Crimson and Clover Read online

  “Oh.” Adam blinked at her short tone. “Do you need some help opening these boxes?”

  “I do not.” She couldn’t help but notice that he resembled a deer in the headlights. Good. That was just the way she wanted him. “I have a question for you, Scooter.”

  “Scooter? Who the hell is that?” His brows drew together in confusion.

  “Scooter is anyone who messes up big time with me.”

  A look of innocence appeared on his face so fast it couldn’t have been anything but fake. Seeing it, Katie’s ire ratcheted up another notch. “Just where the hell do you get off going around telling people I’m your girlfriend?” she demanded.

  “What? I’ve done no such thing!” Adam spread his hands wide, no doubt thinking it would add weight to the whole innocent persona, but Katie wasn’t buying it.

  “So you didn’t tell Jay Carey that?” Katie crossed her arms over her chest and waited.

  “Jay? No, I didn’t.” When Katie continued to stare with accusation, Adam started to squirm. “I did, erm … maybe let him think you are.” After another few moments of strained silence, he broke. “All right! I misled him a bit. Happy?”

  “I’m about as far from happy as you can get.” Her hands curled into tight fists. “Are you fucking out of your mind, Adam?”

  He attempted to grin. “At least I’m not Scooter anymore,” he ventured.

  “Don’t bet on it,” Katie growled. Her fingernails were gouging into her palms, the pain adding to her anger. “You had no right! Just what did you think that would accomplish?”

  Adam’s grin turned into an obstinate frown. “I thought it might give me a little more time with you.”

  “A little more time? Time for what? Never mind!” She turned on her heel and stalked into the kitchen. “I cannot have this conversation without coffee.”

  As she prepared the coffee pot she heard his uncertain footsteps across the kitchen floor, followed by the sound of a chair being pulled back from the table. Ignoring him, she continued to measure coffee and water and give herself time to calm down. She needed to set him straight once and for all, but words shouted in anger wouldn’t help her accomplish her goal. Only when the coffee was on the stove did she turn to face him, bracing her hands behind her on the countertop.

  “Look, Adam; I’m just going to lay it on the line, okay? I’m sorry you got the wrong idea, but I am not your girlfriend and I never was. Ever.” She leaned forward to emphasize the last word. “I don’t know what you mean about giving you more time with me because you weren’t ever with me. I guess I must not have made it clear before, but anything that happened between us was just … you know, fun. That’s all.”

  “It could have been more. It still could.” His brown eyes held an eloquent plea. “We had a good thing, Katie. I’d just like a chance to let it grow.”

  Lovely as they were, she wasn’t going to let those puppy dog eyes sway her. “It wasn’t ‘a good thing.’ We got it on three times! There wasn’t anything more than that.”

  “It was more to me,” he mumbled, his face wearing the obstinate frown that had become so familiar.

  Katie’s sigh was full of frustration. “How could it be?”

  “Because I love you, that’s how.”

  Whatever she’d been expecting, that wasn’t it. Like her a lot, yes. Love? No way. Words failed her and she could only stand staring at him in open-mouthed surprise. A soft pop from the stove as the coffee began to percolate brought her out of her trance and she blinked.

  “Adam.” She attempted to make her tone gentle. “We’d only known each other for two days before we slept together. And one of those days I was unconscious. I moved in here less than a week later. That’s not enough time to fall in love.”

  “Just how long is it supposed to take? I know how I feel.” His knuckles turned white as he gripped the edge of the table. “All I want is the chance to prove it to you, and the chance for you to … ”

  “I’m sorry.” She shook her head, determined to stop him before he went further. Hurting him was the last thing she wanted to do, but she was going to have to be blunt. “I’m not in love with you, Adam. I’m not going to be.”

  His mouth firmed into a thin line. “Is it because you’re in love with Jay?”

  “What? No!” Katie’s anger rose like bubbles to the surface of boiling water, but she clamped down on it. There was nothing to be gained by losing her temper. “Whatever goes on with Jay and me is none of your business.”

