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‘I just had to buy it. It was going for a song,’ he said, catching up to her with ease.
She threw him a castigating look over one shoulder. ‘I just bet it was.’
‘It was,’ he said. ‘It’s got great development potential too. You know what they say about the three big selling points: location, location, location.’
She turned to face him once they were inside, her hands on her hips. ‘That’s funny, but my landlady didn’t mention a thing about putting it on the market.’
He gave her a guileless look. ‘She must have forgotten to mention it to you.’
‘Why are you doing this?’ she asked, frowning at him heavily.
‘I’m just making sure you don’t change your mind at the last minute,’ he said. ‘I’ll be away on business for most of this week so I can’t afford to have you pulling out of the deal while my back is turned. Call it insurance, if you like.’
She clenched her teeth as she glared at him. ‘It’s blackmail, that’s what it is.’
He lifted one shoulder up and down indifferently before reaching for a piece of paper inside his pocket. He handed it to her with a hint of a smile in his dark eyes. ‘I took the liberty of depositing funds into your bank account to cover the expenses of the wedding and honeymoon you’d already paid for. If you think that’s not enough let me know and I’ll reimburse you further.’
Hayley took the deposit slip from him, her fingers briefly touching his. ‘Thank you.’
‘Fair’s fair,’ he said. ‘You’re only marrying me because I’ve insisted on it. It’s only right that I pay for all the expenses incurred.’
‘Maybe … but it seems such a waste of money going on a honeymoon neither of us wants.’
A small silence dilated the atmosphere until Hayley could feel the temptation of forbidden opportunities closing in on her. A vision of their straining bodies locked in passion flitted unbidden into her mind, and her cheeks grew hot, her heart starting to thump so loudly she was surprised he couldn’t hear it.
He closed the distance between them in one stride and tipped up her chin with the tip of his finger. ‘Then I’d better make sure not a minute of it goes to waste,’ he said, his eyes burning with sexual promise.
Hayley stepped backwards out of his hold with what little resistance she had left and kept her features deceptively composed. ‘Do me a favour, Jasper, and keep your hands to yourself,’ she said coldly.
‘I can read your body,’ he said. ‘And yours keeps telling me it wants me.’
‘You’re imagining it.’
His eyes glinted teasingly. ‘So I was imagining those soft little pads of your fingertips running up and down me earlier today, was I?’
She drew herself up rigidly, her face and body feeling as if a bush fire had been let loose inside. ‘I won’t be so foolish as to let myself get carried away again by thinking one man can substitute another.’
By way of response he stepped forward and, taking her head in both his hands, he bent down and kissed her hard on the mouth. ‘See you in church, baby girl.’
The days leading to the wedding began to go by so quickly Hayley had little time to think of any last-minute escape routes, even if by some slim chance Jasper had overlooked one she could have executed. A small part of her had more or less accepted her fate with fatalistic resignation, while another part—a much larger part—began embracing it not only willingly but with increasing fervour as each day passed. The sexual tension she felt each time she was with Jasper had increased in intensity to the point where she could barely look him in the eyes without imagining he could see how she felt. The simplest touch of his hand or shoulder as he moved past her had her body tingling with awareness, and when his gaze locked with hers she felt her stomach roll over in heady anticipation of experiencing the full extent of the attraction she could see reflected in his dark chocolate eyes. That their short marriage would remain unconsummated was becoming increasingly unlikely, and, while Hayley realised Jasper would very likely move on once the month was up without a single qualm, she knew that for her things would never be the same. Her harmless adolescent crush had matured into something much more imminently dangerous …
The day before the ceremony Lucy announced another visitor at the salon. ‘And, no, it’s neither Myles nor Jasper,’ she said in response to Hayley’s questioning expression. ‘It’s a priest.’
Hayley felt her shoulders instantly relax. ‘It’s Raymond, Jasper’s older brother.’
Lucy’s eyes went wide. ‘Jasper’s brother is a priest? Wow! A playboy and a celibate priest in the one family. That’s certainly going from one extreme to another.’
Hayley gave her a tell-me-about-it look and went out to Reception where Raymond was standing looking like a fish that had just been tipped out of its aquarium.
She’d lately felt a little awkward in his company since he’d taken his final orders; she didn’t know whether it was appropriate to give him a hug or kiss on the cheek. Instead she offered her hand and he took it briefly, but warmly.
‘Hello, Hayley,’ he said. ‘I hope you don’t mind me coming to see you without making an appointment.’
‘You don’t have to make an appointment to see me, Raymond.’ She smiled and in an attempt at humour added, ‘That is unless you want a manicure or something.’
His answering smile looked a little strained around the edges. ‘Is there somewhere we can talk in private?’ he asked.
‘Of course,’ she said, and led him out to her shoebox size office.
