by Anne Mather
Ellie sent Ashleigh an overly bright smile. ‘Well, then… Come on, Lachlan, let’s go and get that bus. We’ll leave Mummy and Daddy to have a chat all by themselves.’
‘Daddy?’ Lachlan stopped in his tracks, his expression confused as he looked between his mother and aunt and back again.
Ashleigh sent her sister a now-see-what-you’ve-done look before bending down to her son.
‘Lachlan…’
‘Is he my daddy?’ Lachlan asked in a whisper, his glance going briefly to the tall silent figure standing beside his mother.
Ashleigh swallowed the lump of anguish in her throat. ‘Yes…Jake is your daddy.’
Lachlan’s smooth little brow furrowed in confusion. ‘But you told me he didn’t want to ever know about me.’
‘I know…but that was before and now…’ She couldn’t finish the sentence as her emotions took over. She bit her lip and straightened, turning away to try to pull herself together.
‘Lachlan…’ Jake stepped into the breach with an outstretched hand. ‘I am very pleased to meet you.’
Lachlan slipped his hand out and touched Jake’s briefly, his eyes wide with wonder. ‘Are you going to live with Mummy and me now?’ he asked.
Jake wasn’t sure how to answer. He had never really spoken to a child this young before. How did one go about explaining such complicated relationship dynamics to one so young?
‘No,’ Ashleigh put in before he could speak. ‘Remember I told you? As soon as you go to big school we are going to live with Howard and Mrs Caule.’
Lachlan’s shoulders visibly slumped and his bottom lip began to protrude in a pout. ‘But I don’t like Mrs Caule. She scares me.’
‘Lachlan!’ she reprimanded him sternly. ‘She will be like a pretend granny for you, so don’t let me ever hear you speak like that again.’
Ellie tactfully tugged Lachlan towards the door, ‘Time to leave, mate.’
Ashleigh opened her mouth to call them both back but caught Jake’s warning glance. She let out her breath in a whoosh of frustration and flopped into the nearest seat, dropping her head into her hands.
Jake waited until he heard the front door close on Ellie and Lachlan’s exit before he spoke.
‘You cannot possibly marry Howard Caule.’
She lifted her head from her hands to stare up at him. ‘Excuse me?’
He met her diamond-sharp gaze with steely determination.
‘I won’t allow it.’
She sprang to her feet, her hands in fists by her sides.
‘What do you mean, you won’t allow it?’ She threw him a blistering look. ‘How the hell are you going to stop me?’
The line of his mouth was intractable as his eyes held hers.
‘You cannot possibly marry Howard Caule because you are going to marry me instead,’ he said. ‘And I will not take no for an answer.’
CHAPTER NINE
ASHLEIGH stared at him for several chugging heartbeats.
‘I’m asking you to marry me, Ashleigh,’ Jake said into the tight silence.
‘Asking me?’ she shot back once she found her voice. ‘No, you’re not. You’re demanding something you have no right to demand!’
‘Don’t speak to me of rights,’ he bit out. ‘I had a right to know I’d fathered a child and you kept that information from me. This is payback time, Ashleigh. You either marry me or face the consequences.’
What consequences? she thought with a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach. Exactly what sort of consequences was he thinking of?
Jake was a rich man.
A very rich man.
How could she even begin to fight someone with his sort of financial influence? The best lawyers would be engaged and before she knew it she would be facing custodial arrangements that would jeopardise her peace of mind for the rest of her life. How would she cope with seeing Jake every second weekend when he came to collect his son on visitation access? How indeed would she cope if he were to gain full custody of Lachlan?
‘How long do you think such a marriage would last?’ she asked, hoping her panic wasn’t too visible, even though her insides were turning to liquid.
‘It will last for as long as it needs to last,’ he said. ‘Every child needs security and, from what little I’ve seen so far, that little kid is insecure and in need of a strong father figure.’
He’d seen all that in one meeting? His perspicuity amazed her but she didn’t let on.