  “You’ll give him a chance, though, and not me.” He was as sulky as a three-year-old denied candy. “I don’t see why he’s the one you want.”

  It was that sulk that pushed her over the edge. Despite her efforts, her anger boiled over and her tongue galloped away from her. “Maybe because he’s mature enough to realize that just because we have sex doesn’t mean we have to run out and register for gifts at Harrod’s and order engraved invitations.”

  Adam’s eyes turned cold in a heartbeat. “Fucking Carey!” he spat out. “He knows how I feel about you; I made sure he knows. And he still goes after you like it doesn’t matter.”

  “Hey!” Katie pointed a finger at him. “You give him some credit. After you lied to him about me being your old lady he backed off. He didn’t make a move until I set him straight and told him I’m nobody’s girlfriend.”

  “That’s right; defend him!” Adam jumped to his feet, every line of his lean body exuding contempt. “You know what? You and Carey deserve each other. You’re just the same — arrogant, condescending, selfish prats. Neither of you bloody control freaks give a damn who gets hurt, so long as you get what you want. He’s been like that ever since school. All the girls always wanted Jay and he knew it. I never thought you’d be the same way.” He forced a hard, bitter laugh. “It’ll be interesting to watch you try to control each other. So go on; have your fun until he tosses you aside for someone more daft — if there is such a thing.”

  For a moment rage strangled all utterance and she could only stare at him in shock. Her voice came back in a low growl. “That is fucking it.” She pointed a shaking finger toward the door. “Get out. I was trying not to hurt you, but fuck that! I could never be in love with you because you’re a whiny, immature, lying little prick. Get out and don’t even think about coming back!”

  “Don’t worry your selfish little head about that,” Adam shouted. “Jay may take my sloppy seconds, but I sure as hell don’t want his!”

  “You son of a bitch,” she gasped. “Get the fuck out now!” Shaking with fury, she watched him stomp from the kitchen.

  CHAPTER TEN

  After four days had passed with no word from Jay, Katie’s nerves were stretched tighter than one of the strings on her guitar. Every time her telephone rang she risked broken bones from diving to answer it. She refused to leave the flat so as not to miss Jay’s call and shooed all visitors save for Maureen out the door almost as soon as they arrived so as not to be distracted if he did call. She would have shooed Maureen, too, only she knew it wouldn’t have done any good.

  By the afternoon of the fourth day her anticipation had given way to smoldering anger. Most of it was directed at Jay for keeping her hanging, and she wondered if all those things he’d said that made her weak at the knees were nothing more than pretty words designed to keep her on a string in case he found himself alone and needed a sure fuck.

  A large part of her anger, though, was directed at herself. She had never acted in such a way before, not even when she was a hormone-riddled fourteen-year-old with her first boyfriend. Of course, she’d never wanted anyone the way she wanted Jay Carey, but still wondered if behaving like a burgeoning doormat was normal.

  She tried to figure out just what it was about him that affected her that way, but any logical thinking was always derailed by a tearing lust that left her quivering. Mixed with that urgent desire for his body was a yearning to just be near him, the way he said he wanted to be with her. Oh, yes; he’d said it, but he hadn
’t been anywhere near her since.

  With a growl of frustration she threw the paperback she held across the room, missing Maureen’s head by a narrow margin as she walked through the door unannounced.

  “Was it something I said?” Maureen picked up the book. “Or is this just that bad?”

  “I’m sorry.” Katie grimaced in contrition. “Just taking out some heavy shit on the book, that’s all.”

  “I hope it helped.” Maureen tossed the book on the couch. “Right now you need to put on a face and change clothes because we’re going to Jay’s.”

  Katie frowned. “Why?”

  “Because he’s asked us to, that’s why.” Maureen took hold of Katie’s wrist and hauled her from the chair. “Nicky just rang from a call box outside that building they’ve rented to rehearse in and said they’ve decided to quit for now and they’re all going to Jay’s to relax for a bit. George called Carol and she’s already on her way over. Oh, I almost forgot,” she tossed over her shoulder as she dragged Katie into her closet. “Jay told Nicky to tell me to tell you that he was going to ring you himself, but he doesn’t have your telephone number.”

