Runaway Sister (14 page)

“Good,” murmured Adam, “in that case remind me never to let you go.” Then his mouth descended on hers once more with a possessive certainty.

His words had a heady implication that sent what few remaining defenses she might have had crashing into space. She was helplessly and delightedly enmeshed in a web of whirling sensations, beyond her control. With each breath she became more intoxicated. With an aching need to be his her lips sought out his mouth, eagerly telling him by her kiss that she was his.

The sound of late-night revelers on their way back from some taverna brought them both back to their senses. The rowdy crowd was almost upon them before they broke abruptly apart, and Adam's breathing was coming in shuddering gasps as he held her from him.

“We'd better get going,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “You and I have a lot to talk about.”

“Talk about?” whispered Samantha teasingly, she was not ready to stop just yet. She slid her arms round his waist as they started to walk again, and laid her head on his shoulder. “I don't feel in the least like talking.”

“Well, I do,” said Adam roughly, untangling himself from her arms. “There are one or two things I want to get straight between us, young lady.”

Samantha sighed. Once he had made up his mind there would be no changing him, she knew that from past experience. So reluctantly she did as he seemed to want, and walked with becoming demureness by his side back to the car. Stealing a glance at his profile as they walked, she was surprised to see that he looked almost stern.

When they reached the car he unlocked the door for her and after chivalrously helping her in, went around to the driver's side and slid his long frame into the tiny seat of the Fiat beside her.

“I shouldn't have done that,” he said. “I seem to make a habit of it, don't I?”

“Done what?” Samantha looked at his still stern profile.

“Kissed you,” he said.

“I didn't mind,” she said softly.

“I know you didn't,” he rejoined abruptly, “but you know as well as I do that there's only going to be one end when we get together, and you've told me today that you don't want me to make love to you.”

“But…” Samantha protested.

Fiercely Adam turned to her, his voice grating. “If I kiss you again, I won't be responsible for my actions. So you've been warned!”

Softly Samantha reached out and touched him. “Adam,” she whispered, “I'm not sure what I want—I'm sorry.” It was true, when he had his arms around her, his presence blotted out everything else, but when she could think logically reason told her not to get involved.

“Perhaps we'd better leave it until you do know,” he said briefly.

The drive back to Paleokastritsa passed in silence. Samantha felt hurt, although she knew she had no reason to be. After all, he had been quite honest with her, and had told her that he wanted her. She knew that she wasn't capable of saying no, but he had chosen to hold back, not her.

On reaching the villa Adam parked the car and Samantha waited for him in the darkness while he locked the car and made sure the gates to the garden were closed.

“Adam,” she said, lightly touching his arm, “I'm sorry I seem to be so contradictory in my actions. I didn't mean to lead you on.”

He smiled briefly. “I know you didn't, and I didn't mean to become so involved either.”

It was an admission that had an ominous ring to Samantha's ears. He didn't mean to become involved—why didn't he mean to become involved? Was it because he was already involved with someone else?

It didn't set her mind at rest when as they reached the stairs in the villa, he briefly brushed a kiss on her forehead and said good night, muttering that he had some paperwork to do before he came upstairs.

Samantha went to her room, and later she heard him talking on the telephone. He was laughing to whoever he was talking to, and his voice had an intimate conspiratorial ring to it.

While she was eating breakfast with Dennis and Valerie next morning Samantha wondered where Adam had got to, but as she wasn't part of the family she felt it would be too inquisitive to ask. However, her curiosity was soon satisfied.

“Oh, by the way, Samantha,” Valerie remarked, helping herself to some more yogurt, “Adam should be back soon with Sophie.”

“Sophie?” echoed Samantha in astonishment.

“Yes. I believe you met her in England,” answered Valerie.

