by Fiona Harper
She licked her lips. She had been going to say how good in bed you are, but had managed to put the brakes on at the last second. Seemed that working for Jason was teaching her new skills in self-control.
‘How you...hypnotise...them,’ she finally said, watching Jason’s smile grow slowly even more wicked. ‘At least, that’s what I assume you do, because any woman in possession of her full senses would see through you in a flash.’
‘Like you do,’ he said, his voice low and velvety.
‘Precisely.’ She straightened her spine, turned and walked away, ignoring the knowledge that he was silently laughing at her as she headed back to the safety of her desk.
But at least he hadn’t pressed the matter or decided he was in a teasing kind of mood. She really didn’t want to know how good in bed he was. Chloe would say it was because she’d regret what she was missing, but it wasn’t that. When the sex was good, it was a nice extra in a relationship, but it couldn’t be the foundation. She’d had that kind of chemistry with Tim and look how well that had turned out.
Oh, she knew it wasn’t always a disaster—Chloe and Dan being a case in point—but good sex, even off-the-charts sex wasn’t a guarantee of any sort, even if those wonderful endorphins it produced were such good liars, telling you it meant something when it didn’t, making you feel that something cosmically earth-shattering had occurred, when really it was just some well-designed biology to keep the species going.
She didn’t believe in ‘soulmates’ anymore. You just had to find a good match, someone you got on with, who wanted the same things out of life as you did, and if there was a spark there so much the better.
Never again would she be one of those silly women like the ones on Jason’s list. The ones who believed too much, who saw a god when there was really only an ordinary fallible man. No, Kelly had her eyes open now, and she was never going to be tricked that way again. The happiness of her and her boys depended on it.
SIX
Kelly arrived at Greenwich Park the following Saturday with a firm grip on each of her sons and a cool bag slung across her body. The strap dug into her shoulder more with every step, but she wasn’t going to let go of Cal and Ben until they’d reached their destination. There was no telling where they’d run off to otherwise and the park was a big place.
Thankfully, she soon found some faces she recognised on a flat expanse of grass just before the landscape dipped dramatically to meet the Thames. Across the river, the sun glinted off the skyscrapers in Canary Wharf. It seemed odd for the towering buildings to be so close when she was standing in a royal park that was so old the sense of a rural idyll still clung about it.
She sighed and looked up at the bright sun climbing steadily in the sky. Weather forecasting was obviously not her talent, because the day was as clear and warm as any that blessed Los Angeles. Well, that was what Kelly imagined. The furthest west she’d ever been was St Ives.
As they neared the growing sprawl of Aspire employees, she tried to stop herself scanning the crowd for Jason. And failed miserably.
It didn’t matter. He wasn’t there yet. She shook her head and concentrated on laying a tartan blanket out on the warm grass, forbidding herself from looking up and checking for who else had arrived once she’d finished. That done, she sat down and leaned back on her hands, legs stretched in front of her, enjoying the sun on her face and the slight breeze that ruffled the loose hair around her shoulders.
At least, she enjoyed it until she was felled by two small boys who’d launched themselves at her. They were alternately strangling her, bouncing up and down and eyeing the play park at the bottom of the vast hill.
‘Can we go to the swings, Mummy? Can we? Can we? Please?’
Kelly unhooked Ben’s arm from around her windpipe and gasped for some oxygen before she answered. ‘Maybe after lunch,’ she told them, then pointed over to a blanket not far away, where Sarah from Accounting, her husband and brood of four children were gathered. ‘There are some kids your age over there. Why don’t you see if you can go and play with them?’
Cal pulled a face. ‘They’re girls.’
She smothered a smile. ‘Well, those girls have got a football in their bag. Still not interested in playing with them?’
The boys exchanged looks. Cal looked down and scuffed the grass with his trainer, before staring longingly at the assortment of brightly coloured pint-sized sports equipment being unloaded from a large holdall.
‘I suppose we could go and teach them how to play properly,’ he said slowly.
