Sensual Encounter
Carole Mortimer

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

‘… and this new account could be really important to the agency,’ Kate was telling Richard as she came through from the kitchen with the ice for their drinks, her long flaming red hair secured in a classical style at her nape. ‘Whisky?’ she queried in a preoccupied voice.

‘And a little ice only,’ the man seated on the luxurious sofa requested, his fine dinner suit obviously from Savile Row, the cufflinks at his wrist gold, his shoes handmade. Richard James was a rich man, and he looked it, from his styled dark hair to his Italian shoes.

And Kate liked rich men, rich and powerful men. She more than liked Richard, she intended marrying him. Fortunately, it looked as if he felt the same way.

‘Thank you, darling.’ He looked up at her with dark eyes, admiring everything about the beautiful woman who was to be his wife, preferring the elegance of her severe hairstyle to a softer styling, the bright red hair dulled to copper, her eyes a wide almond shape, golden in colour, slightly tilted at the corners, her cheekbones high, emphasised by a light blusher, her nose short and straight, the wide bow of her mouth outlined in a deep plum lip-gloss, the black dress she wore as sophisticated as the other clothes she bought from one of his exclusive shops in town. He must remember to open an account for her as soon as possible—beside the fact that he intended marrying her, no one who could do such justice to the dresses deserved to pay for them! Kate was everything he could possibly want in a wife. ‘I have a table booked for eight—Are you expecting anyone?’ he frowned as the doorbell pealed in Kate’s apartment.

‘No.’ She put her glass down, her hand long and elegant, the nails painted the same plum colour as her lipgloss. ‘Perhaps it’s Gill from downstairs, she’s always running out of things for some reason,’ the last was added with irritation, her own methodical way of life not allowing for such occurrences. Head of an advertising agency, she had to live her life that way, both privately and professionally, clients and employees depending on her.

‘Don’t let her keep you long,’ Richard’s hand trailed intimately down her arm. ‘We have to leave for the restaurant in a few minutes.’

Kate’s expression was thoughtful as she went to the door. If it were Gill she hoped she was returning the set of vegetable dishes she had borrowed for a special dinner last month; she could be needing them herself soon!

She had no premonition as she opened the door, no warning of the shock she was to receive when she saw the identity of her visitor. Her mouth fell open in surprise, her face paling, the golden eyes suddenly huge in her drawn face.

At that moment she wished she could deny all knowledge of the man standing outside the door, but the lean body in the casual denims and short leather jacket, the ruggedly attractive face dominated by laughing blue eyes, the overlong dark hair with its auburn highlights were all too familiar. Jared Rourke!

‘Hello, Kate,’ he greeted softly, in a well-educated voice, although it did not indicate public school like Richard’s did.

She wished she could have answered him, but for the moment she seemed to have lost her voice—something that had never happened to her before. What was he doing here? More to the point, what was she going to do with him when Richard was waiting for her in the lounge?

Jared felt no such inhibitions about his own actions, and stepped forward, taller than her by at least six inches at six foot two, his arms like steel vices as he took her in his arms, his mouth claiming hers with arrogant possession.

Kate felt herself respond to him as she had from their first meeting, having no strength to fight him as his mouth moved over hers with drugging insistence, laying intimate claim to her lips, while his hands moved over her body with sure deliberation.

‘Mm,’ he pulled back slightly, resting his forehead on hers as he looked down at her, a growth of copper-coloured beard on his chin evidence of his need of a shave. ‘I needed that,’ he spoke softly, his voice husky. ‘I was sure I must have imagined how good it was with you, but now I know I didn’t!’

‘Jared—–’

‘Mmm,’ he kissed her again, ‘you’re beautiful, Kate. I’d forgotten how beautiful.’ Large hands touched the smoothness of her hair. ‘Or I just thought I’d imagined that too. What did we have, Kate? Two days, two long glorious days when we—–’

‘Please, Jared,’ she pushed firmly against the hard wall of his chest, looking up at him with steady gold eyes. ‘What we had really isn’t important.’

The blue eyes narrowed. ‘Not important? How can you say that? We—–’

‘Darling, what is it?’ Richard appeared behind her, looking pointedly at his gold wrist-watch. ‘We have to leave soon,’ he reminded her.

Kate swallowed hard, looking anxiously at the two men. Richard was obviously unaware of the tension between them, his brows raised at Jared in polite query. But Jared was the one causing most of the tension—all of it!—and his flinty blue eyes were narrowed back at Richard.

‘This gentleman was looking for Gill,’ Kate hurried into speech, hearing the words in some disbelief, sure she couldn’t really have spoken them. But what was she supposed to say, what could she say? This is a perfect stranger I spent two days with three months ago? No, she couldn’t say that, and she hoped Jared would have enough decency not to say it either.

He remained silent, although his mocking blue eyes passed from her to Richard, and then back again.

‘Well, don’t be long, darling.’ Richard spoke impatiently. ‘It shouldn’t take all night to explain that Gill lives in the flat below.’ He turned and returned to the lounge to finish his drink, obviously considering the matter settled.

But it was far from being that! Jared crossed his arms across his chest, leaning casually against the door-frame. ‘Who was that?’ he drawled.

Kate flushed at his derisive tone. ‘Richard is a friend—–’

‘I gathered that—darling!’

Her eyes flashed like molten gold. ‘Then you must also have gathered that your presence here is a complete surprise to me.’ She gripped her hands tightly together in front of her, the rigidity of her shoulders thrusting her breasts forward beneath the black dress, the nipples hardened in her emotional tension.

‘It is?’ He raised dark brows, the dark lashes about deep blue eyes ridiculously long for a man. ‘You surely didn’t think I was going to disappear out of your life?’

‘Why not?’ she snapped tautly. ‘You have for the last three months.’

‘I told you I was going to North America; it was something I couldn’t get out of. But I asked you to come with me,’ he reminded her.

‘Yes, well—–’ she avoided his searching gaze, ‘I had no intention of hitch-hiking around Canada for three months with a man I’d only just met!’

‘Hitch-hiking?’ he repeated with a frown. ‘Who said anything about hitch-hiking?’

Her gaze moved scathingly over his casual attire, the faded denims even patched in a couple of places. He was decidedly out of place in the tasteful elegance of her home, the exact opposite of Richard’s sophistication, despite the fact that the two men were of a similar age, both in their mid-thirties.

‘Oh, I see,’ Jared derided tauntingly as he correctly read her scorn. ‘You don’t think I’m capable of affording any other form of transport. Are you a snob, Katharine Mary Collier?’ His eyes were narrowed again.

‘No, of course not!’ She flushed in spite of herself. ‘You told me yourself that you live on your wits, and I just—–’

‘Don’t believe in roughing it with someone like me when you can ride around with friend Richard in the Porsche. That is his car outside, isn’t it?’ he mocked.

‘Yes. But—–’

‘Nice car.’

‘He thinks so,’ she said stiffly.

‘And you, do you think so too?’ His voice was taut.

‘Of course,’ she bit out. ‘Look, Mr Rourke—–’

‘Mr?’ he derided mockingly. ‘Really, Kate, you’re being ridiculous now. I doubt your friend can hear us out here, it’s quite safe to call me Jared when we’re alone.’

‘All right, Jared,’ bright spots of angry colour darkened her cheeks, her eyes gleaming, ‘Richard is my friend, and why you’ve had to come here and try and cause trouble I have no idea.’

His eyes widened. ‘What trouble have I tried to cause? I wasn’t to know you would have your boyfriend here.’

‘You could have called first!’

‘It took me long enough to find out your real name and address, let alone your telephone number!’

‘How did you find out my name and address?’ she frowned.