“Yes, I did, but I didn't know she was to visit here,” said Samantha slowly. So that was why he didn't want to get involved! Her first instincts had been right—he had been involved with Sophie and still was. All the time he had been kissing her passionately the night before, and practically making love to her, he had known all the time that Sophie would be arriving the next day.
No wonder you wanted to make love to me yesterday!
thought Samantha bitterly.
You knew you had to make hay while the sun shone, you want your cake and you want to eat it.
Suddenly, instead of hurt disappointment, she began to feel anger welling up inside her. How dared he use her like that! Something to be picked up and discarded at will! The angry thoughts eddied around in her head so that she became impervious to the conversation going on between Dennis and Valerie, and was startled back into the present by the sound of her name.

“Samantha.” It was Dennis repeating her name patiently. “Samantha, don't you agree that it's not a good idea for Valerie to go traipsing around with Sophie, in and out of all the jewelers in Corfu?”

“Well, I certainly don't think it's a good idea to spend all day on your feet in this heat,” she answered, puzzled at his remark.

“There you are, then,” said Dennis to Valerie. “I forbid you to go and so does Samantha.”

“Hey, hold on!” interjected Samantha. “I'm not quite clear what I'm actually forbidding Valerie to do.”

Valerie sighed. “Oh, don't worry about it,” she said. “He's quite right anyway. Dennis's sister always spends her first day here scouring all the jewelers' shops in Corfu, to see if there are any bargains in gold and silver.”

“Dennis's sister?” echoed Samantha, feeling the conversation was getting completely out of hand and beyond her.

“Yes, Sophie,” said Valerie patiently, “remember I told you Adam has gone to pick her up?”

“Oh.” Samantha's mouth opened wide in surprise. “Sophie! I didn't realize she was Dennis's sister, I thought she was a friend.”

Valerie threw back her head and chuckled. “Really, Samantha, do give me credit! I only suffer her because she's Dennis's sister, if she wasn't I certainly wouldn't have her here—she drives me absolutely mad!”

“Oh, come on,” remonstrated Dennis gently, “she isn't that bad. She's lonely.”

“So would you be if you'd been divorced twice!” retorted Valerie. Then she turned to Samantha. “Now, of course, she's busy looking for husband number three, although this time he doesn't need to be rich, because she's collected so much money from the other two!”

And I know where she's looking,
thought Samantha sourly, buttering a piece of toast with more vigor than it warranted.

Sophie and Adam arrived at the villa just as they had finished breakfast.

“Darlings!” cried Sophie dramatically, rushing towards Dennis and Valerie and kissing them both. She looked positively immaculate from head to toe, not a hair out of place, mascara, nails, everything perfect. Certainly she didn't look like a woman who had just had a fairly long journey. Samantha felt decidedly scruffy standing there in her simple green cotton sundress and flip-flops.

Sophie turned and saw Samantha, her gaze raked over her in one brief dismissive glance from head to toe. “Oh, Valerie's nurse,” she said in a tone that immediately relegated Samantha to the rank of servant.

Samantha refrained from spitting in her eye, although at that moment a very unladylike impulse was urging her to do so, and politely inclined her head in Sophie's direction. She also managed a frozen smile, which she thought was very laudable in the circumstances.

“Good morning, Samantha,” said Adam. “Did you sleep well?”

What the hell do you care whether I slept well or not!
thought Samantha viciously. However, she managed another frozen smile and said, “Very well, thank you, like a top.” Then excusing herself to Valerie she went upstairs to her room.

Restlessly she paced her large airy bedroom. Even its splendid view across the bay seemed to have a miserable grey hue cast over it. Yesterday had been so lovely, she had felt that she was on the edge of discovering something with Adam, everything had been filled with sunshine.
Well, you have discovered something,
she told herself cynically;
you've discovered that she's Dennis's sister, a rich divorcee, and that Adam is very much involved with her and had no intention of becoming other than sexually involved with you.

Going into the bathroom, she washed her face vigorously with cold water, as if to wash the unpleasant thoughts from her mind. But the awful truth remained there, lodged solidly into the crevices of her memory.