Once again, Kelly struggled to keep her lips in a straight line. From the look of the pink-and-lilac-clad tomboys clambering over their father to get to the toys, they could teach Ben and Cal a thing or two.
She pushed herself to her feet. ‘Come on, we’ll go and say hi.’
The boys loped behind her for a few steps, but started running the instant Sarah spotted them coming and beckoned them over. Within thirty seconds Cal was being bossed by Sarah’s eldest as to exactly where he should put some discarded cardigans to serve as goalposts. Kelly stood, hands on hips, watching them for a moment and then accepted Sarah’s offer to join her on her blanket for a chat.
‘So what’s the deal with this picnic?’ she asked Sarah, keeping half an eye on the game of football that had just started. ‘We just slowly toast ourselves in the sunshine and stuff our faces?’
Sarah grinned at her as she rolled up her T-shirt sleeves to expose her shoulders. ‘If that’s what you want, but this being a sporty kind of staff, there’s also a chance to burn off the picnic calories, should you wish to. Jason’s big on organising games and races and getting the different departments to compete against each other.’
Kelly stared ahead and said nothing. Of course he was.
‘Highlight of the afternoon is the annual rounders tournament. Of course, Jason calls it baseball, and we don’t correct him, but we all know it’s really good old British rounders. Production and Design won last year and they’re determined to hold on to their trophy.’
Kelly closed her eyes. ‘Please don’t tell me there’s an actual trophy.’
Sarah chuckled. ‘Of course there’s a trophy! It’s all the guys talk about. It gives them gloating rights for the next twelve months.’ Her mouth hitched up at one side. ‘The way they go on about it, you’d think the stupid thing had magical powers. You watch, they’ll be warming up and taking their practice swings before lunch.’
Sarah was right about that. Not ten minutes passed before a band of serious-looking twenty-somethings, all with specially printed T-shirts with the Aspire logo and ‘P & D’ on the back, huddled together and started taking turns with a bat. Kelly only half watched them, content to just sit and do nothing for once. Sarah’s husband was supervising the kiddie football game, so she didn’t even have to keep more than half an ear out for her sons’ voices.
For the first time in months, maybe even a couple of years, she felt as if she could kick back and do nothing. It was glorious.
She’d been sitting there quite happily, soaking up the sunshine, when that familiar prickling sensation crept up her arms. She glanced over to where the rounders players were warming up and her stomach lurched so hard she was almost convinced the ground had moved.
There was Jason, in faded jeans and a T-shirt, looking more gorgeous than a man had a right to as he laughed and chatted with some of the other guys. Out of his suit he looked...he looked...
Edible.
Sadly, that was the only word that fitted.
Kelly looked down at her own denim-clad thighs and suddenly wished for her normal temp uniform of skirt and blouse. She hadn’t realised they were part of her anti-Jason armour until that moment, but they were. And without her usual uniform the edges of their relationship...well, they seemed too blurry.
She discovered sh
e didn’t know what to do with herself. The position she was sitting in now seemed posed and fake, but whatever she did with her arms and legs just felt awkward and unnatural. It was as if she was expecting him to look up and notice her sitting there, expecting him to jog over and smile at her before he dropped down on the blanket beside her. And she wasn’t. Yes, they worked together, but that didn’t mean anything. There were plenty of other people he would want to spend time with today.
However, it was just as well she wasn’t secretly hoping Jason would come over and say hi, because for the next half hour he was fully occupied showing young, pretty things—who’d developed a sudden burning passion for rounders—how to hold a bat properly. All of them needed one-to-one tuition, preferably involving Jason wrapping his arms around them from behind and swinging the bat with his large hands covering theirs.
Not that Kelly was paying much attention, although it didn’t take more than a quick glance to work out that Jason was loving every second of it.
Still, it irritated her that while she was aware of him maybe fifty feet away, while she could hear the artificially loud giggles of some of his protégées, she just couldn’t seem to get back that restful groove she’d had going. Eventually, she stamped to her feet, headed back to her own blanket and started unpacking her and the boys’ picnic. They were sure to be hungry soon, what with all that running around Sarah’s husband had them doing. And the fending off of yucky girls.