‘It wasn’t easy,’ he shrugged. ‘But I remembered you said you were in advertising. I have a few connections in the business world,’ he ignored her scathing snort, ‘people who owe me a few favours. Luckily there aren’t too many redhaired beauties like you in advertising. It was a simple matter to visit all the ones who fitted the description. You were third on the list.’

‘The fact that I did give you a false name should have told you something,’ she snapped.

‘Oh, it did,’ he nodded unconcernedly. ‘It told me you didn’t mind spending a couple of days with me, but you didn’t want any of your high-class friends to find out about it.’

Kate glanced towards the lounge with a hunted look in her eyes. ‘Will you please keep your voice down?’ she hissed vehemently. ‘I don’t want Richard to hear.’

‘No, we mustn’t have that, must we?’ he taunted. ‘Tell me, Kate—–’

‘Darling, are we—Are you still here?’ Richard frowned his irritation as he saw the other man at the door. ‘Hasn’t Kate explained to you that Gill lives downstairs?’ His arm went possessively about her slender waist.

‘Kate’s explanation was very exact,’ Jared told the other man tautly.

‘Then if you’ll excuse us,’ Richard said haughtily, ‘we happen to be going out.’

Kate bit her lip anxiously at the derogatory tone of Richard’s voice. One thing she had learnt about Jared Rourke, if he had something to say then he said it. Richard’s disdainful attitude was guaranteed to spark the Irish temper lurking in the icy blue eyes. She waited for the explosion that would ruin all her carefully laid plans, plans that would make her Richard’s wife. But not if Jared told him about their meeting three months ago, not if he told him about the two days—and nights—they had spent together.

‘Then I won’t keep you any longer.’ Jared pushed away from the doorframe in one lithe movement. I mustn’t keep Gill waiting,’ he added wickedly.

Richard looked uncomfortable at the suggestive tone in the other man’s voice. ‘Er—no. Well, glad to have been able to help you, Mr—–?’

‘Rourke,’ Jared supplied, his expression mocking as he looked at Kate. ‘Thank you, Miss Collier. I’ll tell Gill how helpful you’ve been.’

Kate was left with the impression that it was a possibility that Jared would tell Gill exactly that—and he didn’t even know Gill! Not yet, anyway. She knew from experience that that wasn’t necessarily a drawback as far as Jared was concerned; once he made his mind up to do something he did it, regardless. It could be Gill’s lucky night—if she liked attractive Irishmen, that is. Strangely that thought didn’t please Kate at all.

He gave a brief wave of his hand as he stepped into the lift, his blue eyes burning with mocking mischief as he pressed the button to close the doors. Kate watched the lift floor numbers above the doors, her mouth tightening as it stopped on the floor below. Damn him, he was going to see Gill! He had gone to all the trouble of seeking her out, and now he had gone to the flat of a woman he didn’t even know.

She closed the door with forceful anger, wondering why Jared should go through the lengthy process of finding her only to meekly leave again. It didn’t seem like the man she knew. But going to see Gill he was! She knew better than most what a sensual man Jared Rourke was, how much he enjoyed women.

‘Odd-looking man,’ Richard said thoughtfully.

Kate gave him a sharp look. ‘Odd?’ she questioned his choice of word.

‘Well, he must be my age,’ Richard derided with a twist of his lips, ‘and yet he looked like some damned hippie.’

Jared’s casual clothing hardly made him a hippie, in fact the tight denims suited him, as did the rakish hairstyle, the leather jacket emphasising the width of his shoulders. She had forgotten his shoulders were that broad, his waist that narrow, his hips so powerful, his legs long and lean. Damn him, why did he have to be so attractive!

‘Hippies went out years ago,’ she snapped her agitation.

‘Exactly,’ Richard drawled derisively.

For the first time in weeks Kate felt irritation with him. ‘Nothing about Mr Rourke looked outdated to me,’ she said tautly.

He seemed not to notice her lack of good humour, glancing at his wrist-watch once again. ‘We really will have to go now, Kate.’ He held out the silver jacket that complemented the simplicity of style of her black dress and matched the colour of her sandals and evening bag. Richard knew he could never fault Kate’s way of dressing, everything she wore was stylish and complimentary to her slender beauty—even creations that didn’t belong to his stores!

If Richard could have read her thoughts at that moment he would have been a little shocked by her thoughts. She was remembering a time not so long ago when her clothes had been as casual as Jared Rourke’s, of walking on a golden beach in her tight denims, her anorak stained with sea-spray. It was a memory she had tried to put out of her mind; seeing Jared again had reminded her of a lot of things she would rather forget.

‘Yes, let’s go.’ She put her arm through the crook of his. ‘I’ve been looking forward to our evening together.’

Richard looked pleased by her eagerness, and he visibly preened as they went down in the lift, liking the way she clung to his arm. Although he didn’t look quite so happy when he saw the way a red Lamborghini had trapped him into his parking space. ‘Damn,’ he frowned at the rakish angle of the red car, before getting in behind the wheel of the Porsche to manoeuvre it slowly out on to the road with Kate’s guidance from outside.

Kate glanced up to Gill’s flat, wondering if Jared was going to be out of luck a second time tonight; the Lamborghini probably belonged to Gill’s new boyfriend, the one she was trying so hard to impress.

They weren’t having a very good start to what was supposed to be a special evening, Kate thought ruefully as they finally got started on the drive to the restaurant. Tonight she and Richard were having a celebration dinner; it was just like Jared Rourke to turn up and disturb her. Three months he had had to put in an appearance, and he had to turn up tonight of all nights!

But he had a way of doing that—hadn’t his unexpected appearance been the reason she had met him in the first place?

The south-western coast of England in mid-March was not where she had intended to be three months ago, in fact she had intended being somewhere else completely at the time. But circumstances had dictated that she had to get away, and the hotel where she had spent many holidays with her parents as a child had appeared like a refuge when the yearly brochure had arrived in the post, a ritual that had continued despite the fact that she hadn’t been there in five years.

It was a large impersonal hotel in one of the large coastal towns of Devon, providing many sporting or intellectual entertainments if you wanted them, but leaving you free to just be on your own if you preferred that. Kate did. She wanted to be alone. But on her first evening there she had met Jared Rourke, had met him at a time when all her defences were down. That was the excuse she had given herself over the months to explain her behaviour with him.

She had walked down to the secluded cove a short distance from the hotel, the sand silver-gold in the moonlight, the sea battling with the cliffs that prevented it sweeping overland to cause destruction in its wake. The chilling water had been cold about her ankles, the rest of her huddled down in warm clothing as the elements echoed her mood, stormy. When she walked into the solid object blocking her pathway she couldn’t hold back her gasp of surprise.

‘Did I hurt you?’ queried a concerned voice from the darkness.

‘You startled me!’ She moved away from the bulky figure of the man, stepping back in the dry sand. She had thought herself alone.

‘I didn’t think you could startle pixies,’ the man mused in that slightly lilting voice.

Kate gave an impatient sigh; she was not in the mood for a flirtation. ‘If you’ll excuse me,’ she turned away, ‘I have to get back to the hotel.’

‘Why?’

She turned back to find him standing very close to her, the wind whipping her long red hair about her face as she tried to distinguish his features in the darkness. It was an impossible task. ‘I just do,’ she said irritably, and began to walk across the sand to the narrow pathway that led up to the hotel grounds.

A hand came out to grasp her arm, the man was still at her side. ‘I’ll walk with you.’

The voice sounded young, interested, and for the first time she realised the inadvisability of coming down here alone in the dark. ‘Would you please leave me alone?’ She pulled away from him.

‘No.’

Kate swallowed hard at that single-worded answer. He spoke so firmly, so inevitably, that she felt her tension rising. ‘I shall scream—–’

‘Who would hear you?’ There was laughter in his voice now.

