Scandals and Secrets

One of his legs pushed between hers and before she knew what she was doing she had lifted her right leg and was sliding the inside of her thigh up and down on his. He groaned into her mouth, and almost immediately his hands were on the waistband of her jeans and the snap fastener gave way.

But he didn't proceed any further in that direction.

Instead, his hands crept up under her leather jacket to mould over her lace- encased breasts, teasing her braless nipples into rock-hard pebbles till they felt they had to be bursting through the already tightly stretched material. He didn't stop kissing at any point and Celeste could feel her limbs gradually going to jelly. Her leg dropped limply back to the ground and she would have slid down the wall to the floor if he hadn't been holding her upright.

'Good lord!' a female voice gasped from somewhere.

Byron wrenched away, Celeste sagging downwards before propping her back against the wall and levering herself into a standing position. Her wide, glazed eyes encountered a strange woman standing there, gaping at them both. It was a few seconds before she recognized Ava. Once she did, Celeste's gaze jerked to Byron, who was raking his hair back from his flushed face in an agitated fashion and trying to calm his ragged breathing.

'You might as well know, Ava,' he said at last. 'Celeste and I have started seeing each other.'

'So I gathered,' his sister returned drily, astonishing Celeste with her quick composure, not to mention her appearance. Where had the overweight, awkward, timid Ava of old gone to? In her place stood an unbelievably attractive, shapely, confident woman who was looking at them both with a sardonically arched eyebrow.

'You don't have to answer to me for what you do in your private life, Byron,' she went on, her voice and face quite calm now. 'I was merely surprised, that's all. But it's nice to see that the old feud between the Campbells and the Whitmores has come to an-er-amicable ... ending. Hello, Celeste.' She nodded politely her way. 'Nice to see you're looking so well. So, Byron, what do you think of the new carpet?'

'New carpet?'

'You didn't even notice it, did you?' his sister mocked, and pointed to the long strip of grey-blue carpet that ran along the middle of the hall. 'It's up the stairs as well. I did tell you about it.'

'I'm sure you did. It's-er-very nice.'

'I'm thinking of putting it along the downstairs corridor and through my studio as well. I'm tired of slippery floors.' Ava smothered a yawn, smiling an apology at Celeste. 'Do excuse me. I'm a little weary. I'm going to bed. Will I be expecting an extra for breakfast, Byron?'

Byron, who was not one to be caught at a disadvantage for long, smiled wryly at this unveiled sarcasm from his sister and wickedly said yes.

When Ava looked taken aback, he added drily, 'Gemma's staying with us for a while. She's asleep in the same room she used to have.'

Ava was frowning now. 'You mean she's left Nathan for good, then?'

'Maybe. Maybe not. We'll talk about the situation in the morning. Go to bed, Ava.'

There was the tone of an order in these last words which Celeste could see Ava resented. Clearly, Byron wasn't ruling the roost around Belleview as he used to. How times they were a-changing!

Ava shrugged, however, said goodnight and did as she was told. Not, Celeste believed, because Byron had ordered her to, but because she wanted to, anyway.

The interruption had given Celeste invaluable time to get herself together and see the situation as va had first seen it. Shocking. Disgusting. And deplorable. They'd been acting like two animals, uncaring of anything but their own base needs. Celeste's supposed love for Byron was no excuse for allowing him to use her like that. The least she deserved was a little respect.

Snapping her jeans up again, she surveyed .Bryon's flushed face with a bitter resentment. It was time this man didn't get his own way for once.

Spinning on the heels of her black boots, she started to march down the hall, quickly reaching the top of the wide marble staircase.

'And where the hell do you think you're going?' Byron called after her.

'Home, Byron. Like I told you.' She kept on going.

'But you can't!'

Her laughter rippled back up the stairwell. 'Just try and stop me.'

'Maybe I could at that,' he snarled, catching up with her as she reached the bottom of the stairs. When she continued across the foyer towards the telephone, he reached out and grabbed her arm.