Читать книгу It Started With... Collection - Miranda Lee - Страница 34

JESSIE should have predicted that Kane would charm both Dora and Emily to the degree he did. The man was a charmer through and through. By the time she and Emily returned to the main part of the house for dinner, he had Dora eating out of his hand.

As for Emily…Santa Claus himself couldn’t have caused more excitement in the child. She insisted on sitting next to Kane, who treated her as no one had ever treated her before. As if she was a special little princess whose every word was precious and every wish immediately catered to.

Any worry Jessie harboured over her daughter growing too attached to a man who would only be a temporary part of her life was momentarily pushed aside when she saw how happy Emily was. When it was time for her to go to bed—way past her usual time—Emily begged Kane to read her a bedtime story. Which he duly did, and very well too.

Naturally, when the first story was finished, Emily begged for more. A family trait, Jessie decided bitterly, always wanting more.

Kane read her another story, then another, till Emily’s yawns finally stopped and she fell asleep.

‘She’s dropped off,’ Jessie said from where she’d been standing in the bedroom doorway with her arms crossed, watching Kane’s performance with swiftly returning cynicism. ‘You can stop reading now.’

He looked up from the book. ‘But I need to find out if Willie Wombat finds his long-lost father,’ he protested with a mischievous gleam in his eyes and the most charming smile.

Jessie steeled her heart and rolled her eyes. ‘Fine. You take Willie Wombat out into the living room and finish the story whilst I tuck Emily in. I’ll be with you shortly to see you out.’

‘What, no nightcap?’

‘No. It’s late and I have to go to work tomorrow. You do too.’

‘I’m the boss. I can come in late.’

‘Well, I can’t. I’m on probation for three months.’

‘Who says?’

‘Michele. Apparently, that’s Harry Wilde’s hiring rule. If a new employee can’t cut the mustard in three months, he or she gets their walking papers.’

‘Harry never told me that. There again, I don’t think he expected me to have to do any hiring during the month he was away. Does the idea of probation worry you, Jessie?’

‘No. I can cut the mustard. No problem.’

‘I’ll just bet you can.’

He stood up from where he’d been sitting on the side of Emily’s bed, glancing over at the other bed as he made his way towards the door.

Jessie was eminently grateful that she shared a room with her daughter. Also that her own bed, like Emily’s, was nicely single. It eliminated temptation.

Jessie stepped aside to let him through the doorway.

‘Don’t make yourself too comfortable,’ she warned drily. ‘I won’t be long.’

He didn’t answer, just gave her a searching look as he moved past.

Jessie wished she’d shut her mouth. Saying too much was almost as bad as saying too little.

She hadn’t done much talking during the roast-lamb dinner. Dora and Emily had done enough. And Kane, of course. Brother, could that man talk.

The trouble was he was so darned interesting. And entertaining. Yet, in retrospect, he hadn’t actually talked about himself, an unusual trait for a man. His concentration had mostly been on Emily and Dora.

Dora must have told him her whole life story during the course of the meal, from her childhood to her childless marriage to her husband’s death, then her recent years of looking after her increasingly fragile widowed mother. She had even revealed how much she resented her younger brother’s not having helped with their mother, something she hadn’t even told Jessie.

Kane had made all the right noises at the appropriate places. He had a knack with sympathetic murmurs, that was for sure.

Emily had tried to outdo Dora, giving Kane a minute-by-minute description of everything she did every day, pausing for words of praise at intervals, which she duly got.

Jessie smiled wryly down at her daughter as she tucked the sheet around her. Cheeky little devil. A right little flirt too, fluttering her long eyelashes up at Kane all the time.

Jessie had steadfastly not fluttered or flattered or flirted with the man in any way all evening. But despite her keeping a safe distance, he’d still got to her. A quiet look here. A smile there.

Oh, yes, he’d got to her. Made her want things she hated herself for wanting. Not just sex. But more. Too much more.

He was the devil in disguise, tempting her, tormenting her. She knew she should resist him, but feared she was fighting a losing battle. All she could salvage was a bit of pride by not making her surrender too easy. Jessie suspected that Kane Marshall had always found winning much too easy. It would do him good to work for her conquest, such as it would be. Nothing special to him. Just another bit of skirt. Another notch on his gun.

Jessie wondered how many women there’d been since he’d split with his wife. She resolved to never let him know he was the first man she’d even looked at since Lyall, let alone wanted this badly.

‘All finished,’ she said brusquely as she marched from the bedroom into the living room. ‘Let’s go.’

He was sitting on the sofa, the one that ran along the wall opposite the television. It was a very roomy sofa. His suit jacket, she noted, had been removed and was draped over one of the kitchen chairs. His tie was there as well, and the top button of his business shirt was undone.

