‘You,’ she acknowledged slowly.
‘Mm,’ he nodded. ‘Of course I haven’t put everything back where it was, mainly because I don’t know where they all go. But even if I say so myself I’ve done quite a good job of clearing up.’
‘You have been tidying my flat?’ She looked about the chaos of his own bedroom pointedly.
Reece gave a rueful grimace. ‘Just because I’m not Mr Neat—’
‘You certainly aren’t,’ she scorned.
‘Don’t try and change the subject with my liking of ordered untidyness.’ He looked at her challengingly as he made the claim. ‘It won’t make me forget the books,’ he added enticingly.
‘What books?’ she demanded impatiently.
‘Big, romantic, lusty, bestsellers,’ he revealed with satisfaction. ‘They appeared to have come out of a cupboard in your bedroom.’
‘You had no right,’ Laurel accused heatedly. ‘Poking and prying—’
‘Laurel, I only put the books back in the cupboard,’ he reasoned. ‘I could tell by the covers what sort of books they were.’
Her mouth tightened as she thought of Giles also seeing those romantic tales of pirates and rogues who always managed to tame the fiesty heroine enough by the last page to marry her. She had learnt over the years that looking at a person’s preferences in books was like looking at the person themself. Reece obviously thought so, too!
‘Darling, don’t look so stricken,’ he encouraged indulgently. ‘It’s nice to know you’re a romantic, because I am, too.’
‘You?’ she scorned.
‘I’ll forgive you your scepticism because you really don’t know me very well yet,’ he said in a hurt voice. ‘But I am a romantic. J knew I wanted you—’
‘From the moment we met,’ she finished with weary cynicism. ‘Please, Reece, spare me that. Just give me the ring and I’ll leave.’
‘Gilbraith’s ring?’ he frowned darkly.
‘Well, of course, Giles’s ring,’ she dismissed impatiently. ‘You have got it, haven’t you?’ she frowned.
‘Yes. But—’
‘Then I’ll take it and be on my way.’ She looked at him expectantly.
‘The ring will be quite safe with me until you’ve arranged another time for Gilbraith to come and collect it,’ Reece told her arrogantly.
‘I want it back, Reece. Now,’ Laurel snapped harshly.
‘You can’t have it,’ he shrugged. ‘I’ve locked it away in the safe. You won’t need to keep worrying about the damned thing if it’s safely locked away.’
‘It’s my ring, and—’
‘Correction, it’s Gilbraith’s ring,’ Reece cut in gently. ‘Calm down, Laurel,’ he advised softly as she seemed about to explode. ‘I bought you a replacement.’
‘A what?’ she demanded with controlled violence.
He grinned, reaching into the pocket of his tailored jacket to take out a ring box and flick open the lid. ‘I think it’s an improvement on Gilbraith’s ring,’ he said smugly.
Any woman who didn’t think so had to be insane! A simple gold band supported the most perfect diamond Laurel had ever seen, its many facets winking and glinting in the winter morning sunlight. She looked up at Reece’s expectant face. ‘You aren’t expecting me to wear that, are you?’ she dismissed.
He shrugged, looking down at the ring with regret. ‘I thought it was rather magnificent myself, but if you don’t like it—’
‘Of course I like it. But I am not wearing it just so that people will be convinced of our engagement,’ she said disgustedly. ‘Put it back in the safe with the other family heirlooms.’
‘It isn’t a family heirloom,’ he frowned. ‘I went out yesterday and bought this just for you.’
‘I’m sure the jeweller will be only too glad to take it back,’ she bit out.
‘At least try it on,’ he encouraged. ‘Just to see if I had the right size.’
‘Reece—’
‘Please.’
He had used exactly that pleading tone at the height of their lovemaking the night before, and she wordlessly put out her hand for him to slide the ring on to her finger.
‘Perfect,’ he smiled as she twisted the ring around on her finger. ‘No, don’t take it off,’ he said sharply as she would have returned it to him.
