One Scandalous Christmas Eve

by Susan Stephens

  ‘Then why haven’t they?’ Dante asked bluntly. Jess blanched as he went on, ‘According to your father, there hasn’t been a single offer. He explained that not everyone has the appetite to live up here and cope with the climate and unrelenting work involved.’

  ‘So what will be his position?’ she demanded. ‘Lackey to you?’

  ‘He will do the job that suits him best, leaving my professional team to handle the business side of things. It’s time to face facts. Your father needs more help than you can give him. You can’t go on like this, working on the farm, caring for your father, maintaining a practice—you’re running yourself ragged. And you would still have the bank hounding you.’

  ‘It’s not up to you to decide how I handle this, or what I need,’ she gritted out, filled with fury that any and all decisions had been made, irrespective of her opinion.

  ‘So you don’t want this?’ Dante held out the document.

  She waited for the red mist to clear before trusting herself to speak. What he said made a certain amount of sense. It was the way Dante was looking at her now that chilled her. So many people must have seen that same stare—in Dante’s office, his boardroom or in his lawyer’s office. It was a cool and decisive look that contained no emotion. Dante had struck a deal and that was that. Even half an hour ago she would have said it was impossible for him to treat her like this.

  ‘It’s a done deal,’ he said as if to confirm her thoughts. ‘It’s what your father wanted, so there’s no going back. You might as well accept—’

  ‘I don’t have to accept anything,’ she interrupted. ‘And I’m not prepared to say anything more to you until I’ve spoken to my father.’

  ‘Be my guest,’ Dante invited, glancing at the phone. ‘I’ll leave you to it,’ he added, standing up. ‘But I can assure you that your father is extremely happy with our deal. He sees it as a great way forward—for both of you.’

  ‘So the two of you have decided my future without discussing it with me?’

  ‘Your father didn’t want to give you anything more to worry about. He wanted to present it to you as a fait accompli. It’s his farm to sell, Jess. He thought you’d be pleased. His knowledge and experience is invaluable to me, and now he’ll have a wider role as advisor to all my equine facilities.’

  ‘I can’t deal with this right now.’ She held up her hands, palms flat. ‘I can’t believe you’ve done this. I trusted you.’

  ‘I’m not the enemy here, Jess.’

  How could she deny her father what would be the most wonderful opportunity? She couldn’t. She loved him too much. Protecting him was her mother’s last wish, and this was a chance beyond their wildest dreams. But there was one thing she could refuse. ‘You can take that contract with you. I don’t want the farm. I haven’t earned it.’

  ‘You don’t want your family farm, free from debt and with money in the bank?’ Dante asked, frowning.

  ‘If you’re such a philanthropist, why didn’t you give the farm to my father?’

  ‘Because this was what he wanted, what he asked for. And this is what I want to do for you.’

  ‘Seriously?’ Jess shook her head. ‘How do you think that makes me feel? Will you call by each time you’re in Yorkshire to accept payment in kind?’

  ‘Dios, Jess! Is that how little you think of me?’

  ‘I don’t know what to think,’ she admitted, grabbing her coat. ‘I’ll speak to my father face to face, and then I’ll decide what to do.’

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  IT TOOK JESS a while to catch her breath as she rushed down the lane leading home. Dante’s offer was too much to take in. He was too much. She should have known better than to give way to feelings that had been ten long years in the making. Dante wanted more than she could give.

  Huge sums of money passed through his hands on a regular basis, but his offer of the farm was incredible to Jess. It didn’t seem right. She had to hear directly from her father that it was his wish too. Maybe he’d been blinded by the fact that Dante’s offer put him back on top and hadn’t thought things through.

  She would do anything not to spoil his chances, but pride alone would stop her accepting Dante’s gift. In monetary terms, she accepted that it was probably equal to Jess shaking out a few coins from her piggy bank, but that didn’t make it right.

  What made Dante’s offer sting the most was that all she wanted was him, but Dante hadn’t put that on the table. That wasn’t part of his deal.

