A Scandalous Engagement

by Cathy Williams

  ‘I’m surprised you let him out for the night.’ He paused suggestively in mid-stride as he poured himself another drink from the ornamental wooden bar in the corner of the room. ‘Very trusting of you. But then I can tell from what I’ve seen that you two seem to have a very trusting relationship with one another.’ He swirled his glass around gently. ‘Not a good idea, you know. Out of sight, out of mind, I believe the saying goes.’

  ‘Did you ask me to come in here so that you could dazzle me with your knowledge of proverbs?’

  This time his grin was more expansive, but no less unsettling. He was absolutely right when he said that as soon as she came within five feet of him her nervous system started developing a will of its own. In an effort to counteract the symptom she finished her drink and then leaned forward, legs crossed, hands nervously clasped on one knee.

  ‘Aren’t you afraid that my dear brother might be unwinding with a less challenging bimbo in a bed somewhere?’

  ‘No, actually.’ She smiled secretly, unaware that the smile altered her face completely, turned her blonde attractiveness into something wicked and sexy.

  ‘You should have informed me that neither of you would be returning to eat dinner. I would have let Annie have the evening off.’ His voice was clipped, and he pushed himself away from the bay window and sat down in one of the chairs.

  Annie had been his glorious idea as soon as he’d moved back. She was one of the company caterers and he had decided, against their protests, to employ her as a cook.

  ‘We don’t have to inform you of our whereabouts!’ Jade snapped. ‘We were perfectly happy…’

  ‘Just being. Until the big, bad wolf came along with other ideas. Yes, yes, yes. I’ve heard variations on the theme before.’

  ‘Why are you so obsessed with having control over everybody’s lives?’

  ‘Care for another drink?’

  ‘No. I’m not accustomed…’ There he went again, veering away from the topic and denying her the opportunity to let rip. Her counsellor would have a field-day, she thought. From anxious and repressed to wanting to let rip the minute Curtis Greene so much as glanced in her direction.

  ‘What a good little girl you are. I’m beginning to revise all my opinions,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Perhaps you’re not the malign influence I first thought. Perhaps you’re the best thing that ever happened to my brother.’

  Why didn’t she believe him?

  ‘Course, I could be wrong…’

  ‘You? Wrong?’ She looked at him with exaggerated incredulity. ‘Surely not!’

  ‘It’s been known to happen, though not very often.’

  ‘Naturally not.’

  ‘For instance, I was way off target when I assumed that my brother would take over the running of the company and stick it out…’

  ‘He did it for a year and a half…’ She knew that he had started his art course after leaving school, only to buckle under pressure and capitulate into working in an office.

  ‘Not exactly a long time in the scheme of things, though, was it?’

  Long enough to know that it wasn’t what he wanted to do, she thought. It was only when they had become firm friends that he had confided in her the depth of his unhappiness and frustration. Getting dressed in his suit and going into the company had been, for him, his definition of hell.

  ‘What’s his future as an artist?’ Curtis asked, losing his temper. ‘I mean, let’s be honest here, where exactly is all that rubbish going to get him? He qualifies in art, and then what? Runs around living off his trust fund? What?’ He raked his long fingers through his hair in exasperated frustration and stood up, pacing the room as though movement was the only way to release some of the energy coursing through him.

  ‘Well?’ he demanded, stopping in front of her and staring down into her face. Jade, obliged to look back up at him, pressed herself further back into the chair. ‘You tell me!’ he bit out. ‘You’re in the same boat! What’s going through your heads?’ As though not content with his bullet-style line of delivery, guaranteed to stifle the power of speech in all but the most hardened, he proceeded to lean over her, supporting himself with his hands on either side of her chair, and in the process sending all coherent thought to the four winds.

  Now, not only was she forced to stare into his eyes, she could also feel his warm breath against her face. In some strange way it acted like a fan on a budding fire, sending her pulses racing.