Laurel looked puzzled by his vehemence, but she froze in the action anyway. ‘Why not?’ she frowned.
‘It’s a suspicion I have,’ he shrugged. ‘I don’t want you to take it off now that I’ve put it on your finger.’
‘You said I only had to try it on—’
‘Stop being so argumentative, Laurel,’ he chided. ‘We’re engaged—and staying that way,’ he announced determinedly.
‘Reece—’
‘I have my reasons for wanting this engagement to be a real one,’ he told her challengingly. ‘So it will be.’
Laurel glared at him. ‘I’d be interested to hear what they are!’
He smiled. ‘I felt sure that you would be,’ he drawled. ‘And my first reason is very simple, someone broke into your flat last night—’
‘And as a result we spent the night together,’ she exasperatedly guessed the reason he had mentioned the burglary. ‘I’m not about to pretend that last night didn’t happen…’
‘I think I know you a little better than to think that you would,’ Reece said gently.
She gave him a scornful look. ‘I was about to add,’ she continued pointedly, ‘that while neither of us can just forget last night happened it in no way places any feelings of responsibility towards me on your part. It happened,’ she stated firmly. ‘And that’s the end of it.’
‘No, it isn’t,’ he told her confidently.
She looked at him with narrowed eyes. ‘The chances of my being pregnant—’
‘Are not enough for me to insist the engagement become a real one,’ he finished patiently.
‘Then why—’
‘You haven’t heard my second reason for continuing the engagement yet,’ he pointed out mildly.
Laurel eyed him warily. ‘What is it?’
‘I like being engaged to you.’
‘What?’ She stared at him disbelievingly.
‘I like being engaged to you,’ he repeated firmly. ‘I like being with you, talking to you, I like the two of us belonging to each other.’
‘Reece, I don’t want to be engaged to you!’
‘There’s another reason I want us to continue the engagement,’ he told her gravely. ‘I have to make you see how wrong you were to settle for Gilbraith, for second best, for looking for companionship instead of love.’
‘And I’ll learn that with you, will I?’ she derided.
‘You’re already learning it… you were a warm and vibrant woman in my bed last night.’
Colour warmed her cheeks. ‘That was—’
‘Laurel, I desire you, very much. And I’m going to show you just how much you would have been missing by marrying Gilbraith or any man like him. Don’t look so worried,’ he chided. ‘The romantic I know is in you is going to love the romantic in me.’
‘Reece, I can’t—’
‘Don’t even try to fight it, Laurel,’ he advised gently. ‘Last night you gave yourself to me, and if nothing else it gives me the right to continue this engagement until you can accept how wrong it would have been to marry Gilbraith.’
‘I was upset last night—’
Reece shook his head. ‘You’ve been upset before, it hasn’t made you go to bed with another man, to give yourself the way you did. You belong to me now, Laurel. Until I say otherwise.’
CHAPTER FIVE
HE was insane. A few screws had come loose, probably when she pelted him with snowballs!
Then why, two hours later, was she still wearing this great rock on her finger?
She had refused Reece’s invitation to spend the day with him, insisting he take her home and leave her there. Miraculously he had done so without argument.
&nb
sp; Why was this diamond ring still on her finger? What was his damned superstition anyway, would they both drop down dead if she took the ring off? The truth of it was she was afraid to find out!
Since arriving back at her apartment it was this diversion that had kept her calm. Reece had been very good at putting things back where they belonged, almost everything back in it’s proper place. And yet she could feel Giles’s touch on everything, felt as if all her things, everything, had an unseen dirt on them, and that if she touched them she would feel dirty, too. It was as if a ravaging of her inner self had taken place.
