She hadn’t slept well after that, had already been awake when she heard Holly’s call to be fed, lingering over holding her daughter, even though the baby had long fallen back to sleep. If she hadn’t continued to hold Holly she was sure she would have gone to Hawk’s room!
She deeply regretted breaking down in front of him the night before; she hadn’t cried like that in a very long time. To his credit he hadn’t pressed for an explanation. Even if he had she couldn’t have given him one.
‘Who is he, Leonie?’
She stiffened at the sound of that voice, taking her time about turning to face him, having been expecting him after last night.
‘Doesn’t he mind about your little bastard?’
Leonie’s head went back sharply at the taunt, her angry gaze narrowing on the man who had once been her husband. He was as handsome as ever, over-long blond hair swept back in a deliberately casual style, warm brown eyes hiding a multitude of sins, tall and lithe in fitted denims and an open-necked blue shirt.
‘Holly is not a bastard, Michael,’ she snapped.
‘Oh, forgive me,’ he sneered, moving away from his leaning position against the oak tree that stood in the middle of the big garden. ‘Your love-child!’ he amended derisively.
That description hardly fitted Holly either, but Holly was loved. ‘What do you want?’ she demanded harshly.
‘You didn’t answer my question.’ He went down on his haunches beside Holly as she lay awake on a blanket beneath the sun-umbrella. ‘Who—’
‘Don’t touch her!’ she ordered as he would have put out a finger for Holly to touch. ‘Don’t ever touch her,’ she repeated through gritted teeth, sitting on the edge of her lounger.
Michael was slow to remove his hand, his gaze challenging. ‘Do you let him touch her?’ he taunted.
Oh, how she would love to wipe the sneer from his lips by telling him that Hawk had a perfect right to touch his own daughter! But she wouldn’t put a weapon like that into Michael’s hands; she knew he was perfectly capable of using it, in any way that he thought would benefit himself.
‘I asked what you wanted, Michael?’ she prompted stiffly.
He straightened, strolling over to sit down beside her on the lounger. ‘You don’t sound pleased to see me,’ he drawled in a hurt voice.
Her eyes flashed deeply green. ‘I’m not!’
He shrugged. ‘You knew I’d come after I saw you with him last night.’
Yes, she had known as soon as she saw Michael at the bar of the hotel last night that she could expect a visit from him very soon.
She had felt ill when she looked up and saw him standing there watching her; she had wondered just how long he had been doing so, feeling sick at the thought of him spying on her. Michael had been the reason she broke down in Hawk’s arms the way she did. Just when she thought he had finally left her life he would appear again and totally destroy her peace of mind. Like now.
‘What are you doing in Claymont?’ she demanded.
‘Visiting,’ he drawled. ‘You,’ he added mockingly.
Her eyes widened. ‘You’re the last person I’d want to visit me!’ she scorned, standing up just so that she could move away from him, hating to be anywhere near him after what he had done to her.
‘The money was late last month, Leonie.’ His eyes were narrowed. ‘I came to warn you not to let it happen again.’
‘I’m very sorry,’ she snapped. ‘I was giving birth to my daughter at the time!’
His gaze flickered coldly over Holly as she gurgled to herself. ‘Were you so desperate for a kid that you finally went to bed with some man who won’t even marry you to get one!’
‘Oh, he would marry me, Michael,’ she scorned. ‘Tomorrow probably, if I were agreeable. But after having you for my husband I’ve found little about marriage to endear it to me!’ She held her breath, knowing she shouldn’t have let her temper get the better of her; with Michael that was never a wise thing to do.
His face twisted with anger. ‘Why, you little—’
‘Leonie, is this guy bothering you?’ cut in a smoothly dangerous voice.
She turned sharply to face Jake, wondering just how much of her conversation with Michael he had overheard; enough to consider she needed rescuing, obviously! ‘He’s just—’
‘Another one, Leonie?’ jeered Michael, recovering well from the surprise of having someone interrupt him when he had been about to launch on one of his insulting tirades. ‘Considering you’re the original Ice Maiden I’m not sure how you’re managing to keep them interested!’ He looked at her contemptuously.
