‘You saw Jason yesterday?’ again she cut in.
‘Mm, he’s in the States.’
Of course he was! If Isobel was here it naturally followed that Jason was here too. ‘I didn’t realise you were such good friends that he would make a social call on you,’ she said sarcastically.
Tim laughed. ‘We aren’t friends at all, you should know that. I saw him and Claire at the—’
‘Jason and Claire?’ she asked disgustedly. ‘Jason was out with your sister last night?’
‘I told you before, whenever Jason is in town Claire goes running.’
‘Yes, but—’ Lord, even on his honeymoon Jason couldn’t stay away from other women! She forced a bright smile to her lips. ‘Delanie’s, I think you said?’
His expression brightened. ‘You mean you’ll come?’
She laughed. ‘But of course. Let’s go!’
It was a gay evening, an evening of laughing and talking, and dancing until her feet ached. It was as if she were trying to exorcise Jason from her mind and body for good, trying to erase him even from her thoughts.
And to a certain extent she did it. Tim set out to be his most charming and so made it easy for her. The warmth of the alcohol she consumed put a sparkle in her eyes and heightened the colour of her cheeks.
She collapsed against Tim after a more than usual exuberant dance. ‘Shall we sit down now?’
‘Certainly not,’ he grinned. ‘They’re playing our tune.’
‘Our tune?’ Eden raised her eyebrows.
‘Well, it could become it. It’s nice and slow and I’ll get to hold you in my arms,’
Eden smiled. ‘I’m not sure I should encourage you.’
He pulled her close against him. ‘Oh, encourage me, Eden. Encourage me,’ he urged.
She laughingly moved away, then all humour died from her face as she recognised the couple dancing beside them. Jason and Claire! And from the contemptuous look in Jason’s glacial eyes he had been watching her for some time.
Tim spotted the other couple more or less the same time she did, groaning against her ear. ‘Oh God, why did they have to be here! I need them like I need a hole in the head,’ he muttered forcibly.
After that single meeting of their eyes Eden had turned hurriedly away from Jason, the beautiful kittenish Claire snuggled into his arms. ‘Could we leave?’ she asked Tim in a strangulated voice.
‘Not without looking rude. Look, we’ll just say a quick hello and then get out of here. Okay?’
‘Okay,’ she nodded, standing mutely at his side as he spoke amiably to the other couple.
‘Dance with me!’ Jason dragged her away from the other couple, pulling her ruthlessly into his arms.
‘Jason!’ She raised a shocked face. ‘Wasn’t that rather rude?’
‘Rude, hell!’ he groaned, the roughness of his chin gently scratching her temple as he held her to him. ‘How have you been?’ he asked huskily.
Couldn’t he see that, couldn’t he see by the gauntness of her face and the dark hollows beneath her eyes that she was dreadfully unhappy? ‘I’m very well, thank you. And you?’
‘I’m well too.’
He didn’t look it either. On closer inspection he didn’t look well at all. Eden had thought him haughty and withdrawn the first time she had ever seen him, but now his face was a cold hard mask, completely emotionless as he looked down at her. And he was thinner too, the lines of dissipation deeply etched into his skin, his hair much too long and growing out of style. Only five per cent of the iceberg was visible now, the freeze almost complete.
‘I’m glad,’ she returned coolly.
‘Are you?’ he scorned bitterly. ‘I doubt it.’
‘Probably not,’ she accepted without demur.
His mouth twisted. ‘Definitely not.’
‘What did you expect?’ Her voice was calm, but her eyes flashed her anger. ‘That I would be pining away for you?’ And hadn’t she been? Hadn’t she! Jason smiled without humour, his expression unpleasant. ‘Hardly,’ he mocked. ‘How long have things been back on with Tim?’ he demanded harshly.
‘Back on?’ she frowned.
His hands at her waist were painful. ‘Yes, back on,’ he said grimly.
‘Oh, I see what you mean,’ she gave a taunting laugh. ‘Quite some time,’ she lied. ‘You can expect to hear the sound of wedding bells in the near future.’
‘You’re going to marry him?’ he asked in a strangulated voice.
