The Jilted Bridegroom

by Carole Mortimer

  ‘Sorry I didn’t answer the door when you knocked.’ He moved to stand in front of her now. ‘I was lounging by the pool, and by the time I had realised it was actually someone knocking at the door you had already let yourself in.’

  ‘I’m sorry about that. I—I still have the key.’ She held it up for him to see, very conscious of the lean length of his body in the hip-hugging black bathing trunks, a gold medallion of St Christopher nestling in the dark hair on his chest today—and how apt that was, considering the amount of travelling around the world this man did. ‘Perhaps I should give you the key back while you’re staying here,’ she suggested abruptly. ‘I really shouldn’t have just walked in here this morning, uninvited.’

  Griff smiled as he moved his hand dismissively, his eyes the colour of warm golden honey, a strange contrast to his dark hair and tanned skin. ‘You thought I was out,’ he excused. ‘Besides, I quite like having you just walk in. Do you realise you’re the first person I’ve seen, apart from the gardener, since I arrived here two days ago? And his conversation is limited,’ he added with a grimace. ‘I’m sure my French isn’t that bad!’

  Sarah smiled. ‘He’s actually a little deaf.’

  Griff’s expression cleared. ‘And I thought he was ignoring me!’ He gave a soft laugh. ‘I’ll have to remember to talk louder the next time I see him.’

  She nodded. ‘He’s really very nice.’

  He quirked dark brows. ‘How about the coffee we didn’t manage the last time you were here?’

  ‘I—’

  ‘Don’t refuse, Sarah,’ he cut in quickly. ‘I’ve been waiting for you to arrive all morning. I’ve already thrown away two pots of coffee that became stewed because I wasn’t sure what time you would arrive today. Come on, Sarah, take pity on a fellow Brit, and accept,’ he encouraged huskily.

  She was very much aware that it was loneliness that motivated the invitation, but nevertheless, when he put it like this, it was heady stuff. And there lay the danger.

  ‘Just to show you’ve forgiven me for yesterday,’ he added persuasively.

  Her eyes widened at this. ‘That I’ve forgiven you? But you didn’t do anything. I was the one who was offhand and pompous. I should never—’

  ‘Offhand and pompous?’ Griff mocked lightly. ‘My, you are on a guilt trip, aren’t you? So you found out about my fiasco of a wedding-day—’

  ‘It was in all the English newspapers,’ she sympathised.

  ‘Finding out about that mess changes nothing.’ He gave a dismissive shrug of his shoulders. ‘I’m still the same person you were disgusted by yesterday.’

  Sarah looked at him reprovingly. ‘Virginia Major is your sister.’

  ‘Ah, so you realised that too, did you?’ He nodded appreciatively. ‘Knowing my snobbish sister as I do, I don’t think she would have been too thrilled by that other assumption you made about our relationship. Virginia is a great one for keeping up appearances,’ he added derisively. ‘Would have been scandalised that anyone could possibly think she would be involved in an affair. And especially one with a younger man!’ he drawled.

  Sarah groaned. ‘I already feel badly enough about that!’

  ‘Then let’s not discuss my dear sister any further,’ he dismissed easily. ‘Why don’t you go and water her plants while I pour us both some coffee? We mustn’t let the plants fade away and die or she’ll blame me for that too; I’ve already upset her enough by being left at the altar. She just may “never recover from the embarrassment of it all”.’ He grimaced ruefully as he mimicked the haughty tones of his older sister.

  But from the little Sarah had come to know of the other woman, before she’d left for England, she wasn’t at all surprised that this was her attitude over Griff’s being jilted in the way he had. He was making very light of his own humiliation, probably because to dwell on it would be far too painful. No one could come away from an experience like that unscathed, and from the depth and emotion of Griff’s newspaper articles it was easy to tell he was a sensitive person.

  ‘Black, with one sugar,’ she told him lightly. ‘The coffee,’ she prompted as he instantly looked puzzled.

  He gave a self-derisive laugh. ‘I thought it must be some type of food for the plants!’

