Burning Obsession

by Carole Mortimer

  Kelly frowned. ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea.’

  ‘Neither do I,’ Jordan sighed. ‘It’s one thing putting on a show for your father, another putting one on for other people.’

  ‘That wasn’t the reason I didn’t think it would be a good idea,’ she said scathingly. ‘I was thinking of Laura.’

  ‘She’s one determined lady. Ian’s never been able to master her.’

  Kelly stiffened. ‘Maybe he doesn’t need to. They love each other, that’s enough for most people. Not all men need to assert themselves over women.’

  ‘Meaning I do,’ he said grimly.

  ‘Always,’ she agreed unhesitatingly.

  ‘It didn’t work very well with you, did it?’ he snapped.

  ‘Not at all, I would have said.’

  ‘You could be right.’

  ‘And you don’t have to put on a show in front of anyone,’ Kelly told him confidently. ‘Laura is well aware of the fact that this marriage is a sham. I presume she’ll have told Ian as much, they don’t appear to have secrets from each other.’

  ‘You told Laura the truth?’ Jordan ignored her jibe.

  ‘I didn’t need to, she guessed.’

  ‘How the hell many more of your cronies know about this arrangement?’ He sounded angry now.

  ‘Laura is not a crony,’ Kelly said indignantly. ‘She’s a friend. I like her very much.’

  ‘Well, she’s a definite improvement on Maggie,’ he dismissed scathingly.

  ‘As far as you’re concerned that isn’t a compliment, you would think Judas an improvement on Maggie!’ Her eyes flashed her resentment.

  His mouth twisted. ‘How strange you should use that comparison.’

  Her gaze sharpened. ‘What do you mean?’

  Jordan shrugged. ‘It doesn’t matter.’

  ‘Now who’s evading answering the question?’ she taunted bravely.

  Mockery was clearly visible in his expression. ‘You can give me the same treatment if you like.’

  It was the first time he had referred to the afternoon he had nearly raped her, and Kelly’s face blushed fiery red. ‘I don’t think so,’ she swung her legs off the lounger. ‘What time are Ian and Laura expecting us?’

  ‘Seven-thirty.’

  ‘Then I’d better shower and dress.’

  She made herself walk calmly across the garden and into the house, all the time knowing that Jordan was watching her every move. Oh, how she wished herself immune to him, didn’t care that he no longer wanted her.

  She dressed with meticulous care, wanting to look her best. Anne Fellows was beautiful, but she wasn’t exactly plain herself, and she wasn’t going to look like a drudge even if she had lost Jordan to the other woman. Jordan would be made to see what he was missing.

  Her dress was a deep petrol blue, fitting smoothly over her hips down to just below knee length, tied at the waist with a narrow belt and fitting tautly over her bare uptilted breasts. Her hair glowed darkly, her make-up was light and attractive. She looked cool and sophisticated, and Jordan’s eyes deepened to black as he turned to look at her, although his expression was rigidly controlled as he picked up her velvet jacket and placed it around her shoulders.

  ‘Thank you,’ she accepted coolly, moving away from him. ‘I haven’t seen my father this evening.’

  ‘He’s out to dinner. He called while you were changing.’

  ‘He didn’t say earlier,’ she frowned, shutting off from her mind how disturbingly attractive Jordan looked in an off-white suit and black silk shirt.

  ‘Last-minute plans, I think.’ He held the car door open for her, tucking the side of her dress in as he closed it again.

  The sensuous smell of his aftershave reached out and touched her in the confines of the car, too strong for her to block that out too. It stirred the senses, as did the cheroot he was smoking.

  Kelly usually liked the smell of these cheroots, only tonight was different. Tonight the aroma made her feel slightly sick. ‘Would you mind putting that out?’ she said sharply.

  He looked surprised, but instantly stubbed out the cheroot in the ashtray. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t think you would mind.’

  ‘I don’t,’ she shook her head. ‘Not normally. It’s just—’

  ‘Just that tonight you feel differently about it,’ he derided.

  ‘Yes—I mean no. Oh, I don’t know,’ she licked her suddenly dry lips. ‘It’s so hot in here.’ Beads of perspiration were breaking out on her forhead.

  Jordan gave a worried glance in her direction. ‘Would you like me to open a window?’

  ‘No. No, it doesn’t matter.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I’ll be all right in a minute.’

