When the doorbell rang a few minutes later she didn’t need two guesses as to who it was. Only Jared would have the nerve to call on someone at eleven-thirty at night!
Kate wrenched the door open, her anger fading as she saw the hopeful smile on his lips. He had his rucksack thrown over one shoulder, his suitcase in his other hand.
‘I spent my hotel money on roses for a beautiful lady,’ he told her ruefully, as she made no effort to speak to him but simply stared at him wordlessly.
Her mouth firmed. ‘In that case, the “beautiful lady” will reimburse you.’
Jared shook his head. ‘I told you, I never take money from a woman.’
‘Then what do you want?’
He shrugged. ‘The use of the bed I never quite got to last night.’
Kate gave an impatient sigh. ‘My fiancé has just left—’
‘I know,’ he nodded. ‘I watched him go.’
‘I might have guessed!’
He grinned. ‘I wouldn’t dream of interrupting your evening.’
‘Just asking for the use of my spare bedroom,’ she drawled.
He gave a rueful shrug. ‘It will only be for tonight. I’ll find somewhere else for tomorrow.’
Her mouth twisted. ‘I seem to remember an angry man telling me this morning that he knew plenty of people in London.’
‘And I do,’ he told her. ‘But most of the friends I tried today are either living with someone or they need the privacy to seduce their lady. I didn’t think you would mind.’
‘Really?’ Her tone was dry.
‘You do?’ he grimaced.
‘Because of you Ben seems to think I’m going to become an heiress any day now,’ she scowled. ‘It took me ten minutes to get away from his good wishes this evening.’
Jared look unperturbed. ‘He was pleased for you.’
‘So would I be if it were true!’
‘Never mind, Katharine Mary,’ he walked past her into the flat, ‘you’re engaged to a rich man, you’ll soon have a rich husband.’
She closed the door and followed him through to the lounge, watching as he put the case and rucksack on the floor. ‘You can’t stay here, you know,’ she told him.
He frowned. ‘Why not?’
‘Because—’
‘Of propriety?’ he finished lightly, shrugging. ‘I’ve never much cared for that myself. As long as I don’t intentionally hurt anyone, and what I do isn’t illegal, I don’t see the use of convention or propriety.’ He sat down on the sofa, his long legs stretched out in front of him, the denims he wore tonight even more disreputable and patched, his shirt dark blue, the black leather jacket fitting him comfortably. ‘Do you?’
Kate sighed at his philosophy on life; it might be a good one, but it wasn’t practical. ‘Richard wouldn’t like you staying here.’
‘And your other fiancé,’ he looked up at her curiously. ‘What did he like? Did he used to stay here with you himself?’
The colour entered her cheeks against her will. ‘That’s none of your business!’
‘He did,’ Jared nodded his head. ‘I knew I wasn’t the first with you, but you aren’t very experienced either, are you?’ He eyed her challengingly.
‘Jared—’
‘You aren’t fooling anyone, Katharine Mary,’ he gently rebuked. ‘And sleeping with your ex-fiancé is nothing to be ashamed of. I’m sure you loved him at the time.’
‘I may have done—’
‘I know you did,’ he told her confidently. ‘But you don’t love him now. What happened, Kate? You once told me he was a louse, what did he do to you?’ He frowned up at her with serious intensity. ‘I need to know,’ he added softly.
He didn’t need to know anything about her! How dared he come here and assure her that she had nothing to be ashamed of because she had made love with Brian—he was the one she was ashamed of going to bed with! ‘Why?’ she snapped. ‘So you don’t make the same mistake?’
‘I thought I’d already made it,’ he derided at her sarcasm. ‘I’m poor, and I want to marry you.’
She gave an uncomfortable blush. ‘Brian’s problem didn’t lie in either of those things,’ she told him tightly. ‘As yours doesn’t. The reason I can’t even think about marrying you is that I’ve agreed to marry Richard. I didn’t marry Brian because he decided to marry someone else.’
Jared’s eyes narrowed. ‘And what did you decide, to marry a man who could take care of you for a change, who could give you the support you need?’
