Page 5 of Passion's Prey

'All right.' But, as he went on looking at her with those grey-blue eyes that had always seemed to see right into her, she added reluctantly, 'She went to Liskeard to live with Gran last year.'

'And is that when you moved out here?'

She nodded. 'That's right. When the coast-guard station was transferred further down towards Newquay they sold off these two cottages—quite cheaply. I managed to buy this one, and Mrs Pearce bought the other one for her holiday lets.'

'And your father—did he—?'

'Come back, you mean?' she interposed, her voice brittle. 'Yes—several times. Not the last time, though. That's when Mum finally divorced him. If I'd had my way she'd have kicked him out years before,' she added fiercely.

'Hmm.' That disconcerting gaze was still on her. 'Do you see much of him?'

'No more than I can help.' Even after all these years, she couldn't quite hide the bitterness.

'After all, my stepmother's made it clear she doesn't want me deflecting any of his fatherly love from their own two children.'

'Poor Petra. I'm sorry.'

Before she could pull back he reached across and took her hand, drawing her down into the chair beside him. Her small pale hand lay in his strong tanned one, and as she looked down at his thumb, gently stroking in. TOSS its back, she felt that animal vitality which had always been so much a part of Jared tingle against her own kin like a tiny electric current. She snatched her hand away. 'There's no need to be. I'm fine.'

But he just gave her another of those slanting smiles. 'You know, my sweet, we're two of a kind, you and I.'

'Of course we aren't.' She flared up instantly. 'My father might have gone off—and your mother—but that's as far as it goes. We have nothing, absolutely no

thing in common, Jared.'

'Are you quite sure of that?' His voice was silky.

'Quite sure.'

And, leaping to her feet, she began reaching down an extra cereal bowl and two coffee-mugs from the pine wall unit. Even so, the tension was still spiralling in her, for she knew, without turning, that his eyes were on her, taking in every curve of her slender body, clearly revealed by the black wool ski-pants and turquoise sweater.

But when she began placing the china, very methodically, on the table all he said was, 'Of course, I'd forgotten that these were the coast-guard houses.'

She shrugged. 'Yes, well, you've been away ten years. That's a long time.'

'Although there are some things I've never forgotten. Such as . . . ' without warning he pushed back his chair and came to his feet, very close to her, so that she was forced to take a step back ' . . . what a beautiful, gorgeous—kiss able mouth you have.'

As she stared at him, wide-eyed, he tilted her face up to him and very slowly, as if to savour each moment, brought his mouth down towards her. She stood stock-still, shocked into motionlessness, as his lips took hers with a seductive languor she could not resist. But then all at once the kiss hardened into a fierce intensity. Sliding his hands down her spine, he clamped her tightly to him and, hands splayed ACROSS her buttocks, bent her backwards against the table, making her joltingly aware of every hard contour of his body.

She was suffocating as the slow, sweet poison that was Jared crept through her veins, drugging her, drawing her towards somewhere alien, somewhere she knew she must not go . . . But she was powerless to draw back —

At a sudden clatter of crockery her eyes flew open and she saw Sam standing on the table, his back arched, tail swishing furiously and eyes spitting green fire at Jared.

'Oh!' The sudden shock brought her sharply back to her senses, and, wrenching herself free of his grasp, she stammered, 'H-how dare you?' Her mouth was tingling so much that she could barely get the words out.

Breathing deeply, Jared swung round on Sam. 'That damned cat!' he snarled. 'He's jealous.'

'Well, he's got no need to be, I promise you.'

Savagely she wiped the back of her hand across her mouth, desperate to expunge not only the feel of his lips but also the memories that, dammed up for so long, had come flooding back—

memories of that other time when Jared had kissed her like this, and then gone off, out of her life for ten years, without a word.

'Oh, come on, sweetie.' He was fully in control of himself again now. 'Don't pretend you weren't enjoying it.'

Petra sucked in her breath, the searing knowledge that he was right only adding to her outrage. 'Th—that's not true. And, if Simon knew, he'd—'

'Simon?' His voice had hardened perceptibly.

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