Читать книгу Rumours: The Legacy Of Revenge - Кэтти Уильямс, Cathy Williams - Страница 15

CHAPTER SIX

FLYNN WASN’T HOME when Kat arrived later that day to take Cricket out for his evening walk. She refused to acknowledge the little slump in her spirits. What did she care if he wasn’t home? It was better if she didn’t see him, especially after seeing him all but naked this morning. Every time she thought of coming across him in his bedroom in nothing but a towel hitched around those lean hips her stomach somersaulted. His body was as attractive as his mind. Toned and tanned with muscles in all the right places. And his sexy frame was sprinkled with just enough masculine hair for her hormones to start fanning themselves.

But, when she walked back from the park with a panting Cricket at her side, she noticed more lights on in Flynn’s house than she had left on when she had let herself in earlier. The front door opened before she could use the key Flynn had given her but it wasn’t him standing there—it was Miranda Ravensdale. Gulp. Her half-sister. Kat knew it was Miranda as she had seen numerous photos of her and her brothers when the news of her existence had broken.

Miranda smiled shyly. ‘Hi. I’m Miranda. I hope you don’t mind us dropping in like this but when we heard Flynn broke his foot Jaz and I thought we’d better drop off a casserole or something. We won’t stay long. We’re just going, aren’t we, Jaz?’

Before Kat could think of anything to say, another young woman appeared. ‘Hiya.’ Jasmine Connolly gave a beaming smile. ‘So, we finally meet. Hey, Cricket.’ She bent down and cuddled the dog, who was in a paroxysm of delight. ‘What do you think of your new neighbour, huh? Isn’t she a sweetheart to take you out for walkies?’

Why had Jaz made it sound as if Kat had taken the dog out as a Good Samaritan favour? Kat couldn’t stop looking at Miranda, searching the young woman’s elfin features for any likeness to her own. Her half-sister. A relative. Someone to belong to. Family. ‘Erm...nice to meet you.’

Miranda bit her lower lip. ‘Is it too awkward for you? I mean, we can leave now, can’t we, Jaz?’

‘But I thought we were going to stay and have dinner with Flynn?’ Jaz said.

Kat saw the two exchange glances. ‘I’m just dropping off Cricket,’ she said into the little silence.

‘Oh, won’t you stay and have dinner with us?’ Miranda’s gaze was a wide, enthusiastic, welcome-to-the-family one. ‘We made enough to feed an army. Two armies, the navy and the air force, actually. Julius and Jake aren’t here, if that’s what’s worrying you. Julius and Holly are in Argentina just now and Jake’s out with Leandro, my fiancé, at a work thing.’

Kat knew it would look churlish of her to refuse. But meeting her half-sister without warning had thrown her completely. No doubt Flynn was behind this impromptu meeting. Her fury at him boiled in her blood like caustic soda until her veins felt like they were going to bust. How dared he engineer a meeting she didn’t want? Wasn’t emotionally ready for? What if he’d invited her father? The whole freaking family? ‘Where is Flynn?’ she said.

‘In the sitting room with his foot up,’ Miranda said. ‘I insisted he rest it. It’s awfully bruised and swollen. I think he’s been putting weight on it against doctor’s orders. Some men make terrible patients.’

Kat peeled off her gloves, studying both girls with a watchful gaze. ‘Did he tell you how he broke it?’

‘He said he tripped down the stairs,’ Jaz said. ‘Not like him to be so clumsy, is it, Miranda?’

‘No.’ Miranda laughed self-deprecatingly. ‘That’s the sort of thing I would do, not Flynn.’

Kat opened and closed her mouth, stuck for something to say. Why hadn’t he told the girls the truth? Why hadn’t he exploited the situation? Why tell them he’d tripped when he could have told them she was responsible?

Jaz’s grey-blue eyes began to dance. ‘So, how long have you two been seeing each other?’

Kat straightened her shoulders. ‘I’m not. We’re not. I’m just—’

‘House-sitting next door—yeah, yeah, yeah,’ Jaz said, still grinning. ‘Kind of convenient, huh?’

Kat elevated her chin, her mouth set in a prim Sunday school teacher line. ‘Mr Carlyon recommended me to the Carstairs family next door. That is and will remain the only connection I have with him.’

