In the Name of Love (16 page)

Charlie could feel herself blushing when she thought about last night and the state she’d left him in …

She clinked her glass against his. ‘Okay. Deal.’

Conversation was then further stalled by the arrival of the waiter to take their order. Charlie was far too nervous to think about food and ordered spinach and ricotta cannelloni as that was what she always had.

Once the waiter had gone, Felipe leant forward. ‘So, Charlie, will you let me explain my behaviour? I don’t think I can bear for you to think badly of me for another second.’

Now he was sitting opposite her, his handsome face
so
serious and intense, his brown eyes imploring her to believe him, Charlie didn’t think she would ever think badly of him again. She nodded and listened as he filled her in on a side to him she had only known about through stories on the web. He came from a wealthy, aristocratic family; he was an international event rider and ran his own equestrian centre. In a month’s time he would find out if he had been picked to compete in the Spanish Olympic eventing team, which was something he had dreamt of doing all his life. He had missed out on the last Olympics because of a broken wrist.

Charlie had wanted to hear his side of the story, but with every detail he seemed to be moving further and further away from her. She suddenly felt as if they were a completely lost cause. This relationship could be nothing more than a holiday romance; there were too many obstacles in the way. She wished he was simply a businessman. That way they might have stood a chance …

He finished, ‘So now you know everything about me, Charlie.’ He was smiling and seemed relieved to have told her the truth, unaware of the impact on her.

She gave a brittle smile. ‘So you come from a posh family, mine’s working-class. You ride and I can’t do that any more. I can’t bear to watch anyone ride, and I can’t even talk about it, that’s how bad it is. And I know that riding must be your whole life, especially in the run-up to the Olympics. You live in Spain and I live in England. I think we should face facts. We only worked as a holiday fling.’

He frowned; this was not the outcome he had expected, but he had reckoned without Charlie’s
vulnerability.
He reached for her hand and clasped it in his, fearing that he was about to lose her again.

‘You make too much of things that aren’t important. What my family thinks does not matter – besides, they will all love you.’ Everyone except my mother, he thought, though he wasn’t going to tell Charlie that.

‘And I’ll do whatever it takes to help you overcome your fear of riding. You can overcome it, I swear. Yes, I wish we lived in the same country but we are not so very far away. I once made the mistake of throwing away what we had. Don’t do the same thing, Charlie, I beg you. What I feel for you, I’ve never felt for any woman before. Never.’

He could see that she was struggling to stay composed. He had to make her see that they could make this work. But right then the waiter appeared with their orders and suddenly Felipe saw that if they remained in this restaurant he was going to lose her again. He turned to the waiter.

‘I’m sorry. Would you be able to box up the meal? There’s been a change of plan.’

Charlie looked up at him questioningly.

‘We are going to your place,’ he said firmly, ‘I don’t think I can sit here another moment.’

Back at the flat they didn’t even make it to the bedroom as he took her in his arms and they kissed with a fierce intensity. They fell back on to the sofa driven with a passionate need to possess each other. The flowers and boxes of food were abandoned on the floor.

‘I want you so much, Charlie,’ he told her in between
kisses.
‘You are all I can think about.’ He pushed up her dress, ripped her tights as he pulled them off her. She didn’t care. She only wanted to feel him inside her.

He had barely caressed her when Charlie felt an orgasm take hold of her, shuddering through her in delicious waves that made her yearn for more. ‘Fuck me then,’ she implored him. As he slipped off his jeans, his rock-hard cock was ready for her. She pulled him down to her, gasping with pleasure as he slid inside her. And then it was a feverish, frantic fuck as the lovers were reunited.

‘I’m sorry that was too quick,’ Felipe told her afterwards, ‘I was so desperate for you.’

‘Well, we have all night,’ Charlie murmured, lightly kissing him. She still couldn’t quite believe that he was here, lying naked in her arms on the sofa. If it was a dream, it was the most bloody fantastic one she’d ever had.

He gazed at her. ‘I really want us to be together, Charlie. I know there are many things that seem to be against us, but we are both strong, we are both fighters, we can make it work, I know we can.’

She curled her arms around him. ‘It’s what I want too. More than anything.’