  Jess marched towards the farmhouse entrance before suddenly hesitating. It was Christmas morning. Was she really going to ruin it with a blazing row with her father? Was that really what she wanted after all they’d been through? Changing course, she headed for the stables, made for it like a homing pigeon flying back to its roost. She had some serious thinking to do.

  * * *

  Diplomacy had never been his strong point, but he would not allow things between him and Jess to end like this. Tugging on his jacket, he headed out. It was a straight road to the farm and the directions were imprinted on his memory. He guessed he’d find Jess in the stable with the animals, where their company would warm her better than any brazier.

  As he had expected, he found her hunched up in the bleak grey light on a hay bale. ‘Hey...’

  ‘Dante!’ Jess didn’t appear to breathe, and then noisily dragged in a huge gulp of air. ‘I told you I needed time to think. Don’t do this. You stunned me. I need space.’

  ‘I’m here to make sure you got home safely.’

  ‘I do know the way.’

  ‘It can still be dangerous in this weather.’

  ‘You’re concerned about me now?’ she challenged with a sceptical sideways look.

  ‘Always.’

  ‘Then why drop the bombshell about the farm as you did? Why cut me out of the discussions in the first place?’

  ‘I could have led up to telling you with more grace,’ he conceded, ‘but I was impatient for you to know. As for cutting you out? I did what your father asked, but keeping you in the dark didn’t sit well with me—hence my impatience to make things right.’

  ‘It’s all a mix-up,’ she flared with a shake of her head. ‘The only thing not in doubt is that you’re an impatient man. Leaving hospital too soon. Riding before you could walk.’

  He conceded all these comments with a shrug—all except one. ‘I’m not always impatient. Not when it comes to you.’

  She blushed at the reminder.

  ‘You must see me as overbearing,’ he confirmed with a shrug.

  ‘You think?’ she fired back.

  ‘This was something I had to do for you, Jess.’

  ‘I haven’t had chance to speak to my father yet,’ she admitted in an attempt to close the conversation down.

  ‘What are you waiting for?’ he challenged.

  ‘You are overbearing, and you should have run this past me,’ she stated hotly, ‘but I won’t disturb my father when he might have a second shot at happiness.’

  ‘He’s not here?’

  ‘He’s with Ella.’

  He let that hang for a while and then remarked, ‘It’s good he’s finally got his life back.’

  ‘Meaning I haven’t?’ Jess suggested with an accusing look.

  ‘You can do anything you choose to,’ he said evenly. ‘In the words of the cliché, the world is your oyster.’

  ‘You mean, if I sell the farm back to you?’

  ‘That’s a novel idea.’

  ‘I’m full of them.’

  ‘I’d prefer you to keep the farm as your security going forward,’ he said honestly. ‘You don’t have to live here. You can live anywhere you like.’

  ‘Your people will move in to help out,’ she intuited.

  ‘If you want them to—they’re waiting for your instructions.’

  ‘You’ve
thought of everything, haven’t you, Dante?’

  He remained silent.

  Averting her face, Jess chewed her thumb before turning back to face him. ‘This is all about trust,’ she said.

  ‘Without it we’re going nowhere,’ he agreed.

  ‘We?’ she queried.

  There was a long silence, and then she said, ‘Isn’t time supposed to heal all wounds?’

  ‘Some cut deeper than others and leave scars we have to deal with, but they do get better over time.’

  She looked at him as if she wanted to believe him. ‘I didn’t mean to make this about me. I just wish I had my mother to confide in sometimes.’

  ‘I understand that. It’s as if we’ve both been set adrift. I was without an anchor for years until I got my head together and knew we must pull together as a family. You’ve changed and grown too,’ he reminded Jess. ‘You completed your training, as you promised your mother you would, and now you’re an excellent physiotherapist. Here’s the living proof,’ he added with a flourish as he spread his hands wide.