Her blush deepened at his shrewdness. ‘Richard will make me a good husband,’ she nodded acknowledgment.
‘But will you make him a good wife?’
‘Yes!’ Her eyes flashed deeply gold.
‘I believe you,’ he drawled. ‘Tell me about your last fiancé.’
Kate turned away. ‘I’ve already told you about him—he married someone else. Look, I’m tired, Jared. I had a late night last night, and it’s been a long day today. I think I’ll go to bed.’
He stood up, suddenly forceful, the impression of a sleeping tiger dispersed. ‘No!’ He relaxed with effort. ‘Why don’t you have a shower, it will ease away the tension of the day. I’ll make us both some coffee.’
‘Do I take that to mean you intend staying?’
‘Do I?’ He quirked dark brows.
She gave a sigh of defeat. ‘For tonight,’ she agreed wearily. ‘But you really can’t make a habit of it,’ she added warningly.
‘I won’t.’ He was already on his way to the kitchen to make the coffee.
Kate gave a shrug of acceptance, too tired to argue any more tonight, and she had the interview with Colin Harkness to think about without worrying about Jared making use of her spare bedroom.
The shower, did a lot to refresh her, and the smell of newly percolated coffee coming from the kitchen made her feel even better. The supper of cheese sandwiches Jared had also prepared came as a complete surprise.
‘You don’t eat enough,’ he talked down her objection as she protested when he insisted she eat some of the sandwiches.
‘Cheese last thing at night gives me nightmares,’ she defended, her black silk robe secured tightly over her black lace nightdress, her hair brushed into a silky curtain and secured at her nape like a copper flame.
His mouth twisted. ‘If that happens I’ll be only too glad to come and wake you up, to—comfort you,’ he taunted, the leather jacket discarded, the sleeves of the navy blue shirt turned back to just below his elbows, revealing the dark hair that covered his tanned skin, his arms strong and muscled, as was the rest of his body.
‘I’m sure you will,’ Kate returned dryly, sitting on one of the stools at the breakfast bar, enjoying the aromatic coffee. ‘But I’m sure I won’t need comforting.’
‘Pity,’ he shrugged nonchalantly, pushing the plate of sandwiches at her and sitting at her side. ‘So why did Brian marry someone else?’ He looked at her challengingly.
She gave an impatient sigh and slammed her cup down, having thought the subject forgotten. ‘Jared—’
‘Is it a secret?’ he mocked. ‘Did you pull one of your “I want to be alone” stunts and he just got tired of waiting for you to come back?’
‘No, I didn’t!’ She stood up, breathing deeply. ‘I fell in love with Brian when I was nineteen, I loved him for five years, I thought he felt the same way about me—’ Once she had begun talking she couldn’t stop, the words coming out of her mouth heatedly, not stopping until she had told Jared everything about her engagement to Brian, and the traumatic way it had ended. ‘He and Coral have been married for a couple of months now,’ she finished dully.
‘Why didn’t you fight for him?’
She turned to Jared with fierce eyes. ‘What was there to fight for? He’d already made his choice!’
‘So couldn’t you have tried to change his mind?’
Her mouth tightened. ‘No.’
‘You didn’t want to.’
‘I didn’t need to!’
Once again her eyes flashed. ‘Brian had decided there was room for both Coral and me in his life, Coral as his rich wife, I as his—his mistress,’ her mouth tightened with distaste. ‘His decision wasn’t acceptable to me.’
‘Nor to me,’ Jared bit out. ‘I would have killed him if he’d forced you into that role.’
Kate gave a tight smile. ‘If he hadn’t made the suggestion I wouldn’t have needed to get away, and then the two of us would never have met.’
‘We would,’ he nodded. ‘Some things are meant to be. And I’ve been searching for you for thirty-four years.’
‘Fate, Jared?’ she queried.
‘That’s one word for it.’
‘Then my fate is to marry Richard.’ She took her empty cup over to the sink, and rinsed out the cup. ‘And yours is to find yourself a job,’ she mocked gently.
‘There’s no hurry,’ he shrugged.
‘I don’t intend being your hotel for more than this one night,’ seriousness underlined her tone this time. ‘You do realise that?’