‘He’s not yet four years old,’ she said. ‘I would have thought it was a little early to have him written off as an anxious neurotic.’
He gave her a hardened look. ‘What did you tell him about me?’
She faced him squarely. ‘I told him the truth. I told him his father had never wanted to be a father.’
Jake opened his mouth to berate her but snapped it shut when he saw the defiant glitter in her eyes. He turned away, his stomach clenching painfully as he mentally replayed every conversation he’d had with her in the past on the subject.
No wonder she hadn’t told him of the pregnancy.
She was right.
He would have very likely packed her off to the nearest abortion clinic, railroading her into a procedure he had never until this moment given the depth of thought it demanded. Seeing Lachlan this afternoon had made him realise that a foetus was not just a bunch of cells. It had the potential to become a real and living person.
Lachlan was a real and living person.
And he was his son.
‘I can’t change the past, Ashleigh,’ he said after another lengthy silence. ‘I never wanted this sort of situation to occur but it has occurred and I realise now you probably had little choice in the matter.’ He took a steadying breath and continued. ‘Given the sort of background you’ve had, I can see how you would be the very last person to rush off to have a pregnancy terminated. And, as you said earlier, given Ellie’s situation, I guess adoption wasn’t an option you would have embraced with any sense of enthusiasm.’
Ashleigh witnessed the play of tortured emotions on his face as he spoke and wished she could reach for him and somehow comfort him. They shared the bond of a living and breathing child and yet it seemed as if a chasm the width of the world divided them.
He was devastated by the knowledge of his son’s existence; it was his biggest nightmare come true in stark, inescapable reality. It didn’t matter how sweet Lachlan was or how endearing his personality, for in Jake’s mind there was no escaping the fact that, along with his genetic input, Harold Marriott’s blood also flowed through his son’s veins.
‘I’m sorry, Jake…’ she said. ‘I don’t know what else to say.’
‘You can say yes,’ he said. ‘You can agree to marry me and then this situation will be resolved.’
‘How can it be resolved?’ she asked. ‘How can we pretend things are any way near normal between us?’
‘I would hazard a guess that things between us will be very normal. Once we’re married we will resume our previous relationship.’
She gaped at him in shock. ‘You mean a physical relationship?’
‘But of course,’ he answered evenly.
‘Aren’t you forgetting the little but no less significant detail that I already have a fiancé?’
He gave her a cynical look. ‘I don’t consider Howard Caule your fiancé. He hasn’t even convinced you to wear his ring and I can tell by that hungry look in your eyes that he hasn’t yet convinced you to share his bed.’
‘There are still some men in the world who have some measure of self-control,’ she put in with a pointed glare his way. ‘Howard has faith. I respect that, even though I don’t necessarily share it.’
‘Faith?’ He let out a scathing snort. ‘He would need more than faith to live with you. You are the devil’s own temptation from the tip of your head to your toes. I’ve wanted to throw you onto the nearest flat surface from the first moment I walked into the bar and saw you sitting there twirling your straw
in that glass with your fingers.’
His words shocked her into silence. She could feel her skin lifting in physical awareness, tiny goose-bumps breaking out all over her and the pulse of her blood stepping up a pace as her breathing rate accelerated.
‘I am engaged.’ She finally found her voice but she knew it sounded even less convincing than previously. She looked down at her ringless fingers and repeated, as if to remind herself, ‘I am engaged to be married to Howard.’
Jake plucked his mobile phone from his waistband and held it out to her. ‘Tell him it’s off. Tell him you’re marrying me instead.’
Ashleigh stared at the phone as if it were a deadly weapon set to go off at the merest touch.
‘I can’t do that!’
‘Do it, Ashleigh,’ he commanded. ‘Or I’ll do it for you.’
‘You can’t make me break off my engagement!’
‘You don’t think so?’ he asked, his lip curling sardonically. ‘How about if I call dear old Howard and tell him the deal is off?’
Her throat moved up and down in a convulsive swallow.
