Ice In His Veins

by Carole Mortimer

  Eden shrugged uncaringly. ‘I’ll just add that to the other list of insults you’ve already given me, one more doesn’t make any difference. I have to go now, I mustn’t keep Tim waiting. I’ll see you later.’

  ‘Invite him to stay here.’

  Eden turned to look at his rigid back. ‘Invite him here…?’

  He turned, his eyes glacial, a sneer on his lips. ‘Yes. His sister is a friend of mine, it would look rude if he stayed at a hotel.’

  ‘I wouldn’t have thought your friendship with Claire was something you would want Isobel to find out about, not in her vulnerable state.’

  ‘Tim will be your guest, not mine.’

  ‘How convenient for you!’

  ‘Yes,’ he said tightly. ‘I’ll have Mrs Gifford prepare a room for him.’

  ‘Not near mine, I hope,’ she said meaningly. ‘I wouldn’t like to give in to temptation.’

  ‘If you feel tempted my room is just up from yours,’ he said abruptly.

  ‘You—you still want me?’

  ‘Well, let’s just say I wouldn’t turn you away,’ he drawled.

  Eden’s head rose haughtily. ‘I’ll bear that in mind. And I’ll give Tim your invitation. He can make up his own mind.’

  ‘Oh, he’ll come,’ Jason said with certainty. ‘He won’t refuse the opportunity of seeing more of you—and I didn’t mean that literally,’ he added disgustedly.

  She couldn’t help laughing at his expression. ‘I think you enjoy seeing me as some sort of scarlet woman,’ she smiled.

  His expression remained grim. ‘I don’t enjoy it at all. You look so innocent with that cap of golden hair and those wide innocent eyes.’ He shook his head. ‘But the body is a dead giveaway.’ His assessing gaze made her feel uncomfortable. ‘A dead giveaway,’ he murmured as if to himself.

  Eden made a hurried goodbye, anxious to escape before he became any more familiar—or insulting. Their hostility was back with a vengeance!

  She almost missed Tim at the airport, she was twenty minutes late and apparently his flight had landed on time. He was just leaving as she rushed into the terminal.

  She launched herself into his open arms. ‘Oh, Tim!’ she choked, tears of happiness welling up into her eyes. ‘It’s so good to see you.’

  He laughed exultantly at her undisguised enthusiasm. ‘So I gathered,’ he claimed a lengthy kiss, uncaring of the people milling about them. ‘Mm, if being away from me for a few days has this effect on you I’ll have to do it more often!’

  She laughed happily, putting her arm about his waist as his rested about her shoulders. ‘Let’s get out of here,’ she suggested as yet another person pushed passed them.

  ‘Suits me,’ he grinned down at her. ‘Did Jason let you borrow his car?’

  ‘I didn’t think to ask him.’ Coolness entered her voice at the mention of Jason. ‘We can easily get a taxi. I saw lots of them outside when I came in.’

  ‘How is Jason?’ Tim asked once they had attained their taxi and were on their way to London. ‘I have to ask or Claire won’t be very pleased when I get back.’

  ‘You can see for yourself, you’re expected to stay,’ she told him carelessly.

  He raised his eyebrows. ‘At Jason’s?’

  She shrugged. ‘Where else?’

  ‘Don’t you want me to stay there?’ He gauged her mood and misunderstood it.

  ‘Oh yes,’ she said instantly. ‘More than anything.’

  ‘You still don’t like him, do you?’ Tim shook his head.

  Like him? Of course she didn’t like him, she loved him. And that frightened her. How could she possibly have fallen in love with someone who had the opinion of her that Jason had? And yet she had, she had known it on Tuesday night when they had talked together so intimately, had known it and feared it.

  Jason didn’t even like her; he desired her, but he didn’t like her. All this time she had wondered why she couldn’t fall in love with Tim or any of the other men she had dated the last few years, and now she knew the reason. It was her fate to fall for a heartless devil of a man called Jason Earle, a man who made no secret of his derision concerning marriage.

  ‘No, I don’t like him,’ she answered truthfully.

  ‘And Isobel Morton, what’s she like?’

  ‘Beautiful, sophisticated, very self-assured.’

  ‘I suppose Jason sees a lot of her.’

  ‘Yes,’ Eden said abruptly, suddenly finding the idea of Jason being with Isobel totally repugnant to her.

  ‘How’s the guardianship going?’

