A Perfect Night Read online

  Katie whimpered in protest as his mouth possessed hers, possessed it, seduced it...ravished it...the pressure of his mouth on hers making her own lips feel so sensitive that her whole body shook with the tiny quivers of sensation she was feeling.

  Through the dapple of the leaves on the trees she could feel the warmth of the sun on her face but its heat was nothing to the heat Seb was generating inside her.

  She tried to break free of him. She knew she had to.

  Why were her arms entwined around him, why was her body pressed so close to him, why was her mouth parting beneath the pressure of his...why...?

  'See, I told you you were passionate,' she could hear Seb telling her huskily. 'The only reason you'd ever want a meek and mild apology for a mate is so that you could destroy and devour him like a praying mantis...'

  'Oh...'

  As the cruelty of his words jerked her back to reality, Katie pulled away from him.

  'You were the one who... I did nothing,' she amended quickly, unable to look at him.

  'Nothing...'

  As she attempted to move away from him Seb reached out, cupping her jaw in his hand and turning her face up so that he could look down at her.

  'Then, what's this,' he demanded, lifting her hand to his mouth and pressing her fingers against the bruised rawness of his bottom lip.

  Giving a small, choked protest Katie pulled away. Her eyes were beginning to fill with tears. She was dizzy and lightheaded and somewhere deep inside her there was a small insidious ache that frightened and shocked her.

  But before she could say or do anything she heard Guy's familiar voice calling out semi-scoldingly,

  'There you are you two, Jenny thought you must have got lost...'

  Later Katie assumed that she must have said and done everything that was expected and required of her during lunch. Certainly no one seemed to find her behaviour odd or out of character, but she herself was intensely, uncomfortably aware of Sebastian Cooke's presence all through the light-hearted alfresco family meal. While the others were chatting and exchanging pleasantries and banter, she was finding it hard to force down so much as a mouthful of her mother's delicious cold spread.

  In fact, she noticed a little bitterly at one point, Seb seemed more at ease and relaxed than she did and as for Charlotte...it was plain that she was enjoying herself hugely. Katie could hear her telling Jenny enthusiastically how much she was enjoying life at her sixth form college.

  'Being a boarder there makes it even better,' she gushed. 'The other girls are great and I've made so many new friends.'

  'It must have been quite a difficult decision for you to make,' Jenny remarked to Seb.

  'It was,' he agreed. 'Sandra, George and I all sat down with Charlotte to discuss it. I know she believes at sixteen that she's an adult, but while we accept that she is mature enough to make most of her own decisions about her education, it is an unfortunate fact that this modern world we live in is not always a very safe place for a young woman.

  'However, the school has an excellent policy which allows the girls some freedom while at the same time ensuring their safety.'

  'Yes, we're allowed evening exeats and we can even go clubbing, just so long as there's a group of eight or more of us and we all come back together in the school minibus.

  'Mum and George and Dad did take a bit of persuad-ing to allow me to go, but it's the best " A " level college in the country for my subjects and since I'm hoping to get a place at Manchester University it made sense to move here.'

  With her own cousin and younger brother at a very similar stage in their education Katie was not surprised that her mother should be so interested in Charlotte's

  'A' level studies, but she wished her mother would not be quite so warm and welcoming towards Sebastian Cooke.

  She was uncomfortably aware that by some fluke of circumstance, the group of adults around the picnic had separated themselves out so that she was actually now sitting closer to Seb than she was to anyone else. Unfortunately, the nearest other person to her was Gareth and she had determined to remove any remaining longings for him from her life by keeping as much distance—

  in every sense of the word—between herself and her brother-in-law as she could.

  Still, at least she could comfort herself that Louise had not told the rest of the family about the fortune-teller's prediction and Louise, Katie fervently hoped, would never refer to it again.

  However later in the day Katie discovered that her relief had been premature.

  At Louise's insistence she had driven her over to see her new apartment while Gareth had been left behind to bathe and feed Nick.

