“It’s all just a joke to you, isn’t it?” Mo was consumed with a white-hot rage, although whether this was with Ashley or herself it was impossible to tell. “The village, Fernside, Mariners, me…” She shook her head. “I suppose you just kissed me because you thought it might shut me up about everything that you’ve been up to. It’ll suit you if I let you just get on with all your crooked deals.”
Ashley looked amused. “The kissing was your suggestion, actually, but admittedly a bloody good one. And for your information none of my deals are crooked. You said so yourself; everything with the woods was above board.”
“There’ll be something dodgy somewhere.”
“Always wanting to believe the worst,” sighed Ashley. “Enough talking, anyway. Had we but world enough, and time, this chatting, lady, were no crime.”
He was quoting Marvell? Ashley was certainly full of surprises. For a second Mo was impressed before she remembered that the poem was all about telling a woman to get her kit off and to stop wasting time.
Typical.
“The grave’s a fine and private place, but none, I think, do there embrace,” he added softly. “Mo, I need to tell you something—”
But Mo didn’t want to hear whatever it was that Ashley wanted to tell her. She was through with his games.
“Look, I’ve had too much to drink and I know you just wanted to make some pathetic point,” she said angrily. This was familiar ground and she started to feel a little more like her usual self. The person who’d been kissing him and tingling from head to toe at the slightest touch was a total stranger. Mo never wanted to see her again. “Well, congratulations, Ashley. I hope you feel really proud of yourself. You’re not a man. You’re pathetic.”
“Is that what you really think? Strangely it didn’t feel like that a few minutes ago.” Ashley’s face didn’t so much as flicker with emotion. God, thought Mo, he really was a heartless bastard.
“Yes,” she told him. “It’s exactly what I think.”
Ashley shrugged. “Well, you protest all you like, Red, but we both know the truth. You want me more than you’ve ever wanted anyone and you can’t bear to admit it. Why not just give in and enjoy it? We’re both adults. Why not live a little? Have some fun?”
He was so infuriating! Mo could have smacked his smug face.
“What kind of inadequate person are you that you get your fun playing with people’s lives?” she hissed, spinning around on her heel and marching across the uneven grass, her skirts flying out behind her and her whole body shaking with a heady cocktail of fury and frustration. She was angry with Ashley but most of all Mo was furious with herself because he was right: for a moment there she’d wanted nothing more than to just give in and enjoy it. Part of her still did.
What the hell was wrong with her?
“Come back, Mo,” he said. “Let me show you just how serious I am.”
But Mo wasn’t turning back. She didn’t think she could trust herself if she did.
“Anyway,” she thought she heard him call, although it was hard to hear his words over the drumming of her heart, “there’s no time left anymore for playing.”
Chapter 26
It wasn’t the sunlight slicing through the curtains, the loud calling of the gulls or raging thirst courtesy of far too much free-flowing Moët that woke Jake the following morning. Instead it was the growing awareness seeping into his consciousness that he wasn’t alone. With his eyes closed, he gingerly stretched out his foot and was jolted well and truly awake when his toes encountered a silky smooth and unmistakably feminine calf. It took a few moments for his champagne-saturated brain to adjust before, peeling open his eyes, Jake saw a sight that would have gladdened the hearts of most red-blooded males: a stunning and totally naked woman was curled up against him.
Oh God. He’d broken the dry spell then…
“Morning, handsome,” murmured Ella, nestling against him sleepily. “That was some night.”
Christ, thought Jake in alarm, it must have been. If only he could remember it.
“Morning,” he replied, sliding his arm from beneath her and grimacing at the sudden rush of pins and needles. Something similar was going on in his brain. Glancing around the room he saw various items of clothing strewn about like a formal-dress snowstorm. Over there by the door was his tux flung onto a chaise longue, while hanging out together rather jauntily on the curtain rail were a lacy bra and a bow tie. His boxers were hooked on the bedpost. Gradually, like some sort of Sudoku puzzle, scenes of the previous night started to fall into sequence.
