PROLOGUE
Kate gasped and shook her head, her shaggy hair spraying water everywhere, then tugged cold fingers through the saturated tangle, striving to tame the beast. The rain bounced off the pavement, slowing traffic to a crawl, and as she sheltered in the shop entrance, she realised there was no way she was going anywhere, not unless she wanted to drown. She shook her head again and turned towards the glass door behind her, cringing as she caught sight of the hirsute cyclone on her head, mirrored in the crystal clear glass.
‘Bloody hell!’
Kate jumped and swung towards the voice, one hand clutching her chest in a vain attempt to stop her heart leaping out her mouth. Her other hand automatically began a desperate, last ditch effort to calm her unruly mane.
‘Um … hello.’
‘Hello.’ He looked down into Kate’s upturned face and stumbled backwards, obviously startled. Kate gave up calming down her heart, obviously both hands were better occupied in mollifying her hair before this poor bloke had an apoplexy.
‘It’s raining,’ she offered, gesturing vaguely towards the downpour. Maybe he hadn’t noticed.
‘I noticed,’ he replied, still gaping at her hair. At least he didn’t look quite so disturbed now.
‘It’s really hard,’ she offered, talking about the rain but unable to stop her eyes travelling down his body, magically halting at his crotch. It didn’t look hard but then again …
‘Do you come here often?’ Kate bit her lip, dragging her attention back to his face; what a bloody stupid thing to say. The man blinked a couple of times and his gaze shifted from her hair to her face.
‘This is my shop,’ he smiled, motioning towards the bakery they were sheltering outside.
Kate knew that, she came here at least a couple of times a week. Kate also knew that he knew that she knew. ‘Um …’ she really couldn’t think of anything else to say.
‘You’re very wet,’ he shoved open the shop door, ‘come inside and I’ll find you a towel.’
The bakery was large, full of mouth-watering smells and ambrosial tastes. Kate licked her lips; this shop always made her feel hungry. She trotted after his retreating back, trying not to drip on the freshly cleaned tiles.
The man held open a door, ‘it’s warm in here. I’ll find you a towel and … um … a mirror, if you’d like.’ He looked askance at her wayward locks, a small smile touching the corners of his mouth. ‘I’m Frank, by the way.’
‘Kate.’ She nodded her thanks and Frank disappeared.
Interested, Kate scrutinised her surroundings. The office was large, surprisingly so, with a bed in the far corner. No, hang on, not a bed, a desk; that’s it. Papers and books were scattered everywhere; on the desk, the other table in the corner, even on his chair. Kate moved closer, intrigued to see what this attractive baker liked to read. Tilting her head she began to read the title.
‘It’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, one of my all-time favourites,’ Frank’s amused voice came from behind her and Kate whirled around, she hadn’t heard him come back in and her face flushed as if she had been caught snooping.
Frank grinned and with an elegant sweep of his arms he deposited a large, blue towel gently over her shoulders like a cape. ‘You’re shivering,’ he observed, rubbing his hands energetically up and down her arms, ‘coffee?’
Kate clutched the towel tightly around her upper body, suddenly she didn’t feel quite so cold anymore. Her mouth was dry, her eyes transfixed by the indigo intensity of Frank’s gaze. His hands stilled as he returned her look, the hunger burning straight through her soul.
One hand floated up, stroking her face from cheekbone to the corner of her mouth, caressing her lips, and she closed her eyes, her breath catching in her throat.
‘You’re beautiful,’ he whispered, his teeth nibbling her ear. ‘I’ve wanted you for so long. Too long.’
His breath was hot on her neck, his hand now running down the length of her spine, holding her close. The towel forgotten, she put her arms around him, her head tilted back, the muscles of his shoulders tense beneath her palms.
His lips found hers, gentle at first but with an urgency that flowed deep and her lips parted to admit his lightly probing tongue, the wave of sexual desire shooting its arrow directly between her thighs.
They were naked; how’d that happen? His mouth soft and moist on her nipples, his fingers smoothly sensual on her buttocks. Kate was ready to burst as he lay her down on the floor.
‘Bloody hell,’ she’d forgotten how to say anything else; she’d forgotten anything but Frank.
‘Bloody hell!’ She could feel the immense power build up in her body as waves of satisfaction burst through every pore. It was the best sex she had ever had.
