War of Love

He lay on his back on the bed beside her, not touching her, not looking at her, staring up at the ceiling. Silke watched him beneath lowered lashes, wondering what he was thinking, but as usual his expression gave away none of his thoughts.

What happened now? How was she supposed to get through the next few minutes with any of her dignity intact? Or maybe she wasn't. This should never have happened-----

'This should never have happened,' Lyon harshly echoed her thoughts even as he swung his legs off the bed to stand up and begin pulling on his clothes-clothes that had been strewn about the room in their haste to feel flesh against flesh. 'You should have told me,' he added accusingly once he had his trousers on and was tucking his shirt into the waistband with savage movements. 'This makes absolutely no difference to my dislike of your mother marrying my uncle, you know,' he told her coldly. 'I still-----'

'Don't!' she warned harshly, all awkwardness and embarrassment gone. As for apprehension...! 'Get out of here, Lyon,' she instructed coldly, getting up herself to pull on her grey silky robe to firmly tie the belt about her waist. 'And don't come back!' Her eyes flashed a warning at him not even to mention her mother and Henry again in connection with what had just happened.

He was fully dressed now, looking at her with narrowed steely grey eyes—looking nothing at all like the passionate, consumed man who had just made love to her! Maybe that was something else she had learnt today—you didn't have to be in love with the person you went to bed with. Because although she might have realised she was in love with Lyon, he certainly wasn't in love with her! How naive she had been all these years to believe you actually had to love the person you made love with. But then it obviously hadn't been making love for Lyon but something much more ugly...

'I asked you to go,' she told him in a controlled voice. She just wanted to be alone, to try to salvage something from this situation. Starting with her pride.

'I still can't believe-----' He gave a perplexed shake of his head. 'Silke, you and Cameron-----'

'I don't want to talk about it,' she snapped dismissively. 'My relationship with James is nothing to do with you.'

'But you were going to marry the man.' Lyon frowned.

She looked at him challengingly. 'Yes?'

His frown deepened, and Silke could only imagine how she must look, her hair a blonde tangle about her face, her eyes wide, her mouth slightly swollen from the passion of their kisses. Just the thought of it made her face fill with heated colour and she could no longer meet his gaze.

'Never mind,' Lyon rasped harshly. 'Obviously, whatever happened—or didn't happen—between you in the past, Cameron has decided to renew the relationship!'

Silke's eyes widened. She had no idea why James had contacted her after all this time, but she certainly didn't believe it was for the reason Lyon did; James was married, and he had to know her at least well enough, after all this time, to realise she would never become involved with him again while he was a married man. She would never become involved with him again anyway!

Especially now... She had just made love with Lyon Buchanan, of all people!

'James can decide what he pleases; it really doesn't affect me,' Silke dismissed, walking to the bedroom door. 'I believe you were leaving,' she said again pointedly.

Lyon didn't move, fully dressed now, his dark hair slightly ruffled. From her fingers running through its silky thickness, Silke realised with an inward lurch of her stomach.

'We have to talk about what happened just now-----'

'We don't have to talk about anything,' she cut in forcefully, wishing he would just leave so that she could lick her wounds in private. And she did feel very emotionally bruised, still couldn't quite believe what had happened between the two of them only minutes ago in this bedroom. She couldn't even look at the bed, didn't know how she was ever going to be able to sleep in it again without remembering Lyon being there. She didn't know how she was ever going to be able to sleep again anyway! 'We both know that—just now, was a mistake,' she added awkwardly.

'Maybe more of one than either of us realises. Yet,' Lyon concluded grimly.

Silke looked at him with puzzled eyes. How could it be more of a mistake than it already was? What— oh, no! She paled as she realised Lyon was referring to the possible consequences of what had just happened between them. But she couldn't be pregnant just from... Of course she could; she wasn't that naive that she didn't know it only took the once to become pregnant. And because Lyon hadn't realised how innocent she was it hadn't entered his head—or hers!—to use contraception. Besides, she remembered with renewed embarrassment, she had taken matters out of his control and made that impossible for him.

