Sleeping Love (14 page)

‘So are you going to carry on and tell me what I did,’ Sabrina asked with a smile.

Amelia took a puff of her cigarette. She sighed with relief then grinned widely.

‘You marched full steam ahead into his lawyer’s office and negotiated. Boy did you put him in his place. No one has ever done that. You are famous for it. You got everything you wanted for your client. And for Raoul it was love at first sight. He was so impressed he asked you out to dinner, and the rest is history. You are the only one who has ever really stood up to him, and he loves you for it. That’s why he had to marry you.’

‘Really?’ Sabrina chuckled. ‘He is quite a formidable character and he certainly likes to have his own way. He won’t even let me leave this house. I am not sure why I married him. He’s caring but very bossy. He likes to be in control of everything, including me. It seems out of character for me to fall for a man like him.’

‘Well, Raoul was fiercely protective. He collected you from work every night. He bullied the police into finding out who it was and hired people to double the security on the Chateau.’

She began to laugh.

‘A couple of us were here for the weekend when you had a row with him about it. You told him you felt suffocated and you could damn well look after yourself,’ she said accurately imitating how Sabrina would have told him.

‘You nearly hit him when he said he wasn’t so sure. He was so angry with you for trying to deal with this man on your own. You tried to leave in disgust and go back to Paris to stay with me. He made you get out of the car and carried you back into the house when you refused to go back in. He even had the gall to threaten to lock you in one of the tower rooms until you came to your senses. Boy did you make him pay for saying that. He was lucky he ever got sex again,’ she laughed.

Sabrina widened her eyes with amusement and surprise when the scene came to rest unexpectedly and vividly in her mind. She’d been so angry and embarrassed she hadn’t spoken to him for days. But it had ended like all of their arguments, in bed. She took a breath fondly remembering the way he made love to her to settle their arguments, usually in his favour. His touch was a little rough, demanding, his hold on her naked body strong and unforgiving. He wouldn’t wait long to be inside her and within moments his deep penetrating thrusts would have her riding to ecstasy almost at his command. Then he would make love to her more slowly, gentling his caress, deepening his kiss possessively as he took her once more until she whimpered her surrender against his lips.

Amelia was staring into space looking wistful again as Sabrina contemplated the paradoxical nature of her character and marriage with Raoul. Her thoughts were broken when Sabrina got a fleeting memory of Amelia looking the same way at a boy in the village not far from their school. She widened her mouth into a sensuous coy smile as he looked in her direction making him trip over his laces, unable to tear his eyes away. Only she remembered there was nothing coy about Amelia, quite the opposite where men were concerned.

‘You took offense at Raoul’s caveman attitude. Well at least on the outside, but I think you secretly liked it. I thought Raoul was being devastatingly sexy, the way he was protecting his woman. If you ever leave him and you don’t want him back, you can always pass him on to me,’ she grinned and laughed but the glint in her eye told Sabrina she meant it.

Sabrina sighed inwardly. Amelia was yet another woman to be on her guard about and her best friend to boot. She decided to ignore Amelia’s comment.

‘Yes, he is a bit of a caveman,’ Sabrina said, frowning with disapproval.

‘Don’t look at me like that. You act all strong and independent and that’s good. But you have to acknowledge that a part of you loves him to take care of you. You can’t possibly deny it,’ she told Sabrina matter of a fact. ‘I know you too well, Sabrina. I think you act the way you do because you are afraid of letting your guard down and trusting anyone. Perhaps you believe that if you show your vulnerability to him, he will leave you. Maybe you are afraid of being abandoned and hurt like you were when your parents died. Whatever it is, Sabrina, I know you fell in love with Raoul because he saw past your defences and he gives you exactly what you need. And that is why you love him.’

‘You knew the old Sabrina. Now I am very different,’ Sabrina said defensively trying to ignore the guilty twist in her stomach that told her Amelia had her assumption dead line centre. ‘I won’t be held here like a prisoner.’

‘He only wants to do the right thing, Sabrina. He shut down when you disappeared. He locked himself away in this fortress, the only place he felt close to you. The police blamed him at first and so did others. I still can’t believe they actually thought he had murdered you. It took a lot for him to pull himself through it all.’

Sabrina felt it then. Her already deep affection and attraction to Raoul was taking on new strength and knocking down her defences. The realisation made contact with her soul with the force of a punch, making her cry unexpectedly for what he’d been through at her expense.

‘Sabrina, what’s wrong? What did I do?’

Amelia’s arms were suddenly around her, desperately trying not to burn her with the cigarette.

‘I don’t know. I just keep getting memories of feelings, thoughts, images, everything. I try to hold on to them, some of them stay but the others vanish. I feel so empty when they go. I remember Raoul and what he meant to me and how much I love him. Then it goes and he’s like a stranger again. I can’t believe I could forget my own husband.’

‘Sabrina, I feel so helpless. I don’t know what to do for you.’

‘I can’t believe I am telling you all of this. I just feel as though I could tell you anything in the world, yet I don’t know who you are.’

‘I am your best friend even if you don’t remember I am.’

Sabrina nodded.

‘So dry your eyes, Sabrina, and let me tell you all the juicy gossip about your guests downstairs,’ Amelia said giving her a wicked grin.

