‘I know you didn’t.’ He squeezed her arm reassuringly. ‘But don’t worry, I’ve found what it is I “want”.’
‘David—’
‘Now don’t get yourself in a panic,’ he calmed her. ‘I’m not in any hurry.’
She shook her head. ‘But I can’t—’
‘You don’t have to do anything, Jade,’ he soothed gently. ‘I have to admit that my first instinct was to take you away somewhere, lock you up until you—Jade?’ His bantering tone turned to one of concern as she paled. ‘God, what did I say?’ he frowned worriedly. ‘Jade, tell me what I—’
‘I’m all right.’ She waved away his concern as the front door of the house was swung open, two children bounding impatiently down the steps to greet them.
Jade had met the two Kendrick boys before, had always thought them to be eleven- and twelve-year-old versions of their father, but as they launched themselves excitedly at their uncle she could see it was David they most resembled, their eyes as dark a blue as his, the boys themselves so much alike, with their tall, gangling bodies and untidy mops of dark hair, that they could almost be mistaken for twins.
David was obviously pleased to see his young nephews again too, returning their exuberant hugs, although his worried gaze searched Jade’s face before she turned pointedly away.
Jade was glad of the diversion of the Kendrick children during the next half an hour. Neither of the boys were satisfied until they had shown their uncle their bedrooms and then taken him out to the garage to show him the bicycles they had received for their birthdays earlier in the year; Jade had received a jolt she needed time to recover from.
‘Was it that bad?’ Penny prompted gently at her side after all the male members of the family had been persuaded to disappear outside to the garage. She shook her head reprovingly. ‘I thought David was rushing things a little when he rang earlier to say he hoped to be with you all day. The trouble with David is he never learnt any patience,’ she added crossly. ‘I would have felt like hitting him if he had dared to wake me up at seven o’clock in the morning for a snowball fight.’ Her mouth quirked with amusement as she could visibly see Jade’s tension begin to relax into a rueful smile. ‘Hugging him a little, too, I think,’ she admitted affectionately. ‘He can be the most infuriating man!’
Yes, he could. But he could also be kind. And thoughtful. And dangerous to her peace of mind. And it was the latter she had to remember.
By the time the other members of the family returned, and she and Penny were dragged into a boisterous game of Monopoly, she had almost forgotten that moment of sheer panic she had experienced when she and David had first arrived here. Almost…
* * *
‘Penny hasn’t lost her ability to throw a successful party,’ David drawled on the drive back to her cottage several hours later.
It had been a pleasant evening, most of the people there familiar to Jade. What had made it slightly uncomfortable for her was the interest all of Penny and Simon’s friends had taken in Simon’s brother. As David’s obvious partner for the evening—no matter how much she might have wished it didn’t appear that way!—she had come in for considerable interest herself. No doubt a lot of those people had believed her to have moved very fast to capture David’s interest in that way! To his credit, David had made very sure everyone knew he more than returned any interest she might feel.
‘I can’t get over how much the boys have grown.’ He gave a rueful shake of his head. ‘They were only seven and eight the last time I spent any time with them,’ he admitted heavily. ‘I’ve missed them both so much,’ he added gruffly.
The boys had obviously missed their uncle too, even though four years must have seemed a very long time in their young lives.
But at least now Jade had some idea of how long David’s wife had been dead. And the four years had seemed even longer to him than it had to the boys, because he had had nothing left in his life.
‘I should have known not to play Monopoly against you,’ Jade derided, lightly changing the subject. ‘I had forgotten that I once read about you that you’re considered the “entrepreneur with the Midas touch”; a little game like Monopoly was child’s play to you!’
He grinned in the half-light, several small streetlamps illuminating the small village. ‘Simon and I always used to win when we played as children.’ He gave her a teasing look. ‘Simon was better at it than me, if anything; in fact, he would have been a more successful businessman than me if he had chosen to go into that profession instead of teaching.’
‘He’s an excellent headmaster,’ Jade told him quietly.
‘Even better than he would have been a businessman,’ David nodded. ‘I’m sure he gets a lot more satisfaction out of it, too,’ he frowned.
She gave him a curious look. ‘You sound almost—disillusioned?’
‘Not really,’ he shrugged with a sigh. ‘I just—Sometimes I wish I could have done something that made me feel—more fulfilled. Useful, I suppose I mean.’
‘But the books you publish fulfil a lot of people’s lives,’ Jade protested.
‘So why not mine?’ he accepted. ‘I’ve been searching—’ He glanced at her. ‘But I really think that time is over for me now,’ he said with satisfaction.
She swallowed hard. ‘David—’
‘They’re really on their toes around here,’ he murmured, his attention briefly on the driving mirror to the side of his normal vision. ‘You’re either a very dangerous lot or they have a serious drink-driving problem in this area,’ he teased.
She blinked at him, disconcerted by the sudden change of subject. ‘Sorry?’
‘We have another police car behind us.’ He nodded in the direction of the blazing lights visible in his mirror. ‘They joined us a few minutes ago.’
Jade turned in her seat to look at the car, quickly swinging back again to lean weakly against the head-rest behind her. Twice in as many days—could it be a coincidence still? And if not, what could they want with her after all this time?
