The Undoing of Daisy Edwards (A Time for Scandal) Read Free

see. Yes, Grace does rather have a habit of getting into scrapes, from what I’ve heard. You don’t look very like her.’
    ‘She takes after our mother.’ Which she did, in looks, if not in temperament. That she got from our sainted and now not-so-dearly departed father.
    ‘Thank you,’ Daisy said. ‘For not leaving me there, I mean. I suspect you’ve saved me from the embarrassment of a very unflattering picture in the paper.’
    ‘No one knew you were there.’
    ‘Save the policeman who called you. And let’s face it, it’s not likely that you’re the only one greasing his palm. If Grace hadn’t had him call you—as I presume she did—then he would have been on the telephone to the gentlemen of the press.’
    She said it with a kind of world-weariness. I supposed that dealing with such things is part of being a famous actress. And that under that soft, vulnerable face, there must be quite a tough little nut. The contrast was—I don’t know, it was intriguing. ‘You didn’t have a handbag with you,’ I said. ‘I had no option but to bring you here. There’s a telephone in the hall if you want to call someone. If there’s anyone at home worrying, I mean.’
    It had only just occurred to me. She wasn’t wearing a ring, though she wasn’t wearing any other jewellery either, which was a bit odd. But she simply shrugged. ‘There’s no one,’ she said. ‘I live alone.’
    ‘Me, too.’
    There was a silence then, as we stared at each other. I hadn’t meant it to sound the way it did—or maybe I had, because my hand, which was still clasping that slim wrist, was already pulling her down towards me. I hadn’t been planning on kissing her, I hadn’t planned anything, but as she leaned in to me, and I smelt the faint trace of her perfume and the mint of my own tooth powder, and those big, big eyes seemed to look way too deep inside me, I couldn’t
not
have kissed her.
    There was a split-second, as her lips touched mine, when I thought,
This is a mistake
, and I almost drew back. And then I didn’t. Her lips were soft, her skin cold. Her hands were icy through my shirt-sleeves, I remember. She kissed as if she wasn’t used to kissing, and I probably did the same, because I wasn’t.
    Then something shifted. I don’t know if it was just me. It felt like both of us. We—we found it. Our mouths matched. Her eyes closed. Or mine did. And she sank against me, all soft curves through that dress, her breasts pressed against my chest. And she kissed me. Dear God,
how
she kissed. I felt as if she had reached inside me and twisted my guts with that kiss. When she tore her mouth away, I was struggling to breathe.
    ‘I don’t do this,’ she said.
    I thought she meant she was going to leave. ‘I don’t, either,’ I said. ‘Not since—not now.’
    She nodded. ‘No,’ she said, with a sad little smile, ‘not now.’ She sat up, pushing her hair back from her eyes. ‘I took cocaine last night. I never have before, but I was…’ She shrugged. ‘Anyway, that’s what happened.’
    ‘Did you enjoy it?’
    ‘I have no idea. No. I wanted—I just wanted to feel something.’
    ‘And did you?’
    She shook her head, giving me another of those tragic smiles. ‘Nothing works any more.’
    ‘No.’
    She touched my face, running her fingers over my forehead, my cheeks, my mouth, as if she was trying to read something from it. ‘That did. For a moment, that did.’
    I touched her the way she had touched me. Forehead. Cheek. Mouth. ‘It did. Maybe we should give it more of a chance.’
    She stared at me with those big eyes. Then she shrugged, and leaned back in to me. ‘Why not?’ she said. ‘I’ve tried everything else.’
    Daisy
    I couldn’t believe what I’d just said, but it
was
the one thing I hadn’t tried. It wouldn’t be the same. This man was nothing like Anthony. But that was the point, wasn’t it? I didn’t want gentle. I didn’t want loving. I wanted raw. I shuddered as I looked at