* * *

Amelia led Sabrina down the stairs. Sabrina bit her lip knowing fine well that her presence would cause a stir. She didn’t want to see them all looking at her as if she was the main attraction in a freak show. She didn’t want to feel them watching, wondering what she remembered about them.

Sabrina glanced at Amelia and took a deep breath before entering the drawing room. The soft murmur of pleasant conversation hushed into an eerie silence as her presence was noticed. If she’d ever wanted to make a grand entrance, this was it. She felt apprehension flutter inside as she frantically searched the sea of faces looking for any familiar characteristics. Nothing.

Some of the strangers looked on in disbelief as if they were witnessing the presence of a ghost. Others looked confused, even afraid. Three didn’t look surprised at all, merely smiled with glee at the others, having been close enough to the couple to be let in on the secret of her return. There was no sound in the room, all she could hear was the hiss and spit of the wood burning in the open fire. Raoul was suddenly by her side.

‘Sabrina, let me introduce you to our friends.’

Sabrina allowed Raoul to introduce her to the strangers cluttering the large room filled with antique furniture, she had a distant memory of having chosen herself.

‘Sabrina, this my brother Luc.’

Luc Valoire was dark and handsome, just like his brother, but he lacked the unmistakable masculine firmness and definition to his frame and facial characteristics. His appearance was reckless, a devilish dark shadow lined the contours of his jaw line, giving him a magnetic rough charm that would attract more than his fair share of women. But his wide smile that bored down on Sabrina gave him a dangerous almost leering countenance that activated her guard. Her fleeting memory told her he was a man that loved to live life to masculine excess without apology and took what he wanted without remorse. He was a constant headache for his older brother who, more times than enough, had sorted out his gambolling debts and disagreements with angry husbands.

Luc reached out to put his arms around his sister-in-law, but Sabrina found herself taking two steps back before she even realised what she was doing. Her back hit a solid muscled wall, Raoul. His arm slipped protectively around her shoulders.

‘One step at a time, Luc. To Sabrina, everyone in this room is a stranger, including myself.’

Luc frowned but nodded, watching Raoul’s fingers trace the smooth skin of Sabrina’s shoulder as though he was mesmerised. But his attention was quickly turned when a woman appeared by his side wearing a revealing backless blue dress that clung seductively to her tall svelte body. His arm slipped around her waist.

‘And you already know Cressida,’ Raoul’s voice was stiff.

‘How could I possibly forget?’

Sabrina smiled condescendingly, holding the reins of her irritation and outrage tight. She couldn’t believe Raoul had the nerve to invite his mistress to dinner. But now was not the time or the place, and she was dammed if she was going to give Cressida the satisfaction of seeing her lose control.

Cressida looked her up and down assessing her appearance in comparison to her own and gave her a mocking pitiful smile. Sabrina clenched her fist at her side wishing she could wipe the smile off the bitch’s face.

‘Raoul, the snow is falling heavily. It makes the grounds look quite beautiful. Wouldn’t it be romantic if we were snowed in together all weekend.’

‘Well, I think it’s time we went into dinner everyone. If you’d all like to go through, Sabrina and I will join you in a moment,’ Raoul instructed.

Sabrina ducked to move out of Raoul’s hold. She took up position at the fireplace for the second round of their battle regarding the issue of his infidelity. Irritated by the slow movement of their guests from the room she drummed her fingers against her folded arms.

Raoul’s eyes darkened, but his voice retained its spell binding smoothness. She’d never been able to resist the French accent, now he was using it to every advantage to calm her.

Manipulator.

‘Luc brought her with him, just to cause trouble like he usually does. He had no right. I thought at least on this occasion he would behave himself.’

He turned to one of the tall windows and looked out at the heavy snowfall.

‘I would ask them to leave, but I’ve been informed the roads are blocked. They are predicting more heavy snow fall, and it looks like we will be cut off.’

‘You knew she was coming. This all just some ploy with Luc. How could you do that to me? I don’t think you really want me back at all. Maybe for some misplaced guilt or sense of duty.’

He strode across the room, capturing her wrist tightly as she moved away and pulled her to him.

‘Why all the sudden concern, Sabrina. If I were still a stranger, you wouldn’t care so much. Are you beginning to remember us and what we had?’ he asked firmly, hope weighed heavy in his tone.

She turned away. His response was swift. He cupped her chin, lifting her face to obtain a better view of her eyes to search for any betrayal of his suspicions. She looked up at him unable to avoid his penetrating stare. She felt her eyes widen and open shedding all of her deepest secrets until her soul was completely bared. Slowly that knowing, mocking smile curved his lips.

‘Anger is good, Sabrina. If you didn’t remember any feeling for me, you couldn’t be so angry and jealous of Cressida.’

He gently let her chin go and moved away once more putting an awkward distance between them.

‘If you are so concerned, why are you keeping away from me all of a sudden?’ she prodded. ‘I thought you wanted me to stay by your side.’

The words blurted unchecked from her mouth. He was making her lose her self-control, making a fool out of her vulnerability. She was beginning to resent him for the power he wielded over her. He visibly tensed.