Finn had laughingly described some of his stepbrother’s exploits—affairs with actresses, married women some of them, and of course his propensity to gamble. Her eyes had widened at the amount Finn had said Connor had won in Las Vegas. She hadn’t thought people ever won that amount of money but it seemed Connor had and had used it to set himself up in some sort of computer business. From all accounts his business was expanding exponentially and he had branches in each Australian capital city and was now looking abroad.
Damn him! She skirted around a heap of twisted kelp and willed herself to stop thinking about him.
Marriage! Huh! As if he were any sort of husband a woman might want!
She kicked a piece of sponge with one foot and watched as the wind took over its journey, rolling it over and over until the raging water swallowed it whole.
She turned to go back the way she’d come and pulled up short when she noticed a tall figure coming in her direction.
She tensed; there was something very familiar about that long, easy gait. She blinked the grains of sand out of her eyes and peered a little harder. As he drew closer Jasmine knew there was only one man with that taunting smile.
She considered making a run for it but the sand beneath her feet was heavy with the wash from the high tide and she knew she’d stumble and twist an ankle before she covered any great distance. There was nothing else to do other than face him and ask him what the hell he thought he was doing here.
She waited until he was less than three strides away.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ She had to almost shout the words over the roar of the surf.
‘I’m beachcombing,’ he said, holding up a rather nice shell for her inspection.
She slapped his hand away and stomped past him to head back.
‘Go away! I don’t want to see you.’
He fell into step beside her, his long legs making short work of the heavy sand.
‘But I want to see you.’
‘Why?’ She spun to face him, her hair blowing into her mouth. She brushed it aside angrily and glared up at him. ‘You’re wasting your time. I have nothing to say to you other than get lost.’
‘But I have something to say to you.’
‘I don’t want to hear it.’
‘But it might be the most important news,’ he pointed out. ‘Something so significant that perhaps years later when you walk along this beach with your grandkids your mind will wander and you’ll find yourself thinking, Now, what was it that nice young man had to say? You’ll rebuke yourself for not having heard him out.’
‘Don’t be so ridiculous!’ She began stomping through the sand once more. ‘You’re not a nice person and I don’t care what you have to say. I’ve never cared and I never will!’
‘I think you do care, Jasmine, but you choose to hide that from most people behind that gruff I-don’t-give-a-damn façade you’re always wearing.’
Jasmine didn’t let him see how close to the mark his assessment came. She lifted her chin in the air and kept walking, determined to shake him off one way or the other.
‘That’s a nice place where you’re staying,’ he said after a stormy silence broken only by the sucking sound of the sand around their feet.
She stopped in her tracks and shot him an accusatory glance.
‘How did you know where to find me?’
His dark eyes gleamed. ‘Now wouldn’t you like to know?’
‘I would, actually.’ Her tone was arctic. ‘Did you have me followed?’
His expression gave nothing away and her frown deepened.
‘Don’t panic.’ He smiled down at her. ‘I won’t tell anyone your little secret.’
She tore her eyes away from the glint of mockery shining in his. Fear churned in the cavity of her stomach at the thought of her haven being discovered by someone so invading as Connor Harrowsmith. She’d never be able to come here again without thinking about him; her private paradise was now occupied by the very Devil himself.
‘You really shouldn’t disappear without telling someone where you’re going,’ he said when still she didn’t speak. ‘It’s not safe.’
‘It was safe until five minutes ago,’ she bit out.
‘It’s still safe.’ His eyes had softened along with his voice. ‘Now I’m here to protect you.’
‘I don’t need you to protect me.’
‘I think you will be very glad of my protection when I tell you what’s in the afternoon paper.’
She felt her breathing snag somewhere in the middle of her chest. Clenching her hands into fists she forced herself to meet his dark chocolate-brown gaze.
‘What do you mean?’
The line of his mouth was grim. ‘An interview with Roy Holden’s wife.’
‘Oh, my God!’ She sucked in a shaky breath, her face blanching in shock.
‘No doubt the lure of money for the interview put any of her previous scruples to rest.’
Jasmine’s voice was hollow and emotionless when she finally found it. ‘I can’t see what this has to do with you.’
‘It has everything to do with me,’ he argued. ‘You’re now my fiancée.’
‘I am nothing of the sort!’
His dark brows arched at the vehemence of her denial.
‘Honey—’ she felt herself shiver at his casually delivered endearment ‘—if you don’t marry me within a month you’ll find yourself without a family. Your father is serious; he’s determined to denounce you. Harsh I know, but then he’s on high moral ground.’
She stared at him. It was strange hearing him use the very words she’d used—was it only two days ago?—when thinking of her father’s moral code?
‘But you can’t seriously want to marry me,’ she said.
He gave a little shrug. ‘I’ve got nothing else better to do.’
‘Thanks.’
She spun back to face the climb up to the cliff path, her back stiff with pride. She felt him behind her with every clawing hold she took and wished she hadn’t been so hasty. She could just imagine him tucked in behind her, grinning to himself at the uninterrupted view of her bottom as she scaled the track.
