Living Together

If she had thought she looked bad Leon looked worse, a certain dullness to his tawny eyes, the lines beside his nose and mouth more pronounced. He was seated at the breakfast table when she entered the dining-room, a cup of black coffee in front of him, a lit cheroot in his hand. And from the amount of smoke in the room it was far from being his first of the day.

Helen ran her hands nervously down her denim-clad thighs, hesitating in the doorway. ‘You—you’re late this morning, Leon,’ she remarked lightly, hoping to gauge his mood from his reply. The cold look he gave her was more telling than any words could have been; he was still angry with her.

‘Is that why you’ve been skulking in your bedroom?’ he taunted. ‘Waiting until you could be sure I’d already left?’

She blushed at his right assessment of her motives. ‘Are you not going in today?’

‘Later,’ he said tersely. ‘I told them I’d be in about ten. Sit down, for God’s sake, you’re making me dizzy looking at you!’

Helen hurriedly slid on to the chair opposite him and poured herself some coffee. ‘About last night—’

‘Are you sure you want to talk about that?’ Leon interrupted coldly.

‘I think we have to,’ she insisted softly. ‘I know you think I did it on purpose, but I—’

Leon stood up with a scrape of the chair. ‘Let’s go into the lounge,’ he snapped. ‘You don’t look as if you’re going to eat anything either, and if we must have a post-mortem I’d rather it took place in comfort. I have the worst hangover of my entire life!’ he groaned, a hand up to his aching temple.

Helen followed him through to the other room. ‘You were drinking last night?’

He sat back in the chair, his eyes closed, his long legs splayed out in front of him, the dark brown shirt and trousers he wore moulded to his muscular frame. He opened his eyes with effort. ‘I’ll ignore the stupidity of that question, just get on with what you want to say about last night.’

‘Did you get drunk after I went to bed last night?’ she persisted.

He sighed. ‘Well, I wasn’t drunk before then, if that’s what you mean. What else did you expect me to do, meekly go to my own bed as if nothing had happened?’

She looked away from the anger in his face. ‘I just assumed…I’m sorry, Leon, I really am.’

‘Oh, I believe you,’ he acknowledged scathingly. ‘But you must be aware of what you did to me. I was all set to take you, and—well, the look on your face told me that far from being aware of me, wanting me, you were thinking of the swine you married! Just what the hell do you think you were playing at?’

‘I wasn’t playing at anything,’ Helen protested. ‘I didn’t set out for that to happen.’

‘I’m sure you didn’t,’ he said bitterly. ‘I got a little too close to that lovely body of yours, that’s all. How was I supposed to sleep after what you’d put me through?’

‘Would you like me to pack my case and leave?’ she asked tearfully.

‘Is that your answer to everything?’ he demanded. ’Run away? You damned little coward! You aren’t willing to help yourself, you just want to run away every time I get close to you. Well, go if you want to!’ he told her angrily. ‘Why the hell should I care if you go or stay?’

‘But you do, don’t you?’ she probed gently, dreading his answer. If he wanted her to leave she would have to go—but she didn’t want to leave him!

He glared at her. ‘Yes, I care! Do you havve any idea what last night achieved? No, of course you don’t,’ he shook his head. ‘You don’t know the first thing about a man’s body. Last night—what happened between us—it just put me more under your spell than ever. I still haven’t possessed you, and I need to. I need to very badly.’

‘So you don’t want me to go?’

‘You may as well stay. I’m leaving myself in a couple of days,’ Leon said dully.

‘You’re going away?’

‘Yes.’ That single word sounded strangely final.

‘But why, Leon? Is it because of me? Oh God!’ she groaned. ‘Surely I haven’t driven you out of your own home?’

‘No,’ his smile was grim. ‘This trip to the States has been arranged for weeks now. Don’t get the mistaken idea that I’ve been telephoning around this morning trying to get myself some work away from here. The last thing I feel like right now is attending interviews and making public appearances.’

Helen frowned. ‘I don’t understand. Have you known all along that you’d be going away now?’

‘I told you, it’s been arranged for weeks. It’s prerelease publicity for the film. I expected us to have got over your hang-up by now, or at least come to terms with it, and I was going to take you to the States with me.’

‘And now?’ She waited breathlessly for his answer.