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‘A…A what?’ She was defenceless under the attack. She couldn’t think straight. In the space of a few crazed minutes, her entire conception of herself had exploded into nothingness, leaving her reeling inside a stranger’s body.
He vented a harsh laugh. ‘It wasn’t intended as a compliment. I was actually stupid enough that day to think it was all an act. The walk, the megawatt smile, the “come close and get burnt” look in your eyes. I’ve seen you do it on TV and you do it well—’ he spelt out with rich, unhidden contempt ‘—the come-on and then the put-down.’
When she made a desperate attempt to slide past him, a strong hand settled on her narrow shoulder to hold her demeaningly captive.
‘Let me go!’ she spat in panic.
‘You weren’t in the notion of going anywhere five minutes ago, so don’t tell me you’re pushed for time now!’
Heat suffused her pallor in a telling wave.
‘My God, Kitty can still blush. Of course, there’s something rather inglorious about the stable setting.’ Smoothly master of himself once more, Jake was coldly cruel as she had never known him before. ‘Tell me, when were you planning to call time? I wasn’t playing one of your little power games, Kitty. I would have had you and to hell with the consequences!’
She gulped strickenly. ‘You conceited b—’
His other hand braced against the wall as she shifted restively. ‘Do you think so? Someone told me recently that it was just a matter of pushing the right buttons and it must be true. What’s wrong, Kitty?’ he chided silky soft, returning her provocation with interest. ‘Do I make you feel threatened in some way?’
She shut her eyes tightly, willing him to leave her alone. Depsite his outer cool, she sensed the subdued violence still pent up just below the surface. The passion that had run riot between them had disturbed him just as deeply. But Jake had changed. How facile of her to imagine otherwise! She didn’t recognise this abrasively masculine and menacing stranger, cutting her to ribbons with his tongue.
‘You used to do that when you were a little girl.’ His dark-timbred voice fractured into roughness. ‘And now you’re all grown up and supposedly able to look after yourself, I still want you so badly that I ache. Does that make you feel better? Does that satisfy you, Kitty? But I’m not taking the heat for Maxwell and I’m not planning to play substitute either,’ he delivered forcefully. ‘So what do you want from me?’
Even with her deliberately heavy steps neither of them had heard Jessie’s approach. She coughed loudly and both of them spun, Jake springing back from Kitty to finally give her breathing space.
‘I put Tina down for a nap and she’s pleading for Kitty to come and tuck her in. She’s taken quite a fancy to you.’ Kitty received a veiled look that lingered. ‘You’d best get that straw out of your hair.’
‘Thank you, Jessie.’ Jake’s inflexion was Arctic.
‘If you want to make a spectacle of yourself in the yard, you draw the kitchen curtains,’ Jessie advised bluntly. ‘I’m not blind.’
Her cheeks a wild-rose pink, Kitty plucked hurriedly at the offending piece of straw snarled up in her hair.
‘I’ll take you upstairs.’ Jake thrust the back door wide.
Overtly conscious of him, Kitty felt a shiver travel through her tensed limbs. A flashfire recall of the hunger that had demanded and consumed her to the exclusion of all else nearly froze her in her tracks. No, don’t think now, you can’t afford to think now… here…
‘I’ll see to that,’ Jessie overruled, bustling forward.
Tina was a minor lump in an overlarge three-quarter bed. Myopic eyes squinted at Kitty over the top of the sheet. A watery smile formed. ‘Can I have a story?’
A tattered version of The Ugly Duckling appeared from under the covers. ‘Daddy says when I grow up I’ll be a beautiful swan,’ Tina shared shyly. ‘You can sit here.’ The bed was patted and when Kitty had begun to read Tina whispered, ‘You can put your arm round me if you like. Daddy does that. It’s nice.’
Kitty rearranged herself. Tina snuggled up against her. ‘I like you.’ She hesitated. ‘Do you like me?’
‘Of course I like you.’ The story, Kitty acknowledged, came a poor second to Tina’s need for affection and reassurance.
The child giggled sleepily over the exaggerated animal noises Kitty used to liven up the text. Long before the end of the story, Tina was fast asleep. As Kitty stood up, she was dismayed to see Jake’s tall, dark silhouette shadowing the doorway. How long had he been there watching her act the clown for his daughter’s amusement? she wondered in angry embarrassment.
‘You do a masterly imitation of a cross mother duck,’ he said as she shut the door behind her.
She spun defensively. ‘I happen to like children.’
A sardonic twist moulded his firm lips. ‘Isn’t it strange that I should have received the impression that you would dislike any child of mine?’
Her breath caught in her throat. ‘That’s a crazy idea,’ she parried, striving to inject the correct note of disdain into her intonation.
Unmoved by her scornful retort, he stared measuringly down at her. ‘You’re like tempered steel under the overwhelmingly feminine exterior. If you’re not trying to put me down, you’re on the attack. I find myself wondering why that should be after all this time…’
Her violet eyes were shuttered pools of vibrant colour in her stilled face. Suddenly she couldn’t breathe and she was sick with fear. Jake turned the tables with a vengeance. Cool, clear intelligence powered his dark, perceptive scrutiny and froze up the muscles in her throat.
‘Why?’ The low-pitched demand rattled down her spine like castanets at a funeral. ‘If I shook you again out from behind that glossy, oh, so superficial fa;alcade, would the girl I remember make a guest appearance? I refuse to believe that you’ve changed out of all recognition.’
He was close again—too close. A treacherous, conscienceless tide of yearning was rising inside her. It was the way he was looking a
t her, the dangerous undertow of tension threatening to suck her down. Under that dark glittering onslaught, her breasts swelled into uncomfortable tightness beneath her sweater. That awesome sexual current was uncontrollable and petrifying. She forced her feet on to the head of the stairs. It was the most difficult movement she had ever made in her life. A piece of invisible elastic wanted to yank her relentlessly back to him.
‘Kitty.’
Her name, and nobody else had ever said it with that exact inflexion. He was nowhere near her now and still she felt cornered. Once, unforgettably, the Tarrant cool-headedness had triumphed over his desire for the Colgan brat. The lesson ought to be engraved in letters of fire on her forehead. It ought to have killed stone-dead the shameful excitement he unleashed in her. That it did not was devastating Kitty all over again.
Fighting to maintain her poise, she said, ‘What would you have done if I’d taken you up on your offer of hospitality?’
‘Stood a lot of cold showers.’ The admission was gritty but quite unapologetic. ‘Every time I see you my most overriding impulse is to flatten you to the nearest horizontal surface. You probably made a wise decision.’
The insanity playing havoc with her senses lost its grip. The elastic snapped. Jake had always been able to stop at the wanting. Always. Leaning forward, her bitterness screened by a mocking smile, she pressed a playful set of fingertips to his shirt-front. ‘Some time, Jake, I really must teach you how to make a sophisticated pass.’
A strong hand caught her fragile wrist, making her planned and immediate withdrawal impossible. ‘Stop it,’ he said very drily. ‘Heaven Rothman goes down like a concrete block with me at any time of day. I’m not impressed.’
Voices from the kitchen were drifting up. Jake uttered a sharp imprecation and mercifully released her. She wanted to lift cool hands to her burning cheeks. He had shot her down in flames.
‘Drew told me what happened. The minute I heard I came straight here. Is Tina in her room? I must go up and see her.’ The breathless, husky voice was suddenly matched to an identity.