Leonie could sense Jake’s burning anger, could feel the tension emanating from him. And remembering his aggression towards Hawk last night when he had merely said hello, she didn’t want any more fights in her presence! ‘I—’ she began.
Jake answered him softly. ‘Speaking from personal experience, I think there’s nothing in the least icy about Leonie,’ he drawled challengingly.
She closed her eyes, hoping this was all just a nightmare, but knowing, as she heard Holly gurgle from the comfort of her blanket, that it was all very real.
She had told Michael never to come here again; not even Laura knew of the arrangement she had with him. It was nice, very nice of Jake to defend her in this way, but—
‘I know you, don’t I?’ Michael looked frowningly at the other man. ‘My God, you were at the hotel last night!’ he suddenly realised with a knowing smile.
The fact that Michael had been there too obviously came as a surprise to Jake, but considering his morose mood the evening before it wasn’t surprising he hadn’t been aware of the people around him!
‘Yes,’ he challenged slowly. ‘And what were you doing there—spying on Leonie?’
Michael’s mouth twisted. ‘Hardly,’ he sneered. ‘Tell him, Leonie, I have no reason to spy on you, because I know everything about your life that I need to know.’
She could feel Jake’s questioning gaze on her, and her head was high as she turned to meet that gaze. ‘Michael is my ex-husband—’
‘And as far as I’m concerned that gives him no right to come around here whenever he feels like it,’ growled Jake, hands clenched at his sides. ‘Get the hell out of here, Spencer, before I throw you out,’ he warned Michael softly. ‘And don’t come upsetting Leonie again!’
Michael arched mocking brows. ‘Is this one the father of your brat, Leonie?’ he taunted.
‘He—’
‘Maybe you didn’t hear me, Spencer,’ Jake cut in softly. ‘In the area of New York I come from we only issue a warning once!’
‘But I haven’t said hello to the baby yet.’ Even as he spoke Michael moved to pick Holly up, looking down at her with distaste as she squirmed against his clumsy hold on her.
‘Michael!’ screamed Leonie, moving quickly towards him.
He turned with Holly held challengingly in his arms. ‘Something wrong, Leonie?’ he taunted.
‘Put the baby down, Spencer,’ Jake instructed quietly.
Michael arched questioning brows. ‘Are you sure you aren’t the father?’ he mocked.
‘Believe me,’ grated Jake, tensed to leap at the other man, ‘I’m a pussycat compared to Holly’s father!’
Leonie’s gaze was riveted on Holly, on her beloved daughter. It would only take Michael to calmly remove his hands, an act she knew he was more than capable of, and her beautiful baby would fall to the grass, doing heaven knew what injury to her tiny body.
‘Really?’ Michael looked down consideringly at the baby he held so casually. ‘Then it must have been the tough-looking bastard she was with last night.’
‘Hawk’s been called milder names than that and men have lived to regret it,’ Jake bit out icily. ‘Now put the baby down, damn it!’
‘Hawk,’ Michael repeated consideringly. ‘Unusual name,’ he drawled.
Jake’s eyes were narrowed to cold blue slits. ‘He’s an unusual man. And he’s especially protective wher
e Leonie and his daughter are concerned.’
‘Hm,’ murmured Michael unconcernedly, looking down at Holly again as she stared up at him with wide blue eyes. ‘I suppose as babies go she isn’t as ugly as most.’
Jake put out a restraining hand as Leonie took another step forward. ‘You have precisely two seconds to put Holly down and then I’m going to deal with you in a way you’ll find extremely painful. You understand?’ he threatened.
‘Of course,’ the other man drawled. ‘Here,’ he dropped Holly into Jake’s arms. ‘I’ll be in touch, Leonie,’ he told her hardly, and disappeared through the hedge out on to the road.
Leonie didn’t doubt that he meant exactly what he said, but for the moment she was too concerned with reassuring her daughter that she was safe, cuddling her protectively as she rained kisses over her soft cheeks. The baby let out a protesting yell at her exuberance.
She turned to give Jake a rueful smile, but he still stood as tensely as he had when she had taken the baby from him seconds ago, his narrowed gaze turned towards the road where Michael’s car could be heard pulling away.
