Highland Fling (17 page)

Jane had always been there for her; a shoulder to cry on every time Max came up to visit and Lizzie had ended up sleeping with him, then getting mad at herself for doing so when the whole sordid business of the affair came back and hit her like a punch to her stomach.

When Lizzie had discovered Max and
that woman
in bed together, she’d instinctively fled to Jane and Jane had taken her in without a second thought; had comforted her through the long and lonely nights when Lizzie felt as if her entire body was being physically ripped apart, limb by limb and jealousy was eating at her soul.

Jane had never judged her, even though Jane thought Lizzie should end things with Max, she had never criticised when Lizzie had fallen back into his arms. Jane was a true friend and Lizzie loved her for it. Now Lizzie should be a true friend to Jane and give her and Iain time to be together, without Lizzie wallowing in the background, like a moody child.

She had checked with the airport; planes were still flying despite the snow, although they were subject to delays. If she didn’t leave soon, she might not get away and although she’d told Jane she would think it over, she knew she couldn’t spend the night alone at the farm. Not tonight. Neither would she ruin Jane and Iain’s night by asking Jane to stay.

No, Lizzie had decided. She would go to London and she would talk things through with Max and, if she was feeling really brave, she might even visit her solicitor to start the divorce proceedings. Oddly enough, the thought of this made her feel slightly better and by the time Jane came into the kitchen, Lizzie’s mood had lifted enough for her to smile without forcing it. ‘Iain looks like a love sick puppy,’ she said, teasingly.

Jane grinned, ‘More like a love sick bear, although I’m not sure “love sick” is totally flattering. Sounds like he’s caught some disease.’

Lizzie grinned back. ‘I’ve made tea if you want some – and I’ve made a decision but I need to ask you a favour.’

Jane poured herself some tea. ‘Sure, what is it?’

‘Will you look after Alastair for a few days and pop over and feed the animals. No, don’t say it. I know you think I should wait but I’ve calmed down now and thought it through and it really is the best thing for me to do. There are flights, and if you’re okay with taking Alastair, I was thinking of getting one this evening. That way, I can talk to Max tomorrow and if things go well, I can go to the solicitor first thing Monday morning to start the divorce proceedings.’

Jane nearly spat out her tea.’ My God Lizzie! You really are going for it aren’t you? Of course I’ll take Alastair and feed the animals but ... are you really, really sure?’

Lizzie nodded. ‘Yes. Deep down, I know that even if I can forgive Max – which I still can’t and it’s been over two years already – I’ll never fully trust him again and it would never work. I think I’ve been clinging to our relationship because I didn’t think I’d ever fall in love again but ... and I know this is even more stupid ... this business with Jack has shown me that I will, or at least, I can.’

Jane squeezed her friend’s hand across the kitchen table. ‘That’s good. So something positive has come out of it. Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you? Iain will happily look after Alastair and the animals. I would be happy to go.’

‘I know you would and I really appreciate that but it’s time I started standing on my own two feet. I’m a thirty-two old woman, as you constantly remind me,’ Lizzie said, grinning at Jane, ‘and I need to get on with my life. Things didn’t work out with Jack and it’s going to take me a little while to deal with all that but if, no, when, I do meet someone else, at least I’ll be free, both emotionally and literally to start a real relationship. As you said, a wedding and engagement ring don’t exactly shout, “I’m free”, do they?’

Jane got up and walked round the table to hug Lizzie. ‘Things will work out Lizzie, you’ll see. It’ll be fine.’

Lizzie raised her eyebrows. ‘I told you Jane, you always say that and it never is.’

‘Oh I don’t know, Iain Hamilton has just said he wants to make love to me for the rest of his life, so I’d say that’s working out pretty well, so far.’

Max was lounging on the balcony of his penthouse apartment which overlooked the Thames, enjoying the March sunshine. He was reading The Times as he always did on a Saturday afternoon and he’d seen the article about the snow they were having in Scotland.

His mind wandered back to the Christmas and New Year holiday he’d recently spent with Lizzie and how they’d been snowed in for several days. Several sex-filled days when Max had begun to hope that, at last, Lizzie had forgiven him and would come back to London so that they could resume married life.