  He slowed the car down almost to a stop. ‘Would you like me to turn back?’

  ‘No!’ her voice was shrill. ‘No, we’ll go on,’ she said more calmly. If she said yes, turn back, he would probably disappear for the evening with Anne Fellows. ‘Ian and Laura are expecting us.’

  ‘I suppose it is a little late to let them down, but if you aren’t feeling well…’

  ‘I’m all right now,’ she insisted.

  The journey to the Smythes’ house seemed never-ending, and Kelly hastily got out of the car once they arrived, breathing in deep gulps of air to try and clear her head.

  Jordan came round to her side of the car to take her arm, looking down at her pale face. ‘I should have turned back,’ he said savagely.

  She forced a smile, standing erect, her head thrown back. ‘I’m fine. Really.’

  ‘You don’t damn well look it,’ he muttered as he ran the doorbell.

  ‘Thanks!’ Kelly said tautly. ‘That’s just what I wanted to hear.’

  His mouth tightened. ‘You know what I meant!’

  ‘You meant I look awful.’ She was feeling too ill to do more than snap at him.

  ‘No—’

  The door was opened to them by Laura herself. ‘Kelly!’ she hugged her. ‘And Jordan,’ she said more shyly.

  He raised his eyebrows. ‘Am I allowed to kiss my hostess?’

  Laura blushed. ‘Perhaps you should ask your wife that.’

  He slanted Kelly a mocking glance. ‘Well?’

  ‘Kiss who you like’, she shrugged. ‘You always do anyway.’

  He drew in a ragged breath, but said nothing as he bent to kiss Laura on the cheek. ‘Not much longer to go?’ he teased her rotund shape.

  ‘Two days—officially. Unofficially, any time,’ she smiled.

  ‘Not tonight, I hope?’ he said in mock horror.

  She giggled. ‘You never know. You go through to the lounge, Jordan. You know the way, and I’m sure Ian would love to press a glass of whisky on you.’

  He smiled. ‘He won’t have to press very hard.’

  ‘Kelly and I will just take her wrap upstairs.’

  ‘Very tactful,’ Kelly laughed once they reached Laura’s bedroom. ‘Does it really need two of us to carry a velvet jacket upstairs?’

  ‘You know it doesn’t,’ her friend dismissed impatiently. ‘Are things no better between you and Jordan?’

  ‘Worse,’ Kelly replied unhesitatingly.

  ‘I’m sorry, I had hoped—Is he still seeing this other woman?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Ian didn’t believe it when I told him—’

  ‘You told Ian about that?’ Kelly interrupted in dismay.

  ‘I tell him everything. And he said—’

  ‘I don’t want to know, Laura.’ She put her hand through the crook of the other girl’s arm. ‘Let’s go and eat, before I faint with hunger!’

  Half way through the dessert she thought that was exactly what she was going to do. It suddenly washed over her in waves, so much so that she thought she was actually going to faint at the table.

  ‘Do you feel sick again?’ Jordan was sitting opposite her, watching her intently.

  She nodded wordlessly, taking a drink of the water she had requested with her meal.

 
Jordan stood up to come and pull her chair back for her, helping her over to the sofa.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she mumbled to Laura and Ian. ‘I think it must have been the shellfish I ate for lunch.’

  ‘Why the hell didn’t you say so?’ Jordan rasped. ‘I’ll call a doctor.’

  ‘No!’

  ‘But if you’ve been poisoned by this fish you could be really ill,’ he reasoned firmly.

  Laura came over to feel her forehead. ‘She doesn’t feel as if she has a fever or anything like that.’

  ‘Nevertheless,’ Jordan insisted, ‘I’d rather she had a doctor, just to make sure it’s nothing serious.’

  ‘I agree with Jordan,’ Ian chimed in. ‘You don’t mess around with things like shellfish.’

  ‘I think all she needs is to lie down for a while,’ Laura told them.

  ‘But you aren’t a doctor, darling,’ her husband said gently.

  ‘Maybe not, but I think she’s right.’ Kelly was embarrassed at being the centre of attention like this.

  ‘Maybe I should just get you home and then call a doctor,’ Jordan said thoughtfully.

  ‘No!’ The thought of that drive home at the moment made her feel even more sick. ‘Laura’s right, a lie down and I’ll be fine.’

