When Sharon woke the next morning, Bryan was gone and she might almost have thought that she had dreamt the night before except that as she sat up in the bed, she saw a note a note lying on the pillow next to her and recognized his bold and distinctive handwriting.The message was brief, almost curt. 'Breakfast downstairs at seven forty five. B'.That was all it said. He hadn't even said good morning nor even signed with his name, just with an impersonal initial.There was no indication whatoever of the intimacy they had shared the previous night.She ran a fingerprint over the writing,as though she were touching him and felt her inside dissolve completely.She thought of Bryan and images of the memorable night they had ran through her mind and she trembled.She wished that he had stayed behind so that they could have had another session. She knew that if he had still been there, she would have thrown herself at him again. At least she would have been the one to initiate it this time
After sitting on the floor for so long and crying her heart out, she realised that she couldn't stay there all day. She had to go down to breakfast because he was capable of coming up to get her and she didn't want that- she didn't want him walking back into her bedroom. The very idea wanted to make her want to throw up again. She showered and put on a dark grey pleated skirt, a lemon shirt, a grey waist coat over that. She combed her auburn hair into an elegant French pleat and did her make up. Clipped neat silver earrings on her ears and the considered her reflection.She wanted to look businesslike, cool and remote.Bryan Ferdinand wasn't going to find any weakness in her today, never again in fact.She had lied to herself for so long, telling herself that she hated him while she was in fact carrying a torch for him. Last night, the torch had set her on fire but it had burnt out now, thankfully, all that was left was blackened earth and emptiness.Now she really did hate Bryan Fer
The drive to the conference hall this time was endless. Sharon wondered when it would come to an end. The venue was not far from their hotel but today, the distance seemed to have increased tremendously. The car was claustrophobic, stifling her and making her feel like screaming, shut up in it with Bryan. His body far too close, every movement he made tearing at her nerves and making her sweat.She was so tense that as they got out of the car to go into the conference, she caught her heel on the Kerb.Bryan put an arm around her to stop her from falling, and as their bodies touched,Sharon had that familiar dizzying sense of the world spinning round her.She pushed him away, trembling and as she did so, caught sight of a dark red graze on the side of his throat, just under his ear.Heat enveloped her as she realised what it was. She had bitten him last night in the last moments of their lovemaking. She hadn't realised that she was leaving such obvious marks. What if someone noticed, m
Sharon woke up the next morning with a splitting Headache and a temperature, so she didn't have to lie to David when she called him at home.'I flew home a night early, I'm coming down with the flu, started throwing up and it's so hateful being I'll in hotels. I didn't miss any of the conference though, just the ball and Bryan is there to cover everytime that does happen.David was sympathetic. 'Don't worry about it. I think that you did the right thing. I hate being I'll in hotels myself'.'How are you? Feeling any better?' she asked, reminded that he had been ill before they left. In fact that was the reason she had had to go to the conference with Bryan in the first place. How much different she would have felt today if he had gone with her. She broke off a sigh Incase he heard it and started asking questions.I'll be back on Monday. I'm okay', he said. 'Maybe you caught the same bug I had? I hope I didn't give it to you. Have you got a headache?''Frightful one'. But she suspected
After the call, Sharon went over the Japanese stock market, observing all the shares they held and how they were doing. She had an appointment with a Japanese client that afternoon and wanted to know what she was talking about when she met him.She was coming out of the beautiful building which housed the bank at Lunch time when she saw Bryan strolling towards her from the taxi that had just dropped him.He looked at her and in his head, he thought, 'Look at the lady who made him feel less than what he was. She tries to put me down at all times but she does not know that I cannot be out down. I am like a mountain that cannot be shaken. Instead of allowing myself be put down by the likes of her, I shall cease to be Bryan Ferdinand. She reported sick but there is no sign of the I'll health in her. She looks as cool and as beautiful as ever and I want her desperately but I'll be damned if I'd let her know after hurting my feelings at every turn,by flinching away from me, from my touch bu
Sharon was working late one November night and the month was a grey and drizzly month in the year.Everyone else had gone home but she had to finish some research on a new investment programme they were working out for a big pension fund.She stopped to massage her eyes, Chinese fashion, her elbow on the desk and her palms pressed into her eyes, shutting out light and easing the strain on the iris, at the same time, letting her mind go blank. When she was very tired, this often helped to revitalize her for a while.She was totally unaware of Bryan's approach until he touched her shoulder.Then she whirled round, her gree eyes in shock.'Oh! It's you. Don't creep up to me like that. You nearly made my heart stop''Snd we wouldn't want that, would we?' he said dryly and she felt herself flush. You have to be on your toes when you talked to him, he used double meanings like thorns under the skin.She let that one go by without comment.'Why are you still working? You've got a long flight
The family had a hill farm in the border lands between England and Scotland made little money but her father loved it dearly.He was happy getting up before the sun broke through, looking after stock, mending dry stone walls, injecting sheep against the dozen or so diseases they were prone to, doing all the kinds of job that needed doing on the farm at any time of the year.Her father was a big man but though he was still tall, he now stooped. He had lived a hard life but it was the life he had chosen for himself and he never regretted it nor complained.Sharon's mother never complained either nor gave any sign of resentment for toughness of her daily life. She worked as hard as her husband, indoors and out. She made the bread they ate, fed the hens and collected their eggs, killed them too and cooked them.She washed the clothes and linen, ironed and baked and scrubbed and cleaned.There was never any money and this had spurred Sharon on to achieve all she possibly could. She soon un
Two periods missed. She couldn't be going to have Bryan's baby. It was not possible. She was afraid to go to her doctor. She did not know what he would say Because if it was not what she suspected, which she couldn't even voice aloud to herself even in the privacy of her room so that it would not become reality, then what was wrong with her?Her doctor, was stuffy middle aged man who didn't look like he would be sympathetic was not the type of person she could go to and tell that she thought that she might be pregnant.So, she went to the chemist and bought a do - it - yourself pregnancy test. The procedure was complicated but she knew that she wouldn't rest until she found out. She could not wait till the next day but did it that evening.The result was positive. She stood looking at it with white face and shadowy eyes. She was carrying, Bryan's baby. Her stomach twisted in protest and dismay.Oh, how had she been so wreckless and stupid? This was a complication' and consequence sh