by Jean Adams
She didn’t like the feel of his lips on hers. Well, she’d better get used to it. And she got the impression by the way he moved his body against her if she ever refused him he might force the issue. Refuse him? But why would she want to refuse her husband?
She’d never seen Roger like this. He’d always been so charming, but now she had his ring on her finger, something had changed. Is this what marriage to Roger will be like? Him running her life, telling her what to do, what to think.
The doorbell rang and she breathed a sigh of relief. Her spirits lifted. “That’ll be Lucas.”
“Lucas?”
“My date.”
“Get rid of him. You won’t be needing that date now.”
She wouldn’t succumb to his bullying. They weren’t married yet. “I will not. How can you even think such a terrible thing?”
A sense of relief washed over her as she hurried to the door. Lucas looked very dashing in dark gray trousers, light gray jacket and a patterned, gray silk cravat. Her heart soared. He held a bunch of bright, colorful wild flowers. “Hi, Lucas. Come in.”
“They’re not much. Just a little thank you for last night.”
“They’re beautiful.” She led the way into the living room where Roger was already on his feet.
Lucas came to a halt the moment he saw the other man. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you had company.”
“Lucas, meet Roger, the Earl of Kendal. Roger, this is my friend, Lucas.”
“Ah, the nursemaid.”
It was as though she’d walked into a brick wall, a wall of testosterone. The two men faced each other, like two opposing warriors even though they shook hands, none too warmly.
Roger was the first to speak. “I want to thank you for taking care of Jenna for me so well last weekend. I must say she doesn’t look any the worse for her ordeal.”
Lucas smiled at her. “It was my pleasure. She’s a good patient.”
“So, what happened last night?” Roger asked, his inquisitor’s mask firmly in place.
Lucas’ smile broadened. “Jenna took me to the opera.”
“The opera!” Roger pulled a face of disgust.
Lucas squared his shoulders. “Yes. The Pearl Fishers. Do you know it?”
“Sound’s positively ghastly.” He shot a look of disgust down his nose at Jenna. “Didn’t know you were into that kind of thing, old girl. A bit old hat for you, isn’t it?”
When she saw the strange expression on Lucas’ face she beat a hasty retreat into the kitchen. “I’ll just put your beautiful flowers in water, Lucas.”
He gave her a curt nod.
What would be going through Lucas’ mind at this moment? Thanks to Roger, the wonderful weekend had come to a screeching halt.
What was she playing at anyway? What gave her the right to play with men’s feelings so casually? Lucas’? Or Roger’s, for that matter?
Was it a hangover from the past? Was she still blaming all men for her father’s behavior? Behavior she now doubted.
Pasting on a bright smile, she took Lucas’ flowers back into the living room. Roger was alone
“Oh! Where’s Lucas?”
“I got rid of him for you.”
She placed the vase of wildflowers on the sideboard. “You did what? But we were going for lunch.”
“Well, you’ll be having lunch with your fiancé now. He said to tell you the date’s off.” Roger sounded smug. “Very accommodating of him.”
“But it’s his birthday.”
“Don’t worry. He understood when I told him we were engaged to be married. By the way, why didn’t you show him your ring? It cost me a fortune. I got the impression you were hiding your hand.”
“No, I wasn’t, I—” It wasn’t supposed to be like this. This was to have been their special weekend. She hurried to the window, but Lucas was walking toward his car.
At that moment, Jenna realized the truth. The reason she didn’t want Roger to stay with her. Didn’t even want to marry Roger now.
She was in love with Lucas.
Why had she not admitted it before? Because she’d been in denial. Had been for weeks. And all because Lucas wasn’t what she thought she wanted. Now she knew the truth.
Lucas was the reason she came to LA. It didn’t matter he wasn’t a nobleman. But he was a very noble man. He was kind, gallant, courteous, fun, and very sexy.
The other half of her.
But he’d never told her he loved her.
She watched him walk away. He didn’t turn round, just kept walking toward his car, back straight, shoulders squared, head high. She resolved to call him later, apologize about lunch. Explain that Roger had turned up out of the blue and she’d just made the biggest mistake of her life.
Now she’d made her bed, but she didn’t have to lie in it, not with Roger anyway. But she’d have to find the right way to get out of this marriage.
Tears filled her eyes. She turned to face the earl. “I hope you didn’t say anything to hurt him.”
“Come on, old girl. He’s a big boy now. I simply said I was sure he didn’t want to stand in the way of true love.”
“Roger! You shouldn’t have said that.”
He gave her a self-satisfied smile. “Why not? You’re engaged to me. So you can forget about going to the Bahamas, or anywhere else for that matter. Now, let’s eat. I have quite an appetite.”
****
Happy birthday, sucker!
He’d been a fool. Should’ve seen it coming. But he’d closed his eyes to the truth and allowed himself to grow too fond of Jenna over the past couple months. He had no intention of letting her see what an idiot he really was, but he would if he hung around here much longer.
The sooner he got away from here, the better.
She’d planned to go overseas. He’d always known that and he could handle it. Even though he knew losing her would hurt like hell, he’d been prepared for it.
