Dark Secret (7 page)

‘Turn over,’ he murmured. ‘Put your face down
on the pillow and bend your legs up from the knees.’ She obeyed without question, knowing that whatever he decided to do, however he took her, it would be wonderful.

Once she was in position, Lewis knelt upright between her knees and his large hands reached beneath her so that he could caress her lower stomach while his penis nudged the cheeks of her bottom apart.

Then, as his fingers caressed her increasingly slippery clitoris his erection slid along her equally damp channel and came to a halt at the entrance to her vagina. The sensations his fingers were causing had already started Harriet’s body on another climb towards orgasm and when she felt the soft velvet of his flesh against her opening she thrust backwards to try and hurry him into her. She wanted the sensation of fullness, needed to feel him deep within her, taking as well as giving pleasure.

Lewis drew back a little, aware that sometimes he was too large for his partner’s comfort unless she was thoroughly aroused but when Harriet continued to move restlessly against him he slowly let himself slide into her.

For Harriet there was a moment of discomfort as her body stretched to accommodate him, but then one of his fingers tapped lightly at the base of her clitoris and incredible sensations of melting pleasure spread through her lower body and with them came increased lubrication that made his movements within her easier.

Lewis was finding his own rhythm now, different from the one that he used on Rowena, who liked him to thrust hard and fast. This time
he moved slowly, sliding in and out at a leisurely pace, pausing now and again to rotate his hips so that Harriet could feel him touching her vaginal walls in what was almost a massaging motion.

The tingling darts that preceded her orgasms began in earnest now, shooting up through her belly, and her breasts ached with need so that she wriggled on the bed, stimulating her nipples herself. She could hear her own soft cries of mounting excitement and the way Lewis’s breathing was also quickening.

All at once he changed pace and thrust fiercely forward, hitting the front of her vaginal wall exactly on her G-spot so that at the same time as his fingers teased her pulsating bud of pleasure on the outside, he was stimulating the crucial place within her.

The result was a sudden rush of sexual arousal that seemed to flood upwards from her feet and suffuse every nerve ending in her body with sensation. Her heart pounded and her belly tightened as she reached the brink of orgasm.

Lewis knew that he couldn’t hold back any longer. The sight of her bent submissively in front of him, her slender long legs pressed against his, her smooth back and shoulders twisting in excitement all drove him to a fever pitch. When he felt the onset of his own release he moved his right hand and let the fingers dig softly into the flesh just above Harriet’s pubic bone.

She climaxed seconds before him, and the rippling contractions of her inner walls around him were the trigger for his release too. He groaned and finally thrust as hard as he did with Rowena, determined to get the maximum
pleasure from this moment.

Harriet could feel him shuddering above her but she was more aware of her own body and the incredible relief from the long, slow build-up of tension he had given her. No previous lover had ever given her such pleasure and she was startled by the realisation of her body’s possible potential.

When Lewis was finally spent he gently straightened Harriet’s legs and lay down next to her, turning her so that they could look into each other’s eyes. He smiled and she smiled back at him, clearly as sated as he’d hoped.

‘I told you it would be good,’ he murmured, letting his hands run through her hair and noticing the difference in texture from Rowena’s. Where hers was thick and curly, Harriet’s was straight and much finer, but he liked the softness of it and the lack of hair lacquer which Rowena always used to excess.

‘I’m sure everyone tells you this, but you really are beautiful,’ he said with a smile, tracing a line down her nose and across the middle of her mouth.

‘No one’s ever told me that,’ she replied with total honesty. ‘Attractive yes, but never beautiful.’

‘Well I think you’re beautiful, and the camera would too.’

‘Camera?’ She felt a momentary stirring of unease.

‘I’m a film director, remember? I always look at bone structure and profiles. I try and see what the camera would see. It would adore you.’

‘It adores Rowena,’ Harriet pointed out.

‘Everyone adores Rowena. She has a particular kind of beauty. Yours is different, but it’s still beauty.’

‘You don’t have to say that, you know,’ remarked Harriet, letting her hands wander down the golden brown skin of his muscular chest.

‘I wouldn’t, if it weren’t true. You’re also very good at sex!’ he added with a laugh.

‘You made me feel good,’ said Harriet with tenderness, and in the next room Chris nearly laughed aloud. He had to hand it to Lewis. He knew how to handle women, especially in the early stages of an affair, although he hadn’t expected him to sound quite so enthusiastic.