  ‘Perhaps it is,’ Sarah derided, deciding to follow his lead and treat this second meeting as lightly as he seemed to want to. But no matter how he dismissed it she knew Sandra Preston’s treatment of him had affected him deeply—as it would any man! She could see that by the strain about his eyes when he wasn’t smiling that mischievous grin. ‘But I’m not about to try it!’ She gave a rueful laugh, following him through to the kitchen, filling up the brightly coloured watering-can before leaving him to pour the coffee.

  The casual untidiness she had noticed in his bedroom yesterday seemed to have affected the rest of the villa today, things lying about haphazardly in every room, only Virginia Major’s bedroom remaining exempt from the clutter. Now that she was aware of his real relationship to the other woman this perhaps wasn’t so surprising! If she had actually bothered to think yesterday she would have realised that if he were Virginia Major’s lover, as she had assumed he was, he would have been sharing the other woman’s bedroom. Being sensible after the event wasn’t really a lot of help to either of them!

  Despite being siblings, Virginia Major and Griff Morgan were complete opposites, to look at and by nature. Virginia Major had a deep reserve about her, was extremely fastidious in all that she did, seeming to feel that everything had a place, and that it should be kept there. Griff was more open—probably considered that life was too short to be anything else—and his untidiness was all too obvious. Virginia was as tall as her brother, but instead of being dark like Griff she was a golden blonde, with slightly calculating blue eyes. Maybe, after all, Sarah could be forgiven for making such a wrong assumption about them!

  She hummed softly to herself as she moved about the main bedroom, feeling a little more relaxed now that the initial awkwardness of seeing and talking to Griff again had passed. She accepted that he preferred to make light of the whole incident, because to dwell on it would only result in his having to go into further detail about Saturday, and he—

  She let out a terrified scream as she heard something hiss down near her feet, too terrified even to look down, just in case it was something horrific.

  Oh, God…! Griff Morgan had been to some exotic locations during his career—lord knew what it was that had made that hissing noise. Although her imagination was running wild.

  ‘I heard you cry out.’ A worried-looking Griff came hurrying into the room, still holding the sugar bowl in his hand where he had rushed straight from the kitchen after hearing her scream. ‘What happened?’ His sharp-eyed gaze moved quickly but methodically about the room, returning to her with a puzzled frown when he could find nothing there that could have caused her obvious distress. ‘Sarah?’ he prompted in a puzzled voice.

  She was still frozen to the spot, too frightened to move. ‘I—it’s down there,’ she told him through stiff lips, so tense that she couldn’t even nod her head in the direction of the floor.

  Griff gave her a look that clearly doubted her sanity, although his barely perceptible shrug seemed to imply he was perfectly willing to humour her, for the moment at least. ‘What is?’ he prompted cajolingly.

  His condescending tone made her eyes flash deeply green. ‘How should I know?’ she snapped fiercely. ‘I was just watering the plants near the bed here when I heard something hissing!’

  Griff looked at her silently for several seconds before pursing his lips thoughtfully. ‘But you… didn’t see what… hissed at you?’ His expression was bland.

  ‘No,’ she confirmed shakily. ‘Don’t just stand there.’ Her body was so tense now that she felt as if she might snap. ‘Do something!’

  ‘Hold this, will you?’ He placed the sugar bowl into one of her shaking hands. ‘Perhaps it went under Virginia’s bed.’ He went down on his hands
and knees, lifting up the frilled ruffle to look underneath. ‘Yes, there he is.’ He nodded his satisfaction, sitting back on his heels to look at the long bare length of Sarah’s legs, making her very conscious of the brief cut of her green shorts, her bare feet thrust into white sandals. ‘You weren’t bitten?’ He frowned up at her.

  ‘No,’ she shook her head tautly. ‘I—is it… poisonous?’

  ‘No,’ Griff assured her. ‘But you’re sure your skin wasn’t broken?’

  Oh, God, what was wrong? ‘No, it didn’t actually touch me,’ she explained tightly.

