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This wouldn’t be the first time she’d been deceived by a man. But then, maybe she had done some of the deceiving. Hadn’t she deceived herself when she’d believed that, given time and the chance to really get to know her, Jake might want to take their relationship more seriously? Her heart ached with renewed hurt when she realised finally that it wasn’t true…could never be true.
‘It’s all right, Jake.’ Even though her eyes had filled with tears, Caitlin faced him with an unflinching stare. ‘Whatever you might think, I’m not as naïve as you imagine. We slept together, we made love…but deep down I never thought you intended to take things further. Don’t worry. I’m not going to make a scene. And, despite what you might think, Rick, I’m not going to go to pieces because it’s over between Jake and me. We’ll still have a professional relationship…a good one, I hope. And now that that’s clear I think I’ll go and find the others and check in with them.’
She made a move to turn away.
‘No—not like this, Caitlin.’
Jake scraped a frustrated hand through his hair. He was furious with Rick for putting him in such an untenable position. But he was also furious with himself—because now it looked as if he’d deliberately used Caitlin. Nothing could be further from the truth. He was crazy about her. Thinking of her practically consumed his every waking moment. What he felt for her was like nothing he’d ever experienced before, and the power of it took his breath away. And if he had trouble telling her that, then it was surely down to an inherent lack of trust that anything good could ever last?
Never in his life had he experienced feeling safe. Even as a small boy in the children’s home he’d known that when he fell he fell alone. There would be no loving parent to pick him up and reassure him that everything would be all right.
Jake swallowed hard. Caitlin’s beautiful emerald eyes were glistening with tears and in those few heartrending seconds he had never felt lower.
‘I never meant to hurt you,’ he breathed, lifting his hand to dry the moisture that tracked down her cheek.
She immediately backed away. ‘Forget it.’ Not giving him even the merest glance, instead she looked at Rick and enquired, ‘Are the boys in the bar?’ He nodded. ‘Then I’ll go and join them.’
She headed towards the door—but not before she heard him say to Jake, ‘Just as well I’m around to pick up the pieces.’
CHAPTER TWELVE
JAKE COULDN’T BELIEVE that Caitlin had accepted a lift back to her guesthouse from Kenny Swan. The man was a smooth-talking Lothario, old enough to be her father. What on earth had possessed her? He had been all over her like a cheap suit, and if it hadn’t been for the fact that Rick had pleaded with Jake not to make a fuss, because at the end of the gig Swan had offered them a lucrative contract, Jake would have put him straight about a few things.
As far as he was concerned a deal wasn’t a deal until all the ‘i’s had been dotted and the ‘t’s crossed, and he wasn’t agreeing to a damn thing until he examined the details for himself…preferably under a microscope. He hadn’t spent fifteen years working in the industry for nothing.
But right then, even though Blue Sky’s good fortune should have been uppermost in his mind, it wasn’t. Caitlin was. He could have strangled Rick for forcing the issue between them out into the open like that, without any regard for their feelings. No wonder Caitlin was mad at Jake. She had every right to be. And now he was suffering all kinds of agony, wondering if Kenny Swan had taken her straight back to her guesthouse or whether he had persuaded her to go home with him to his penthouse in Mayfair.
As far as pretty women went, rumour had it that the man had very few scruples. And it was little consolation to Jake to recall that Caitlin’s friend Lia had been with her. He’d intuited that the blonde could easily take care of herself, and Kenny wouldn’t have hesitated to drop her off at the guesthouse and then continue on to London with Caitlin, should she agree to the arrangement.
But even as he had the thought Jake knew that she wouldn’t. She would never abandon her friend…she was far too loyal for that.