‘I realise,’ he nodded. ‘Don’t worry, a friend of mine has a bed I can use tomorrow.’
‘Female?’ Her voice sharpened.
His mouth quirked mockingly. ‘And if it is?’
She shrugged. ‘I was just curious.’
‘It’s a male friend,’ he smiled. ‘He’s going out of town for a few days and said I could use his flat while he’s away. Unfortunately he needed his privacy tonight, to say goodbye to his lady. Have a sandwich, Katharine Mary.’ Once again he pushed the plate of sandwiches towards her, helping himself to one, biting into it hungrily. ‘I didn’t have any dinner,’ he explained at her raised brows.
‘Help yourself.’ Kate yawned tiredly. ‘I’ll see you in the morning.’ She found herself blushing at how intimate that sounded. ‘Er—goodnight.’
Jared stood up slowly, his gaze holding hers as he pulled her determinedly towards him. ‘Goodnight, my darling,’ he murmured before capturing her mouth with his, his lips moving druggingly against hers in a passion that was devouring.
Her body arched against his without volition, her arms up about his neck as she kissed him back, feeling her senses swim, falling under the same magic she had known with him three months ago.
His hands moved deftly to the tie of her belt, releasing it to slip the robe softly from her shoulders to the floor, leaving her in only the clinging black lace nightgown, the sheer cups clearly showing the rose tips to her breasts, the taut nipples thrusting against Jared’s chest.
‘Kate …!’ he groaned raggedly. ‘Marry me, Kate. Marry me and we can be together like this for the rest of our lives.’ His mouth moved sensuously against her throat as one of his hands caressed beneath the lacy top of her nightgown, cupping her breast with a familiarity that made her tremble.
Pleasure quivered through her body as his thumbtip caressed the hardened nipple, weakness in her legs at the intimacy making her cling to him, her fingers curling into the taut muscles of his shoulder.
‘Kate?’ he prompted huskily. ‘Will you marry me?’
She stiffened in his arms, not wanting to talk, but knowing she had to listen to herself as well as Jared. She pulled back to look up at him, meeting darkened blue eyes, his face taut with tension. And the tension was because of her lack of an answer to his proposal. But she had given him her answer this morning, and she wasn’t going to change her mind even if he had tried to seduce her into doing exactly that.
She bent to pick up her robe, slipping it on easily, trying her belt with fluid movements. ‘My answer is still no, Jared,’ she told him calmly. ‘Could you just tidy up in here before you go to bed?’ She walked to the door. ‘I expect to be leaving early in the morning, so I don’t have time to clean up after you.’
Jared seemed to be a little longer regaining his equilibrium, although he was soon smiling, shrugging off his tension of a few minutes ago with a nonchalance that belied the steel in his eyes. ‘What are you going to do when I stop asking?’ he mocked.
‘Thank you!’ Kate was smiling lightly as she left the room, although that faded as soon as she reached her bedroom, leaving her leaning weakly back against the door.
What was wrong with her? She had been taken in by a man like Jared once—and she had almost done it again!
What she had told Jared about Brian had been the truth; he had wanted her to become his mistress, had claimed he couldn’t lose her, that she meant too much to him to go out of his life completely.
She had left Brian’s flat that night feeling totally shattered after seeing him with Coral, her tears of bitterness and pain taking her through to the morning. Brian had been the last person she had expected to see when she answered the door later that day. He wanted nothing to change between them, assured her that Coral wouldn’t interfere in their own relationship. Kate hadn’t known him in that moment, had decided she had never known him—and that she didn’t particularly want to any more.
She had loved him and he had betrayed her, and she had a feeling Jared could induce the same weakening emotion in her. And that he would one day hurt her just as much as Brian had, whereas Richard taking a mistress wouldn’t hurt her at all, in fact she half expected it after the initial period of their marriage.
The thought of marrying Jared and having him treat her as Brian had was unpalatable to her—and she refused to even allow herself to think why it was. She wasn’t marrying him, and that was the end of the matter.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE oppression Kate had felt on waking the previous morning wasn’t with her today, and she knew that part of the reason for that was the mouthwatering smell of bacon cooking that was wafting through the flat. Having an unwelcome guest seemed to have some advantages!
