An Affair to Forget Read Free Page B

had walked over to stare down into the fire, and now he turned sharply, frowning at her and shaking his head to indicate that he didn’t want to speak to any callers. Morrin held the receiver out. “For you.” She pitched her voice so that the woman on the line could hear it.
    Gareth glared, then shrugged his shoulders in resignation as he took the receiver from her. After the first, abrupt, “Sinclair here,” his voice changed, took on the relaxed, intimate note she had often heard him use to his women callers. “Oh… hi, Cass. No, no problem at all, I just got in, so it’s lucky you didn’t call earlier…”
    So Camilla was to be replaced by Cass, whoever she was, Morrin thought as she loaded the tray and carried it into the kitchen. Returning for another load she caught snatches of his conversation as she stacked the tray and put the cushion back on the chair, where it belonged.
    “ When? How bad is it this time? Well, as it so happens I’m fairly free this week,” he drawled. “The last chapter of the book’s being typed for the publisher, so I should manage tomorrow.”
    As she carried the tray from the room for a second time he moved to lean one shoulder on the wall as though settling down for a long conversation. “You’ll be there too? Yes, it’ll be good to spend some time together,” he agreed smoothly, and Morrin, brushing past, was aware of his green gaze on her, though she didn’t look at him.
    In the kitchen she filled the sink with hot soapy water and washed the dishes. After stacking them on the draining board she realised that she was trembling so much that she had to sit down. What on earth had possessed her earlier? Could it have been the brandy and the single glass of wine with her meal? She was shocked by the passion that Gareth had so easily awakened in her. She had never imagined that any man could affect her so strongly. Until that night her feelings for him had been carefully wrapped in tender, romantic dreams that now seemed bland and immature compared to the intensity of the desire she had known when lying in his arms.
    She shivered convulsively at the memory, pushing it away. After what had happened she couldn’t possibly spend the night in this house, with nobody else there but Gareth. She got up and hurried into the hall. The sitting-room door was shut but she could hear the murmur of his voice and catch the sound of his laughter. Snatching her coat from the cloakroom she ran into the study to retrieve her bag from where it hung by her desk.
    She was hurrying on tiptoe across the wide hall like a criminal fleeing from justice when Gareth asked from the door of the sitting-room, “Where d’you think you’re going?”
    Morrin spun round with a gasp of fright to see him leaning against the door jamb, arms folded.
    “ I’m… I have to go home.”
    “ In this storm?”
    “ It’s calming down n – ” she started to say just as a particularly vicious gust of wind slammed against the front of the house.
    “ Not from where I’m standing. And I told you… your little car could easily be blown off the road or hit by a falling tree.”
    “ I’ll take that chance.” She reached for the door handle, found that the door was locked, and fumbled at the key.
    “ But I won’t.” Gareth crossed the hall and put his hand over hers. His touch sent a ripple through her. “The roads are dark and treacherous, and you’ve been drinking. I’m not going to let you drive home tonight, and that’s final. And I’m not going to offer to drive you,” he went on as she opened her mouth to speak. “I value my safety even if you don’t value yours.”
    “ A taxi…”
    “ Still dangerous, even if there’s a driver willing to come all the way out here on a night like this, which I doubt.” A trace of amusement gleamed in his eyes and the corner of his mouth twitched. “I’ve never had this effect on a woman before. Nobody’s ever preferred being trapped beneath a falling tree to