Morning came too soon for them. Charlie longed to keep the curtains closed and stay in bed with Felipe; the thought of being apart from him again seemed too brutal. They’d only had one night together; it wasn’t nearly enough. But she forced herself out of his embrace, showered and prepared to face the day,
because
that’s what you did, even if you longed with all your heart not to …

She was sitting at her dressing table and brushing her hair, when Felipe returned after his shower. He had a white towel wrapped round his waist and the sight of his beautiful body and gorgeous olive-brown skin, made her want him all over again. And yet now, in the daylight, there was something that bothered her … Felipe came straight over to her and went to kiss her, but Charlie put her hand on his chest to hold him back. ‘Tell me the truth. If Luis and Zoe hadn’t set up our meeting, would you have got back in touch with me?’

‘I couldn’t go on much longer without seeing you. I thought of you all the time. And if you don’t believe me, look at this.’ He picked up his phone from the bedside table and showed her his recent search history. All the pages were to do with her.

‘And I still had these pictures of you.’ Now he selected the photographs on his phone, which were all of her or of the two of them on holiday. ‘And these.’ Finally he selected the draft folder of his email. There were ten unsent messages to Charlie, all expressing his longing to see her again and deep regret for his behaviour.

‘You could have sent them,’ Charlie said, thoroughly charmed by what he had shown her, and also regretting that they had wasted all this time. ‘You’re too stubborn. I bet you hate saying you’re wrong. Admit it?’

‘You’re right, of course, but in this case I am delighted to say that I was wrong.’

Charlie wound her arms round his neck and pulled him to her. ‘Say it again,’ she demanded, kissing him.

‘I can do better than that.’ And picking her up easily, he swung her back on to the bed.

There was definitely something to be said for having a world-class sportsman for your lover, Charlie thought as she pulled off the towel to reveal Felipe in his full impressive naked glory.

‘I love making love with you in the morning,’ he told her afterwards.

‘Only in the morning?’ she teased.

‘And in the afternoon, and in the evening. When you come over to Spain we can stay in bed all weekend and fuck like crazy.’

‘Don’t say that,’ Charlie told him. ‘You make me want you all over again.’

‘Good, that’s the idea,’ he replied, kissing her. They couldn’t get enough of each other.

It was nearly lunch-time when they finally managed to tear themselves away from each other and get ready to go to the airport where Luis and Mariana were meeting him. They wanted to spend every minute they possibly could together. Time had suddenly become incredibly precious.

As they were about to go out of the front door Felipe noticed the post had arrived. He picked it up and handed it to Charlie. She winced as she recognised the handwriting on one of the envelopes.

‘What is it?’ he asked, seeing her expression.

‘Nothing important. Some saddo who’s been sending me nasty messages.’

Felipe held out his hand. ‘Don’t look at it. Give it to me and I’ll throw it away.’

But Charlie had already ripped open the envelope, determined to deal with the note herself. This time it wasn’t a photograph but a print-out of a
Manchester Evening News
article reporting on her accident. There was a picture of her riding Ace, taken some months before the accident.
Murderer
was scrawled over it in blood-red ink. How could anyone be so twisted? She felt a wave of nausea and pressed her hand over her mouth. Felipe grabbed the cutting from her.

‘Bastards!’ he exclaimed, screwing it up. He took her in his arms. ‘It’s all right,’ he told her, gently stroking her hair. ‘It’s just someone who is jealous of you. You mustn’t let it get to you. It wasn’t your fault that Ace was killed.’

Charlie buried her face in his shoulder, breathed in his delicious scent and felt the warmth of his body envelop and comfort her. For a few minutes they remained in the embrace. Then she looked up at him, ‘I’m okay now. Let’s go.’ She didn’t really feel okay, but had become good at hiding her feelings.

‘Are you sure?’

She nodded, ‘I’m not going to let it get to me. Come on, we’ll get a taxi.’ And, grabbing his hand, she ran out of the house as if wanting to escape.

It had to be one of the saddest feelings in the world, saying goodbye to your lover at an airport, Charlie
thought,
watching Felipe go through to departures along with Luis and Mariana. Felipe blew her one last kiss through the glass and then Charlie turned and walked out of the airport as quickly as she could. Two weeks is not a long time, she tried to tell herself as she stepped outside and got in line for a taxi. Her phone beeped with a message and she smiled as she read the text from Felipe:
Miss you already beautiful Charlie xx

She was still glowing from being with him as she walked into the office later that afternoon. The only desk available – as they all had to hot desk – was one opposite Darcy and even that didn’t bother her. Charlie felt as if she had an invisible force field of happiness around her that not even Arsey Darcy could disturb. As ever she was hard at work playing Solitaire.

