Forgotten Passion

‘I thought I told you you weren’t sharing this room with me,’ she told him coldly, glancing at the bed. His clothes were still there.

‘Oh, you told me all right,’ he agreed sardonically, ‘but we happen to have guests for dinner; and I need a shower. I’ll see to it later.’

He had removed his shirt completely. His skin was bronzed, the flesh taut over his muscles. Lisa eyed him dry-mouthed, unbearably aware of his male virility and her own reaction to it.

‘Very sophisticated,’ he mocked, eyeing her dress. ‘Quite a change from the demure schoolgirl frocks I remember. You’ll cause quite a sensation if you go down like that!’

Too late Lisa remembered that she hadn’t closed her zipper.

‘Very funny,’ she snapped. ‘I was just fastening it when you banged on the door.’

‘Then perhaps I’d better make amends, and fulfil my husbandly function,’ Rorke drawled. His hands gripped her shoulders as she tried to move away, spinning her round so that she could feel his breath fanning the back of her neck.

‘Black suits you,’ he added.

She tensed automatically as he reached for the zipper, fear exploding inside her as she felt it move down rather than up.

‘Rorke…’

‘There’s a thread stuck in it.’

Someone knocked on their door and Lisa felt him stiffen, ‘Lisa, Rorke, can I come in?’

It was Leigh. Lisa moistened dry lips, glancing over her shoulder at the clothes lying betrayingly on the bed.

‘Don’t you dare say a word,’ Rorke hissed against her ear. One hand still rested on the bare small of her back, and before Lisa could protest he slipped the other inside her dress, pulling her back against him, so that her back was against his chest, one arm curving possessively round her waist, the other sliding inside the black fabric to cup and caress her breast.

Her sharply explosive protest was silenced as he called out lazily, ‘The door isn’t locked—come on in.’

As the door opened he lowered his head to her shoulder, his lips against the creamy flesh. Leigh walked in and Rorke withdrew his hand from her dress, but so slowly that Leigh couldn’t have been in the slightest doubt about

what he was doing. Lisa flushed bright red, but Rorke only looked amused.

‘We’re supposed to be getting ready for dinner,’ he told his father lazily, ‘but seeing Lisa in that dress reminded me that I had other appetites and that it’s been a long, long time since I last indulged them.’

‘You’re embarrassing Lisa,’ his father protested, but he too was smiling, until he looked at the bed and saw the clothes piled on to it.

‘Just like a woman,’ Rorke drawled again. ‘Lisa took it into her head to start rearranging the cupboards. She seems to think that Mama Case has given me the lion’s share. Which, of course, is only right and proper and just as it should be!’

‘How’s Robbie,’ Leigh asked, obviously deceived by Rorke’s easy explanation.’ ‘Has he settled down all right?’

‘To the manner born,’ Rorke replied for her,

‘I’m so glad you came back, Lisa,’ Leigh told her.

‘I’m so glad you want me back.’

Her voice was thick with tears, but she couldn’t pretend with Leigh. She had missed him dreadfully, and her bitterness against Rorke had been increased by the fact that she had been deprived of a father as well as a lover.

‘Oh, my darling girl, how could you ever think that we didn’t? Is that what you thought, Lisa?’

‘I…’ She moistened her lips. If only Rorke wasn’t here and she could speak freely!

‘It’s over,’ Rorke interrupted. ‘And I for one don’t want to be reminded of the time Lisa spent away from me.’

There was a look in his eyes which reminded Lisa of her earlier conviction that he still wanted her physically.

‘I’ll go down with Leigh,’ she said hastily. ‘We’ll leave you to get dressed in peace.’