Sensual Encounter

by Carole Mortimer

  ‘I—er—yes,’ she gulped.

  His mouth quirked at her confusion. ‘Did you think I always dressed in denims?’

  ‘Well, I—I—’

  ‘You did,’ he taunted. ‘And who do you think would employ me if I went to interviews dressed like that?’

  She blinked. ‘Is that where you’ve been, to an interview?’ It would certainly explain why he looked like an executive. She would employ him herself if he came to see her looking like this—even if he didn’t have the right qualifications!

  ‘Yes,’ he grimaced, putting her away from him. ‘The chance of a job came unexpectedly this afternoon. Unfortunately I didn’t get it.’

  She gave him a sympathetic look. ‘Was it an important position?’

  He shrugged. ‘Not bad.’

  ‘Never mind, darling,’ she soothed. ‘Why don’t you get changed and then we’ll have dinner; it’s almost ready.’

  ‘Great. Do I have time for a shower first?’

  ‘Of course,’ she smiled, arching her brows. ‘Aren’t you going to unpack your clothes too, they’ll crease if you leave them in the case any longer. Especially if you have any more lovely suits like this one,’ she teased him.

  Jared gave a sheepish smile. ‘I have one or two, a remnant of the time I was assistant to the Chairman. I’ll be about ten minutes, all right?’

  ‘Fine.’ Kate went back into the kitchen to check on their dinner.

  ‘Hell, I almost forgot—’ Jared appeared in the doorway. ‘How did your meeting with Harkness go?’

  Her smile faded, her eyes shading over. ‘Can we talk about it over dinner?’

  ‘After it, if you would prefer.’ His sharp gaze searched her face.

  ‘I think I would,’ she grimaced. ‘That way I won’t get indigestion.’

  ‘Kate …!’ Jared took her in his arms, kissing her deeply, soon looking down with satisfaction at her flushed face and glowing eyes. ‘Still love me?’

  ‘Of course,’ she answered without hesitation, then frowned suddenly. ‘Is that why you didn’t unpack your clothes, because you thought I might have changed my mind since we parted at lunchtime?’ She leant back to look up at him.

  He gave a grimace of guilt. ‘It was a possibility. Please, don’t get angry,’ he pleaded hastily as he saw the hurt look in her eyes. ‘I just couldn’t be sure …’

  She gently caressed the hardness of one lean cheek. ‘You soon will be, darling,’ she said softly. ‘I’ll convince you. I know I can’t seem the most reliable of people to fall in love with, but I really do love you. Maybe after a few years of my telling you that you’ll believe me.’

  ‘Maybe,’ he nodded abruptly, moving away from her. ‘I’d better go and change, the dinner smells too good to ruin.’

  ‘It will be.’ Kate joined in his lighter mood, more conscious than ever that he hadn’t actually mentioned marriage since she had told him she loved him. Maybe he was just wary of another verbal slap in the face, she had certainly given him enough of them in the past! Oh well, as she said, perhaps they just needed time to be confident of each other’s feelings.

  Dinner was a complete success. Jared was complimentary about the food she had prepared for him, giving no indication that he had noticed her own lack of appetite as he talked to her teasingly, although Kate felt sure that he had, remembering how astute he had been on other occasions. She felt grateful to him for helping her delay talking of her disappointment about Melfords.

  It wasn’t until after they had cleared away after the meal and were seated together on the sofa, the lights, dimmed, a softly romantic record on the stereo, that he asked her again about her meeting with Colin Harkness.

  Kate looked up at him, lying full length on the sofa, her head resting across his thighs as he sat one end of it, idly playing with a silken tress of her hair as he waited for her answer. ‘He cancelled,’ she sighed, and turned away, a dejected droop to her mouth. ‘Just out of the blue, only twenty minutes before I was to see him, he cancelled.’

  ‘Why?’

  She shrugged. ‘I have an idea, but—Ouch, Jared, that hurt!’ She squirmed around to look at him as he tugged hard on the strand of hair he had twirled around his finger.

  ‘Sorry, darling,’ he bent to kiss her temple. ‘Sorry,’ he muttered again as she protested at being squashed.

  Kate frowned, smoothing her hair. ‘It doesn’t matter,’ she shrugged.

  ‘You were telling me about your theory as to why Harkness cancelled,’ he reminded her.