  ‘It’s all about finding yourself,’ she protested weakly. ‘I mean, I don’t know what Andy—’

  ‘Yes, you damn well do! Don’t think I haven’t noticed how you two interact with one another! The way you glance at one another as though you can communicate without speaking!’

  She was finding it hard to comprehend the exact meaning of his words. She was too busy trying to fight off the effect he was having on her.

  ‘He just wants to live his own life!’ she blurted out, and was rewarded with a perplexed shake of the head.

  ‘Of course he wants to live his own bloody life! I’m not trying to stop him!’

  ‘Yes, you are! You came over here to try and force him back into the company and you haven’t let up! You’re not interested in what your brother does, just as long as it’s a course of action you approve of! Namely, going back out to work for the family firm!’

  This time he flushed darkly and pushed himself away from her. Very slowly, she felt her breathing return to normal.

  ‘So what do you suggest I do? Vanish and let him proceed to ruin his life?’

  ‘He won’t be ruining his life. How dramatic can you get? And even if he does end up ruining his life, as you put it, then, yes! Let him!’

  ‘God, this is a nightmare.’ He sat back down and rested his head back against the chair, closing his eyes and letting all the anger drain away from his face. Without it, his latent sexuality became almost overwhelming. She found herself staring at him, fascinated, and had to make an effort to look away or risk being caught red-handed.

  ‘I couldn’t believe it when I got that faxed letter of resignation. At first I thought it was some kind of joke. Fair enough for Sarah to take herself off to Australia on some journey of self-discovery, but Andy! The helm was ready and waiting for him.’ Underneath the fury and bluster, she felt a sharp twinge of sympathy. However misguided his actions, his intentions were honourable. He was simply looking out for his brother, and this was the only way he knew how.

  Funny, but she had spent the past couple of years so wrapped up in her own problems, her own unique situation, that she had removed herself emotionally from the rest of the human race. She interacted with them, but only superficially. Deep inside, she held herself apart, and now she could feel herself opening back up to other people, becoming involved with their problems and motivations.

  And at the centre of it, like the eye of the hurricane, was Curtis Greene.

  ‘He won’t change his mind,’ she said eventually. ‘And it’s unfair of you to try and whip him into submission.’

  ‘That’s a bit of an exaggeration, isn’t it?’ He opened his eyes to look at her drily.

  ‘If you’d heard yourself, you wouldn’t say that.’ There were a few seconds’ silence, during which she gradually realised that the atmosphere between them had altered. She laughed nervously.

  ‘Is that it, then?’

  ‘Is what it?’ In time, she thought, she might learn to ignore his questions, because as soon as she asked for clarification she knew that clarification was going to be the last thing she wanted.

  He continued to look at her with lazy interest, and whatever fury had been raging through him moments before now seemed to have disappeared completely, or else had been thoroughly shut away to be extracted, alive and kicking, at some later date. For the while, his interest was focused on her and her entirely. The completeness of his scrutiny made her flush.

  ‘Your relationship with my brother. Is it more of a maternal thing? He lost his mother when he was a chil
d. Maybe—who knows?—he sees you as a sort of mother substitute.’

  ‘I hadn’t really thought about it from that angle,’ Jade confessed awkwardly.

  ‘Yes, that could be it, I suppose. A mother figure. In the intellectual sense of the word.’ His eyes flicked over her and he smiled with indolent charm. ‘Definitely not in the literal sense. Which, of course, begs the obvious question…’

  ‘Which is?’ There I go again, she thought, falling into the trap once more.

