He had the shock of his life to see Laura Brandon walking across the reception area of the hotel when he arrived back there after deciding there was nothing else to do but wait.
Her cheeks flushed guiltily, and his mouth tightened when he thought of exactly what she was guilty of!
‘Mr Sinclair,’ she greeted him breathlessly, her hands moving nervously.
‘I want to talk to you,’ he declared, clasping a firm hold of her arm. ‘Upstairs in my suite.’
She gave him a puzzled look as he dragged her along beside him. ‘Is there something wrong?’ she frowned.
His mouth tightened. Something wrong? Dear God, she and Hal had kept his grandchild’s birth from him, and she asked if there was anything wrong!
‘I went to the house to see you, Laura,’ he bit out coldly. ‘I saw Leonie instead. And Holly,’ he added pointedly.
Laura’s blush became one of anger. ‘So?’ she faced him defiantly.
His eyes flashed with fury. ‘So I think we need to—talk about her, don’t you?’ he grated softly.
‘No, I—’
‘Upstairs,’ he muttered, pulling her into the lift with him, retaining his hold on her arm as she struggled to free herself.
Strange, although the two sisters were mirror images of each other, from their fiery red hair to their tiny feet, he had felt nothing for Laura Brandon except detached interest from the first. Her sister had been something else completely!
His fingers tightened in anger—with himself, and with the circumstances that had ever introduced him to the sisters.
‘You’re hurting me!’ Laura complained with a pained frown.
His fingers slackened slightly, but he didn’t release her. ‘I’d like to break your devious little neck,’ he ground out as they stepped straight into the penthouse suite. ‘Leave us,’ he ordered Jake and Sarah as they worked together in the lounge, watching them arrogantly as they packed up the papers they had been working on and left the room without complaint. He felt a moment’s regret that such a good friend and assistant as Jake should want to leave his employment, and then he turned his full attention to the woman at his side. ‘Now let’s talk about Holly.’ His voice was silky-soft.
Laura rubbed the red marks his fingers had left on her arm. ‘I can’t imagine what you want to know about her,’ she shook her head.
His mouth twisted. ‘Why do both you and your sister persist in thinking I wouldn’t be interested in her?’
She frowned. ‘You didn’t say anything to Leonie to upset her, did you?’ she asked sharply. ‘Because if you did—’
‘Believe it or not, I do not, physically or verbally, abuse women who already look like hell!’
Her cheeks flushed defensively. ‘Leonie has been ill—’
‘I’m well aware of that,’ he stated. ‘But it’s Holly I want to talk about!’
Laura shrugged. ‘There’s nothing to say.’
‘Like hell there isn’t!’ he flared furiously. ‘Don’t you think you and Hal should have told me about her birth instead of just letting me go to the house and finding out about her the way that I did?’ he scorned.
‘She’s completely innocent in all this,’ Laura bristled. ‘And so is Leonie. You can’t be telling me that Holly’s existence makes a difference to your approval of the marriage?’ She looked disbelieving.
Both Leonie and Laura had the ability to wring your emotions to the fullest, and then still make you bleed! He didn’t want to dislike this woman, he had wanted things to work out for Hal, but there was no way he could condone this use of trickery.
‘All the difference in the world,’ he grated, giving a cold inclination of his head.
‘But why?’ she cried. ‘I can’t believe an unmarried mother in the family would bother you that much,’ she added disgustedly. ‘If it does then I’m not sure I want to marry Hal after all!’ Her voice trembled with emotion.
‘There’s no way any of us could stop Hal legalising Holly’s birth,’ Hawk rasped coldly.
‘What?’ Laura looked at him as if he had gone insane.
‘I can’t stop him going through with the marriage now,’ he conceded scornfully. ‘But if you think I’m going to make things easy for you by approving of the marriage then you’re going to be disappointed. I can’t accept your—’
‘Wait a minute.’ Laura had the look of a person who had completely lost track of the conversation. ‘Hal isn’t Holly’s father—’
‘Believe me, Laura, you’d be much better telling me he is,’ Hawk told her warningly.
‘But of course he isn’t,’ she said irritably.