She stretched languorously and threw back the bedclothes, and was just in the process of putting her feet into the fluffy black mule slippers when her bedroom door opened without warning.
‘Oh, you’re awake,’ Jared grinned from the doorway, black cords moulded to his thighs and long legs, a yellow tee-shirt fitted to his chest and shoulders. ‘That’s a shame—I was hoping I could kiss you awake. And I’m very disappointed the nightmare didn’t materialise, but maybe another night …? No?’ he grimaced at the shake of her head. ‘Oh well … Do you prefer your breakfast in bed or out of it?’
Kate straightened in her sitting position on the edge of the bed. ‘Out of it. Just as I prefer you out of my bedroom!’
He raised mocking eyebrows. ‘I’m hungry for bacon right now, not you. It will be on the table in five minutes, is that long enough for you?’
‘I suppose it will have to be,’ she nodded, determined not to let him know how good she had found it to wake up and find him here. This could become habit-forming!
So could this constant self-recrimination. She couldn’t dictate Jared’s movements, and if he chose to haunt her apartment, let him. He would soon tire of it when he realised it was getting him nowhere. And in the meantime it was very nice to wake up and find her breakfast cooked for her.
‘What’s the rush?’ Jared frowned as he watched her hurry over the breakfast of fresh orange juice, eggs and bacon, and toast he had prepared for her.
‘I told you last night.’ She looked up from gulping down her coffee, conscious of the passing of the minutes. ‘I have to leave early; I have an important appointment.’
‘When?’
‘Eleven. And I—’
‘But it’s only eight o’clock,’ he frowned.
‘And I have to prepare for it. The appointment was made late yesterday afternoon, and as I had a date with Richard last night that didn’t give me the time I need to get ready.’
‘I’m sure you’re always prepared. Your agency has a very good reputation.’
She eyed him curiously. ‘Your friend in advertising?’
‘That’s right,’ he mocked. ‘So who’s the lucky man?’
‘Man?’ Kate raised her brows. ‘I don’t remember mentioning that my app
ointment was with a man.’
‘My detective instincts again,’ he told her, his eyes twinkling with humour. ‘You would hardly dress that way,’ he looked appreciatively at the femininely fitted green suit and tailored paler green blouse, her hair in a neat coil at her nape, drawing attention to the riveting beauty of her high-cheekboned face, ‘for another woman,’ he drawled.
‘Now that’s where you’re wrong.’ Her mouth twisted with humour. ‘I’ve been known to dress my very best for female clients. It always helps to feel confident over another woman.’
‘I would have thought it more successful business practice to play down your own attraction,’ he taunted. ‘To give her the upper hand, so to speak.’
‘Not in my profession. Clients demand—and expect, glamour and polish in advertising,’ she explained. ‘And they have to see that visual effect projected from me first.’
Jared gave a nod of appreciative acknowledgment. ‘You certainly know your business; you project glamour and polish today. Let’s hope the man in question isn’t past appreciating such loveliness.’
A frown darkened the golden almond of her eyes. ‘Do you think he might be?’ she voiced her sudden uncertainty. ‘You seem to know Colin Harkness—’
‘Of him,’ Jared corrected softly.
Kate nodded impatiently. ‘Well, what do you know of him? I talked to Richard and he said that Melfords as a whole keeps to itself. I usually like to know a little about the people I’m to meet.’ Her frown returned.
‘And Colin Harkness is the man you’re going to see this morning?’
She flushed her guilt at revealing so much. ‘Yes.’
‘Then James is right, Melfords are a very private company.’ He was suddenly serious. ‘Harkness is a bit of a cold fish, very correct. Your beautiful body in that very attractive suit won’t mean a thing to him,’ he said with regret, his own gaze still appreciative.
‘Oh.’
‘But maybe your mind will.’ He sensed her disappointment. ‘Harkness has a reputation for being dour, but even he doesn’t turn away real talent. And I’m sure you have that.’
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