Damn him!
She lost her hold and slipped backwards, taking an uprooted plant with her.
‘Hey.’ He caught her between his legs, clamping his thighs to secure her. ‘Watch your step. This path is lethal if you’re not concentrating.’
She wasn’t brave enough to look upwards. She’d already seen a glimpse of what was packaged between those strong thighs and she didn’t want to remind herself of it.
She scrambled forward out of the vice of his legs and, with as much grace as she could gather, made her way to the top, her breathing hard and fast.
He joined her on the path, his own breathing steady and even.
‘You need to get fit,’ he said. ‘Then you wouldn’t be quite so puffed out.’
‘I’m not puffed out!’ she puffed. ‘I’m angry.’
He grinned at her. ‘I know of a very good exercise.’
‘Shut up!’ She clamped her hands over her ears. ‘I don’t want to hear about it.’
His hands covered hers and pulled them away from her head. She wanted to tear them from his loose grasp but the drop behind her forestalled her.
‘Jasmine, listen to me.’
She closed her eyes to shut him out.
‘Go away. I don’t even want to look at you.’
She heard him sigh but didn’t open her eyes. Surely he’d just go away as long as she kept giving him the brush off. Most men would have left hours ago.
‘You’re a stubborn little thing, aren’t you?’ he observed.
‘Say what you like,’ she threw back at him. ‘I’m not listening to you.’
‘There’s a whole lot I could say but now is perhaps not the right time. We seem to have company.’
Jasmine’s eyes sprang open and she glanced past him to see who else was going to spoil her sanctuary.
‘There’s no one there.’ She met his dark gaze once more.
‘I beg to differ.’ His hands tightened on hers a fraction as he inclined his head to the left of where she was standing.
She looked down and shrieked at the coiled brown snake no more than a metre and a half from her feet. She flung herself forward into Connor’s arms, uncaring that he was the enemy and could probably do her more harm in the long run. She decided to take her chances; snakes were not her favourite creature.
Connor held her against him as he began backing slowly away from the snake’s uncoiling form.
‘It’s OK.’ His tone was enviably calm. ‘He’s not all that interested in us. I saw a couple of geckoes on my way down so that’s probably why he’s here.’
‘I hate snakes.’ She gave a little shudder.
She felt his laugh rumble against her cheek where she was pressed so tightly against his chest.
‘I wouldn’t have one as a pet either.’
He loosened his hold as they came to the end of the path well away from the snake.
‘There, what did I tell you—safe and sound.’
She looked around, inspecting the rocky ground for snake trails, but it was all clear.
‘Thank you.’ It was the least she could say under the circumstances.
They both knew the drop behind her had been there and that one startled step backwards would have sent her over. She felt a funny sensation in the pit of her stomach that he of all people had come to her rescue.
‘No problem,’ he said, his tone light and unaffected by the recent presence of imminent danger. ‘Snakes I can handle. Threatening fathers are another thing entirely.’
The wryness of his tone reminded her of his own family battles. She didn’t really know all that much about the Harrowsmith family except what Sam had let slip once or twice. She knew Connor’s mother had died not long after her marriage to Julian Harrowsmith, leaving Connor at the age of four under his guardianship. Connor’s own father was unknown; apparently he was the consequence of a passionate affair his mother had while still in her teens. Finn, the child of Julian and his second wife Harriet, spoke of his stepbrother with affection, although she sensed they were not all that close.
‘How has your family reacted to this latest scandal of yours?’ she asked as they began to walk along the bush track to the road.
His expression was guarded. ‘They’ve made the usual noises about disinheriting me and so on.’
‘That’s terrible! You should do something!’
‘I don’t have a lot of choice just now,’ he answered. ‘The sooner this thing settles down the better. I have some big financial commitments pending with my overseas interests and I don’t want to let the money from my mother’s estate be redirected.’
‘Could your stepfather really do that?’ She stopped to look up at him, her brow furrowed in concern.
‘He’s one of Sydney’s leading lawyers.’ His eyes hardened momentarily. ‘He can do anything.’
She bit her lip and kept walking.
‘But surely you have enough money of your own by now to call his bluff?’
Connor’s hand on her arm stopped her. He turned her to face him, the silence of the bush enveloping them in a type of intimacy she’d never felt with anyone before. It unsettled her, making her feel as if he stepped past some sort of barrier she had carefully constructed around herself all her life.
‘I have plenty of money, yes, but I can’t access my mother’s until I marry,’ he answered.
‘What?’
‘It was the way the will was written. I suppose my mother didn’t want some poor girl to go through what she had as a teenage single mother. She wasn’t taking any chances, even if I were her son and only an infant at the time of writing her will.’
Jasmine gnawed at her lip once more.
‘Marriage is such a big step.’ She looked at the open neck of his shirt instead of into his dark eyes. ‘I wish I could help you but…’
‘What will you do about your family?’ he asked.
‘I can handle them.’
‘And the Holden interview? Can you handle that?’