Jaz was undaunted and gave Miranda a little elbow-nudge. ‘Mr Carlyon? That’s cute. And does he call you “Miss Winwood”?’

Kat glanced at Miranda, who was looking at her with big, soulful Bambi eyes. It occurred to her then that this meeting must be as tricky for Miranda as it was for her.

She was the interloper. The new half-breed sister. The shameful secret that had come to light after twenty-three years of silence. How awful must it be for Miranda to have to face the living and breathing evidence of her father’s betrayal of his marriage vows? Miranda was no longer the baby sister, the youngest child. Kat had taken that position from her. The press had even gone as far to say Kat was the more beautiful of the sisters. Before that Miranda had always been compared to her glamorous mother and found lacking, and now she had a half-sister to be compared to. How did Miranda feel about that? Was she angry? Upset? Did she project that negative emotion on Kat?

Not so far as Kat could see. If anything, Miranda looked like she wanted to make a good impression. She looked like she was keen to establish a bond with her but was uncertain about how she would be received.

‘What does a guy have to do to get a drink around here?’ Flynn’s deep voice called out from the sitting room.

Jaz turned on her heel and marched off to the sitting room. ‘You’re not supposed to drink when you’re taking prescription painkillers,’ she said.

Miranda looked at Kat with a shy grimace. ‘I know this must be just awful for you...meeting me like this... I know you’ve not wanted any contact. I understand that. I really do. The whole situation is just ghastly for you but I do want us to be friends if at all possible. None of this is your fault. None of us blame you for it—well, apart from Mum, but let’s not even go there.’

‘Thanks.’ Kat forced a smile. ‘It’s kind of weird but not awful. I’ve just needed some time to get my head around it all.’

Miranda’s features relaxed ever so slightly. ‘Please don’t be offended by Jaz’s teasing just now. She just wants everyone to be as happy as she is, now she and Jake have got engaged. You’re the last Ravensdale to be single... I mean, not that you probably think of yourself as a Ravensdale or anything, but...’ She bit down on her lip again and blushed. ‘I’m sorry. I’m making such a dreadful hash of this. I always talk too much when I’m nervous.’

‘I go quiet when I’m nervous,’ Kat said.

Miranda’s eyes bulged. ‘Really? That’s exactly like Julius. I can’t wait until you meet the boys. They’re awesome big brothers. They’re really looking forward to meeting you. But only if you want to, of course. You mustn’t feel pressured to meet Dad. He can be a bit overpowering.’ She gave a little eye-roll. ‘Not to mention Mum—but don’t get me started.’

Kat felt her smile relax. ‘She’s actually one of my favourite theatre actors.’

‘Really?’

‘She’s amazing onstage,’ Kat said. ‘She’s spellbinding to watch live. I could watch her all day.’

Miranda did that lip-chewing thing again and a small frown pulled at her smooth forehead. ‘I’ve always found my mother’s fame a bit of a burden. I know she’s supertalented and all that but sometimes I just wanted her to be a mum. A normal one, you know?’

Kat gave her a wry look. ‘What’s normal? My mum certainly wasn’t a soccer mum.’

Miranda touched Kat’s arm, those big brown eyes warm and compassionate as they held hers. ‘I’m really sorry about your loss. You must miss her dreadfully.’

Kat was a little ashamed to realise she didn’t miss her mother. Not in the way one should miss a parent. It was almost a relief not to have to deal with her mum’s issues. The drinking. The depression. The never knowing what she would find at the end of the phone when she called. Morose moods. Mania. Mayhem. ‘Thanks,’ she said.

Cricket came bolting back out, did a couple of crazy spins and yapped three times at Kat. Miranda gave a light laugh. ‘Looks like he’s taken a bit of a shine to you.’

Kat smiled back. ‘It’s mutual.’

Miranda went off to join Jaz in getting dinner organised, so Kat took the opportunity to speak to Flynn in private. As soon as she entered the sitting room, his gaze met hers from where he was sitting on one of the plush sofas. ‘So, you’ve met half of the family.’

She sliced him a glare. ‘Feeling pretty proud of yourself, are you?’

He gave her a lazy smile. ‘It had to happen sooner or later. Miranda and Jaz are like sisters to me. I’ve known them since they were in pigtails.’

