Jake led her from the stage and she glanced up at him, a question in her lovely eyes. ‘You did this for me, Jake?’
‘Your friends insisted,’ he said, non-committal.
‘But what about the hotel guests.’ Most she recognised as regular visitors, but a few were strangers to her.
‘I simply told them the hotel dining-room was closed for the night, but they were welcome to join the party.’
‘It must have cost you a fortune,’ she murmured—the champagne was vintage, she noted, and dinner was a superb buffet, with lobster and caviar, the long table groaning with the weight of the food.
‘You deserve it, Lexi, love.’ His dark head bent, his mouth erotically nibbling her small ear. ‘You’re worth a thousand times more to me than a party, and later I intend to prove it to you once and for all. We have to put the past behind us, forgive and forget. No more secrets, no more separate beds. Trust me.’
Hope burst in her heart at Jake’s muffled words, and, glancing sideways up at him through thick lashes, she was stunned to see a tender, caring light in his deep blue eyes. ‘Jake...’ She put her hand on his chest. Was it possible? Could they start afresh? Yes, her heart sang. She could forgive him everything if he loved her.
‘Later.’
‘Alexandra.’ A deep voice rang out, silencing the crowd.
Lexi turned and gasped her pleasure at the man accosting her. ‘Ali!’ she exclaimed. He was dressed in the flowing white robes of the desert, and flanked on either side by two bodyguards. Sheik Ali al Kahim was an old friend from her childhood days when her father was consulate in his small middle Eastern country; they had played together as children and coincidentally met up again at the Piccolo Paradiso where Ali was an honoured guest once a year, but usually in the spring. ‘What are you doing here?’ she demanded as he swept her up in a bear hug then put her back on her feet.
‘My yacht is in the port for a few hours. I rang the hotel to speak with you and heard you are married and leaving. How could you do this to me, little Alexandra? And who is the lucky man?’
Jake, with his arm reaching out to pull Lexi into his side, said curtly, ‘I am.’
Lexi effected the introduction, her worried gaze swinging between the two men. Jake was attractive, but Ali, the same age as herself, was strikingly beautiful, as tall as Jake with huge brown eyes and the classic features of a Greek god. Jake took one look at him and seemed furious.
‘You have my congratulations, Mr Taylor. You are a very fortunate man. But I have only myself to blame I delayed too long.’
Delayed what too long? Lexi wondered, and then was stunned as Ali presented her with a long velvet box.
‘A wedding gift, my dear Alexandra. May you have a long and fruitful union, though I could have wished it were with me.’
‘Ali, you fool.’ He had always been a frightful tease, and she opened the box. Inside was a jewel-encrusted tiny dagger. ‘It’s beautiful, Ali. Thank you.’ She beamed up at him. But Jake was not so happy; she felt his fingers dig into her waist.
‘My wife does not take jewellery from any man except me.’ His icy blue eyes clashed with the brown of Ali’s.
‘So it should be,’ Ali responded coolly. ‘But if you observe, it is a letter-knife to remind you both to keep in touch.’
Ali left moments later, sweeping out of the hotel with his bodyguard chasing after him. He had explained he was sailing within the hour for home.
Jake turned Lexi into his arms and, relieving her of the jewel box, slipped it in his pocket. ‘That man wanted you,’ he said flatly, his intent gaze searching her upturned face. ‘He is one of the wealthiest men in the world, and you could have married him.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she giggled. ‘Ali is sought after by the most gorgeous women in the world and delights in letting them catch him, while his father despairs of him ever settling down. He is just a boy and he likes to tease.’ And, suddenly feeling bold, she added, ‘Haven’t you realised yet, Jake? There has only ever been you.’
‘What!’ He stared into her laughing eyes, and what he saw there must have convinced him. ‘God! Lexi, you choose the damnedest place to make a confession like that. We really need to talk.’ He hugged her tight.
But at that moment they were accosted by Signor Monicelli, and for the next few hours Lexi was floating on Cloud Nine. She danced with the chef, Franco and host of others but always after each dance Jake was there to claim her.
