The Passionate Lover

by Carole Mortimer

  For a moment he looked dazed, then cold reality returned to the bleakness of his eyes, his mouth twisting as he looked down at her flushed nakedness. 'But I didn't kiss you, Shelby,' he pointed out softly. 'Not here, at least,' he touched her lips with a hand that smelt of her body.

  Confusion washed over her as she realised he only spoke the truth. He hadn't kissed her mouth, not. once had he acknowledged her with that intimacy. She had been a female body for him to arouse and caress, she as a person hadn't mattered to him, he couldn't have shown her that any more clearly.

  He looked down at her with coldly merciless eyes. 'Should I apologise for showing you I was right about you?' he derided with contempt.

  She swallowed hard. 'No…!'

  'Don't look so stricken, Shelby,' he moved back to his own bed, his expression mocking as she instantly pulled the quilt up over her nakedness. 'I was merely saving you the trouble of trying your wiles on me now that Kenny has put himself out of the running.'

  'I—'

  'You see I'm not interested in more than slightly used goods,' he added sneeringly. 'And certainly not a woman on the make like you are.'

  Shelby was very pale, from the shock of her own actions as much as from his insults. She was about to marry his cousin, she deserved every insult he hurled at her about her morals! 'You're so wrong about me,' she began pleadingly.

  'Am I?' His eyes looked her over coldly, making Shelby conscious of her tousled hair, languorous green eyes, and passion swollen lips. 'Then what would you call what happened between us just now?' he scorned. 'An impulse?'

  'I don't know what happened just now!' she blushed, knowing exactly what had almost happened. It had been so long for her, so very long, since a man had looked at her the way he had, since she had ached to be touched. But it shouldn't have happened with this man, should never have happened at all. 'It doesn't mean that I want or expect anything from you—'

  He gave a harshly humourless laugh. 'What could you possibly expect from me?'

  'I just told you, nothing—'

  'Too damn right I owe you nothing!' he rasped grimly. 'I think I should warn you now that I don't react well to blackmail, no matter how charmingly it's presented.'

  Shelby gasped. 'I didn't—'

  'It sounded suspiciously like it to me.' He looked at her coldly. 'I made love to you just now for one reason and one reason only, to prove to you that no matter what opinion you may have of what you're doing I know that any man will do for you. But I don't intend being Kenny's replacement, not in bed or in a monetary way. I realise this set-back with Kenny must have upset your plans somewhat, but it would take more than a little seduction on your part to make me offer you marriage.'

  'I didn't seduce you,' she protested. 'You were the one who came to my bed!'

  'After I found your gaze on me like a caress,' he scorned. 'You were begging for me to make love to you.'

  'No!'

  'Yes,' he hissed. 'But little mercenaries like you don't interest me in more than a fleeting capacity.' His gaze flickered over her contemptuously. 'I hope I make myself clear?'

  'You think of me as a one-night stand,' she said disgustedly.

  'How aptly put,' he derided with distaste. 'I knew exactly what you were and what you were after before we even met,' he added with disgust.

  'And that is?' she prompted stiffly.

  'Surely it's obvious?'

  'I'd like to hear, nonetheless.'

  He shrugged. 'After the life you've lived Kenny must have seemed like a heaven-sent opportunity,' he scorned. 'He was young and alone, and far from home, an easy conquest for the lonely little widow,' his mouth twisted, 'Thank God he came to his senses in time!'

  'The life I've lived?' she prompted an explanation, not understanding what he meant. As far as she knew her life had been nothing out of the ordinary. This man obviously didn't agree with her.

  'You're very young to have been left a widow to fend for yourself. I'm sure that when you married your husband you envisaged a long and happy life with him, maybe even contemplated having children,' he added as if he doubted it.

  'Is that so unusual?' she frowned.

  'No,' Kyle shook his head. 'But he had the inconvenience to go and die on you.'

  'That's a foul thing to say!' she choked on her anger. 'I loved my husband very much.'

  'The same way you love Kenny?' he dismissed. 'That sort of love isn't worth having.'