  ‘I’m not so sure—’ Still he hesitated.

  Kelly looked appealingly at Laura. She just couldn’t face that drive at the moment. She just wanted to be alone.

  ‘A lie down,’ Laura said firmly, answering her silent plea. ‘Come on upstairs with me.’

  Kelly swayed as she stood up, leaving heavily on Jordan as he put an arm about her waist to assist her. ‘I’ll be all right in a minute,’ she assured him. ‘Really I will.’

  ‘You’d better be,’ he said grimly.

  The bedroom was cool and dark, and she lay down gratefully on the bed. ‘I feel so silly,’ she gave a wan smile, ‘making a fuss like this.’

  ‘You aren’t making a fuss,’ Laura told her. ‘Off you go, Jordan. I’ll make sure she’s comfortable before I come down.’

  ‘Kelly?’ he looked down at her.

  ‘I’m feeling better already,’ she smiled up at him, heaving a sigh of relief when he reluctantly left.

  Laura sat down beside her on the bed. ‘How do you really feel?’

  ‘Lousy!’ she grimaced, very pale.

  ‘I thought so. Still,’ Laura stood up, ‘nothing a strong cup of tea and a dry biscuit won’t cure.’

  Kelly gave her a sharp look, sighing heavily. ‘You know, don’t you?’

  Laura gave her a look of feigned innocence. ‘Know what?’

  She sighed again. ‘That I’m pregnant.’

  ‘Yes, I know,’ her friend confirmed. ‘But Jordan doesn’t, does he?’

  ‘No.’ Kelly bit her lip. ‘I didn’t know myself until tonight, until this sickness suddenly came over me. Oh, Laura, what am I going to do?’ she cried desperately.

  CHAPTER NINE

  LAURA looked calmly down at her. ‘What do you want to do?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Kelly in confused anguish. ‘It’s all such a shock.’

  ‘Don’t you want the baby, is that it?’

  ‘Not want—!’ Kelly gasped. ‘Of course I want the baby,’ she said indignantly.

  Laura shrugged. ‘Then where’s the problem?’

  ‘The baby’s father!’

  ‘Jordan?’

  ‘Well, of course Jordan!’

  ‘Just checking,’ Laura grinned.

  ‘Well, you can stop right now. Jordan is definitely the father of my child.’ Kelly sighed. ‘He’s been the only man ever in my life.’

  ‘You sound regretful,’ Laura probed.

  ‘I think regretful is the wrong word. Maybe if I had been able to love someone else I wouldn’t have fallen for Jordan so easily a second time, and consequently got myself into this mess.’

  ‘Is that what you feel it is, a mess?’

  ‘No,’ she sighed again. ‘Do you know what I really feel? Ecstatic!’ Her eyes glowed. ‘I love the thought of carrying Jordan’s child again. But I won’t hold on to him that way!’

  ‘Have you ever thought of the fact that he might like to be held—any way?’ Laura raised her eyebrows questioningly.

  Kelly shook her head. ‘He’s already told me that as soon as my father is well again he wants me out of his life,’ she recalled dully.

  ‘He actually said that?’

  ‘Oh yes.’

  ‘Oh,’ Laura frowned, shrugging. ‘I’ll go and get that tea and biscuit.’

  ‘Laura!’ Kelly stopped her. ‘You won’t tell Jordan the real reason I was ill?’

  ‘Of course not,’ Laura scorned. ‘Although you do realise it isn’t something you can hide for long?’

  ‘Mm,’ Kelly grimaced. ‘I was enormous at three months last time.’

  Her friend nodded. ‘Some women are like that. How many weeks are you?’

  She flushed. ‘Five.’

  ‘You sound very sure.’

  Kelly looked down at her hands. ‘I am.’

  ‘I won’t be long,’ and Laura left her.

  She was pregnant! She wanted to shout, to scream, to cry—and all with happiness. This time nothing would go wrong, this time she would have the baby, with or without Jordan. And she meant it about not keeping him in that way. If he had shown any sign of coming to love her she might have felt differently. But if she couldn’t have Jordan at least she would have his child.

  She didn’t need a doctor to confirm her pregnancy, and yet remembering the kindness of Paul Anderson, the specialist who had looked after her the last time, she thought she ought to go and see him. He had been excellent at his job, had always made her feel important, a person, not just a baby-producing machine as so many of these doctors did. Yes, she would make an appointment to see him.

