'I— No, not exactly. It was my own fault. I told you I was naive.' She gave a bitter laugh. 'Just how naive I didn't realise until he decided to turn up at my apartment as if he owned me. You see, he found me the apartment. I didn't know—I had no idea——' She sighed, biting her lip.
'So that's why you were so bitter about my setting you up in an apartment,' Bart said slowly. 'I've never done that, Eve. I've never humiliated any woman in that way.'
'Maisie told me you never stay in London.'
He smoothed the damp hair back from her brow. 'That isn't exactly true,' he told her gently. 'There have been women...'
'Well, of course there have,' she instantly defended. 'Otherwise you wouldn't make love so beautifully. But none of them was your wife.'
'No, you can't add that to my sins. And do I make love beautifully?' he teased to ease the tension.
'Oh yes!' The smile she gave him was dazzling.
He groaned in his throat, at once kissing her again, desire rekindling. 'This may be ungentlemanly of me,' he raised his head with effort, 'but unless I kick you out of bed I'm going to make love to you again—and the first of those contrary kids may come along before we want them to.' He laughed as the colour flooded her cheeks. 'You hadn't thought of that, had you?'
'No...' The thought hadn't even crossed her mind. 'But I wouldn't mind,' she told him calmly.
'Neither would I,' he chuckled. 'But I don't intend loaning this body out to my child for at least' another year or so. I have other uses for it.'
She was learning to withstand the intimacy of his teasing now, although she still blushed. 'Only for a year?' she pouted, indulging in some teasing of her o w n . ,
'No, you little wildcat—He called you that, didn't he?' Bart pounced as she paled.
'Yes,' she groaned, turning her face away. 'Although it was never true with him, not the way you mean it.'
'I know that.' Bart held her. chin and forced her to look at him. 'You never have to be ashamed of what happened to you,' he told her gently. 'As far as I'm concerned I'm the first real lover you've known. The forced taking of a body doesn't count as love.'
'You're right, Bart, I know you are. But -------‘
'No "buts", Eve,' he said firmly, ‘I love you, I’m going to marry you, and you're going to be mother of my children. Nothing else matters,' he kissed her lingeringly. 'Nothing,' he repeated softly. She knew that, and yet there was still a doubt in her mind. Did Bart really believe her when she told him about Carl? Or would he one day turn around and accuse her of enjoying being Carl's mistress?
CHAPTER TEN
EVE was down in the kitchen with Maisie when Bart came down from his nap, fresh and alert, his eyes twinkling mischievously as he bent to kiss her on the mouth.
He sat down beside them on the breakfast stools, helping himself to some of the peas they were shelling.
'Have the two of you decided yet when Eve is going to make an honest man of me?' he enquired casually. Eve gasped, blushing fiery red. She had felt shy about facing him again after the passion they had shared, and he came out with something like that!
It was Maisie who answered him. 'Behave yourself,' she chided. 'And leave those peas alone!' She slapped his hand as he went to take some more.
Bart put his arm about Eve's shoulders, grinning at her. 'Haven't you told Maisie yet about your having to marry me?'
'I-----'
'Stop it, Bart,' the housekeeper told him firmly. 'You're embarrassing the poor girl.'
He looked down at Eve with wide innocent eyes. 'Am I embarrassing you, darling?'
'You know you are!'
He chuckled his enjoyment of the situation. 'I just love to see you blush. Seriously, when is the wedding?'
'I haven't told Maisie there was going to be one,' she told him shyly.
He looked up at the housekeeper. 'But I'm sure she guessed.'
'Of course I did,'Maisie confirmed scoffingly.
'Otherwise I would want to know the reason why?'
'You see,' said Bart in a stage whisper. 'I told you you'd have to marry me. You—Saved by the bell,' he grinned as the telephone began ringing out in the hallway. 'I'll get it, Maisie.' He stood up. Eve didn't know where to look once she was alone with Maisie. How could Bart say such things!
'He always was incorrigible,' Maisie tutted. 'Even as a child.'
Eve's expression softened. 'He was?'
'Terrible. His poor mother was always apologising for his outspokenness.'