‘There are any number of antique dealers who would gladly snatch up this little load,’ he continued when she didn’t speak, sending his free hand in an arc to encompass the priceless goods in the room.
‘You think you can persuade Howard to release me with such a bribe?’ she asked.
‘Why don’t you call him and find out?’ he suggested and pushed the phone towards her again.
She took the phone, her fingers numbly pressing in the numbers.
‘Howard?’
‘Ashleigh!’ Howard’s tone was full of delight. ‘How was your day?’ He hardly paused for her to respond before he went on. ‘Do you remember that consignment from Leura that I’d thought we’d lost to the opposition? Well, you’ll be thrilled to know that the family of the deceased have decided to give us the deal after all. Isn’t that wonderful news? With the consignment you’re getting from Jake Marriott we’ll be the toast of the town come the antiques fair!’
‘Howard…Jake has met Lachlan.’
‘My mother, of course, is beside herself,’ Howard rambled on excitedly. ‘She and my father never imagined the heights I would aspire to, but I have you to thank for that, for without your—’
‘Howard—’ she interrupted him ‘—Jake knows about Lachlan.’
‘I know it is early days but it will be in all the papers. Howard Caule Antiques will be the premier…’ Howard took a small breath. ‘What did you say?’
Ashleigh’s eyes avoided Jake’s as she said into the phone, ‘Jake knows Lachlan is his son.’ She took an unsteady breath and continued, ‘He has asked me to marry him.’
There was a tiny beat of silence before Howard asked, ‘What answer did you give him?’
‘How do you think I answered?’
Howard let out a long sigh. ‘Ashleigh, I know you’ve done your very best to hide it from me, but I’ve known for a long time now that you don’t really love me.’
‘But I—’
‘It’s all right, Ashleigh—’ he cut through her protest ‘—I understand, I really do. You still have feelings for—’
‘Is this about the consignment?’ she asked sharply.
‘How could you think that of me, Ashleigh?’ The hurt in his tone was unmistakable. ‘I would gladly let them go to someone else if I thought by insisting you marry me instead of Jake you would be happy. You are never going to be happy until you sort out your past with Jake and we both know it.’
Ashleigh clutched the phone in her hand with rigid fingers, annoyed that Jake was quite clearly hearing every word of her fiancé’s.
‘You’ll have to go through with it,’ Howard insisted. ‘If not for Lachlan’s sake, then for mine.’
‘What do you mean?’ she asked, her heart plummeting in alarm.
‘Jake has a prior claim. He’s the child’s father, after all. I could never stand in his way; it wouldn’t be right. It wouldn’t be decent. It wouldn’t be moral.’
‘But what about us?’ she asked in an undertone, turning her back on Jake’s cynical sneer.
‘Ashleigh.’ Howard’s voice was steady with resignation. ‘You know how much I care for you, but I’ve known for a long time you don’t really feel the same way about me. My mother has been concerned about it for ages. We could have been married months ago, but you wouldn’t commit. Doesn’t that tell you something?’
She found it difficult to answer him. She had been stalling, almost dreading the day when her life would be legally tied to his, in spite of her very real gratitude for all he’d done for her both professionally and personally.
Ashleigh chanced a glance in Jake’s direction and noted the self-satisfied curl of his lip with a sinking feeling in her belly.
She turned her back determinedly and spoke to Howard once more. ‘I’m sorry about this, Howard…I didn’t mean to hurt you like this. You’ve been so good to me and Lachlan.’
‘Don’t worry,’ Howard said. ‘We will always be friends. Anyway, it’s not as if we won’t see each other. You do still work for me, remember?’
‘Yes…’
Jake reached across and took the phone out of her hand and spoke to Howard. ‘Caule, Jake Marriott here. Ashleigh won’t be working for you once this consignment is delivered to your showroom. I have other plans for her.’
‘Oh…I see…Well, then, I wish you all the best, both of you, and Lachlan, too, of course…’ Howard’s words trailed off.
‘We should have this deal stitched up in the next week. It’s been good doing business with you, Caule,’ Jake said.