Ella sat up, pushing her blonde mane back from her face and yawning widely. The glimpse of her sharp white teeth and vividly red tongue gave Jake a sudden sensation of déjà vu and in spite of himself he felt a twinge of lust. Danny was right that Ella was hot, and last night she’d gone all out to prove just how high that temperature could go.
“God, I’m exhausted,” she said, leaning across and removing her panties from the bedside clock so that she could read the time. “Jesus! It’s only nine a.m., Jake. No wonder I’m tired. We’ve only had a few hours’ sleep.”
Ella’s eyes might be heavy with yesterday’s mascara but they glittered triumphantly as she said this. Jake had another groin-tightening flashback of what those pink lips had been up to not so long before. Sleeping hadn’t exactly been high on their agenda, as he recalled…
He hadn’t been in the mood to party and once at the hotel Jake had swiftly got stuck into the champagne, ignoring the disapproving looks lobbed in his direction by Mo and Danny and focusing all his attention on being Ella’s date for the evening. This had proved to be far less onerous than he’d been expecting. Not only did Ella look incredibly sexy in her outfit, her gym-honed body and silky blonde hair drawing the eyes of all the men present like iron filings to a magnet, but she’d also turned out to be surprisingly good company too. Granted, she had an acerbic tongue and was as spoilt as hell, but she’d made him laugh too and that rapier-sharp wit had kept him on his toes. Any guy would be proud to partner her. The problem wasn’t Ella, Jake had realised as she’d smiled up at him, angling her body in order to give him the best possible view of her cleavage.
The problem was him.
While Ella had worked the room, showing an impressive knowledge of the various businesses of her father’s guests and being more than able to hold her own as she discussed politics or industry, Jake couldn’t help but admire her astute mind. Yes, she was Polwenna Bay’s equivalent of Machiavelli, and he didn’t like knowing that he’d been played, but she was certainly highly intelligent. As the evening had worn on, he’d begun to enjoy sparring with her.
Do I find her attractive? he’d asked himself. The answer, of course, was that he did. Could they have some fun together? That was a certainty, given that the air between them crackled with sexual possibilities. Were they well matched? Since they were both from the oldest and most established families in the area, this went without saying. If they’d been characters in a Jane Austen novel their mamas would have been practically booking the church. On paper it all looked great, but did Jake actually want it to go any further than an evening of no-strings fun?
The answer was no. Fun and sexy as Ella was, Jake knew in his heart of hearts that she wasn’t the one for him.
So no, the problem wasn’t Ella. It was him, Jake had concluded – or perhaps more accurately, it was the woman who was alone in Harbour Watch Cottage, a woman whose bruised face and fierce pride made him want to fold her into his arms, hold her close and protect her from anyone who dared try to harm her.
He still loved Summer.
While Ella had flirted and chatted and played the part of hostess to perfection, Jake had worked his way through the champagne and tried his best not to think about those dark curls, sea-green eyes and curves softer than a ripe peach. He’d forced himself to listen to Ella and laugh at her anecdotes. Now and again he’d even found that he was enjoying himself. But there was no escaping the truth:
Ella was not the woman who still held his heart even after all this time, the woman who was every bit as out of his reach as the moon rising above the sea. None of Ella’s high-maintenance beauty, intelligence or acid-tongued humour came close to Summer’s natural grace and wit. He’d have done anything to hear her laugh and see that sweet smile light up her eyes like sunlight shining on the Cornish waves. To know that he wasn’t going to be the man to do so was ripping him into pieces.
He’d reached for another flute of champagne, hoping that the alcohol would soon kick in. There was no hope of him ever being with Summer. She was having another man’s baby, for God’s sake. It was time he moved on, and some fun with Ella – who couldn’t have been giving him clearer signals if she’d dressed up as a traffic light and turned red, amber and green – was exactly what was needed, or so he’d thought.
