Free A Perfect Marriage by Laurey Bright Page A

momentarily to the front of his trousers and swept up again. "What on earth are you talking about? Do you think I didn't feel it?"
    The dark flush that had receded from his cheekbones briefly returned. "I don't mean I'm physically incapacitated-" He raised one hand to rub his forehead with a thumb and forefinger, and then swung away so that he wasn't looking at her. He picked a pen up off the desk and dropped it. "I mean I can't ...I can't sleep with you. I can't make love to you."
      For long seconds Celine's mind was totally blank. Then several wild and disjointed thoughts clashed together, from the unlikely to the unthinkable. Momentarily she felt that the room-maybe the entire world-had tilted, so that everything was off-centre, unbalanced. She took a deep breath and let it out. With determined calm, she said, "Look at me."
    She saw him brace his shoulders, then he turned slowly and faced her, his blue eyes cool and resolutely steady.
    "I think," she said, "I have a right to know why."
    His throat worked as he swallowed. "I know. I'm sorry if it hurts you. But it was inevitable that you'd have to know sometime." He paused, and the silence stretched. "You and I have never lied to each other, Celine. I'm...I've been ... seeing someone else."
    I don't believe it! was her first thought. She stared at his unwavering eyes, and told herself it couldn't be true. But, as Max said, they'd never lied to each other. And this was not something that he would make up, for any reason.
    "You've been unfaithful to me?" she asked him in a voice that seemed to come from somewhere far off, although it was her mouth that moved, her tongue that formed the words.
    She thought he flinched slightly, a small tremor passing over the wooden mask of his face. "I'm sorry," he said again.
    "When?" It wasn't what she'd meant to say, but it was as good a question as any. "I mean , was it a one-night stand? I suppose anyone can make a mistake, and I know it's been difficult lately-" Although she hadn't thought things were that bad.
    He cut across her desperate rationalising. "No, Celine. It wasn't like that. It's no casual encounter."
    "How long has it been going on, then?"
    "Does it matter?" He frowned, and when she didn't answer, said curtly, "Several weeks." "What does that mean? Three? Six?"
    "More like six," he muttered, "if you mean how long have we been sleeping together. It hasn't ... been all that often, actually."
    "Oh? Why? Did your conscience bother you?" She heard the waspish note in her voice with surprise. She hadn't even realised that she was angry. She felt too numbed for that.
    Max said, "As a matter of fact, yes." He shut his teeth on the last word.
    Celine had sometimes wondered what she would do in a situation like this. Not that she'd seriously thought Max would ever betray her. "I didn't think that you would-" She found she was unable to finish the sentence.
    Rather hoarsely, Max said, "Neither did I. But it has happened, and-well, you had to know."
    For a moment she wished passionately that he hadn't told her. Maybe if she had never known, if he'd kept his lapse secret, she'd have gone on forever in blissful ignorance. "While I was away," she said, jumping to a conclusion. She'd been away a lot, lately.
    "The first time it... happened, yes. You were away." "You couldn't do without sex for a few days?"
    "You know damn well I can." A frisson of resentment laced his voice, although he kept it level.
    Celine moistened dry lips and lifted her chin, looking him in the eye. "Is it over?" she asked baldly. "No," he said. "It isn't over."
    Celine felt the ground spiralling away from beneath her feet. She clenched her hands on the fabric of the pretty peignoir, suddenly conscious of its incongruity in the circumstances. She had dressed for seduction, to lure her husband to bed with her. And he'd just told her he was having an affair with another woman. For all the, impression her satin and chiffon was making on him, she might just as well be