‘Yes, yes, of course…marvellous to do business with you, Mr Marriott. Absolutely marvellous. Goodbye.’
‘What a prick,’ Jake muttered as he clipped the phone back on his belt.
Ashleigh stood stiff with rage, her eyes flashing with sparks of fury.
‘You arrogant jerk!’ She pushed at his chest with one hand. ‘How dare you take over my life? “I have other plans for her” indeed! Who the hell do you think you are?’
Jake captured her hand and held it against the wall of his chest.
‘I am your son’s father and as soon as I can arrange it I will be your husband.’
‘You can’t cancel my job just like that!’
‘I just did.’
‘Exactly what plans have you in store for me?’ she sniped. ‘Licking your boots every day?’
He gave her mouth a sizzling glance before raising his eyes back to her flashing ones.
‘No. I was thinking of you going a little higher than that.’
She was incensed by his blatant sexual invitation, her cheeks flaming as a flood of intimate memories charged through her brain.
‘I don’t want to marry you! I hate you!’
His hand tightened as she tried to remove herself from his hold.
‘You don’t hate me, Ashleigh,’ he said, tugging her even closer, the hard wall of his body shocking her into silence. ‘You want me. That’s why you’ve been constructing all those silly little barriers of no touching and no looking and so on because you are so seriously tempted to fall into bed with me.You know you are. It’s always been the same between us. From the very first day we met in London, the chemistry between us took over. Neither of us had any chance of holding it back.’
‘Your ego is morbidly obese!’ she threw at him. ‘I have no desire to fall into bed with you.’
‘Do you think if you say that enough times you will eventually convince yourself?’ he asked. ‘Don’t be a fool, Ashleigh. I can feel your desire for me right here and now; it’s like a pulse in your blood, the same pulse that is beating in mine.’ He pressed the flat of her palm over his heart. ‘Can’t you feel it?’
Ashleigh’s eyes widened as his drumming heartbeat kicked against her palm, her mouth going dry as his coalblack eyes glinted down at her with undisguised desire.
She could feel his strong thighs against hers, her soft stom
ach flattened by the flat hard plane of his, the heat and throb of his growing arousal reaching towards her tantalisingly, temptingly and irresistibly.
Her eyes flickered to his mouth and her breath tripped in her throat as his head came down. She felt the brush of his breath over her mouth just before he touched down, the gentle pressure of his mouth on hers so unlike the hectic passiondriven kisses of the past. For some reason it made it all the more difficult for her to move away. It felt so wonderful to have her lips tingle and buzz with sensation as his caressed hers in a series of barely there kisses.
She felt the intimate coiling of their mingled breaths inside her mouth as he deepened the kiss, the sexy rasp of his tongue sliding along hers, rendering her legs useless.
Her tongue retreated and then flickered tentatively against his, a hot spurt of arrant desire shooting upwards from between her thighs, making her stomach instantly hollow out. She felt the smooth silk of desire anointing her inside as his hardened erection burned into her belly with insistent pressure. Her body remembered how he filled her so completely, privately preparing itself for the intimate onslaught of his passiondriven body surging into her with relentless clawing need.
Her thoughts and memories were in the end betraying her. she had been so determined to push him away. She had wanted to clutch at whatever rag of pride she could to cover herself but it was hopeless. He was right; the chemistry they felt was far too strong to ignore. The air almost crackled with it every time they were in the same room, let alone in each other’s arms as they were now.
Jake scooped her up just as she thought her legs were going to fail, and carried her through to his childhood bedroom, coming down hard on the mattress with her, his weight on her a heavy but delicious burden.
He fed off her mouth like a man who had been starved for too long, his lips greedy, ravenous and relentless. Ashleigh kissed him back with the same grasping desperate hunger, her lips swelling beneath the pressure of his, her hands already tearing at his clothes. She tugged his T-shirt out of his jeans and he shrugged himself out of it and sent it hurling across the room, drawing in a ragged gasp as she went for the waistband of his jeans.
