‘Forgive me for intruding,’ Owain said. ‘I’ve been up since the hospital called with the good news.’
‘Susie’s on the road to recovery,’ Jared said. ‘We were with her when she woke up. It’s nothing short of a miracle.’
‘Yes, and I stayed up because I was so excited. I was just waiting for Gareth to come home, that’s all. But when he came back, when he told me you were here…here, Jared, here in the hall…’
Jared studied him with guarded eyes and said nothing.
‘I’m sorry,’ Owain said. ‘But I had to see it for myself. I never thought I’d see it. I only wish your mother could—’ He broke off.
There was a long pause.
‘You wish my mother was here to see it?’ Jared’s strong dark voice echoed in the old hall, and with it three decades of silence was finally broken for ever.
‘I’m sorry,’ Owain said again, ‘I didn’t mean to say that. It just came out. So stupid of me. I’m such an old fool, I—’
‘No,’ Jared interrupted him. ‘It was time I came back. I’m glad I did. And you’re right. My mother should be here to see it.’
With a double-take, Owain blurted out, ‘I—I could telephone her now! She’s awake, just as we all are, so pleased about Susie. I only spoke to her a few minutes a—’
‘Well, go on, then,’ said Jared. ‘Give her a call. Tell her to get in her car and drive on over.’
‘You don’t mind if I bring her back to this house? After all that happened here because of us? Because of what we—’
‘See her with my blessing.’ Jared pushed away from the balustrade and walked back along the gallery, holding Clara in the crook of his arm. ‘See her as often as you want. I won’t stand in your way.’
‘Oh, my boy!’ Stumbling towards him, Owain stretched out his bony old hands. ‘My very dear boy! We felt so guilty for so many years—’
‘No need to explain.’ Jared waved him away as he reached the bottom of the stairs. He was prepared to forgive and forget. He was happy to see them reunited in this house. But he didn’t want any emotional scenes. Not yet, not just yet…
‘No. Of course…’ Owain nodded, bowed his head and stepped back.
Jared looked at him for a long moment, then said deeply, ‘Just take it as written that I’ve forgiven and forgotten.’
Owain looked up at him with a grateful smile.
Jared smiled too, and the sun came flooding into Rhossana Bay, across the grounds of the Manor and into the hallway itself.
‘Besides,’ Jared said, ‘your wife died last year and my mother’s still a widow. You’re both here again, back in the same area. What could be more natural than for the two of you to get back together again?’
Owain’s eyes had filled with tears, and as Jared walked past him towards the open double doors he called, ‘I’ll tell her to come right away! I need her to hear all this from you!’
‘She can’t today, I’m afraid.’ Jared turned in the sunlit doorway with a regretful smile. ‘Clara and I have to fly to London right away.’ He turned to smile down at her as she stood safe in the circle of his arms. ‘Isn’t that right, darling?’
‘The test!’ she gasped. ‘Oh, Jared! We completely forgot to ring Mitch and tell him I couldn’t—’
‘Serendipity,’ he drawled, kissing her. ‘Now we can fly to London together, you can test for Rachel—and we’ll be back here in Wales in time for dinner!’
CHAPTER TEN
THE helicopter flew them straight to London. They’d had time to rush back to the hotel, grab a bite to eat, make love in the shower and get dressed. They were both fairly wired—they had neither of them slept. But Clara was alert with adrenalin despite the lack of sleep and the series of emotional shocks she’d sustained in the last twenty-four hours.
‘At least they were all positive shocks,’ Jared commented as they flew over London. ‘And the adrenalin will help you get through the test.’
‘I feel so alive. Are my eyes red?’
‘Faintly. Just explain what happened last night. They’ll understand that your red eyes are only temporary.’
The chopper circled the helipad of the Blackheath International skyscraper. It was one of the tallest buildings in the City.
‘You’ll sail through the test,’ Jared reassured her.
‘I don’t know about that! I can barely remember any of my lines. I feel as though I’ve been through a whirlwind. It’s wiped my memory banks clean!’
‘You have been through a whirlwind,’ he drawled, smiling. ‘But you’re a professional, you’ve done this a million times before, and you’ll remember your lines the minute the cameras roll.’
