Perfect Partner. Carole Mortimer

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СКАЧАТЬ did he kiss you? He must have done,’ Melanie answered herself. ‘Michael said he was being very forceful.’

      ‘Michael also said he wished he dared be that way with you,’ Juliet recalled dryly.

      ‘He never would be,’ Melanie said confidently. ‘What did Jake think of your being Caroline Miles?’

      ‘He didn’t think anything—he doesn’t know.’

      ‘You didn’t tell him?’ her friend gasped her astonishment.

      ‘No. And I would be grateful if you and Michael would refrain from telling him too.’

      ‘Why?’ her friend asked suspiciously.

      ‘Because I’m saving that little surprise for a more appropriate time.’

      ‘Appropriate?’

      ‘Yes,’ Juliet dismissed impatiently. ‘Do you know he actually wanted to go to bed with me?’ she revealed indignantly, finding she became angry just at the thought of it. No man had ever pursued her that forcefully on their first meeting before. And she didn’t like it. Jake Matthews had known her only long enough to want her body, certainly not long enough to be interested in the person she was. And how that infuriated her! He would probably have expected her to cook his breakfast in the morning too, before he rushed off to his office, never to be seen again.

      ‘I gathered that much from Michael,’ Melanie giggled.

      ‘I mean now, tonight.’

      ‘Yes,’ her friend acknowledged.

      Juliet frowned. ‘Aren’t you shocked?’

      ‘No. But you are, I can tell. And I always thought you were liberated.’

      ‘Not that liberated!’

      ‘Don’t be such a prude, Juliet,’ Melanie chided. ‘There’s nothing wrong in going to bed with a man if it’s what you both want. And Jake’s certainly too old to go in for the hand-holding, gazing-into-your-eyes relationship. So are you, come to that,’ she added thoughtfully.

      She hadn’t thought she was. Surely love and romance weren’t completely dead? No wonder she preferred to write about the past, to imagine herself back in a time when men weren’t ashamed to love and protect a woman.

      Heavens, what a contradiction she was! She wasn’t prepared to relinquish an ounce of her freedom, not careerwise or emotionally, and yet she secretly longed to be swept off her feet, to be cherished, to be made to feel the most important thing in some man’s life. One of her ideals would have to go, and she had a feeling, in this day and age, that it would be the latter. One of these days she would probably settle down to marriage quite happily, a marriage where she would be allowed to feel an equal partner but would never know what it was like to be the very pinnacle of one man’s existence.

      ‘Don’t you think a few hours’ acquaintance is rather brief notice of an invitation to bed?’ she asked Melanie mockingly.

      ‘Depends on the man,’ her friend answered seriously. ‘Jake doesn’t appear to be the sort to waste time.’

      ‘Well, I think he could have wasted a little more time than he did!’ Juliet said waspishly.

      ‘Are you seeing him again?’

      ‘I may be,’ she evaded.

      ‘Which means you are,’ Melanie said excitedly. ‘And Michael and I are to keep quiet about your writing. Don’t take Jake for a fool, Juliet, that’s all I ask. On the outside he’s perfectly charming, but inside there beats a heart of steel. I also happen to know,’ she added slowly, ‘that there’s a certain Patricia Hall in his life at the moment. She’s a reporter on the same newspaper he works for.’

      No wife, but a girl-friend. ‘I’m only having dinner with him, he’s perfectly free to keep—Patricia Hall, I think you said? I have no intention of giving up Ben and Stephen on the basis of one date with Jake Matthews.’

      ‘It may develop into more than that. If he’d looked at me the way he looked at you …!’

      ‘You wouldn’t be here alone now, I suppose,’ Juliet teased.

      ‘Juliet! You know Michael was the first and only man I’ve ever slept with!’ Melanie sounded hurt.

      ‘I’ll never know how.’

      ‘Well, really!’

      Juliet laughed. ‘Before you explode I think you should know I was only teasing. It’s just that when we were at school you seemed to fall in love every other month.’

      ‘That’s a slight exaggeration,’ Melanie told her indignantly. ‘And I was never truly in love until I met Michael.’

      ‘I’ll tell him how loyal you are the next time I see him,’ Juliet mocked gently.

      ‘Oh, you’re impossible!’ Melanie said disgustedly. ‘I’ll call you on Friday to see how you got on.’

      ‘Not too early,’ Juliet taunted. ‘You never know, I might not be alone.’

      ‘You should be so lucky!’ Melanie gave an angry snort before ringing off.

      She really shouldn’t tease her friend in that way, but Melanie had always been so easy to tease, pretending a sophistication she just didn’t have. And she would try to run her life for her. Even at school she had arranged blind dates for her. Unfortunately this habit had carried on through adulthood.

      Juliet changed into serviceable denims and a tee-shirt, then went into her study to finish writing the chapter she had had to leave earlier. She was writing the sequel to Mason’s Heritage, continuing the story of the Mason family from the late 1800s where she had last left them.

      She hated the constant interruptions to her work and found it difficult to get back into the story, liking to choose the moment she broke off from her work, often losing an idea completely if she were forced to leave it for a day or so.

      Maybe she should move away from London, away from the interruptions, she certainly had enough money to do that; Mason’s Heritage was very profitable. But she had lived in London for the last seven years, in the same apartment, and couldn’t really see any reason to change.

      It was after three by the time she put an end to Chapter Five, and before going through to her bedroom she left the handwritten sheets beside her typewriter to be typed in the morning.

      It seemed as if her head had barely touched the pillow, blessed sleep taking over, when the telephone on her bedside table began to ring. The shock of it made her shoot up in bed, a sick feeling washing over her. She snatched up the receiver. ‘Yes?’ she snapped, a painful thumping starting at the back of her eyes due to lack of sleep.

      ‘Oh, good,’ a familiar male voice greeted. ‘I’m glad I caught you before you went to the office.’

      Office? What office? She blinked to clear the sleep from her brain. ‘Who is that?’ she demanded crossly.

      ‘Forgotten СКАЧАТЬ