‘Hi, Darcy, how are you?’ Charlie said, sitting down, keen to log in to the computer and check her emails. She felt slightly guilty, knowing that the PA had overheard her critical comments to Felipe, and hoped they could both pretend the incident hadn’t happened.

Darcy managed to drag her eyes away from the screen long enough to drawl, ‘Oh, hi Charlie. The same as ever. You know, arrogant, rich and spoilt.’

Oops. ‘Er, I’m sorry. I was a bit drunk, I didn’t mean it.’ Charlie hesitated, not in the habit of talking about her personal life in front of Darcy. ‘It was quite emotional for me, seeing Felipe again, but I shouldn’t have said those things about you.’

She shrugged. ‘Sure. Whatever.’

‘So did you have a good weekend?’ Charlie asked, hoping to draw a line under what had happened.

‘Fab. I’ve just found out that my parents have bought me a horse for my birthday. He’s a divine grey called Mischief.’ A smile played over Darcy’s lips and for a second Charlie wondered if the other woman knew about the accident and was taunting her. Then she dismissed the thought; she was just being paranoid because of the newspaper article. She had known for ages that Darcy was a keen rider.

‘When’s your birthday?’ Charlie managed to say, really hoping that was the end of the conversation.

‘On Wednesday. It looked to me like you and Felipe had a lot to talk about at that dinner. Did you see any more of him afterwards?’

Quite a bit, Charlie thought, as an image of his beautiful naked body stretched out on her bed came into her mind, not that she was going to share that with Darcy. ‘I did actually,’ she said, adding briskly, ‘but now he’s back in Spain and I must get on with some work.’

She kept her head down after that as she went through some research notes and the running order for the night’s show. It was a relief when Darcy got up and slunk out of the room, no doubt going for a fag.

Aidan turned up next. Throwing his leather messenger bag on to the desk he said expectantly, ‘Well?’

Charlie looked around the newsroom; she wasn’t about to tell all in front of a pack of reporters and researchers, who had hearing like bats and no discretion.

‘Coffee?’ she suggested.

*

Aidan was hugely excited at the news she had finally got back together with Felipe. ‘I never thought TFB was in your league quite frankly, darling – forgive the footie reference – but Felipe is a different proposition altogether. The man is a god!’ His excitement was prompting his camp alter ego to come out again. He pronounced ‘darling’ exactly as Craig Revel-Horwood did.

Charlie pouted. ‘I suppose you think he’s slumming it by being with me?’

‘Don’t be crazy! I only meant that he’s gorgeous. And
you’re
gorgeous,’ Aidan appeased her. ‘You make the most gorgeous couple. You’ll have beautiful babies, who’ll be bilingual. You’ll divide your time between your London pad and his massive
cortijo
– that’s house to you, sweetie, with its extensive
finca
– that’s land. See, I’m not just a pretty face, I can speak the lingo. There, happy now?’

He was much less happy when she revealed that she had been sent another message by their mystery stalker.

‘How could they have known about the accident?’

‘I suppose they must have Googled me,’ Charlie replied. It was horrible to think of someone digging into her past like that and then putting their own nasty twist on it.

Aidan shook his head. ‘What a vicious little shit they must be.’ He paused then asked, ‘So have you phoned my therapist yet?’

‘I haven’t had time, but I will do it,’ Charlie lied. She knew that if she told Aidan she had no intention of making the call, he would be on her case all the time.

He sighed. ‘Make time, sweetie. You’re dating an internationally famous horseman. You’ve got to start that therapy.’

‘Sure,’ she replied, not quite meeting his eye.

Chapter 11

FELIPE WALKED INTO
the busy restaurant and looked around for Eduardo, his brother. It was Friday night and they were meeting for dinner. It was the end of a long week where Felipe had been training hard and missing Charlie. Talking on the phone or texting was small compensation. He was counting the days until he saw her again. Eduardo was already at the table, frowning with concentration as he checked his emails. His only concession to its being Friday night was that he had undone the top button of his shirt and loosened his tie. Felipe smiled to himself. His brother the lawyer was always working. He reached the table, wondering if Eduardo would even notice his arrival, but his brother immediately put down his phone, stood up and warmly embraced him.