He wasn’t sure why those days had felt different, to be honest, whenever he’d gone to visit Lizzie they’d always ended up having sex, great sex but then, sex had never been their problem, at least, sex between them had never been a problem. What had been a problem was that for some reason, that even Max couldn’t quite understand, he still wanted sex with someone else too.

When he’d fallen in love with Lizzie – and he definitely had fallen in love with her – he’d never have married her if he hadn’t, he’d only wanted to be with her, day in, day out, for the first two years at least, but he still turned to look when other women walked by.

By the third, although he still loved Lizzie and wanted to make love to her, he’d also started wondering what it would be like to sleep with some woman or other who happened to cross his path and whom he found attractive. He never did anything about it though, they were just thoughts.

In the fourth year, Kim Mentor came to work for him and Max found her very attractive. Not in the same way as Lizzie, Kim and Lizzie were about as opposite as they could be, but in a base, animal instinct, sex driven way.

Lizzie was sensual and sexual in an understated way. Kim was sex on legs. Nothing more, nothing less. Everything about her oozed sex, from her tiny waist to her shapely, swaying hips and her long gym toned, spray tanned legs but mainly it was her voluptuous breasts, all natural and not an ounce of man-made synthetic fibre in them. Just thinking about them now was enough to give him the start of an erection.

He shifted uncomfortably in his reclining chair and adjusted his jeans. He was definitely a boob man. Lizzie’s were nice, a shapely 34D but they had nothing on Kim’s. Kim’s were enough to drive a man wild.

He could remember the first day he’d seen them. It was July, a hot sticky day outside even at nine in the morning but cool and pleasant in his air-conditioned office and he was reclining in his chair, feet on his desk, closing a deal over the phone.

He was irritated that his new temporary secretary was late. He demanded all his staff be in the office by eight-thirty at the latest and was going to call personnel and give them a bollocking just as soon as he finished this call. He was just about to hang up when there was a knock at his open, glass door and Kim sashayed in, like a snow-queen on heat.

Tall, waist length blond, almost ice-white, hair, long white painted fingernails, white stilettos and a tight fitting, fairly short, fairly low cut white cotton dress, belted at her tiny waist. The dress had two thin straps about an inch wide, under which he could make out the straps of her white lace bra and as she leant over his desk to pass him a cup of espresso, the straps pulled against the pressure of her ample breasts like restraining ropes on heavy cargo; he actually thought they might break under the strain.

Max got an eyeful. His feet slid off the desk, taking a file of papers with them and he dropped the phone. Kim didn’t say a word. She put the coffee on the desk, glanced up at him under heavy mascara coated lashes and smiled through generous, glossy, blood red lips, exposing just a hint of perfect white teeth. It was both an invitation and a challenge and Max swallowed the lump in his throat.

Kim sauntered seductively around his desk, bent down; causing the already short dress to ride higher up her long tanned legs, bent forward and picked up the file and the phone. Again that look, again that smile, the glossy, blood red lips only feet from his crotch and Max had to grab his Financial Times from his desk to try to cover his erection.

In his haste he knocked over the coffee she’d just brought him. He jumped up, bumping chests with the now standing Kim as he did so and her breasts brushed against the fine cotton of his shirt. She didn’t move away and for the first time in his life, Max felt cornered, but the proximity of her body sent a rush of heat coursing through every last inch of him. They should take whatever Kim had and bottle it; it would outsell Viagra.

It was like leading a lamb to slaughter. Less than two weeks later Kim had taken Max to her bed and Max’s new temporary secretary had become Max’s new permanent secretary – and a lot more besides.

Max had improved Kim’s dress sense. Kim had subdued Max’s commonsense and the affair went on for almost six months until that fateful day when Lizzie had come back early from a weekend staying with Jane in Scotland and had found Kim Mentor with Max, in Max and Lizzie’s bed.

The telephone rang bringing Max back to the present. He fidgeted to try to get comfortable and picked it up.

‘Hi Max. It’s Lizzie. Can you spare me a minute? Max? Are you there?’

‘Sorry. Yes. Miles away. I was just thinking about you actually. I read you’ve got snow up there. Not like last time I hope.’

‘Um. No. No it’s not too bad. Um. Are you free tomorrow?’

He sat upright. ‘Yes. Why? Is there a problem? Are you okay? Do you want me to come up?’