  ‘Good.’ He nodded his satisfaction. ‘Not that I think Jasper has rabies,’ he dismissed. ‘But I wouldn’t want to take the risk with you.’ He lifted the pink ruffle about the base of the bed again. ‘Come on out, Jasper,’ he persuaded. ‘Come on, no one is going to hurt you.’

  Jasper? She had been frightened of a cat?

  Griff picked up the metal-grey-coloured cat as he strode haughtily out from under the bed, looking for all the world as if he couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about.

  ‘I telephoned the boarding kennels yesterday after you had left, to see how he was,’ Griff explained. ‘They said the old devil was pining, so I brought him home last night.’

  So he might not have been at home if she had walked across last night anyway.

  The tense atmosphere at the neighbouring villa must be making a nervous wreck of her. What had she thought was under the bed—a snake? God, if only the ground would open up and swallow her!

  But there was never a miracle around when you needed one, and somehow she was going to have to get through this second embarrassment of making a fool of herself in front of this man. It was becoming too much of a habit!

  She put a hand up to her burning cheeks. ‘I don’t know what to say…’

  Griff put the cat down—the ungrateful creature instantly going back under the bed—taking the sugar bowl from Sarah’s unresisting fingers; she had forgotten she even held it! ‘Your coffee will be getting cold again,’ he realised with a sigh.

  ‘Did you really throw two pots away before I arrived?’ she asked breathlessly, following him back to the kitchen, grateful to him for not making too much of the fact that she had just made a complete idiot of herself again. A snake. God, how was she ever going to live down making such a mistake?

  ‘I don’t lie, Sarah.’ Griff was suddenly serious. ‘I never have the time for it. I’m rarely in one place long enough to bother with subterfuge,’ he added in a harsh voice.

  Maybe it was that very precariousness of his profession that had made Sandra Preston change her mind about committing herself to him after all. It could never be easy being married to a man you weren’t sure was in danger or not.

  But that didn’t excuse the fact that the other woman had humiliated him in front of the whole world, making a much respected man a thing of ridicule and speculation.

  ‘A glass of water would do me just as well,’ she assured him as he poured away the cooling coffee and filled the mugs up again from the percolator.

  ‘I’m determined you’re going to taste the “Morgan coffee” before you leave today,’ he said stubbornly. ‘Let’s go and sit by the pool and drink it,’ he suggested as he picked up the two mugs. ‘You can always finish watering the plants later. Unless you’re in a hurry to leave again today?’ He frowned at the thought, obviously not relishing the idea of being on his own again quite so soon, even if he had come here initially for solitude.

  Clarissa would probably be hysterical when Sarah returned if she actually had to look after Stephen herself for too long, but for the moment Sarah just didn’t care.

  ‘Not for a little while, anyway,’ she answered noncommittally.

  He looked so pleased she was sparing the time to have coffee with him that Sarah instantly felt guilty for not initially showing more enthusiasm for the idea herself.

  But she was very conscious of the fact that he was a man who had been literally jilted at the altar, and the last thing she wanted was for him to think she would be interested in helping him salve his wounds in anything but a friendly capacity. She found him very attractive, and in other circumstances—for both of them!—would have welcomed the idea of getting to know him better. But at the moment he was far too vulnerable to actually know what he was doing. And the last thing Sarah needed right now was to be involved in a rebound love.

  As a way of making amends for her tardiness she took a sip of the coffee he had been making such a fuss about her drinking.

  The ‘Morgan coffee’ was so strong that Sarah almost choked on it, sure that if she left her spoon in it too long the metal would disintegrate!

  She gave Griff an encouraging smile as he looked at her enquiringly, seeming unaffected by the strong brew himself.

  He chuckled softly as her eyes actually watered when she took a second tentative sip. ‘It’s helped to keep me awake on more than one occasion,’ he explained derisively.

  Sarah blinked back the tears. ‘With heartburn?’ As soon as the words had left her lips she regretted having spoke them. This man’s heart had to be more than ‘burning’ at the moment, and once again she had said the wrong thing. Couldn’t she do anything right where this man was concerned? ‘I’m so sorry—’ she began.

  ‘Don’t be,’ he cut in harshly. ‘Just forget about all that, OK?’

