The Mill House (28 page)

resentful over his failure to reassure her that he'd ended his affair with Sylvia. Though they obviously weren't together right now, they could easily be in touch by phone, and God only knew what kind of calls they might be having. Sylvia had often boasted about how good she was at phone sex, and the very idea that Josh had become one of the mindless idiots who drooled after her that way was so disgusting she could almost hate him.

She would hate him, she told herself, if she didn't love him so much, though God knew, she'd never felt less turned on by him than she had since finding out about Sylvia. However, she couldn't deny she was missing him, which in itself was extremely annoying when he clearly wasn't feeling the same way about her. Or, in typically perverse male fashion, he was punishing her with silence for making him feel guilty about something he damned well deserved to feel guilty about.

Chapter Ten

Josh was sitting on the aft deck checking email, while talking to Marina on the phone, and keeping an eye on Dan, who was helping hose down next door's catamaran. They'd long had the neighbouring berth so Brian Guest, a high-flying advertising executive, and his family, so they all knew each other well, and luckily Dan and Brian's son Gavin were around the same age.

Marina had a stack of messages, though fortunately there wasn't much she couldn't deal with herself, while this current batch of emails wasn't being quite so obliging. At least four needed answers immediately, which he couldn't provide without making several more calls, and three were from authors either demanding latest sales figures, or wanting to know why their books weren't in their local WHSmith. Some of the details Marina could handle, but the TLC and rockets-under- publishers were down to him.

Not until he rang off did he realise quite how far the temperature had dropped, for the wind

coming into the marina had started to turn bitter now, and the way it was blowing up meant they could be in for a rocky night. Dan would love it - the wilder the better, as far as he was concerned. Watching him now, dashing about the other boat, taking orders from Brian and bossy Gavin like the good little crew he was, Josh felt his heart swell with pride. How could he be anything other than glad he'd brought Dan here, when the boy was clearly in seventh heaven? And when he, Josh, wasn't calming irate or insecure authors, courting new editors, living with the guilt of stealing into another berth in the dead of night to take a phone call from Sylvia, or dealing with his highly stressed teenage daughter who'd been on the phone earlier for over half an hour complaining about her mother, he was loving being here. It was just a pity Julia and Shannon didn't seem to be getting on so well, he reflected grimly to himself.

'It's not fair, Dad,' Shannon had wailed, 'I have to have a holiday too. I'm not a machine, and she's making me stay in to do all my coursework.'

'But your exams are coming up, sweetheart,' he'd pointed out. 'You need to study.'

'Yes, but not all day. I was doing really well with my riding, and I like need some relaxation in order to sit my exams, not to be all stressed and uptight, but now she's got me locked in my room and won't let me out. You've got to talk to her, Dad. Please.'

'Shannon ...'

'No, don't take her side!' Shannon cried. 'I'm doing well at school, Dad, you know I am. So I should be allowed to go out, shouldn't I? Fen's not making Ottie study all the time, and she's got her

mocks coming up too Dad, please make her let me go out. Please, please, please. I'll love you forever.'

In the end he'd agreed to have a word with Julia, as much to free up his hands to help Dan with the jib as to placate Shannon. She probably wouldn't be feeling too happy with him by now though, for a couple of hours had passed since he'd promised to tackle her problem. He'd been up to his eyes coping with halyards and wind swings, not to mention phone calls, emails and a courier from Marina who'd been waiting when they'd returned to port, with documents in need of his signature.

He'd put Shannon out of her misery in the next few minutes though, for he really should call Julia anyway. She was probably assuming by now that he was deliberately avoiding her, and, in truth, she wasn't altogether wrong. However, he didn't want So risk another row before he'd dealt with these emails and vetted an urgent contract in order to FedEx it back to London tomorrow, so she and Shannon would just have to wait a little bit longer. Before he went any further, he needed to pop below to fetch a warm jacket for Dan, and make some kind of decision about what they were going to eat tonight.

After tossing Dan's fleece over to Brian he returned to his laptop, and was just getting stuck into the emails when his mobile burbled into life. With his eyes still on the computer screen he reached for it expecting it to be Marina, or someone else related to work, but on hearing who it was all thoughts of everything else slipped from his mind.

'Hi,' she said. 'Can you talk?'

'Not really,' he answered, sounding deliberately cold, in spite of the intimacy of their more recent calls.

'OK. So just answer yes or no,' she said. 'Have you given any more thought to coming over here?'

'It's out of the question,' he told her. 'Julia knows you're there.'

'But you want to come.'

After checking to make sure Dan wasn't in earshot, he said, 'Look, there's no point me trying to pretend anything here, because we both know I'd be there if I could, but we agreed, when this started, that as soon as it needed to be over it would be, and it needs to be over.'

'How's Julia?' she said mildly. 'Has she found out anything about her father yet?'

He took a breath. 'Not really,' he answered. Then, trying again, he said, 'Sylvia, you have to stop calling me. I know it...'

'Josh, darling, I'm not asking you to marry me,' she said. 'I just want you to go on fucking me.'

His eyes closed as her bluntness had the desired effect. 'I have to go now,' he said gruffly.

She fell silent, but though he intended to ring off, for some reason he didn't.

'You know, I think I should call Julia,' she said finally. 'I'm very late with my condolences, which isn't good in a friend. Could you give me the number of where she is?'

Astonished that she was even suggesting it, he said, 'Sylvia, you must know there's no way in the world she wants to talk to you.'

'I can always call her mobile,' she went on, as

if he hadn't spoken. 'Or I could get the number from Shannon. Does she have her mobile with her? Yes. I'm sure she does ...'

'Sylvia, what the hell is going on?' he cried.

