Man Hater Part 10

"If I forget my place you'll dismiss me? No way. You try it and find out what happens."

"Meaning you'll tell Sue about Jeremy? If I really did want to break up their marriage I'd let you, wouldn't I?"

"Not necessarily. You see, Kelly, you strike me as the type who likes her life all cut and dried. It wouldn't suit you one little bit to be known as the woman who broke up her friend's marriage and then stole her husband. No, you wouldn't want me telling Sue."

"You're so sure of yourself.. so d.a.m.nably arrogant! Hasn't it occurred to you that you might be wrong?"

"Why should I?" he responded coolly.

"It never occurred to you, did it?"

With that enigmatic remark he started to step past her, his eyes flicking contemptuously over her still damp body as he did so.

"That's something else," he murmured, smiling with hateful mockery.

"That " still wet from the shower" approach is old hat now--you're going to have to find a new routine--or start paying more."

Kelly raised her hand automatically, shrinking herself as the sharp sound of it against his lean jaw fractured the silence, leaving a strained dangerous calm during which she watched the white imprint of her hand fade and slowly fill with angry blood until the marks throbbed hotly against the brown skin.

"Oh no, you don't," Jake muttered thickly as she started to move away.

His eyes were the colour of slate, hard and bitter, implacable determination underlining every movement as he placed his palms flat to the wall behind her, imprisoning her against it.

She could feel the heat coming off his body and knew she was trembling.

"Jake, please!" Was that hoa.r.s.e, panicky voice really hers? She moaned huskily as he lifted one hand and slowly and quite deliberately pulled the pins from her hair until it cascaded on her shoulders. His thumb stroked along herjawline , his lingers forcing her down bent head up until she was forced to meet his eyes, and the murderous rage she saw in their depths told her without the need for any words that this parody of tenderness was a subtle form of punishment, and that he intended that she should never forget how he had repaid her for striking him.

"That's better." His voice was slurred and Kelly trembled, longing for the strength to be able to push him away and run.

"All it needs is this," he added, wrenching open her to welling wrap so that the curves of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s were exposed, 'and now you look the part completely. There was no need to slap me, though Kelly. Like I said before, all you had to do was ask. "

He bent his head and there was no way she could avoid the insistent stroke of his lips against her own, taunting and tormenting until her lips were parting on a groan, her arms going round his neck, her fingers curling into the thick silky hair at his nape as the torment continued until she couldn't endure it any longer, and she was arching against his body, her mouth clinging pleadingly to his, her small broken murmurs of pleasure filling the thick silence.

"Oh no ... I'm not going to make it easy for you."

Her hands were wrenched away, and suddenly she was free, her body aching with unfulfilled need, her mind totally disorientated by the power of the s.e.xual feelings he had aroused.

Appalled, both by the intensity of her desire and the rage she could sense within Jake, she pulled away and darted into the bedroom, dimly registering the closing of the bathroom door behind her.

In thelamplit room her tousled, disordered hair and pale face stared back at her from the mirror. Her lips looked full and swollen, and as she hurriedly dressed in the clean underwear she had laid out Kelly was aware of the swollen fullness of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, her nipples taut beneath the fine silk of her dress. She shivered, unable to believe that the woman staring back at her was her, the reflection was so unfamiliar; not merely because of the different hairstyle and silk dress. It was the more subtle difference that frightened her the most: the darkening of her eyes, almost all pupil, the sleekness of her skin, and the unmistakable softening of every feature. No man looking at her now would ever believe that she was the head of her own company, or that she had kept her emotions in check for years. It was like looking at a stranger, only the stranger was elusively familiar, and Kelly shivered, her tongue nervously touching dry lips.

The woman staring back at her-hadn't she seen her before, many years before when she had still been a teenager and Colin and her love for him and had filled her life?

"No!"

Kelly wasn't even aware that she spoke the denial aloud, the sound torn from her throat against muscles tight with despair.

"Kelly, we're leaving in half an hour, are you two nearly ready?"

Sue's voice outside the bedroom door steadied her, turning her to something resembling normality, but her voice shook as she called out a response and ten minutes later her hand still trembled as she carefully tried to apply her eye make-up. Perhaps it was because of that that her eyes seemed darker, more exotic than usual, or perhaps it was simply a trick of the lighting. The slither of silk against her skin was a constant reminder of Jake's hands on her body, and she fought against the memory, brushing her hair with angry strokes and securing it with thepeariised comb.

Sounds of movement from the bathroom had her heading for the door, grabbing her bag as she did so. There was no way she wanted to be in the bedroom when Jake walked into it, neither was there any way she could continue to share the room with him. She didn't care what Sue thought, she decided feverishly, she would have to tell her. Perhaps she could make up some story about not being able to sleep well--she could plead that she didn't want to disturb Jake.