When it was all laid out she called her sons over. They ran back long enough to grab a packet of crisps each then raced back to their football game. On a normal day, Kelly would have sat them down and made sure they ate a sandwich, but today they were having so much fun she didn’t have the heart.
She sighed and picked up a packet herself. The first mouthful confirmed what she’d expected of them. She’d bought them at the pound shop and, while they weren’t quite out of date, they had a slight chewiness that suggested they were only just on the right side of staleness.
‘Can I have one?’
Kelly stopped chewing for a second and looked up to find Jason towering over her, silhouetted as he blocked out the sun. Unable to talk, she just nodded and watched with big eyes as he dropped gracefully on the blanket beside her and helped himself to a packet of cheese and onion.
‘Rounders over for now?’ she asked breezily, once she’d swallowed her mouthful of crisp crumbs. ‘Only you seemed to have quite a fan club a minute ago.’
Why had she said that? Why? Now he’d know she’d noticed, and she didn’t want him knowing that.
Jason just grinned back at her. ‘Saving myself for later.’
Stop it, she told her stomach, which did a little flip as his eyes glinted with mischief. That sort of thing does not appeal to you.
She sat up and craned her neck. ‘Haven’t you got an ermine-lined blanket of your own around somewhere?’
Jason just laughed. ‘No. I forgot it. But it’s nicer to share.’
Kelly looked at the tiny, not-quite-wool tartan rug beneath them. If she’d known that she’d be forced to sit quite this close to him, she might have invested in one that was...oh...twenty times larger?
‘Well, the crisps are all you’re having off me. I didn’t bring a lot.’ She looked down at the little cling-film-wrapped packets of sandwiches and assortment of fruit in the centre of the rug. There were three chocolate biscuits also lurking in the bottom of the cool bag, but Kelly wasn’t giving hers up for anybody.
He reached behind him and pulled a proper wicker picnic basket with leather buckles forward. ‘I said I’d forgotten the blanket, not the food.’ His gaze flitted to her meagre provisions. ‘You’re sharing your blanket. Care to share my lunch?’
Something inside Kelly nosedived. Ah. That was it. He was taking pity on her. That was why he was here, clogging up her blanket when he could have been lolling around somewhere else with a leggy blonde wrapped around him.
She was about to open her mouth and tell him exactly where he could shove his fancy picnic, sandwich by sandwich, when he added, ‘My mother has this monstrosity sent to me from Fortnum’s every year, just for the company picnic. I think she thinks that because I’m in London the Queen might just wander past and I’d better be properly provisioned, just in case.’
Now he’d made her laugh, which had so not been part of the plan. And when he opened the hamper up, she could see all sorts of delicious things in there...proper ham, not the watery packet stuff, pâté, scones, clotted cream. Her stomach growled and she decided that maybe she could take pity on her boss and help him out. Just this once.
He offered her a savoury minimuffin and she took it without hesitation. It was soft and slightly cheesy, with a hint of basil and sun-dried tomatoes. Heaven.
At that moment the boys rushed up. It seemed Sarah’s husband was in the mood for food too and had broken up the game to investigate his own picnic hamper. Both Cal and Ben skidded to a halt at the edge of the picnic blanket and stared at Jason.
‘Who are you?’ Ben said, with no hint of wariness in his tone, just curiosity.
Jason held up a hand for a high five, which Ben jumped for and slapped. ‘I’m Jason. I work with your mom,’ he said and held his hand out for his older brother. Cal shook his head and sidled towards Kelly a bit.
‘Your voice sounds funny,’ Ben said. ‘Are you from the telly? I’ve heard people talk like you on the telly.’
Jason grinned at the little boy. ‘Nope. Not from the TV. Just America. And, to me, you’re the ones with the funny voices.’