She moistened her lips, tasting the salt there, the sea-water being whipped up into the air by the fierce wind causing the whitecaps far out to sea being illuminated by the moon. If only she could see her accoster—all she knew was that he looked big and sounded young, his hair obviously long and dark as it was blown about. ‘I didn’t come alone,’ she told him with confidence. ‘I have a friend—–’

‘I know—me.’ Once again he clasped her arm. ‘I know you’re down here alone, at the hotel alone too. Don’t you realise how dangerous it could be out here?’

‘I’m beginning to!’

‘You’re in no danger from me, I can assure you,’ he mused.

‘I’m not?’ She unwittingly showed her uncertainty.

‘Not at this precise moment, no,’ he mocked. ‘Later I can’t answer for,’ he added softly. ‘I’m staying at the hotel too,’ he spoke briskly. ‘I saw you leave over an hour ago, when you didn’t come back I thought I ought to come and check that you were okay.’

‘Who asked you to be my watchdog?’ Kate snapped.

‘No one,’ he replied without rancour. ‘I just didn’t like the picture I’d conjured up of you a helpless crumpled heap at the bottom of the cliff.’

‘Well, you can see I’m fine, so I—–’

‘I’ll just see you back to the hotel, if you don’t mind.’

‘I do!’

‘Well, I’m going back myself anyway, so I might as well walk with you.’

‘I—–’ Kate began.

‘Are you here on holiday?’ he asked conversationally. ‘Only you don’t seem to be with anyone and—–’

‘Are you spying on me?’ she demanded furiously, turning to glare at him in the darkness, her eyes almost luminous, deep gold in her anger.

‘Yes.’

‘I—You—–’ She was speechless at his candidness.

‘I saw you arrive this morning and I’ve been watching you ever since. I can’t seem to do anything else,’ he added derisively.

Now she knew who he was, knew the face and body behind the voice. She had been aware of a man with laughing blue eyes watching her as she brought in her cases this morning, and again as she ate dinner this evening. The man had been seated across the room from her, also alone. He was good-looking if you liked rakish charm and a complete disregard for fashion and elegance. He was also the last person she wanted to talk to, his interest in her being obvious as his gaze never left her during dinner. In fact, it had been this that had hastened her departure from the dining-room this evening, her meal only half over.

‘How interesting,’ she said in a bored voice, relieved as she saw the lights of the hotel.

‘You don’t think so?’ he mocked.

‘No.’ She spoke with the same bluntness he did.

‘It was a man,’ he said with a sigh.

Kate came to a halt, looking up at him in the darkness. ‘What was?’ she queried warily.

‘The reason you’re spending time in a half empty hotel in mid-March.’

‘Oh, but it isn’t going to be half empty for long,’ she derided. ‘Apparently there’s some sort of conference starting at the end of the week; I have to vacate my room then.’

‘Good business management,’ he murmured appreciately. ‘I often wondered how these big hotels at seaside resorts survived through the winter.’

‘Well, now you know,’ she taunted as he held the door open for her, the lighted reception area showing she had been right about his identity; he was the man with the laughing blue eyes and the teasing smile that made the waitress blush as she served him his meal.

‘I certainly do.’ Again he seemed unaffected by her rudeness. ‘Would you like to join me in the bar for a drink?’

‘No, thank you.’ She pushed her long red hair away from her face, slightly wet from the damp air outside.

His mouth twisted. ‘It was a man, wasn’t it, the reason you’re hiding yourself here?’

‘I’m not hiding anywhere!’ she snapped.

‘No?’ he taunted.

‘No!’ Her eyes glowed her anger, there was a healthy colour to her cheeks from her walk on the beach.

‘Then have a drink with me.’ He thrust his hands into the back pockets of his denims, looking at her challengingly.

She was being goaded into accepting, she knew that, and yet something made her want to accept that challange, to show herself that she might have been hurt by one man but she was still capable of attracting another one. ‘I’ll have a glass of brandy, thank you,’ she accepted haughtily.

If he was surprised by her change of mind then he didn’t show it, seeing her seated at one of the plush booths before going up to the bar to get their drinks. Kate compared his attire to the formality of some of the other men in the room, and found him wanting, although he seemed unconcerned, carrying himself with a confidence that said to hell with convention.

‘Here we go.’ He put their two brandy glasses down on the table, sitting close to her in the booth. ‘Now tell me about yourself.’ He sat forward, his elbow on the table bringing him very close to her.

She avoided his gaze. ‘There’s nothing to tell.’

‘You come from London.’

‘So do you,’ she guessed in return. ‘So what are you doing here?’

‘It’s off-season—–’

‘And the rates are lower,’ she finished derisively.

‘There is that,’ he grinned. ‘Although I was going to say there were fewer people.’

‘Of course you were,’ she mocked.

‘Don’t you get tired carrying that around with you?’ He looked at her consideringly.

This time she was ready for him. ‘The scowl or the chip on my shoulder?’ she asked with sarcasm.

He began to smile, then he chuckled, and finally he laughed. ‘I like a woman with a quick mind.’

‘Only a quick mind?’ she heard herself asking, putting the glass of brandy down with a shaking hand as she realised the brandy on an empty stomach was starting to make her head swim. She hadn’t wanted her food earlier, and the glow spreading through her body reminded her of that fact. ‘I think perhaps I should go—–’

He stayed her with his hand on her arm. ‘Don’t,’ he said huskily. ‘Stay,’ he encouraged softly. ‘Tell me your name.’

Why shouldn’t she stay and talk to him? Brian certainly wouldn’t be pining away for her. Brian. She had tried not to think of him today, and she felt sure this handsome man with the devil in his eyes could help her to continue not to think of him.

She picked up her glass and drank some more of the brandy, feeling her recklessness grow with each mouthful. ‘My name is Kate,’ she told him throatily.

‘Just Kate?’ He raised dark brows.

‘Just Kate,’ she nodded, deciding there was no reason for him to know anything else about her.

He smiled. ‘Then I’m just Jared.’

‘That suits me. Would you like another drink?’ she offered after swallowing down the last of her brandy.

‘An independent woman, hmm?’

‘Very much so,’ she agreed tautly.

He sat back in a relaxed pose. ‘Then I’d love another drink.’

Kate never knew afterwards how much she had had to drink during the evening, or quite what they talked about, but suddenly it was after eleven and Jared was suggesting walking her back to her room. Only he didn’t want to leave her at the door, and it had nothing to do with the brandy that she invited him in.

The double bed that dominated the room added intimacy to the moment, and Jared seemed to become aware of it at the same time she did, their gazes locking and holding, the move into each other’s arms made simultaneously, their lips meeting in a quest for mutual need, for forgetfulness on Kate’s part.

She had known the moment he identified himself on the beach that the evening was going to end this way, knowing a need to feel wanted, to feel a woman, to know that it had nothing to do with her own attraction that had so suddenly changed Brian towards her.

What she hadn’t been prepared for had been her reaction to a man she only knew as Jared! Brian was the man she loved, but even he had only made her feel contented in her response to him, her real pleasure being in knowing she had pleased him. This man wasn’t prepared to settle for contentment, his lips and hands ravaging her body in a fiery quest, taking her higher than she had ever wanted to go before.

Jared didn’t rush a thing; each inch of her body was given his own brand of lovemaking, encouraging Kate to know each tautly muscled line of his body in return, their bodies finally melting together in such accord that she gasped at the pleasure of it, measuring the movements of her body to the smooth thrusts of Jared’s, clutching on to the dampness of his shoulders as she arched into him in gasping ecstasy.