  ‘It hasn’t started yet,’ she grimaced. ‘Jason thought it best to wait until after the funeral. But my mother was furious about that condition.’ Although it hadn’t made her want Eden to refuse her inheritance. Her mother considered that the money was the least David Morton could do for her.

  They got out of the taxi as it stopped outside Jason’s house. ‘Mm, very impressive,’ Tim murmured as they entered the lounge. ‘But no more than I would expect for Jason.’

  ‘I suppose not,’ Eden agreed. ‘Sit down and we’ll have a cup of coffee.’ She rang for Mrs Gifford.

  ‘Not tea?’ Tim teased.

  She laughed. ‘Not tea. They haven’t persuaded me into drinking that at all hours of the day just yet, although if I stay here much longer it will probably come to that.’

  ‘And will you be staying here much longer?’

  ‘I’m not sure. Jason says—Ah, Mrs Gifford.’ She smiled at the housekeeper. ‘This is Mr Channing, did Mr Earle explain about him?’

  ‘He did,’ the housekeeper gave a shy smile. ‘I’ve had a room prepared for you, Mr Channing.’

  Tim had stood up at the woman’s entrance, charming her with his most endearing smile. ‘Thank you,’ he said softly. ‘You’re very kind.’

  She flushed with pleasure. ‘Not at all, sir. You’re most welcome here.’

  ‘Could we possibly have coffee, Mrs Gifford?’ Eden asked persuasively, knowing that the preparation of Tim’s room would have already put the poor woman’s routine out completely.

  ‘But of course, Miss Shaw,’ she answered as if there had never been any doubt of it.

  ‘You were saying,’ Tim prompted once they were alone again. ‘Jason says…?’

  ‘He said it could be a few months before everything is sorted out.’

  ‘But do you have to stay that long? It doesn’t sound to me as if there’s anything for you to do here.’

  Eden frowned. ‘I just don’t want to leave yet. It’s been a difficult week.’

  He put his hand over hers. ‘I’m sure it has.’

  ‘How did your business in Germany go?’

  He shrugged. ‘It seemed okay to me, but no doubt it won’t suit the parents.’

  Tim was having to work his way up from the bottom of the family business, his mother’s decision, and he didn’t always find it easy satisfying his parents.

  ‘Tim….’ Eden hesitated. ‘Tim, this morning I told Jason—I told him I intended becoming your wife before the end of the year.’ She had to come clean, just in case Jason chose to tell Tim himself.

  His face lit up with pleasure. ‘You did?’ he said eagerly. ‘Why, that’s just—’

  ‘I didn’t mean it, Tim,’ she told him quietly.

  ‘You didn’t?’ he frowned. ‘Then why—Oh no!’ he groaned. ‘Not another one!’

  She flushed. ‘Another what?’

  ‘You’ve fallen for him too, haven’t you?’ he said resignedly.

  ‘No!’ she denied sharply. ‘I told you I don’t like—’

  ‘You’ve fallen for him,’ he insisted. ‘I know the signs, remember?’ He sighed. ‘What is it about him that attracts all the women? Oh, I know he’s good-looking, has money, but then without being conceited I think I have both those things too. Just why is it he gets all the women?’

  ‘Perhaps it’s his elusiveness,’ she shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Elusiveness.’ He chewed the word
round. ‘You mean that if I suddenly started playing hard to get you might change your mind about me?’

  ‘No,’ she gave a wan smile, ‘that isn’t what I meant. Jason’s elusiveness is mental, not physical. He isn’t averse to sleeping with women, that much is obvious, but no woman gets to know his mind, the person behind the body, and if you don’t have that then you don’t have the man. When Drew met him he said he reminded him of an iceberg, at least eighty per cent of him below the surface. It’s that eighty per cent that’s the important part of him, the part he lets no one near.’

  ‘No one?’

  ‘I don’t think so. It would make him vulnerable, you see, and Jason isn’t a man who likes to feel vulnerable.’

  ‘You seem to have got to know him pretty well.’ Tim watched her with narrowed eyes.

  ‘I told you,’ she fidgeted with the seam of her denims, ‘Eighty per cent of him is below the surface.’

  ‘You sound as if you’ve penetrated at least forty per cent of that, given time you could even break down the whole hundred per cent.’

  ‘Don’t be silly, Tim!’ She avoided his probing look.