  ‘No cane,’ Jess agreed with the glimmer of a smile. ‘Your return to polo’s been well documented, though playing like the devil on horseback so soon after your recovery is asking for trouble.’

  He seized on her cue. ‘That’s why I need you. See what happens when you leave me to my own devices?’

  ‘As I remember it, my contract ended and you appointed someone else in my place.’

  ‘To take over your good work,’ he pointed out.

  ‘Yet now you risk that good work by launching yourself like an avenging angel on Nero Caracas and his team.’

  ‘The important thing is, my team won.’

  ‘Of course it did,’ Jess agreed with the lift of a brow. ‘And by some miracle you survived.’

  ‘No miracle,’ he argued. ‘My recovery is thanks to extremely effective therapy from a certain Señorita Slatehome.’ He didn’t want to talk about that. He wanted to talk about Jess. She was all that mattered. He wanted her to trust him and relax in his company. He’d handled things badly when he told her about the farm, but his remorse was genuine and he wanted her to have security in the future, whatever choice she made next.

  ‘Just don’t take too many chances in the future,’ she warned.

  He shrugged. ‘See what happens when you cut me loose? There’s only one way to sort this. The next time I play polo you’d better be there.’

  ‘What are you saying, Dante?’

  ‘I’m admitting I need you,’ he confessed.

  ‘As a therapist?’

  ‘What do you think?’

  ‘I think it makes sense from that point of view to keep me on speed dial.’

  ‘Speed dial?’ His lips pressed down as he considered this for all of a split second. ‘I’m not sure that would suit either of us.’

  Even in the dim light he saw her blush at this reminder of their inexhaustible appetite for each other.

  ‘Will you be heading home now?’ she asked on the way to recovering her composure.

  ‘Not until I know you’ve spoken to your father, and I feel confident you’re reassured about what’s happening with the farm.’

  Then he would leave, with or without Jess. If he’d been in doubt about the nature of love, he understood now that it sometimes involved sacrifice, and if staying here was what Jess wanted he had no option but to let her go. He had been overbearing with his purchase of her family’s farm and in trying to help her father he’d only succeeded in railroading Jess. She couldn’t fight him. The sale was a done deal, and she wouldn’t do anything to upset her father’s future.

  ‘Dante—’

  ‘Yes?’ He hardly knew what to expect. Jess’s face was tight with tension.

  ‘I can’t let you go without telling you I love you.’

  Her eyes snapped shut after this statement. She didn’t move. She didn’t breathe and then, with a ragged exhalation of air, she opened her eyes and zoned in on his. ‘I love you,’ she repeated with fiery emphasis.

  His entire body thrilled. Jess’s words were a statement, a challenge, a baring of her soul that rang in his head like a carillon of happy Christmas bells.

  ‘I’m not going anywhere.’ Closing the distance between them in a couple of strides, he lifted Jess into his arms. Sacrifice was one thing, but he was the kind of man who always had to fight tooth and nail for what he believed in. He should have known that all along.

  Urgency consumed them both. Jess met him with matching fire. She was already reaching for him. They didn’t trouble to undress completely. Just enough to fall back on the hay and mate like wild animals. It was a wordless, mindless coupling that said everything about how far they’d come, and how deep was their trust.

  ‘It feels as if we’ve come full circle,’ Jess murmured as they put their clothes back in order.

  ‘This is where we first met,’ he agreed with a grin. ‘And things get more interesting each time.’

  ‘There’s a new litter of kittens,’ she warned, ‘so watch out.’

  She smiled. So did he, and as they stared into each other’s eyes he knew the situation could be rescued, but lovemaking wasn’t enough. He had to prove to Jess that when it came to business he might be brusque, brisk and to the point, but he hadn’t meant to hurt her over the farm, as he so obviously had.

  Stable cats and dogs stood by, ready to assist him. Jess’s motley assortment of strays and beloved pets had sensed they were needed and had gathered around them to provide a welcome distraction. Neither Jess nor he could remain immune to them for long, or remain tense, not with animals around.