‘I hope you’re right.’
‘Of course I’m right,’ he said with an arrogant smile. ‘And meanwhile I’ll wait right here for you at the office. It’s a perfect opportunity to march in, shake ’em all up and get things rolling again.’
The helicopter landed with a gentle thud on the top of his skyscraper. He got out, gorgeous in a grey business suit, fresh white shirt, jade silk tie and gold cufflinks. Turning, he helped Clara out too, and she kissed his clean-shaven jaw as he held her in his arms, dark hair blowing as the blades from the chopper whirred and the wind blew across the city skyscrapers.
‘Yummy!’ she murmured against the fresh scent of aftershave and clean skin. ‘I wish we could go home to bed!’
‘We will do,’ he said thickly, kissing her and holding her close to the warmth of his body. ‘Just as soon as we get back to Wales.’
‘Mr Blackheath!’ Men in suits came running.
‘A crisis has blown up in the Sydney office!’
‘I’ll be with you in a minute!’ Jared called coolly, then turned back to Clara, grimacing and lowering his voice. ‘They can’t seem to run this place without me. What are they going to do when I go back to Wales tonight?’
‘Pine for you,’ laughed Clara, arms wrapped around his strong neck. ‘Just as I do, every time you go away.’
‘Well, that won’t be for some considerable time. I don’t want to let you out of my sight again if I can possibly avoid it…’ His mouth closed over hers in a brief, burning kiss.
A moment later they were walking hand in hand across the roof towards the grey doors which led to the main building. Jared waved the men in suits away, motioning them to keep their distance as he went into the top floor with Clara.
‘Take a cab straight back here once the test is over.’
‘Are you sure?’ She kept pace with him as they entered the Chairman’s suite of offices—his, naturally. ‘I can easily just go back to Regent’s Park.’
‘What’s the point of that? The chopper’s here.’
‘Mr Blackheath!’ His personal assistant came running up—a woman in her mid-forties with black hair and a stern face. ‘Thank heavens you’re back!’
‘Briefly.’ Jared paused in the luxurious champagnecoloured corridor. ‘And I’ll be with you in a minute, Mrs Radcliffe. I just want to see Miss Maye to the lift.’
‘Wonderful to see you again, Miss Maye,’ Mrs Radcliffe enthused. ‘Am I to understand congratulations are in order?’
Clara and Jared exchanged shocked glances.
‘Congratulations?’ demanded Jared curtly. ‘What are you talking about?’
Mrs Radcliffe went white. ‘Nothing sir. Nothing. I—I have made a mistake. Do forgive me…’ She blundered away to her office.
Jared led Clara to the Chairman’s lift, muttering, ‘She must have been talking about Susie getting better.’
But as she looked up into his strong face she saw the telltale stain of dark red on his cheekbones and was suddenly sure he was lying. But why? And about what?
‘Come on, you’ll be late.’ Jared hurried her into the expensive mirrored lift and waved as he stood outside it, smiling. ‘Good luck! Break a leg! See you back here later—’
The lift doors closed, cutting short his last words. Clara stood trembling against the mirrors. Her adrenal
in levels were so high that she could barely think properly. Too little food, low blood sugar, not enough sleep, a recall test to face—and now all this business about congratulations being in order. Congratulations about what? Perhaps Mrs Radcliffe had been talking about Susie, she told herself. Yet that didn’t explain Jared’s anger or the dark flush on his face. But there wasn’t time to think.
As soon as she reached the ground floor, security men were waiting with walkie-talkies and dark glasses to lead her across the palatial foyer of Blackheath International to the limousine waiting for her outside in the busy City street.
Whisked to the television centre, she was rushed through Hair and Make-up, hassled through Wardrobe and finally emerged on set at one-fifteen, looking stunning in a blue evening gown, to play a multiple character scene at a tense and emotional dinner party. She felt as though she’d been trampled over by a herd of elephants. But her adrenalin began to pump as soon as she heard those magic words:
‘Speed…’
‘Turning over…’
‘And—action!’