But the puzzle Reece was turning out to be continued to occupy her thoughts. A romantic, he called himself, and yet he sat behind a desk all day in the family-run bank, being anything but that! But a staid banker couldn’t have had the fun they had throwing snowballs at each other. Although she was aware that he often hid his arrogance behind teasing, and yet no matter how he did things they always came out the way he wanted them to. He would protect what he believed to be his, and at the moment he considered her part of that, insisted she be part of it. And if she were to stand any chance of getting her money back from Giles she had to stop things between herself and Reece right now, needed to be completely accessible if Giles came to see her again. If only Reece weren’t as insensitive as a rhino—with a skin as thick!
No matter how many times she had told him on the drive back to her flat that she wouldn’t allow him to treat this engagement as a real one he had still told her just before he drove away that he would pick her up at seven-thirty the following night for dinner. He was worse than insensitive, he was bloody-minded! She was an independent woman, it seemed she had always been that way, she didn’t need some know-it-all male messing up her life! The damned arrogance of him to tell her he intended treating their engagement as a real one until he decided otherwise. One night together and he thought he had the right to try and straighten out her life to his satisfaction, to be the white knight of every woman’s dreams. He should realise, with her family history, that the dragon always destroyed the knight where she was concerned!
But she couldn’t avoid seeing him until he gave her back the ring; she needed that back in her possession again before she spoke to Giles, had no leverage without the ring he so badly wanted returned.
Last night with Reece…
She sprang impatiently to her feet, needing to be away from this flat and sitting here was giving her the time to question exactly what had happened with Reece last night. The shop. There was always plenty to do there, especially after a busy week; she would go in and tidy up, dust the place down, and generally clean up the debris from the week.
Everything there looked so normal, untouched by the events of the last two days, that she quickly lost herself among the things she loved most in the world: her books. She had discovered long ago that she could lose herself among the covers of any book, that the reality of her own disordered world soon ceased to exist. Amanda had quickly realised that a book would hold Laurel enraptured for hours at a time, and had supplied her with an endless amount of them, particularly when she got older and was home from school. Laurel had known the books were a way of keeping her out of Amanda’s way, but as she loved to read them she hadn’t cared why they were given to her.
That love of books had followed her into adult life, had provided the ideal career for her when she received some money on her father’s death eight years ago. She hadn’t regretted the responsibility of her own shop one moment since she had made the decision.
It wasn’t a big shop by any standards, but it was well fitted out, had a constant supply of popular books, her contacts in the business meaning she was able to order almost any book requested. She had acquired a loyal clientele the last few years, and she couldn’t imagine doing anything else but running her bookshop. The fact that, if she didn’t get her money returned she wouldn’t have any choice, sent a shiver down her spine. She would stay here tonight, where she felt comfortable and at home. Besides, the thought of going back to her flat still made her nervous.
The leather sofa along one wall of her small office wasn’t the most comfortable piece of furniture she had ever tried to sleep on, being too short, and very hard, the heating in the shop having gone off long ago too, the coat she had pulled over her providing her with little warmth. But she felt safe and unthreatened, her lids fluttering closed as she finally drifted into sleep.
* * *
‘Where the hell have you been all night?’
Laurel’s mouth quirked at Reece’s impatient anger, easily discernible over the telephone when he called her at the shop the next morning. She had briefly returned to her flat earlier to shower and change her clothes, had ten minutes until opening time; Reece’s telephone call certainly hadn’t come as a surprise to her. After all, the romantic he assured her was in him would have checked that his new fiancée was well after the ordeal she had gone through yesterday.
‘Reece, how nice of you to call so bright and early,’ she returned lightly.
‘It isn’t “nice” at all,’ he grated with controlled violence. ‘Where have you been?’
Some knight he was turning out to be! ‘Been, Reece?’ she pretended ignorance.
His muttered expletives came clearly down the telephone. ‘Stop acting so blasé, Laurel,’ he rasped. ‘I telephoned you several times last night—’
‘I didn’t receive any calls,’ she denied in a puzzled voice.
‘Of course you didn’t, you weren’t there!’ he shouted impatiently.
‘I wasn’t?’
‘You know damn well—Laurel, where were you?’ he demanded furiously.
