Living Together

‘A friend of yours called after you rang me,’ she informed him with studied calmness. ‘Sharon Melcliffe.’

Leon frowned. ‘And she gave you that key?’

‘Yes,’ she flushed. ‘Of course she said I would have one of my own, but that as she was getting married soon she wouldn’t be needing hers any more.’

His face darkened. ‘That sounds like Sharon,’ he acknowledged grimly. ‘And I suppose that suspicious little mind of yours has been working overtime ever since.’

Helen gave him an angry glare. ‘Did it need to? She made no secret of the fact that she’d once lived here with you, and not so long ago.’

‘Did she actually say that?’ he demanded.

‘As good as.’

‘How good?’

‘Well, she…she had a key, and she knew it was Max’s night off, and—and—’

‘And you condemned me on that evidence,’ he said curtly. ‘I’m not going to deny an affair with her, but she didn’t live here.’

‘But she had a key!’

‘I told you,’ Leon sighed heavily, ‘we had an affair. It finished when I met you.’

‘You’d already finished with her before tonight?’ She showed her disbelief.

‘Yes!’ he told her forcefully.

‘She didn’t give that impression.’

Leon gave a grim smile. ‘I’m sure she didn’t.’

‘And she seemed to know your—your habits very well.’

‘Habits? What habits, for God’s sake?’ he demanded. ‘You surely didn’t get around to discussing my sex life too in what seems to have been a very charming conversation?’

‘I certainly didn’t, although Miss Melcliffe seemed to find it necessary to recommend you as a first class lover. The best, I think she called you,’ said Helen with distaste.

‘Thank you, Sharon,’ he bowed mockingly.

‘It’s nothing to be proud of,’ Helen snapped angrily. ‘And they weren’t the habits I was referring to. Miss Melcliffe seemed familiar with your habit of saying you were working when in fact you weren’t. She said you do that when your attention is beginning to wane from your current girl-friend.’

‘And I suppose you agreed with her?’

‘No,’ she admitted awkwardly. ‘I asked her to leave. I thought she’d been insulting enough.’

‘How did Sharon take that?’ Leon asked with humour.

‘I’m glad you find it amusing!’ Helen snapped. ‘I didn’t enjoy having to meet one of your ex-girl-friends. She said she had been in—’ she broke off, realisation dawning. ‘She was in America at the same time you were,’ she accused.

‘Yes.’

‘She was one of those women, wasn’t she?’ Helen said heatedly. ‘One of those women you—you—’

‘Yes,’ he admitted simply.

Helen buried her face in her hands. ‘God, I hate you!’ she choked. ‘I hate what you’re doing to me!’

Leon stood up, coming over to pull her hands away from her face. ‘I’ve never pretended to be an innocent, Helen,’ he told her harshly. ‘And you knew all about those women in America. Why should meeting one of them make it seem any worse than the appeasing of animal lust you already knew it to be?’ He shook her. ‘Answer me, damn you!’