Heller's Revenge (42 page)

“I didn’t stop Meili being
killed though, did I?” I said glumly, his praise failing to cheer
me up.

“Nobody was asking you to do
that. You did what he wanted. You witnessed his death and made sure
he didn’t die alone. He appeared very happy in the photos you took
before he died. You were having fun together, weren’t you?”

I swallowed with emotion and
nodded. “Yeah, we had a lot of fun together.”

“He knew he was going to be
killed. It was just a matter of when. You made sure he died happy
and not alone. And he had an easy death too. He wasn’t tortured and
wasn’t aware. And the last thing he probably saw was you, a friend.
Who could ask for more than that?”

I hadn’t thought about it that
way before. Meili had looked up at me when I called his name so I
would have been the last thing he saw. He had smiled at me too, I
remembered. He could have died afraid and alone like poor Inge, but
I made sure that didn’t happen to him. And instead of berating
myself for not saving his life, I started to feel proud of myself
for what I’d managed to do.

“Thanks Heller. You’ve made me
feel better.”

“I’d want you to be the last
thing I saw before I died too,” he said.

“Heller, what a thing to say!
It’s so morbid. You’ll never die; you’re far too tough. Death’s
probably afraid of you!” I laughed and he joined in.

That night, he came down to my
flat and I let him back into my bed. Snuggled up against his hard
body, smelling his familiar scent and experiencing the familiar
feel of his arms around me, I was glad he was there and kissed him
slowly to show him. It sounded wrong, but I never thought of the
time I spent with Heller, or anything I did with him, as being
unfaithful to Will. I don’t know the reason for that, because God
knows he was a very sexy temptation. It was as if Heller was a part
of me or something, and it was only natural to be with him. And
that every second I spent with Will was robbing Heller of me, not
the other way around. I didn’t know how to explain it better than
that, but I know that’s the way Heller looked at it as well.

“I missed you a lot, Matilda.
Somehow, you’ve become a necessity for me, like oxygen or water.
When you’re not around, I only feel half-alive.” Well, he did a
better job of explaining it than I had.

“That’s because I annoy you so
much, you feel that lack when I’m not around,” I said lightly.

“You really have no idea, do
you?” he asked.

“About what?”

He laughed in his low, sexy
growl and I had that funny feeling in my stomach again. He moved
over on top of me and pinned my hands down with his, our fingers
entwined, kissing me insistently, his tongue boldly exploring mine.
After a while, he forced my legs apart with his knee and rubbed his
erection against me. His hardness pressing against my sensitive
spot felt unbelievably good and I wrapped my legs around him to get
a better angle for myself. There was no doubt about it – he was
talented at knowing how to turn a woman on. I was just settling
into an exceedingly pleasurable rhythm when he suddenly stopped and
sat up, straddling my legs, still pinning me down with his hands.
He regarded my aroused features thoughtfully.

“I’ll bet that Eriksen was
growing very fond of you,” he said, his expression unreadable, his
voice dangerously quiet.

I didn’t know what to say to
that, so I looked back at him steadily and said nothing, wishing
he’d go back to rubbing against me. I needed some basic animal
release.

“I’m right, aren’t I?”

I remained quiet.

“Matilda?”

Not a word from me.

“Your silence tells me
everything.”

“Does it?” I said eventually,
avoiding eye contact. “I had a big crush on him. He was nice about
it.” Very, very nice, indeed.

“Who initiated the sex?”

“What do you mean?” My heart
started pounding. He couldn’t possibly know, could he? God! How did
he seem to know everything about me? Did he watch me every second
of the day? Was he psychic? My desire for him died a quick death as
I realised that he’d blindsided me again.

“Those photos, Matilda,” he
said, icy blue eyes burning into me. “All your emotions are on show
in them. The both of you. Two emotionally open people, taking
photos of themselves together after sharing some intimate moments.
Very touching.” His tone wasn’t cool or amused, but sharp and
merciless.

I remained silent, mouth dry. A
frisson of fear ran down my spine. He had me trapped and I tried to
roll away, tried to free my hands, but he pushed down on me
harder.