Now, as he was starting to sober up, Jake was wondering just how wise this decision had been. What had looked like some no-strings fun at three a.m. suddenly felt very different in the bright morning light. Judging by the way that Ella was running the tips of her nails along his forearm and snuggling into him, she was up for a repeat of the night before. Appealing as this idea was on one level, and as much as Jake knew that any red-blooded male would think him crazy to turn her down, there was something deep inside telling him that it was a bad idea. He didn’t want to be with Ella. Superficially a relationship with her might seem great, but where it mattered Jake knew that it was never going to work.
“Ella, don’t.” Gently he caught her hand in his and removed it from his arm. “This shouldn’t have happened. I wasn’t supposed to come back with you last night.”
Hurt flickered in her eyes. God, Jake really didn’t like himself some days. “Shouldn’t? Weren’t supposed to? Says who?”
My conscience, thought Jake. He must have got Zak’s share but in any case it was a major killjoy.
“This isn’t a good idea,” he said.
Ella’s free hand wandered beneath the duvet, where it took a leisurely stroll up his thigh and brushed against the part of him that most definitely wasn’t listening to his brain. “Funny, it feels like a great idea to me. Come on, Jake, there’s no point fighting it. You wanted to come back to my room, so let’s not pretend otherwise. I always knew you’d spend the night here. We both did.”
Jake closed his eyes. “Ella, when a beautiful, sexy woman invites a single guy back to her hotel room after he’s had a few drinks on board then it’s a pretty inevitable conclusion he’s going to say yes.”
The hand strayed higher. “And we had a good time, didn’t we?”
“I’m sure it was great,” he told her. “Of course it was. You’re a gorgeous woman.”
Ella shot him a triumphant smile. “See, I knew that once you gave me a chance and got to know me, you’d like me.”
“I said you were gorgeous and sexy and beautiful,” said Jake, catching her other hand and dragging it out from beneath the covers, where it had been determined to do all it could to distract him. “I never said I liked you!”
“You didn’t say much at all,” Ella reminded him. “As I remember, talking wasn’t really on the agenda. Shame you passed out when you did. It was all looking so promising.” The hand slipped from his grasp again, strayed lower and found exactly what it was looking for. In spite of the immense relief of discovering that he’d passed out before anything else could have taken place, Jake felt himself harden. Sometimes he was ashamed to be a guy.
“Ella, spending time with you last night was a lot of fun and, yes, I was pleasantly surprised just how much of a good time we did have.” It was time to level with her. “Look, we both know I only came to the party for Mo and Zak’s benefit. I didn’t have any desire to be here – but you took me by surprise, because when you’re not being pushy, you’re actually a nice girl.”
“How about that for a backhanded compliment?” said Ella drily. “Who says romance is dead?”
“But what’s happened between us isn’t romance, is it? You manipulated a situation and I let you because I was enjoying it. Nothing’s changed, Ella. You knew that I came here as a single guy – and I’m leaving as one too.”
“But not so soon, surely?” Ella slid on top of him, her blonde hair falling over her perky breasts, and ran her hand across his chest. “I think the least I deserve is a chance to make you dislike me even less.”
Jake’s hands slid around her slim waist. “You’re really determined, aren’t you?”
Her lips were against his neck now. “I think we’d be good together. What’s wrong with that?”
His body didn’t protest but Jake’s brain was yelling at him to push her aside. She’d stop at nothing to get what she wanted and the bottom line was that nothing she did could change the way he felt. He had to stop this now, even if she didn’t seem to think they needed to. It wasn’t fair otherwise.
“Come on, Jake,” Ella murmured, her teeth nipping the flesh of his throat and her soft hot tongue making his senses reel. “Just enjoy it. There’s no point fighting; I always get what I want.”
This determined whisper was the trigger he needed to drag himself out of this logic-melting sensation of desire and back to reality. Tightening his arms around Ella, Jake pinned her beneath him in one swift twist of his strong body. Those dangerous hands were both held in one of his, and finally he could think clearly enough to tell her exactly how things were going to be.
