Millionaire's Woman

by Helen Brooks

  ‘If you’re quite sure I’m not interrupting something,’ he said with sarcasm.

  ‘Oh, don’t be difficult, Jack. Do you want a drink?’ Kate turned her back on him and went along the hall to the kitchen.

  Jack closed the door behind him and followed her. ‘Have you got a beer?’

  ‘Yes.’ She handed him a can and fetched a glass. ‘I’ve also got half a tonic waiting in the sitting room, so let’s go in there.’

  ‘You mean I’d better be sitting comfortably when you tell me what’s up? I saw Forster arrive as I took off just now,’ he added.

  Kate threw him an exasperated look as they went back to the other room. She drew the curtains and switched on lamps and resumed her chair. Jack slung his coat on the end of the chaise and leaned back against the curved support, looking far more at ease than her previous visitor.

  ‘Richard asked me out on Saturday night, Jack.’

  ‘No surprise there.’ He shot her a look. ‘I hope you told him you were otherwise engaged.’

  ‘Of course I did,’ she said impatiently, and drank some tonic. ‘But I suggested he came round on his way home so I could talk to him face to face.’

  Jack leaned forward, his eyes suddenly intent. ‘Why?’

  ‘Richard had to be told that a relationship with me was never going to happen.’

  The eyes narrowed. ‘Anything to do with me?’

  She shook her head. ‘No, Jack, nothing at all. There’s just no place in my life for any relationship of that kind right now, with you, Richard or anyone else. But that’s irrelevant any way, because he’s still in love with his wife.’

  Jack sat back, eyebrows raised, and drank some of his beer. ‘Did he admit that?’

  ‘Eventually, yes. At first he went all tight-lipped and said it was up to her to make the first move. But in the end he changed his mind and he’s off to London tomorrow to make the move himself.’

  ‘Because you told him to?’

  ‘Because I advised him,’ she corrected. ‘He’s a lawyer, remember.’

  Jack raised an eyebrow. ‘What happens if she shuts the door in his face? Will he come rushing back to cry on your shoulder?’

  ‘If he does, all he’ll get is sympathy. The situation remains unchanged.’

  ‘The situation being?’

  ‘That Joanna takes precedence over everything else in my life right now.’

  Jack’s mood changed abruptly. ‘Of course. How is she, Kate? You said she enjoyed her time with you last weekend.’

  ‘She seems to be coping remarkably well.’

  He eyed her searchingly. ‘But what happens at night, after lights out in her dormitory?’

  Touched by his insight, Kate repeated the account given by Dr Knight. ‘Jo’s dealing with her loss far better than I ever imagined.’

  ‘Having you as a guardian is a lot to do with it.’

  ‘It’s kind of you to say so, Jack.’

  He grinned suddenly. ‘Don’t sound so surprised. I can be very kind when I put my mind to it.’

  ‘I know that. So did Dawn Taylor.’ Kate could have kicked herself when she saw Jack’s smile vanish.

  He abandoned his beer and got up. ‘Time I was on my way. Thanks for the drink.’

  Kate jumped up and put a hand on his arm. ‘Do you have plans for this evening, Jack?’

  He looked down at the hand. ‘Why?’

  ‘If you haven’t, you could stay to supper. If you like,’ she muttered, already regretting her impulse.

  Jack’s grin was back as he looked up. ‘Thought you’d never ask.’

  ‘You’ll have to eat whatever I can find in the cupboard,’ she warned, surprised to feel so relieved. ‘Come into the kitchen while I forage.’

  ‘I’ve got a better idea,’ he said, sitting down again. ‘Let’s order in. You can impress me with your culinary skill next time.’

  Kate returned to her chair, smiling gratefully. ‘I won’t say no. I’ve had a tiring afternoon.’

  ‘Painting?’

  ‘No, far more exhausting than that. I went on a shopping trip with Anna. She needed something to wear to your dinner party. Her current wardrobe doesn’t fit.’ Kate swirled the remains of her drink round her glass. ‘Just between you and me, she’s pregnant, and jubilant about it. So is Ben.’

  ‘I can imagine he would be! Should I congratulate them?’

  ‘I’m not sure if they’ve gone public on it, so maybe not yet.’