  'It's fabulous,' Louise pronounced once the short tour was over and they were standing in the apartment's living room. 'When do you expect to move in?'

  'Well, hopefully by the end of the week. The carpets should be down by then, although I'm not sure whether or not all the curtains will be finished, but Mum has offered to lend me some in the interim if they aren't.'

  'Mmm... It's a very sophisticated bachelor-girl place,'

  Louise approved. 'Although...' with a twinkle in her eye she told Katie, 'Although, if what your gypsy friend predicted is true...'

  'Seb and I...' Katie interrupted her quickly. 'We...'

  But before she could finish her denial Louise was reaching out to touch her, asking her seriously and quietly, 'Can we talk? Properly, I mean...'

  Katie's heart sank. This was the moment she had been dreading ever since Gareth and Louise had announced their love for one another.

  'Of course...' she responded with what she knew was a forced note of jollity in her voice. 'What do you want to talk about? We...'

  'Katie, come on...this is us... you and me... Look, I know...'

  Katie froze. Louise knew what? That she, Katie, loved her husband...?

  But, instead of continuing Louise shook her head and said huskily, 'We used to be so close, you and I. We told one another everything...but since Gareth and I married... You're my twin... I still need you... I always will and I hate feeling that there's this distance, this barrier between us. If I've said or done something to hurt you...'

  'No. No, of course you haven't,' Katie denied quickly, terrified in case Louise continued to question her and somehow discovered the truth. It wasn't her fault that she, Katie, loved Gareth. It wasn't anyone's fault, except her own and the last thing she wanted to do was to widen the rift which Louise had so correctly pinpointed by admitting how she really felt. All that admitting her feelings could do would be to embarrass Louise and Gareth and to humiliate herself.

  'It's just...' She stopped, frantically hunting for a satisfactory explanation to silence her sister's questions.

  'Well, obviously things are different now that you and Gareth are married and that you have Nick.'

  'Well, yes, of course,' Louise agreed, her mouth curl-ing into a wide smile as she laughed. 'Still, by the sound of it, it won't be long before you and Seb have a child of your own... He's gorgeously sexy, Katie. Seriously sexy,' she underlined, rolling her eyes appreciatively.

  'And if I weren't so very much in love with Gareth...'

  'Louise, Seb and I...' Katie began frantically, appalled by the direction the conversation was taking and the assumptions Louise had so mistakenly leapt to.

  'It's a pity the two of you didn't discover you were in love before you bought this place though. Still it's obvious that you'll make a good profit on it when you sell it. Have you made any plans yet, or...'

  'Louise, we barely know one another,' Katie protested.

  'I don't even...' Like him, never mind love him, she had been about to say but typically Louise wasn't giving her time to finish her conversation before continuing enthusiastically, 'I could see how much Charlotte has taken to you as well. That's wonderful. Mind you, you're so gentle and loving that you'd be able to cope with even the most difficult of step-children and anyone can see that Charlotte is not that. And, of course, it couldn't be better,
you and Seb living so close to one another.'

  'Louise...' Katie began desperately and then stopped as Louise glanced out of the window and exclaimed,

  'Oh, here's Gareth. He must have wondered why we've been gone for so long. Oh Katie, I'm just so happy for you,' Louise told her excitedly and she turned to embrace her twin in a loving hug. 'I can tell you now that there was a time when I wondered...well, you were always so determined to defend Gareth in the early days when I was so antagonistic towards him, and I suppose because we are twins and because I love him so much, I worried that you might...'

  With every word Louise spoke Katie could feel her anxiety and anguish growing. It lay like a block of ice against her heart; weighed like the heaviest of lead weights on her conscience. It was all her worst fears come to life. Louise had intuitively sensed her own feelings despite everything she had done to try to prevent her from doing so. Louise was her twin, her other half, and there existed between them a bond which called forth from Katie, not just her fiercest loyalty, but also a need to put Louise's needs above her own, to protect her from the hurt and pain that knowing that she, Katie, loved Gareth would cause her. She struggled with her conscience not wanting to deceive her twin but as she already knew, it was almost impossible to stop Louise once she took hold of an idea and started to run with it.