‘How will you like that, Jason, Tim as your partner?’
‘I couldn’t give a damn about the partnership!’
‘I’ll bet,’ she taunted. ‘Tim may be young, but he has a business mind. He’ll have ideas he’ll want put into action.’
‘I’m still the senior partner, I always have been. Come on,’ he held her wrist in a vice-like grip and dragged her back to where Tim and Claire were talking together. ‘Let me know when the wedding is,’ his mouth twisted. ‘I’ll try to make it.’
‘With Isobel?’ she taunted.
Jason stiffened. ‘I can’t speak for her. We live our own lives.’
‘I’m sure that suits you.’
‘It does,’ he agreed coldly.
‘I’ll let you know about the wedding.’ Eden turned and put her hand through the crook of Tim’s arm. ‘Ready, darling?’ she smiled at him.
Tim blushed at the unexpected endearment, taking full advantage of her sudden change of attitude and putting his arm possessively about her shoulders. He shrugged at the other two. ‘Excuse us. No man could refuse the invitation of being alone with Eden—could they, Jason?’ he added with malicious enjoyment.
Jason’s cold gaze was insulting as it swept over her. ‘Few do,’ he drawled.
Eden coloured angrily. ‘Few get the chance,’ she snapped. ‘Tim?’
He shrugged. ‘Right, let’s go.’
Tim turned in his seat to look at her, the car parked outside her home. ‘You’re very quiet,’ he caressed her pale cheek.
‘Sorry,’ she gave a strained smile. ‘I think I’m getting my hangover early.’ She certainly deserved one, the amount of alcohol she had consumed the last few hours.
‘It’s Jason, isn’t it?’ He wasn’t deceived.
‘No!’
‘Yes,’ he said firmly. ‘You still love him.’
‘I hate him,’ she cried, her voice breaking. ‘I hate him, I tell you!’ Tears were streaming down her cheeks by this time, tears that she had held within her for the past year.
Tim gathered her to him, cradling her into his arms. ‘You love him,’ he stated dully. ‘I wish you didn’t, but you do.’
‘I don’t,’ she sniffed. ‘How could I love someone like him, someone who has no morals, someone who’s even with another woman on his honeymoon!’
‘Honeymoon?’ He held her away from him. ‘Jason isn’t on his honeymoon,’ he dismissed scathingly.
‘He is,’ she insisted, still crying, seeming unable to stop. ‘He married Isobel Morton.’
Tim shook his head. ‘I don’t know where you got your information from, but it’s wrong. Jason isn’t married to Isobel Morton or anyone else, he isn’t even particularly interested in women at the moment.’
‘I suppose that’s why he’s with Claire,’ she said dryly.
‘He’s with Claire because my big sister doesn’t know when to take no for an answer. And you can believe that Jason has been saying no. He isn’t married, Eden,’ he told her again.
‘But he has to be! Isobel came to see me this afternoon. She spoke to my mother, she said she was on her honeymoon.’
‘I bet your mother enjoyed seeing her again after all these years,’ Tim said speculatively.
‘I don’t think it particularly bothered her.’ With the death of David Morton her mother finally seemed to have given up the past. Isobel’s visit this afternoon didn’t seem to have bothered her unduly.
‘Did Isobel specifically say Jason was her husband?’
‘I ju
st assumed….’ Eden frowned. Isobel had known exactly what she would think, it had been her final gesture of hatred. ‘Oh God!’ she groaned. ‘And I told Jason I was going to marry you!’ She was very pale.
‘And again you didn’t mean it,’ Tim sighed.
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to use you, but Jason was being so insulting and—’
‘Of course he was being insulting.’ Tim spoke to her as if she were a particularly stupid child. ‘The poor guy’s mad about you, insane with jealousy if I so much as look at you.’
‘No….’
‘Oh yes,’ he insisted. ‘I don’t know why the two of you split up, but that you love each other is plain to see. Even my particularly dense sister could see it. You should have heard her bitching at you when you were dancing with him.’
‘When he forced me to dance with him!’
‘He just wanted to get his arms around you. He was like a thirsty man in a desert.’