  ‘My lips shall remain sealed. Would you have another beer?’

  Kate went to fetch more drinks, and found Jack talking on his phone when she got back.

  He closed it with a snap. ‘That was Dad, worried something was wrong. So I told him you’d asked me to supper and right now he’s probably jumping joyfully to all the wrong conclusions.’

  Kate handed him a beer, topped up her own glass and sat down. ‘It’s just supper, Jack.’

  The black-lashed eyes gleamed as he pulled the tab on the can. ‘But Dad will take it as a sign that you’re thawing towards me. Are you?’ he added.

  ‘Yes.’ Kate smiled at him cheerfully. ‘I knew I’d upset you and wanted to show I was sorry.’

  ‘In that case, let’s see if we can manage the rest of the evening without coming to blows.’ He gave her a sharp look. ‘Not that I would ever, in any circumstances, raise a hand to you, Kate.’

  ‘I know that,’ she said impatiently. ‘You can’t have changed that much.’

  His eyes held hers. ‘I haven’t changed at all when it comes to the important things in life.’

  ‘Neither have I.’ She grinned. ‘As usual, I fancy some Chinese.’

  He rolled his eyes. ‘Let me guess—same old sweet and sour pork, spare ribs and spring rolls.’

  ‘You remember!’ She nodded with enthusiasm. ‘With crispy seaweed on the side and masses of fried rice. I’ve got a menu in the kitchen. Shall I order now? I’m hungry.’

  They sat at the kitchen table later, facing each other across a sea of foil dishes. Jack had discarded his jacket and rolled up his shirtsleeves when Kate provided large tea towels in lieu of napkins.

  ‘Can’t get grease on your bespoke suiting,’ she said briskly.

  ‘Amen to that. Next time I wear jeans. Because,’ Jack added deliberately, ‘there will be a next time, Kate.’

  She shrugged. ‘Why not? No harm in a takeaway now and then.’

  They shunted dishes back and forth, emptying them with hunger as Jack told her he’d called in to make sure she hadn’t backed out of the dinner party. Assured that she was looking forward to it with bated breath, he grinned and began to talk about his latest restoration venture. Kate listened with keen interest as he described the transformation of a disused factory into affordable flats.

  ‘No pricey loft apartments like the one you shared with fiancé mark two,’ he told her, and nodded wryly at her startled look. ‘Oh yes, news filtered through to me eventually. Unlike your banker a lot of people can’t afford that kind of thing, but they still want comfort and style. This project will provide both. The building’s user-friendly, and will include smaller apartments for first time buyers and a children’s nursery school.’

  ‘Convenient for shopping and schools for older children?’ Kate asked, breaking open a fortune cookie.

  ‘Only ten minutes from both. The wasteland around it will be landscaped into gardens to provide as green an environment as possible.’

  ‘It sounds wonderful, Jack.’

  ‘When it’s nearer completion I’ll take you over it.’ He leaned over to read her fortune. ‘New horizons are opening for you,’ he intoned solemnly.

  ‘Pretty general sort of forecast,’ said Kate, and handed him a cookie.

  Jack broke it open. ‘You are about to receive your heart’s desire!’ he read.

  ‘You’re kidding!’

  ‘Alas, yes,’ he said, grinning. ‘Mine’s the same as yours.’

  Kate bundled the debris into a waste sack and ran hot wa
ter and detergent into the kitchen sink. ‘You go up to the bathroom and wash—last door on the landing at the back,’ she told Jack. ‘I’ll scrub my grease off down here.’

  He returned a few minutes later. ‘I resisted the temptation to explore,’ he said self-righteously.

  ‘You can take a look if you like.’

  ‘I’d rather you showed me round.’

  Kate felt like a proud parent showing off its child as she led the way upstairs.

  ‘This is where I work,’ she said, at the threshold of her study. ‘ Jo is next door, in the blue and yellow room. And I’m through here.’ She led him across the landing to her newly painted bedroom, then opened the door on the bathroom with the tub Ben had found for her in a reclamation yard.‘ That’s the lot. If you were a prospective buyer, how would it strike you?’

  ‘Any smart young couple would go mad for it,’ Jack assured her. ‘But you don’t intend to sell, surely?’