  ‘What do you see in him? Does the little boy lost scenario turn you on? Do you get off on feeling that someone else is emotionally dependent on you? Is it your kind of aphrodisiac?’ He laughed under his breath at her expression of outrage and then, true to form, carried on speaking, so that she couldn’t jump in with an appropriately heated response. ‘Well, that’s by the by. Still leaves me with a lot of questions about you, though… Here you are, you’ve given up your job…you know, sometimes when people adopt a complete change of lifestyle it says a great deal about them…’

  ‘Who’s into the psychobabble now?’ Jade asked feebly. He was getting nearer. With every passing moment she could feel him circling her, getting closer and closer to the core of her, and more than anything else she didn’t want him there. He wasn’t the kind of man she had ever been attracted to and she had seen from close up how untrustworthy men like him could be. Caroline had always surrounded herself with charmers who had invariably turned out to be cads. No, she, Jade, went for the kind, stolid type, and she was mystified by her own response to Curtis. After being numb for so many years she couldn’t understand why he had to be the one around when life was slowly seeping back into her.

  ‘Sometimes,’ he drawled thoughtfully, ‘people will change every aspect of their lives in an attempt to run away from something…is that your problem? Are you running away from something? Or someone? You’re twenty-six years old but you obviously don’t have a rampant social life…’

  ‘By which I take it you mean that I don’t change my bed partners with the same regularity as I change my bed linen…?’

  ‘…and something’s driven you to jack in your job to study… What? What drove you to do that? And why did you go peculiar that first evening when I said something…what was it? Do you remember? I made some passing remark and you looked as though you were suddenly going to pass out… Whatever’s going on here, it’s not all that it seems, is it?’ He touched two fingers together and tapped them lightly on his chin. ‘It’s all a bit of a mystery, and would you just believe it? I love mysteries. I love unravelling them. I find it very satisfying.’

  ‘Is—is that so?’ Jade stammered.

  ‘It certainly is.’ He narrowed his eyes and looked at her with speculation. ‘Such a challenge. Sensing that there’s something beneath the surface and then digging away until I get to what it is.’ He expelled his breath and resumed his musing, unnerving monologue. ‘In this particular jigsaw puzzle I get the impression that there are quite a few missing pieces, and you can rest assured that I intend to get to them.’

  ‘Why?’ She shook her head dumbly. ‘Not that there’s anything to find out,’ she added belatedly.

  ‘Why? Good question. Primarily it’s to do with my brother’s welfare. I don’t know where the hell you’ve sprung out of, and I haven’t heard any nightly goings on down the corridor between rooms, but it’d be nice to make sure that you haven’t got some kind of sinister hidden agenda. You don’t look it, I have to tell you, but then looks can be so deceiving, can’t they? Pays not to trust people on appearances. And then, let’s just say that I’m curious. You can understand that, can’t you?’

  ‘For someone who’s so hot on proverbs, you should know the one about curiosity and the cat.’

  ‘Ah, yes, but I’ve always thought that that cat must have been particularly stupid. Not one of my sins, you’ll be impressed to hear. Where were you living before you moved here?’

  ‘Hampstead,’ Jade told him warily.

  ‘Nice. So, you’ve lived in London all your life, have you?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘How long have you been here?’

  She looked at him, not too sure how to proceed, but since none of this information came under the category of trade secrets, she said, with hesitation, ‘A little over two years.’

  ‘And before that?’

  ‘Near Stratford. There. Satisfied? Can I go now?’

  ‘How could I stop you?’ He shrugged eloquently. ‘You’re a free agent. Course you can go. Although I must admit that I’m beginning to enjoy our little conversation.’

  ‘That’s because you’re a sadist.’

  She hadn’t expected him to find that as funny as he did. He burst out laughing, and after a while she found herself grudgingly smiling because his laughter was so infectious. Their eyes tangled, and she looked away hurriedly.

  ‘You should just try giving Andy a chance,’ she rushed on, aware of some inexplicable churning inside her. ‘I can understand that you don’t sympathise with his decision to leave the family business, and I know that that must be a bit inconvenient for you, but it would mean so much to him if you would just take a bit of an interest in what he’s doing. You haven’t asked him once what his course involves. It’s as though you want to pretend that it doesn’t exist.

  ‘There’s going to be an exhibition of some of the course work for we first-year students in a week’s time. You should come along. It’s so narrow-minded to write it all off as a waste of time without even bothering to see any of it.’