‘Jake?’ she prompted.
He drew in a ragged breath, relaxing with effort, his gaze softening as he moved to touch one of Holly’s flailing hands.
And then Leonie remembered what he had said about the baby’s father. He knew that man was Hawk. Close as the two men had been in the past, she couldn’t believe Hawk had confided Holly’s parentage to the other man.
‘She’s exactly like Hal was until he was about six or seven when his hair became darker and the baby plumpness left him altogether,’ Jake supplied softly.
She sighed. ‘Everyone seems to be able to guess that she’s a Sinclair.’
‘Not everyone,’ he shook his head, his gaze warm. ‘I only just remember Hal looking like this myself. Anyway, what difference does it make—you’re going to let Hawk take her away with him when he goes, aren’t you?’ He shrugged dismissively.
Leonie’s arms tightened about the baby. When Holly was first born she had been too ill to take care of her, and then even when she was well enough to bring the baby home she had shared Holly’s care with Laura, knowing she couldn’t become attached to the baby when Hawk would one day come to claim her. At the time she had welcomed that knowledge, holding herself aloof from Holly because she knew she couldn’t keep her. But just now, when Michael had held Holly and threatened to harm her, she had known she couldn’t give up her daughter, that she loved her too much.
Oh God, what did she do now!
‘You know that he’s dangerous, don’t you?’ Jake remarked at her silence.
She blinked. ‘Hawk?’
‘Spencer,’ he corrected harshly.
Leonie gave a heavy sigh. ‘I discovered that only a month after we were married and he lost his temper because a horse he’d bet on didn’t win.’
Jake’s eyes narrowed. ‘What happened?’
She shuddered as she remembered Michael’s temper, his violence. But they were memories that would remain locked inside her, with those other memories that she had buried so far back in her mind that to take them out and look at them would leave her an emotional wreck.
‘He was—naturally upset,’ she dismissed, straightening Holly’s sun-suit unnecessarily.
‘How upset?’ Jake persisted harshly.
‘Very.’ She turned away. ‘Thank you for—helping me just now,’ she said lightly. ‘Michael can be very overbearing.’
‘I mean it, Leonie,’ he told her firmly. ‘Spencer is a dangerous man. Hawk isn’t going to like him around his daughter again.’
She nodded. ‘I’ll make sure he doesn’t come here again.’
‘Can you do that?’ He looked at her closely.
‘Yes,’ she nodded abruptly.
‘How?’
She drew herself up to her full five feet in height, wishing she were taller and more imposing. She felt like a sparrow challenging an eagle; a hawk would be too reminiscent of the man who constantly disturbed her!
‘Just accept that I can,’ she snapped. ‘And I would appreciate your not mentioning this to Hawk,’ she added uncertainly.
Jake shook his head. ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. Spencer is a dangerous man, and Hawk is likely to kill me if I keep my mouth shut and something happened to either you or Holly.’
‘Nothing will happen,’ she assured him, knowing exactly how to keep Michael happy—and away from her home!
‘Nevertheless…’ murmured Jake regretfully.
‘Oh, all right,’ she snapped. ‘Tell your precious Hawk. But you’re interfering in something that you don’t understand.’
‘I understand men like Spencer only too well,’ he bit out grimly. ‘I may have been travelling with Hawk for the last sixteen years, but I haven’t forgotten my childhood in New York—or the scum that exist only to cause others pain. Spencer is a man like that.’
Leonie gave an unsteady laugh. ‘I wish I’d had the benefit of your judgement five years ago!’
His expression softened. ‘Let Hawk deal with it, Leonie,’ he encouraged gently. ‘He’s more than capable, believe me.’
She was well aware of Hawk’s capabilities; she knew that he would protect what he considered his own, no matter what the cost. For herself she didn’t care about Michael, there was nothing else he could do to her that he hadn’t already done, but today he had threatened Holly, and Hawk had a right to protect their daughter. God, she wanted him to keep Holly safe!
‘I’ll talk to him,’ she nodded slowly. ‘I will,’ she promised Jake as he still looked uncertain. ‘You’re a very nice man, Jake Colter,’ she smiled at him shyly.
