She was just snapping her case together and tying the buckles when the intercom buzzed.
‘I’m on my way,’ she told George, hoping to forestall any attempt on Luke’s part to come upstairs, but to her dismay it was his darkly velvet tones she heard floating into the room, as he told her he was on his way up.
Feeling flustered, she pulled on the jacket of the suede suit she had decided to wear for travelling, snatching up her handbag and pausing uncertainly in the middle of her elegant living room while she waited for the bell to ring. Even so, when it did so the sound sent fear spiralling along her nerves. Her fingers trembl
ed as she unlocked the door. She had meant to keep Luke standing in the small hall while she got her case, but he followed her into the living room, looking round appreciatively.
‘Very pleasant,’ he said at last. ‘Bob must think an awful lot of you.’
His cynical tone jarred, and Genista paused on the threshold to her bedroom, her fingers tightly gripped round the handle of her case, unaware of how vividly beautiful she appeared, framed there, her russet hair set off by the soft moss green suede suit, her eyes glowing brilliantly with the emotions she was fighting hard to control.
‘Just as I think a good deal of him,’ she said quietly.
‘Do you?’ There was disbelief in the words, and something else she could not put a name to. The colour seemed to have left Luke’s face. His eyes were hard, almost completely black; obsidian, she thought absently, cold and unfeeling.
‘So much so that you want to break up his marriage?’
‘I don’t want to break it up.’ The words were out before she could stop them, her face drained of colour.
‘Prove it,’ Luke said quietly. ‘Marry me.’
‘Marry you?’ Her voice sounded weak and husky, her eyes mirroring the shock his words had given her. ‘You don’t mean that. You…’
‘I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it. Marry me, Genista, otherwise I’ll make sure Bob’s wife gets to hear about your affair.’
‘You’d do that? But why?’
She was genuinely puzzled. She could understand that he might try to use such a threat to force her to sleep with him, but marriage? He couldn’t possibly want to marry her; he had made his contempt of her all too plain.
‘Why?’ There was a tortured expression in his eyes, a look of self-loathing which shocked her with its intensity.
‘Because since I met you I haven’t slept or eaten; because something about you torments me night and day. I must possess you, Genista. It’s like a sickness that won’t let me go.’
‘But marriage!’
‘I don’t want to have to share you with anyone else,’ he told her grimly, ‘or to be dangled on the end of a piece of string to flatter your vanity. Oh, it won’t last. One day I’ll wake up and find I’m free of this obsession which seems to haunt me, and then I’ll divorce you, but until then you’ll be my possession, to do with as I please.’
‘And if I refuse to marry you?’ Genista asked. Her throat was dry with tension. An obsession he had called his desire to possess her, and that was what it was; a hunger fuelled by her own foolish attempt to humiliate him. For a moment it crossed her mind that she might be wiser simply to open the door and run, but common sense reminded her that she wouldn’t be allowed to get very far. But marriage!
‘If you refuse I shall make sure Elaine knows all about your affair; about this apartment; about the weekend you and Bob spent together; the car he bought you…’
‘It’s not true!’ Genista told him angrily. ‘None of it’s true. We aren’t having an affair; I own this apartment in my own right. Bob is a very good friend…’
‘And you care enough about him to want to protect him. I didn’t think you had it in you, but it won’t work. I meant every word I said, Genista. It’s either marriage to me, or I tell Elaine everything.’
In normal circumstances Genista would not have hesitated. She would have gone straight to Bob and warned him so that he could tell Elaine, but Elaine’s operation and state of mind meant that this was impossible. If Luke told Elaine now that she and Bob were having an affair, she was only too likely to believe it. For one mad moment Genista contemplated going to see Elaine herself, but then acknowledged that this would probably only serve to make them appear more guilty. Luke definitely had the upper hand, she thought bitterly, but marriage—!
‘Why marriage?’ she demanded again. ‘Why not a brief affair? A one-night stand, even? After all, that’s all I’m fit for, according to you, isn’t it?’
Dark colour ran up under his skin as she flung the words at him. He came to stand over her, his fingers biting into the soft flesh of her upper arms, his eyes burning so hotly that she wondered how she could ever have thought of them as cold.
‘I’ve told you why. I can’t analyse my need for you, Genista. It defies all the laws of logic. I know you’re a cheap little tramp who sells her favours in return for financial gain; I know you don’t give a damn who you hurt or how, but God help me, I still want you so badly it’s like an ache in the gut, and it won’t be assuaged simply by one act of possession. You might as well offer a starving man a crumb of bread!’
His words frightened her; showing her the intensity of his desire for her. It was like a sickness, she thought, shivering under the look in his eyes. Richard too had wanted her, and had been prepared to lie to her by pretending love for her to satisfy what was merely sexual need, but Luke was prepared to go to even further lengths.
‘I want your decision now,’ he told her harshly, cutting across her thoughts. ‘Either we return from this trip as man and wife, or I tell Elaine all about your relationship with her husband.’
He really meant it, Genista acknowledged. Her heart felt as though it were being squeezed by giant hands, her breathing shallow and uneven as she contemplated the prospect of being Luke’s wife. A shudder ran through her as she remembered that soul-destroying kiss he had forced upon her. And that had only been a kiss! Even now she could remember how it had besmirched her, making her feel as cheap as the sort of woman he accused her of being.