  ‘Mm,’ her frown deepened, ‘I think it has to do with Richard.’

  ‘Richard?’ he repeated incredulously.

  ‘There’s no need to look so surprised,’ she snapped irritably. ‘He was the reason Harkness offered me the contract in the first place, you know.’

  ‘He was?’

  She gave Jared a suspicious look for his deliberately bland tone. ‘Are you laughing at me?’

  ‘Certainly not.’ He opened widely innocent blue eyes. ‘I just don’t understand the workings of a woman’s mind that can find some connection between Richard James and Colin Harkness. You said Richard doesn’t even know the man,’ he shrugged his puzzlement.

  ‘He doesn’t, but—I may as well tell you,’ she sighed. ‘It looks as if everything is going to fall through with this contract anyway. But I don’t want you to feel in the least responsible for that—’

  ‘Me?’ he cut in dazedly. ‘How could I be responsible for your losing the contract?’

  Kate grimaced. ‘Colin Harkness didn’t want me for his company, I could tell that when I first met him, then in the middle of the meeting, just as he was about to politely but firmly tell me he wasn’t interested, he got a telephone call. You would have enjoyed seeing it if you know the man, Jared,’ her mouth twisted. ‘He did everything but get down and grovel on the floor to the caller!’ Her expression hardened. ‘I think he was told then of my involvement with Richard. And when I told him I was engaged and getting married soon he almost had apoplexy!’

  ‘I see,’ Jared said softly. ‘So you think it was because you’re marrying Richard that you were offered the contract?’

  Kate nodded. ‘And now that it’s somehow been leaked that the engagement might be off—’

  ‘You think the offer of the contract might be withdrawn again,’ he finished thoughtfully.

  ‘Yes, but I don’t want you to worry about it.’ She sat up to put her arms about his neck, kissing him deeply. ‘I’m sure I would have realised my mistake before I married Richard even if I didn’t love you,’ she assured him. ‘I just wish I knew how Colin Harkness found out about us now. I don’t suppose you accidentally mentioned it to one of your “contacts in the business world"?’ she frowned.

  He steadily met her gaze. ‘Does that question really qualify an answer?’ he bit out tautly.

  She flushed at the way he had taken her half serious, half teasing question completely seriously. ‘No,’ she gave him a pleading smile. ‘I’m just on edge wondering what’s going to happen when I go and see Harkness next Wednesday.’

  ‘Wednesday is a long way off.’ Jared moved to stand up, taking her with him, holding her easily in his arms. ‘And luckily I have the perfect way to stop you feeling on edge.’

  Her arms clung about his neck as he strode into the bedroom. ‘You do?’ She looked up at him with widely guileless eyes.

  ‘Just leave it all to Dr Rourke.’ He laid her gently down on the bed. ‘I’ll take care of all that tension for you.’ His eyes hungrily ate up the beauty of her face. ‘God, no man would stand a chance if the seductive quality in you could be bottled and manufactured!’ he groaned, coming down on one knee on the bed beside her. ‘You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,’ he told her huskily as his eager hands parted her unbuttoned blouse to reveal her bared breasts. ‘I always did think you had too many clothes on, especially here,’ he murmured against her breast, taking the taut peak into his lips, pulling gently on the nipple as he suck
ed it further into the warm cavern of his mouth.

  ‘I’ve been longing for you all afternoon,’ Kate groaned, her fingers lovingly caressing the dark softness of his hair. ‘Did you miss me as much as I missed you?’

  ‘More,’ he murmured against her navel.

  ‘How can you tell? How do you—’

  ‘Kate,’ he looked up at her with reproving eyes, ‘there’s a time to talk, and there’s—’

  ‘—a time not to,’ she finished ruefully. ‘And I think I just found out the occasion when it’s better not to,’ she groaned as his hands strayed beneath the denim of her trousers.

  ‘Only just?’ he mocked against her earlobe.

  ‘Maybe I just needed to be reminded,’ she encouraged throatily.

  Jared’s method of ‘reminding’ her left them both exhausted; he was heavy above her, but he seemed not to have the strength to be able to move.

  ‘Have there been a lot of women, Jared?’

  His head was raised abruptly. ‘What sort of question is that to ask me at a time like this?’ he rasped. ‘Of course there’ve been women, I told you that when you asked me about Coral.’

