Lovestorm (Harlequin Treasury 1990's)

by Jennifer Taylor

  Helen stared up at him, refusing to back down in the face of his anger. ‘Don’t worry. I have no intention of telling Richard the truth! He wouldn’t thank me for it. He has more pride than that. Richard is a decent, honest man; he wouldn’t understand the kind of rules you play by, but I do! Now, if you will excuse me, I want to leave.’

  ‘Certainly. Don’t let me detain you any longer, Helen. But remember what I just said. This agreement is strictly between ourselves.’ He smiled thinly, his blue eyes icy as they skimmed her face, the proud tilt of her head. ‘You wouldn’t enjoy the way I make my displeasure felt if you chose to be indiscreet, Helen.’

  ‘I’m sure I wouldn’t. That at least is one thing we can agree on, Jacob.’ She forced a brilliant smile, her eyes hating him. ‘It might be the only thing, I imagine.’

  ‘I think you are underestimating what we have going for us, my sweet.’ He moved closer, blocking her path as he backed her against the wall and stopped so close that she breathed the scent of him into her lungs. It made her feel breathless and giddy, as though her whole body were suddenly filled with him. When he reached out and ran his finger lightly down her cheek, she flinched, her eyes enormous as they stared into his.

  He smiled slowly, bending just a fraction closer until his face filled her vision, blocking out all sight of everything else. ‘I imagine that you and I will find many things we can—agree on, Helen. Many levels where we can meet. It will be exciting testing that theory out.’

  Helen closed her eyes, blanking out the sight of him, her whole body shaking in a reaction she couldn’t hide. ‘I hate you, Jacob,’ she whispered, then repeated it more clearly as she opened her eyes and stared up at him. ‘I hate you!’

  He never even flinched, his face impassive before he suddenly stepped back. ‘I’m sure you do. Now I think I had better get back to your “friend” Richard. There are a few things we need to make clear between us if I hope to keep that promise I made you about his job security.’

  There was an edge to his voice which alarmed her. ‘You won’t go back on your word, Jacob? You won’t try to push Richard into doing anything rash?’

  ‘And jeopardise the agreement we’ve made?’ He shook his head. ‘I won’t do that, Helen. I told you before that marrying you is something I have wanted for a long time now. I have no intention of losing something I have set my mind on having.’

  He was gone before Helen could think of anything else to say. What a mess all this was: herself, father, Richard, all sucked into the trap Jacob had been laying all these years. Yet somehow she had to find a way to use it against him. Somehow she had to find a way to make Jacob Hunt regret every single thing he had done!

  CHAPTER FOUR

  THE noise was making Helen’s head ache. Excusing herself from the group, she walked over to the entrance of the huge marquee which had been erected in the grounds of the house and drew in lungfuls of the cool night air.

  The party had been Jacob’s idea. Helen had merely gone along with it as she had gone along with all the other arrangements he had made this past week or so. If she had wondered why Jacob had chosen to give such a lavish event as this party, then she had soon had an answer once she’d arrived. Tonight Jacob intended to announce their forthcoming marriage, and as Helen had stood by his side to greet the guests she had recognised amongst them everyone who had been at that abruptly curtailed dinner party.

  Rumour had been rife since that night but it hadn’t seemed to bother Jacob, and why should it? He had so neatly turned the tables on her that what she’d planned to do seemed almost laughable now. And once he announced their wedding later in the evening, then that would quash any further talk and speculation as to why she had acted the way she had, giving everyone something fresh to focus their interest on. Helen Sinclair marrying Jacob Hunt—she could almost feel the shock-waves that would send out, yet she was less concerned with people’s reaction than she was about the utter finality of it. Once Jacob made that announcement then there would be no going back!

