Bittersweet Love - Cathy Williams [58]
Eric looked down and twiddled with the stem of his wine glass. ‘You know her, actually.’ He raised his eyes to her. ‘Anna. Your boss’s ex-girlfriend.’
Anna. Anna and her threats to show her what it felt like to have her man stolen. Was this her revenge? Stealing Eric? And had that revenge turned into some-thing unexpected? Surely it had to be the latter. After all, marriage was a heavy price to pay to even a debt, and Natalie could not see the other woman paying it simply for that reason.
‘You really are a sly one,’ she said, keeping her thoughts to herself, then with a gesture of affection she leaned across the narrow table and threw her arms around his neck, kissing him soundly on the mouth—a totally sexless kiss that spelt fondness and nothing more.
And as she raised her eyes she met familiar green ones staring at her from across the room. Cool, assessing and not very friendly. And across the table from him a pair of blue eyes gazed with open lust at his face. Blue eyes that belonged to a long body, jet-black hair and the face of an unknown woman who looked like an angel.
Suddenly Natalie didn’t feel quite so happy any more.
CHAPTER NINE
HER face was pink when she sat back down in her chair, but Eric merely assumed that it was because she was taken aback, surprised and thrilled at his revelation. And Natalie made no attempt to disillusion him. Nor did she inform him that her exboss—and Anna’s exlover—was sitting behind him, a few tables away.
Besides, she had a feeling that it would have gone in one ear and out of the other. He was far too busy chattering away about his fiancée, expressing wonder at his luck in having had his proposal of marriage accepted.
‘Of course, my parents are going to be a little disappointed,’ he said with a grin. ‘I think they wanted to see me happily settled with someone slightly less flamboyant, but you know love.’
Natalie laughed vaguely and her eyes slipped across the room to where Kane was now looking at the woman at his table, a warm smile curving his lips.
So much for my long-lasting impact on him, she thought. She tried her best to be philosophical; after all, wasn’t this just precisely what she wanted? But it was difficult being philosophical when salt was being rubbed into an open wound.
When Eric excused himself to go to the men’s room, it was almost a relief to have silence. She looked miserably down into her cup of coffee and swirled it between her fingers, watching the liquid form patterns in the cup. When was this piercing ache ever going to leave her? She glanced up at Kane and her whole body quivered with remembered longing. She had loved this man for years, had always known that it would lead no-where. Surely that should make her feelings easier to control? Surely that should numb the bitter jealousy spreading through her at the thought of that unknown woman in bed with him?
Because there was very little doubt that that was where their evening was heading. All those coy looks in between provocative tossing of her black mane were not destined to a cup of cocoa in front of the television. Cups of cocoa weren’t Kane Marshall’s style at all, Natalie thought acidly, and from the looks of the woman in his company they weren’t hers either.
‘Of course, you’ll come,’ Eric was saying as he sat back down and beckoned the waiter across for the bill.
Natalie looked at him blankly.
‘To the wedding,’ he explained patiently, ‘Next week Friday. A simple affair at a register office. I’ll phone and give you all the details.’
She nodded absent-mindedly, and Eric looked satisfied. He paid the bill, his face still wreathed in smiles at the prospect of tying the knot, and they went directly back to her flat. Natalie kissed him on the cheek, then gave him a hug, and let herself into her empty home.
She felt dull and lifeless, and horribly weighed down with the knowledge of her pregnancy. It was usually a cause for celebration with most women, she thought sadly, yet here I am, hiding it as if it’ s something shameful.
The doorbell