‘Uh-oh,’ David groaned, and Jade tensed anew. ‘They just turned off to follow another car; I hope the driver hasn’t even looked at alcohol!’
Thank God they had gone! This was ridiculous, she hadn’t felt this hounded in a very long time. And she wished she didn’t have to feel that way now.
And yet the incident had thrown her again; what had been quite a pleasant evening was now shrouded in uncertainty, leaving her restless and ill at ease.
Wellington got up from his place in front of the fading fire to leave the room with a disgusted flick of his tail as soon as they entered the cottage.
‘He’s annoyed because I’ve been out two evenings in a row and left him all alone,’ Jade murmured ruefully as the cat walked unhurriedly up the stairs.
David smiled. ‘I would be pretty annoyed myself in the same circumstances.’
‘Coffee?’ she prompted brittly; after all, it was what he had come in for!
‘Please,’ he nodded, not in the least perturbed by her sudden frost, already moving to build up the fire.
He had made himself quite considerably ‘at home’ in the cottage the last couple of days, Jade recognised moodily as she prepared the coffee, and it wasn’t a feeling she was comfortable with. In fact, she had been uncomfortable about one thing or another ever since she had first met David Kendrick!
She was even more disconcerted when she went back into the sitting-room to find the only illumination in the now cosily warm room was the glowing fire and the small coloured lights on the Christmas tree. And with the tray of coffee taking up both her hands, there wasn’t a thing she could immediately do to remedy the intimacy!
David seated himself beside her on the sofa, his smile so innocent it couldn’t possibly be sincere. ‘All right.’ He sat back defeatedly as she continued to look at him, her brows raised. ‘It’s not very subtle. But then, I didn’t think you were in the mood to appreciate subtlety.’ He grimaced. ‘I can see now that you aren’
t in the mood to appreciate the “bang on the head” approach either!’
He was so bluntly honest, had been from the beginning, and he looked so much like a little boy caught with his hand inside the ‘cookie jar’, that Jade couldn’t help but smile, the smile turning to a chuckle as he gave a cross-eyed look of self-derision.
They shared a warm smile as Jade poured out the coffee, their silence companionable as they sat drinking the hot brew in the quiet of the room, gazing at the beauty of the glittering Christmas tree.
‘You’ll have to help me a little and tell me what will induce you to come into my arms,’ David suddenly groaned. ‘Because I’m not sure how much longer I can wait to hold you!’
Jade turned to him sharply, frowning at the expression of pained longing in his eyes, feeling a sudden light-headedness as she swayed towards him.
It was the sign he had been waiting for, all the encouragement he needed; his arms were firm and warm about her, not imprisoning, but not about to release her either unless she demanded he do so. Which she didn’t.
Electrified satin… It hadn’t been her imagination this afternoon, nor indeed been blown out of proportion in her distress.
Electrified satin…
There could be no doubt about it, nor the fact that her reaction to his touch was just as volatile as it had been earlier. And just as insane. But this time she was unable to stop his kisses and caresses. Unable to deny David—or herself…
He felt so good to touch, the softness of the material of his shirt doing nothing to hide the hardness of his body beneath, her fingertips moving tentatively up his chest to his shoulders, clinging there as the smoothness of his lips moved to the fluttering column of her throat, his tongue probing moistly.
Oh, God, the sensation, the raw, burning sensation, unlike anything she had ever known before. Her throat arched as his lips moved in a downward path, pushing aside the high collar of her dress to probe the sensitive hollows beneath with moist pleasure.
Briefly, so very briefly, she tried to resist the questing hand that trailed lightly across the soft curve of her breasts, but it was only briefly and she groaned low in her throat as gentle fingers slowly parted the top three buttons of her dress.
That same hand burnt her flesh as his fingers rested above the soft curve of her breasts, not moving, just burning her with its warmth.
Their mouths fused, clinging damply together, moving together in erotic rhythm, Jade whimpering longingly with a need to know the full touch of that hand that still lay so hotly against her.
‘David,’ she gasped when their mouths parted. ‘Please!’ she voiced her need, moving impatiently against him. ‘Why don’t you—what are you waiting for?’ she groaned in half-pain as he still made no effort to touch her more intimately, her body throbbing with a need to know that touch.
He closed lids over darkened blue eyes, wincing as he opened them again. ‘Your cat to get his claws out of my thigh!’ he told her calmly.
Jade blinked up at him dazedly for several seconds, the full impact of what he had just said not hitting her. And even when it did she still looked up at him disbelievingly, glancing down at his legs to see that Wellington did indeed have his claws stuck in David’s flesh—and he didn’t look as if he intended removing them in the near future, either!
‘Good God!’ she gasped as she struggled to sit up. ‘Don’t move,’ she advised worriedly as she began the delicate operation of removing Wellington.
David’s mouth quirked in spite of the pain he was in. ‘I don’t intend to.’
As fast as Jade removed Wellington’s claws from David’s leg he put them back in again, seeming determined to maim the poor man.