  She glanced across the crowd as a sudden panic claimed her at the realisation, and her eyes met Jacob’s. Tonight was the first time she had seen him since that day in his office, although they had spoken frequently by telephone. Now Helen felt the full impact of him hit her with a force which sent her senses reeling. Even in the elegant, sophisticated dinner clothes he looked tough and uncompromising, his blue eyes glittering with a steely determination. She had agreed to this marriage to get even with him, yet how could she hope to do that? How could she beat a man who had fought and won so many battles, who used whatever means it took to get what he wanted? She must have been mad! For the past few days she had tried to tell herself that she had made the right decision, closing her mind to the nagging fears, but now seeing him again made her realise what a fool she had been.

  Fear came coldly and swiftly, steeling any rational thoughts. All she knew right then was that she had to get away from Jacob and this foolish commitment she had made before it was too late. No one noticed as she slipped out of the marquee and ran across the lawn, no one apart from Jacob, that was. Would he follow her?

  The thought lent speed to her flying feet as she lifted up the hem of her emerald silk taffeta gown and raced towards her car. She slid inside, crushing the skirt as she bunched it up to close the door. The key was still in the ignition where she had left it, and she turned it with shaking fingers, but before she had time to start the engine the door was opened and another hand closed over hers to switch it off.

  ‘Going somewhere, Helen?’

  Her heart leapt into her throat. There was no way that she could answer, no way that she could even turn to look at Jacob who was standing beside the car. It was only when he suddenly bent and lifted her over into the passenger seat before sliding himself behind the wheel that she reacted.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she demanded shrilly, and saw his amused look as he started the engine and turned the small car down the drive.

  ‘You seemed eager to leave, my sweet, so naturally I’m coming with you. Imagine our guests’ surprise if they discovered you had left just as I was about to make the announcement of our marriage. They might start to wonder what exactly was going on.’ He cast her a harsh look, his blue eyes filled with determination. Jacob would allow nothing and no one to thwart his plans, and she’d been a fool to imagine she could—just yet! To hit back at Jacob she had to be patient and discover all his weak spots.

  She laughed softly, forcing the thunderous pounding of her heart to slow. ‘Are you so sure they won’t start wondering about it anyway, Jacob? Do you really imagine those people will think this marriage of ours was founded in heaven?’

  He shrugged lightly as he turned the car on to the main road which led through the village. ‘Who knows? However, I’m sure that time will tell how successful it has been.’

  ‘That sounds almost as though you have high hopes for us. How touching, Jacob, although I’m sure you’re doomed to disappointment.’ She sighed softly as she smoothed the emerald silk so that it lay in a shimmering waterfall over her legs. ‘The one thing I would never have taken you for was a sentimentalist.’

  ‘I doubt you know anything at all about me, Helen. Oh, I’m sure you think you know me, but you could find the reality far different from the picture you have built inside your head.’

  There was something in his deep voice which sent a sudden unease sliding through her, and she shifted in the seat. She knew what Jacob was like and she had no intention of altering her views. ‘I doubt that. I’ve had years to form my opinion, so I don’t imagine that I shall be in for any major surprises.’

  ‘Years?’ He laughed harshly, turning the car into a lay-by and switching off the engine. ‘Oh, come on, Helen, don’t exaggerate!’

  ‘It isn’t an exaggeration, Jacob. You were seventeen when you first moved into the village, and even then I had a good idea what you were like!’

  ‘Did you?’ He laughed in a way which sent a flow of heat th
rough her limbs. ‘You didn’t understand the first thing about me, sweet little Helen. That’s why you gave me all those half terrified looks from those huge green eyes.’ He lifted her chin, his fingers cool against her flesh. In the dim light from the dashboard his face was shadowy, indistinct. Only his eyes seemed clear, deep and glittering as they studied her so intently that she wanted to turn away and hide in case he saw things in her head she herself didn’t know were there.

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Jacob. You’re imagining things.’

  ‘No. I knew how you felt about me, Helen, even then. You were both scared and fascinated. I was something outside your safe, secure little world, an unknown quantity and in a way that has never changed because you have always been too scared to get close enough to discover the truth.’

  ‘I—no!’ She twisted away from the disturbing contact with his fingers, her green eyes spitting sparks at him. ‘Don’t flatter yourself, Jacob Hunt! There was nothing at all fascinating about you. You were trouble from the day you set foot in the village. You caused more fights than there had ever been. Do you imagine I didn’t hear about them?’