  ‘I’m not being silly. Why did you tell him you intend marrying me if it wasn’t some sort of defence? Has he been making passes at you?’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Liar!’ he chided softly. ‘I told you, I know all the signs.’

  ‘Just because I—just because I find him attractive it doesn’t mean he feels the same way about me,’ she told him protestingly.

  ‘You wouldn’t need to be on the defensive if he didn’t. Jason goes in for affairs, you don’t, so you’ve given him the impression there’s someone else.’

  ‘You’re wrong, Tim,’ she gave a bitter laugh, ‘so very wrong. I didn’t tell him that as a defence, I told him—’ somehow she didn’t want to tell Tim of Jason’s biased opinion of her. ‘Well, perhaps I did,’ she amended. ‘The man is completely without morals.’

  ‘I already knew that. When it only involved my sister I didn’t care, but—’

  ‘I don’t think she would be pleased to hear that,’ Eden interrupted teasingly.

  ‘She’s old enough to know better than to make a fool of herself over someone like him, but she still chooses to see him.’

  ‘She doesn’t choose to, Tim, she’s in love with him.’ As she was!

  ‘Then more fool her,’ he dismissed callously. ‘And you too if you feel the same way. To have an affair with him you have to be removed emotionally, wanting only the physical.’

  ‘Maybe you’re right.’

  ‘I am right,’ he said firmly. ‘And if you take my advice you’ll keep up the pretence of becoming my wife. You never know,’ he grinned, ‘I might be able to make you agree to it becoming reality.’

  ‘Tim, I wish you wouldn’t—’

  Mrs Gifford came into the room after a brief knock, putting a laden tray down on the coffee table. ‘I’ve put some cakes on there as well. I’m sure you must be hungry, Mr Channing.’

  ‘Thank you,’ once again he gave her his charming smile. ‘The food on planes is always atrocious.’

  She gave him another smile before leaving the room. ‘Behave yourself, Tim,’ Eden laughed. ‘Stop charming Jason’s staff.’

  ‘I think she likes me.’ He bit into one of the buttered scones.

  ‘I’m sure she does. Tim, I—’

  This time someone entered the room without knocking and Eden didn’t need to look up to know it was the master of the house. She had assumed Jason to be visiting Isobel, but once again she had been wrong.

  Tim stood up almost guiltily, at once in awe of the older man. ‘Jason,’ he said by way of greeting. ‘Very nice of you to invite me to stay,’ he added gruffly.

  ‘Wasn’t it?’ Jason returned dryly. ‘I’ll have some coffee too, Eden. Mrs Gifford said she’d put three cups on the tray.’

  Eden had noticed the extra cup, but had just thought it to have been a mistake on the part of the housekeeper. It had never occurred to her that Jason would join them. She handed the requested coffee to him without a word.

  ‘Have I interrupted anything?’ Jason asked at their continued silence.

  He didn’t look as if he particularly cared if he had! ‘No,’ Eden told him in a stilted voice.

  ‘We were just talking about the wedding,’ Tim said casually.

  Eden and Jason both gave him sharp looks, but Jason was the first to speak. ‘When is it?’ he snapped.

  ‘That’s what we were trying to decide.’

  ‘I’m sure that now Eden’s hooked you she won’t want to leave it too long, just in case you change your mind.’

  ‘I won’t change my mind,’ Tim told him resentfully. ‘It’s more likely to be the other way round.’

  ‘Oh, I doubt it,’ Jason drawled.

  ‘Then you don’t know her very well. Eden doesn’t really want to get married for some time yet, she wants to travel first.’

  Jason gave her a hard look. ‘Then why don’t you?’

  ‘I—’

  ‘I don’t want her to,’ Tim told him with youthful arrogance.

  ‘Isn’t that rather selfish of you? She’s very young to be tied down to a husband and possibly a young family.’

  Tim flushed at the intended rebuke. ‘Why don’t you—’

  ‘Surely that’s up to me to decide,’ Eden cut in smoothly, hoping to avoid an argument between the two men. They were like a couple of dogs scrapping over a favourite bone.

  ‘Well?’ Jason raised his eyebrows questioningly.

  She glared at him. ‘I haven’t decided yet.’

  He stood up. ‘You shouldn’t leave it too long, rich young men like Tim don’t grow on trees. Excuse me,’ he nodded distantly before leaving the room.