“Matilda?” He leaned down
closer. I could feel his hot breath on my face as he spoke.

“I made a promise to myself that
I would never speak to anyone about what happened between Meili and
me. And I meant it,” I said, holding his blazing stare, my
breathing uneven.

“I couldn’t care less about your
promises. Answer my question. Who initiated the sex?”

“It doesn’t matter anymore.
Meili’s dead. I won’t be seeing him again.” I sounded incredibly
cheated and bitter, even to my own ears.

“
Who, Matilda?
” he
shouted into my face, a cruel hard edge in his voice. I flinched
with fear.

“Him,” I confessed softly. I
wanted to cry. I wanted him to leave. I didn’t want him to ever
touch me again.

“He’s lucky he’s dead.”

It was a shockingly vicious
thing to say, and said in a shockingly vicious tone. I wanted to
slap him hard across his face. I wanted to scratch my fingernails
down his cheeks and leave red welts. I wanted to hurt him. My right
hand jerked in reflex. He crushed it in his and I bit down on my
cry of agony.

“You will never sleep with a
client again, do you understand?” His face was so close to mine our
noses were almost touching. I’d never heard such a cold, menacing
voice in my life.

“Yes,” I said in a small voice,
my fury fleeing, chased away by my fear.

And I knew just how angry he was
because he rolled off me without another word and headed for the
door, his erection still hard.

“I’m not sorry I did it. It was
the right thing to do. It was wonderful,” I called after him
defiantly, not caring if he yelled at me some more or even if he
hurt me. He rounded on me rapidly, flames of anger shooting from
his eyes.

“
No, it wasn’t the right
thing to do!
” he yelled. “It was unprofessional of you.”

“You’re such a hypocrite!” I
spat out. “You slept with Jenna Mackenzie!”

He returned to the bed in three
steps, looming over me in the dark, and I drew back, afraid of what
he’d do. “I’m the boss and I set the rules. Understand? If I sleep
with a client, it’s because I judge that it will be of benefit to
my business. I don’t allow my staff the luxury of making that kind
of judgement. If one of my men slept with a client, I would fire
him without a second thought.”

“Go ahead and fire me then!” I
dared him in fury. “I don’t care. I don’t want to work for you
anyway.”

He continued to stare at me for
a few moments, then turned and left, slamming the door behind
him.

We both took a while to calm
down after that episode, but eventually we made up. I’ve never been
very good at staying angry with people. I was sure he was an expert
at maintaining the rage, but not with people he cared about, I
hoped. And no matter what went on between us, I had absolutely no
doubt that he did care about me in his own way.

Will and I finally organised our
weekend away, and I was excited thinking about being able to spend
so long with him. Heller had unwillingly agreed to let me go, but
only after I gave him every last detail of the resort, which room
we’d be staying in, which restaurants we’d dine in and what we were
planning on doing during every second of the stay. I also had to
promise to keep my phone on the entire time. Will wasn’t thrilled,
but could appreciate the reasons for Heller’s over-protectiveness,
considering my accident and the other events of the last few
months.

The resort was five-star luxury
and we spared no expense, having massages, ordering champagne and
breakfast from room service and eating well at the local
restaurants. We had three nights together and we made the most of
them. We shagged each other senseless, until we were utterly
exhausted, indolent with over-satiation and Will jokingly
complained of dehydration.

We held hands all day and
cuddled all night just as I had wanted, and the horrors and
nastiness of the last few months drained away with Will’s soft
kisses and tender caresses. I didn’t think about Heller for days
and he was considerate enough not to contact me during my weekend
away.

It was our last night together
and we were sitting on the upstairs deck of a modern fusion
restaurant, finishing the remains of a delicious meal, looking out
over the ocean. It was beautiful. The sun had just set and we’d
enjoyed a spectacular view of it from the deck. I lamented our
return to our ordinary lives where we would be lucky to see other
once a week again.

Will snatched my hand off the
table and brought it to his lips, kissing it gently. I smiled at
him.
Gee, he was cute
, I thought, with his wild curly brown
hair and tender brown eyes.