  ‘Did you love any of them?’

  He leant on his elbows to take some of his weight off her. ‘No.’

  Kate looked up at him curiously. ‘You sound very sure.’

  ‘I am. That’s how I knew when I met you that this time it was going to be different.’

  ‘You knew then?’ Her eyes widened.

  ‘Yes,’ he grinned. ‘Now have you finished probing into my lurid past?’

  ‘I don’t know, have I?’

  His smile faded. ‘For the moment,’ he nodded. ‘We have plenty of time to discover all there is to know about each other. Right now I’m going out to the lounge to switch off the stereo and turn off the lights, and then I’m going to come back to bed and show you we don’t need words to communicate. And we have all weekend to communicate in any way we want to,’ he promised throatily.

  Kate watched with undisguised pleasure as he walked across the room and went out to the lounge. He was the most beautiful man she had ever seen, and she gave her love unreservedly. The next two days promised to be some of the happiest in her life so far.

  But what of the rest of their lives together? She was very much aware that Jared had made no further mention of a legal commitment between them, a commitment she would now be more than happy to make.

  CHAPTER NINE

  ‘YES, yes, of course.’ Kate’s hand tightly gripped the telephone receiver in her hand. ‘About eight. I’ll be there,’ and she rang off.

  ‘Be where?’ Jared came through from the bathroom towelling his hair dry, another towel secured about his waist, the copper-coloured hair on his chest curled into damp tendrils against his skin. ‘Are you going somewhere?’

  Kate’s gaze was riveted on him. She had come to know him well during the last two days, loving everything about him with an intensity that shook her. And now their idyll had been shattered, reality intruding into the small but ecstatic world they had made together in her flat.

  ‘What is it?’ Jared was instantly alert to her change of mood, the pensive frown to her brow, the troubled look in her eyes, and he came over to join her as she sat on the side of the bed. ‘Who was that on the telephone just now?’ His arm was about her shoulders in the black silk robe as he held her close against him.

  She swallowed hard. ‘Richard.’

  Jared’s arm tightened painfully for a second, then eased. ‘Did you tell him about us?’ he rasped.

  Kate shook her head. ‘I didn’t think it was fair to tell him that way.’ She chewed on her inner lip. ‘He called to tell me he’ll be back late this afternoon; I’ve agreed to meet him at his flat tonight.’

  Jared’s mouth firmed. ‘At his home? Is that wise?’

  She looked up at him with puzzlement. ‘Wise?’ she frowned at his choice of word.

  He nodded grimly. ‘If you were my fiancée about to tell me you couldn’t marry me I would react in two ways—I would either grow violent, or I would try to seduce you into changing your mind. Neither of those reactions are ones I’ll allow Richard James to show you.’

  ‘Richard isn’t like that—’

  ‘All men are like that if something they want looks like escaping their grasp,’ he bit out. ‘And no man would give you up willingly.’

  Kate caressed the rigidity of his cheek. ‘I think you’re biased, darling,’ she teased.

  ‘No.’ His eyes were as hard as ice, silver blue. ‘You really want to meet him?’

  ‘I don’t have any choice, do I?’ she reasoned. ‘It isn’t the sort of thing I could tell him over the telephone.’

  ‘No,’ Jared acknowledged abruptly, and stood up. ‘Shouldn’t you be dressing for work?’

  ‘Jared …?’

  He turned from taking a chocolate-brown coloured suit out of the wardrobe, his cold expression not encouraging. ‘Yes?’

  ‘Darling!’ She ran to him, her arms about his waist, her head resting against his chest, his heartbeats sure and strong. ‘Darling, it will be all right,’ she fervently assured him, looking up at him appealingly. ‘I’ll just tell Richard I can’t marry him and then leave.’

  A nerve pulsed erratically in the rigid line of his jaw. ‘It won’t be that easy,’ he warned her tautly.

  ‘Of course it will,’ she told him lightly, smiling up at him brightly, looking with interest at the three-piece brown suit he had taken out of the wardrobe to put on. ‘Do you have another interview today?’

  ‘Interview? Oh—oh yes,’ he nodded distantly.

  ‘Important?’

  ‘It could be.’

  ‘Aren’t you going to tell me about it?’ She quirked darkly auburn brows.

  He shrugged. ‘Maybe when I get back.’