‘I saw Holly, damn it!’ Now he was beginning to wonder if he hadn’t lost his grip on the conversation too!
‘Beautiful, isn’t she!’ Laura gave an indulgent smile. ‘Although why on earth you should think Hal had anything to do with her birth, I don’t know. Michael is her father, of course,’ she dismissed impatiently.
‘Michael who?’ Didn’t she realise she was only making the situation worse by disclaiming Hal as the father of her child? What on earth did she hope to achieve by doing that? Hal certainly wouldn’t accept another man’s child in those circumstances!
‘Michael Spencer,’ Laura supplied abruptly. ‘Leonie’s ex-husband.’
The Brandon sisters certainly had the ability to render him speechless! After years of always being in control, Hawk found these two women completely took his breath away, for one reason or another.
‘You, and this man Spencer—’
‘No, of course not Michael and I,’ Laura denied indignantly. ‘Holly is Leonie’s and Michael’s child,’ she explained impatiently. ‘I can’t believe Leonie didn’t tell you she was Holly’s mother,’ she frowned.
She had, of course. But he had chosen to disbelieve her. Because Holly looked like Hal!
‘She did. I just—Are you sure this guy Spencer is the father?’ he groaned. ‘They’re divorced, aren’t they?’
‘Most definitely,’ said Laura with some relief. ‘But Michael was round asking for money about the time Holly was conceived, and although I know Leonie can’t stand him, Michael isn’t the sort of man to take no for an answer!’ she added grimly.
‘You mean—he’d force her?’ challenged Hawk, fury coursing through him at the thought of any man using force on that silken body.
Laura shrugged. ‘I’m really not at liberty to discuss my sister’s marriage. But I couldn’t stand him. And Leonie quickly learnt what a brute he was.’
Hawk swallowed hard. ‘He—hurt her?’ His hands clenched into tight fists.
‘If he felt like it.’ Laura’s cold anger was directed towards the memories. ‘Michael has to be Holly’s father, because Leonie hasn’t been out with anyone since their marriage and divorce.’
He frowned. ‘No one at all?’
Laura gave a hard laugh. ‘If you’d been married to a man who threatened you, stole from you, humiliated you, you might feel more than a little apprehensive about becoming involved again!’
‘She should have left him earlier than she did,’ Hawk declared harshly, hating the thought of anyone hurting Leonie in that way.
Laura shrugged. ‘She believed in the vows they’d taken, and tried to be true to them.’
‘While that bastard broke every one of them!’ His eyes glittered furiously. ‘Why the hell would Spencer go to Leonie for money—or anything else?’ he grated hardly.
Laura sighed. ‘Michael refused to recognise the divorce, and as he’s out of work and Leonie earns money from our books…’ She shook her head. ‘She was doing so well, regaining some of the confidence and self-respect being married to Michael had taken from her, and then she found out she was pregnant! God, I don’t know why I’m telling you all this.’ She looked at Hawk with pained eyes. ‘Leonie’s life is her own affair. And so is the father of her baby,’ she added defensively.
Michael Spencer had abused his wife, taken advantage of her giving nature—Hawk couldn’t believe tha
t Leonie would let the other man possess her body any more after that.
‘She’s been through so much lately,’ Laura continued brokenly. ‘The premature birth, her own illness—’
Hawk became suddenly still. ‘Holly was born early?’
Laura nodded. ‘At least four weeks, the doctors estimated. They had to do a Caesarian operation in the end. I nearly lost both of them,’ she remembered with a shudder.
Holly was premature…! Hawk began to shake.
‘Leonie was so ill after the operation,’ Laura was saying now. ‘She had no idea what was happening around her for days, even Holly’s birth. I didn’t think she was going to come through it,’ she added emotionally.
‘Did Leonie tell you Spencer was the baby’s father?’ Hawk watched Laura with narrowed eyes.
She shook her head. ‘She refuses to talk about Holly’s father at all.’
Because Michael Spencer wasn’t Holly’s father—he was!
Leonie had nearly died giving birth to his baby. Nine months ago he had taken her to bed, made love to her—and he hadn’t been able to get her off his mind since. He had given her a reminder of him that meant she would never forget him either!