“Tilly,” he said. “I love
you.”

“I love you too, Will,” I
replied automatically, my eyes drawn away from him by the beauty of
the night sky. It was a glorious sight and I was glad to be
alive.

“I think I loved you from the
first time I set eyes on you at the bar. In that nightclub. Do you
remember?”

I turned my attention back to
him and smiled. “Of course I remember! We were both waiting to
order a drink. I was with Dixie. I remember thinking how cute you
were and then you smiled at me. Well, I was hooked after that.”

“But you didn’t ring me for
ages,” he complained. “I was so disappointed. Every day I’d wake up
and think
maybe she will today
. I would have rung you the
next day, but you didn’t give me your number.”

“Things kept happening. I’d get
to the end of the day and think
I didn’t ring Will
. But it
doesn’t matter because I did ring you in the end.”

“One of the happiest days of my
life. I hope I’m going to have another one very soon.”

“What do you mean?”

“Tilly, after our talk the other
week about our relationship, I realised just how much I love you.
Now that we’re exclusive, I want to be with you all of the time.
For the rest of my life. I know we haven’t been together for even a
year yet, but I’ve thought about this a lot and it feels like the
right thing to do now. I’ve never hidden the fact that I want to
settle down and start a –”

He halted suddenly, flushing. I
pretended I hadn’t heard his
faux pas
, not exactly sure
where he was going with the conversation.

“Would you . . .” He swallowed
and took a deep breath. “Tilly, would you marry me?”

~~~~~~

Weeks later, Will and I stood
hand-in-hand in front of the city’s marriage registry office. He
squeezed my hand tightly and gave me an encouraging smile as we
walked up the steps towards the glass doors of the entry. He opened
the door and ushered me in ahead of him. I was pleasantly surprised
to discover a modern, tastefully decorated reception area, a
beautiful fresh arrangement of pristine white lilies gracing a side
table. For some reason I’d imagined the registry office would be
bureaucratically bland and formal, like a courtroom.

There were two ceremony rooms,
and we headed for the smallest one. To be honest, I was quite
nervous about the wedding, even though I was well aware it was
going to be a small ceremony, only a few close friends and family
invited to witness the nuptials. The ceremony would be followed by
a swanky lunch at one of the city’s top restaurants. I was looking
forward to letting my hair down then, relaxing and savouring a few
glasses of champagne after the formalities were done.

Before we entered the ceremony
room, Will stopped and looked at me, his soft brown eyes serious.
He had tried valiantly that morning to tame his hair, but the
irrepressible curls were beginning to poke up again.

“I love you, Tilly. You look so
beautiful today. Just perfect,” he said, leaning forward to kiss me
on the lips. It was a warm day for winter, and I wore a gossamer
sleeveless summer dress that floated delicately around my hips and
legs. I accessorised with a small, matching hat to add a slightly
formal note to my outfit. I put my hand up to his cheek and kissed
him back.

“I love you too, Will.” He
squeezed my hand again, and we opened the door to the ceremony
room.

The groom was already present,
pacing up and down anxiously. He noticed our arrival, and I was
astonished by the welcoming look of delight that suffused his face.
We hadn’t exactly parted on the best of terms, and I was surprised
to say the least by his warm greeting. But not as surprised as I’d
been to receive the wedding invitation in the first place.

“Tilly!” he exclaimed, rushing
forward to grasp my hand, kissing me on both cheeks.

“Clarrie,” I replied with far
less enthusiasm, looking down at him, trying to ignore the furtive
glance he shot my boobs. God, even on his wedding day he was still
a little creep! He was dressed formally in a three-piece suit, and
his floppy blond hair had grown a little longer since I’d last seen
him about six months ago, but other than that he still looked the
same. Same wispy goatee and moustache, same round wide blue eyes,
same short-arse stature, and still looking as though he wasn’t old
enough to shave, let alone ruin a woman’s life by marrying her.

“And the blushing bride is on
her way?” I enquired politely.

“Yes, Kitty rang this morning.
She’s very excited and will be here in a few minutes, I hope.”