Next to him Rowena turned away from the scene. ‘He really likes her,’ she said shortly, and walked out of the room.

When Harriet entered the dining-room at eight that evening and saw Lewis standing by the fireplace with his arm round Rowena she felt an immediate surge of jealousy. Only a few hours earlier his arms had been round her, in the most passionate sexual encounter of her life so far. Now, in front of her eyes, he was engaged in an open display of affection with another woman, and it hurt. The fact that this woman was his wife and Harriet the interloper didn’t make it any easier.

Rowena smiled at her, but to Harriet’s overactive imagination the smile seemed strained. ‘You’re looking very well tonight, Harriet. Taking the afternoon off obviously agreed with you.’

‘I told Rowena you’d taken off for a few hours,’ said Lewis smoothly. ‘She’d got so used to your efficiency she’d quite forgotten you’d been working non-stop for a week.’

‘Where did you go?’ asked Chris, sitting down at table with a large glass of whisky in his hand.

‘I went shopping,’ said Harriet, caught unawares.

‘How nice. What did you buy?’ enquired Rowena.

‘Nothing, I just window-shopped.’

‘I wish Rowena exercised such self-control!’ laughed Lewis.

‘Anyone can tell Harriet knows a lot about self-control,’ said Chris softly. ‘Do you ever let yourself go, Harriet?’

This apparently innocent question brought a blush to Harriet’s cheeks as she remembered how abandoned she’d been with Lewis. ‘Not in public,’ she said shortly.

‘Then we must get together in private,’ responded Chris.

Rowena frowned at him and turned to Lewis. ‘Shall we eat? I’m exhausted and need an early night.’

He rang the small bell set in the middle of the table. The maid responded promptly, as she always did, and Harriet was extremely thankful when the food was served. She knew it was ridiculous to worry, that Rowena couldn’t possibly know that had happened between her and Lewis that afternoon, but there was a distinctly strained atmosphere in the room and all she wanted to do was get away from the three of them.

The meal began with asparagus soup, followed by prawns and salmon in a delicious mayonnaise sauce served with a green salad and new potatoes. After that they all had slices of the cook’s superb
tarte citronne,
then finally cheese and biscuits and coffee.

As usual Lewis ate well, while Rowena merely picked at the main course, pushed her dessert aside after one mouthful and ignored the cheese and biscuits.

‘No appetite?’ asked Chris, smiling at his half-sister as though at some private joke.

‘I’ve put on three pounds. I need to be careful,’ responded Rowena, glaring at him.

Lewis looked surprised. ‘I didn’t think you’d put on weight, in fact quite the reverse.’

‘I’m flattered you’ve had time to notice,’ retorted Rowena sharply.

‘That’s not fair,’ said Chris. ‘You know how important this project is to Lewis. He’s been working hard on it all day, haven’t you, Lew?’

His brother-in-law looked directly at him, his eyes cool. ‘What do you mean by that?’

‘Just that you’ve been busy!’

‘No busier than you, I imagine. Harriet told me you were going over a script with Rowena. Was it good?’

Chris shrugged. ‘Not really. We’ve binned it.’

‘Do let me look before it gets thrown away. I might know someone who could use it.’

‘I shredded it,’ said Rowena.

‘Goodness, it must have been bad!’ laughed Lewis.

Harriet kept her eyes on her plate. She knew now that she wasn’t mistaken. The other three were definitely sniping at each other beneath the cover of normal conversation and her own guilty conscience made the situation even worse.

‘What shops did you wander round?’ demanded Rowena abruptly.

Harriet swallowed her last fragment of cheese.
‘I… Bond Street.’

‘You mean there’s a shop called Bond Street? I must go there.’

‘No, of course there isn’t a shop. I meant I wandered up and down Bond Street.’

‘Was it busy?’

‘Bond Street’s always busy,’ said Harriet calmly, but her stomach was churning as Rowena’s questions continued.

‘I think Harriet’s private life is her own affair, Rowena,’ said Lewis suddenly. ‘If you’re really tired, darling, do you want to go up to bed now?’

Rowena nodded. ‘I think I will. I’ll take a pill and go straight to sleep. Perhaps you wouldn’t mind sleeping in your own room tonight.’