'I just want the number of where Julia is,' she replied. 'So why don't you give it to me, and then I won't have to call Shannon, will I?'

Realising this was probably some kind of power play to see how far she could push him, he was tempted just to ring off, but he sure as hell didn't want her calling Shannon, any more than he wanted her talking to Julia. However, he knew from experience that it wasn't wise to mess with her when she was intent on exerting control. It had only happened once before, when she'd wanted him to make love to her at his office and he'd refused. As far as he was concerned he wasn't prepared to conduct any part of their relationship on his territory. She'd clearly sensed it, so to show him that it would happen her way, she'd waltzed right in while Marina was there, chatted with her for
A
minute or two, then had unbelted her raincoat, while turning her back so that only he could see, from where he was sitting, that she was stark naked underneath. He'd immediately ushered her into his office, closing the door firmly behind her, and had barely had time to send Marina out for coffee before he was fulfilling Sylvia's fantasy of being taken over his desk.

'Julia's your best friend,' he reminded her, after giving her the number of the mill house. 'Why would you want to hurt her?'

'She's your wife,' she countered, 'why would you?

He took a breath, but before he could respond she said, 'The fact is, Josh, it's not about hurting her, it's about us not being able to get enough of each other. Now, I know you don't want to admit that, but we both know it's true. You're thinking about me all the time, even now you're imagining your cock going all the way inside me ...'

'Sylvia stop ...'

'Tell me it's not true.'

'It's not true.'

She laughed. 'You don't make a good liar,' she told him.

'Look, please don't call again,' he said, meaning

it.

'If I thought you meant that, I wouldn't,' she responded. 'But I know you don't.'

As the line went dead he clicked off from his end and let his eyes drift to his computer screen, then on out across the marina, to where the clouds were gathering on a far horizon. But he was seeing nothing, he didn't even hear Dan calling out for him to look, because he was too appalled by how deep in this he seemed to be. Sylvia wasn't just going to go away as they'd agreed, that much was clear, but worse was the fact that he wasn't exactly trying to make her. Oh, he was saying the words, but he was convincing no-one, least of all her, because the truth was, he wanted to go on screwing her, and if he could get to New York, he knew he'd probably be on the next flight. He wished he knew what was drawing him to her, because he had no real feelings for her, and although she was great in bed, it didn't even come close to what he shared with Julia. So why the hell

was he finding it so hard to let her go? It wasn't even easing his conscience to know that he was making no attempts to call her. She was doing all the running, letting him know that she wanted this affair to continue, and as far as she was concerned it was certainly going to.

Suddenly he was having visions of it turning into some kind of Fatal Attraction scenario, and knowing only too well where that had ended, his blood ran cold. But Sylvia was a successful woman with a public profile who greatly valued her reputation not only as an author, and an artist, but as someone who had her life totally together, particularly where men were concerned. So it was a ludicrous overreaction on his part to start thinking she posed some kind of danger, because there was just no way a woman in her position was going to start threatening Julia, or any of them ... So what had the phone number been about? A little artful manipulation to see how far she could push him, or something much darker? With untold relief he decided it had to be the former, because she had Julia's mobile number, so if she really did want to be in touch, she'd use that...

His mobile started to bleep. It was another text from Shannon.

Pleeeez talk to Mum! Can I borro £20? Wl pay u bk. Promis.

'Dad!' Dan shouted, as though he were three moorings away.

'I can hear you,' Josh answered.

'Brian and Gavin are going to the pub tonight. Can we?'

'No problem.'

'Yes!' Dan cried, punching the air. I'll buy you a pint with my pocket money.'

Smiling, Josh looked at the text again, then putting the phone aside, he attempted to carry on with the message he'd been typing when Sylvia called. It didn't take long, but there were at least a dozen others that had to be written, and by the time he was halfway through them more had come in, all needing urgent attention. Then Marina called to warn him that one of his major, US-based clients had just sacked his publisher.

'But he can't do that,' Josh protested, 'he's in the middle of a contract.'

'Well apparently he thinks he can, and the publisher wants you over there PDQ to sort it out.'

Josh stared at the phone in horror. 'Marina, you've got to deal with this,' he told her urgently, 'because there's just no way in the world I can go to New York right now. If I do, I'll have a divorce on my hands.'

Marina's astonishment was audible. 'Are you asking me to go over there?' she replied. 'I don't think they'll accept that.'

'Then just stall. Next week maybe, but this week is absolutely out of the question.'

'Because of Dan, of course,' she said. 'OK, leave it with me, I'll see what I can do.'

Almost the minute he rang off another text came through from Shannon, begging him to ring Julia immediately.

Unable to face further entreaties, he punched in the mill-house number and as soon as Julia answered he said, 'What the hell's going on with

Shannon? She says you've got her locked up over there, and she's texting me every five minutes .. .'

Julia's voice came down the line like a whip, 'Just who the hell do you think you're talking to?' she seethed. 'I don't hear from you in over two days, and now you've got the nerve to ...'

'All right, all right,' he cut in, accepting he could have started better. 'Just tell me what's going on. Why isn't she allowed out?'

'Of course she's allowed out, but in case you'd forgotten her mocks are coming up, so it can't be all play.'

'She says she's prepared and doesn't need to do any more revision.'

'Josh, I'm not arguing with you about this. You can take her side all you like, but she's still going to put in three hours a day, and that's an end to it. Jesus, if it were left to you, she'd never get anywhere.'

'And left to you she'd have no fun.' 'Excuse me?' Her tone of voice was so scathing, he could be in no doubt that he'd hit the wrong button again. 'Isn't it you who has a problem with the social life ...'