Close Relations

by Lynsey Stevens

  The older woman was tense, unbending, without humour. She had lost the man she loved nearly thirty years ago and she’d allowed it to embitter her so much that she’d maliciously tried to ruin the lives of two people who had had nothing to do with what had happened before they were born.

  ‘Did it help assuage your need for vengeance?’ she asked her aunt flatly.

  ‘Nothing could do that,’ Isabel said thickly, her eyes glittering angrily. ‘Jarrod was the son I’d never have. And youyou’re the image of your mother. Jenny was always the pretty one, the one everyone doted on-every man doted on. Peter wanted to marry her,’ she added almost absently, her lips twisting bitterly. ‘But she had to take Geoffrey from me.’

  ‘Aunt Isabel-’ Georgia stopped and shook her head. Was there any point in recriminations now? She could see now that her aunt had existed in an emotional void ever since, not letting anyone close to her. Not her husband. Not her stepson.

  Georgia swallowed. Would she have turned out like her aunt? she asked herself. Cold, withdrawn, unforgiving? She shivered, suddenly cool in the warm, sunny morning. ‘I want to see Jarrod,’ she said levelly. ‘Where is he?’

  ‘He’s gone. You’re too late. He’s left for the States.’

  Georgia checked the time, agitation stirring in the pit of her stomach. ‘His plane doesn’t leave for three hours. He wouldn’t have left yet’

  ‘He decided to catch an earlier flight. He’s gone.’

  ‘I don’t believe you.’ Georgia sidestepped her aunt and raced into the house, calling Jarrod’s name, stopping when she reached his bedroom.

  ‘Don’t go in there, Georgia. How dare you break into my home?’ Isabel’s voice came from behind her. ‘I told you, he’s already left for the airport.’

  Georgia paused and then swung open the door, catching her breath when she saw Jarrod’s luggage in a tidy pile by his bed.

  ‘Where is he, Aunt Isabel?’

  ‘I have no idea.’ The older woman turned away and walked back along the passage, her back straight and uncompromising.

  Georgia stood leaning on the door. Where could he be? If he’d been in the garden he’d have heard her calling him, surely? Had he gone to the office?

  Then it came to her and she was running out of the house, through the scrubby trees towards the creek.

  But he wasn’t at the bridge, and for a moment she thought she’d been mistaken in thinking he’d come here one last time. Her step faltered and she went to turn back the way she’d come.

  ‘Georgia.’

  She glanced up and there he was, climbing to his feet from where he’d been sitting in the shade beneath the tree where they used to meet. He slid down the bank.

  ‘I thought…’ she began. ‘I mean, I wanted to see you before you left…’ Georgia’s voice died on her and she swallowed. He was so undeniably attractive, standing with the high sun beating down on his head, burning gilded streaks in his dark hair. ‘I had to tell you…Oh, Jarrod.’

  It all poured out, the whole story, everything her father had told her. And then her conversation with Isabel.

  ‘So, you see, it’s not true, Jarrod!’

  He looked dazed, then questioned her, made her go over it all again.

  ‘Isabel admitted to me she’d lied, Jarrod, and as for your father’s accident-Dad says everything can be verified by your father’s doctor.’ She watched the play of emotions pass across his face before a wondrous belief took over.

  He slowly expelled the breath he’d been holding. ‘When Isabel…’ He shook his head. ‘She was so convincing and it all seemed to fit, to explain so much. The relationship or lack of it between Isabel and my father. The slightly strained atmosphere when your parents were there. I just couldn’t doubt what she told me.’ He stiffened, his jaw tensing. ‘How could she do that to us? Why would she do it?’ he exclaimed with bitter disbelief. ‘The wasted years. The baby. Dear God, I could-’

  ‘She’s more to be pitied, Jarrod,’ Georgia broke in. ‘Her life’s empty. All she’ll see before her is a replica of her past, a chasm without any emotion. That’s no sort of life.’

  Jarrod put shaky hands on her shoulders, touching her gently, reverently. ‘How can you defend her after what she’s done, the pain she’s caused?’

  ‘Do you love me, Jarrod?’ she asked him softly, her body trembling beneath his touch.

  ‘Desperately,’ he replied with feeling. ‘I’ve never stopped loving you.’

  ‘Then I can afford to be generous towards Isabel.’

  ‘I don’t think I can be as forgiving, love. And Isabel and I will be having a talk later.’ He drew her slowly into his arms, kissing her tenderly, as though he thought she might disappear. ‘Oh, Georgia. My darling Georgia. How I’ve yearned to hold you again.’

  Then they were clinging together, kissing, touching, murmuring in feverish abandon. When they finally broke apart they were both breathless.

  ‘I’ve needed that for so long,’ Jarrod said huskily. ‘These weeks being back near you, thinking I dare not touch you, failing more often than not. I thought I’d go crazy.’ He took her hand and drew her up the bank, under the sheltering shade of the trees.

  ‘Was it always this prickly?’ he asked quizzically as they sat down together, arms entwined, and Georgia giggled.

  ‘What’s a prickle or two?’