And she was going to have children exactly like that one day. Pleasure shot through her just at the thought of it, the love still shining in her eyes when Bart returned, her breath catching in her throat at how attractive he looked in the black silk shirt and fitted black trousers.
'I hope that look is for me,' he murmured throatily, bending to kiss her lingeringly on the mouth.
'Get out of my kitchen if you're going to carry on like that,' Maisie ordered firmly.
'Come on,' Bart chuckled to Eve. 'I'll take you into the lounge where I can ravish you in private.'
She went with him willingly. 'Maisie said you were incorrigible,' she told him crossly, 'and you are!'
He pulled her into his arms, his hands linked loosely at the base of her spine. 'I thought you already knew that.' He teased her lip apart, the light caress instantly taking on a more serious vein. He finally moved back with a sigh of satisfaction. 'When I woke up I thought I must have dreamt you.'
'I wouldn't have liked that.' Her arms were up about his neck, her body arched against his.
'Neither would I,' he rested his forehead on hers. 'I love you.'
'I love you too.'
'Sure?'
'Very sure. I—You aren't going away again, are you?' she asked worriedly.
'What----? Oh, you mean the telephone call. No, I'm not going away. It was my sister calling from New York.' He grimaced. 'She's coming over with her husband this week.'
'Oh yes, I forgot to tell you! Derek called, he said he and your brother-in-law were flying over.'
'My sister's coming with them. She's six months pregnant and yet she can't let David out of her sight.' He shook his head. They're so much in love they can't go a day without seeing each other. I feel the same way about you, darling,'
he said at her hurt look. 'But when you're six months pregnant I intend staying at home with you, not flying off and leaving you.'
'And when you go away now?'
‘You'll be with me,' he told her fiercely. 'I’ve reserved all your days and nights for the rest of our lives, and I don't intend losing a single one of them.'. She flushed her pleasure. 'Will your sister be here for the wedding?'
Bart grimaced. 'I'm under strict instructions for it to be Friday. Is that okay with you?'
'I wish it were sooner, but----'
'So do I!' he groaned. 'So do I, my darling. But you don't know my sister, she's likely to throw a fit if she can't see her one and only brother married off.'
Eve could understand that. It sounded as if the two of them were very close, despite Bart's mocking attitude.
'Friday will be fine,' she agreed. There's quite a lot to organise, anyway.' She played with the buttons on his shirt, slipping her hand inside when one of them accidentally came open.
'We can have a small reception here, I'm sure Maisie will love to do that for us. Stop that!' he shuddered as her hand caressed the downward path of the silky hair on his chest and navel. 'Eve, behave yourself!'
'But I like touching you!' she pouted.
'After Friday you can touch me all you want, in fact I shall insist on it.' He took her hand out of his shirt, rebuttoning it. 'But until then you settle for kisses.'
'Just—kisses?'
He laughed huskily. 'You're turning into a wanton! And there'll be no more sharing of my bed until we're married.'
She knew a deep disappointment. 'But I've been sleeping in that bed while you're away.'
'And tonight you can move back into your own room.'
'But, Bart----'
'Eve, what happened this morning was—beautiful, fantastic' everything I've ever imagined it would be like with you.' He kissed her lovingly. 'But it won't be repeated until we're married. This morning I let my desire overrule my judgment—mainly because I wanted you so damned much. I still do. But we have to be sensible----'
'Sensible!' she scoffed. 'I don't want---'
'Neither do I,' he groaned. 'But we have other people to think of besides ourselves. Maisie has probably guessed what happened -------'
'Because you more or less told her!'
He smiled. 'I couldn't resist it. You blush so delightfully. As I said, Maisie knows I made love to you this morning, but she wouldn't approve of you moving into my room until I have my ring firmly on your finger.'
Eve felt her earlier foreboding come back to her. 'Are you sure it isn't just that you don't want me?'
'Not want you?' His fingers dug-painfully into her arms. 'Of course I want you, don't be so damned stupid!'
She pulled away from him. 'I'm not being stupid!
