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Fortunately the security guard who answered turned out to be the same one who had been on duty when she’d moved in.
‘Oh, yes, Miss Smith.’ His voice had the lilt of recognition when she identified her apartment number. ‘I hope there’s nothing wrong?’
‘No…it’s just that I wondered if you had seen Mr Fox go out…the man who was with me yesterday? He escorted me up from the car park a few minutes ago and was supposed to leave the building again straight away, but he’s left something important in my apartment…’ Namely Harriet!
‘No, but then he might not have come through the foyer if he had his car in the basement. Shall I call Basement Security and see if they can stop him?’
‘He hasn’t got his car with him. I presumed he was going to get a taxi—’
‘Oh. Then would you like me to try his penthouse for you? He usually calls a taxi from there and then rings down for us to notify him when it arrives…’
Five minutes later Harriet had her finger firmly on the bell of 901, trying to ignore the quaking in her stomach.
When Marcus opened the door she pushed roughly past him.
‘How dare you interfere in my life?’
He sighed, tightening the belt on his long dark blue towelling robe. ‘I take it you’ve just discovered that I live here too—’
‘Live here? Security told me you own the building!’ She raged further into his sprawling lair—much more luxurious than her own. He followed, his bare feet slapping lightly against the classic black and white tiles of the entranceway.
‘A terrible crime, to be true. Couldn’t this wait until morning, Harriet?’
The hint of impatience was fuel to the flame burning hot in her chest. ‘No, it can’t!’ she said savagely. ‘And don’t bother to tell me you’re too tired to listen, because Nicola told me that you never need much sleep.’
She came to a stop in the centre of a cool blue splitlevel lounge and, sure enough, there were papers spread out on the glass coffee-table, and a fountain pen casually uncapped beside them, as if it had just been thrown down.
Marcus had told her to ‘sleep well’ so that he could rush back to attend his long-established, much more fascinating mistress…his work!
She swung around, vibrating with outrage.
‘I was thinking more for your sake than for mine,’ he murmured. ‘Wouldn’t you like to mull this over before you say something we both might regret?’
‘You set me up, didn’t you?’ she exploded furiously. ‘No wonder that saleswoman fell over herself to sell me the apartment. She had orders from you to make sure I got it. No wonder it was such a good deal! And the irony is, I thought that I was exercising total freedom. I enjoyed knowing that I was buying a home by myself, for myself, for the first time in my life. But I wasn’t even allowed to do that, was I? All along I was being manipulated by you…’
‘It turned out for the best, though, didn’t it?’ he pointed out reasonably. ‘You told me last night you love the apartment.’
Harriet clenched her fists at her sides to stop herself from hitting him.
‘Best for whom? Did you feel sorry for me—was that it?’ She hated the idea of being an object of his pity. ‘Didn’t you think I was competent enough to find my own place? Or was it just because you needed to have me firmly under her your thumb to be sure I wouldn’t corrupt your precious daughter?’ She laughed wildly. ‘Yes, that’s it, isn’t it? You have to be in control of everything and everyone around you and you couldn’t stand it when I wouldn’t let you stifle me with your stuffy rules and expectations. You even stooped to using your daughter; you told her to bring me here, didn’t you?’
‘I suggested that she let you know there were apartments here for sale,’ he corrected her evenly. ‘The rest was largely the result of your own enthusiasm. The ultimate decision was yours. There was no cheati
ng or coercion involved, certainly not on Nicola’s part. I doubt that she knows I own the building. Nicola isn’t privy to all my business dealings.’
‘But she must know you have an apartment here. She could have told me that.’
‘I told her that it might unfairly prejudice your decision if you knew, and I was correct, wasn’t I?’ he said harshly. ‘It shouldn’t have been relevant, but you would have denied yourself an apartment that was everything you wanted just because you’re afraid to face what I represent. Your conscience eats at you when I’m around, doesn’t it, Harriet? You want to be totally reckless but you can’t quite escape the guilt. You thought you had all your reasons mapped out but now you’re not sure. Poor Harriet, you’re scared that I might curb your headlong rush into the arms of disaster—’
‘You mean the arms of other men! That’s what really bugs you, isn’t it? It’s not enough that you control where I work and where I live,’ she accused fiercely. ‘Now you want to control my sex life too.’
He crossed his arms, the lapels of his robe splitting to reveal a narrow V of skin above the loose tie.
‘If you mean your intention to engage in serial sex with a string of men whose only recommendation is what’s between their legs,’ he said through his teeth, ‘then yes—I’ll do everything in my power to stop you destroying what’s left of your self-respect!’
Harriet went scarlet from head to toe with a searing shame that drove her to greater recklessness. ‘You have no right to tell me who I can and cannot have sex with!’ she shouted. ‘I’ll sleep my way through the telephone directory if I feel like it.’
‘I certainly have more right than anyone else in your life, you stupid little bitch!’ he shouted back, the veins in his temples throbbing dark red, the cords in his neck standing out.