Clearly, he had seduction on his mind, not leaving.

A tremor raced through Jessie.

‘You have a very intelligent little girl,’ he said as he snapped shut the book he’d been flicking through, placed it on the side-table next to the sofa and stood up. ‘Very sweet, too,’ he added.

‘Unlike her mother,’ Jessie snapped, once again folding her arms across her chest.

‘Oh, I suspect the mother could be even sweeter than the daughter,’ he said as he walked slowly towards her, bypassing the chair with the jacket and tie. ‘In the right circumstances.’

‘Don’t you dare touch me,’ she warned when he was less than an arm-length away.

She was standing in the middle of the kitchenette, with her back not far from the kitchen sink.

He stopped and frowned at her. ‘You do realise you are being ridiculous,’ he said softly.

Was she?

Possibly. But she wasn’t about to back down.

‘I will not have sex with you with my daughter sleeping in the next room.’

His eyebrows lifted. ‘Sex was not what I had in mind for now, Jessie. Just a kiss. Or two.’

‘Huh! Men like you don’t stop at a kiss or two.’

He frowned. ‘Men like me,’ he murmured. ‘Now, I wonder what you mean by that? Presumably nothing very complimentary. I suspect you’ve already lumped me in with the type of divorced guy who wants to sow his wild oats, with no strings attached. Or perhaps the sleazebags you told me about who target single mothers because they think they’re desperates. Am I right?’

‘Something like that.’

‘You’re wrong. I’m nothing like that at all.’

‘I only have your word for that.’

‘I haven’t been with a woman since my divorce,’ he shocked her by saying. ‘Natalie was the last woman I slept with.’

Jessie blinked. It was over a year since he’d left his wife! It didn’t seem possible. A man like him, so handsome and virile-looking. Women would have been throwing themselves at him all the time.

‘But why? Are you seriously undersexed or something?’

He laughed. ‘You wish.’

‘But…but…’

‘Look, I guess after the failure of my marriage I became a bit wary, and very selective. Casual sex held little appeal. I wanted a real relationship with an intelligent woman who wanted the same things I wanted.’

A career woman, she interpreted that to mean. One who’d give him company and sex, but not expect him to fulfill the traditional roles as husband and father of her children.

Jessie couldn’t see a single mother with a demanding four-year-old filling those requirements. Not on a permanent basis.

‘Then last Friday night,’ he went on, ‘I was hit by a thunderbolt. You. Suddenly, I didn’t care what you were or who you were. I just had to have you. Be with you. Make mad, passionate love to you.’

She looked away from his eyes, lest he see the same crazy compulsion in hers. He reached out to turn her face back to the front again, his fingers both gentle and possessive. Her arms—suddenly heavy—slipped out of their crossed mode to hang loosely by her sides.

‘You want that too, Jessie,’ he whispered. ‘Don’t deny it. I’ve seen the desire in your eyes. And the fear. You think I’ll hurt you. You and Emily. But I won’t. I promise. I’d cut out my heart before I did anything to hurt either of you. I can see how special you are together. More special than any mother and daughter I have ever known. I want only good things for you both. Trust me. I’m one of the good guys. Now kiss me, Jessie Denton.’

She didn’t kiss him. Because he kissed her first, cupping her face and taking her mouth with his, not waiting long before prying her lips open and sending his tongue to meet hers. The contact was electric, firing a heat that raced through her veins and skin, spreading like a bushfire raging out of control. Her arms rose of their own accord to slide around his body, her palms cementing themselves to his back as she pulled him closer. Then closer still.

He moaned deep in his throat, the sound an echo of what was going through her own head. The yearning for even closer contact was acute, but they couldn’t be any closer if they tried. They were already glued together, mouth to mouth, chest to chest, stomach to stomach, thigh to thigh.

The anticipation of how he would feel, filling her to the utmost, took Jessie’s breath away. If only she wasn’t wearing jeans. A skirt could have been lifted, panties thrust aside. They could have done it right there and then, standing up. She’d never done it like that, standing up. She’d never even thought about it before.

She thought about it now and literally went weak at the knees. Did he feel her falling? Was that why he pushed her back up against the sink, to stop her from falling to the floor?

Jessie instinctively shifted her legs apart, giving him better access. His hips moved against her, the friction exquisite. Soon, she was moaning with abject need and total surrender.

‘Mummy!’

Emily’s high wail cut through Jessie’s near-orgasmic state, bringing her back to earth with a crash.

‘Oh, God,’ she moaned, wrenching her mouth away from his. ‘Emily.’