"Oh, Kelly, you look gorgeous--doesn't she, Jeremy?" Sue asked, turning to him for corroboration.

Kelly hated the way Jeremy's eyes moved insultingly over her body in the thin silk.

"Gorgeous," he agreed softly.

"The ice has melted with a vengeance!

I'll have to get Jake to let me into the secret. "

As Sue's genuinely amused laughter filled the room, Kelly wondered how her friend could be so blind to the venom in her husband's eyes.

Jeremy still hadn't forgiven her for rejecting him. Men were so vain; so arrogant in their a.s.sumption that they had the right to react like spoiled children simply because a woman did not find them desirable.

"Ah, here's Jake--now you'll be able to ask him," Sue teased Jeremy as Jake strolled into the room.

He had changed into cream pants that clung to the powerfully lean thighs, his cream shirt open at the neck revealing the crisply curling hair that darkened his chest. In comparison to Jake's lithe maleness Jeremy looked flabby and out of condition.

"Ask me what?" Jake prompted, giving Sue a slow smile that appreciated her femininity in her new dress, and watching her friend glow with pleasure. Kelly felt afris son of emotion she recognised bewilderingly as the beginnings of a knife-sharp pain.

"Oh, just how you managed to turn our ice queen into a smouldering s.e.x bomb," Jeremy drawled unpleasantly.

Kelly wondered if anyone else noticed the way she shrank as Jake curled his arm round her waist, drawing her to his side, her nostrils teased by the warm male scent of his body.

"It isn't hard," Jake told him equably, an excellent facsimile of tenderness softening his gaze as he turned to Kelly and added huskily, "All you need is love, isn't that right, Kelly?"

She couldn't have moved even if someone had told her a bomb was about to go off next to her. Love! Her pupils dilated with shock, a sickening sensation of anguish filling her. Of course she didn't love Jake. The very idea was ridiculous. How could she? After Colin she knew better than to risk loving any man, least of all one like Jake who made his living from weak, foolish women.

They walked to the villa where the party was being held. Far larger than Sue's father's, its gardens backed on to his, and Sue explained that they owned the land right down to the sea itself, where the owner had a private mooring for his yacht.

The garden itself was illuminated with what seemed to be hundreds of pretty j.a.panese-style paper lanterns, and as always the absence of the sun seemed to enhance the scent of growing things, so that Kelly's nostrils were full of the scent of wild thyme and other aromatic bushes.

She was lost in a vision of how this island must have appeared to the first Greek adventurers, when Jeremy destroyed her dream by cursing vehemently as he caught his foot 'in an exposed root.

Kelly winced for her friend as he swore angrily, "I suppose it was your b.l.o.o.d.y stupid idea to walk here," but to her surprise Jake said coolly, "Actually it was mine."

"Huh, I would have thought you'd have had enough of walking after this afternoon. We did the full eighteen holes."

"Oh, Jeremy dragged you round the full course, did he?" Sue smiled sympathetically at Jake.

"I'm afraid he's something of a golf-aholic, although he tells me he only plays for business reasons. Are you a keen player?"

Kelly's heart turned over as Jake smiled back at Sue, a ridiculous surge of jealousy submerging her in its tormenting depths.

"Not really. I prefer squash."

"No need to be' that modest, old man," Jeremy cut in acidly.

"He was good enough to beat me."

Kelly hid a small smile of amus.e.m.e.nt. Jeremy prided himself on his golf--she had in the past been obliged to listen to him boasting endlessly about his prowess, and it was obvious that he was admitting Jake's superiority with grudging reluctance.

"Oh, we're nearly there--there's the pool," Sue told them, with evident relief.

"It's full Olympic size--although I've heard that he rarely uses it."

A short flight of steps brought them on to the same level as the pool and patio area, which was already thronged with other guests. The pool, as Sue had said, was huge, but Kelly doubted that many zealous swimmers would appreciate the design of it, which wasn't rectangular, but instead seemed to form an elongated figure of eight, the smaller circle disappearing inside the house in traditional Hollywood manner.

"That's so that they can use the pool in winter," Sue informed her knowledgeably.

"Huge gla.s.s doors cut off that part of the pool and enclosed it inside. I believe it cost a fortune. And just have a look behind you," she added, waiting with a knowing grin as Kelly obediently turned and gasped her amazement as she saw what appeared to be a floating white trelliswork gazebo in the centre of the second circle.

"Good heavens," she managed weakly, while Sue laughed her appreciation.