Kat folded her arms. ‘I suppose you’ll have Richard just drop in next. If he does, I’m out of here. I don’t care how rudely I come across.’

He studied her for a beat. ‘I didn’t know the girls were going to show up. I was speaking to Jake about a legal matter and I mentioned I’d broken my foot. He must’ve told Jaz and she told Miranda. They arrived just as I was getting out of the cab.’

Kat kept her gaze trained on his. ‘Why did you tell them you tripped down the stairs?’

He gave a light shrug. ‘I didn’t want to make things awkward for you.’

‘I thought the whole point of this exercise was to make things as awkward for me as possible.’

‘The girls are keen to have an amicable relationship with you. Why would I go and tell them you maimed me? They might never speak to you again.’

‘Maimed you?’ It’s three tiny little bones, for God’s sake. Talk about a drama queen.’

‘It hurts like the very devil.’

She went over and whipped the glass of Scotch out of his hand. ‘That is not allowed. You heard what Jaz said. You shouldn’t mix alcohol with prescription drugs.’

His lazy smile made the base of her spine shiver. ‘I’m having a hot fantasy of you dressed in a nurse’s uniform. Ever played one?’

‘Will you stop it? The girls will hear.’

His dark eyes glinted. ‘We can’t have the girls thinking anything untoward is going on between us, now can we, Miss Winwood?’

She gave him a look that would have withered marble. ‘As if I would stoop so low.’

Jaz came breezing in with a tray loaded with nibbles. She looked at Kat’s glowering expression and then at Flynn, who was smiling like a cat with an empty bowl and whiskers dripping with cream.

Jaz gave him a cheeky grin. ‘That Carlyon charm not quite hitting the mark, eh, Flynn?’

‘You know me,’ he said. ‘The harder I have to work for something the more I enjoy the victory.’

‘Looks like you might’ve met your match,’ Jaz said. ‘I haven’t seen you so hooked on anyone since Claire.’

The atmosphere changed as if an unpinned grenade had been dropped.

Flynn’s expression turned to stone, his eyes to flint and the atmosphere to freezing. Kat glanced at Jaz but if Jaz was put off by Flynn’s demeanour she showed no sign of it.

Miranda came in at that point and gauged the stiff little tableau with a worried flicker of her gaze. ‘What’s going on?’

‘I mentioned the C word.’ Jaz took one of the nibbles and crunched into it loudly. Defiantly loudly. He-should-get-over-himself loudly.

Flynn reached for his crutches. ‘Excuse me, but I’m going to give dinner a miss.’

Kat stood back as he limped past without once glancing her way. But she didn’t have to see his face to know it was as tense as the muscles in his back and shoulders. Interesting. She waited until he was well out of earshot. ‘Who is Claire?’

Jaz handed her a platter of nibbles. ‘His ex-fiancée. Eleven years ago, to be precise. He’s been gun-shy about commitment ever since.’

‘Jaz, you really shouldn’t have said anything,’ Miranda said. ‘You know how he hates anyone reminding him.’

Jaz shrugged off her friend’s reproach. ‘So, what’s he got to be so uptight about? I’ve got three ex-fiancés and you don’t see me getting upset if anyone mentions them by name.’ She gave a twinkling grin and reached for her drink. ‘Anyway, I’ve just about forgotten their names now I’ve got Jake.’

‘How long was Flynn engaged?’ Kat asked.

‘Only a few weeks,’ Miranda said. ‘But he must have really loved her. He was devastated when she broke it off. He wouldn’t talk about it, not for ages. I don’t think he even told Julius or Jake all the ins and outs of what went wrong. He can be pretty tight-lipped at times.’

‘I think it comes from him being adopted,’ Jaz said, and at Miranda’s cautionary look added, ‘What?’

‘You know he doesn’t like everyone knowing about that,’ Miranda said.

‘It’s all right,’ Kat said. ‘He told me he was adopted.’

Miranda’s eyes went wide. Not saucer wide. Satellite-dish wide. ‘Did he?’

Jaz gave Miranda another little conspiratorial nudge. ‘See? What did I tell you? He’s got it bad.’

‘Have you met his family?’ Kat asked, trying to ignore the traitorous little flutter of excitement Jaz’s comments evoked. ‘I mean, his adoptive one?’