Jared had been insatiable that night, and for two more days and another night too, and while in his arms Kate hadn’t been able to think of anything but him. She had let him take control of her life for the time she was with him, hadn’t wanted to think of the reason she had come to the hotel in the first place, or of the lonely weeks ahead of her when she returned to London. She hadn’t wanted to think of Brian either, or of the way he had hurt her. And she hadn’t; she had given herself completely to Jared for the time they were together.

But the time for her to leave had arrived all too quickly, and with it the fact that she was Katharine Collier, the twenty-four-year-old owner of an up-and-coming advertising agency, and certainly beyond a clandestine affair with a man who didn’t look as if he had ever worn a dinner suit in his life.

They had talked little during their time together, preferring to communicate with their bodies, and when Jared had asked to see her once he had returned to London she hadn’t known what to say. Jared had proved himself to be an intelligent man, with a lively sense of humour, and a sensitivity that often made her cry out for mercy—a mercy she neither desired or was ever granted. But he was far removed from her life in London, and the thought of seeing him again there wasn’t something she wanted.

That last day together they had lunched together in the dining-room, the staff politely ignoring the fact that they hadn’t been seen for two days and serving them quietly and efficiently. But Jared’s desire to see her when they returned to London made her wish that the meal was over and she were driving back to London.

‘I’ll be very busy for the next few weeks,’ she said awkwardly. ‘This holiday was unexpected, and I won’t have time for socialising when I get back.’

‘Who said anything about socialising?’ He gave her a wicked grin, the eyes that could caress at a glance glowing with humour as he held her hand across the table. ‘I like having you all to myself.’

She pulled her hand out from under his. ‘I won’t have time for that either,’ she made her tone casual. ‘I’m a working girl, remember?’

‘And I’m sure you’re excellent at it, darling.’ He had taken to using the endearment during their time together, and he did it so naturally, casually, that Kate couldn’t possibly object. ‘But I won’t be in London for several months yet myself; I have work of my own to do first.’

Her eyes widened. ‘You do?’

‘Yes,’ he laughed at her surprised expression. ‘I don’t spend all my time making love to beautiful ladies. I have to earn a living too.’

‘How?’ She was interested in spite of herself.

‘By my wits, mainly.’

His answer didn’t surprise her. Jared had spent the last two days with her without thought or excuse to anyone, and when they had bothered to dress it had been informally, always denims and a casual shirt for Jared, not even a trace of the formal about the man who had been her lover for the last two days. He was a drifter, a man who admitted to living on his wits; he didn’t fit in with her London lifestyle at all.

‘What do you intend doing that will keep you away from London?’ She pretended interest in a way of life that was totally alien to her.

He shrugged. ‘I’ll be in North America for the next few months. I have—Why don’t you come with me?’ he suggested with sudden excitement. ‘Why didn’t I think of it before? We don’t have to part now, we could—Yes?’ he looked up as a waiter appeared quietly beside their table.

‘For you, Mr Rourke.’ The man held out a tray with a message lying on its surface. He stood silently beside them waiting for a reply as Jared read the message.

Jared scanned the words with impatience. ‘Damn,’ he muttered before turning to face Kate. ‘I have to go and make a call—do you mind?’

‘Not at all,’ she smiled, very conscious of the still-hovering waiter.

‘We’ll talk about North America when I get back.’ He stood up to place a light kiss on her lips. ‘I don’t intend letting you escape me, Katharine Mary Collins.’

She had smiled tautly until he was out of the room, then she had sprung into action, hurriedly leaving the dining-room to pay her bill and collect her luggage, leaving the hotel before Jared realised she had gone, little dreaming that he would trace Kate Collins back to Kate Collier, never dreaming that he would want to.

What she had done, spending two days with a complete stranger, was out of character for her, an impetuous need for emotional reassurance after Brian had let her down so callously, but she doubted it was out of character for Jared. There was an experience about him that couldn’t be denied, a knowledge of women that had been infinitely satisfying but which spoke of relationships with many different women. At the thirty-four she knew him to be that wasn’t surprising, but she had known only one man before him, the man who had been the reason for her need to get away from London and all the well-meaning friends who would pity her to her face and laugh at her behind her back. What Brian had done, using her until someone more useful came along, was one of the oldest tricks in the book; and she had been so much in love she hadn’t even realised what he was doing.

But Jared Rourke wasn’t really her type, he had just been available when she needed him, and she didn’t want to see him again. Once he was ‘living on his wits’ in North America he would realise she wasn’t his type either.

She had really thought Jared would realise that, that she would never see him again. She certainly hadn’t expected him to turn up at her flat, and not tonight of all nights. He had almost ruined everything. He still could; she doubted she had seen the last of Jared Rourke—even if he had gone to see Gill!

She couldn’t believe he actually had the audacity to go through with that—could she? She could believe anything of him! She could even believe he would persuade Gill into believing she knew him …!

‘Darling?’

She turned to find Richard frowning at her. They had stopped at the restaurant and the doorman was waiting for them to get out of the car. ‘Sorry,’ Kate forced a bright smile, dragging herself back to the present, to the man at her side, the man she had decided to marry. ‘I’m hungry, aren’t you?’ she prompted lightly, stepping out of the car.

She swept into the restaurant at Richard’s side, aware that they attracted considerable attention as they moved through the room to their table. Richard was a well-known personality in the City. And she knew that some of the attention was directed at her, that her elegant beauty attracted admiration. It wasn’t ego that told her this, it was Richard himself. He had a reputation for escorting only beautiful women, and they had been seeing each other for almost two months now.

‘Champagne,’ he ordered imperiously of the wine waiter as he came to take their order, selecting a good year automatically, his knowledge of wines being as polished as the rest of him. ‘To us,’ he toasted her with warm brown eyes once their champagne had been poured. ‘You realise you’ve made me the happiest man in London?’

‘Only in London?’ she taunted huskily.

‘In the whole world,’ he laughed softly, reaching into the pocket of his black dinner jacket to pull out a small black velvet ring-box. ‘Can I place this ring on your finger, darling?’ He opened the box to reveal a huge diamond set on a platinum band.

For only a brief moment Kate hesitated, then she held out her hand, putting both Brian and Jared out of her mind as Richard placed the ring on the third finger of her left hand.

CHAPTER TWO

RICHARD JAMES had become a customer of her agency six months ago, and had begun to pursue her immediately, the advertising they were doing for his numerous high-class clothing stores for women giving him a good excuse for seeing Kate often.

But six months ago Brian Linton had been very much a part of her life, and her rebuffs to Richard, although polite, had been exactly that.

But she had made a decision three months ago, and she had stuck to it. Brian had found himself a rich woman to marry, so she would marry well too. When she got back to London three months ago Richard had been in Europe on a promotional tour, but as soon as he returned last month she had shown him, without being too obvious, that she was no longer averse to his attentions. With a sophistication she had soon learnt was second nature to him he had begun a slow wooing, starting with flowers and small gifts, working up to the suggestion of a casual evening together to discuss his advertising. The subject of advertising hadn’t been mentioned once during the whole evening, and when he asked to see her again she had willingly agreed. The wooing no longer went slowly after that. Yesterday he had asked her to marry him, and once again Kate hadn’t hesitated.

She hadn’t allowed for the fact that Jared might demand readmission to her life. Richard was well aware of the fact that she and Brian had been intimate—at twenty-four he didn’t demand virginity from her!—but she doubted he would understand her affair with Jared. Was Jared the type to kiss and tell? She didn’t think so, although if he made any more unexpected appearances at her flat like tonight Richard might become suspicious of the fact that Jared was looking for Gill at all. If he came back—and Kate felt sure he would—she would just have to make sure he understood that their time together meant nothing to her, that she didn’t want to see him again. Richard was the man in her life now, and he would remain the only man.