"Mmm. Vintage Hollywood, isn't it? The third, or was it fourth Mrs. Wraymanhad the original villa almost torn down and all this done in its place, and just wait until you see the inside. CameWrayman is a fanatical collector of Byzantine religious relics and the like. He has some fantastic icons that were brought out of Russia during the Revolution-they're worth a fortune, but then of course he's a millionaire several times over."

"Sounds just your type," Jake murmured sotto voce against Kelly's hair.

"No worries about him wanting you for your money!"

"Perhaps you've got a point!" Kelly bit out the words, small white teeth snapping together as she fought against her anger.

"Jake darling! How wonderful! What on earth are you doing here?"

A lissom blonde girl extricated herself from the crowd by the pool and almost threw herself into Jake's arms. She was about eighteen, and Kelly knew beyond doubt that the feelings tearing at her with sharply venomous claws were pure feminine jealousy.

"Well, well," Jeremy murmured tauntingly.

"A little bit of something from his past? You want to watch it, love," he warned Kelly acidly, 'you might find she's making a takeover bid for the present and the future. "

"Jake, there's someone I want you to meet. Do come with me... You won't mind if I borrow him for a minute, will you?" the blonde asked Kelly with an arch smile that revealed surprisingly genuine dimples.

"Feel free." Her face felt stiff and she knew her smile looked totally unnatural.

"I won't be long," Jake told her casually before walking away, his arm round the blonde girl's shoulders, her face turned up to his full of laughter, and--Kelly was forced to admit it--love!

"Mmm, I wonder why he was so keen not to introduce her to us." Jeremy was watching her with a triumph that was unmistakable, and it didn't take a genius to see what he was thinking. Even so, Kelly had to clench her teeth to stop herself retorting when he said with mock concern, "Perhaps I'd better make a few enquiries. You can't be too careful, you know, Kelly, a woman of your wealth. Okay, I know he has all the trappings of success, but I would hate to see you taken in--again," he added deliberately.

Kelly went white. The patio seemed to be whirling round, the noise of the party roaring in her ears. Struggling to re-a.s.sert her normal control, she managed a husky, "What do you mean, " again"?"

"Oh, come on, darling!" Jeremy was really enjoying himself now, and Kelly wondered how long he had been storing up this bitterness, this need to cause her pain and inflict hurt.

"Old Ian told me--we were at a conference together, we'd had a few drinks, you know how it is. I happened to mention you, and he told me about what happened with Colin, how he deliberately set you up--married you for your money."

"Jeremy!" Sue sounded shocked and angry, but Kelly was past caring.

Amazingly, the old story lacked all the old pain. She couldn't care less what Jeremy had heard and it no longer caused her the slightest pang that Colin had not loved her. What she did feel was regret that she had been foolish enough to fall for what she could see now had been a clumsy charm at best, and sorrow that she had let it spoil so much of her life.

"It's quite all right. Sue," she managed to say evenly. Jeremy's quite right, Colin did marry me for my money. "

"But Jake isn't the slightest bit like Colin," Sue broke in hotly, 'and I can't think why Jeremy should suggest that he is. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that he beat you at golf," she suggested to her husband, who, Kelly was half amused to see, was regarding her with stupefied disbelief.

"You ought to apologise to Kelly, Jeremy," Sue continued.

"Oh, saved by the bell," she added.

"Here's our host."

"Susan, my darling, you grow more lovelier every time I see you!"

"It's lovely of you to say so. Came," Sue responded to the well-built greying man who was embracing her, 'but we both know you're a liar. "

CameWrayman released her to shake Jeremy's hand and then turned to Kelly, his eyes narrowing in appreciation as he smiled at her.

"You are here alone?" he questioned when Sue had introduced them.

"She is now," Jeremy responded viciously.

"She's lost her partner to an eighteen-year-old blonde."

"Is that so?" The hooded eyes studied Kelly again.

"Well then, his loss is my gain. Allow me to escort you to the bar. Sue, you know the way."

CHAPTER SEVEN.

"So, and what do you do with yourself when you're not holidaying on Corfu?" CameWrayman asked Kelly.

They were sitting by the patio drinking the driest Martinis Kelly had ever tasted in her life. She had lost sight of Sue and Jeremy, and Jake was just a painful blur on the edge of her vision; someone she tried not to see, just as she tried not to see the blonde girl clinging to his side.

"I ... I'm in publicity. I have my own company," Kelly told him briefly.

"A career woman." Again that sharply hooded glance.

"You know, I find that an incredible turn-on," CameWrayman told her, leaning closer to her, 'and as it happens I'm looking for someone to handle the British side of the publicity for a doc.u.mentary we're doing. Fancy the idea? "

"I'd have to know more about it," Kelly told him cautiously.

"You see, we only handle work we feel we can give our best to. I don't believe in making false promises to my clients, and the promises I do make to them I want to be able tofulfill ."