You -------‘
'Are we having our first engaged-couple argument?' Bart attempted to tease her. But she wasn't' in a mood to be teased; this shared love was all too new to her, her uncertainties were still too numerous. 'We aren't engaged!' she snapped. 'If you don't want to marry me, Bart, don't feel that you have to just because of this morning. I seduced you, remember?' she said bitterly. His face darkened. 'Like hell you did!' he rasped. 'I wanted it to happen, I wanted you. And as for our not being engaged...' He dragged her into his study, deftly opening the wall-safe behind the water colour that hung on the pale green wall. He took out a small black velvet box and flicked it open.
Eve gasped as the huge diamond winked and flickered in the sunlight, the size of it almost dazzling her. She had never seen such a ring; the delicacy of the gold band looked almost too slight to hold the weight of the diamond. Bart roughly grasped her left hand and slid the ring on her third finger. It was slightly loose, but not enough to worry about. 'You've lost weight since I chose this for you,' he said gruffly, bending down to kiss her palm. Eve shivered at the intimacy of the caress. Bart's eyes were a luminous green. 'You chose this for me?' she said huskily; the cost of such a ring frightened her.
He nodded. The same time as I chose the wedding ring,' and he showed her a second box in the wall-safe.
'But when----'
The same time as I had the bed delivered.'
Her eyes widened. 'You were very sure of yourself!’
'I wasn't sure at all. I bought the bed and the rings to try and give myself hope. I saw you a lot of times before I actually spoke to you at the theatre. You were fantastic on stage, but off stage you were so cool, so removed from everyone. You frightened the hell out of me with your coldness. And that first night we met you were so contemptuous of me. It wasn't at all the way I had envisaged us being together. You didn't even like me, I could tell that, and----'
'It wasn't you I didn't like, it was the type.'
His face darkened to anger. 'I'm not a type, damn you! I'm me, Bart Jordan, and I can fall in love as easily as the next man. I'd loved you for months before I even got to speak to you. I was sure you must feel the same way when we met. But you didn't, you hated me, accused me of wanting to set you up as my mistress.'
'That was because----' she broke off, biting her lip to stop it trembling.
'Because...?' he prompted.
'After—after—You see, he said--'
'Tell me!' Bart ordered grimly.
She looked away. 'Carl was very like you, rich, handsome, very sure of himself.' She shivered as once again she remembered the gullible way she had been fooled by him. 'After I moved into the apartment he made it perfectly clear what I was there for. When I said I thought he had wanted to—to marry me, he told me that—that men like him didn't marry girls like me.' She looked up as she heard Bart draw in an angry breath. 'I thought you were the same, wanted the same thing from me.'
'And I was so damned angry I fell into the trap of letting you think that,' he rasped. 'That's why you didn't respond when I kissed you, isn't it?'
She nodded. 'All I could think of was that Carl had kissed me the same way.'
Bart took a step towards her. 'There was one fundamental difference,' he told her softly. 'I loved you.'
'He said he did too.'
'Oh, God!' he turned away with a groan. 'Am I going to lose you because of the actions of a man I don't even know?' He looked at her with tears shimmering in his eyes. 'If you leave me, Eve, I swear I'll---'
'Hush, darling!' She put her fingertips gently over his lips, her arms about his waist as she rested her head on his chest, the fast rate of his heartbeat telling her how upset he was. 'I'm not going to leave you,' she assured him, finally knowing that Bart loved her as much if not more than she loved him. His face was buried in her. throat as he trembled against her. 'You'll marry me?' he said gruffly. She touched his hair lovingly. 'If that's what you want.'
'Oh God, yes!' His arms tightened painfully about her.
'Then we'd better start making the arrangements,' she said briskly, anxious to dispel the mood of despair she had unwittingly caused in Bart. 'I shall have to get something to wear, and---'
'White,' he looked up to say.’I want you in white.'
She blushed. 'I thought perhaps something in cream or pale pink----'
'White,' Bart repeated firmly. 'It has to be white.'
'But-----'
He looked down at her warningly. 'Do I have to choose it for you?'
He would too, she knew that. 'I'll wear white,' she agreed shyly. 'Although——'
His lips on hers stopped further conversation, and it was a long time before either of them spoke again.