‘And I thought earlier that he had taken to me!’ David winced as the claws dug into his flesh with renewed vigour. ‘He certainly knows how to put a dampener on the mood.’ He massaged his punctured flesh as Jade at last managed to release him and shoo the cat out of the room. ‘I suppose Wellington was just trying to tell me that he’ll let me so close and no further.’
A little as she had since the first moment they met! ‘I’m sorry.’ She shrugged uncomfortably, not knowing what else to say.
‘I’m not.’ David stood up to move away from her. ‘I told you earlier, I’m in no hurry, and that includes trying to seduce you in front of glowing fires—romantic as the idea seems,’ he added ruefully. ‘We have time, Jade,’ he told her seriously. ‘And I don’t intend rushing you one step of the way.’
When Jade found the footprints around the house and garage the next day in the fresh fall of snow, she wasn’t sure she was going to be able to stay in the area, to be hurried or not!
The snow had fallen during the night while she’d slept so restlessly, and when she got up at seven o’clock the next morning no one had called at the cottage, it was still too early even for the milkman to come, and yet a brief walk outside to clear the cobwebs from her tired brain had revealed those footprints in the pure carpet of snow that covered the ground.
The coincidence of the police car following them two nights in a row instantly came to mind, her panic renewed even though they had made no effort to approach her either time. They didn’t need to approach her, just to let her know they were there, and if she made a complaint no doubt they would have a ready excuse for being there; David’s belief that they were looking for Christmas revellers who had over-indulged would no doubt be as good as any. But she knew that wasn’t really the reason, just as well as the police did. Why had they started hounding her again after all this time; what more could they want from her that hadn’t already been taken?
As she heard the seven-thirty news on the radio, she finally knew the answer to that…
CHAPTER SIX
‘IT HAS now been disclosed by the police that three prisoners escaped while being transferred from one prison to another two days ago. Two of the men have since been recaptured, but a third man is still being hunted by police. No further details are available at this time.’
The announcement, slotted in so casually among other general news, was the sort of information most people would listen to and then dismiss, forget even, paying no further attention to such a trivial matter. What did it matter to the general public that one prisoner had managed to escape, a prisoner they didn’t even feel it necessary to be called by name?
But Jade wasn’t just any member of the general public, she knew the man’s name, was sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was Peter. And the police were watching her because they believed either that she would know where he was or that he might actually come here.
She wouldn’t take a single step to help him, she despised him with all the loathing that she was capable of! As for him searching her out, she had every reason to know he wouldn’t do that, either.
But the police had never believed her version of what had happened, had tried for weeks to get her to admit to something she had no knowledge of. Peter’s own testimony that she hadn’t been involved had done little to convince them, either. Not that she had wanted or welcomed his help anyway, she’d been so disgusted with him by then, hating him for using her to hurt others.
As he continued to hurt her. God, she had begun to actually hope last night, to imagine she might finally be able to put the past behind her, to make a new life for herself, possibly with David. But, even if that third prisoner didn’t turn out to be Peter, the incident had served as a reminder that the past was all she could ever have, that there could be no real future for her, with David or any other man.
Before David had left the evening before they had chuckled together about Wellington’s jealous behaviour, Jade accepting his invitation to spend the day with the family without hesitation. She had even been anticipating the day she would spend with him!
He was such a good man, made her feel so special because that was what he was and he seemed to care about her. Why, oh, why couldn’t she have even had just a few days’ happiness with him? It might have been enough—
&nbs
p; No, it wouldn’t, because she had it inside her to care very deeply for David Kendrick, already did care more than she should.
And it was over now, over before it had ever really begun.
She listened to the news bulletin on the radio every half-hour after that until ten o’clock, but nothing was added to that particular news item, and as she saw the Range Rover turn into the driveway she switched the radio off, no longer willing to listen so anxiously, certainly not for David to see that anxiety.
Sadness darkened her eyes as she caught sight of the Christmas tree glittering in the corner of the room on her way to open the door to him. The tree no longer glowed magically as it had yesterday, no longer represented putting the past behind her. That romantic glow had been ripped from her eyes to leave only stark reality; now it just looked like a slightly misshapen tree covered in lots of gaudy ornaments and over-bright lights.
‘Good morning, good morning,’ David greeted cheerfully, cupping her face in his hands to kiss her lightly on the lips. ‘Ten-fifteen on the dot,’ he announced with satisfaction as he strode forcefully inside the cottage. ‘I’ve been up and wanting to come over and see you since six o’clock, but resisted the impulse.’ He gave a self-derisive laugh. ‘The people that know me in London probably wouldn’t believe my self-control; I’m not known for my reserve there.’
She could imagine he wasn’t. He was a forceful, dynamic man who had forged an empire for himself by sheer self-will and determination. Probably those women, Christi and Dizzy, would have trouble believing his forbearance last night, too!
She couldn’t help the jealousy that shot through her at the thought of the role the other two women had in his life.
‘Dizzy and Christi would probably be amazed,’ she said brittly.
He chuckled. ‘I’m sure they would,’ he acknowledged, without apology for talking of the other two women in his life, his grin one of pure devilment. ‘They’re going to be even more surprised when I tell them I intend marrying you as soon as I can persuade you to have me!’
The Loving Gift Page 8