Her head lifted, her stomach clenched with excitement and the lines came back to her.
Suddenly she was Rachel, interacting beautifully with the other actors at the dinner table. Her voice throbbed with emotion. Her eyes blazed with genuine feeling.
‘Perfect.’ The director smiled admiringly at her when the scene ended. ‘Off you go. I’ll just have a quick word with Mitch…’
Clara went back to Wardrobe alone, leaving Mitch talking to the director in the corner of the sound stage. After changing back into her smart ivory skirt-suit, she unpinned her chignon, ran her fingers through her long blonde hair and sighed.
Why was everything so up in the air at the moment? Jared’s feelings about marriage were very much unsettled, for all her hopes in Rhossana. Susie was out of danger but still not recovered from her injuries. And the role of Rachel, for all that she’d rushed here by helicopter and limousine, was still not hers.
‘Can I get those falsies back, Miss Maye?’
Clara looked up in surprise as the make-up lady popped her head round the door. ‘Oh, yes…!’ She peeled the false eyelashes off with a wry smile. ‘I thought I looked weird!’
‘And the grips?’
Scooping up the hairgrips, Clara handed them back. The make-up lady disappeared. Seconds later, there was another knock on the door. Don’t tell me, she thought, laughing, she wants all the make-up back too.
‘Are you decent?’ Mitch shouted, and she sighed with relief.
‘Oh, it’s you! Yes—come on in.’
He burst in through the door like the dynamo he was, all perfectly coiffed hair, expensive Italian suit and razzle-dazzle smile. ‘You were brilliant! You were Rachel! You’ve got the part!’
‘What?’ Clara stared at him in acute shock. She couldn’t quite believe it could be so easy to hear those words. She’d heard them a hundred times before— ‘You’ve got the part’—but with Rachel somehow they seemed more life-changing than they ever had before.
‘Yep. The director just told me. I’ll have official confirmation in the post tomorrow, but other than that—you will be Rachel.’
‘Oh, I must get back to Jared and tell him! He’ll be so thrilled!’
‘No need, darling. I spoke to him a couple of minutes ago on my mobile. He already knows.’
‘You spoke to Jared?’ Clara stared at him in amazement. ‘You mean—you rang him?’
‘No, he rang me.’ Mitch smiled and kissed her cheek. ‘We had quite a long chat. He explained why it was so difficult to phone through to you in Wales. He’s so proud of you, Clara. You’ve got a good man there. Hang on to him.’
Mystified, Clara had to bite her lip to stop herself asking Mitch for more information. Jared would never forgive her if she gave so much as one more piece of his private jigsaw puzzle to Mitch, and, given how tired and off balance she was, it was far too dangerous to spend any more time standing around here talking to Mitch.
The limousine took her straight back to Blackheath International. As she entered the building the security men were waiting to escort her to the Chairman’s lift. Jared always made sure his staff treated Clara like a visiting princess, but today they appeared to be going overboard.
What’s going on? she wondered as she rode up alone. First the peculiar congratulations from Mrs Radcliffe, then the strange call to Mitch, and now the security men falling over themselves to pamper her.
The lift doors slid open. The luxurious offices were deserted. Puzzled, Clara walked to the outer offices but found nobody there. He must be in a meeting, she thought, and has probably taken Mrs Radcliffe with him.
Going into Jared’s private office, she found that, too, deserted.
Where was he? The big black winged leather chair stood empty behind the vast leather desk covered in telephones. Behind it, there was a panoramic view across London; from here Jared was able to look down on the whole City—the little boy from Rhossana Bay had made it very big indeed.
A smile touched her heart. What an amazing man, she thought. To have made it so high, to have come so very far, and with such tragedy to surmount. Clara had always been proud of Jared’s towering success, but now she’d seen his home town it seemed even more incredible that he’d done so well. If only his father were here to see it, she thought sadly. But, if his father had been here, would Jared have become the man he was?
Clara walked over to the desk and sank down in the black winged chair. Twirling around, she imagined herself as Jared, looking out of this window, master of all he surveyed. No wonder the people in Rhossana stared and whispered when they saw him. No wonder they—
Her gaze fell on the ink-blotter on the desk.