‘Kate. Oh Kate.’
‘Bloody hell,’ she thrust her hips towards him, never wanting it to end.
‘Kate!’
‘Oh …’
‘Kate?’
‘Oh …’
‘Kate? Wake up. Kate!’
‘Oh … what?’ Kate reluctantly opened her eyes as the fantasy faded, ‘bloody hell.’
CHAPTER ONE
Kate leaned back on the pillows and nodded her thanks to Will, sipping the hot milk he’d brought in for her. He placed his own cup on the bedside table and quickly slid back under the sheets beside her.
‘Bit nippy tonight,’ he observed mildly.
Kate nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
‘Bad dream was it?’
Kate glanced at Will before burying her face in the steaming mug. She nodded again.
‘You were talking in your sleep,’ Will continued calmly, ‘and thrashing around like you were fighting someone. Do you remember what happened?’
Kate slid her empty cup onto the bedside table. She felt weak and euphoric; drunk. The fantasy was still ultra fresh in her mind and she surreptitiously rubbed her thighs together, trying to retain the orgasmic power that had inundated her only minutes before.
‘Um … no. Not really. I think there was a monster.’ A monster? That’s a good one.
‘Hmm,’ Will looked thoughtful, ‘try and get some sleep, okay?’ He leaned across and kissed her on the cheek before turning off the light. Kate threw herself onto her belly, turning her embarrassed face away from her husband.
What the hell just happened?
All right, bad choice of questions. She knew what had happened; it wasn’t the first erotic dream she’d ever had, but it had felt so real, been so vivid. Her fingers could still feel the coarseness of the short hairs on Frank’s inner thighs, her lips were bruised and tender as if they had just been passionately kissed.
Why him? Why Frank?
She couldn’t deny that he was attractive but finding a man attractive and being attracted to him were entirely different, so why was the line blurring? Why did it feel like she was attracted to sexy Frank Jones?
She sighed heavily and rolled onto her side, stilling her frustrated movements as Will grunted in his sleep. It was all Will’s fault. It had to be. Before she had found out his secret she’d been happy. Wife, mother, aspiring journalist; she had everything she’d ever wanted.
Safe in the darkness of her bedroom her mind took her back, reliving the events that had changed her life forever: had it really happened just three days ago? It had been raining that night too, a steady downpour, softening her view as she peered through the side window of her car into the darkness of the shop.
She couldn’t get that conversation out of her head, the conversation she’d had with Will moments before he’d left that evening. She’d sounded petulant, pouting childishly, accusing Will with her eyes. She just couldn’t help it, she hadn’t wanted him to go.
‘I thought you didn’t have to work tonight.’
‘I don’t have to work,’ he’d repeated, speaking to the child she was obviously pretending to be. ‘Carl’s finished the roster for next week so I may as well pop down and pick it up. I won’t be long.’
‘Why can’t you get it tomorrow? You’ll be there anyway.’
‘I thought I’d pick you up a bottle of wine on my way back.’
‘I don’t want a drink,’ Kate was lying through her teeth but she didn’t care. Right now she would happily murder someone just for a small glass of white. She was panicking.
Will grinned, ‘that’s not like you, Kate,’ he gave her a peck on the cheek and she turned her head away. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the questioning look on his face before he shrugged, dismissing her gesture as unimportant. She’d listened as his car pulled out of the driveway, the panic replaced with a blind anger. One night. He couldn’t even stay away from her for one night. That she was working tonight Kate had no doubts, why else would he bother, surely not for next week’s roster. She ran shaky fingers through her hair, she had to do something. Now.
Sitting in her car, watching the raindrops snake slowly down the window and acting like a jealous wife, a spoilt brat, was that really what she meant by doing something? Did she really want to feel like this?
‘No.’ Quietly spoken but with solid conviction.
‘No!’ Louder now, stronger.
‘NO!’ Now she almost believed it herself.
Kate reached towards the dangling car keys and grasped the cold metal but before she could start the engine a sudden movement caught her eye and she turned towards it, just as her husband came into view in the dimly lit shop. Jealousy stilled her hand and she waited impatiently for Will’s co-worker Lesley to follow him out. Lesley, with legs up to her armpits and sexy, sultry smile. Lesley, with come-to-bed eyes and perfect, pert breasts. The woman was a walking, talking cliché.