  She was trying to, and knew he was too, but it was very difficult to forget the circumstances of his being here at all. By rights he should probably have been off somewhere with Sandra, on their honeymoon.

  ‘But, before we forget about it completely, I’d just like to thank you for not revealing my whereabouts to my avid colleagues the moment you realised who I was.’ His derisive expression told her just what he thought of those ‘colleagues’ at this moment.

  ‘It never occurred to me to do such a thing!’ she gasped her indignation, her eyes wide.

  ‘I had a feeling I could trust you.’ He nodded. ‘That’s why I stayed put rather than disappearing again. You really are a nice lady, Sarah Williams.’ Tawny-coloured eyes, narrowed with sensual appraisal, swept over the long length of her legs, the snug fit of her shorts, to the brief black camisole top she wore, before moving to the healthy shine of her confined hair and the fresh beauty of her face. ‘A very nice lady,’ he repeated softly.

  And no man had ever made her feel so completely feminine with just a look before either, making her forget completely her indignation of a few minutes ago.

  It would be sheer madness on her part to let herself become involved with this man; he was only looking for a little female reassurance after being jilted by the woman he loved, before disappearing back to his own world again.

  Sheer madness, she warned herself again sternly.

  Her hand trembled slightly as she smoothed back her hair self-consciously. ‘I think I should be going now,’ she began dismissively, doing her best to ignore the physical splendour of the man as he sat on the lounger so close to her own, their legs almost touching.

  ‘Don’t go yet, Sarah.’ Griff put a hand lightly on her arm, his gaze troubled.

  She drew in a shuddering breath. ‘I really do have to go—’

  He sighed. ‘I meant what I said just now as a compliment, not the prelude to a pass,’ he told her wearily. ‘Besides, I thought you might stay and have a swim with me,’ he added persuasively as he sensed her resolve was weakening.

  This man was too clever by half, and the blue reflected water did look inviting, the sun shining hotly overhead.

  This villa was the last on this rolling hillside, high trees about its perimeter affording them complete privacy from prying eyes.

  It was very tempting to accept his invitation on a day when the temperature must be in the high eighties, and yet still she hesitated, unnerved by this man. ‘I don’t have a costume with me—’

  ‘Borrow one of Virginia’s,’ he instantly offered as he saw victory looming. ‘I noticed several of them in the
changing-rooms. And, while the two of you might not have the same… measurements, I’m sure you could find something of hers that would do just for today,’ he encouraged warmly.

  While not exactly flat-chested, Sarah knew she certainly wasn’t as voluptuous as his sister, a fact he seemed more than aware of too.

  And why not? He was probably a connoisseur when it came to women, an expert in the way they looked if his beautiful fiancée was anything to go by!

  Sarah accepted that she wasn’t in the other woman’s league when it came to looks or sophistication. But one thing she was sure of: she would never have put any man through the humiliation of being stood up at the altar!

  She didn’t like the way Sandra Preston had treated Griff, and if enjoying her company for a while helped take his mind off that then why shouldn’t she do what he suggested?

  It was with these rebellious thoughts in mind that Sarah went into one of the changing cubicles beside the pool.

  As Griff had predicted, there were several bathing costumes in there, the two bikinis she picked up first completely unsuitable: the tops of them would have looked indecent, they were so big!

  But at the bottom of the pile was a plain black costume that stretched over the body rather than fitted. It wasn’t ideal by any means, but it was preferable to not being able to swim at all.

  Griff was already in the water when she emerged out into the sunshine, his body sleek and powerful as he moved easily down the length of the pool.

  Sarah climbed into the water before he turned and saw her, her movements easy and strong as she swam down the length of the pool to join him.

  He turned to grin at her, rivulets of water cascading down his face from the wetness of his hair. ‘You found something, then.’ He looked at her admiringly.

  Sarah ignored that appreciative look, treading water, completely out of her depth—and she had a feeling, if she wasn’t careful, that it might not only be in the water. ‘It’s such a luxury to have a pool at your home like this.’ She deliberately spoke of something less personal.