Her gaze was worried when it returned to his. ‘I have been through all this before, you know.’
‘Yes.’ His half-smile was wry. ‘You certainly know how to rock the religious boat, don’t you?’
She found herself smiling reluctantly at his choice of words.
‘It wasn’t intentional, I assure you.’
‘All the same, this recent calamity won’t help your father’s chances of promotion. Finn has indicated that Elias has set his sights on being the next Archbishop when the present one retires.’
Jasmine had heard it too and it only added to her worries. She knew her father was grasping at Connor’s marriage solution with thoughts of his own salvation in mind, not hers.
‘Marriage has never been a particular goal of mine,’ she said. ‘I can’t see myself chained to a kitchen sink for the next fifty years.’
‘Not all marriages are like that.’
‘Aren’t they?’
His hand disturbed the thicket of his dark, windswept hair, giving him an even wilder out of control look. His jaw was heavily shadowed as if he hadn’t shaved since the day of her sister’s wedding. She wondered what it would feel like to have him kiss her now with his lean jaw all scratchy and intensely, disturbingly male.
She gave a little shiver and tore her eyes away from his face.
‘Are you cold?’ he asked.
‘No.’
They walked on a bit further in silence.
Connor watched her covertly as she walked beside him, the sweet fragrance of her hair reaching his nostrils from time to time as the wind lifted the chestnut strands across her face.
He felt that familiar gut-tightening reaction he’d experienced the very first time he’d met her. She was so unlike all the women he’d known, and he was the first to admit he’d known rather too many of late. It was time to settle down after that last disastrous affair with the Texan heiress—he had to take stock and get his priorities sorted once and for all. He owed that to his mother’s memory if nothing else.
He couldn’t help thinking his mother would have approved of the defiant figure beside him. Jasmine was like a breath of fresh sea air with her spirited defiance and spitfire tongue, but he was almost certain that underneath that prickly exterior she was already starting to melt. He saw it in her grey-blue eyes when she thought he wasn’t looking. There was a hunger there and he fully intended to satiate it…
Jasmine listened to the crunch of leaves and twigs under their feet and the warble of the magpies in the gum trees overhead. The sound of cicadas filled the air; it was as if they knew the long, hot summer was over and the shortening days would silence their chorus soon.
‘How long are you planning to stay here?’ he asked after a few more minutes.
‘A day or two,’ she answered, not comfortable with revealing all her movements to him.
‘I left my car up at the beach house,’ he informed her.
‘How did you find it?’
‘I just drove up the driveway and there it was.’
She gave him a reproving look.
‘I mean, how did you know I was here? It’s not exactly on the beaten track.’
‘Well, it’s rather a long story but I was discussing real estate with someone and they mentioned a property down here they thought I might be interested in, and I bought it.’
Jasmine forced her feet to keep moving forward, hoping her voice sounded suitably uninterested. ‘Oh, really?’
‘You probably know it quite intimately,’ he said. ‘It’s not all that far from you.’
She stopped so suddenly she almost stumbled over her own feet.
‘Which place?’
His dark eyes glinted down at her.
‘The old house down the road.’
She knew it well. She generally avoided it because it appeared deserted
and dilapidated, sad almost, as if whoever had lived there had not been all that happy with life. The fact that Connor had bought it seemed to her to be a deliberate act on his part to force his presence on both her and the neglected property.
She wasn’t sure which she was defending when she turned on him. ‘You have no right to come here!’
‘I beg to differ as I have every right in the world. The place is now mine, so I can come and go as I please.’
She gave him a venomous glare.
‘You’re doing this deliberately, aren’t you? You’re invading every area of my life to get your own way.’
‘Don’t be so prickly,’ he chided. ‘Nothing was further from my mind.’
‘Don’t lie to me!’ She almost shouted the words. ‘If you think this will make me marry you to get you out of trouble, forget it. There’s nothing on this planet that would induce me to become your wife—nothing!’
He let her vent her spleen, standing quietly and calmly, which only served to infuriate her even more.
She turned abruptly and stomped away, her head down in case he caught a glimpse of her stinging tears of anger.
Somehow she lost him at the turn-off. She took the long way back to the house that few people knew and, when she was sure he wasn’t following, sat by the creek bed and howled out her frustration, leaving it another hour before she finally returned to the little beach house.
When she got there Connor’s car was gone. But when she looked down at the dusty gravel of the driveway she could see where his tyres had been and it made her feel uneasy.
He’d be back, she was sure; that much about him she did know.
He’d be back.
Jasmine decided after another hour of sickening dread, that Connor would reappear and find her still crying, that her best course of action would be to leave.
She packed with none of her usual attention to detail, thrusting things untidily into the back of her car as if the hounds of hell were on her tail.
She gave the beach house a cursory swipe with a dust cloth and mop and hightailed it out of the driveway before she changed her mind.
Thankfully there was hardly any traffic on the roads and although she had to stop once for petrol the trip back to her inner city flat was uneventful.
The Australian's Marriage Demand Page 3