  ‘Or three or four.’ Jarrod’s smile faded and he cupped her cheek with his palm. ‘Four years, Georgia. Four empty, wasted years, when I was dying for you and sick to my stomach with myself because I still wanted a woman I was sure was my half-sister.’

  ‘Jarrod, don’t.’ Georgia closed her eyes and her tears squeezed from beneath her lashes.

  ‘I know I hurt you, love, but I was raw with horror at what Isabel had told me. On top of her blatant obsessiveness over me when we were alone it was just about too much for me. And when you burst in on us I had no time to weigh up the situation.’

  ‘I couldn’t believe it when I saw you kissing her.’

  Jarrod grimaced. ‘I’m not proud of myself for that, but

  she-’ He shook his head. ‘When I came back from college and started spending all my time with you, that’s when it started. The looks, the touching. I tried to ignore it, kept away from her as much as I could. I didn’t know how to handle the situation. And then it blew up in my face.’

  ‘She was in love with my father. She thought he’d betrayed her by marrying my mother.’

  ‘I don’t think Isabel knows what love is.’ He sighed. ‘All I knew at the time was that I couldn’t bring myself to reveal Isabel’s sordid story and that meant my only alternative was to leave. I knew you didn’t believe me when I told you there was nothing between Isabel and me, but it was easier to go letting you think I was involved with Isabel than to tell you the truth. Even if it meant I left thinking you hated me. For going the way I did.’ His thumb brushed the dampness from her cheeks.

  ‘At first I was devastated, then when I lost the baby I was numb. I decided the best form of defence was to convince myself it had never happened. And when you came back, when I had to admit it had happened, I told myself I hated you, but-’ Georgia’s hand covered his ‘-I was fighting a losing battle. You’re the other half of me, Jarrod, so I was hating myself. I was so confused-hating you, loving you. When you left I missed you so much.’

  Jarrod held her to him, his hand smoothing back her hair.

  ‘I don’t know how I got through those years, Jarrod,’ she whispered. ‘I ate, I drank, I slept, I functioned like a robot. But I wasn’t alive.’

  ‘It was like that for me too. I was terrified to open each letter I got from home, yearning to hear some small thing about you but petrified to hear you were marrying someone else.’

  ‘And I imagined you with all those gorgeous American girls.’

  Jarrod gave a hoarse laugh. ‘Remember suggesting I might have gone to bed with young Ginny?’

  ‘I was so jealous-’ Georgia began.

&nb
sp; ‘There was no one, love. I’ve lived like a monk. There just wasn’t anyone who came close to you.’

  ‘Oh, Jarrod.’ Georgia’s heart soared. ‘And there was no one else for me either.’

  ‘Not even that red-bearded giant of a drummer?’

  ‘Andy? No.’ She shook her head. ‘Never. We really are just friends.’

  Jarrod pulled a self-derisive face. ‘I came within centimetres of punching him out when he lifted you over the fence in that disgustingly blatant display of masculine muscle.’

  Georgia grimaced. ‘I think I subconsciously enjoyed using Andy to get to you that day.’ Her eyes fell from his. ‘You see, when you came home I thought I’d be able to deal with seeing you again. But one look and I fell harder and deeper than before. And I didn’t want to; I fought the feeling so strongly. But you were still a part of me, Jarrod; you always were.’

  ‘And I was so sure I would be able to keep away from you. I wanted you to hate me. It was safer, made it easier. But when you treated me like something that wasn’t there I-well, I couldn’t handle that, Georgia. I knew I’d never be free of you. And, even knowing what I did, thinking we were tied by blood, I didn’t want to be free.’

  ‘You did a really good job of not showing it,’ Georgia teased him.

  ‘Oh, I congratulated myself that I’d coped pretty well, until I saw you sing at the club. I was devoured by blazing jealousy, watching all those other guys watching you.’ He groaned softly. ‘I knew it would be like that.

  ‘Which was the real reason why I tried to talk you out of singing with the band. It would have opened fresh fields for you. I knew I couldn’t have you, Georgia, but I couldn’t bear the thought of there being anyone else. Maybe Isabel and I have more in common than I thought.’ His lips twisted wryly and then he held her gaze.

  ‘I almost lost it that afternoon when I kissed you. And then you sang that song. It tore my heart out.’

  Georgia buried her face in his shirt. ‘And I was so horrible to you afterwards in the dressing room. I goaded you. I couldn’t seem to help myself, stop myself hitting out at you.’

  ‘I deserved it. And more.’ He paused. ‘Did you really write that song the night after we first made love?’

  Georgia nodded. ‘It was so wonderful, I…The song wrote itself. I never had any intention of singing it to anyone but you back then, but Lockie found it and you were so against anything to do with my part in Country Blues…’ She shrugged. ‘I was so mixed-up and unhappy.’

  ‘Well, I couldn’t begin to describe what seeing you, hearing you sing it did to me.’ He sighed. ‘That night I nearly told you why I’d left. And then again in the study the day after my father’s funeral.’

  They gazed at each other in silence for long moments and Georgia felt her heart shift in her chest. Her heartbeats fluttered, soaring like a bird on ecstatic wings. For the first time in four years she felt alive, really alive, a living, breathing human being.