‘Do you realise how happy you’ve made me?’ He held the hand that bore his ring, taking it to his lips to kiss her palm. ‘When can we be married?’

She blotted everything out of her mind but Richard and their wedding plans. ‘When would you like to be married?’

‘Tonight.’ His dark gaze held hers.

She laughed softly. ‘That’s a little too soon for me. Would next month do?’

‘If it has to,’ he grimaced. He was not the most patient of men when it came to getting something he wanted.

‘I think so, Richard.’ She was suddenly serious. ‘I told you about this new account I’m trying to acquire—I’d like to settle that before we’re married.’

‘Isn’t Melfords a little high for you to aim, darling?’ He quirked dark brows. ‘After all, it’s a multi-million-pound perfume industry.’

‘And I’m just a small not-very-well-known agency.’ She spoke the words he hadn’t. If there was one thing about Richard that annoyed her—and it was the only thing!—it was the way he liked to underestimate her work, treating her career almost like a hobby she would soon tire of. He was of the old school, a wife was to adorn his house and table, to warm his bed and body, not to go out to work or have a career of her own. But the agency was hers, she had worked it up from nothing into a successful business, and she had no intention of giving it up, not now or when they were married. ‘There was a rumour that Melfords were no longer satisfied with the work Hazeldene was doing for them. I made enquiries, and they didn’t deny the rumour. At the moment they haven’t said yes to the new ideas I sent them, but neither have they said no. The head of their advertising department told me that they’re considering them.’

‘Considering them, darling,’ Richard drawled. ‘You really mustn’t get your hopes up too high.’

Kate had told herself the same thing, but the fact that her ideas were even being considered had given her hope. If she did get the contract—and she was well aware it was only an if—then the fee she would receive for her work would make her a very rich woman in her own right. It would be the final irony if Brian had left her for nothing, if she had as much money as the rich widow he had made his wife.

‘I stand as much of a chance as anyone else,’ she told Richard confidently. ‘I have a good reputation, and some well-known and satisfied customers.’

‘But none as big as Melfords,’ he reasoned.

‘Perhaps not,’ she conceded, knowing that Richard’s own company was the largest on her books, a fact he was probably aware of too. ‘But maybe that’s why I stand a chance. All the big agencies tend to have similar ideas; I pride myself on my originality. You’re satisfied with your advertising, aren’t you, darling?’ she asked lightly.

‘Of course,’ he flushed. ‘Although I have to admit I would have given you the contract even if I weren’t; I was determined to have you from the first, Kate.’

‘Thank you,’ she smiled, although his words didn’t please her. She knew he meant to flatter, and yet in doing so he took away from her achievement as a businesswoman. ‘And now you have me, are you going to feed me?’ she mocked him.

‘Of course.’ He straightened. ‘We must celebrate our engagement properly, mustn’t we?’

And celebrate they did, going on to a club after their meal, dancing until the early hours of the morning when Kate told Richard she really would have to get home. Tomorrow was a working day for her, and although she was the boss she wasn’t just a figurehead, but took an interest in all of her clients, her personal service being part of the rapidly growing success of the agency. Clients didn’t like to feel that anyone was inaccessible to them, she had learnt over the years.

It was after two when they arrived at her flat, and Richard declined coming in for coffee, arranging to see her the following day. His decision not to come in pleased Kate; until that moment she had been unsure of what he would expect of her now that she wore his ring. From their first date she had made it clear that she had no intention of going to bed with him, and although he had respected that up to now she hadn’t been sure if it would still apply. He had clearly shown her that it did.

Her kiss goodnight was all the more passionate in her gratitude; she had decided, after the way Brian had taken advantage of her, and her impetuous time with Jared, that any other man that desired her now was going to have to marry her first. Richard was proving that he intended doing just that.

‘We’ll discuss the honeymoon tomorrow,’ he told her throatily. ‘How does a month in my bedroom sound?’

‘Only a month?’ she teased, her mouth bare of lip-gloss now, although her hair still remained in its sleek chignon, her eyes a luminous gold.

‘To start with,’ he growled. ‘After that I might let you out for short periods of time—as long as you make it up to me when you get back!’

Kate was smiling to herself as she went up to her flat. Richard had earnt his reputation as the playboy head of James Fashions, a succession of beautiful women passing through his life; she believed him when he said he intended their marriage to be a highly sensual one.

As she searched through her evening bag for her key the door suddenly swung open in front of her. Her startled gaze moved up from the bare feet, the denim-clad legs, the navy blue sweat-shirt and short leather jacket which emphasised the breadth of powerful shoulders. Lastly, the face, the ruggedly handsome face dominated by a roguish smile and laughing blue eyes, thick dark hair falling untidily over his forehead.

Jared’s presence in her flat was so unexpected that for a moment Kate was speechless, just stood there staring at him in numbed surprise.

‘You’d better come in.’ Jared grasped her arm and pulled her inside. ‘You look a little strange standing on your own doorstep in that way.’

As the door closed behind them Kate came out of her shock. This was the second time tonight that her door had opened to reveal this man—and this time he was standing on the wrong side of it! ‘What are you doing here?’ She threw her evening bag down on the side-table, the key superfluous now. ‘How did you get in?’ she glared at him furiously.

He threw himelf down into one of the armchairs, draping one of his legs over the arm, swinging his bare foot back and forth. ‘I told the caretaker I’m your brother,’ he told her cheerfully, without regret.

‘My brother?’ she exclaimed in disbelief, her eyes wide gold pools. ‘But I don’t have a brother!’

‘You do now,’ he grinned.

‘I—You—When I moved into this flat I told the management I don’t have any family here in England, least of all a brother—–’

‘You don’t?’

‘—and I consider this an invasion of my privacy. Ben had no right to let you in!’ she finished with a fierce glare.

‘Ben?’

‘The caretaker!’

‘Oh,’ Jared nodded understanding. ‘I have to tell you I was very convincing as your relative. I told him all about Great-Aunt Bertha and her recent demise.’

‘Geat-Aunt Bertha?’ she repeated dazedly. ‘But I don’t have a Great-Aunt Bertha!’

‘I know that,’ he laughed. ‘But Ben thinks you’re going to come into a considerable fortune now that she’s dead, that I’ve come here to tell you all about it. You must realise that he thought you would want to know as soon as possible that you’re a rich woman?’

‘Don’t worry,’ her mouth was tight. ‘I don’t intend making things difficult for Ben, but I will make sure he knows not to let in my long-lost brother again,’ she derided. ‘Do you realise how awkward this could have been if I’d brought Richard up with me?’

He shrugged. ‘I watched out of the window, he drove off as soon as you entered the building.’

Kate sighed her displeasure. ‘You have no right to be here. Didn’t I make it plain enough earlier this evening, I don’t want to see you again?’ She was breathing hard in her agitation.

Jared nodded. ‘I did seem to detect a certain amount of reluctance on your part. But I had nowhere else to go, and Gill was already otherwise engaged.’

So she had been right about the man in the Lamborghini! ‘So that’s the reason you came back.’ She stood over his chair. ‘I don’t want you here, Jared. There, is that plain enough for you?’ she derided with sarcasm. ‘We spent a couple of days together several months ago and you think that allows you to intrude on my life now, to coming into my home like this. Well, let me tell you—–’

‘Tell me later, Kate,’ he encouraged throatily, one hand grasping her wrist as he pulled her easily down into the chair with him. ‘God, you’re more beautiful than ever,’ he groaned before his mouth claimed hers, the pressure of his body above hers forcing her back into the chair.

She didn’t want to respond to him, knew that she should push him away, and yet at her first tentative rejection of him her mouth began to part under his, her arms moving up about his neck as her fingers became entangled in the thick dark hair at his nape.