Ben just giggled. ‘My voice isn’t funny, but Mummy’s sometimes is. Especially when she’s cross and she’s—’
‘Ben, why don’t you stop pestering Jason and sit down and eat your sandwiches?’
Her youngest gave Jason a look that said, See?
Jason leaned in and spoke in a stage whisper behind his hand. ‘She uses that voice on me too.’
Cal couldn’t help joining in after that. ‘Are you naughty too sometimes?’ he asked as he sat down right next to Kelly, half on one of her feet.
Jason winked. ‘Sometimes.’
‘Always,’ Kelly said, and all three males shared a conspiratorial chuckle.
Great. Three seconds in his company and her kids had turned traitor and teamed up with Jason. This afternoon was going to be just peachy. She should have known, though. Of course Jason would get on with her kids...being such a big kid himself.
She unwrapped Ben’s sandwich and handed it to him. He handed it back to her.
‘What?’ she said. ‘It’s ham. You like ham.’
‘It’s pink,’ Ben replied, crossing his arms. ‘Only girls eat pink stuff.’
Kelly raised an eyebrow. ‘Really? You didn’t seem to mind much last week when you were scoffing your way through Auntie Chloe’s cupcakes.’
‘I want to eat meat.’
Kelly shook her head slightly. ‘Ham is meat.’
Ben gave her a superior kind of look. ‘I want red meat.’
‘Red meat...?’ What on earth was he talking about? Most meat was brown, maybe off-white. What the heck was Tim feeding them when they went to stay with him?
Ben nodded. ‘Like dinosaurs. I want to be a dinosaur. T-rex eats his meat all red and drippy.’
Her child wanted to eat raw meat. O-kay.
‘Look, Ben, you’re just going to have to take my word for it. Ham is meat and it’s not girly.’
Ben’s brows bunched together. ‘Won’t.’
‘Hey, buddy...’ Ben swung his head round to look at Jason. ‘Do I look girly to you?’ And he made a fist and displayed his rather fine biceps to make his point. Kelly’s mouth went dry.
Ben shook his head.
‘Then pass me one of those sandwiches, will you?’
Ben, keen to join in the game, le
apt up and handed Jason one of his sandwich triangles. Jason made a big show of eating it all up and rubbing his stomach afterwards. ‘Yummy.’
Ben’s eyes were wide, but he didn’t make a move towards his lunch. Kelly knew just how stubborn her youngest could be. If Ben had decided the sky was luminous purple, then luminous purple it would stay—until he woke up one morning and decided it was zebra striped instead.
Jason’s eyes narrowed slightly as he studied the little boy sitting across the picnic blanket from him. He leaned forward and lowered his voice. ‘As well as being your mom’s boss, the other thing you don’t know about me is that I’m half dinosaur.’ He said it so seriously that Cal, who’d begun to giggle, went quiet. Jason looked between the two boys and then he let out a low, rasping noise, similar to the ones the dinosaurs made in Ben’s favourite animated film. Before Kelly could react, he jumped to his feet, elbows clamped to his side, and started doing a pretty passable impression of a T-rex.
Kelly pressed her fingers over her lips and tried to suppress a laugh as her boys squealed and ran away across the grass. Jason lumbered after them, still in character, and chased them round for a couple of minutes before picking them up, tucking one under each arm and stomping back to the picnic blanket with them. Most of the Aspire team had stopped eating their picnics to watch the goings-on, and when Jason deposited first one boy then the other—head first—onto Kelly’s blanket, they cheered and gave him a round of applause.
Jason took a bow then dropped back down on the ground, looking one hundred per cent human again. He turned to Ben. ‘So...if I can eat a ham sandwich, I’m sure you can.’
‘I can’t believe you just did that,’ Kelly whispered, not completely able to keep the smile from her lips. ‘Everyone was watching.’
Jason just shrugged. So? his shoulders said. He didn’t care.
Of course he didn’t care. Jason didn’t care about anything. Except his Mercury running shoes.
‘Worked, didn’t it?’ he said as Ben tucked into his sandwich, making baby dinosaur noises between mouthfuls.