Finding herself alone for a moment Lexi glanced around the room. Poor Jake had been dragged by Anna on to the dance-floor and she was trying to teach him to cha-cha amid much laughter. Lexi smiled to herself and carefully eased her way through the crowd and into the foyer; she felt slightly dizzy, the heat and the noise finally getting to her.
‘Enjoying the party?’ Lorraine appeared from behind the Reception desk. ‘I’m supposed to join in when Anna remembers to come and relieve me, but frankly a rave-up with all the staff isn’t really good for business.’
Groaning inwardly, Lexi faced up to the other woman. ‘It was Jake’s idea,’ she said swiftly. Whatever Lorraine had meant to Jake in the past, Lexi was hoping against hope it was over. Jake’s insistence that they talk and the way he had behaved today all pointed to that fact, and she would not let Lorraine dampen her spirit.
‘Yes, I know; he asked me to arrange it all. But personally I think it’s a waste of money. I told him he was a fool, but then all men are. Why should I worry? He pays me exceptionally well to do what he wants,’ she taunted with a smile that did not reach her hard eyes.
‘He is a very generous man,’ Lexi said firmly. She did not like the assessing look in Lorraine’s gaze as she moved to stand directly in front of her.
‘What is it about you, Lexi?’ Lorraine questioned almost to herself. ‘You’re beautiful. You and I could have been friends if you weren’t a threat to my position in the company.’ She put her long-nailed hand on Lexi’s bare shoulder, her fingers biting into the flesh. ‘You’re intelligent, but you have one failing—you’re the type of woman who needs a man. What a waste. Jake knows you are a gold-digger, and he’ll drop you in the end, and I’ll still be around, his right-hand man.’
Lexi stepped back. Lorraine as a friend! The woman must be mad. ‘That’s enough. I will not discuss my husband with you.’ She refused to let the woman get to her. Tonight was Lexi’s and Jake was hers, and, spinning on her heel, she flung over her shoulder, ‘I’ll send Anna out.’ It was odd; Lexi realised that even before she knew about Jake and Lorraine, the woman had always made her uncomfortable, and she didn’t think it was just jealousy. With a toss of her red hair she headed for the party but before she had gone three steps Jake was at her side.
‘What was Lorraine saying?’ Jake demanded curtly. ‘Did she upset you?’
Sliding an arm around his neck and another around his waist, she pressed herself against him. ‘No more than usual, in fact she wanted to be friends, would you believe?’ she teased; she wanted nothing to spoil this night, and she wasn’t going to let Lorraine’s catty remarks hurt her.
‘She touched you.’ His dark eyes fell to the red mark on her naked shoulder. ‘Did she hurt you?’ The harsh demand in Jake’s tone made Lexi lift her eyes to his.
‘No, of course not. She didn’t punch me out for being with you.’ Lexi grinned, but Jake did not respond; instead his eyes narrowed with some undisclosed emotion.
‘Look, I’m sorry if I upset your girlfriend—’ She was not going to let anything spoil her party.
‘She is not my girlfriend.’ Jake cut her off, his handsome face harsh in the artificial light. ‘She works for me, nothing more, though not for much longer, I think.’ And, sliding an arm around Lexi’s waist, he led her towards the dance-floor. ‘I’m beginning to wonder...’
‘Wonder what?’ Lexi asked, secretly delighted at the suggestion that Jake and Lorraine might part company.
Jake, in a quick about-face, spun her around; his eyes, gleaming with devili
sh amusement, gazed down into hers as he swept her into his arms, and said, ‘Wonder if I should serenade you.’ And he burst into song.
She knew he had deliberately changed the subject, but she didn’t care, and, entering into the mood, she began to giggle as he whirled her around and around. ‘You’re a terrible singer.’
‘I know, but I do do something well...’ he drawled sexily, one hand sliding down to her buttocks, he held her firmly against him. The band started to play a Latin love song, and slowly they circled the floor, touching from shoulder to knee, their bodies moving lazily as one. Jake nuzzled her ear and she melted in his arms.