  When she’d fed them some treats Jess held up her grimy fingernails and grimaced. ‘I’ll never make it in your world. I’m just too down-homey and—’

  ‘Chilled out?’ he suggested. ‘Don’t you think that’s what I need?’

  ‘Just as well,’ she commented, grimacing as she took in the damage to her sweater from a new naughty kitten.

  ‘I still love you,’ he said as she pulled a face.

  Her gaze flashed up to his. ‘Please don’t say that unless you mean it.’

  ‘I love you,’ he said again, his eye-line steady on Jess’s.

  ‘Don’t make this any harder than it has to be,’ she said firmly. ‘especially when I know you’re about to leave.’

  He shrugged. ‘What’s so hard about leaving with me? Or are you more concerned about dealing with the damage from a leaking kitten?’

  ‘Don’t make a joke of this,’ she said softly.

  ‘Because...?’

  ‘Because I love you too much for that.’

  ‘Then be with me always.’

  ‘Always? As in for ever?’ she exclaimed, incredulous. ‘As your therapist?’

  ‘As my wife. I can’t think of anyone else who’d have you,’ he teased with a pointed look at the stain on Jess’s sweater. ‘Let me love you as you deserve. Let me spoil you. Let me lavish things on you.’

  ‘You should know by now that’s not me. I don’t need any of those things.’

  ‘But you’ll grow to love being spoiled, I promise,’ he insisted.

  ‘I love you,’ she stated firmly, ‘not what you can give me.’

  ‘As I love you,’ he said, ‘but you must allow me to have the pleasure of giving you things. Love, and gifts like the farm are not mutually exclusive, so get used to it because there’s a lot more coming your way. The farm is just the beginning.’

  ‘But I haven’t given you my answer yet,’ she pointed out.

  ‘I’m not a patient man,’ he warned.

  ‘So I shouldn’t push you too hard?’ she suggested.

  ‘Unless it’s in bed.’

  ‘Do you take anything seriously?’ she scolded.

  ‘I’m extremely serious when I take you.’ And when she
shook her head, he added, ‘I love you for everything you are, and everything you will be in the future. So what’s your answer?’

  Jess gasped as he dragged her close. ‘My answer’s yes. I’ll come with you wherever you go.’

  ‘You can depend on it,’ he promised.

  A few potent seconds ticked by while they laughed and took in the trust that was the bedrock of their decision to be together for ever, but then, as might have been expected, their control snapped at exactly the same moment and as Jess reached for him he drove his mouth down on hers.

  * * *

  It was a long time later when Jess fell back, exhausted. They could never get enough of each other and had made love fiercely, tenderly and, last of all, and most affecting of all, they had made love slowly and deliberately, with love and trust in their eyes, while Dante told Jess she was the only woman he could ever love and that he would be proud to have her at his side for the rest of his life.

  ‘There’s so much we don’t know about each other,’ she whispered, frowning as she turned languidly in his arms.

  ‘Great,’ Dante approved. ‘So much to learn about each other. New surprises each day.’

  She had to be certain. ‘Are you sure I’m enough for you? I’m not fancy. I live a plain life in plain clothes, surrounded by plain-speaking people.’

  ‘Enough for me?’ he exclaimed softly. ‘You’re perfect for me. And to prove I’m serious I’ve got something for you.’

  ‘Nothing expensive, I hope?’ Laughter pealed out of her as Dante produced a wisp of hay.

  ‘Jessica Slatehome, sometimes known as Skylar... I’m prepared to be adaptable when it comes to you, so I’m asking again, formally this time, will you marry me?’

  ‘You know my answer, but I’ll happily give it again formally,’ she teased, knowing her face must betray her feelings. ‘My answer’s yes.’

  ‘Now, I’ve just got to get this to stay on,’ Dante said, frowning as he secured the hay ring around her marriage finger with a few well-judged twists.

  Jess stared at her hay ring. She loved it as much as any diamond a fashionable jeweller.