  ‘No. I just wanted an objective opinion. I’ve never done any decorating before.’ She pulled a face. ‘The preparation is the hardest part. Once I get to the actual painting, it’s easy.’ She held out her hands ruefully. ‘They’ll never be the same again.’

  ‘Wear gloves!’

  ‘I do, most of the time. But you can’t wear them for everything.’

  ‘True,’ said Jack, and turned to look at the mahogany sleigh bed visible through the open doorway to Kate’s room. ‘I assume that belonged to the famous Aunt Edith?’

  She nodded. ‘Impressive, isn’t it! They make good copies these days, but this is the real McCoy. The auctioneer who came here to value the other furniture salivated when he saw it and offered me a good price, but I refused to part with it.’

  ‘Very wise. If he was salivating, the price was probably half of what it should have been.’

  ‘Cynic!’

  ‘Realist,’ he contradicted, and took her hands in his.

  ‘Shall I kiss them better?’

  Kate stood very still, suddenly aware that the door to her bedroom stood open in invitation. She looked up into Jack’s eyes and felt her knees tremble.

  ‘Shall I?’ he repeated, his voice deepening.

  Kate watched mutely as he lifted each hand to his lips in turn, the touch of his open mouth on her skin sending her pulse into overdrive. ‘Thank you,’ she said hoarsely. ‘Much better—’

  The rest of her words were smothered against his mouth as Jack pulled her into his arms and kissed her hungrily, his lips and tongue so irresistible she melted against him, her heart pounding as his hands slid beneath her sweater. She felt a familiar, liquid rush of hot response as his kiss deepened and, without taking his lips from hers, Jack picked her up and carried her through the door of her room. But when he laid her down on the bed Kate rolled to the far side and stood up, shaking her head in vehement rejection.

  Jack stood breathing heavily, his eyes hard as flint. ‘Why not?’ he demanded harshly.

  Kate brushed past him out of the room and hurried down the steep staircase, her knees trembling. It was her fault. Jack Logan was a man, after all, and a man who had once been her lover. She didn’t blame him for wanting to make love to her, but she couldn’t let that happen. She wasn’t laying herself open to that kind of pain again.

  Jack came into the kitchen behind her and picked up his jacket. ‘Kate,’ he said harshly, ‘all you had to do was say no.’

  She turned on him, eyes flashing. ‘I know that.’

  He raked a hand through his hair, his eyes angry. ‘Then why in God’s name make me feel like a rapist?’

  She let out a deep, unsteady sigh. ‘I told you that friendship with me would be hard work, Jack.’

  ‘So you did.’

  Kate eyed him uncertainly as he shrugged into his jacket. ‘If you’d rather I didn’t turn up tomorrow, I quite understand.’

  He stared at her in disbelief. ‘And what reason will you give your friends for staying away?’

  She bit her lip. ‘Migraine, stomach bug, whatever.’

  ‘And when Anna Maitland comes rushing here to check up on you?’

  ‘I don’t let her in because she’s pregnant and I might be contagious.’

  Jack slid into his overcoat, looking at her steadily. ‘Kate, I vote we delete the past few minutes and go back to the supper we shared. I enjoyed the evening up to that point and, unless you were putting on an act, you did too.’

  ‘Of course I did.’

  ‘So stop behaving like an idiot and come to Mill House tomorrow as you promised.’ Jack’s lips twitched. ‘You know you want to see Lucy Beresford’s reaction to the house.’

  Kate laughed unwillingly. ‘True. All right, Jack,’ she said, resigned, and looked at him squarely. ‘I apologise.’

  ‘For what, exactly?’

  ‘For being late with my no. It won’t happen again.’

  ‘Next time you’ll say yes?’

  ‘There’s never going to be a yes, Jack,’ she said with such emphasis his eyes narrowed.

  They stared into hers for a long, tense interval, then he shrugged. ‘Never say never, Kate.’ He smiled suddenly.

  ‘What now?’

  ‘Did your aunt sleep alone in that erotic bed?’

  ‘As far as I know, she did.’ Kate grinned. ‘Though, somehow, I never thought of her as my maiden aunt.’

  ‘You think she had lovers?’