The mother in her, she swiftly realised, was still stronger than the woman, even the wanton woman Kane had so swiftly reduced her to. In another second or two, she would have been practically screaming. Disgusted with herself, she squeezed out from behind Kane’s heaving chest, leaving him to sag against the sink whilst she dashed into the bedroom.

‘What is it, Emily?’ she asked in a voice that mocked what was still going on inside her. So calm-sounding.

‘I had a bad dream,’ Emily whimpered. ‘There was a bear. A big one. I was scared.’

Bears often figured in Emily’s nightmares. Jessie sometimes wished there weren’t so many children’s stories with bears in them.

‘There are no bears living in Australia,’ Jessie explained gently for the umpteenth time. ‘Except in the zoo. You don’t have to be scared about bears.’

‘Is Kane still here?’ Emily asked fretfully.

‘Yes. Why?’

‘He won’t let the bear get me. He’ll chase it away.’

Jessie rolled her eyes. ‘Fine. You don’t have to worry about any bears then, do you? So go back to sleep now,’ she crooned, gently stroking her daughter’s head. ‘OK?’

Emily yawned. ‘OK.’ She closed her eyes and was back fast asleep in no time.

Jessie envied her child that ability. Sometimes, Emily would fall asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Jessie had never been a good sleeper, finding it difficult to shut her mind down at night. She knew she would do more than her fair share of tossing and turning tonight.

But it was clear that to continue fighting her feelings for Kane was futile. And rather ridiculous. He was right when he’d said that. They were adults. They wanted each other. OK, so she probably wanted more from Kane than he wanted from her but that was always going to be the case. She was a woman and he was a man.

Jessie had always been a reasonably decisive person, unlike her mother, who’d muddled through most of the events that had shaped her and Jessie’s lives. When she was growing up, taking charge of her own life had been one of Jessie’s main goals. Mostly, she’d been successful. In hindsight, Lyall had been a big error in judgement, but the consequences of her mistake had led to great joy.

Getting involved with Kane was possibly unwise. But at the same time she was only human, not a saint.

Having tucked Emily in once more, she returned to the living room, determined not to muddle through.

She was surprised to find Kane putting on his jacket.

He turned with a troubled expression on his face. ‘I’m sorry, Jessie,’ he said, stuffing his tie into one of the pockets. ‘I didn’t mean for things to go that far. I really didn’t. But you do have an unfortunate effect on me.’

Jessie frowned. ‘Unfortunate?’

Kane smiled a wry smile. ‘I’m not used to losing control. I pride myself on being a planner. I rarely go off at half-cock.’

She couldn’t help laughing, although she smothered it so as not to risk waking Emily.

‘Yes, well, if I had actually gone off at half-cock,’ he muttered, ‘I might be able to laugh too.’

‘Oh,’ she said, taken aback by this revelation. ‘I thought…’

‘No,’ he growled. ‘I didn’t.’

‘It must have been a darned close call.’

‘Agonisingly so.’

‘Could you wait till Friday night, do you think?’

His eyes flared wide. ‘Do you mean what I think you mean?’

‘I would imagine so.’

His face actually lit up. ‘Wow. That’s a turn-up for the books.’

‘I decided you were right. I was being ridiculous. But I want you to understand that this can’t really go anywhere. I’m not the woman you’re looking for, Kane. I have Emily for starters. And a full-time job now. At best, I could be your friend and part-time lover.’ There! She’d taken charge and it felt good.

He didn’t say a single word for a few seconds, just let his eyes search her face. She could not tell what he hoped to find.

‘I can handle that,’ he said at last.

Jessie wished she knew what he was thinking. And planning. He’d just told her he was a planner. Something in his voice and his face suggested his agenda wasn’t quite the same as hers.

But what?

She hoped he wasn’t underestimating her. Or thinking she was a push-over after all.

Time for some more taking charge.

‘By the way, on Friday,’ she said firmly, ‘I won’t be staying anywhere with you all night, so don’t go thinking I will. You have from seven till midnight. I can’t expect Dora to mind Emily later than that. She’s an old lady.’

‘I could pay for a baby-sitter,’ he suggested.

‘Someone I don’t know? No way, José. It’s Dora, or nobody.’

‘Fine. I won’t argue. But I think you’re in danger of becoming an over-protective mother.’

‘Think what you like. It won’t change my attitude towards my daughter.’

‘I never thought it would. But that’s OK. I admire a woman who knows her own mind.’

‘And I admire a man who respects a woman’s wishes.’

‘I’ll remember that.’

Yes, but for how long? Jessie wondered.

Till Friday night, naturally. That was the aim of this game after all. Get the girl into bed. But after that, Kane might not be quite so accommodating.

Still, she would cross that bridge when she came to it.

Till then, she was going to have a hard job thinking about anything but Friday night.