  ‘Here we are,’ Laura arrived with the promised tea and biscuits. ‘Now I’d better go down and assure that anxious husband of yours.’

  Kelly sat up to drink the tea, munching slowly on the dry biscuit. How easily she had become pregnant again, how wonderfully easily. If only she could share her happiness with Jordan, could share with him the magical wonder of their child forming inside her.

  But he had never found the thought of fatherhood wonderful, he had avoided even talking about their life together after the baby was born. Well, this time he would deny her none of her joy, she would cherish it to her like a cloak, a protection against the pain of losing Jordan.

  Laura came quietly back into the bedroom, going to the wardrobe to pull out a tiny suitcase she had in there. She began checking the contents.

  Kelly sat up, swinging her legs to the floor, the feelings of sickness and dizziness now gone. ‘What are you doing?’ she asked curiously.

  ‘Just making sure I have everything,’ Laura said vaguely. ‘And it’s a good job I did, I only seem to have put in one nightgown.’ She put another two on top of the other contents of the case. ‘Maybe I should put in a spare toothbrush too.’

  Kelly grinned. ‘I don’t think the baby will need one straight away.’

  She received an impatient look. ‘I meant for me. I have a habit of losing them.’

  ‘Then by all means put in a spare one,’ Kelly encouraged, watching as Laura wandered into the bathroom to get one. ‘Couldn’t you do this some other time, Laura?’ she frowned. ‘You’ve had enough to do this evening with preparing us dinner. You should be putting your feet up.’

  ‘I will, when I get the chance. Right, that’s my case sorted out. Now I wonder if I have time to tidy the dining-room before I go?’ She bit her lip thoughtfully. ‘I gave Carol the evening off because I wanted to cook the meal myself, and I don’t want to leave everywhere in a mess for her tomorrow. Do you think I have time to tidy up?’

  ‘Time?’ Kelly repeated dazedly. ‘We can do that together, surely? I feel perfectly well now.’

  Laura’s expression brightened. ‘Oh, good. If we go down and do it now it
shouldn’t take as long with the two of us.’ She suddenly stopped what she was doing to take deep gasping breaths, her hand pressed to her swollen stomach. ‘Oh dear,’ she sighed, straightening. ‘That one was quite bad.’

  ‘That one?’ Kelly demanded. ‘What do you mean, that one?’

  ‘I’ve been having contractions for the last couple of hours,’ Laura told her happily.

  ‘You have?’ Kelly was amazed. ‘Have you let the hospital know?’

  ‘Oh yes.’

  ‘And Ian?’

  Laura giggled. ‘No. Not yet. He would only have panicked, and there’s hours to go yet.’

  ‘You don’t know that!’ Kelly stood up, doing some panicking of her own. ‘You have to get there as soon as possible.’

  ‘But you promised we could tidy up first!’

  ‘Jordan and I can do that when you’ve gone,’ Kelly hustled her out of the room. ‘I just hope you’re poor husband doesn’t faint with the shock of it.’

  ‘So do—Ooh!’ Laura gasped again, biting her lip. ‘I think you’re right, maybe I should get straight to the hospital.’

  ‘I don’t think it, I know it. You shouldn’t have left it this long.’

  Ian and Jordan were talking together when the two women entered the room, although Jordan immediately stopped the conversation and came over to Kelly.

  ‘Are you all right?’ His voice was huskily soft.

  Any other time she might have questioned his concern for her, but right now she had more important things on her mind. ‘It’s Laura we have to be concerned about now,’ she told him briskly. ‘Ian, get the car out. Jordan, get Laura’s case down from the bedroom.’ Amazingly both women had forgotten it!

  Ian gasped, paling. ‘You mean—Laura, are you—’

  ‘Of course she is,’ Kelly said impatiently. ‘Now will you bring the car round?’

  ‘I’ll drive them,’ Jordan put in quietly. ‘I don’t think Ian is in any condition to drive anywhere.’

  ‘A good idea,’ she agreed with him. Ian seemed to have gone to pieces, asking Laura repeatedly how she felt, and not seeming to believe her when she assured him she felt fine. ‘And I think it should be now.’

  ‘What about you?’

  ‘Laura wants the dining-room tidied. I don’t think she’ll go if I don’t promise to do it.’