‘Then, one night, when all the other customers were gone and Stef and Billie were just finishing up, the boyfriend called the shopping channel to buy something. And he gave all his credit card and security details right over the phone. Stef was writing up work sheets or something so he had a pen in his hand and he took those numbers down. Next time he heard the boyfriend being mean to Billie, he rang the shopping channel and used the information to order ten portable commodes. Then because he always gets carried away with his stupid ideas, he went on to the internet and ordered a ship load of viagra, incontinence pants, penis extenders, blow up dolls — you name it. They all arrived at the boyfriend’s house.’
Martyn tried to hide his smile.
‘It’s OK. You can laugh.’ Her own smile was only a twist of the lips. ‘We were all meant to laugh. But there were thousands of dollars involved and you know what? The police said it was a felony.’ She blinked, hard. ‘That was how I stopped wearing my wedding ring. I took it off and I threw it at him.’
‘I’m sorry.’ He held her hand tighter.
She looked surprised, as if noticing for the first time that their hands were joined. ‘So,’ she ended, resignedly. ‘Hamilton Drives is a small town. People don’t like it if their financial advisor’s husband is charged with identity theft. They start taking their business elsewhere. I knew that my boss was going to have to make somebody redundant so I volunteered. I wasn’t making commission worth a damn, anyway, with my client list shrinking like cheap socks.’
‘So you left your husband to think things over while you were away?’
She lifted her eyes to his. ‘He’s away, too. He was away before I even came out here. He got 180 days in county jail. He’s in Bridgeport Correctional.’
Chapter Twenty-Two
‘Wow,’ he breathed.
She examined his eyes. He looked astonished. But not disgusted. He didn’t take his hand away. ‘He gets to send out letters and postcards or make phone calls. He sends them to my sister Jessamine or to Billie — who finally dumped the boyfriend — and they send them to me as emails.’
She could see his mind working. Computing. Coming to the obvious conclusion. ‘So, what’s Billie to him, now?’
‘I think she’s still just his friend, because if she’s more, why is he sending me message after message and saying he wants to see me? But the town certainly thought that there was something going on between her and Stef, judging by the looks — sympathetic or knowing — that came my way.’ She stopped. Dropped her eyes to her watch. ‘Look . . . I’m tired and I have to be at the Eastingdean Teapot at eight—’
Instantly, he let her off the conversational hook. ‘Of course. I’ll take you home.’
The night was much cooler, now, and she crossed her arms and scrunched her shoulders as they hurried back to his SUV. He reached across and pulled her up into the seat again. ‘Thanks.’
It wasn’t until he stopped in her drive that she spoke next, words that just seemed to have made their own decision to be spoken. ‘I told him that I couldn’t put up with things any more. I’m tired of it and we’re over.’
His face turned to her, in the darkness. She could smell his clean, warm smell. ‘No one could blame you,’ he said, gently. ‘Effectively, he lost you your job. And you’ve lost face in front of the town where you live.’
‘To the point of humiliation,’ she agreed. ‘But the main issue is that I don’t trust him any more. I don’t expect a man to look after me in the old-fashioned way but I don’t expect him todrag me into his crappy mess, either. He shouldn’t expect me to wallow around in his dirt. He keeps sending messages about me being his wife and visiting him in jail and I’m just not going to do it. That wasn’t in the vows.’
Tears prickled, suddenly, and she fumbled with the door catch, hearing Martyn’s door opening and shutting as she struggled with the weight against the ever-present clifftop wind. Screwing round in the seat, she tried reversing out to see if it was any easier than going forward, muttering, ‘Holy crap,’ as she battled with her bag and the stupid mules that, she vowed, she would never wear again in any vehicle more than one foot from ground to seat.
And, as if the gremlins were listening in, the heel of her right mule caught on the sill and was wrenched off and she was suddenly hurtling backwards into space.
‘Oof!’ said the solid body she collided with. Hot hands grabbed her in mid-air, an arm around her chest and a hand on her thigh for a long, still moment. ‘Sorry,’ he muttered. Then lowered her to the ground.
But, ‘Ow!’ she yelped, as spiteful stones bit into her tender soles. ‘I lost my shoes.’
His hands grabbed her waist, lifting and turning her carefully until she was back on the edge of the passenger seat, her hands falling on his shoulders as she fought for balance. ‘Thanks—’
But the words stuck in her throat when, instead of moving away, he moved closer, and his hands slid down from her waist to her hips. Nearer, nearer, as if drawn by a string, so that her hands slid past his shoulders and her arms went around his neck as his body nestled against hers in all kinds of places.
The chills she’d experienced since exiting the warmth of that swanky club gathered into a giant shiver. Yet heat emanated from him in waves, as his hands tightened. He groaned. ‘Wow,Honor—’ Then, despairingly, ‘I’ve tried so hard to do the right thing. But I want you so much, all the time.’
She knew she ought to pull away, pat his cheek and say, ‘A pretty thing it would be if I told you that I want you, too, with my husband in jail. They have names for women like that, you know.’ And she ought to think of Robina’s feelings, too. Not that Robina cared a whole lot about anybody else’s.
But her heart was flying and her insides fizzing, and her thoughts turned to words. ‘I’m so tired of doing the right thing. I’ve done the right thing all my life. I’ve made a point of it. It really hasn’t made me happy. How about we do the wrong thing and see how it works out?’
‘Yes!’ He yanked her right out of the seat and held her in his arms as she gripped her arms around his neck and he pressed against her as if trying to burrow through her clothes, kissing her harder than she’d ever been kissed, his tongue in her mouth, smooth and sweet. She heard the car door slam behind her and beep as it locked. The kiss just went on and on as he swung around and began carrying her to the house.
She broke away to squeak, ‘My shoes!’
‘Tomorrow. I’ll get them tomorrow.’ He pulled her legs up and around him and she gasped and pressed against him as her skirt pinged up around her waist revealing, the heat of his hands and the deep noise in his throat told her, more naked buttock than panties. She entrusted him with navigating the steps in the dark whilst she fumbled behind his head to get her door key out of her purse and gave it to him. ‘Quick,’ she whispered.
‘Quick seems to have deserted me.’ He cursed as he fumbled behind her back.