  Katie came to a halt and was almost pulled off her feet as Maureen kept going. “I forgot to give him my number,” she said in disbelief. “I fucking forgot to give him my fucking number!” Her anger at Jay evaporated. “How stupid am I?”

  Maureen pointed to Katie’s dressing table. “Put on your makeup,” she instructed. “Nicks said Jay asked him for your number, but he doesn’t know it, either.” She turned to the racks of Katie’s clothes on the wall. “What do you want to wear?”

  Putting her stupidity at sending Jay off without vital contact information aside, Katie’s mind ran over her wardrobe, considering and rejecting until she remembered the white linen poet’s blouse she’d bought in San Francisco but never worn. “White blouse, full sleeves, ruffles down the front,” she said as she applied makeup with a quick hand. “There’s a pair of suede pants there, too.”

  “Ooh, lovely!” Maureen ran her hands over the soft, supple suede. “These have all got tags on them. Want me to cut them off?”

  Katie gave her a wry look in the mirror. “Unless you think they’re a fashion statement.”

  “Not one you want to make.” Using a pair of cuticle scissors from the dressing table, she snipped the tags loose. “There you are. Now, hurry. Fashionably late is one thing, but I think we’re pushing it.”

  • • •

  Overcast skies and a brisk wind made their walk from the tube station to Jay’s house a chilly one. When they reached the half-timbered, Tudor-style house, Maureen opened the door and walked in as if she owned it. Katie followed at a more hesitant pace, wondering what happened to the common courtesy of ringing the bell. Maureen turned to close the door and caught sight of Katie’s face.

  “He said to just come right in,” she explained. “So don’t look like he’s going to set a pack of attack dogs on us.”

  “You should have told me. I’m freaking out enough as it is.” Now that she wasn’t worried about improper etiquette, Katie let the warmth of the front hall envelop her. “Man, it feels good in here,” she sighed.

  “It does that,” Maureen agreed. “Come on; Nicks said they’d be in the back. There’s some sort of game room back there.” She took Katie’s arm and led her down the hallway toward the sounds of voices coming from the back of the house.

  The game room was clearly a later addition since it had none of formal grandeur of the rest of the house. A large, round sofa took up one side of the room, and a billiards table occupied the other. The members of Shadowed Knight stood around this table with cue sticks in their hands, their expressions as serious as surgeons presented with a challenging new medical procedure.

  Katie’s eyes went directly to Jay, willing him to look up and see her. But it was Adam who glanced up, did a double take, and dropped his eyes back to the table, cheeks flushed with what Katie thought was anger. Great. It appeared he was going to carry on with the martyred lover bit, no matter how uncomfortable it got.

  Carol Richards chose that moment to sweep in and distract her. “I’m so glad you two are here,” she gushed. “I’ve been stuck here alone with these blokes forever and it’s gotten to be a real drag just standing around watching them play with their balls.”

  With a burst of surprised laughter, Katie looked down at George’s peppery, red-haired wife. “That’s an interesting way to put it.”

  Maureen joined them, glancing askance at the billiards table. “I’ll never understand the fascination men have with that game. That and football can keep them entertained for ages.” She looked Katie up and down. “Why don’t you take off your coat and stay awhile? I tossed mine on the couch.”

  “Since everyone’s here, I might as well,” Katie joked. She shrugged out of her coat and put it with Maureen’s. As she rejoined her friends, she couldn’t resist another look at the billiards table to find she’d finally captured Jay’s attention. She smiled and was rewarded with that slow, beautiful smile that made her heart pound.

  Caught up in the way he was looking at her, she walked right into the poker table in the corner and was saved from falling only by Maureen’s grabbing her around the waist.

  “Easy there, love,” Maureen laughed. “We haven’t even blazed up yet.”

  Cheeks burning with embarrassment, Katie kept her eyes down and slid into a chair. “I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

  Carol snickered and handed her a lighter and a joint. “We saw what you were watching, and who was watching you. Fire this up, would you?”