Why hadn’t she contacted him as soon as she had learnt she was pregnant? She had to know that she carried his child, and that he would want to know about it.
He had a daughter! That tiny bundle of blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty was his daughter.
* * *
He knew. Leonie could see the knowledge in his eyes as he faced her across the lounge after arriving with Laura a few minutes ago. Her sister seemed her normal chatty self when she came in, so he obviously hadn’t told her he was Holly’s father.
As she had known he would, he had come back here as soon as he discovered the truth, and she had guarded against it. Nothing he said or did could hurt her.
Just as nothing he had said or done nine months ago had hurt her.
She had been surprised when he returned to the house that evening, even more dismayed when he had told her he had decided to wait for Laura and Hal to get back; she had known the other couple weren’t coming back that night.
Rather than tell him the truth she had decided to brave it out and hope it became so late he would eventually leave and come back tomorrow.
Trying to entertain a man like Hawk Sinclair wasn’t an easy thing to do. She had noticed a little self-consciously that he seemed to be entertained just watching her! And those glinting eyes through narrowed lids unnerved her.
‘Do you play Monopoly?’ she encouraged.
He shook his head.
‘No.’ Perhaps he didn’t need pretend games. He succeeded only too well at the games he played for real! ‘I’m really not into games. I never take unfair advantage of a woman,’ he drawled softly.
Why did she have the feeling that statement had a double meaning? Probably because it had! This man wanted her, she could see that by the intensity of his gaze and the way he never took his eyes off her.
She didn’t want him. She found him fascinating to watch, like seeing a sleek animal in action, but she didn’t want him.
What if she repulsed him? Would it affect his decision concerning Laura and Hal? She hoped it wouldn’t actually come to a point where she had to make a choice.
‘Let’s go for a walk,’ she said impulsively, standing up.
His brows rose. ‘A walk?’ he echoed reluctantly.
She grinned. ‘Well, I realise that being rich you’re probably driven everywhere you want to go, but you surely haven’t forgotten that if you put one foot in front of the other you actually move forward? If you put one foot behind the other you can even—’
‘Okay, Leonie,’ he said dryly, ‘I get the picture. It is the end of September,’ he reminded her hopefully.
‘Yes?’
‘The nights are getting colder—’
‘Not that cold.’ She pulled him to his feet, moving away instantly as she sensed he was about to put his arms around her. She wasn’t afraid of him, she just didn’t want him in that way!
‘All right,’ he shrugged into the leather jacket he had draped over the chair when he arrived. ‘If the lady wants to walk, we’ll walk,’ he said wearily.
She doubted if Hawk Sinclair’s idea of a walk was to have six cats accompany him!
The cats’ idea of a walk round the garden was to ambush them every couple of steps, leaping out at them from behind bushes and tree-trunks, wrapping paws around their ankles until they were gently shaken off. Leonie and Hawk’s progress was severely handicapped by their mischievous antics.
Leonie’s mouth twitched with amusement as Hawk tried his best to hide his annoyance; he was obviously not used to having animals about him.
‘How did you ever end up with six cats?’ he finally burst out impatiently.
‘Strays,’ she supplied. ‘Every one of them. If a cat’s found wandering in the village and no one claims it then it’s brought here. We never turn them away.’
‘No dogs?’ he quirked dark brows.
She shook her head, her hair fiery-red in the last of the sun’s rays. ‘No dogs.’
‘Why not?’ He pointedly removed Rose, her pure white cat, from around his ankle.
She shrugged. ‘It wouldn’t be fair on them, neither Laura nor I have the time to walk them.’
His mouth tightened. ‘I’m sure your sister’s time is fully occupied with bedazzling Hal!’
She gave him a reproving look. ‘Laura is my image,’ she drawled. ‘And neither of us has the assets to dazzle anyone!’
He came to an abrupt halt at her side, looking down at her with dark grey eyes. ‘You don’t think so?’ he murmured softly.
She stiffened warily. ‘No.’
‘I’m dazzled,’ he stated quietly. ‘By you.’
