Never Leave Me by Harold Robbins Read Free Book Online Page B

me and began stuffing them into my briefcase. As far as I was concerned the meeting was over.
    I didn’t have to look down the table at Chris to confirm what I already felt. This was half a million bucks that would never show on our books.…
    Chris hadn’t said a word all the way down in the elevator. The air in the street seemed suddenly chill in spite of the bright sunshine. I pushed my collar up against my neck.
    A cab pulled up to the kerb at his gesture. I was about to step into it when I changed my mind. I turned and gave him my briefcase. “Go back to the office, Chris,” I said. “I’m gonna walk around a bit.”
    He nodded, taking the briefcase from me, and stepped into the cab. I watched it pull away from the kerb and stepped back into the crowds on Fifth Avenue. I put my head down, my hands in my coat pockets and started to walk uptown.
    I was the biggest dope of all. I should have known better. But I still might’ve had it if not for Matt Brady, with his cold eyes and sceptical mouth. “Beware of little men,” my father had once said. A little man had to be smarter to survive. Dad was right. Matt Brady was a little man. And smart. He saw right through to the phony that I was. A hatred for him began to build up in me. He knew everything, he had all the answers. At least that’s what he thought. But he was wrong. Nobody had all the answers.
    I don’t know how long I’d been walking or where, but when I stopped, I was standing in front of
    her hotel. I looked up at it. The gold cigarette case in my pocket since the morning was cold against my fingers.

    She was waiting at the door as I came down the hall from the elevator. As soon as I saw her face I knew she had been expecting me.
    I followed her into the room, the cigarette case in my hand. “You left it in the car on purpose,” I said.
    She took it from my hand silently, neither confirming nor denying. She didn’t meet my eyes. “Thanks, Brad,” she said.
    “Why?”
    Slowly she looked up at me. Again I could feel the strange loneliness in them. Her lips parted as if to speak, but then her eyes filled with tears.
    I held out my arms to her and she came into them as if she belonged there. Her face was against my chest and her tears were salty against my mouth.
    I held her for a long time like that and at last the tears stopped. Her voice was very low. “I’m sorry, Brad; I’ll be okay now.”
    I watched her cross the room. She disappeared into the bedroom and a few seconds later I could hear the sounds of running water. I threw my coat across a chair and picked up the phone.
    Room service in this hotel was good. I just finished pouring some Scotch into the glasses when she came back.
    Her face was scrubbed and clean and her eyes held no trace of the tears that had reddened them. I held a glass to her. “You need a drink.”
    “I’m sorry, Brad,” she apologized again. “I didn’t mean to cry.” “Forget it,” I said quickly.
    She shook her head vehemently. “I hate crying,” she insisted. “It’s not fair to you.”
    I sank into the chair beside my coat. “All’s fair in love and——” I started, but the expression on her face stopped me.
    Silently I sipped at my drink. My nerves stopped jumping as the whisky hit my stomach and ricochetted through my system. She sat in a chair opposite me.
    How long we sat there I’ll never know. We didn’t speak until I had refilled my glass and peace and contentment began to steal into me. The world and business were far away now, even the disappointment of a little while ago was gone.
    Dusk had begun to shade the windows behind her, my voice echoed in the room. I had held up my glass and looked into it. The words had come from my lips and I hadn’t expected them.
    “I love you, Elaine.”
    I lowered the glass and looked at her.
    She was nodding her head. “And I love you,” she answered.
    Then I knew why she had nodded. It was as if we had both known all the time. I didn’t move from