‘Icebergs can’t survive in a desert,’ she told him absently. Could it be true that Jason still loved her? If he did she would go to him no matter what his reasons were for wanting her. She just couldn’t live without him any more.
Tim frowned. ‘Icebergs? What do icebergs have to do with this conversation?’
Eden smiled. ‘You wouldn’t understand.’
‘Remembering another conversation we had about icebergs, I think I do,’ he said slowly. ‘And as far as Jason is concerned you have the wrong comparison. He goes up in flames whenever you’re around.’
She blushed. ‘Do you really think he loves me?’
‘I don’t really think you need me to tell you that.’ He restarted the car engine. ‘I’ll take you to his hotel.’
‘I—He won’t be there yet.’
‘Then you can wait for him.’
‘What if Claire—’
‘I told you, he’s not interested in her.’
‘What if the same applies to me?’ she asked worriedly.
He gave her an impatient glance. ‘Where were you when feminine intuition was being handed out?’ He shook his head. ‘Jason loves you. It’s up to you to get him to admit it.’
Remembering the things she had believed about him, things she now knew he couldn’t possibly have done, Eden didn’t think that was going to be easy.
Tim saw her frown. ‘I’m sure you’ll think of a way to persuade him round,’ he teased.
She blushed. ‘You’re being very kind to me.’
‘I’d rather it was me you loved, but if I can’t have you I’d rather see you marry someone who’s going to make you happy. And Jason seems to be the man you want. I hope you get him.’
***
The hotel lobby was strangely quiet and deserted this time of night, only the night porter behind the desk to eye her occasionally as she sat waiting. She was very nervous, constantly looking at the huge double glass doors, longing for, and yet dreading too, Jason’s arrival. After all, she only had Tim’s opinion that Jason loved her.
Her heart leapt as she saw him enter the hotel, completely alone, his expression remote as he nodded to the night porter. He came to a sudden halt as she stepped out from behind the huge pot-plant that had shielded her from curious eyes, taking an involuntary step towards her and then stopping, a fierce flame burning in his eyes, a flame that told her all she needed to know. Jason did love her!
‘Eden?’ His voice was husky, demanding.
She swallowed hard. ‘Jason—’ her tongue seemed to be stuck to the roof of her mouth, ‘I—I love you,’ she told him chokingly.
He took hold of her arm, his remoteness becoming a thing of the past. ‘Let’s go up to my suite.’
‘I thought you didn’t like young girls calling on you here,’ she stupidly remembered their first conversation.
He raised dark eyebrows. ‘Are you calling on me? I thought you’d come to stay,’ he said throatily.
Love blazed in her eyes. ‘Jason—’
‘Wait until we get upstairs, darling.’ He held her tightly against his side. ‘If I start kissing you here I’m never going to stop.’
As soon as they entered his suite he turned to pull her into his arms, easing her lips apart with the tip of his tongue, closing on them like a man deprived of his life’s force. His hard body was pressed against her, making her aware of his throbbing desire, desire he didn’t try to hide from her.
Eden clung to him, meeting the demand of his kiss with equal fervour, her arms thrown about his neck as she arched her body against him. If Jason chose to make her his right now she wouldn’t object. This year without him had shown her that all she wanted was him.
‘God, I needed that!’ He drew a ragged breath, taking hold of her hand and leading her over to the sofa, lying down beside her on its length. ‘I’m not letting you out of my sight again tonight,’ he groaned.
She moved to slip his jacket from his shoulders, slowly unbuttoning the silk shirt to run her fingertips caressingly over his taut skin. ‘I love you, Jason,’ she was unashamedly offering herself to him. ‘I belong to you.’
He closed his eyes, opening them again to stare at her as if he couldn’t believe she were really here. ‘God, I’ve missed you, Eden.’ He caressed her throat with hard kisses. ‘This is what you want, isn’t it?’ he gasped, his own desire mounting as he ran his hands lightly across her thighs. ‘It’s what you were saying downstairs just now?’
‘Oh yes, yes!’ She felt lightheaded, making no demur as he shed her gown.
‘You are mine, aren’t you?’ he demanded. ‘You don’t belong to Tim?’
