Сандра Браун - Adam's Fall

"Crafty little booger," Adam muttered with a smile. Pete was giving them plenty of time alone together. Adam wouldn't be surprised if Lilah had arranged that too.

He made coffee and put it on a tray with two cups and two Danish. Breakfast in bed. Once they'd disposed of the coffee and Danish, he'd have dessert. Lilah. Naked and wanton and willing.

He was roused from his fantasy by his own groan of desire. His thoughts had turned deliciously dirty. It felt so damn good to plan a seduction that he knew he could consummate.

After a hasty trip outside to the terrace to pick a giant red hibiscus bloom that would look great in Lilah's hair, among other places on her body, he placed the tray on his lap and returned upstairs. He didn't knock on her bedroom door, but backed his chair against it and turned the knob.

When he wheeled around, wearing the idiotic grin of the drastically smitten, he was met with a disappointment equivalent to a deathblow.

No Lilah. No evidence of Lilah. No evidence that Lilah had ever existed.

The room was as spotlessly sterile as the day she had moved in. The bedspread had nary a wrinkle. There wasn't an assortment of sandals scattered helter-skelter across the carpet; no lacy lingerie dripping out of open drawers. The air bore the odor of desertion, not the scent of perfume. The lacquered dresser top wasn't filmed with dusting powder. There was no array of cosmetics and loose pieces of jewelry littering its smooth, polished surface. Adam knew without looking that the closet would be empty too. The room was absent life, absent Lilah.

His roar of outrage had origins in his gut. It rumbled inside his chest, gaining impetus, and echoed through the empty house like a night cry in the jungle. It was punctuated by the crash of the carafe of hot coffee striking the far wall.

"I can't believe you just left."

"Well, I did."

"Without saying anything? Without letting anyone know where you were going?"

Lilah wore a strained expression. She had been undergoing Elizabeth's cross-examination for the last half hour and she was weary of it. "I've told you I was in San Francisco."

"How were we supposed to know that?"

"You weren't!" Lilah shouted. "That was the point. I wanted to get away by myself for a while. I'm a big girl. I didn't know I needed anyone's permission to take a vacation."

Thad held up his hand to silence his wife's next contribution to the argument. "We understand and appreciate your need for a vacation, Lilah. But you must admit that your timing was a bit off."

"Impulsiveness is one of my traits."

Why didn't they just go home and leave her alone, she thought. She still didn't feel like seeing anyone. She certainly wasn't up to justifying her most recent escapade. She couldn't reconcile her reason for fleeing Adam's house to herself, much less explain it to anyone else.

"Impulsiveness is running neck and neck with irresponsibility this time," Elizabeth said chastisingly. "You deserted Adam when he needed you most. Without a word. Without the courtesy of a formal resignation or a simple good-bye, you walked out."

"Adam will survive. He told me so himself. Before I left he said he could do anything. I believe him."

"But your job wasn't finished. He still needed you."

Lilah shook her head adamantly. "Not me. A therapist. Any therapist would do. He'd had an attitude turnaround. He was doing amazingly well. Before I left Oahu, I stopped by to see Dr Arno. He assured me that he could find an excellent replacement immediately."

"From what I hear, Dr Arno came through," Thad told them. "By all reports Adam is doing exceptionally well. He's even resumed control of his corporation."

"There, you see," Lilah said, "all's well."

"That still doesn't excuse you from being derelict in your duties."

"So don't pay me. I got a great vacation out of it. I had a helluva good time."

"Don't be flippant with me, Lilah."

"Then don't be so bloody self-righteous," she snapped. "I got tired of being stuck up there on that tropical mountain. I needed a change of scenery."

"So why San Francisco?"

"I'd never been there. I wanted to see it."

Actually it was the first city she'd come to after her midnight flight from Honolulu. It was as good a place as any to lose herself and nurse her misery. She'd seen very little of the city, spending most of her time in a hotel room. But she didn't want them to know that.

"What were you doing there all that time?" Elizabeth asked her.

"Having a wonderful time."

"Alone?"

"I didn't say I was alone."

"You said you went there to be alone."

"So I changed my mind," Lilah said testily.

"Were you with a man?"

These days, Lilah's control over her temper was tenuous at best. Her dark mood hadn't improved when, immediately upon her arrival home, Elizabeth and Thad had showed up on her doorstep. "Have you had spies on the lookout for me?" she had asked when she ungraciously invited them in. From there the conversation had deteriorated. Now she confronted her sister with full-fledged animosity. "What business is it of yours if I spent the time in San Francisco with one man or with a dozen men?"

"Oh, Lilah." Elizabeth burst into tears. Thad rushed to assist her into the nearest chair.

"Don't get upset, Elizabeth. It isn't good for you or the baby."

"How can I keep from getting upset? My totally irresponsible sister has been on a two-week-long sexual spree in San Francisco. What's the matter with her?"

"You've always said she was flighty and weird."

"She should have grown out of that stage by now. She's worse than ever. Why?"

"PMS?" Thad guessed.

"I have an excellent idea," Lilah interrupted with false sweetness. "If the two of you are going to discuss me as if I were an invisible third party, I wish you'd go home to do it. I'm tired. I want to unpack I need to telephone the hospital and tell them I'm ready to go back to work. To be blunt, I want you to leave."

Elizabeth looked wounded, but she stood up. "Gladly. But I need to use your bathroom first."

"Help yourself." Lilah indicated the way with a wide sweep of her arm.

After Elizabeth had left the room, Lilah turned and discovered that Thad was watching her closely. She sat down opposite him, but found his stare disconcerting.

He was first to break the uncomfortably long silence. "You've always been flighty and weird, but I still like you."

His statement echoed words that she'd heard recently. The memory was bittersweet. She felt tears smarting in her eyes, but she forced herself to laugh. "Thanks. I think."

He leaned back in his chair and linked his hands behind his head. "You know, it's strange."

"What is?"

"That you're so touchy tonight, coming off a vacation and all."

"Travel is tiring."

"No, the strangeness is the coincidence of it. I've spoken with Adam numerous times the last couple of weeks, and each time he's been real touchy too. He doesn't sound happy, but he tells me he's happy. In fact, it seemed important to him to convince me of his happiness. Kinda like you've been with Elizabeth and me tonight."

"I'm very happy."

"Uh-huh," Thad said with a guileless smile. "And whatever has made you so happy must be the same thing that made Adam so happy. In any event you two are just about the happiest people I ever saw. What I'm wondering is why you're going to such great lengths to make sure everybody knows it."

Thad looked at her compassionately. Lilah really felt like crying then. But she didn't have a chance. Elizabeth stepped between them and calmly announced, "My water just broke."

They both jumped as though she had opened fire on them with an Uzi. Thad bounded to his feet and gripped her shoulders. "Are you sure? Are you all right? What should we do?"