by Anne Mather
‘Only for you,’ he breathed into her ear. ‘Only for you.’ Then he swung her up into his arms, ignoring her protest, carrying her rather unsteadily across the living room and into his bedroom, laying her on his bed almost reverently. ‘Don't stop me, Catherine,’ he implored, and she wound her arms round his neck, pulling him down to her.
‘I wasn't going to,’ she confessed helplessly.
Some time later, Jared rubbed his face against her bare shoulder, his hand cupping her throat possessively. ‘Oh, Catherine!’ he muttered huskily. ‘I've been so wrong about you.'
‘Do you mind?’ she whispered, turning her head on the pillow to look at him.
‘Mind?’ He gave a rueful laugh. ‘My darling, no one could love you more than I do. And it's me who should be asking you that question,’ he added ungrammatically.
‘Do I mind?’ she murmured, stretching her arms luxuriously above her head. ‘Hmm—I don't mind at all.'
Jared said a word that sent shivers of delight down her spine, and then caressing her mouth with his own, he said: ‘I couldn't let you go. Not even when I knew—’ He broke off with an endearing grimace. ‘Oh, what the hell! We're getting married just as soon as I can get a licence, and something tells me I'm not going to be able to let you go until a piece of paper tells us it's legal.'
Catherine wound her arms round his neck. ‘I wouldn't want to leave you,’ she breathed, running her fingers through his hair. ‘Oh, Jared, I do love you.'
His eyes darkened passionately. ‘You know what you're inviting, don't you?'
She smiled complacently. ‘You've just shown me,’ she said teasingly. Then: ‘I ought to ring Tony. Just to let him know everything's all right.'
Jared looked down at her possessively. ‘Tony,’ he muttered. ‘If you knew how I grew to hate that name!'
Catherine touched his mouth with her fingers. ‘Poor Tony!'
‘Poor Tony nothing. He caused me a hell of a lot of sleepless nights.’ He paused. ‘I could have killed you that day at the airport. I'd been building myself up to ask you to marry me in spite of—well, you know in spite of what. When I saw Tony, I didn't know what to believe.'
Catherine hesitated. ‘Would you—I mean, did you really want to marry me, believing I was—pregnant?'
Jared buried his face in the hollow between her breasts. ‘I knew I'd never marry anyone else,’ he replied softly.
‘Oh, darling!'
Jared lifted his head. ‘So many things conspired against us. I'm not blaming you. I resented the effect you had on me right from the start. I guess that was why it was easier to be uncivil to you. To keep you at a distance.'
‘And there was Laura,’ she reminded him.
‘Yes, Laura.’ He rolled on to his back, and she propped herself up on one elbow looking down at him. ‘We should never have got engaged. But Liz convinced me it was a good idea.’ He looked squarely at her. ‘Whatever you've been led to believe, there was never anything between Liz and me. She was my father's wife, and I respected her for that. I never saw her as anything else.'
‘But—but that night we were on the beach. She said you had spoken to her then about the wedding. Was it—was it when you got back?'
‘Honey, I didn't get back until after seven. After you rode off and left me, I was pretty mad.’ He reached up and pulled a strand of her hair. ‘I must think of some punishment for that.’ Then he went on: ‘I stayed on the beach until after the sun was up. Then I walked back. She spoke to me when I was loading up the car.'
‘About the wedding?'
‘Catherine, I was still trying to convince myself that you meant nothing to me. But I couldn't do it at the house. I didn't trust myself not to—well, I had to get away. You know how successful that was. I came back and found you and—Laura found us.'
‘You were so horrible to Laura that day.'
‘I know, I know. But God help me, Catherine, they were tying me up, she and Liz. I knew what Liz was doing. I could see that she didn't like you, and she was afraid I might marry you instead of Laura if she didn't set the wheels in motion. But I couldn't go through with it. Seeing you—being with you—I was jealous of any man who came near you, including that playboy Dexter.'
‘And yet you let me go.'