‘Beautiful,’ he murmured against her throat, slipping the silver jacket from her shoulders to seek out the hollows there, his lips trailing a fire down to the curve of her breasts, his hands on her hips drawing her in to him, telling her of his arousal.

As she gazed down at the dark head below her, felt his lips at her breasts, she knew this was wrong, and she pushed at his chest in earnest now, fighting the languor that was coursing through her body.

‘What is it?’ Jared looked up at her with bewildered eyes, his sensual arousement obvious in their smoky blue depths. ‘What’s wrong, darling?’ He cupped either side of her face with his long sensitive hands as he searched her face.

‘I don’t want you here!’ Kate managed to struggle up from the chair and stood up, her breasts heaving beneath the black dress in her agitation. ‘You see this,’ her left hand shook as she held it out to him, the diamond in her ring sparkling its possession. ‘This means I belong to another man!’

‘Richard James?’ His voice was soft, dangerously so, the laughing blue eyes suddenly watchful.

She searched the rugged features warily, suddenly conscious of his change of mood, of the steel in his nature she hadn’t even believed possible. So far in their acquaintance Jared had given her the impression that little angered or annoyed him, that he lived a pretty easygoing existence, working when he needed to, not bothering when he didn’t, and yet at this moment he did look angry, his eyes narrowed, his nostrils flared, his mouth a taut line, the jaw beneath this rigid with tension.

What right did he have to be angry, what right did he have to be here at all! He was a drifter, a man without ties or commitment, what could he possibly give her, except the same heartache she had known in the past?

‘How did you know his name?’ she questioned haughtily. ‘You didn’t know him earlier.’

His mouth twisted as he stood up, his hands thrust into the back pockets of his denims. ‘I made the connection later between Richard and Richard James. Everyone has heard of him, seen him too. He isn’t exactly an elusive figure in the City, is he?’ Jared added mockingly.

‘Whether he is or isn’t is not important, the fact that I wear his ring is,’ she snapped.

‘Wear it again, don’t you mean?’ he drawled.

Kate frowned. ‘I don’t know what you mean …’

Jared gave a deep shrug. ‘When we met you had an indentation on that finger, as if from wearing a ring. Did you and James fall out, is that the reason you buried yourself in that hotel?’

She turned away. Jared was much more observant than she had given him credit for; she hadn’t realised he had noticed that patch of slightly paler skin on her wedding finger. But that hadn’t been from wearing Richard’s ring, she had accepted that for the first time tonight.

‘Well, is he?’

She spun round quickly as she realised how close Jared was standing, and stepped back with a frown. ‘No, he isn’t, and no, we didn’t! My reasons for being at the hotel are none of your business—–’

‘Then why did you remove his ring?’ Jared pursued relentlessly. ‘Taking the week off, were you? Having a little affair on the side?’

‘No, I wasn’t!’ Her eyes flashed her indignation. ‘Richard and I weren’t engaged then.’

Jared clasped her hand, turning it over to look at the thick platinum band. ‘No,’ he acknowledged softly. ‘The mark on your finger was thinner than this ring could have made.’ He looked up at her with a frown. ‘You wore another man’s ring here?’

She snatched her hand away, glaring at him. ‘I don’t have to tell you anything!’

He whistled softly through his even white teeth. ‘It was another man. Katharine Mary, you surprise me.’

‘Why?’ Her tone was bitter at the gentle mockery in the deliberately Irish lilt to his voice as he said her name.

‘You don’t appear to be an indecisive woman, in fact the opposite, and here you are changing fiancés like you would a blouse!’

Kate eyed him with suspicion, but his expression remained deliberately bland. ‘Are you laughing at me?’ she asked slowly.

He grinned suddenly, one of those wide boyish grins that gave him such a rakish air. ‘Whatever gave you that idea?’

Her anger boiled up to gigantic proportions. ‘What’s so funny about my previous fiancé turning out to be a louse, and the fact that Richard is one of the most powerful and richest men in London?’

‘It’s an inside joke,’ Jared taunted lightly. ‘You wouldn’t get it at all.’

‘I don’t!’ she snapped.

He shrugged. ‘I told you you wouldn’t.’

Kate gave an impatient sigh. ‘Will you just get out of here,’ she said wearily, ‘and take your Irish wit with you.’

‘Oh, I’m not Irish,’ he ignored her first request. ‘My father was, but I’m strictly English.’

‘In that case you spend little enough time here!’ she derided his need to travel.

He nodded. ‘I intend changing all that. In fact, I could just decide to settle in one place.’

‘I’m sure the social services will be relieved!’

‘Hm?’ Jared looked puzzled.

‘They’ll have a permanent address to send your dole money to!’

A smile quirked the firmness of his lips. ‘Again you surprise me, Katharine Mary. You were a little abrupt when we first met, but I don’t remember you being downright nasty.’

She met his gaze in challenge. ‘Well, now you know. And stop calling me Katharine Mary; my name is Kate.’

‘To your friends,’ he acknowledged. ‘I wasn’t sure I still came in that category.’

‘You don’t,’ she told him crossly. ‘But I haven’t been called Katharine since I was at school.’

‘I think I prefer it,’ he said thoughtfully.

She gave him a saccharine-sweet smile. ‘Isn’t it a pity your preferences don’t interest me!’

He gave a wry laugh. ‘I once told you I like your quick mind,’ he grimaced. ‘But I can tell you now that it’s starting to wear a bit thin, with those snide remarks of yours. Perhaps I prefer women without intelligence after all.’

‘I’m glad to hear it,’ she scorned. ‘I’m sure you’ve had a lot of experience with them. Now if you wouldn’t mind, we’ve been talking for over an hour; I’d like to get to bed.’

‘Good idea,’ he nodded cheerfully.

‘Well?’ she prompted as he made no effort to go.

Jared looked puzzled. ‘Well what?’

‘Shouldn’t you be going somewhere too?’ she said exasperatedly.

‘Oh, don’t mind me,’ he grinned blandly. ‘I’m not sleepy yet. I had a nap on the sofa while you were out—my body clock is still out, you see.’

She didn’t give a damn if he hadn’t slept for days, she just wanted to get some sleep herself! ‘I don’t think I’m getting through to you, Jared,’ she sighed tautly. ‘I want you to leave now—go,’ she spoke slowly, clearly, so that there should be no more misunderstandings. ‘I want to go to bed.’

‘Go?’ he repeated in a puzzled voice. ‘But where would I go at three o’clock in the morning?’

‘I really don’t give a damn where you go, I just want you to leave!’

He shook his head. ‘I can’t.’

‘Can’t?’

‘Nope,’ he confirmed lightly. ‘I don’t have any money, you see. The job in Canada didn’t turn out to be the success I thought it would be, I only just had enough money to get myself back to dear old England.’

‘I’ll lend you some money to—–’ He was shaking his head before Kate had even completed her suggestion! ‘No?’ she rasped tightly.

He continued to shake his head. ‘I never take money from a woman.’

‘But if I insist …’

‘I still couldn’t do it.’ He pursed his lips thoughtfully. ‘Besides, what respectable hotel would appreciate my turning up for a room this time of the morning?’

‘London doesn’t stand on ceremony, you know that. It’s a city of transients.’

‘Maybe,’ he conceded. ‘But I’m really quite comfortable where I am.’

And she was far from being comfortable! Jared couldn’t possibly stay in her flat overnight. What if Richard should find out?

‘I’ll leave first thing in the morning, I promise,’ Jared seemed to be reading her thoughts. ‘You have a spare bedroom, just let me stay here tonight.’