Will turned back towards the door, laughing. Kate stared, gritting her teeth as Will’s companion finally moved into view within the shop, her eyes widened in shock, ‘no, please no. You’ve got to be kidding.’
Tall, dark and attractive, the newcomer certainly was. Charming and sexy, even; if you liked that sort of thing. Will didn’t like that sort of thing. Did he?
‘Oh crap!’
Will moved closer to the other person, his hand on their shoulder, embracing.
Kate shifted in her seat, desperate for a clearer view, contorting her body into an unnatural angle in a wretched attempt to see what was going on.
‘Oh, double crap.’
Kate’s fingers were shaking, rattling the car keys, jerking them violently in the slot. She started the engine on the third try, threw the car into gear and lurched away from the curb. She had to get away from there. Now.
How could she have been so blind? How could she have missed the signs? He was obviously having an affair, she’d expected that. But not with Lesley. Not the sexy blonde. Kate furiously blinked hot tears away as images flashed non-stop through her mind.
It was Carl. Her husband was having an affair with Carl.
Whether he was homosexual or bisexual didn’t matter to her. Bisexual seemed more likely considering he had sired two children and seemed to genuinely enjoy making love with a woman but, bloody hell, he did it with men too.
Her initial reaction had been a mixture of emotions, all swirling uncontrollably in a quagmire of doubt. Angry and confused she’d been determined to have it out with him that night. Throw him out of the house, launching his belongings out of the window until there was a mountain of clothes, videos, CDs and tools on the front lawn. But ten minutes after she’d hurried in the front door Will had sauntered in, a bottle of wine grasped in each hand.
‘I am so sorry.’
Those had been his first words: I am so sorry.
She’d glared at him, her first accusations dying on the tip of her tongue. Surely he hadn’t seen her watching him, stalking him.
A slow smile lit his face: that smile, the smile she had fallen in love with all those years ago. ‘I am so sorry,’ he repeated.
Kate frowned, did he think all this was funny? She stepped towards him, the anger surfacing to drive all other emotion away but before she could speak he reached out and grabbed her hands. ‘I am so sorry that I entered a competition at work. And I am so sorry that the first prize was a family holiday. And I am so very, very sorry that … I WON!’
‘What?’ Kate was confused; this is not how it was supposed to happen. Piles of belongings would not appear on the lawn unless she hurled them out the upstairs window and the way things were going not even a sock was likely to take that death-defying leap.
Will was practically laughing, ‘I entered a competition at work.’
Kate jerked her hands away and put them on her hips, ‘you don’t say.’
‘We’re going on holiday.’
‘You’re taking me?’
‘Of course. Who else?’
Kate bit her lip. Will’s grin had faltered but was soon back, brighter and wider than before.
‘We’re going on a big, big plane to a place a long, long way away. Jetting away from our tiny corner of Australia, all expenses paid, to … drum roll, please … Great Britain.’
Now tossing and turning in bed, half hoping for another dream the same as the last, Kate replayed that fateful moment over and over in her mind. Of all the places in the world: England, Kate’s birthplace, the country her parents still called home. The parents she’d not seen in four years and missed like crazy.
And Will was taking her there.
‘Bugger,’ she muttered and threw herself onto her back. How on earth could she have said anything to him after that? ‘Thanks, Will, I’d love to go to England with you and by the way, are you gay? Sure you don’t want to take your boyfriend instead?’ No, somehow it just didn’t work.
A trip to England was too important and if that meant keeping up this charade for another few months until the trip then so be it. Kate’s mind was made up; she would not confront Will until after they returned. Life would have to go on as normal, whether she liked it or not.
What about Frank?
Kate was adamant her attraction to Frank Jones was just a passing phase, made up by her own mind to compensate for her husband’s lack of attention.
‘I’m only human.’
One thing did have to change though, ‘me! I have to change. Goodbye frumpy housewife, hello sex kitten,’ she purred. ‘He won’t be able to resist me.’
As she finally dropped back into a deep, dreamless sleep, a thought flitted into Kate’s mind. A seed that soon settled, ready to take root. He won’t be able to resist me she had said. What she still had to clarify in her own mind was exactly who wouldn’t resist. Who did she really want?
Will … or Frank?