Jaz bent down to give Cricket a snippet of smoked salmon. ‘I met his mother last year when I was in Manchester for a bridal show. She was nice in a standoffish way. I got the feeling she didn’t really get Flynn. I think he intimidates her with his intelligence. Not that it’s his fault he’s so smart and has done so well for himself. He’s always been driven and superfocused.’

‘He said he has no interest in meeting his biological parents,’ Kat said. ‘Do you know why?’

‘I think a lot of men who’ve been adopted are like that,’ Miranda said. ‘I guess they find it hard to understand what it’s like for a woman to have to make that impossibly difficult decision to relinquish a baby.’

‘Maybe he’ll tell you since you’re getting on so well,’ Jaz said to Kat with a spark in her gaze.

Kat gave her a speaking look. ‘Don’t hold your breath.’

* * *

The girls left after an hour of eating and chatting on lighter topics. Kat found it a surreal experience to be on such familiar terms with the two young women she’d spent the last three and a half months actively avoiding. She even felt a little sad once they’d left. Their tight unit reminded her of all she had missed out on as a child. She hadn’t had close friends growing up, or at least not as close as Jaz and Miranda were. She had moved around too much when her mother had changed jobs or relationships. It had been hard to create a bond with friends when in the back of her mind she knew it wouldn’t be long before she would be taken away to some other place where she would have to start all over again. Her friend Maddie was the only exception, but even then they had met as adults, when Kat had visited Maddie’s beauty salon when she’d first moved to London, and their friendship had grown from there.

She wondered if she would see Miranda or Jaz again or if by seeing them it would bring her into contact with her father. She wasn’t ready to meet Richard Ravensdale. She didn’t think she would ever be ready. How could she stand in front of a man who had wished her existence away?

But the thought of meeting her half-brothers was tempting. Miranda had spoken so highly of them. What would it be like to have twin older brothers to watch out for her? To have a family who included her in their lives?

Who actually wanted her in their lives?

* * *

Kat put some food on a tray and carried it upstairs with Cricket at her heels. Flynn’s door was closed so she had to put the tray on a hall table outside before she could knock. ‘Flynn? Are you awake? I brought you some dinner.’

There was no answer so she opened the door. Flynn was lying on his back with his foot elevated, his eyes closed, but she could tell he wasn’t asleep. There was too much tension in his body. She could see it in the terrain of his face: the twin lines running down either side of his mouth, the groove between his brows, the in and out flare of his nostrils, as if he was carefully measuring each breath. Was it his foot giving him grief or had Jaz’s mention of his ex-fiancée done that to him? Eleven years was a long time to be bitter over a relationship break-up. She tried to imagine him as a man in love. He didn’t seem the type to let his emotions rule his head. He was charming and laid-back, but always in control. Or was his bitterness anchored in the fact that Claire had been the one to walk out? Some men found rejection hard to take. Perhaps his being adopted had made him even more sensitive to it.

Kat came and sat on the edge of the bed feeling a bit like a kitten approaching a lion. ‘So, I take it Jaz struck a raw nerve?’

‘Not raw. Dead and buried.’ His tone was flat, emotionless, but she could hear a speed hump of hurt. ‘I hate having it exhumed. It stinks.’

Kat hadn’t realised how close her hand was to his where it was resting on the bed. If she moved her pinkie a few millimetres it would come into contact with his. Something shifted in her belly at the thought of his darkly tanned skin touching hers. ‘She’s quite a personality, isn’t she?’

He grunted something unintelligible.

‘I liked Miranda too,’ Kat said. ‘A lot. I didn’t expect to but she’s nothing like I expected. I thought she’d hate me, but she made me feel like she really wants us to have a connection.’

‘She’s a sweetheart. Leandro’s a lucky man.’

Kat looked at their hands again. Watched as the distance between their fingers got smaller. Was she moving her finger or was he moving his? ‘Were you in love with her?’

‘Who?’

‘Claire.’

His lips folded inward like he was filtering his response. Blocking it. Banning it. The silence boomed with the beats of the muscle flicking in his jaw. In. Out. In. Out.

‘If you’d rather not talk about it...’ Kat left the words hanging. Dangling like a dare.