  Kate could see her effort to change the subject and talk him out of his dark mood wasn’t going to work, the tension in him a tangible thing. ‘Okay,’ she accepted softly. ‘We’d better get dressed, then, hadn’t we? Neither of us wants to be late.’

  Again the unfamiliar figure of Jared in a formal suit stunned her for several minutes when she came back to their bedroom after her shower. There was no other word for it, he looked devastating!

  ‘Is the person doing the interview a woman?’ she teased as she began to dress.

  He arched dark brows. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because if she is you already have the job,’ Kate drawled.

  ‘Now, now!’ he tapped her playfully on the nose. ‘That’s called jealousy,’ he smiled.

  ‘If by that you mean I’d like to hit every woman who looks at you and wants to go to bed with you, then I agree!’ Her eyes glittered in challenge of any woman daring to even think such a thing about Jared.

  His arms tightened about her, curving her body into his. ‘Do you want to go to bed with me when you look at me?’ he mocked.

  ‘All the time!’ she groaned, her knees already feeling weak from just this contact with him. ‘Oh, Jared, do you have to leave just yet?’ Her arms curled about his neck. ‘Couldn’t you miss this one interview and make love to me instead?’

  With a hard kiss on the mouth he had released her, turning to pick up his briefcase. ‘No, I don’t think so,’ he said slowly. ‘Not this one.’

  ‘What do you have in that thing?’ Kate taunted the briefcase in his hand to hide her disappointment, aware that for the first time since she had confessed her love for him Jared had rejected her desire to make love. His appetite had more than matched hers the last two days; they had not even ventured out of the flat for fresh groceries, surviving on what little she had bought on Friday evening whenever they felt hungry, which was often, the two of them finding they had a good appetite for food once they had made love. ‘Your lunch?’ she scorned him.

  His mouth curved into a tight smile at her humour, although his eyes remained hard. ‘It looks good, gives people the impression I’m a capable businessman.’

 
‘Yes, but what does it have in it?’ She tried to take it out of his hands, but he refused to release it. ‘Jared?’ she frowned at his set expression.

  ‘It’s empty,’ he told her flatly.

  ‘It didn’t feel emtpy …’

  ‘So I do have a couple of sandwiches in there for my lunch,’ he acknowledged lightly. ‘I thought you’d be angry; I took the last of the bread.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ she dismissed in a preoccupied voice. ‘I’ll get some more on the way home tonight. Jared, you are going to an interview, aren’t you?’ Concern edged her voice.

  ‘Of course.’ Deep blue eyes searched her worried face. ‘What do you think I’m going to do, rob a bank?’ he mocked the claim he had once made over buying her roses. ‘Smuggling drugs out of the country—’

  ‘Nothing that serious—’

  ‘But something illegal, hmm?’ he scoffed. ‘Really, Katharine Mary, what a suspicious mind you have!’

  ‘I just don’t want you to think you have to go out and make money—’

  ‘Any way I can,’ he put in tauntingly.

  Kate shot him an irritated glance. ‘—just to try and prove something to me,’ she finished tightly. ‘As far as I’m concerned you don’t have to get another job, ever, if you don’t want to.’

  ‘Just laze around while you go out to work, hm?’ he drawled. ‘I couldn’t do that, Kate.’

  She had known that already, knew that he was basically a hardworking person, he just didn’t see any reason to overdo it. ‘All right,’ she gave a strained smile. ‘But you will—you will be careful, won’t you?’

  ‘At an interview, Kate?’ Jared mocked. ‘How could I be anything else!’ He bent to kiss her lingeringly on the lips, his free hand cupping her chin. ‘I’ll see you tonight,’ he said briskly. ‘Don’t work too hard.’

  ‘I won’t.’ She watched him as he walked over to the door. ‘Good luck.’

  ‘Hm? Oh—thanks.’ He gave her a warm smile before leaving.

  A worried frown drew Kate’s brows together over troubled golden eyes. She really doubted that Jared had an interview today, or if he did it was for something he knew she wouldn’t approve of. Or maybe he just didn’t want to get his hopes up in case he didn’t get it—although he hadn’t seemed too disappointed when he hadn’t been successful with the other job on Friday. Heavens, she really hoped he wasn’t going to do anything stupid just to prove himself to her. It would be a waste of time, he had already more than proved his worth to her; he meant everything to her.