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'Katy! God, Katy!' He hauled her hard against him, his arms wrapped around her so tight that she could feel the heavy beating of his heart against her own. Then his mouth covered hers. He kissed her with a wild savage hunger that lit an answering response in Katy.
Somehow they were on the sofa, Jake's long body over hers; his hands were at her sweater, and he would have pulled it off, when suddenly he stopped.
'No, Katy...' Jake breathed unsteadily. He rolled to one side and curved his arms firmly around her so they were lying side by side. Gently he brushed back a lock of unruly hair from her brow, and stared at her, the banked-down passion in his black eyes fiercely controlled.
'Why, Jake?' She did not understand what had stopped him.
'Because, my love, for weeks we have made love, and instead of resolving our differences it has driven us further apart. In my conceit I thought, once I got you in my bed and made love to you again, you would forget about any other men and soon learn to love me. Now I see I was totally wrong.'
'Not totally wrong...' Katy murmured; she was not quite prepared to admit she loved him, but she couldn't let him think she didn't care. Jake's dark eyes flared with... was it hope?
'Ah, Katy, you can't imagine how good it makes me feel to hear you say that. This afternoon I thought I had blown my last chance with you.'
'You told me to get out,' she reminded him.
'My unreasonable jealousy,' he confessed. 'The odd thing is, when you first left me to go to Paris I was hurt, angry, but not jealous. I think I accepted your excuse that you wanted to see the world so easily because in my heart of hearts I knew I had rushed you into an adult relationship, and felt terribly guilty. I told myself I had to give you time to grow up, go to college, and when I received your letter saying you had met a young man I was hurt and madly jealous, but consoled myself with the fact that you were very young, and as long as I hung in there, kept in touch, eventually I would get you back. I carried on sending you cards, flowers, praying you wouldn't forget me.'
Katy smiled; it had puzzled her why he had bothered,
'When I saw the first pictures of you modelling, and the rumours in the Press about you, I was angry, but oddly pleased; obviously the young man had not lasted. I decided it was time I went to Paris and renewed my claim on you. Two years was long enough, and if the gossip was true you had had quite enough of a fling. It was time I married you. When I met you with Anna and her husband and saw how you behaved with Claude I was livid.' His arms tightened around her. 'I had worried about the age-difference between us, and there you were with a man old enough to be your father. I called you some terrible names.'
Katy shivered slightly as she remembered that particular meeting. It was the first time she had seen Jake really angry. 'Anna had just married Alain, Claude's son, and there was never anything between Claude and me,' she explained. 'I behaved the way I did because I did not want to admit I knew about Monica.'
'There was nothing to know about Monica.' Jake shook his head ruefully. 'And I'm beginning to realise I have been a complete fool about Claude. Anna's father-in-law, you say?'
'Yes.' In a rush of words she told him about Claude and her god-daughter Caterina. Suddenly it seemed very important to Katy that he should know the truth.
'Oh, God, Katy, can you ever forgive me?' Jake groaned. 'When I think what I've said and done in the past few weeks I cringe; my only excuse is I didn't know if I was on my head or my heels with you. You were marvellous in my bed but so uncaring the rest of the time, and I intended everything to be so different.'
'What exactly did you intend?' Katy asked softly. 'I could never understand why a man like you, who dislikes publicity, would pay so much money to take me out on a charity date.'
Jake chuckled, his dark eyes lit with laughter. 'You're never going to believe me, but I owe you the truth. I decided after four celibate years without you to make one last attempt to capture you. I thought long and hard about our previous relationship, and I realised, although we had spent a lot of time together, it was always at your home. I very rarely took you out. I think it was because you were so young, and in a way I was ashamed of my feelings for you. I reached the conclusion
that I had deprived you of a proper courtship.'
'A courtship!' she exclaimed with a smile. 'What a very old-fashioned word, and a bit late, considering you had already had your evil way with me,' she joked while her mind registered 'celibate'.
'Do you want to hear this or not?' Jake demanded hardily, but the quirk of his lips belied his serious tone.
'Yes, please.' She snuggled closer and allowed her hand to stroke teasingly over his hip and thigh. 'But will it take much longer?' The flicker of hope had exploded in to a full-blown flame. Jake had freely admitted there had been no one else for him in all the years they had been apart, and instinctively she believed him.
'Anyway, I decided to wine and dine you, but first I had to persuade you to go out with me. The charity date was like a gift from heaven. I told myself I did not care about your other men or whether the stories in the Press about you were true. I could control my jealousy. I was your first lover and I was determined to be your last... But I blew it on our date.' He tapped the end of Katy's nose with an admonishing finger. 'And you, my dear Katy, didn't help. You let me think the worst of you— even encouraged me, too.'
'It was my defence,' she whispered. 'Otherwise we would have made love and it would have confirmed your low opinion of me.'
Jake's finger dropped to her lips and gently outlined the contours of her mouth. 'Are you confessing you wanted me, Katy?' he asked throatily.
'What do you think?' She captured his finger between pearly teeth and bit it. 'Why else would I agree to your dishonourable proposal to be your mistress? The family firm is important to me, but anyone but you and I would never have accepted. You were my first and only lover,' she confessed.
'Only lover...' he repeated wonderingly, reading the truth in her huge green eyes, and for a long moment silence reigned as their lips met and clung. Jake's large muscular body stirred restlessly against her, igniting the flames of passion with every movement.
'I'm sorry, Katy, so sorry,' he rasped against her mouth, and, putting some space between them, continued, 'I never intended to make you my mistress.' His black eyes burnt into hers, intent and oddly vulnerable. 'I would never have asked that of you, Katy. I admit I planned to coerce you into my life, but I wanted to marry you. If you remember that day in the boardroom, you never gave me the chance. You got in first, telling me you would rather die than marry me.'
Katy remembered, and her own embarrassment at the time when she'd thought she had jumped to the wrong conclusion, and Jake had laughed at her. 'You laughed,' she prompted.
'I laughed to hide my hurt, and on the spur of the moment decided to make you my mistress. I was so desperate and, I confess, furious with you that I didn't care how I got you as long as I succeeded. The trip to Venice was a stroke of genius on my part, I thought. It meant I got you to wear my ring, buy the trousseau and attend the engagement party. By the time we returned to London I was convinced the wedding was a certainty.' He tilted her chin with one hand and added accusingly, 'Until you took off my ring.'
Katy blinked at the fierce expression on his handsome face, but she was not intimidated. Her heart sang. Jake had wanted to marry her. She beamed; a smile of pure joy lighting her lovely face. 'You mean the second-hand ring for the second-hand woman?' she teased, but with a serious edge. His words had cut her to the quick at the time.
