A Dangerous Affair Chapter 46

Tom says the wrong thing and angers Stephanie

Stephanie and Tom left the hotel sheepishly, thanking the restaurant manager on the way and making a speedy exit.

“What did I say? What a result!” Tom said confidently, although he could hardly believe their luck himself. “All we need to do is phone Samantha whatever her name is and find out all there is to know about Carlton.”

“You’re assuming rather a lot there aren’t you?” Stephanie replied, following Tom across the gravel driveway to his car. “You don’t know what she is going to tell us.”

“Ah come on, you heard them, they are obviously in trouble with Carlton. Seems to me as if they could do with all this coming out. It would make things safer for them.”

“So you think that Carlton is the father in law?” Stephanie asked.

Tom unlocked the car door and paused for just a second to answer her before getting in. “Of course.” He said simply.

Stephanie joined him in the car and sat thoughtfully as they left the hotel grounds.

“I doubt that she’s Henry’s wife,” she said suddenly.

Tom turned to look at her. “What makes you say that?”

“There was never any mention of a wife and you’d have thought that if he was going to up and leave that he’d have taken her with him!”

“Maybe not. It looks as if those two back there are having an affair,” Tom commented. “Anyway, he wasn’t interested in any wife, he was obsessed with you remember?”

“I’d rather not actually. But I refuse to believe that he’d leave his wife behind and kidnap me, who he barely knew, to take along instead.”

Tom laughed. “You are so naive at times Stephie.” Stephanie bristled at Tom’s patronising tone. “Those two are having an affair, Henry has most definitely had numerous affairs before and then he saw you, a beautiful woman making eyes at him. So is it that hard to believe that he’d dump his wife, who he was obviously no longer interested in, and head off with the latest most beautifully alluring woman he could find?”

Stephanie frowned. “My god you make it all sound so bloody seedy!”

Tom shrugged. “That’s life for you.”

“And for the record, I wasn’t making eyes at him…well not in the way you make it sound,” she said defensively.

“I know, you just wanted the information out of him,” he grinned.

Why was he looking so bloody smug and making her feel as if she was as bad as the rest of them? She didn’t like this conversation and so irrationally, she found another one with which to vent her rising anger.

“You realise that you made us look like complete fools in there don’t you? We’re lucky we didn’t get reported for stealing someone else’s property!”

“Ah come on Stephie, we found out more and we will end up with the full scoop on Carlton. Admit it, you get a kick out of that kind of cloak and dagger stuff. You did the same with Henry. I bet you just dreamt of going undercover and getting all the top stories when you were young.”

He was being insufferable! “No Tom, I dreamt of being a movie star and being loved by millions, not disguising myself in an old mac and totally humiliating myself in public!”

Tom was still wearing an annoying grin on his face. “Well, you’ll always be a star to me Stephie,” he said, glancing sideways at her. It was meant as a compliment but to Stephanie it just sounded patronising. Tom continued, oblivious to the way he had annoyed Stephanie. “And that’s another thing, since we’ve been working together for a while now I guess I should know all these things about you. So, what do you say we get together tonight and find out all the inside information on each other?”

What did he have to lose? He had to admit to himself that he wanted very much to date her whether she was Hamilton’s daughter or not. Besides she had agreed to a date before so why not try his luck now?

He had to be kidding! For a start that was a sorry excuse for a date invitation, plus it came right after he had both insulted and annoyed her intensely!

“All things considered, I think it’s best that we keep things as they are Tom, on a professional footing. Let’s report back to Brick and try those phone numbers and then it will be an early night for me,” she replied.

He narrowed his eyes at her. She was upset after the talk of Henry Carlton. Perhaps they shouldn’t have talked about him again.

“No problem, let’s pick up the other car and get back to the office,” he said, surprising her. She had expected him to at least make another attempt at asking her out!

Tom however was not prepared to leave it at that. He decided to bide his time and ask her again later when she had calmed down. Women, they were so touchy at times!

Reviews

[Daydreamer54]

I don't think they can be firends with the kind of chemistry they have. they might as well be dating and stephanie knows it, :P