His gaze hit hers. Hard. Two-can-play-at-that-game hard. ‘Do you want to talk about your affair with a married man?’

Shame turned Kat’s stomach sour and made her face burn. ‘You know about that?’

‘Men like Charles Longmore can’t help boasting about bedding a celebrity.’

Panic took an ice-pick to her spine and a sledgehammer to her heart. If Flynn knew then who else knew? Would her shame be splashed on every tabloid? Everyone would blame her. They always did. The Other Woman always got the blame. No one ever blamed the philandering husband. Kat would be cast in the role of home wrecker and there would be no way to defend herself. ‘Oh no...’

‘It’s all right.’ Flynn’s voice had a reassuring steadiness to it. ‘He and I have come to an understanding.’

Kat swallowed back bile, her hammering heart going back to where it belonged in her chest. ‘How do you know him?’

‘Mutual acquaintance.’

She looked down at her clenched hands. ‘I didn’t know he was married. He lied to me. Lie after lie after lie. I broke it off as soon as I found out. The worst thing was I’d always been so annoyed with my mother for getting involved with married men. I feel like such a hypocrite.’

Flynn put his hand over her white-knuckled ones and gave them a light squeeze. ‘Don’t be so hard on yourself. He was a jerk. A cheat. No one will believe him anyway.’

‘Why do you say that?’

‘You’re way out of his league.’

Kat cocked her head at him. ‘Is that a compliment, Mr Carlyon?’

His smile tugged on her resolve like a child pulling at its mother’s skirt. ‘Yes, Miss Winwood. It is.’

Another small silence ticked past.

Kat relaxed her hands and smoothed them against her bent thighs. ‘I guess I should let you rest...’

‘I wasn’t in love with Claire.’

Kat wondered why that should make her feel such an odd sense of relief. It wasn’t as if she was worried about whether his emotions had taken a battering. Why should she care if he’d had his heart banged up?

You do care. You like him.

No, I don’t. Well...maybe a little...but only because he was so good about that creep Charles.

‘Claire thought she was pregnant,’ Flynn said. ‘I wanted to do the right thing by her and our child.’

‘At least you didn’t pay her to have an abortion.’

He gave her a fleeting half-smile before his expression went back to neutral. ‘It was way earlier than I’d planned to settle down, but I thought it would work out if we both were committed to doing the best thing for the baby. But she found out a couple of days later it was a false alarm. She ended our relationship then and there.’

Kat searched his inscrutable face. What emotions was he screening from view? How had he felt at having the future he had planned with Claire cut so abruptly? Or had he been privately relieved he was off the hook, so to speak? Many young men would be terrified at the thought of fatherhood being thrust upon them before they were ready. ‘You weren’t relieved?’

He gave a soft laugh. ‘No. Maybe later, when I’d got over myself a bit. But not then.’

‘Why was doing the right thing by her and the baby so important to you? Because you were adopted?’

He met her gaze in a lock that made something in her chest ping. ‘I wasn’t a straightforward adoption.’

‘What do you mean?’

Kat saw his deepening frown, the slow blink, the tight swallow, the shadow of something pass through his gaze. Several somethings. It looked like he was shuffling through his thoughts, deciding whether he should reveal what he had stored inside the filing system of his mind.

‘I was a foundling,’ he finally said. ‘An abandoned infant with no name, no registration of birth or any other details pinning me to another soul on this planet. All I had was the ratty old bunny rug I was wrapped in and a soiled cloth nappy. And the worst case of nappy rash the authorities had ever seen.’

Kat stared at him in shock, her heart jolting at the thought of him as a tiny baby, suffering, abandoned, alone. ‘Oh dear, that’s so sad. Didn’t anyone ever come forward?’

‘Nope.’ The way he said the word made it sound as if he had long ago given up hope. Maybe he hadn’t had it in the first place.

Kat covered his hand with hers. Not that she did a great job of covering much of it, given her hand was so much smaller. He turned her hand over and entwined his fingers with hers. The heat from his hand warmed her body from her fingertips to her toes. ‘I can’t imagine what that must be like for you,’ she said. ‘Not knowing. Never knowing.’

His thumb moved back and forth against the fleshy base of hers. ‘Maybe it’s better not to know, or so I keep telling myself. I can’t see myself turning up any famous actors as my parents.’