  ‘And naturally I was to blame for them all.’ There was a faint weariness in his tone now rather than anger. ‘Nobody ever gave me the benefit of the doubt, did they, Helen? No one asked themselves if just possibly I might have been the victim?’

  ‘You—a victim? That’s a joke, Jacob. You were far too tough to be anyone’s victim!’

  ‘I imagine I gave that impression. After all, I’d had years to learn how to hide my feelings.’ He saw her start of surprise because he smiled, and Helen felt something ache inside her at the bitter sadness of it.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Simply that my life had been one long round of other people’s prejudices. My mother was a proud woman; she didn’t see why she should lie just to conform to other people’s views. I never knew my father. He and Mother were never married and he left her when I was just a baby.

  ‘Her crime was to be an unmarried woman doing her best to care for her child. She never asked or expected anything from anyone, but unfortunately people didn’t see things the way she did.’ He leant back in the seat, his expression distant as he looked back on a past Helen could only barely imagine. ‘I soon learned to stand up for myself, Helen. It was a case of having to. Nowadays there isn’t the same stigma to being illegitimate but, despite its being the wonderful swinging sixties when I was born, most people hadn’t changed the views they had held for years.’

  ‘The story was that your mother was a widow,’ Helen said softly, and saw him grimace.

  ‘But it didn’t last long, did it? Mother had grown tired of all the hostility, so when we moved here that’s what she told everyone, but nobody really believed her, I imagine.’

  Helen flushed, strangely uncomfortable with the truth of that flat statement. ‘You have to remember that the village was a tight-knit community. Old-fashioned values were even more deeply entrenched here than many other places. They still are, in fact.’

  ‘So I discovered.’ He sat up straight, his face suddenly cold and hard. ‘If there was trouble, Helen, I didn’t go looking for it. I didn’t have to when every youth in the neighbourhood was keen to push it into my face!’

  She knew it was the truth. Jacob had aroused feelings and passions in people from the moment he had arrived in the small community. Yet that still didn’t excuse what he had done later.

  ‘So because people were prejudiced towards you, you set out to teach them a lesson? Is that it, Jacob? And who better to be your targets than my family? We represented everything you had learned to hate!’

  ‘If that is the way you choose to see it, then who am I to argue, Helen?’ He started the engine, then gave her a cool little smile as he turned the car back the way they had come. ‘It’s hard to change people’s opinions, I’ve found, but eventually most have to concede the truth.’

  ‘Meaning that I might alter my view of you because of what you have just told me?’ She shook her head, then brushed from her cheek a few wisps of hair which had slipped from the elegant chignon, using the few seconds it took to collect herself. Had her opinion of Jacob altered slightly? She didn’t want to think it had, wanted even less for him to think it! ‘Sorry, Jacob. Touching though your little tale was, it will take more than that to convince me that beneath that tough-as-nails exterior lies the real soft you trying to get out!’

  His hands tightened on the steering-wheel, the only sign of annoyance at the deliberate taunt. ‘Then obviously I shall have to try harder to change your views.’ He laughed suddenly, the sound rippling around the car. ‘Still, isn’t that what marriage is all about, darling? Discovering new things about one another?’

  ‘There is nothing new I need or want to discover about you, Jacob, apart from how to make you pay for all you’ve done! And believe me, I shall make that my number one concern. Does it make you wonder if you may have made a rather large error of judgement by handing me such a wonderful opportunity? You might come to regret it very quickly!’

  ‘Think so?’ He lifted her hand from where it was lying on her knee and raised it to his lips, pressing a slow kiss against her knuckles. ‘Fortunately I don’t share your doubts, Helen. To my mind I am about to achieve my ultimate goal. You were the one thing missing, sweet, the one thing I had always set my heart on having.’