CHAPTER TEN
AT LAST the crowd was thinning. Lexi breathed a sigh of contentment. It had been a lovely party, and, wriggling out of Jake’s arms, she whispered, ‘I need the powder-room.’ But as she crossed the foyer Anna called out,
‘Lexi, do you want to collect your tapes now?’
‘Yes, sure.’ Lexi had left her favourite tapes in Anna’s room when she had been sharing it with her for a week. Quickly, she followed Anna around Reception and down the corridor to her room at the rear of the hotel.
Ten minutes later with the box of tapes tucked under her arm, Lexi slowly walked back to the foyer. She was sad at leaving her friends; she had had some good times at the Piccolo Paradiso she mused, but she nursed a secret feeling of hope that the best was yet to come. Jake wanted to talk, and she knew in her heart that this time it would be all right. She wasn’t sure she was pregnant, but had taken care to drink only two glasses of champagne all evening. In any case, she hadn’t needed the stimulus. An attractive, caring Jake was stimulus enough for her.
She stopped, her eyes widening in shocked disbelief; her hand went to her heart, pressing at her breast in a futile attempt to stop it breaking. At the end of the corridor, silhouetted by the stronger light of Reception, stood a couple wrapped in each others’ arms; the man had his back to her but there was no mistaking it was Jake, and Lorraine. As she watched, his dark head bent. Lexi turned and ran back along the hall, her eyes blinded by tears.
She leaned against the wall and gulped in the warm night air, her heart pounding; the box of tapes fell unnoticed to the ground as she rubbed her knuckles in her eyes, trying to stem the tears. Taking a shaky breath she straightened, and gazed dazedly at her surroundings. She was in the staff car park at the back of the hotel.
She was shivering and yet it was a hot summer night. She looked up at the sky; a million stars glittered and sparkled in the midnight blue of the moonlit vastness. But the beauty of the scene was lost on her. It had happened again. Once more she had allowed herself to trust, to love, had wished for the moon! And for a while she had thought it was within her grasp. What a fool! Her hopes and dreams were shattered like a burst balloon.
Lexi had no notion how long she stood there; an icy chill pervaded the very marrow of her bones until finally she moved, stiffly like a robot, one foot in front of the other, but with no idea where she was going; she only knew she had to get away. Then she noticed it. Her little car was parked next to the car park exit. It looked abandoned, much the way she felt herself, she thought sadly. Automatically she tried the door and it opened; she slid into the driver’s seat, her hand finding the ignition. The key had been left in place...
She turned on the engine, her foot pressing on the clutch and slipped it into first gear. But suddenly the door was wrenched open, a long hand reached over and cut off the ignition, another arm pressed across her chest as a strong hand hauled on the handbrake.
‘No, you don’t.’ Lexi turned her tear-stained face at the harsh command, and saw Jake’s towering form blocking the door. His eyes flashed with rage and a muscle jerked in his cheek. ‘Get out of that car,’ he snarled.
‘Leave me alone,’ she said, her voice breaking on a sob as she tried to prise his arm off her breast.
‘Running to your Arab friend, were you?’ Jake’s face was murderous. ‘You bitch.’ His lips drew back from his teeth in a snarl of animal fury.
How like him to blame her! Lexi thought and, in a mercurial change of mood, anger overtaking her former despair, she beat at his arm, trying to break free. ‘Let me go, don’t touch me, I hate you...’ she cried, all her hurt and anger bubbling to the surface; she thrashed around in the seat trying to dislodge his aggressive hold. ‘You great brute. Let me go...’ she screamed almost hysterically.
‘Never,’ he ground out through clenched teeth.
With a frightened animal’s instinct for escape Lexi changed tactics and scrambled the other way. But with the speed of light Jake was in the car and flinging her back against the passenger seat.
His face was inches from her own, his eyes leaping with rage, his breathing harsh. ‘You go anywhere near that Arab again,’ he rasped menacingly, his strong hand sliding up her neck to encircle her throat, ‘I’ll kill you.’ His rugged face was tight with demoniac anger, the muscle in his cheek jerking as he tried to control his fury and in that moment Lexi believed him.
‘I wasn’t running to Ali, I was running away from you,’ she cried scathingly.
