Love in Vogue (23 page)

‘I’m sorry for
everything
, Corinne,’ Philippe said at last, so emphatically that she had to believe him. ‘I know how you must feel. But I did love you. I never meant to hurt you. Please try to understand.’

‘And Claire? Did you love her too?’ Her tone was sarcastic.

‘No. Actually, that’s not true. Yes, I did. I loved you both.’

‘You have absolutely no idea of what real love is, do you?’

‘Look, I’m trying to be open with you. I know how it must look to you, but I can’t lie to you again. When I fell in love with you, it was a bolt from the blue. I was already involved with Claire, and I was deeply attached to her. But I thought nothing could ever come of it because she was married, so I suppose I wouldn’t allow myself to be in love with her. And that made it all the easier to fall for you.’

‘Well, that was very convenient for you. God, Philippe! Didn’t you think of anyone but yourself? You must have known someone would get their heart broken, but of course it wasn’t you, so you didn’t care. And to think I was in love with you. Horribly in love with you.’ Disgusted, she looked at him as though it were for the first time. ‘What a bloody fool I was.’

‘But with excellent taste,’ he said, the glimmer of a smile in his eyes.

She caught it and itched to slap his face again. But then, despite everything, found herself wanting to laugh. ‘How much excess baggage did you have to pay for that ego of yours?’

‘Had to charter a whole plane. It was damned expensive.’

The laugh came. He was utterly impossible. He always had been. She had thought she hated him, but found she didn’t. Couldn’t. No one could resist that wry grin of his, those appealing blue eyes, that fiendish charm.

‘Oh, go away, Philippe,’ she said, not unkindly, ‘and leave me alone.’

‘So you don’t care,’ he said in a quiet voice.

‘You surely don’t expect me to feel anything for you now?’

‘But when we kissed! Corinne, I felt it. You did too. Don’t look at me like that! I know it’s over – but that didn’t stop me wanting you just now.’

‘That was just sex,’ she said coolly, but his words gave her a real boost.

‘Have you had other lovers?’

‘I don’t suppose you were celibate while you were away.’

‘No. But with you it was special. I wondered if you’d found it easy to forget.’

What did he want? She wasn’t going to fuel his vanity by confessing she hadn’t forgotten at all, and that until Miles no one had even come close to making her want a man the way she had just wanted him. He probably wouldn’t believe her. Now she was near him, she could hardly believe it herself. Her heart was safe. As for the desire aroused by their kiss, that had been an instinctive reaction she thought lost beyond recall. And with it, Philippe had exorcised himself.

‘I’m not discussing my private life with you.’ She rose from her chair.

‘I suppose we can still meet occasionally? As friends?’ He stood up, suddenly feeling rather foolish.

‘We can’t really spend the rest of our lives avoiding each other. I’ll see you around.’

‘Can’t you forgive me, then?’ Their eyes met. ‘You see, darling, we never said goodbye properly. This is it. I don’t want you to hate me, that’s all.’

‘You ought to think of all the reasons why I should.’

Philippe moved towards the door. ‘All right, if that’s the way you want it.’

She let him go out, heard his quick footsteps crossing the hall, and then followed him. ‘Philippe, wait.’

He stopped with his hand on the knob of the side door. She caught up with him, and they both went outside to his car.

‘When do you see Isabelle?’ she asked.

‘Monday.’

‘Give her a kiss from me.’

Philippe cupped her face in his hands and kissed her forehead and both cheeks. He got straight into the BMW and she waved as he drove off. Yes, they would see each other again, but they both knew now things would never be the way they were before.

Afterwards Corinne sat for a while in the tranquillity of her office, trying to think of how she would approach Miles. Catching sight of herself in a mirror, she realised she looked and felt a mess. Nearly five-fifteen; they ought to have tea. She had arranged it specially, and Françoise had left everything ready in the kitchen before going off duty for the rest of the
weekend. Corinne
decided to freshen up and fetch Miles from wherever he had gone off to sulk. The library, probably. He had been poring over that contract between Fabrice Marchand and the Marquise de Charbuy all morning. She couldn’t think why he found it so fascinating.

She went slowly upstairs and along to her room. The door to his was open. Looking in, she saw him sitting on the bed, Marius stretched at his feet.

‘Oh there you are, Miles. I’m just going to change. Shan’t be long.’

