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As she followed Jago out to the car five minutes later Storm was seething with resentment at the way her mother had manipulated the conversation, but under the resentment lurked fear, and she knew it was this that made her move restlessly in her seat, trying not to look at the determined thrust of Jago’s shoulders beneath the immaculate dark suit.
‘I could have made my own way to Wyechester if you’d told me you wanted to go to London,’ she said to him as he negotiated the drive.
He stopped at the bottom, casting her a brief, amused glance, then frowned suddenly as he switched off the engine and leaned across to her.
She shrank back, her eyes widening nervously, fear trembling through her as she felt his fingers brush her blouse.
Her eyes closed automatically. There was a faint click and when she opened them again Jago was starting the car.
‘You forgot your seat belt,’ he said urbanely, and as the hot colour flooded her cheeks, Storm cursed herself for her betraying reaction. He must have known she thought he was going to kiss her! She bit her lower lip, willing the colour to fade from her face.
‘You must be disappointed at mi
ssing your brother’s wedding,’ Jago remarked when they had joined the main stream of traffic.
Storm would have preferred to remain silent; the intimacy of the car was oppressive and she wondered if Jago was as aware of her as she was of him. Hardly, she thought bitterly. To him it was all a game that he was intent on winning and making her subtly aware of him at every turn was just another tactic.
‘Yes, I am,’ she admitted, forcing a cool smile. ‘But of course I couldn’t ask for the time off.’
‘Couldn’t, or wouldn’t?’ Jago asked softly. ‘You wouldn’t like to be in debt to me, would you, Storm? If dear David had still been Controller, I’m sure you’d have asked him. So he’s back, is he? Seeing him tonight, are you?’
‘No,’ Storm said shortly, ruffled despite her struggle to remain cool and unaffected by his taunts.
‘No? Have dinner with me, then,’ Jago said silkily.
Thrown completely off guard, Storm stared at him. ‘But you’ll be in London.’
‘Only for a few hours.’
‘I can’t come with you,’ she told him firmly. ‘Tonight is my parents’ last evening at home. They’ll want me to stay with them.’
‘Convenient. What about Saturday, then?’
Storm took a deep breath. He was deliberately trying to needle her, she thought. ‘On Saturday I’m having dinner with David.’
‘Somewhere romantic and secluded,’ Jago mocked, ‘and then home to an empty house where you can be alone…’
‘David isn’t like you,’ Storm said unwisely. ‘He has other things on his mind besides sex…’
‘More fool him,’ Jago said crudely. ‘And more fool you. Have you really never questioned his lack of desire for you, or yours for him?’
They were turning into the car-park and Storm refused to answer, wrenching the door open the moment Jago stopped and hurrying away from him.
He caught up with her just as she reached the building, his fingers tightening on her wrist like an iron band. She looked upwards and saw anger, intermingled with another emotion that made her mouth go dry with dread.
Jago wanted her, and he was going to use every means at his disposal to remind her of that fact, until she convinced him that he was wasting his time—or she gave in. Her knees threatened to buckle under her, and she pulled away from him. Instinct warned her that to fight him now would only increase his determination. A feeling of panic began to rise inside her. David did desire her and she him; it just wasn’t the be-all and end-all of their relationship. David was not the type to force himself on anyone, he would need encouragement and a definite go-ahead before he put their relationship on a more intimate footing.
She had forgotten that Jago was still watching her, and cried out as his grasp tightened, the colour leaving her face as his hands clamped on to her shoulders, shaking her as though she were a rag doll.
‘I know exactly what’s going through your mind,’ Jago told her grimly, his lips white with anger, ‘Just don’t forget that your mother has appointed me as your guardian, Storm, a duty I intend to take extremely seriously, so forget any thoughts of taking dear David home with you. It wouldn’t work anyway,’ he told her cruelly. ‘Like I’ve already said, he doesn’t want you, and I doubt if you’d find him much of a lover even if he did.’
‘Not like you, of course!’ snapped Storm, thrusting him away, her whole body shaking with the force of the emotion erupting inside her. Emotion conjured up by his words, and their effect on her senses, which like it or not she was powerless to deny.
‘I know what you’re trying to do,’ she told him shakily as she turned away. ‘But it won’t work.’
She hurried into the office before he could say anything else, responding automatically to Sue’s smile.
Her morning was busy; the phone seldom stopped ringing, and she had promised to spend half an hour in one of the studios with Pete going over the approach they were going to take with the foster-parent scheme. Jago had already given it his approval, and Pete was keen to make as much use of the time left to them before Christmas as possible.