Lewis nodded. ‘As you like. I’ve got a lot to do before I go up, so that way I won’t have to worry about disturbing you.’

Rowena stood up. She looked at Harriet and opened her mouth to speak. ‘Good night, Rowena,’ said Lewis sharply. At the sound of his voice she turned her head towards him, met his warning glance and quickly left the room.

‘Not a good day for her, I’m afraid,’ said Chris with an apologetic look at Harriet. ‘She found a grey hair this morning, that’s enough to ruin her week!’

‘She doesn’t have to worry, she’s still beautiful,’ said Harriet. ‘A friend of mine is an actress and she was saying that she’d never seen anyone with such a magical presence as Rowena in her first film.’

‘Yes, but that was a few years ago now. She was only your age then; it’s harder to maintain that glowing illusion as the years pass.’

‘She was twenty-three when she made
A Lady Calls?‘

‘That’s right, isn’t it, Lewis?’

‘Something like that,’ he agreed, leaning across the table to refill Harriet’s wine glass and running his thumb over the top of her fingers as he did so. She swallowed hard, hoping that Chris hadn’t noticed.

After a few minutes Chris yawned and pushed back his chair. ‘I think I’ll go up too. I’ll probably sleep off the meal and then do a few laps of the pool. According to Rowena I don’t get enough exercise.

‘Don’t drown,’ murmured Lewis.

Chris smiled sweetly at him. ‘I’ll try not to give you that pleasure. Good night, Harriet. Sleep well.’

‘What did he mean?’ asked Harriet as the door closed behind him. ‘Why would his death give you pleasure?’

‘He thinks I disapprove of him because he lives off Rowena,’ said Lewis shortly. ‘The truth is, I scarcely think about him at all.’

‘Rowena was in a bad mood tonight. She can’t have guessed, can she?’ asked Harriet anxiously.

‘Not unless you told her! Don’t feel so guilty, Harriet. You are entitled to some pleasure in life.’

‘But not with her husband,’ protested Harriet.

‘Don’t tell me you’re going to say we can’t do it again.’

‘It’s awkward. When I see you with Rowena I feel terrible.’

Lewis looked annoyed. ‘You seem to have some very middle-class hang-ups about sex.’

‘Unlike you I’m not artistic, which seems to be a
blanket term for lack of morals,’ retorted Harriet, sounding more annoyed than she was because she wanted nothing more than to have Lewis make love to her again.

‘If you think my morals are bad then perhaps I’d better show you something that will take away your guilt,’ he said slowly.

‘Show me what?’

Lewis caught hold of her wrist and pulled her roughly to her feet. ‘Come with me, Harriet. I’ll show you something that will make our little entertainment this afternoon seem like a Sunday school outing.’

Harriet tried to pull away from him. ‘Let me go, I don’t want to see anything.’

‘I think you’ll want to see this,’ he assured her, and despite her protests he drew her out of the room and up the winding staircase, back to the second floor.

Chapter Four

WHEN LEWIS LED
Harriet into a tiny room two doors down the landing from his bedroom she thought first that she was in a cupboard, but as her eyes grew accustomed to the darkness she realised that it had originally been intended as a dressing room, although the adjoining door had now been filled in. There was little furniture there, only a high backed chair and a two-seater settee in front of a square window, which let in no light at all.

She turned to Lewis in bewilderment. ‘What is this room?’

‘Sit here next to me on the sofa and look carefully at the window,’ he said softly.

Puzzled, she stared at the glass, and after a few seconds realised that she was looking into a distinctly feminine bedroom lavishly decorated in various shades of lilac. As she watched, a figure crossed her line of vision, and she saw Rowena walking totally naked from her adjoining bathroom back to her bed.

Harriet ducked down and Lewis laughed. ‘She
can’t see you, it’s a two-way mirror.’

‘You mean, anyone can sit here and watch her without her knowing?’

‘Yes. It’s surprising what you get to see as well.’

A knot of excitement formed in Harriet’s chest as Rowena turned so that she was facing the hidden spectators. Her figure was superb, her breasts high and full with large nipples and her waist tiny, curving out into softly rounded hips which gave her the traditional hour-glass figure of the sex symbol. Only her legs were less than perfect. They were shorter than Harriet had expected from her films, and the calves of her legs clearly defined.