She looked up at him, her eyes wide. 'You surely don't think that I deliberately-----'

'Don't be so damned stupid,' he rasped harshly. 'Neither of us planned what happened between us just now—that's why we're in the predicament we are!' he added self-disgustedly.

Silke swallowed hard. 'We probably aren't in any predicament at all,' she dismissed with more confidence than she felt. God, what if she were to be pregnant? What would they—she—do? Would Lyon expect her to... ? It wouldn't be any of his business, she decided firmly. It was her body, for goodness' sake; she could do what she liked with it—and that included giving birth to Lyon's child if she chose to do so. Just the thought of it made her stomach lurch!

' "Probably" doesn't do it, I'm afraid,' he bit out coldly.

'Well, for the moment it will have to, won't it?' Silke cut in heatedly. 'I'm not about to stand here now and discuss something that's probably not even a possibility.' She felt far too vulnerable standing here in her bedroom wearing only her silky dressing-gown, especially as Lyon was fully dressed. 'I suggest we just wait and see.' She walked to the bedroom doorway, pointedly waiting for him to leave, breathing an inward sigh of relief when he at last left her bedroom. Even if it was only to come to an abrupt halt in her lounge!

'I'll wait here for you while you dress for dinner,' he told her abruptly.

Silke gave a snort of disbelief. 'You aren't serious!' She stared at him.

'Would you rather I waited outside in my car?'

'I would rather you just left; I have no intention of having dinner with you now!' As if she could calmly sit across a table from him in a restaurant after what had just happened between them!

'We still have things to talk about, Silke,' he said grimly.

'We've already discussed the possibility of my being pregnant-----'

'Not that,' he dismissed impatiently. 'That will become all too apparent in time. There's still the problem of your mother and my uncle.'

Silke frowned, looking at him searchingly. 'Is that the reason you invited me out to dinner?' she said slowly.

He gave a curt nod. "The chances are they haven't actually gone through with the wedding yet, and-----'

'I don't believe you,' she cut in forcefully, her hands clenched so tightly at her sides that her nails were digging into her palms. She had known there had to be a reason for his sudden invitation to dinner, but this! My God, did the man never give up? Obviously not. So much for his interest in seeing some of her jewellery designs in the right setting! 'I hope they have, Lyon. I hope they're already married and that there isn't a damn thing you can do about it!' She was so angry she could have hit him at that moment. 'Get out, Lyon. Just get out,' she added disgustedly.

'You-----'

'Now, Lyon,' she told him through gritted teeth, her eyes flashing wamingly.

He looked at her broodingly for several long seconds, finally giving an angry snort. 'You haven't seen the last of me, Silke, even if my uncle comes to his senses and decides not to marry your mother after all-----'

'He'll marry her,' Silke said with defiant certainty.

He gave a dismissively disgusted shrug. 'Then that will be his problem. But the two of us now have unfinished business, Silke, and-----'

'As far as you're concerned it's finished business, Lyon,' she cut in vehemently.

He shook his head, his eyes glacial. 'If there's a child I'll make it my business again, Silke.' He strode purposefully to the door. 'Count on it!' he warned before leaving, closing the door forcefully behind him.

It sounded more like a threat than a promise!

And, knowing Lyon as she did, it probably was. Oh, God, please let there not be any repercussions from her stupidity.

The stupidity of loving Lyon Buchanan...

CHAPTER EIGHT

It had been a long and difficult week, a week when Silke had done a lot of soul-searching. She hadn't seen Lyon again since that evening at her flat, but the memory of it had never been far from her mind. In fact, it hadn't been out of it!

And the week certainly hadn't been helped by the fact that James had indeed 'called' her 'tomorrow'; in fact he had done better than that, he had telephoned her at the agency before coming there to see her in person. And what he had to say to her hadn't endeared him to her one little bit!

The only highlight of the week had been that her mother and Henry had actually managed to get married without any more interference from Lyon. A fact she was sure he was furious about! Not that the older couple looked at all troubled by that when they had returned from their honeymoon yesterday, the two of them obviously glowingly happy together.

But their return from their few days' honeymoon had been done deliberately Silke had learned last night, Henry informing her that there was a board meeting today—during which he intended proposing that Buchanan's look into the idea of introducing an exclusive jewellery department in their London branch!