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He surveyed her smoulderingly. 'What else do you want me to teach you, Katy?'
Katy felt her heartbeat quicken until it almost deafened her. She moved closer and, leaning over his hard body, she reached her slender arms around his neck. 'A kiss instead of the five thousand you owe me,' she tried to joke.
He moved suddenly, his strong arms folding around her as his hard mouth imprisoned her trembling lips. His kiss was all she had imagined and more. His tongue thrust between her parted lips, the consuming heat he ignited in her sent shock-waves crashing through her body. When he finally broke the kiss she was trembling violently in his arms. Gently he held her head to his broad chest, his hand softly stroking her long blonde hair.
'I know, sweetheart, I know.' The huskily voiced endearment was exciting but oddly soothing. 'You want me to teach you to be a woman, and I will, I swear, but, Katy, I'm almost thirty and you are not yet eighteen; I have to be strong for both of us. For God's sake, you still have some months at school. You must concentrate on your exams, but when they are over I promise I will show you what it is to be a woman.' And, lifting her chin with one hand, Jake stared down into her eyes, his handsome face flushed.
'Damn it, Katy, I should have more self-control,' he groaned. 'You must know the effect your magnificent body has on me.' And, lying over him, her legs between his, she did.
'Yes, Jake,' she murmured throatily.
'At the right time and the right place you are going to be mine,' he declared emphatically.
Katy's body flushed with heat at the memory, and restlessly she turned over on the bed. Jake had kept his word, she thought bitterly.
She had finished her exams by the half-term holiday in June, and had gone to the London house for the holiday. Her father and stepmother had greeted her perfunctorily and given her a gold wrist-watch for her eighteenth birthday the following day, and within the hour had left for a weekend party. With only the housekeeper for company, Katy had felt rather deflated until Jake had called.
He'd given her an exquisite heart-shaped emerald pendant surrounded by tiny diamonds on a slender gold chain, and kissed her, declaring throatily, 'Thank God you are eighteen.'
They had spent a wonderful three days together; behaving like tourists, they had visited the Tower of London, taken a river boat from Richmond to Hampton Court, got thoroughly lost in the maze and spent hours just kissing and touching. Playing with fire!
What had happened next was inevitable. Every evening he had left her at the respectable hour of about ten until the Sunday, the last night of her holiday and the housekeeper's night off. She had cooked a light meal of ham omelette and salad for Jake and herself, and then they had settled down on the sofa in the sitting-room to watch television.
The tension, the electric awareness between them that had been brewing all weekend, exploded with the first touch of Jake's lips on hers. There was no doubt in Katy's mind that Jake loved her, and within seconds they had shed their clothes and, naked, in a fever of kisses and caresses, he made love to her with an urgent powerful tenderness, the first stab of pain vanishing in the wonder of his thrusting skilful possession.
Later when he had carried her up to her bed and joined her in it, he made love to her again and said he had something to ask her but only when she had left school. He loved her, but there was no way he would propose to a schoolgirl. She knew exactly what Jake meant, and his avowal of love and fidelity she swallowed whole, never doubting him...
Lying in each other's arms, they made tentative plans for the future. Katy had already been accepted by a private college in Paris, along with her friend Anna, but at Jake's instigation agreed to look into enrolling at a London art college.
/> Jake reluctantly said goodnight and sneaked out of the house as the dawn was breaking. He promised to be back, waiting for her, when she finally left school. The following day she returned to school for the last time, ecstatically happy and with her future assured, or so she thought...
The school prize-giving was the day before the end of term, and Anna's father Mr la Tour had arrived to see his daughter presented with the student of the year award. Afterwards he asked Katy if she wanted a lift back to London with them; there was no necessity for her to stay to the final day and have to catch the train back to the city.
Katy leapt at the chance, and the decision changed her life. They arrived in London very late—almost midnight. Mr la Tour insisted on carrying her suitcase to the door, and waited while she quietly opened it and let herself in.
Even now, four years later, the scene that met her eyes that night still had the power to hurt her. The hall was in darkness, but a thin sliver of light shone through the partially opened study door. She thought her father was still up and had taken a step forward when the unmistakable voice of Jake sounded in the silence.
'Really, Monica, my reasons for marrying Katy have nothing to do with you.'
Katy stopped; she was shocked that Jake had told her stepmother of his intentions before even asking her. But then she realised that Jake had probably asked her father's permission and obviously he must have told his wife. She grinned—Jake's words confirmed her treasured hope. She took another step.
'Shh, Monica, I heard something,' Jake said.
'Jake, darling, don't worry. David has been in bed for hours. I wear him out. But you and I never wore each other out, did we, sweetheart? Remember when we went skiing and never left the hotel for two days?'
Katy froze in horror at her stepmother's words, all her dreams turning to dust and ashes in her breast. With horrified fascination she stared through the partially opened door. She saw Jake's back and Monica's arms curved around his shoulders. She heard her stepmother's voice as if from a great distance.
The throaty laugh. 'You know, Jake, on reflection it is probably a good idea for you to marry Katy; my being your mother-in-law gives us the perfect cover for anything we want to indulge in.'
Afterwards Katy did not know how she got out of the house. All she could think of was Jake and Monica, together. For four years Jake had visited her home, and she had thought it was to see her, and all the time he had been using her blind adoration for him to mask his affair with her own stepmother...
She hailed a cab and instructed the driver to take her to the Savoy, where Anna and her parents were staying. Anna was stunned to see her but listened while she cried out all her horror and pain at what she had discovered. Anna's parents were most sympathetic, and renewed their offer to let her stay with them while she was at college. They were leaving for Paris the following evening, and Katy decided there and then to go with them.
But first Mrs la Tour, with a few well-chosen words, persuaded her to go back to her father's house when she was originally supposed to be arriving home the following day.
'Katy, there is no need to tell what you saw and heard. You are too young for marriage; you want some fun. An explanation along those lines will suffice, and save your pride.'
Katy had done just that. Jake had appeared to be stunned when she had speedily informed him in front of Monica and her father what she intended doing. Jake had insisted on talking to her alone but she had resisted all his appeals to stay in London, and the arrival of Mr la Tour had cut short the argument.