  ‘Lockie will be making the record,’ Georgia told him.

  ‘It’s a fantastic song but I’m selfish enough to not want you to make it public.’ He ran his finger gently along the line of her jaw. ‘Are you sorry Mandy will be singing the song in your place?’

  Georgia shook her head. ‘Most definitely not After the first time I knew I could never sing it again. And as to being part of Country Blues, I’ve never wanted that kind of life.’

  He held her in the circle of his arms and she sighed tiredly. ‘I’m so glad it’s all over-all the pain, the heartache.’

  ‘Georgia, about the baby. I feel so bad, so responsible. If I hadn’t caused you to run off into the night—’

  ‘Aunt Isabel was the one who set the wheels in motion,’ she reminded him.

  ‘But—’

  Georgia put her finger on his lips. ‘Don’t, Jarrod. We can’t dwell on what’s past. I’ll never forget the joy I felt knowing I was pregnant, but losing the baby-well, it’s something that happened that we can’t change. We have to put it behind us, start from now. Besides-’ her smile was bitter-sweet ‘-there can be other babies. The doctor told me.’ She let her fingertips slide along the line of his jaw and back to trace the outline of his lips. ‘So…’

  ‘So?’ he queried huskily, taking her finger in his mouth, his eyes glowing with the passion she remembered so well, had thought never to see again.

  ‘So, we can do it again. That is, if you remember how we managed it last time.’ Georgia gazed up at him with widened eyes and he laughed throatily.

  ‘I might need you to jog my memory. But perhaps we should make a start by feeling our way,’ he added, his fingers caressing her ear lobe, moving down from her shoulder, running lightly over her breast where it swelled beneath her light blouse.

  ‘Retrace our steps?’ Georgia raised one eyebrow and began to unbutton his shirt, slipping her fingers inside to feel the firm flesh of his flat midriff.

  ‘And practise.’ Jarrod’s hands reached her waist, lifted her blouse over her head, dropping it onto the ground. ‘Practice is most important.’

  ‘Most,’ Georgia agreed, sliding his shirt off his shoulders, gliding her hands over those tanned, familiar contours. ‘Practice makes perfect, I’ve heard.’

  ‘Could it be more perfect, love?’ he asked thickly.

  ‘We’ll have to put it to the test, don’t you think?’ Georgia’s body was on fire as she fought to maintain her light tone, in keeping with the superficial teasing that cloaked the arousing sensuousness of their caressing hands.

  ‘Then perhaps we should start swapping clinches for clich&e2;s,’ Jarrod smirked, his eyes alight, bright burning blue.

  ‘Actions for adages,’ Georgia quipped back as she unbuckled his belt. All the while they touched, fingers and lips setting each other aflame.

  ‘It’s going to be difficult, Georgia,’ Jarrod murmured with mock uncertainty.

  ‘I don’t think so.’

  ‘It has been four years,’ he reminded her as he lifted himself, helping her slip off his jeans.

  ‘I have every faith in your photographic memory.’

  ‘You do?’

  ‘Absolutely.’

  ‘Then I think we should put such faith to the test, hmm?’ He dispensed with the rest of her clothes.

  They were both naked now, drinking in the smoothness of each other, and the years between began to slip away.

  ‘I do believe it is just like riding a bicycle-you never forget.’ Jarrod’s ragged breath caressed her ear lobe, sending spirals of desire surging through her.

  ‘Jarrod?’ Something was teasing the back of Georgia’s mind.

  ‘Mmm.’ His lips traced the line of her jaw.

  ‘Talking of bicycles, what about your plane?’

  ‘What plane?’ He was gently kissing the sensitive spot where her pulse beat in her neck.

  ‘The one you were leaving on.’

  ‘I hear it’s been grounded.’

  ‘Grounded?’

  ‘Snow.’

  ‘Snow? In Brisbane in summer?’

  ‘Mmm.’

  ‘Oh.’ Georgia made a tiny moaning sound deep in her throat as his lips nudged the soft skin beneath her breast, gradually climbing upwards until they found one taut rosy peak. ‘If you say so, Jarrod,’ she breathed brokenly.

  ‘I most definitely do say so, Georgia Grayson. I have this feeling in my bones.’

  ‘In your bones?’ Georgia’s fingers followed the slope of his firm, flat stomach, encircling the indentation of his navel.

  ‘Mmm,’ he murmured responsively. ‘Make that a feeling in every inch of me.’

  ‘Every delicious inch of you.’ Georgia gave a sensuous chuckle and slid her body down the length of his, and he caught his breath.

  ‘Oh, Jarrod, touch me,’ she whispered softly, and the warm, light breeze sighed in the dry leaves overhead.

  eISBN 978-14592-5243-1

  CLOSE RELATIONS

  First North American Publication 1999.

  Cop
yright 1997 by Lynsey Stevens.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retneval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  All characters in this book have no eodstence outside the imagination of the author and have no retation soever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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  Table of Contents

  Cover Page

  Except

  Dedication

  Title Page

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Copyright