Kat pulled her hand out of his. ‘I suppose you think I’m being petty about my father.’

‘He’s the only one you’ll ever have.’

‘He’s not the one I want.’

‘We don’t get to choose.’

She got off the bed and stalked to the window, folding her arms across her body. ‘I’m not ready.’

‘That’s another thing you might not have much choice over,’ he said. ‘What if you run in to him sometime?’

Kat swung back to face him with a look that would have curdled milk. ‘You mean with another impromptu dinner party at your house?’

‘I didn’t engineer the girls turning up.’

‘You engineered me house-sitting next door.’

‘So?’

‘So how can I trust you?’

He let out a long breath. ‘The question is, can I trust you?’

Kat frowned. ‘Why would you ask that?’

His gaze was direct. Don’t-mess-with-me direct. ‘I’ve told you stuff I’ve told no one. Not even the Ravensdales know I was abandoned as a baby. They only know I was adopted.’

Kat shifted her mouth from side to side, wondering if he regretted telling her. She seemed a strange ally for his secrets. She had made it clear she didn’t like him and yet he had told her things he had told no one else. Or did he suspect she did like him? That she liked him more than she wanted to admit to herself? ‘Why did you tell me?’

One side of his mouth lifted in a wry smile and he reached for his crutches to get off the bed. ‘I have absolutely no idea. Maybe it’s the painkillers and alcohol combination.’

Kat wondered if it was because he saw something in her that he saw in himself: the bone-deep sense of aloneness, of not belonging anywhere or to anyone. Of always having to rely on yourself with no one as backup. ‘I won’t tell anyone. You have my word.’

‘And when you make a promise you keep it, right?’

She glanced at his slanted mouth. Right now she wished she had never made that crazy promise to her friend Maddie. Right now all she wanted to do was press her lips against his and taste the sensual heat of him, to feel the potency of him awakening every female pore of her body into an inferno of lust.

He came to stand in front of her but because he was on crutches his mouth was closer than normal. She could see every line and contour, the way the edges turned up at the corners, as if he was used to smiling far more than not. It impressed her that he was so positive in outlook, considering his tragic beginnings and the way his adoptive family held him at arm’s length. Most people would be bitter and angry at the world. A little like me. So many people from difficult backgrounds became difficult people. The cycles of neglect and abuse often went on for generations.

But Flynn had made something of himself, refusing to let his tragic background stop him from achieving all he set out to achieve. He had qualities she couldn’t help admiring. Most of the men she had been involved with had exploited her in some way. But Flynn hadn’t sabotaged her fledging relationship with Miranda and Jaz, even though he’d had a perfect opportunity.

Why had he done that?

What did it mean?

Why was he treating her as if he had plans for building a future with her?

Kat looked into the dark-brown depths of his eyes, her stomach free-falling when they went to her mouth. He leaned one hand on his crutch and lifted the other to her face in a fainéant movement from the top of her cheekbone to just beside her mouth, his fingertip leaving a trail of fire against her skin. She sent her tongue out over her lips, swallowing deeply as she sensed him leaning closer. Her pelvis registered his proximity, her inner core contracting with a pulse of vicious need.

His mouth hovered above hers, his warm, faint-hint-of-whisky breath wafting over her tingling lips. His nose bumped against hers, a soft nudge that was powerfully, shamelessly, erotic. His stubble-shadowed skin grazed her cheek, sending her senses into a swishing, swirling tailspin. The tip of his tongue stroked the vermillion border of her bottom lip, a caress so intoxicating, so arousing, it nearly knocked her off her feet.

But somehow Kat managed to gather her scattered senses long enough to realise she had won a vital point against him. ‘You kissed me.’

His eyes contained a dark glitter that put that point she’d scored in jeopardy. ‘That’s not a kiss.’

‘You touched my lips with your tongue.’

‘Nah-ah. I touched the edge of your lip.’

‘You’re taking hair splitting to a whole new level,’ Kat said. ‘You did so kiss me.’

His mouth lifted in that devilish smile that did so much lethal damage to her self-control. And her resolve...wherever the hell it was. ‘That’s not a kiss.’ He leaned closer. ‘But this is.’