‘I haven’t been anywhere, Reece,’ she assured him distantly.
‘Don’t lie to me,’ he snapped. ‘When you didn’t answer my calls I went around to your flat.’
‘You did?’ She was wary now.
‘I banged on the door until one of your neighbours came out and told me it had to be damned obvious you weren’t at home,’ he gave an angry growl. ‘I felt a damned fool.’
Laurel could believe that. It might even have been amusing to witness!
‘Especially when the woman also informed me you had left over an hour ago and hadn’t come back,’ he continued relentlessly.
She bristled angrily. ‘I wasn’t aware my movements were being monitored by my neighbours! Maybe I should think of moving.’ She frowned her displeasure with the idea that the people in the building where she had lived the past five years should know so much about her movements.
‘You should think about telling me where you were all night!’ Reece bit out viciously. ‘Did you go to Gilbraith?’ he demanded furiously.
She drew in a choked breath, her hand trembling as she grasped the receiver. ‘You have to know he’s the last person I want to see right now!’ she snapped bitterly.
‘The last person?’ Reece queried softly, suspicious of her vehemence.
Laurel frowned her irritation as she realised she had revealed more of her venom for Giles in that icy statement than she had meant to. ‘He did jilt me,’ she pointed out harshly.
‘I thought it was only called that when you were left waiting at the church?’
‘Our marriage plans were being arranged. We—I don’t want to talk about Giles Gilbraith or any of the plans we made together,’ she dismissed impatiently. ‘I did not see him last night.’
‘Then who did you see?’ Reece questioned with icy intent.
‘No one,’ she answered bluntly. ‘Now I have to open the shop—’
‘I haven’t finished talking to you yet—’
‘We’re meeting tonight at seven-thirty,’ she reminded. ‘We can talk about this then. If we must,’ she muttered.
‘Oh—we must,’ he assured her grimly. ‘This conversation is far from at an end.’
‘Reece,’ she spoke softly before he could slam the telephone down on her, as his aggression promised he would. ‘Besides the fact that you’re untidy and I
’m not, you like to get up early and I don’t, I think there’s something else you should know about us.’
For a moment there was silence, then came a wary, ‘Yes?’
‘You have a lousy temper and I dislike being shouted at!’ she bit out tautly. ‘But there does appear to be one thing we do have in common,’ she rasped rigidly. ‘We both like the last word—and this time the victory is mine!’ She slammed the phone down on him before he had a chance to say anything more, half expecting him to call straight back, surprised when he didn’t; after all, they did both like the last word. The telephone remained silent.
The morning began busily and remained that way, Laurel breathlessly answering the telephone just after eleven o’clock, mechanically reciting the shop’s number.
‘Just remember, Laurel, I’m the one trying to help you!’ Reece rasped before ringing off abruptly.
She stared at the receiver in outraged silence. Helping her! He called taking over her life, acting like a possessive fiancé, helping her? He was insane!
‘Laurel,’ Polly gained her attention as she stared off into space. ‘This gentleman is calling about the book he ordered.’
She put down the telephone receiver in controlled movements, composing the smile of confidence on her lips before turning to face the customer, knowing that for Polly to have brought him over to her over a simple ordering of a book meant they had to be having trouble getting it. She was right, and it took several minutes to soothe the customer’s ruffled indignation.
As soon as the man had gone she picked up the receiver, dialling with abruptly precise movements. ‘Do something for me, Reece,’ she rasped between gritted teeth as she recognised his voice. ‘Don’t help me!’ She slammed the receiver down for the second time that day, hoping the noise hurt his ears.
‘I didn’t think he was that angry,’ Polly remarked ruefully.
Laurel spun around, her expression still fierce. ‘Who?’
Her assistant frowned her puzzlement at Laurel’s terseness. ‘The man who just left…’
Her brow cleared as she made an effort to compose herself. ‘He wasn’t,’ she assured the other woman calmly. ‘Not once I’d explained the difficulty we’re having.’
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