“Just as well Sophie turned up,” she said aloud to her reflection in the mirror. “Put any romantic thoughts you may have had about Adam Shaw right out of your head.” Glaring at her reflection, she brushed her hair vigorously and decided she would have to go down as usual to Valerie, otherwise they would certainly think it odd if she didn't put in an appearance.

Walking slowly down the stairs, she wondered how she would get through the days to come. Seeing Sophie and Adam together all the time would be like someone turning a knife in her heart. Also Sophie had an uncanny knack of immediately making her feel an outsider. Although she had been employed as Valerie's nurse, Dennis and Valerie had never made her feel like an employee, she had just been absorbed into their life like one of the family. Now, however, with the utterance of just a few words Sophie had put her in her place, outside the family.

However, as Valerie had predicted, as soon as she had a quick coffee and had changed, Sophie was anxious to be out. Whether or not Adam had any choice, or whether or not he wanted to go, Samantha didn't know, and told herself she didn't care. He was commandeered by Sophie as chauffeur and escort for the day, and apparently didn't object.

Samantha passed the day with Valerie in the usual way. It had always seemed so perfect before—swimming, a leisurely lunch, reading or resting in the shade, and then another swim before dinner—but today everything was different.

Adam's face kept floating obstinately into Samantha's thoughts. As she swam, she thought of the way he had hauled her into the boat the day before, of his salty kiss, and his gentleness. In the afternoon when she tried to read, the print danced in front of her eyes, making concentration impossible.

At last the sun began to sink, a great orange ball of fire sliding into a dark indigo sea. Samantha took great care with her appearance that night—not, of course, she reminded herself, for Adam's benefit. She always took care with her appearance anyway, but that evening she was extra careful, adding just a little more eye shadow and choosing her most flattering dark pink dress, that set off her healthy tan to advantage.

However, Adam and Sophie didn't arrive at dinnertime. Valerie and Dennis decided to wait for them, and the three of them sat on the terrace with a predinner drink, Samantha and Dennis with dry martinis and Valerie with her orange juice.

“I'd much prefer a martini,” she said, wrinkling her nose as she took a sip of the orange.

“If you want wine with your meal, you've got to have orange juice now,” Samantha told her with mock severity. “Remember, I'm responsible for your health.”

Valerie laughed. “Oh, I don't mind really, but it's a good job you're here, keeping me on the straight and narrow!”

Dennis looked at his watch irritably. “Where have those two got to?” he asked. “I know the kitchen have prepared dolmades tonight, and I don't want mine spoiled by waiting too long.”

The words were hardly out of his mouth when the telephone shrilled. He went into the hall to answer it.

“Yes, yes, all right, if that's what you want to do,” Valerie and Samantha heard him say. “I do wish you could have thought of it before, that's all!”

Valerie raised her eyebrows expressively at Samantha. “In spite of his sticking up for her, Sophie drives him mad too!” she said.

Dennis came back to the terrace and drained his martini in one gulp. “Might as well start dinner,” he said. “Sophie and Adam are dining out and then going on to the casino at the Achilleion Palace.”

Samantha's heart sank with a bitter disappointment. So much for wearing the pink dress, to look pretty and to show Adam that she didn't care a toss! It wouldn't be necessary to pretend now, not now that he wasn't going to be there anyway.

She ate the meal in near silence, only speaking when Dennis and Valerie asked her a direct question. If they thought anything odd about her silence they gave no indication, although Samantha could see that Dennis was annoyed. The delicious dolmades, normally a dish that Samantha found mouthwatering, tasted like sawdust in her mouth. She drank several glasses of the strong dark red wine that Dennis had brought from the cellar—might as well get a good night's sleep, she thought as she sipped her third glass.

“You like this wine?” asked Dennis. “You don't normally drink very much, not like Valerie and myself.”

“Yes, oh yes,” said Samantha, suddenly realizing that they must have noticed that she was imbibing to an unusual degree. “It's very nice indeed.” She forced a laugh. “I must be careful I don't get a hangover!”

“Yes,” agreed Dennis, “I think three glasses is enough for someone who doesn't know this wine. It has quite a healthy kick to it.”