  He didn’t look as though he was about to say anything in response to her. He was quite happy to watch her and listen to her witter herself into silence.

  ‘How is it that you don’t mind Andy doing his own thing without you? If there’s nothing sexual between you, then is it because you have a man of your own? I haven’t seen any sight of him. You ought to bring him here, introduce him to the family. Or is he hidden away somewhere in the background, like a leper?’

  ‘Are you listening to a word I’m telling you?’ She stood up, frustrated and embarrassed, and he followed suit, to her dismay walking over slowly to where she was standing, his blue eyes curious and amused.

  ‘Course—I’ve listened to every word you’ve just said.’ He looked down at her, his hands casually shoved into his pockets. ‘Avidly. And I have to confess that you do have a point. Perhaps I will take more of an interest in Andy’s course.’ He smiled disarmingly at her. ‘You know what they say, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Oops, another proverb. At this rate you’re going to categorise me as a crashing bore as well as a narrow-minded tyrant. No, I simply decided to change the subject because the prospect of finding out a bit more about my unexpected tenant was too tantalising to resist. So is there a mysterious lover waiting in the wings? You might as well answer me, you know. That way you won’t end up having to dodge my questions.’

  ‘No, there’s no lover waiting in the wings.’ She sighed deeply and pointedly and with resounding boredom.

  ‘No? Correct me if I’m wrong, but if there’s no sex in your life, then my sensitive antennae are telling me that you’re either resting or else you’re recovering from a broken relationship.’

  ‘Yes, well, my sensitive antennae are telling me that it’s time for sleep.’

  What, she wondered, was the description of someone who was beyond infuriating and relentless? Whatever it was, Curtis Greene headed the list.

  ‘No, it’s not,’ he denied on a murmur, ‘it’s telling you that it’s time to run away from me. You’re not scared of me, are you, Jade?’

  ‘No, I am not scared of you!’ she cried feverishly. ‘I think that you’re a…a nuisance!’

  ‘Ouch. That hurts.’ But he was still smiling, and his smile was like a drug, if there was such a drug that might turn someone’s brain to cotton wool and paralyse their vocal cords. ‘Well, maybe you’re scared of what I may find out about you.’

  There he went again, searching and ro
oting around, trying to piece her together, looking for answers.

  ‘You can stop worrying,’ he said softly, leaning forward so that he was almost touching her. ‘I’ve watched you and my brother over the past week and I have a gut feeling that you were telling the truth. There’s no electricity between the two of you. Don’t misunderstand me. There’s something between the two of you, but it’s not passion.’

  ‘I guess that means that you’ll be heading back to New York pretty soon…?’

  ‘And leave behind my unfinished jigsaw puzzle?’ He clicked his tongue in a reproving manner. ‘Besides, there’s a lot of work to be done on the business here, and I have to say that, having stayed out of London for such a long time, I’m finding that it holds certain attractions that The Big Apple doesn’t. There’s more room to breathe over here. I’d go so far as to say that I’m rather enjoying myself. And you’re so close to Andy, I’m sure you’d be delighted if we got a little closer to one another.’ He paused and raised one eyebrow enquiringly. ‘Build a few bridges, so to speak.’

  ‘And you never thought of building these bridges before now?’

  He flushed, and then moved away slightly, propping himself up against the doorframe.

  ‘I…it was not a straightforward situation,’ he said roughly.

  ‘Situations are as straightforward as you make them,’ Jade responded, more confident now that they were not discussing her, nor was he standing inches away. At least she could breathe properly. ‘No,’ she amended, thinking of her own convoluted scenario with a piercing sense of regret. ‘No, perhaps that’s not quite true.’ Her eyes clouded over, but before she could give him time to jump in with his usual battery of interested questions she continued in a stern voice, ‘But I can’t see what prevented you from getting to know Andy. He’s your brother!’ At least you’re not alone in the world, she nearly added.