  'And what would you know about any sort of love?' she accused insultingly.

  His mouth tightened. 'I know that a year after your husband's death, this man you're supposed to have loved, you were tired of trying to make it alone, of working in a hairdressing salon to support yourself—'

  'I don't just work in the salon, I own it,' she told him forcefully.

  'And I'm sure the profit you make just about covers the cost of your rent and costs!'

  'You don't know what you're talking about!'

  'I know that you saw Kenny for a fool, a fool who could give you back the life of relative ease you no doubt enjoyed with your husband. But don't take me for the same kind of fool, Shelby, because I can assure you I'm far from being that. Far from it!' he repeated with feeling.

  She knew that, what she didn't know was where he could have gained such an impression of her. Oh he had all the basic facts right, he just had the conclusions all wrong. And she didn't understand why. 'Where did you get your information from?' she asked slowly.

  'Some of it from Kenny,' he shrugged. 'The rest I pieced together myself.'

  She wondered which parts were which, but was reluctant to ask him in the circumstances. 'Then we both know where we stand, don't we?' she said softly.

  'Yes!' he grated.

  'Then we may as well go back to sleep,' she yawned as if to add to her impression of tiredness, whereas in reality she had too much on her mind to fall asleep. 'And hope we can get out of here tomorrow,' she added hopefully, needing desperately to talk to Kenny, knowing that only he could supply the answers she needed.

  'I wouldn't count on it,' Kyle muttered roughly.

  'Oh but I am,' she said with heartfelt feeling as she turned on her side towards the wall, remaining that way, determined not to even look at him to see if he had fallen back to sleep.

  Her thoughts were racing, dark unhappy thoughts as she remembered the conversation she had had with Kenny yesterday, a conversation that on reflection seemed to have turned her life about once again. She had thought Kenny understood at the time, that it hadn't mattered to him, but now she wasn't so sure. The facts that his family seemed to have about her, facts only he could have told them, seemed to conflict with reality, making her wonder why he had lied to them.

  Worst of all, she was no longer sure her wandering off in the blizzard had been an accident!

  CHAPTER THREE

  She hadn't deliberately set out to deceive anyone, had always intended Kenny to know the truth about her, she just hadn't thought it important enough to mention to him before now. Everything had happened so fast since her arrival in Montana, Kenny's proposal only two days later, and then the frantic wedding preparations, that they had barely had a moment to themselves to talk about anything, let alone something so private.

  But yesterday they had stolen a couple of hours to themselves, and Shelby had chosen that time to tell Kenny about Gavin and her marriage to him. He had listened without a flicker of emotion to all that she had to say, had seemed to treat her the same as he usually did for the rest of the day.

  But he had gone to see Wendy when he had known she was lost, possibly in danger, which didn't speak of a man in love. She didn't even consider the fact that Kyle could have lied to her about that, Kyle Whitney was basically a truthful man, he wouldn't lie to achieve his objective of getting her out of Kenny's life. She seemed to have done that effectively herself! How could she have even guessed that Kenny would react the way that he seemed to have done to what she had told him? Not that it hadn't been important, she knew that it
was, but she hadn't thought it would matter to a man like Kenny. Obviously it did.

  Her love for him refused to die completely, wouldn't do that until she had heard the truth from him herself. But it was her pride that hurt her the most right now. She had been reluctant to become involved with Kenny in the first place, had been persuaded into going out with him by his boyish charm. It hurt to now think that boyish charm had all been a pose, that she hadn't been his main interest at all. Because she knew now exactly what had been.

  Did Kyle realise what sort of man his cousin was? Somehow she doubted it, the two men seeming the best of friends. And if she could be fooled by Kenny, after having been suspicious of all entanglements since Gavin's death, then what chance did Kyle have?

  God, she felt so humiliated! She had placed her whole life and happiness in Kenny's hands and he had thrown them back at her as if she meant nothing to her. What sort of man was he, how could he—

  'Still can't sleep?'