“Last night we both got what we wanted, Ella,” he said firmly, “but this is where it ends. It was a good night and we can still make it a great morning, but let’s see it for what it is. I’ve never led you to believe that anything serious was going to happen between us, even if I did have a much better time with you than I’d expected.”
She stared up at him. “So that’s a good thing, isn’t it? Can’t we see what happens next?” The pink triangle of tongue licked her lips. “You never know, Jake, it could be a lot of fun finding out.”
Jake didn’t doubt this for a second. “Ella, I’m tempted as hell but can’t you see? It would be totally wrong of me to do that. Having a fun night together is one thing, but my leading you down the garden path pretending this could go somewhere when I know that it won’t isn’t fair.”
“You don’t know that it won’t go anywhere,” Ella insisted. “You said yourself that you like me far more than you ever thought you could. We’re good together. You fancy me and I fancy you. The sex is amazing. You don’t know that it couldn’t work out.”
Releasing her hands, Jake rolled onto his side and smiled sadly.
“Of course I fancy you and yes, last night was great – but, Ella, I do know that this isn’t going further. Last night I saw you as a person I find sexy and intelligent, and after a few drinks my inhibitions were gone. It was fun but something deep inside tells me that it isn’t right. I’d be lying to us both if I pretended we could try to make this into something it isn’t.”
Ella pushed her hair back from her face and gave him a sharp look. “Is there somebody else?”
Was there? Jake couldn’t answer that truthfully. He knew that the woman he wanted heart, body and soul belonged to another man; Jake could love her with every fibre of his being but she could never be his. Anything he had left and gave to Ella would just be a poor shadow of what he felt for Summer, and that wasn’t fair. Ella deserved better than second best.
“Hopefully there is for both of us.” He’d sidestepped the question neatly but Jake could tell that Ella wasn’t fooled. Of course she wasn’t. She was a smart woman. He exhaled slowly. “Let’s not waste any more of each other’s time and risk missing out on finding those people one day.”
Ella shook her head. “Don’t give me all that bullshit, Jake. It’s got nothing to do with missing out on potential soulmates.” She paused and made sarcastic speech-mark gestures with her fingers around that word. “It’s Summer Penhalligan, isn’t it?”
Jake stayed silent, which only served to incense Ella. Her hand l
ashed out and caught him with a stinging slap on the side of his face.
“You spent the night with me but it’s her you want! It’s always been her!” Ella kicked off the covers and leapt out of the bed in a whirlwind of rage, her hair flying as she snatched up her robe. Jake touched his cheek gingerly. Gym-fit Ella could pack a punch, that was for sure. He guessed that somewhere along the line he deserved this.
“There’s nothing happening between Summer and me,” he assured her, but Ella just laughed.
“But you wish there was, don’t you? God, you’re utterly pathetic. Summer’s never going to be interested in you, a Cornish spanner turner! She’s engaged to Justin Anderson, for God’s sake. She’s probably with him right now and having a right laugh that you’re still her puppet after all this time!”
Jake didn’t reply as she hissed abuse at him, her words as deadly as any viper’s sting. He wasn’t going to react, partly because he knew that he’d hurt Ella badly, however unintentionally, and partly because she was right: he did love Summer and it was pathetic. Nevertheless, every ugly word that Ella threw at him confirmed that his instincts about her had been spot on. Attractive and sexy and entertaining as Ella was, she was not a person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
Right now the rest of the next five minutes felt far too long.
Jake was hastily gathering his clothes and simultaneously hopping into his boxers when there was a furious knocking on the door of the suite.
“If that’s room service then you can fuck off,” shrieked Ella. She glared at Jake and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’ve lost my appetite for smoked salmon and scrambled eggs all of a sudden.”
There was another knock, followed by a round of nervous throat-clearing.
“I’m sorry to disturb you, Miss St Milton, but there’s an urgent message for Mr Tremaine at reception. His grandmother has asked that he calls home at once.”
There was no point in Ella trying to deny that Jake was in her suite; most of the guests at the party had seen them leave together.
Runaway Summer: Polwenna Bay 1 Page 31