  ‘Whew!’ Tim muttered.

  ‘It was your fault,’ Eden turned on him angrily. ‘You antagonised him.’

  ‘He didn’t need much pushing.’

  ‘Maybe not, but you didn’t have to tell him those lies.’

  ‘Why not? He was jealous as hell.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ She gave an impatient sigh. ‘You’ve just made it awkward for us to stay here now.’

  ‘I got the impression Jason wouldn’t let us leave even if we wanted to, you anyway. He’d probably throw me out if he could,’ Tim chuckled.

  ‘Not when he’s just invited you to stay.’

  ‘He’s invited me to stay so that he can keep ah eye on us. He’s like a dog guarding a bone, a bone he’s been saving for a special occasion.’

  Strange Tim should use the same comparison as she had seconds earlier. ‘I wish you would stop saying things like that,’ she said irritably. ‘It simply isn’t true.’

  ‘There’s nothing simple about the way Jason feels towards you—he eats you with his eyes.

  Eden put up a hand to her flushed face. ‘Stop it, Tim, you’re embarrassing me!’

  ‘That’s nothing to what Jason would like to do to you. I believe him when he says he isn’t marrying Isobel Morton.’

  ‘It’s what she says that counts at the moment. She’s playing on the fact that she’s in a distressed state to keep him constantly at her side. If he’s not careful she’ll trap him into marriage without him realising it.’

  ‘If he lets that happen he’s a fool.’

  Eden smiled. It sounded strange to hear a derogatory remark made about Jason; most people seemed to like him. ‘Come on, I’ll show you to your room.’ It could only be one of two rooms, the others being occupied, so she should have no trouble finding it.

  ‘Is it next to yours?’ he asked.

  ‘No.’ She remembered Jason had said it wouldn’t be, which was how she had narrowed it down to the two back bedrooms.

  ‘By Jason’s orders?’ Once again Tim guessed her train of thought.

  ‘Yes,’ she admitted reluctantly.

  ‘Is he sharing your room?’

  She gasped. ‘Tim!’

  ‘Like I said, the man�
��s a fool. I wouldn’t pass up an opportunity like he’s had.’

  ‘Tim, you know I don’t—’

  ‘Maybe you don’t,’ he grinned, ‘but he does. And it isn’t in him to deny himself something he wants.’

  ‘This is hardly the time,’ she reminded him. ‘We’ve had a family bereavement.’

  ‘Would you like me to come with you this afternoon?’ he asked quietly.

  ‘Do you want to? Funerals aren’t very pleasant things.’

  Tim put his arm about her shoulders as they walked up the stairs. ‘I’m the nearest thing you have to family over here. As Jason will no doubt be with the lovely Isobel I think it only fair that I should be with you.’

  ‘Thank you, Tim,’ and she turned to kiss him.

  ‘If you have to do that sort of thing perhaps you could find a more convenient place to do it than half way up my stairs!’

  Eden broke guiltily away from Tim’s embrace, looking up to see Jason watching them from the top of the stairs. He had changed into a dark formal suit, his tie black. ‘Sorry,’ Eden mumbled, feeling about five years old as he watched the rest of their ascent with scornful eyes.

  ‘I wouldn’t have broken up that touching scene, but I happen to be in a hurry,’ he told her coldy. ‘I’m lunching with Isobel before we go to the funeral,’ he explained.

  ‘Oh,’ she nodded. ‘I didn’t realise. Tim and I can get a taxi to the church.’

  ‘If it wasn’t for your ridiculous aversion to Isobel you would be lunching with us, as it is a car will pick you up at two-thirty. You and Tim, if he intends coming with you,’ Jason added impatiently.

  ‘I do.’ Tim once again had his arm about her shoulders. ‘I think she may need me.’

  ‘I would have taken care of her if you hadn’t arrived,’ Jason informed him haughtily.

  ‘Well, now you won’t need to bother,’ Tim told him in a dismissive voice. ‘If you’ll excuse us, Eden is just going to show me to my room.’

  Jason gave her a cold look. ‘I wasn’t aware she knew which room had been prepared for you.’

  Eden bit her lip. ‘I—I don’t,’ she admitted. ‘But it shouldn’t be too difficult to find it.’

  ‘Maybe not, but I would prefer you not to play games in my bedrooms,’ he said harshly. ‘Or perhaps you were just going to take him to your own room and hope no one would notice?’