Lizzie sucked in her breath. This was going to be more difficult than she thought.

‘Yes and No. I’m okay but Ja ... the guys have gone back to London. The bridegroom-to-be’s fiancée was in an accident and is in hospital so Ja ... they’ve all gone back.’

Max picked up on her strange tone. There was something she wasn’t telling him. ‘Oh. That’s a bit of bad luck. Will it affect you, financially I mean? If you’re going to be out of pocket I’ll see you right, sweetheart. You did this for me after all.’

‘I did it for the money Max.’ How like him, she thought. ‘I have offered to refund them part of it but they refused.’

‘Quite right too. It’s not your fault after all. So ... why do you want to know if I’m free tomorrow?’

‘I’m coming down and I’d like to talk to you tomorrow, if that’s okay?’

Max tossed his newspaper on the floor and swung his legs off the recliner. At last! He thought. She was coming back to him at last.

‘Of course it’s okay darling. You should know you don’t have to ask. I’m here for you. I’ll always be here for you. What time do you get in tomorrow? I’ll pick you up from the airport.’

‘Actually, I’m coming down tonight but I’ll grab a taxi and stay in an hotel –’

‘You’ll do no such thing! I’ll pick you up and you’ll stay here. Don’t argue. I insist.’

‘Max! Please. I really think it would be better if you didn’t and I’m staying at an hotel. This ... this is going to be difficult and ... well, I think it’s best if we have our own space.’

Max felt like he was a car in a crusher. He’d thought she was coming home but now ... well ... it sounded as if she was going to be delivering unpleasant news. Had she really meant what she’d said on the phone only a few short weeks ago, that it was finally over? He should have taken her away for Valentine’s instead of just sending flowers and perfume. An entire room full of flowers and a Valentine’s Gift Set of her favourite Chanel No 19 perfume but just flowers and perfume nonetheless.

‘Well. That sounds ominous! All the same Lizzie, I will pick you up and you will stay here. You can’t afford to be wasting money on hotels, unless you let me pay for it. I’ll pay for the flight too.’

‘Max no!’ One thing she had to say for Max, he was generous with money. When she told him she’d decided to buy Laurellei Farm, and he’d realised he couldn’t talk her out of it, Max insisted on buying her share of their home in Blackheath for an overinflated figure so that she would have cash to buy the place outright and pay for the work to be done. It was even enough to leave her a reasonable amount to tide her over until she got the business up and running.

‘Lizzie yes! Now stop arguing with me and go and get yourself ready. I know what you’re like; you’ll have to check everything four times before you leave. Is Jane looking after Alastair?’

‘Yes.’

‘Good. Then go and get your flight and text me the details. I’ll pick you up and we can take it from there. Here or an hotel is up to you – but I’m paying for everything either way. See you soon sweetheart and safe journey.’

Lizzie hung up. If only Max hadn’t cheated on her. In every other way, he really was the perfect man – apart from Jack. No! Jack was definitely not the perfect man and she must stop thinking that he was.

So, Max thought, after hanging up the phone. It seems there’s a chance that I’m going to be a single man again and for some reason, that didn’t give him any pleasure at all.

He hadn’t been a saint since Lizzie had left him. He was a man after all and he had needs. Seeing Lizzie every few months wasn’t nearly enough and he took his pleasure where he could get it.

He’d even considered seeing Kim again but he soon put that out of his mind. If Lizzie discovered that, she’d never take him back so he got Kim transferred to the legal department, far enough away not to be a distraction but close enough so that he could get the occasional look. A sort of pleasurable torture.

He’d heard from someone but he couldn’t remember whom, that she had started dating and she’d told him herself a few months later, that it was pretty serious. He couldn’t help but feel just a twinge of lust for her exquisite body. When she’d come to his office, late one evening, just before last Christmas to tell him that she was getting engaged, he wasn’t sure whether it was to gloat, to give him a chance to prevent it or just to have one final romp for old time’s sake.

She’d flirted with him, there was no doubt about that and he’d been sorely tempted, especially when she’d joked about being his “Christmas stocking,” but it just so happened that he had planned a surprise visit to Lizzie for the Christmas holidays and he was leaving the next day, so he’d told her he was very happy for her but he had to dash and he’d run like hell as if a pack of wolves were chasing him.