'I wish my aunt and uncle could be here for the wedding,' she sighed, held firmly in Bart's arms as they sat together on the sofa in his study.
Bart looked a little sheepish. 'They will be,' he revealed reluctantly.
'They will?' she cried excitedly, then suddenly frowned. 'But how?'
'After speaking to you on the telephone the other day I—um—I telephoned your uncle and told him we were getting married.'
'You did?' Her eyes were wide with disbelief.
'Arrogant of me, wasn't it?' he saved her the trouble of the accusation. 'But I thought-that was what you had meant.'
She giggled. 'You would have looked very silly if I'd said no.'
'I wouldn't have let you. Oh, you might have said no to start with, but I would have just kept asking until you gave in. Judy's coming over with Derek, by the way. I asked my sister to arrange that.'
Eve gave-Mm an exasperated look. 'There doesn't seem to be much to organise, you've done it all.'
'You can organise your things over to my room,' he grinned. 'And we'll go into town this week and buy you a new summer wardrobe, for your trousseau. Not that I expect you to wear much on our honeymoon, but you'd better take them Just in case.'
'Just in case of what?' she teased.
He shrugged. 'We could have unwanted visitors. And only one nightdress, just in case of fire. I believe you know what your usual night attire is going to be?' he mocked.
Eve blushed as she remembered that conversation. 'You,' she recalled huskily.
'Exactly,' he said with satisfaction. 'Eve,' he suddenly sobered, 'there'll be no more scares like just now? You'll marry me?'
'Yes,' but her voice lacked conviction.
'Eve?' he demanded strongly, shaking her gently. 'Promise me that no matter what doubts or fears you have you'll come to me with them, that you won't do anything without talking to me first? Promise me, Eve!'
'I—I promise,'she whispered.
He shook her again. 'Again! Say it louder. I want to hear you say it again.'
She looked up, her eyes flashing. 'You're a bully, Bart Jordan!'
His mouth was grim. 'You'd better believe it. You'll never get away from me now I have you. Never.'
Over the next few days she learnt that she didn't want to get away from him. She saw Bart as she had never thought he could be, the kind, openly affectionate lover who didn't care who knew how much he loved her. After Carl's offhand treatment of her Bart's love made her feel cherished and cared for, as if he were interested in her least little thought, as if nothing she said or did could ever bore him.
Without even being aware of it she blossomed overnight, in love and loved in return, each waking moment spent either with Bart or planning their wedding and the lengthy honeymoon they were to have on the Greek island Bart had borrowed from a friend of his, and if her nights weren't actually spent with him they were spent dreaming about him.
She put back on some of the weight she had lost, her face lost its tense, drawn look, her violet eyes no longer haunted but glowing with love. And she and Bart only had to look at each other for an electric current of awareness to shoot between them, desire never far from the surface, although firmly controlled by Bart as he kept to his decision not to make love to her again until they were husband and wife.
'Thank God tonight I don't have to go to bed alone,' he said with a groan as they drove to the airport on Friday to pick up his sister and her husband.
'It was your choice,' she said unsympathetically, grinning as he scowled at her.
'You'll get your punishment tonight,' he threatened. "We'll see who teases who then.'
She blushed.'I can hardly wait!'
His hand came out to grasp hers. 'Neither can I.’
'Do you think your sister will like me?'
'She'll love you.' His hand squeezed hers before he returned it to the steering-wheel, driving the limousine himself as they were to pick up Derek and Judy as well as the other couple. 'But even if she doesn't,' he added hardly, 'it isn't going to make any difference to the way I feel about you, or the fact that we're going to be married this afternoon.'
'This afternoon I shall be Mrs Bartholomew Jordan,' she breathed huskily. 'Doesn't it sound wonderful?' Her eyes glowed.
Bart smiled indulgently at her childish pleasure. 'I don't know, I've always been Mr Bartholomew Jordan.'
'Oh yes.' Her face dropped with disappointment.
'Don't look like that,' he laughed huskily. 'Tonight you can tell me just how wonderful it is being my wife.'
Red Rose For Love Page 15