  And, after all, the truth would very quickly become apparent—it was so obvious that she and Seb loathed one another.

  'And you won't forget about your grandfather's party, will you?' Jenny Crighton reminded Louise as she kissed her goodbye.

  They had brought the car across from Belgium and were driving on to see Gareth's family in Scotland before returning to Brussels. As she hugged her mother, Louise promised her, 'We'll be there. How could we possibly miss it when it will be Katie's first formal opportunity to show Seb off to the family?'

  'Seb?' Jenny questioned in surprise, 'But...'

  'I could see that there was something between them straightaway,' Louise continued happily, 'and I'm just so glad for Katie, Mum. She's been so unlike her normal self just lately. That's worried me. It's funny the way things work out, isn't it?' she continued conversationally. 'If she hadn't had to give up her old job because of that awful boss who was making life so miserable for her, she would never have come home and then she wouldn't have met Seb.

  'You should have seen her face when Charlotte told us what the girl at the fair had predicted for her and Seb,' Louise had chuckled. 'A baby boy no less,' she enlightened her bemused parent. 'Charlotte was thrilled to bits. No potential problems there, that's very clear, but then Charlotte's almost a young woman herself and since, from what Guy told me, Seb and his ex-wife's divorce was mutually agreed and they get on tolerably well together, at least Katie won't be walking into an unpleasant situation.

  'She's so sensitive, too sensitive for her own good I sometimes think. She always puts other people's feelings and other people's needs above her own.'

  'Yes, she does,' Jenny agreed soberly.

  It was news to her that Katie was romantically involved with Seb Cooke, but Louise was quite correct when she stated that Katie had been unlike her normal self over the last year or so. Always quiet she had become to a mother's anxious eye worryingly withdrawn, and it had been at least in part because of her concern that Jenny had suggested to Jon that they persuade Katie to come home and join the family business when she admitted that she was thinking of changing her job.

  Not that Jenny had any objections to Seb Cooke as a prospective son-in-law, far from it. She had taken to him virtually immediately and she thought that Charlotte was a honey. No. What did surprise her was that her normally hesitant and even reticent daughter should have committed herself so immediately.

  'Oh, yes, Guy, I'm sure that Katie would be thrilled with it,' Jenny enthused as she studied the pretty little desk which Guy had invited her to come and see. The antiques shop they had originally begun as a joint venture was now managed by one of Guy's many relatives, Didi Fowler, while Guy concentrated on the other aspects of his small financial empire.

  'I remember how much she loved the one I found for my sister Laura,' Guy agreed, 'and when Didi said that this one had come in I thought of Katie and her new apartment straight away. When does she actually move in, by the way? I know that Seb has terminated the lease on his rented property and that he intends to start living in his apartment on his return from this conference he's gone to.'

  'Katie said that she'd like to move in as soon as she can and, of course, now that she and Seb are seeing one another I imagine she'll want to move in when he does.'

  'Katie and Seb?' Guy whistled soundlessly. 'I hadn't realised...' he began and then shook his head.

  'Neither had I,' Jenny admitted. 'But Katie confided in Louise and Louise mentioned it to me without realising that Katie hadn't said anything yet herself.'

  'A Cooke and a Crighton...that will cause something of a stir. Ben isn't going to like it. How is he by the way...?'

  'Not too good, I'm afraid,' Jenny told him worriedly.

  'Maddy says he's becoming increasingly distressed about David's absence—we don't use the word "disappearance" around Ben, we never have done, it upsets him so much. You know how much he's always thought of David. He was always the favoured son.'

  'Mmm... If you ask me, that was probably the root of David's problem. It wasn't just that Ben had such high expectations of him, it was that he gave David the belief that he had the right to expect the world to place him on the same pedestal his father had done. Well, personally, I can't see how he could ever come back.'