Leonie gave a dismissive laugh. ‘Now look, Hawk—’
‘I have,’ he said abruptly. ‘And I want it. Want you. Are you going to let me have you?’
Or what? Would he demand that Laura never see Hal again, would he smash the delicacy of their love because he had been denied what he wanted? She knew he was capable of doing exactly that, because although Hal might disregard his disapproval, Laura never would.
Could she make love with this man, with any man for such a reason? She would do anything to ensure Laura the happiness she hadn’t been able to find herself, even make love with a man who merely ‘wanted’ her for his own gratification. He would never be able to touch her emotionally, no man had been able to do that since her marriage to Michael. And the taking of her body couldn’t hurt her; it had been done too many times by Michael for one more time to matter!
He was going to be very disappointed if he thought making love to her would be more than that. Her only lover had been her husband, and his idea of lovemaking was to take his pleasure as quickly as possible, taking what he wanted like a thief in the night. If there were any other way to make love—and she was sure there had to be when so many people found the act addictive!—then she had never experienced it. And Hawk Sinclair looked as if he had experienced every pleasure that was available to him.
She drew in a nervous breath, her decision made. ‘We’d better go back to the house, the cats have no respect for privacy.’ She gave a nervous laugh. ‘Tulip once jumped on Michael’s back when—’ She broke off abruptly. ‘Michael was my husband,’ she added awkwardly as Hawk began to chuckle at the image she had created.
‘So I gathered,’ he drawled. ‘Better make sure we close the bedroom door—the only scratch marks I want on my back tonight are yours!’
Leonie swallowed hard, wondering if she could go through with this after all. Hawk was making it obvious he expected some sort of grand performance from her in bed, and she knew she couldn’t give him that. But as they reached her bedroom she knew she had no choice, that it was too late to change her mind now. She was committed, she would see it through.
She trembled slightly as he slowly unbuttoned her blouse,
revealing her bared breasts; Michael had never undressed her in this way, and he had never ever left the light burning beside the bed so that they could look at each other as they made love. Hawk was more than looking, he was touching too now!
Red-hot pleasure coursed through her, to remain a throbbing ache between her thighs. Hawk’s mouth was against her breast, his tongue lightly stroking the hardened nipple.
She whimpered low in her throat, that whimper turning to a groan as his hard mouth claimed hers, tasting her, his fingers wreaking havoc against her aroused breasts, cupping their firm weight as he lightly brushed the aching tip.
She didn’t want this man. Then why was she trembling with uncontrolled passion, knowing the first heady-sweet sensations of desire?
She gasped as his flesh seared hers, his shirt unbuttoned too now, her breasts crushed against the damp hardness of his chest. He wanted her so much a fine sheen of perspiration glistened on his body!
Her eyes widened apprehensively as he dropped to his knees in front of her, his gaze holding hers as he unfastened her denims and slowly slid the zip down, several inches of her flesh bare above the lace of her briefs. Air was sucked into her lungs as, breaking her gaze, he bent and his mouth moved surely over that exposed flesh. Tiny pinpricks of explosions spun through her body as he kissed her through the material of her denims, sliding them down her thighs to cast them aside, the barrier between her and his caressing lips even thinner now. The explosions grew almost out of control as she felt the probe of his tongue against her.
‘No!’ she cried protestingly.
He firmly removed her hand from his hair as she would have pulled him away. ‘But you like it,’ he said gruffly. ‘And God knows so do I!’
The dampness of lace clung to her, that sheer barrier no defence against his marauding tongue, and as his fingers probed beneath the lace Leonie felt her knees buckle as she fell to the floor beside him.
‘Lean back,’ he instructed huskily, bending his head as she obeyed, his mouth closing hotly on the nipple that had escaped his attention earlier, sucking strongly at the aching bud, easing some of her tension, but evoking another one between her thighs. As if he was aware of her discomfort his hand trailed to the valley between her thighs, discarding the briefs that hid her from him, covering that fiery mound with his palm as he explored the moist vulnerability between her legs, feeling her readiness for him, entering her to ease some of the aching desire.
Just One Night (Presents Plus) Page 5