  She stiffened as Kyle asked her that question for a second time tonight, but she made no reply, feigning sleep, letting the tears fall silently for the pain and humiliation she had suffered at Kenny's selfish hands.

  'Shelby?' Kyle prompted in a whisper, not convinced by her act at all.

  Again she ignored him, not wanting to speak to him now, needing the protection of silence against his rapier tongue, knowing that with his suspicious mind he was sure to misunderstand the reason for her tears. He had ridiculed her enough for one night, and he obviously didn't know the full truth about her, the real reason Kenny had changed his mind about marrying her, and until she had spoken to Kenny she didn't care to discuss it with him.

  She lay in frozen in silence as she waited for his next action, hearing a rustle of movement, tensing even more as she waited for his touch. But long seconds later she knew that he had only turned over to go to sleep, the deeply even tenor of his breathing seconds later letting her know that he had done exactly that.

  But sleep still eluded her, the pain of Kenny's betrayal slowly breaking her heart. She had been willing to give up everything for him, but it seemed that some sacrifices weren't enough—and some just too much!

  She was alone in the cabin when she woke the next morning, the bunk across from her already neatly made, the smell of brewed coffee filling the snug interior of the room.

  It took her a few minutes of alienation to become aware of her surroundings, to realise she was indeed marooned in a mountain cabin with Kyle Whitney. Somehow during the night it had all come to seem like a particularly bad nightmare.

  But as she looked about her she knew it was true, the real rusticity of the cabin becoming apparent in the light of day, looking exactly what it was, a summer stopover for several of the ruggedly self-sufficient men Kyle and Kenny employed, the furniture and cooking utensils primitive to say the least.

  But the wind had stopped howling outside, so hopefully the snow had stopped falling too, the cabin now shrouded in an eerie silence. Surely Kyle wouldn't have gone off and left her here without waking her first? She knew he was a man capable of anything!

  She hastily got out of bed, shivering in spite of the warmly glowing fire, looking around for her clothes. Her denims and jumper were lying at the foot of her bed, a further search locating her bra and panties lying across a chair, put there to dry in front of the fire after being washed. And Shelby knew she hadn't been the one to wash them! There was something very unsettling about thinking of Kyle Whitney touching the delicate lace wisps that were her underclothes. No one else could have been responsible for them being freshly laundered. He must have done it after she fell asleep for the first time.

  Her wash after she had dressed was little more than a splashing on of water, putting on her thick outer clothing so that she could go in search of Kyle. He may not be her idea of the perfect companion but for the moment he was all she had got!

  The scene that met her eyes as she stepped out into the crisp air made her stop in wonder. Everywhere she looked she could see snow, a clean pristine blanket of it over everything, the closely packed pine trees, the cabin, the distant mountains. It was all so beautiful it took her breath away, totally eliminating any feelings of danger she might have had last night. It was all like a scene from a Christmas card, the sort she had always liked to receive.

  'So Her Majesty has deigned to get up, hmm?' Kyle Whitney's harshly derisive voice cut into the beauty of the day. 'How nice!' he added with extra sarcasm.

  Shelby flushed at the jibe, turning to find him beside the wood pile he had pulled a tarpaulin back to reveal, his footprints around the cabin the only break in the pure white snow. He was obviously in the middle of bringing in more logs for the fire, and there was no knowing how long he had been up and about. Some time, from his sarcasm!

  'You could have woken "Her Majesty",' she said sharply. 'I just overslept, that's all.' And she knew the reason for that. It had been well into the early hours of the morning before she fell asleep for a second time, although as far as she knew Kyle had been asleep long before that.

  'How unusual,' he said dryly.

  She frowned. 'What do you mean?'

  He shrugged, piling more logs into his arms, his muscles tautening beneath his coat. 'From what I hear Mrs O'Neal likes to stay in bed until all hours of the morning.'

  She flushed at the rebuke. 'If you're talking about since I arrived here—'

  'Well of course I am, Shelby,' he taunted mockingly, eyeing her speculatively. 'How would I know of your sleeping habits when you're in London! I can assure you Kenny isn't the sort to "kiss and tell".'