‘I couldn't hold you there by force, and after that scene in the library, I thought you'd never forgive me. I did go to the airport, though. I saw you get on the plane.'
‘So it was you!’ Catherine's lips parted.
‘Oh, yes, I was always around.’ He gave a rueful sigh. ‘The night you arrived at Amaryllis, I put you to bed. You didn't know that, did you? Susie had closed the shutters and removed the flowers, but I had to assure myself that you were all right. I think that was when I began to resent the power you had over me.'
Catherine hesitated. Then she said gently: ‘Why did you donate that money to the centre, Jared?'
His brows drew together and he scowled. ‘How do you know about that?’ he demanded.
She sighed. ‘When I was looking for your clean clothes, I found some papers. I didn't deliberately set out to read them, but I saw the bank draft and…'
Her voice trailed away and she looked at him anxiously, half afraid he was going to be furious with her. But he had relaxed again.
‘I suppose I would have had to tell you sooner or later,’ he conceded dryly. ‘As my wife, you'll have to access to all my financial affairs.’ He gave a wry smile. ‘It wasn't the unselfish act it appeared. I thought perhaps—if they had enough money to build the centre, you might get bored with the project and consider returning to Barbados.'
‘Oh, Jared!’ She bent her head and kissed his chest. ‘That's all I ever wanted to do.'
For a few moments there was silence in the apartment, and then Jared rolled over, imprisoning her body beneath the weight of his.
‘And now,’ he said, with lazy mockery, ‘I'm hungry. Did I hear you say something earlier about preparing me some food?'
* * *
Six weeks later, Catherine and Jared walked barefoot along the beach at Flintlock, their arms round each other's waists. It was twilight, and the sun was sinking in a glory of gold into the ocean.
‘We ought to be getting back,’ murmured Catherine reluctantly, and Jared pressed her closer. Five weeks of marriage had obviously agreed with him, and there was flesh on his bones again, as well as a lazy indolence in his walk.
Tonight there was to be a dinner party at Amaryllis, their first big dinner party since their return, and the guests of honour were to be the governor-general and his lady. Jared had finished the commission at long last, and tonight he was presenting it.
‘Come on,’ he said now, turning away from the ocean and up towards the beach house. ‘I've got something to show to you.'
Catherine waited until Jared had entered the building and lighted some candles before following him inside.
‘Isn't the lamp working?’ she asked, indicating the flickering light of the candles.
Jared grinned. ‘Don't be so practical! Candlelight is more romantic.'
Catherine laughed. ‘Darling, our guests will be at the house in less than an hour, and now that Elizabeth's got a home of her own and isn't there to greet them for us… We don't have time to be romantic!'
‘We always have time to be romantic,’ her husband contradicted her, carrying a sheet-shrouded canvas into the light. ‘Now—what do you think of this?'
He pulled the sheet away and Catherine gazed in awe at the painting confronting her. It was the ocean, wild and untrammelled, surf rising, white and spumed with foam. But the ocean was only the background. She stood in the foreground, slim and more beautiful than she knew herself to be, veils of green chiffon flowing round her, her hair as free and unbound as the ocean.
She raised bemused eyes to his face, and he pointed to the bottom of the painting. ‘See,’ he said. ‘It has a title.'
Catherine saw. ‘Wild Enchantress!’ she read. ‘But—'
‘You—or the
ocean?’ he asked gently, and she nodded. ‘Both, I guess. My past—and my future. Now do you understand why it took so long to finish the commission?'
‘But you destroyed the sketches,’ she protested.
Jared pulled her into his arms, his hands possessive upon her. ‘Do you honestly think I need any sketches to remember every inch of you?’ he demanded huskily, and she pressed herself closer to him. ‘About our guests,’ he added softly, but she just burrowed closer.
‘What was that you said about always having time for romance?’ she whispered, and he chuckled as he kicked the door shut with his foot…
ISBN: 978-1-4720-9778-1
WILD ENCHANTRESS
© 1976 Anne Mather
Published in Great Britain 2014
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
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