‘I wish,’ he rasped, his eyes bleak. ‘Join us for dinner tonight,’ she invited impulsively, her eyes warm.
‘I—’
‘Please,’ she encouraged softly.
His mouth twisted ruefully. ‘No wonder Hawk’s obsessed with you, if you wheedle around him this way!’
Obsessed? She couldn’t imagine Hawk obsessed with anything, let alone a woman. He merely wanted her, as the mother of his child and as his wife.
‘Then you will come to dinner?’ she persisted lightly.
‘I’ll come,’ Jake nodded wryly.
‘Good,’ she beamed her pleasure.
He shook his head. ‘Poor Hawk, I bet he never knew what hit him!’ he murmured.
‘I thought you had “personal experience” of what had hit him,’ she reminded him bitterly.
He frowned. ‘I only said that for Spencer’s benefit; Hawk has never discussed your relationship with me,’ he confessed.
Some of the tension left her. ‘It’s time for Holly’s next feed,’ she excused. ‘I’ll see you at dinner. Perhaps you’d like to bring Miss Ames with you?’ she suggested. ‘Pleasant as the hotel is, the two of you must get bored alone there in the evenings. Unless…?’ She gave him a sharp look, wondering if she had spoken out of turn. Perhaps Sarah Ames and Jake liked to be alone!
Jake smiled at her chagrin. ‘Sarah is Mrs Ames, although she’s been divorced for several years now. And after working together for almost eleven years I think we would have realised by now if we were attracted to each other,’ he added dryly. ‘We aren’t,’ he mocked.
‘I’m sorry.’ Leonie gave an uncomfortable grimace.
‘I’m not,’ Jake grinned. ‘It would be hell working so closely with a woman I wanted in my bed at night. Hawk feels the same way,’ he added softly. ‘Not that we haven’t both taken her out in the past, but purely for business reasons. And Hawk needed a platonic partner like that a lot the last nine months. In case you’re interested,’ he drawled.
Colour warmed Leonie’s cheeks as she remembered the thoughts she had had about Hawk and his secretary when she had first met the other woman. But surely she could be forgiven for thinking something like that; Sarah Ames was a very beautiful woman.
Jake smiled. ‘I always thought a woman with freckles must look damned unattractive when
she blushed—you’ve just proved me completely wrong; you look cuter than ever!’
* * *
Hawk had been watching them together for the last five minutes; he had seen Jake bend gently over the baby as Leonie held her in her arms, had watched as they talked softly together, had seen Jake make Leonie laugh, had watched as she made him smile in return!
He hadn’t meant to spy on them; he had only glanced casually out of the study window, but had been unable to look away when he saw Leonie and Jake together.
After weeks of Jake striding about the place looking grim Leonie had been able to make him smile! He didn’t need to ask how, she only had to be herself to entice any man to fall in love with her.
But not Jake, damn it. Over the years he and Jake had often been attracted to the same woman, but neither of them had ever cared enough to actually argue about it, one of them always bowing out and leaving the way clear for the other. He couldn’t do that with Leonie, and Jake had to be aware of that.
If he wasn’t then it was time he was made aware!
‘Don’t look so worried, Hawk.’ Sarah came to stand at his side, following his gaze out of the window. ‘I’m sure Jake is just being polite to Mrs Spencer.’
He turned to her sharply. ‘What the hell’s that supposed to mean?’ he rasped.
Sarah shrugged. ‘Divorce is a difficult thing for a woman to get through. I know I would have fallen apart if it hadn’t been for your support during mine.’
He relaxed slightly. ‘You’ve never fallen apart in your life,’ he joked.
‘Perhaps not,’ she conceded dryly. ‘But I’m sure you needn’t worry about Jake hurting Hal’s future sister-in-law; she’s bound to be very wary after the breakdown of her first marriage. I know I was,’ she grimaced.
‘She isn’t interested in Jake, damn it!’ he cried.
Sarah gave him a puzzled look for his vehemence. ‘I know. I just said that.’
‘Sorry,’ he gave an impatient frown, shrugging. ‘Maybe I need a break.’
Just One Night (Presents Plus) Page 13