Jake stared down at her, his hand gradually relaxing its grip on her throat. ‘So what’s new?’ he grated. She watched his massive chest heave as he took slow, deep gulps of air, fighting to regain his control until finally he moved back into the driving seat and, with one withering glance at Lexi’s huddled form, he started the car.
She bit her lip. ‘What do you think you’re doing? This is my car. Your limousine will be waiting for you out front,’ she snapped sarcastically.
‘And take the chance of you disappearing again? No way, Lexi.’
She cast a venomous glance at his harsh profile; his face was taut, his hands gripping the steering-wheel as if his life depended on it. She opened her mouth to speak but the car squealed on two wheels out of the car park and Lexi was flung against Jake.
She straightened back in her seat, she had felt the rigid tension in his arm in his whole body as they had touched, and the same tension filled the intimate confines of the tiny car. She turned her head and looked out of the side window and realised they were bombing along Amalfi Drive at a speed she was sure the car had never been built to achieve. Her heart in her mouth, she stayed silent, frozen with fear.
He was taking her back to the villa, that much was obvious. Jake could make her stay, he could make her love him. She already did, and that would never change, she accepted the fact sadly; and up until tonight she had thought maybe they could make their marriage work. But now she knew categorically that she had been fooling herself; it was an impossibility.
Jake had broken her heart not once but twice. She might just be able to stick the pieces back and continue to function; she could try. But, if she stayed, his infidelities, especially with Lorraine, would chip away at her self-respect, her pride, and little by little chisel away at her bruised heart until there was nothing left but dust, nothing to mend. She couldn’t allow it to happen. She wouldn’t.
She glanced at Jake. His profile looked as though it was carved out of stone; she despised the sudden lurch in her pulse while recognising that he was a formidable man in every way. But surely even Jake could not watch her all the time. She would get her chance and run as far and as fast as she could. She had done it once and she could again. She had no other alternative...
The huge gates of the villa swung open in front of them and Lexi gave a sigh of relief; she could breathe again, the harrowing drive was over. But her relief was short-lived, as the car ground to a jarring halt at the front door, and Jake was around the car, the passenger door open, and his hand curving around her bare arm like a vice as he dragged her out.
‘I can manage,’ she said, jerking her arm free, and blindly she turned and dashed for the house and the safety of her room, but she had barely taken two steps into the hall before Jake caught her.
‘What the hell are you trying to do to me, Lexi?’ he grated, and with a savage movement swung her around to fa
ce him.
Lexi stared up at him. ‘Me, Jake?’ she screeched. She couldn’t believe his outrageous accusation—to her mind it was the other way around—but she was astounded to note the stain of red running along his high cheekbones, the taut fury in his handsome face.
‘Yes, you. Who the hell else is there?’
Lorraine for one! she almost cried, but Jake, without waiting for an answer, swept her up in his arms, and carried her straight into the salon. She lashed out at him, her hands connecting with his head and his broad back. ‘Put me down,’ she yelled furiously and he did, dropping her unceremoniously down on the velvet-covered sofa.
He towered over her, huge and menacing; she had never seen him so consumed with rage. His glittering eyes raked over her with a ruthless savagery that made her feel as if he could see through to her bones. She fumbled with the skirt of her dress that had ridden high over her thighs, exposing her shapely legs, and tried to get up.
‘Don’t bother.’ Jake lowered his body on to the sofa beside her and her attempt to sit up was blocked by his hand roughly pushing her back. His eyes flared like blue flame with rage. ‘I’ll have it off you in a minute.’ His hard body pinned her beneath him. ‘If this is the only way I can have you, so be it...’ he snarled, as his dark head bent and his mouth covered hers in a ravaging travesty of a kiss. His hand wrenched the bodice of her dress to her waist while his other hand entangled brutally in the back of her hair, insensitive to the hurt he was inflicting.
Lexi twisted and turned, her slender body bucking against him, trying to break free from his crazed assault on her susceptible senses. She reeled from the force of his kiss, then gasped as his mouth found the rosy peak of her breast. She rained blows down on his broad back, but, to her horror, long shudders rippled through her body as she felt herself succumbing to his persuasive mouth and hands.
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