She was beginning to feel too tired to argue any more, with the thought of her full day at the agency looming in front of her. ‘All right,’ she agreed tautly. ‘But you stay in the spare room, and you leave first thing in the morning,’ she warningly echoed his words.

‘Of course.’ He somehow contrived to look hurt. ‘Didn’t I just say I would?’

‘What you say and what you do are two different things,’ she bit out.

His eyes darkened, the laughter fading from them for a few minutes. ‘Not me, Katharine Mary,’ he told her softly. ‘I always mean what I say, and I always do it too.’

‘A man of his word, hmm?’ she sneered with bitterness.

The humour still didn’t return. ‘I’m sorry you’ve been hurt, my Katharine,’ his voice almost caressed. ‘And one day I’d like to hear about the man who did the hurting. Although I realise that right now,’ he taunted at the rebellion in her face, ‘you would rather tell me to go to hell for daring to intrude into your private pain.’

‘You realise right,’ she rasped harshly. ‘You’ll find clean linen in the cupboard in the spare-room,’ she added tiredly. ‘I trust you know how to make a bed?’

He grinned. ‘I already have.’

Kate gave a disbelieving frown, marching over to open the door to her spare bedroom. The bed was neatly made up, the top covers turned back invitingly. She turned to Jared with blazing eyes. ‘You were very confident!’

‘Not really,’ he shook his head. ‘I just know my Katharine Mary.’

‘You don’t know me. And I’m not your anything!’

He shrugged. ‘I think the answer to both those statements is, not yet.’

‘Not ever!’

He sighed. ‘Please yourself.’

‘I intend to!’

‘And I intend pleasing myself too,’ he looked at her in challenge. ‘And being with you pleases me more than anything else. You really shouldn’t have run out on me like you did.’

‘I didn’t run out on you,’ she denied. ‘It was time to leave the hotel, so I left.’

‘While I was making a telephone call!’

‘We had nothing more to say to one another, we’d already said goodbye.’

‘Strange,’ Jared drawled, ‘I don’t remember that. I remember asking you to go to North America with me.’

‘And I thought you would understand my answer,’ she scorned.

‘Maybe I did,’ he nodded. ‘But the Rourkes have never been known to give up.’

For a social drop-out that was a very strange statement! Jared seemed to read her thoughts once again, for his mouth twisted wryly.

‘Maybe I just need the right woman to help me settle down,’ he said lightly.

Kate’s head went back. ‘Well, don’t look at me!’

‘Was I?’ he teased.

‘You know you were,’ she dismissed abruptly. ‘But I’m going to marry Richard next month.’

‘Of course you are,’ Jared nodded.

‘Jared?’

He turned, his brows raised in innocent query. ‘Hm?’

Kate sighed, putting up a weary hand to her forehead, unconsciously using her left hand, the diamond there sparkling brightly, unknowingly provoking the man standing opposite her.

‘Don’t worry, me darlin’,’ once again he spoke with an Irish brogue, pulling her towards him, ‘I’m sure the best man will win.’

‘Jared, there is no contest—–’

‘Ssh, Katharine Mary,’ he spoke into her hair. ‘You’re too tired tonight to think straight.’ He kissed her chastely on the forehead.

‘There’s nothing to think about!’ She pulled away from him, glaring her anger. ‘I want you gone from here before I get up in the morning, do you understand?’

Jared looked unperturbed by her vehemence. ‘Perfectly. Now don’t frown like that,’ he advised. ‘It’ll give you wrinkles.’

With one last exasperated glare she turned and slammed into her bedroom, gritting her teeth to stop herself going back to confront him again as she heard him mutter something about waking the neighbours. They were her neighbours, damn it, and she would wake them if she wanted to!

Heavens, she was being ridiculous now! Of course she didn’t want to wake the neighbours.

What had she done to bring that tormentor back into her life? It hadn’t been her doing at all, if it hadn’t been for Brian she would never have been at that hotel in the first place!

She and Brian had met at art college five years ago, and liked each other immediately, spending most of their time together, Kate often cooking for them both in her room. They had fallen into the habit of meeting most evenings, eating a meal together and then spending the rest of the time talking or listening to music. They had been halcyon days, when the future was only as far as tomorrow, and there was still the present to enjoy.

When their college days were over Kate went to work for an advertising agency, not being good enough to become a professional artist herself, but knowing that Brian was. She hadn’t minded helping to support him as he struggled to make a name for himself, hadn’t cared at all that they rarely went out, or that the engagement ring he had given her on her twenty-first birthday still hadn’t been given the accompanying plain gold band even three years later. She understood and respected the fact that Brian wanted to be established in his art before committing himself to marriage.

The time hadn’t passed slowly for her. Her own career had progressed very satisfactorily along the path she had chosen, her father helping her out financially when the chance of running her own agency came along. At the time she had considered the longer hours, the hard work, all worthwhile, the money she made after paying her father back his loan helping Brian with his career. She hadn’t realised that he resented the fact that she spent less time with him, less time taking care of him, and that he would seek out someone else who could give him the attention he needed.

Coral Simpkins was a rich young widow who had bought one of Brian’s paintings from the gallery he submitted them to, her curiosity about the artist making her seek him out. It had been only the first of many meetings, Kate found out months later. Brian had suddenly changed, often being curt with her, and the time between their meetings becoming farther and farther apart. At first she hadn’t even noticed that, secure in their love for each other, deeply involved in the advertising agency that had become so much a part of her life. But the night she had finished early at the agency and gone round to surprise Brian had been the night she got her surprise!

She had the key to Brian’s flat and she let herself in as she usually did, carrying the bottle of wine she had bought to celebrate the success of another contract acquired for her agency. The only light on in the flat had been the one in the studio, but then that wasn’t unusual. Brian often worked in there for days at a time without a break. But he hadn’t been working that night, and neither had the blonde woman in his arms!

It had been a humiliating as well as a painful experience for Kate, especially as Coral Simpkins felt no awkwardness about the situation. The older woman simply got up from the camp-bed Brian kept in there, pulling on his robe to light a cigarette, looking at Kate insultingly through the smoke.

One thing Coral Simpkins didn’t lack was confidence—and she didn’t lack Brian at the end of the exchange either. Kate did!

Sorry, Brian said. It just happened, he said. We’re in love, he said. We’re going to be married, he said!

Something had died inside her that night, something precious that she felt sure she would never find again. And she didn’t want to find it, not if it meant being disillusioned and hurt by a man she had known and loved for five years. A sensible marriage, with no illusions, to a man who was too sophisticated himself to want a clinging wife, was what she planned for her future, a man who could give her the same power over her own life that he had over his. Richard fitted that role perfectly.

She moved restlessly to get ready for bed, impatient with herself for wasting all this time thinking about Brian when she should have been sleeping. And she had been wasting her time, as she had for her five years with him, knew now that he was only interested in what a woman could do for him. And Coral Simpkins—Linton, now—had already done more for him in the two months they had been married than Kate ever could, Brian’s first exhibition being held at a prominent gallery in London. Needless to say, Kate hadn’t attended.

A knock sounded on her bedroom door, and she turned sharply, her robe held up in front of her defensively.

Jared came into the room. ‘I heard you moving about, so I knew you weren’t asleep. I’m just about to make some cocoa, would you like some?’

She stared at him in astonishment. ‘It’s three-thirty in the morning!’

‘I know,’ he nodded, not looking in the least tired himself. ‘I thought you’d be asleep by now.’

‘I—–’ she shrugged dismissively, evading his searching gaze. ‘I’m just about to go to bed now. But help yourself to the cocoa.’

‘Thanks,’ he accepted lightly, turning to go. ‘By the way,’ his eyes gleamed with mischief, ‘your reflection in the mirror behind you makes the robe superfluous.’