But she’d given up her dreams for the earl.
Thank you for taking care of her for me.
“Well, Roger, old boy, I didn’t do it for you. I did it for Jenna.”
But hadn’t Roger, or someone like him, been a part of that dream? She’d told him she wanted to marry into the nobility. Hell, she had them eating out of her hand. She’d merely been playing hard to get.
Message received and understood.
He’d go to Greece tomorrow. Take the mid-morning flight out. Then, when he got back in a month or two, the initial sting of losing her should’ve gone out of the heartache. His heart had been broken before and it’d mended. It probably would again. But this time it’d take longer.
He walked away from the condo refusing to turn and look back, got into the car and drove away. Out of her life.
To save himself any further indignity it’d be best if he got right away from the places they’d been together as fast as possible. He’d been right all along. Women couldn’t be trusted. They were sly and secretive.
Stupidly, he’d thought Jenna was different.
They all played men for suckers and he was the biggest sucker of them all. He should’ve listened to his gut the day he met her, but he’d already been in trouble the first time she smiled at him.
He hated the way he’d stormed out of her place, behaving like a schoolboy, but he’d never figured Jenna for a liar. Now he knew the truth. She seemed to be shaping up just like that bitch, Annabelle. He could’ve stayed, toughed it out over lunch, but he had enough self-respect not to put himself through that. Damned if he’d sit and watch them making eyes at each other all through the meal.
He hadn’t meant to fall in love with her, but how could he help himself?
When she’d come to him for help the night her car broke down she’d looked so small and vulnerable. And when she’d got sick the night of Tosca, it was all he could do not to take up her offer and climb into bed with her, take her in his arms and tell her he wanted to care for her for the rest of her life. Tell her they belo
nged together. That she was his match. His other half.
Tell her that if she wanted, he’d wait while she lived out her aspirations if there was a chance she’d marry him at the end of it.
Who was he kidding? Deep down he’d always known they’d go their separate ways. Their friendship would be a pleasant memory, but history, because it was what she wanted.
A carthorse kicked him in the gut. Trouble was, he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. No chance of that and now it was getting too hard to break away.
When she’d opened her door to him just now, he’d wanted to take her in his arms and kiss her breathless. And if he hadn’t thrust those flowers into her hands, he’d have weakened. But how could his pathetic bunch of wild flowers compare to those red roses?
It’d tear him apart, but he’d made up his mind to get out of town. Jenna had found the man she wanted, so he had to get the hell out. A.S.A.P.
He’d known he was in big trouble when he woke up this morning. He’d been excited about getting back to her. Hell, he’d felt as nervous as a spring lamb. Maybe he should’ve foreseen a third disaster. And this time he was heading for a fall of his own making. The thought scared the hell out of him.
She was going home, back to her friends on the other side of the world. He’d lost the woman he loved more than life itself.
He wanted to tell her how he felt, but he couldn’t bear to see rejection in her eyes, hear it in her voice. She’d made her decision. He didn’t stand a chance.
Getting out of LA was the toughest decision he’d ever have to make. But Jenna had her own life to live, and he had no option but to let her go.
****
After Jenna finally got through to Roger he couldn’t stay the night, and managed to persuade him to go back to his hotel, she had some time to think. Getting rid of Roger hadn’t been easy. He’d stayed close to her all day, and all evening, as though he expected Lucas to pop up from nowhere and ruin his plans. Defending his property. Strange when she considered she never had a chance with Lucas.
She’d tried to call him to apologize about breaking the lunch date, but got no reply.
She couldn’t leave it like this. She’d have to call him again tomorrow. She wanted him to know she had nothing to do with canceling their date and that Roger had taken it upon himself to change the arrangements.
When she got no reply the next evening, she decided to call Bill. He might he able to shed some light on Lucas’ whereabouts.
“Hiya, beautiful. What can I do for you?” Could she be mistaken, or did Bill sound wary?
“I’ve been trying to call Lucas since yesterday, but I can’t get hold of him. Don’t suppose you know where he is?” She kept her voice as light as possible so he wouldn’t guess there was anything wrong.
“Didn’t he tell you? He’s gone to Greece. Left this morning. Said he had a lot of work to catch up on and needed to get right away from everything for some peace and quiet. No distractions.”
The bottom dropped out of her world. “No. No, he didn’t tell me.” Her throat closed up, but she cleared out the frog taking up residence there. “Then he won’t be at my farewell bash on Saturday.”
“‘Fraid not, sugar. Not unless he decides to flip back for the night. Can’t see him doing that, can you?” He paused. “Why, does it matter?”
“No. No, it doesn’t matter. Thanks, Bill.
“Hey, I believe congratulations are in order. I hear you and the earl of whatsit got engaged.”
“Yes, that’s right. We did. Bye, Bill.”
“Okay, we’ll celebrate in style on Saturday. Wear your best glad rags. I’ll bet you’re looking forward to going home.”
I wasn’t, but I am now. “Of course.”
Total sadness enveloped her. Lucas had gone to Greece. He was too busy for her and this was his not-too-subtle way of letting her know she’d taken up too much of his time already. She was nothing more than a distraction from his work.