  Five minutes later Katie was ready to give her sincerest compliments to Carol’s connection. The joint had contained the most potent weed she had ever smoked and she sat with her chin in her hand trying to make sense of Carol’s tales of trying to conceive her and George’s baby daughter.

  “So … ” Carol paused to light a second joint. “We’d tried everything else and it didn’t work,” she wheezed. “So we decided to give the doctor’s advice a go and try some new positions.”

  Maureen stared at her, glassy-eyed. “What sorts of new positions?”

  “Nothing too drastic, and nothing we’d not at least considered before.” Carol sighed, her mouth turned down in a pout. “But I sure missed being on top those few months. Gravity, you know.” She handed the joint to Katie.

  “Wow.” Katie took a hit. “Did you, like, have to do it upside down or something?”

  “No,” Carol giggled. “I did think of it, but it seemed a little too much like a porn movie for my taste.”

  Katie racked her brain but couldn’t remember seeing any porn movies where sex was performed upside down. “They do it that way in movies?”

  “Sometimes. George likes to take me to porn movies; I think it turns him on. Doesn’t do much for me, though.”

  Snickering, Maureen passed the joint back to Carol and huffed out smoke. “I don’t think they take our opinions into consideration when they write those scripts.”

  “What scripts?” Carol demanded. “Most of them start out with some bloke saying hello to some bimbo, then the bimbo throws off her clothes and starts sucking him off with no further ado. The least they could do is have her say hello back.”

  “What would she say?” Katie was suddenly overcome with giggles and mimicked someone speaking with their mouth full. “Icth oo eet oo?”

  Shaking with mirth, Carol added, “Or maybe she could say, uhee eather ear aving.”

  Maureen wiped her eyes, whooping with laughter. “Maybe it’s best they cut out the chit-chat.”

  “We saw one once,” Carol snickered, “where she was sitting on his face, and he’s down there just munching away and she’s on the bloody telephone! How’s that for adding conversation?”

  Katie’s giggles escalated into laughter so deep she made no sound and could only sit there rocking back and forth, holding onto her aching ribs. She waved away the roach Carol offered and Maureen
leaned over to take it.

  “Can you imagine?” Maureen affected a high, reedy voice. “Oh, ’ello, Mum. Not much. How are you? Excuse me, Mum … Yes! Yes! Yes! … Okay, I’m back. How’s granny?”

  “Stop,” Katie gasped. “You’re killing me.”

  Carol laughed so hard she snorted, which set all three of them off again. At length, Maureen noticed the roach had gone out and dropped it into the ashtray. “I’m bleedin’ starving,” she declared, lurching out of her chair. She stood swaying like a seasoned sailor on the deck of a ship and looked around the room. “Jay! Don’t you have any pretzels or crisps or anything?”

  “Over here, space cadets.” Jay pointed to the low table surrounded by the round sectional couch upon which the guys were sprawled in glorious relaxation. Katie gave them an appreciative eye and thought someone should paint the scene and name it Temptation.

  Carol, Maureen and Katie made their way to the couch and plopped down, reaching for the bowls of munchies. As she lifted a bowl of pretzels Katie discovered her left index finger was behaving oddly. She forgot about being hungry as she held her hand in front of her face and flexed the finger, feeling a small pop every time she bent it. “There’s something wrong with my finger,” she announced in wonder. “It pops.” She demonstrated, adding sound effects to clarify. “See? Pop. Pop. Pop.”

  After a moment of amused silence, Nicky continued what was obviously an interrupted conversation.

  “I don’t know what all the fuss is about.” He clasped his hands behind his head and leaned back. “I quite like them. I’ve listened to that album until it’s almost fucking transparent.”

  “Ah, it’s just jealousy,” Adam put in. “Beck’s having a tantrum because Pagey did it better than he did.”

  “What?” Maureen asked, curled up against Nicky. “Who are you talking about?”

  “Led Zeppelin,” Jay told her. “Are you going to eat all those crisps?”

  Carol cut off Jay’s query with a sigh of evident delight. “I think that group is fucking brilliant. And that bass player they’ve got? I think he’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen. I fantasize about him all the time.”