Miles didn’t return her smile. He watched her go into her room, waited for the door to close. The bag was packed, he was ready to go. Should he just leave without a word, or make some excuse? He decided to speak to her – after all, it wasn’t her fault she couldn’t return his feelings. But he couldn’t bear another night of torture, knowing she was only yards away; knowing now that she had a lover called Philippe de Rochemort.

He knocked on her door, but there was no answer. After a few moments he opened it. Empty. She was in the bathroom. He could hear the shower. He went in to wait for her, and soon realised it was a mistake. There were photographs, books, little ornaments and knick-knacks; her clothes on the floor, the smell of her perfume, an old teddy bear with a jaunty beret sitting on the window still. It was so full of girl stuff, so full of her. And she was giving it all to a man who apparently only had to walk in after years of absence for her to spread her legs.

Miles hurt more than he had ever thought possible. By the time Corinne was out of the shower, his pain was jagged with anger. He had looked at all the photographs on her dressing table – of her with her parents at her graduation, on holiday with her grandparents and Yolande, full of life and fun, with those wonderful dark eyes sparkling, and it killed him inside. That’s how she must look when she was happy, when she was with people she loved. She’d never looked at him that way. And he knew now why she never would.

The bathroom door opened and he whipped round in a flash. There she was, wrapped in a towel, staring at him in alarm.

‘Miles, what on earth are you doing in here?’

‘Saying goodbye. I’m leaving.’

‘Leaving? Why?’

‘Bloody hell, isn’t it obvious?’

Why did she look so taken aback? And so damned sexy. Beads of water dripped down her neck, trickling between her breasts beneath the towel. His mouth went dry and he put his hands in his pockets so he wasn’t tempted to grab her.

‘Look, I’m really sorry about this afternoon, but Philippe and I had a lot to talk about. Let me make it up to you. I’ve got some homemade scones for tea and …’

‘Scones! You think you can just offer me scones after you spent the afternoon fucking him? You’ve got a very perverse sense of humour.’

His smoky blue eyes acquired an intensity she had never seen before, his mouth was set hard. She stepped towards him, wanting to hold him, but he moved back to the door.

‘Don’t bother to see me out, Corinne. And don’t worry about UVS. I’ll still handle it all for you. I’ll call you with an update next week.’

‘Miles, for God’s sake! Stop!’ She moved close and grabbed his arm. ‘You don’t understand. Philippe and I didn’t have sex. I wouldn’t sleep with him now if he were the last man on earth. But I had to talk to him.’ His expression was unyielding. ‘You don’t believe me, do you?’

‘No.’

Miles shook her off, stepped backwards. He would be gone. Gone. That couldn’t be allowed to happen. She had to do something, keep him there, make him listen. She couldn’t think of anything else, so she dropped the towel.

‘I want you, Miles. Only you.’

He stopped dead, completely outgunned. She was absolutely stunning. More beautiful than he had even imagined, and he had done a heck of a lot of imagining. He took in the white, silky skin glistening with water droplets, the delicate hollow at her throat, the slender line of her shoulders, those delicious breasts, a lean stomach, and then the inviting curve of her hips and her sex. She stood proud, triumphant, with a smile in her eyes that told him everything he needed to know. He caught her by the waist and crushed her naked flesh hard against him.

‘Corinne,
what
did you say?’

‘I believe, Mr Corsley, that I just made a formal declaration of my interest in a merger with you.’ She looked up. ‘Is your offer still on the table?’

He seized on her mouth and her lips parted, drawing him in, tongues dancing in exploration until they were both breathless.

‘I’m sorry for what I said, but …’

‘Shut up, Miles.’

She didn’t want words. She only wanted his arms around her, that beautiful feeling of being where she belonged, unafraid and free. He found that she was casually stripping off his shirt while her mouth devoured him.

He pushed her back towards the bed. ‘You’d better be absolutely sure about this, darling, because I’m not going to be able to stop.’

‘Make love to me. Please.’

Desperate need smouldered in her eyes. She threw his shirt to the floor, began undoing his belt. Then they fell on the bed, and he raced to get his remaining clothes off. When he slipped into her open arms it was like coming home.

‘Darling Miles.’ She said it on a sigh, then kissed him in a long, slow, deep assault that was total surrender and urgent desire. Her heart was racing, her skin damp with beads of water and sweat. ‘I don’t want to disappoint you. I’m a bit out of practice.’