  'Because there's nothing to tell!' She wasn't a person easily driven to anger, but at that moment she could quite cheerfully have stamped her foot in frustration—if it wouldn't have looked so ridiculous in feet of snow. 'I thought we agreed last night that we wouldn't argue any more?'

  'That was the first time you went to sleep,' his eyes had iced over. 'Later it was a different matter,' he added harshly. 'That changed things.'

  She avoided his gaze, her memories of last night as vivid as his obviously were. 'I'm sorry you feel that way,' she mumbled. 'I'm also sorry I didn't wake up earlier this morning. As for when I first arrived at the ranch, there is such a thing as jet-lag, you know.'

  'I know,' he nodded, moving past her with the logs. 'I've flown a few times myself,' he taunted.

  Shelby knew that he flew the Whitney plane. 'I'm sorry if you feel I was a little tardy when I first arrived,' she said stiffly. 'But my nights were suddenly days, and vice versa. And besides, I only slept late a couple of mornings, the rest of the time I've been up helping your aunt at seven o'clock,' she defended.

  'Well if you haven't been sleeping with Kenny I suppose you had to earn your keep somehow!' He disappeared inside the cabin with the logs.

  Shelby was left speechless. This man never let up, did he, insult after insult flowed easily from his lips. And they hurt. She had never been subjected to such blistering dislike from a man in all of her twenty-five years. Gavin had always been kind, before and during their marriage, and Kenny had always been a gentleman around her too. Maybe she had been spoilt by the two most important men in her life, but never before had she been the recipient of the blatant dislike Kyle Whitney subjected her to.

  He gave her only a cursory glance as he came out to get more logs. 'If you have nothing better to do than stand around looking beautiful perhaps you wouldn't mind getting us some breakfast?' His lightly veiled sarcasm didn't hide the fact that he was once again insulting her, even the fact that he recognised she was beautiful not taking the edge off his words.

  She watched as he picked up several of the logs at a time, knowing from experience how heavy they could be individually, and yet he seemed to have no trouble managing half-a-dozen or more at a time. 'I'll help you with that first, if you like,' she offered, determined to be friendly.

  He gave her a scathing look. 'Stick to what you know, Shelby,' he dismissed.

  Her mouth
twisted at his derision. 'Meaning a woman's place is in the kitchen?'

  He eyed her speculatively. 'Not necessarily,' he drawled after a long, pointed silence.

  Shelby flushed at his intended innuendo. 'How long do you intend to keep this up?' she snapped.

  He shrugged past her with more logs, and this time Shelby followed him inside, her eyes widening as she saw just how much firewood he had brought in; it looked as if they were in for a siege!

  She turned slowly to look at him. 'Just how long do you think we're going to be here?'

  He straightened, flexing his straining muscles. 'It never hurts to be prepared,' he dismissed her concern.

  Shelby met his gaze steadily. 'How long?' she prompted again with stubbornness.

  He shrugged. 'It could be any time—'

  'For God's sake, Kyle,' she snapped. 'I'm not a child, so don't treat me like one!'

  His mouth thinned, and she knew he wasn't used to being spoken to in this way, by anyone. 'I don't see the point in both of us worrying—'

  'Then you are worried?' she pounced.

  'I'm—concerned,' he amended slowly. 'We aren't really that far in miles from the ranch, but in this weather we might as well be a few hundred. You asked for the truth,' he rasped as she went pale.

  'Please go on,' she invited stiffly.

  'There isn't a lot more to say,' he sighed. 'We're about twenty miles from the ranch, across some of the roughest terrain on the Double K. Until the weather breaks we'll just have to sit tight.'

  Her spirits sank even lower. 'You don't think anyone will be out looking for us?'

  'If you're thinking of Kenny, then forget it,' he said grimly. 'And anyone else who might want to come looking will be hampered by the weather.'

  'But won't they be worried about you?' she frowned.

  'Probably,' he dismissed with a casualness she knew he must be far from feeling.

  'I'm sorry, Kyle. I really am.' She looked at him imploringly.