Appointment at the Altar

‘Because…because…’ His mouth was very close to hers now. ‘Don’t you want me to?’ he whispered.

That was unfair. He must know that every fibre of her was screaming Yes! Yes! Kiss me now! Kiss me for ever! Lucy swallowed. ‘It’s not that, it’s just…’

‘That you don’t want to admit that you do want me to?’ Guy murmured against her mouth, and Lucy couldn’t hold out any longer.

‘Yes,’ she said, and felt his lips curve in a smile the moment before they possessed hers.

She melted into him, winding her arms around his neck and parting her lips so that she could kiss him back the way she had longed to do. It was bliss to be able to taste him, to tangle her fingers in his hair, to press against all that lovely, lean, muscled strength while her body sang and her senses spun and everything in her screamed out for more.

‘Lucy,’ said Guy breathlessly as he came up for air. ‘Lucy…’ He took her face between hands that were not quite steady, his eyes dark and urgent. ‘Come back to the flat with me.’

Lucy was trembling. ‘No,’ she said and that tiny word was one of the hardest things that she had ever had to say. ‘No, that really wouldn’t be a good idea.’

‘Are you going to pretend that you don’t want to again?’ he asked, frustration edging his voice.

‘No,’ she said shakily. ‘There’s not much point in denying that I want to, but I’m not going to. We’re working together, Guy. I’m leaving soon. What’s the point in getting involved?’

‘We could have a good time together.’

No, because I want to marry you and spend the rest of my life with you.

But of course Guy wasn’t going to say that. She wasn’t the kind of girl he would marry. She was a fun girl, a girl to have a good time with. A temporary kind of girl who had temporary jobs and temporary boyfriends and moved on.

Now temporary wasn’t enough-now she wanted forever.

Furious with herself for having hoped for even a nanosecond that he would say that he loved her, Lucy pulled away.

‘You were the one who told me I should grow up, Guy. You said I could be more than a party girl. You told me I could change,’ she said. ‘Well, I have, so don’t complain now because you’d actually rather I still just cared about having fun. It’s too late for that now.’

CHAPTER TEN

LUCY took a deep breath and knocked on the door of Guy’s office.

‘Come in.’

He was sitting behind his desk when she went in, looking distant and abstracted, but the blue eyes sharpened at the sight of her.

‘Lucy,’ he said. ‘To what do I owe the pleasure?’

She hadn’t been alone with him since he had taken her home from Trafalgar Square, and the kiss had never been mentioned again. Lucy had tortured herself all weekend, imagining how things would have been if she had gone home with Guy as he had wanted, but she knew that she had made the right decision. It would have been wonderful, and, yes, they might have had fun for a couple of weeks, but when the party was over, what then? She needed more than fun now.

‘Sheila said that you could spare me a couple of minutes.’ Her heart was lodged high and tight in her throat, making it hard to speak.

‘Have you got a problem with the organisation of the party?’

‘No…well, yes, in a way…’

‘We’d better sit down, then.’ Guy got up from behind his desk and gestured her to the sofas.

Lucy perched on the edge of one, her hands clutched together to stop herself reaching for him, and let her eyes rest on his hungrily. There was an uncharacteristically strained look around his mouth and he looked as if he were sleeping as badly as she was.

She had hardly seen him since the Sheldons’ party. She had been genuinely busy, sending out cleverly worded invitations, cajoling caterers, confirming marquees, chasing up entertainers, rethinking decorations and intriguing the media, but the plans for the fund raising party had also been a good excuse to avoid Guy. On the few occasions they had met, they had been meticulously polite to each other and Lucy had hated it. Only desperation had brought her to him now.

‘What is it?’ asked Guy, settling opposite her.

Lucy drew a steadying breath. ‘I’m going to have to go back to Australia,’ she said baldly.

He went very still for a moment. ‘Now?’

She nodded miserably. ‘As soon as possible, yes.’

‘Can’t it wait? It’s only a couple of weeks until the party. I need you here to make sure it all goes off the way you’ve planned. It’s too late to get in yet another person,’ he said, a spark of anger in his eyes. ‘You can’t walk out on me now, Lucy.’

‘I don’t want to,’ she said wretchedly. ‘But this is something I have to do for Meredith.’

‘For Meredith?’ Guy frowned. ‘What’s this about?’

‘I went to see Richard yesterday,’ she told him. ‘They’re letting him go home soon, and he was talking about Meredith. He does that quite a lot. Last night, he went on and on about what a good friend she was and how much he missed talking to her, and I think-I’m sure-that if she were here, he’d realise that she’s the one he really loves.

‘And Meredith loves him,’ Lucy went on, desperate to make Guy understand. ‘She says she’s over him, but I know that she isn’t. If only she could come back, I know they would get together and she could be happy. Meredith deserves that more than anyone. She won’t come back as long as I’m here, though, and I’m afraid that if she waits too long, Richard will get on with his life. That nurse, Mairi, is already sniffing around.’

The words were tumbling out of her now and Lucy made herself stop and draw a breath. ‘I thought about this all last night. I’ve thought and I’ve thought…I know I’ll be letting you down,’ she said desperately, ‘but I owe Meredith so much. If I go back to fulfil my contract with Hal, she’ll be able to come home, and she’ll have a chance to be happy. I have to do that for her, Guy,’ she said in a low voice. ‘I’m sorry, but I did promise Hal that I would go back before Meredith could leave.’

‘I spoke to Hal the other day when he rang Ma to see how she was,’ said Guy after a moment. ‘He told me that Emma and Mickey had gone back to Sydney.’

‘Yes, Meredith emailed me that, too. But Hal still needs a cook.’

Getting to his feet, Guy prowled over to the glass wall and stood looking out at St Paul’s. ‘What’s this really about, Lucy?’ he asked abruptly. ‘Do you want to go back?’

‘No,’ she admitted.

‘So it’s not about Kevin?’

‘No,’ she said, startled that he even remembered Kevin. ‘I realised a long time ago that I was just in love with the idea of him. He was a kind of fantasy figure, I suppose. It wasn’t real.’

The tension in Guy’s shoulders relaxed and he turned round. ‘Then tell Hal how you feel,’ he said. ‘I know him. He’s not going to want you back unless you really want to be there, and now that Emma and Mickey have gone he’ll be able to manage without you. Ask him if he’ll let Meredith come home. Tell him why.’

‘What about my promise?’ said Lucy uncertainly.

‘You promised to make the party fun, too,’ he reminded her with a faint smile. ‘It won’t be unless you’re there.’

She bit her lip. ‘I’m sure someone else could take over.’

‘It’s too late for that.’ Guy shook his head. ‘No, I need you here. I’ve put a lot of trust in you, Lucy. I know you’ve been working really hard and that you’ve got some great ideas. You can’t just walk out now. There’s also the issue of our so-called engagement…or have you forgotten that?’

‘Perhaps it’s time we called it off,’ said Lucy. ‘I’m sure people must have noticed that we haven’t been spending time together.’