with tension.
‘Who told you that I wanted to see you that night?’
Lauranne shook her head. ‘I don’t know—Tom took the call—’