  'It wouldn't be easy,' Jenny admitted, 'for any of us.

  But I can't help wishing for Ben's sake if nothing else that he would at least get in touch with us... In truth, Guy, I'm afraid that if David leaves it too much longer it could well be too late,' she told him sombrely. 'The doctors say there's no valid reason why Ben shouldn't have made a much better recovery from his last opera-tion than he has. In theory he's got every reason to have done so. Just on the basis of the dedicated nursing Maddy's given him, and we had all hoped that having Max based in Chester and living permanently at Queensmead would help—you know that after David, Max has always been his favourite.'

  'But Max isn't the person he originally was any longer, is he? Max is much more Jon's son now than he's David's nephew.'

  'Yes. As Max himself would be the first to say, what he went through in Jamaica was very much a "Saul on the road to Damascus" conversion for him.' The seriousness left Jenny's eyes and she laughed, explaining to Guy, 'Little Leo must have heard his father using that particular phrase himself because he asked Max what his Uncle Saul was doing on the road to Damascus.'

  When they had both finished laughing, Guy went over and patted the desk they had been admiring and told Jenny in amusement, 'Perhaps I should keep this and present it to Katie as a wedding present.

  'Seb's a good man,' he told her reassuringly. 'Very highly principled which will suit Katie.'

  Having confirmed to Jenny that he would keep the desk for her daughter, Guy went home to tell his wife that they might shortly expect to be celebrating another wedding in the family.

  'Seb and Katie. Oh, that's wonderful,' Chrissie enthused. 'Charlotte will be thrilled. She's really taken to Katie,' she added, reiterating Louise's comment to her mother earlier.

  Meanwhile, totally unaware of the future being mapped out for them, the two supposed lovers were both independently going about their daily business.

  Katie had a busy day filled with appointments all morning and an appearance at court in the afternoon, while Seb was on his way to attend a large conference on the moral implications resulting from the giant strides forward the scientific world was currently making in the field of genetics.

  Seb's last telephone call before he had left had been to the interior designer giving her the go-ahead on the designs she had submitted to him. He would be gone less than a week but she had assured him that, given her conta
cts, enough of the work would be completed to enable him to move into the apartment on his return.

  The conference was being held in Florida. Not an ideal venue so far as Seb was concerned, not with the long flight involved. Closing his eyes he settled back in his seat preparing to go to sleep using a relaxation tech-nique he had perfected over the years, but for once neither his mind nor his body were prepared to respond to the commands he was giving them. Instead, behind his closed eyelids, an image formed of the last person he wanted to think about.

  Infuriatingly, instead of achieving his normal Zen-like state of pre-sleep calm, Katie Crighton's features kept forming themselves in a series of intimate pictures, the most disconcerting of which set Katie's eyes and hair and mouth in the tousled-haired solemn-expressioned face of a small boy child.

  'Oh, no. Oh, no way, no way at all.'

  Seb wasn't aware that he had muttered his denial out aloud until he saw the curious look the man in the adjacent seat was giving him.

  Scientifically he knew it was totally impossible for anyone to 'see' into the future—true, they could make accurate assumptions based on the hard evidence of given facts—and it was perhaps predictable that the gypsy woman should have assumed that he and Katie were a couple and therefore, that she should at some stage bear his child, but there had been something, not so much about her predictions, but about the woman herself that had touched an almost primeval chord inside him.

  He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. All right, why not acknowledge it— admit it to himself, he did want Katie. Sexually she pressed buttons he had forgotten he had long ago, if in fact he had ever known.

  Sex for him, while a pleasurable experience, had never driven him, never obsessed him, never possessed him as it did some men. Because his awareness of how people viewed Cooke men and their supposedly uncontrollable sexuality had subconsciously made him determined that he would not just rise above the low expectations people had of his family academically, but also determined to rise above the taint of their notorious sexual profligacy.