  There was something in his voice which made her pulse jerk in reaction to it, and she dragged her hand away from his grasp, afraid that he would feel it. It was nerves, that was all, a very natural reaction to the thought of the coming wedding. Yet there was no way she could ignore the heat curling inside her, the faint tremor in her body. Jacob disturbed her in ways she didn’t want to think about—ever! She must never forget why she was marrying him, out of hatred and a desire for revenge. Indeed his own feelings towards her had to be in a similar vein. Why else had he spent these past few years destroying everything she held dear?

  The thought steadied her, steeling her resolve when she needed it most. ‘Isn’t there a saying about being careful what you wish for because you might just get it?’ She laughed softly. ‘It could so easily be applied to this very situation!’

  He cast her a slow look, his face inscrutable in the shadows. ‘It could, and not just towards my wishes. What about your wishes, Helen, your dream of getting even with me for all those wrongs I have supposedly done you?’

  ‘There is no “suppose” about it! You set out to destroy everything my family had, so what else could you call it but wrong?’

  He shook his head, a heavy lock of black hair falling on to his forehead. He pushed it back with a steady hand, calmly turning the car in through the gates marking the driveway to the house. Even though Helen could sense the anger burning in him now, he was still in control. That was one of the most terrifying things about Jacob, that tightly leashed control he held on his feelings. Everything he did was carefully planned and just as carefully executed. To beat him she would have to learn to emulate that ironclad restraint, but it wouldn’t be easy.

  ‘I won’t argue with you, Helen. Not now when there are people waiting for us, watching and judging our every look, our every word.’ He drew the car to a halt and switched off the engine, then turned off the lights, plunging them into a darkness barely relieved by the silvery glow of the moonlight. From the direction of the marquee came the strains of music, as the band Jacob had hired played for the entertainment of his guests. What a farce it all was, the party, the coming announcement!

  Her eyes glittered as she half turned in her seat to face him, contempt laced through her voice. ‘Do you really imagine that people are going to believe this marriage is for real? Do you think they are going to look at us and see two people so madly in love?’ She laughed a trifle shrilly, reaching for the door-handle, but Jacob was too quick for her.

  His hand closed around her bare arm as he stopped her from leaving. Helen turned to tell him to let her go, then found the words
wouldn’t come as he drew her closer to him and held her there so that she could feel the steely strength of his chest pressing against her soft breasts, feel the warmth of his body through the thin white silk shirt.

  ‘Perhaps you’re right, Helen. Thank you for warning me. At least it gives me a chance to do something about it.’

  She wasn’t prepared when he suddenly bent and kissed her. The shock of the contact flowed through her like fire, scorching a trail of devastation through her body. All the brusque words melted under the deeply sensuous assault. His lips seemed to draw the strength from her as they clung to hers, so warm and tender that she responded instinctively to the kiss, her own lips giving back the response he sought. Jacob wasn’t a gentle man but his kiss was achingly gentle, and that was her undoing. If he had tried to force her to respond then Helen would have had no difficulty in refusing, yet she was helpless against this slow, seductive, and deeply disturbing assault on her senses.

  When he drew back and slowly let her go it took minutes to rid herself of the drugging effect his mouth had left behind. She stared at him in silence, shock evident in the wide, stormy emerald of her eyes, the shallowness of her breathing. Slowly he reached out and smoothed his thumb across her mouth, watching the way her lips parted slightly at the contact before he drew his hand back and smiled coolly at her. ‘Perfect, Helen. That’s just the expression people would expect to see on the face of a woman who has just spent a few tender minutes alone with her future husband.’

  The mocking taunt broke the spell. Helen sucked in air so fast that her lungs ached as she glared into his amused face. ‘It would take a better actress than I could ever be to convince people I care about you, Jacob Hunt!’

  ‘Oh, I think you underestimate your ability, Helen. If I didn’t know better you might even have fooled me just now.’ He smiled meaningfully, then climbed out of the car and waited for her to join him. ‘However, I do not want any more talk, Helen. If I hear any rumours that our relationship isn’t all it is meant to be, then I might find that I have to renege on our agreement.’ He took her arm and steered her towards the marquee, drawing her to a halt as he stared down into her face. ‘You do understand, Helen?’