‘I lied, Jason. I lied!’
‘Hurting me again.’ He sounded agonised.
‘I’m sorry,’ she rained fevered kisses over his face. ‘I’ve just been so confused.’ She told him about Isobel’s visit and of how she thought he was the other woman’s husband.
‘I wouldn’t marry her under any circumstances,’ he said fiercely. ‘But no doubt you’re right in her wanting you to think that. Isobel is still a very bitter woman. I have no idea why, she seems to have everything she could ever want. She’s married to a Greek millionaire, she met him on the cruise she went on just after you left England.’
Eden felt him shudder as he remembered her hurried departure. ‘I should never have listened to her. I should have trusted you, shouldn’t I, Jason?’
‘The basic outline of what she said was true, it was only the emotions she missed out. You couldn’t possibly have trusted me, you didn’t know me well enough. Trust comes with knowing a person for a long time.’
She pressed herself against him. ‘This sort of knowing?’
‘No,’ he gave a husky laugh. ‘We have to talk first, Eden.’ He put her firmly away from him and stood up. ‘I want there to be no misunderstandings between us when I make you mine.’
‘But, Jason—’
‘I know, darling.’ He bent to kiss her lightly on the lips, his caresses soothing her now, dulling her passions until he was ready to rekindle the flame. ‘But you have to listen to what I have to say.’
‘Yes, Jason.’
‘Behave!’ he warned. ‘Now I’ll deal with Isobel’s accusations first.’
‘Which one?’ Eden said dryly.
‘She said I wasn’t in love with you, that I only wanted to marry you so that I could have complete control. She was wrong about both those things. I love you very much, very, very much. As for marrying you, I seem to remember I encouraged you to marry Tim when we first met, and later on too. It was only when my own love for you became so strong that I couldn’t bear the thought of another man near you. But I tried to keep away from you, Eden. I tried because I knew exactly what you would think when you found out about that crazy condition in David’s will. I would have tried to make him change his mind about that if I’d known about it, but unfortunately it was too late, for him as well as for me. I think I fell in love with you on sight.’
‘Oh no, I’m sure you didn’t,’ she laughed. ‘You despised me.�
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‘No, I wanted you. But it just wasn’t on, David was my partner and you were his granddaughter—’
‘Why was it no one ever mentioned that the two of you were partners?’
He shrugged. ‘Perhaps we all thought you knew. Anyway, it didn’t seem that important, not until Isobel made it so. But that didn’t really matter, none of it mattered. David’s will was at the root of all the trouble. As soon as I’d told you about that condition in the will you would have begun to suspect me, I knew that as soon as Isobel told you. So I promised you a year, a year during which you could marry someone else if you wanted to.’
Her eyes were wide. ‘But you never told me, you just let me go, let me think I’d never see you again.’
‘If I’d told you it would have defeated the object. I arrived in the States yeterday. I met Claire for dinner, to talk business, nothing else,’ he told her firmly. ‘And today I telephoned you.’
‘You—you called me?’
‘The maid told me you were having dinner with a Mr Channing this evening,’ he said with remembered bitterness. ‘And when I saw you you said you were going to marry him. But are you sure about me now? If we get married you aren’t going to throw the partnership in my face every time we argue?’
‘Actually,’ she said softly, ‘I’ve thought of a good solution to that.’
Jason raised his eyebrows. ‘You have?’
She snuggled against him, desire flaming between them again as their bodies fitted perfectly one against the other. ‘Mm,’ she nodded. ‘An ideal solution, in fact.’
‘Well, don’t keep me in suspense.’
‘Our son shall be the sole owner,’ she announced triumphantly.
‘Our son?’ His eyes turned black, eyes she had once thought glacial, eyes that had suddenly melted. For her, only for her.
‘Would you like that?’ she smiled.
‘As long as we can start work on our progeny right now. Tomorrow we can start making the arrangements for our wedding. But right now no more talking, hmm?’ His lips probed her throat.
‘No more talking,’ she confirmed. And there wasn’t, not for a long time.
* * * * *
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Ice In His Veins Page 17