She put down the phone, sat heavily on the sofa and burst into tears, feeling as though her heart had been ripped out. How could she pick Roger up in town tonight and try to act as though nothing was wrong? She was so tired of pretending. She wanted to just sit here and cry for Lucas. She’d never had to pretend with him.
But having already agreed to meet Roger, she had an obligation. If she called to cancel, he’d only turn up here and she’d have the devil’s own job sending him on his way again, so she had better make the best of it.
Lucas had probably forgotten her already. He’d gone to Greece, and she’d never see him again. She sat up, squared her shoulders and dried her eyes. Time she started getting used to the idea, acting more like a grown up.
She caught her reflection in the dressing table mirror. “Isn’t that so, your ladyship?”
Chapter Sixteen
No one was more disappointed than Claude when Jenna cancelled from the secondment program. For Roger it was merely something he expected her to do.
She dragged herself through the last few days like a dejected automaton, somehow getting through the lunches with Roger, and spending interminably long dinners with him in the evenings, trying to drum up enthusiasm for the plans he’d made.
Every time she gazed out of the big picture window at the office, she expected to see Lucas walk past and had to remind herself he was on the other side of the world.
There were reminders of Lucas everywhere she went. In her condo sometimes she thought she could hear him moving about in the kitchen. Once she’d even had to throw open the door just to prove to herself he wasn’t there.
Thankfully, her last day of work finally arrived. Roger called to take her for lunch as usual, but unfortunately for her, they ended up at the same lunch bar where she’d been with Lucas just a few weeks earlier. It didn’t help when the waitress seated them at the table next to the one where she and Lucas had been. Every time she looked up she saw his face squinting into the sun, saw his dimpled smile, heard his deep, sexy voice, so much so that instead of getting easier, her ordeal got worse.
Yet for all the sadness this place brought with it, there was something about it that resonated with her, made her feel a little brighter. She couldn’t put her finger on quite what.
At her farewell party the next evening, she kept hoping for a miracle. That Lucas would breeze through the door, admit he loved her, and whisk her away to a little hideaway in the mountains where they could just be together and shut out the world. She’d go with him if he asked.
But that would never happen because he didn’t want her. He’d never once so much as kissed her. That should tell her something. Even the delicious kisses they’d shared in his apartment had been at her instigation.
Roger dogged her steps all evening, sticking to her like glue until it was almost time for everyone to say their last goodbyes. As though he’d finally realized Lucas wasn’t there, neither would he be, Roger left her for a few moments to go to the men’s room.
Jenna seized the opportunity to hurry across to the other side of the room to where Bill leaned on the bar by himself, nursing a drink.
“Hi, Bill,” she ventured with the brightest smile she could muster. “I suppose this is the last time we’ll see each other.”
“Hey, beautiful. I guess it is. Except that some of us were thinking of coming to the airport tomorrow to see you off.”
“Oh, no, please don’t do that. I hate airport goodbyes. I’m a mess already.”
He laughed. “Understood.”
She mashed her lips together, gathering the courage to ask what she most wanted to know before Roger returned. “Bill, I have to ask you this.” She paused then blurted, “How was Lucas when he left?”
Bill looked at her as though he’d been expecting the question. “You really want to know?”
She swallowed back the lump in her throat. “Yes.”
He gazed down into his glass, then back at her. “He was gutted.”
“Why?” Her heart almost stopped.<
br />
Bill pursed his lips. “Why do you think?”
Her spirits lifted a fraction. “I have absolutely no idea.”
“For the first time he opened up to me. As you know he’s not into that kind of thing. Keeps his problems to himself. But this time, I guess, he’d had enough. Couldn’t hold it back any longer.”
She cleared her throat. “What did he say?”
“That the two of you had become close, but he’d had no idea you were such a—”
“A what?”
“Two-timer. One thing Lucas can’t abide is people who don’t tell the truth. There’s Roger for one thing. Getting engaged.”
“I wanted to explain about that.”
Bill half smiled. “Well, it doesn’t really matter any more, your ladyship.”
“Don’t say it like that, Bill.”
“Then there was the opera thing.”
“What opera thing?”
“Nothing too drastic. He thought you were as enthusiastic as him until Roger said something to the contrary. I guess that was one lie too many in his book.”
Jenna bit her lip.
Bill straightened his shoulders and inclined his head past her shoulder. “And here’s your ever-loving fiancé.”
Jenna swung round.
Roger was bearing down on her like an avenging angel. “Ready to go, my sweet?”
She agreed dejectedly. “Yes. Ready.”
After final goodbyes were said, a tearful Jenna waved to her friends as she left the club for the last time. Never again would she see Lucas looking at her under his dark lashes over the rim of his glass. Never again would she see his beautiful smile. The dimple in his left cheek.
Roger guided her out onto the street. “Don’t get so upset, my pet. As soon as we’re married and settled into country life, you’ll soon forget all this nonsense.”
“I’ll never forget LA.”
“I’m not going to argue with you tonight. Tomorrow I’ll have several hours in the air to dazzle you with my devastating charm. Tell you what’s expected of you as the wife of a nobleman.”