Kate spun round to see herself perfectly reflected in the mirror on her dressing-table, knowing her naked back must have been clearly exposed to Jared as he spoke to her. She turned back to him indignantly, only to find him gone, and sat down heavily on the bed, wondering what had possessed her to let him stay. And yet she had the feeling she hadn’t made that decision, that he had made the choice himself. Jared Rourke might be everything that she considered irresponsible, but he seemed to somehow bring things round to his advantage. Well, he would be gone tomorrow, and with luck she would never have to see him again.

The ribbon that had secured her hair while she slept had come loose some time during the night, the long red tresses tangled about her face as she pushed them away impatiently, desperately trying to remember what was causing the feeling of oppression that had been with her as soon as her alarm woke her.

Jared! Of course. Would he have left as they had agreed he should? There was only one way to find out.

She got out of bed, pulling on her robe over her nightgown, quickly brushing the tangles from her hair before going out into the lounge. Jared lay asleep on the sofa, the radio still playing softly where he had fallen asleep with it on. Kate moved to switch it off, watching Jared to see if there were any sign of movement, but there was none. He was still fully dressed, only his short leather jacket removed to reveal the blue sweat-shirt, the long length of his legs stretched over the end of the sofa, too long to fit on it comfortably. He was going to ache all over when he woke up!

When he woke up! That was the problem; he was still here, and he should have been on his way by now. Ben would only have to casually mention to Richard that her ‘brother’ was staying with her and that would be that. Richard might like to think of himself as sophisticated, but Kate doubted if he would accept another man—a man he would know wasn’t her brother!—spending the night with her when they had just become engaged.

‘Jared!’ She deliberately knocked his legs from the arm of the sofa, feeling a moment of regret but knowing the soft approach wouldn’t work with this man. Hadn’t he somehow persuaded her to let him stay in the first place against her better judgment!

‘What—Huh? What’s happening …?’ He came awake with a start, blinking up at her with bloodshot eyes, that and the dark overnight growth of beard on his chin giving him an unkempt look. ‘Kate …?’ He blinked his recognition of her, sitting up. to run his long fingers through his hair, its dark thickness falling back into its casually windswept style. ‘I’d only just fallen asleep,’ he looked up to complain.

‘Well, now you can go and sleep somewhere else,’ she told him without sympathy. ‘I’ll be leaving for work in a few minutes and I don’t intend that you should still be here when I go.’

‘Afraid I might make off with your jewellery?’ he mocked.

‘Most of what I own isn’t worth much,’ she assured him. ‘The only piece worth having I’m keeping right here,’ she held up her left hand.

‘You are?’ he taunted.

‘Yes,’ she bit out. ‘Now get your things together and leave. It’s first thing in the morning, and you made me a promise to be gone then.’

He sat back, looking perfectly relaxed, the sweat-shirt pulled tautly across his chest. ‘My morning won’t begin until about midnight.’

‘The deal was my morning—–’

‘I don’t think that was specified—–’

‘My morning, Jared,’ she repeated firmly. ‘Now I’m going to take a shower and get ready for work. That gives you about twenty minutes.’ She went into the bathroom and closed the door, turning the key in the lock for good measure; she didn’t trust Jared an inch.

When she came out of the bathroom she could smell coffee being percolated, the fresh aroma filling the flat. Oh well, she had given him twenty minutes, it was up to him how he filled that time. As long as he was gone at the end of it she didn’t mind.

Her silky underwear lay in matching sets in her top drawer, the soft lacy bras and panties that she liked to feel against her skin.

‘Wear the black,’ remarked a husky voice behind her. ‘I always liked you in black.’

She spun round, clutching her robe together over her nakedness. ‘Always, Jared?’ she mocked to hide her confusion. ‘Two days isn’t exactly a lifetime.’

He had been leaning against the door-frame, now he moved away from it to walk slowly towards her, his gaze mesmerising. ‘It depends who you spend those two days with.’

Kate took a step backwards at the determined glint in his eyes. ‘Will you stop this, Jared?’ She made her tone sound light. ‘We both know we mean nothing to each other.’

‘We don’t?’ He was stalking her now, like a cat stalks its prey.

‘No—–’

‘You mean something to me, Katharine Mary,’ he told her softly, very close now, recently washed and shaved, his hair brushed back damply, his shoes and socks back in place.

She moistened her lips. ‘I—I do?’

‘Yes.’ He took her into his arms, moulding her to him to gently claim her lips with his, kissing her with drugging hunger. ‘I want you, my darling,’ he muttered raggedly against her throat. ‘I want you all the time. I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind for the last three months. How could I settle to a job in North America when you were all I could think about?’ His mouth claimed hers once again, deepening the caress with probing warmth.

‘No!’ Kate wrenched away from him, fastening the belt of her robe with shaking hands. ‘I’m going to marry Richard!’

Jared thrust his hands into his denims pockets, his shoulders hunched over. ‘I don’t happen to agree with you,’ he challenged.

She frowned, swallowing hard as he continued to meet her gaze. The steel was back in his face, and once again she had the fleeting impression that he would make a formidable adversary, although the feeling was only fleeting, instantly dispelled as he grinned once again.

‘You see,’ he said slowly but clearly, ‘I intend marrying you myself.’

CHAPTER THREE

KATE searched the rugged face for signs of madness; there could surely be no other explanation for the outrageous statement he had just made. He just stared straight back at her with clear blue eyes, looking surprisingly boyish despite his thirty-four years.

And why shouldn’t he look boyish—the man had probably never taken on a responsibility in the whole of those years! And she wasn’t about to take on being any man’s meal ticket again, even if this one was a charming rogue.

‘Do you usually imbibe this time of the morning?’ she scorned, turning away.

‘Look at me, Kate. Look at me!’ Jared repeated harshly as he received no response.

She turned back to him slowly, hardly recognising the ‘charming rogue’ in this rigid-jawed man. ‘I’m looking at you,’ she snapped as he made no effort to speak to her.

‘And I’m looking at you,’ he nodded. ‘Not all men are the same as your first fiancé, Kate. Whatever he did to you, I would never do the same.’

‘How can you be so sure when you don’t even know what he did?’ she derided.

‘Because I would never do anything to hurt you,’ he explained simply.

Her mouth twisted. ‘No man will ever be in a position to hurt me again.’

‘I just told you—–’

‘Especially someone like you,’ she continued with contempt. ‘I’ve already had a sample of men like you,’ she dismissed scornfully, ‘and I don’t want it again.’

‘Men like me?’ Jared prompted softly, his stance challenging.

‘Yes!’ Her eyes flashed deeply gold. ‘You drift around the world living from day to day, never giving of yourself but always taking from others. Well, I have nothing to give. I already gave—too damned much,’ she added bitterly.

‘I want to marry you, Kate,’ he bit out tautly.

‘And how do you intend to support me?’ Her mouth turned back with scorn. ‘Or didn’t that enter into the plan of things? Of course it didn’t,’ she derided. ‘You like an independent woman—now I realise why. I don’t intend marrying you, Jared. I met you at a time when I was feeling vulnerable, bruised, in need of someone to help me through a difficult experience in my life. But as far as I’m concerned that’s all there was to it. I’m sorry if you read more into it than what there was.’

‘Are you?’ he rasped.

She sighed heavily. ‘Look, Jared, at the time I needed you. You had a sleeping partner for a couple of days and I managed to sort out my life, that’s all there was to it,’ she dismissed again. ‘We didn’t make any vows or lasting commitments to each other. It was a physical interlude, nothing else.’ And it was an interlude that would probably haunt her for the rest of her life, completely out of character for her, although she wasn’t going to tell him that; better that he continued to think of her as a sophisticate.

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