‘Mrs Clara Blackheath,’ Jared had written in bold black pen. ‘Mrs Jared Blackheath. Mrs J. Blackheath. Mr and Mrs Jared Blackheath. Clara Blackheath. Jared Blackheath and Son. Blackheath and Son International. Clara Suzanne Blackheath and her husband, Jared…’
The sun slanted across the ink-blotter, dazzling the eye with the whiteness of the paper and the stark black handwriting across it. Such strong writing. Such self-assurance. What had he been thinking as he wrote all that? Her heart skipped a beat, for she knew there was only one answer, just one…
To her right, the door clicked open.
Clara looked up, stunned and silent.
‘Hi.’ Jared stood in the doorway, devastatingly handsome in his grey suit, sunlight gleaming off gold cufflinks and jet-black hair. ‘I hear you got the part. How do you feel?’
Wide-eyed, she just stared at him.
‘Cat got your tongue?’ he drawled softly, and came in, closing the door behind him with a click.
‘No, I was just…’ She stared down at the inkblotter again. ‘I was just…’
‘Just reading something on my desk?’ His voice was cool and arrogant, but as he strolled lazily towards her his fists were clenched and she could sense his heart thudding much too fast. ‘What did you read?’
‘My name…’
He stopped beside her, looking down through heavy-lidded eyes. ‘My chair, I believe.’
Clumsily, she got to her feet.
‘Thanks,’ he drawled lightly, slid into the powerful chair and tugged at her wrist with one hand, making her fall onto his lap.
‘Oh…!’ Breathless, she landed on him, hands against his broad chest, staring up into his tough face and feeling absurdly nervous for some unaccountable reason.
‘I was doodling,’ he said thickly, holding her with hands that seemed to tremble fractionally, ‘while I was on the phone to Mitch.’
‘Yes, he said you called him.’
‘Just checking that the test was over. Wanted to see how you’d done and when you’d be back here.’
‘Ah…’ She didn’t know what else to say.
‘I kept him talking for as long as possible. Asked him a lot of leading questions without giving the game away. I needed to see if you’d told him anything. I s
hould have known you wouldn’t have said a thing.’ His long fingers played with her blonde hair. ‘You look lovely, by the way. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look so lovely.’
Clara stared into his blue eyes.
‘I…’ His voice began to shake. He cleared his throat, flushed dark red, looked away. ‘I have a present for you.’ He reached into his inside jacket pocket. His hands were shaking visibly now, and his heart was going crazy. ‘Just a little something…’
Clara was very still as she saw the small black box in his hands.
‘I hope you like emeralds,’ he whispered unsteadily, and opened it.
Sunlight blazed over the vast square-cut emerald ring. Surrounded by tiny diamonds, it dazzled the eye, reflecting shards of coloured light all over Clara’s pale, excited face.
‘It’s…it’s beautiful.’
‘I had someone from Cartier meet me here at one o’clock,’ he told her in a thickened voice. ‘Didn’t want anyone to see me buying a ring for my girl. They showed me every emerald ring they had in stock. In here, behind closed doors. Very discreet! Unlike Mrs Radcliffe, of course, who rather let the cat out of the bag.’
Silently, she looked up once more into his eyes.
His flush deepened. He looked away, looked at the ring. ‘Here…let me put it on for you.’
Pulses racing frantically, she let him lift her left hand and slide the ring onto her engagement finger.
Jared whispered, ‘Will you marry me?’
‘Oh, darling!’ she said hoarsely, and fell into his arms, kissing his strong neck, then his determined jaw, moving up as the tears began to sting her eyes until her mouth met his and their kiss blazed with more emotional passion that she had ever felt before.
His mouth was hard and yet tender at the same time as he opened her lips beneath his, crushing her in his arms until she could feel his pounding heartbeat in every inch of her skin.
Breathing hard, he broke off the kiss. ‘Thank God for that!’ He clasped her head with shaking hands. ‘I didn’t know how to do it! Didn’t know what to say, how to begin…’
Red-Hot Lover Page 14