‘Corinne, you’re lethal. You could make me do anything.’

And she could. No woman had ever made him forget himself so utterly. She was sex, beauty, all woman. His woman. His eyes feasted, then he trailed his lips down her throat, found her breasts firm and taut, the nipples already hard. He sucked and tormented her with his tongue, while his fingers stroked between her legs, felt her hot and wet and trembling. She started moaning, arching up to meet his hand, and he thrust his fingers inside her as she came in a sudden spasm and screamed. She bucked against him as he continued to drive her on, gasped as she felt a fresh orgasm building inside her.

‘Oh God, Miles. Now! Now!’

Then he was inside her and it was frantic. She was so alive, so passionate, urging him on in as he plunged into her, fast, hard, desperate, driven to take and possess all she could give. She was his. It went through his brain every time he slammed into her, felt her gasp and shudder, pull him into her with an almost feral hunger. She was truly his. And as they climaxed together, he knew she had his heart and he’d never get it back.

‘Corinne,’ was all he could say as finally she grew still beneath him. ‘Corinne.’

Later she couldn’t remember if there was any part of her he hadn’t brought to a shuddering orgasm. Every single pore of her body oozed with sex and satisfaction. He lay in her arms, nuzzling her neck and shoulders, loving the feel of her fingers in his hair and her heart beating beneath his head.

‘Miles, you’re marvellous.’

‘You’re no slouch yourself, darling. In fact, if I’d known just how hot you are, I wouldn’t have been quite so patient.’ He raised himself to look into her eyes. ‘I was beginning to think you didn’t want me. But it was him, wasn’t it? What the hell did he do to you?’

‘Said he loved me. Cheated on me. Ran off and left me without a word. Broke my heart.’

‘Prick. But we aren’t all like that.’

‘I know. I did want you, Miles. Too much. But I don’t do casual sex.’

He kissed her. ‘Looks as though you’re stuck with me, then.’

‘So it would seem. Now that I am, I’d better make sure of exactly what I’m stuck with …’

Her eyes gleamed suggestively, her hands stroked down his back. She dragged his head down, brought her lips to his again. Found his tongue, tasted. She loved kissing him, loved making him feel every stab of desire, hearing him murmur her name as they fell ever deeper. She pinned his thighs and rolled him over, straddled him, began to kiss her way down his body. She wanted him so much, it shocked her. She hadn’t thought it possible to feel this overwhelming need to mate again, feel it pass through her yearning body to his.

‘Let me make love to you, Miles. It’ll be even better this time …’ her tongue was sending hot darts through every inch of him, ‘now that I’ve remembered a few things.’

‘Good God, woman. Can it get any better?’ He was out of his depth, being carried away on her relentless tide of pleasure. He grabbed her, tried to hold on, get back control.

‘Lie still. Relax. You’re beautiful, darling. So beautiful.’

No one had ever called him that before. He let himself go and floated. She remembered things he didn’t even know about. Admired and touched him as though his body was a banquet; feasted, found erogenous zones he never knew he had. Hands and lips caressed him expertly, thrilled him, built up waves of pleasure and urgency. She brought vivid sensation everywhere, played on every nerve ending, made him gasp and groan. And when he thought he couldn’t possibly feel more, she lowered herself on to him, took him inside her, and rode him hard over the edge and into oblivion.

Miles glanced through half-shut eyes at the clock on the bedside table. It was nearly eight. Corinne was sprawled on top of him, contented and spent. He tipped her face up and laughed.

‘Someone’s rather pleased with herself.’

‘You don’t look too unhappy, either.’ She stretched, nuzzled his neck. ‘I’m ravenous.’

‘We never had tea.’

‘Shocking. I’ve failed abysmally as a hostess.’

‘I think I can live with it.’ He wrapped his arms around her. ‘I’ll cook if you like.’

‘Can you?’

‘Cheese on toast.’

‘Wow, cordon bleu. I’m honoured.’ She tried to get up, but he held her tight. ‘Miles?’

He kissed her. ‘I’m not letting you get away this time.’

‘But I want to get up.’

‘I didn’t mean that.’ He kissed her again, longer, deeper. ‘I’m not letting you get away again, ever.’ He looked into her eyes. ‘Corinne, I love you. I need you with me. I never thought I’d feel this way about anyone. I can’t go back to a life without you.’