  ‘She was in the army in the Second World War, so she probably had more than one. And she worked in London as some tycoon’s right hand for years afterwards. She bought this house with money he left her in his will, so maybe their relationship was closer than she let on. Apparently my father was surprised that she chose to come back here to live.’

  ‘Obviously a family trait,’ said Jack dryly, and took Kate’s hand with the care of someone handling a stick of gelignite. ‘Are we on track again? If friendship’s the only thing on offer, I’ll settle for it. But I won’t lie to you, Kate. I want more than that.’

  ‘That’s all there is, Jack,’ she said flatly.

  ‘The chemistry’s still there,’ he pointed out, and released her hand. ‘You felt it just as much as I did before something put on the brakes. So I repeat. Never say never.’

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  KATE had fully intended taking Saturday off to get in the mood for Jack’s dinner party. Instead she went on with her painting with the radio turned up high, trying to drag her mind away from the few brief, heated moments that had given her such a frustrated, restless night. She was the guilty one—or the stupid one. It was herself she’d been fighting, not Jack. For one desperate moment she’d wanted to pull him down on the bed and make love with him until the world went away.

  Her face set in determined lines as she put her painting paraphernalia away later. The solution was simple. If she was never alone with Jack again it couldn’t happen. But that would mean no more impromptu suppers. Her shoulders sagged. It had been so good to spend time with him again and just talk. Quite apart from the unique physical chemistry between them, Jack had once been the best friend she’d ever had. She’d been madly in love with him, but she’d also liked him better than any man she’d met before or since. The loss of friend as well as lover had made the pain and disillusion even harder to bear when it all ended in tears.

  The doorbell rang just as Kate was about to go upstairs for a bath. She opened the door to find a young woman proffering a flower arrangement.

  ‘Kate Durant?’ she asked. ‘These are for you.’

  ‘Thank you,’ said Kate, surprised, and hurried inside to read the card attached to the basket.

  ‘For Katie,’ said the message.

  Kate blinked hard as she looked at the delicate blend of freesias and miniature tulips. She set the basket of flowers on the table in the sitting room and stood back to admire, her new resolution wavering already. The subtle colours blended so perfectly with the room—Jack had obviously chosen them personally. Afraid to trust her voice she thanked him via a text me
ssage.

  ‘We were going to offer to come and pick you up tonight,’ Anna rang later to inform her.‘ But it occurred to me that you’d rather drive yourself. You might—’ cough ‘—want to stay on for a bit after we’ve gone home.’

  ‘I very much doubt that, but there’s no point in coming miles out of your way to collect me,’ said Kate tartly. ‘I’ll drive myself.’

  ‘You sound a bit snappy!’

  ‘Sorry, sorry. I’ve just finished the last wall in the dining room and I’m a bit tired.’

  ‘For heaven’s sake, Kate,’ said Anna in exasperation, ‘surely you could have taken the day off today of all days! No wonder you sound on edge.’

  ‘Why should I be on edge?’

  ‘I assume that it’s dinner for six tonight?’

  ‘I think so.’

  ‘Then Lucy Beresford—the biggest gossip in town—will take it for granted that you and Jack are, or are intending to be, a couple too.’

  ‘Oh, God! I hadn’t thought of that.’

  ‘Well, I had. Have you seen Jack lately?’

  ‘We shared a Chinese here last night.’

  ‘Does this mean you’re getting back with him, then?’ Anna demanded.

  ‘No. At least not in the way you mean.’

  ‘Pity. Now tell me what you’re wearing so we don’t clash.’

  Kate had signed on with a doctor, and even with Anna’s dentist, but had never made it to a hairdresser. She wished she had, later, when her hair refused to behave. Her intention had been a sleek, sophisticated knot to to wear with her sleek, sophisticated suit, but her slippery hair refused to stay up, and after a while she gave in and left it loose. But when she viewed the overall effect with the suit she wasn’t unhappy. No cleavage or anything clinging tonight, not even jewellery, other than her gold watch .The mannish tailoring of her black velvet trousers and jacket was softened only by the gleam of a white silk camisole. And, because the weather was no more in party mood than she was, Kate pulled knee-length black boots over the velvet trousers to protect them from the pouring rain, belted on her trench coat, switched on the burglar alarm, locked the door behind her and stood under the shelter of the door pediment to aim the remote at her little two-seater.