The Tempestuous Flame

by Carole Mortimer

  It soon became clear to her where their final destination was going to be. ‘We’re going to the cottage.’ It was a statement, not a question.

  ‘You’re very astute today, Caroline.’

  ‘And you’re your usual mocking self,’ she retorted crossly. ‘Why are we going to the cottage? And why are you masquerading as Mr Andrews?’

  ‘We aren’t there yet. I told you I wouldn’t answer any questions until then, that still stands. Now just be patient a little longer. I realise patience isn’t one of your virtues, but…’

  ‘Ooh, you’re so damned annoying!’

  ‘You already know my numerous faults, Caro—perhaps that’s as well in the circumstances.’

  ‘Circumstances?’ she echoed sharply.

  ‘You’ll have to wait for explanations.’

  She just glared at him furiously, knowing that in-flexibility of old—and knowing he would remain adamant. By the time they reached the cottage she was boilingly angry—angry with her father, angry with André, and most of all angry with herself for even allowing him to get her into his car. She should have flatly refused to go anywhere with him, and she would have done if he hadn’t been so domineering, so bossy, so—

  ‘We’ve arrived, Caroline,’ André interrupted her thoughts, getting out of the car and coming round to open her door for her.

  She got out woodenly, following him as he unlocked the door and led the way through to the lounge. Although almost nine o’clock in the evening it was still light outside, the summer nights staying light until well after ten o’clock.

  André looked about him appreciatively. ‘It hasn’t changed,’ he said with satisfaction.

  ‘Did you expect it to have done?’ she snapped.

  He shrugged, turning to look at her. ‘I couldn’t be sure, it’s almost six months since we were last here.’

  ‘And it doesn’t seem a day too long.’ She turned up her nose haughtily. ‘Now if you’ve finished this trip down memory lane, perhaps we could leave. I have to get a flight back to Barbados.’

  ‘You aren’t going anywhere.’ He watched her through narrowed eyes. ‘Not until we’ve spoken together like reasonable adults, which doesn’t seem to be all that easy between the two of us.’

  ‘I would say it was impossible!’

  He shook his head. ‘If only you didn’t keep losing your temper—’

  ‘Me lose my temper? You’re a fine one to talk! I seem to remember that on the last two occasions we’ve met it’s been you who’s lost their temper.’

  ‘With good reason,’ he returned abruptly.

  ‘Like hell it was! It was your damned arrogance.’

  ‘It appears to me,’ his voice was dangerously soft, ‘that you do altogether too much swearing and cursing. It isn’t at all ladylike.’

  Caroline turned away in disgust. ‘You’re beginning to sound like Daddy!’

  ‘That isn’t surprising, I probably feel like him at the moment. You need a good hiding, Caroline.’

  ‘So you keep telling me. So let’s have the reason for your alias this time, Mr Andrews.’

  ‘One of these days…’ he muttered. ‘God, you’re an antagonising little wretch at times.’ He ran a hand through his thick dark hair. ‘I used the name Andrews because your father and I thought you wouldn’t meet me if you knew who I actually was.’

  ‘You both thought right. So you want Daddy’s firm?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘So?’ she frowned. ‘You don’t need my approval for that, in fact you don’t need me here at all.’

  He took a step towards her. ‘Oh, but I do, Caro. I need you very much.’ His voice had lowered caressingly.

  She looked at him sharply, at last beginning to realise the reason behind this meeting. And the realisation brought pain to her heart. ‘God, I thought my father could be a cold-hearted swine at times, but you can be a bastard, a first-class bastard!’

  His green eyes narrowed to slits. ‘What are you talking about now?’

  ‘Have you decided to take the carrot my father has so temptingly been dangling in front of you? Why not? After all, you’re a business man, you know a good deal when you see one. Why bother to buy something that can be given to you if you just marry the spoilt little daughter?’ She was well into her tirade by now. ‘Well, there’s one little thing wrong with that plan—me. I’m not agreeable. Do you understand that?’

  The whiteness about his lips and his dark brows drawn together over glittering eyes were evidence of his own anger. ‘You really believe I would marry you just to get my hands on Matt’s company?’

  ‘Why not? Daddy’s old-fashioned about these things, nothing less than marriage would satisfy him. He would probably just hand you his company if you married me—he almost came up here with a shotgun and forced you to marry me the last time we were here together.’

  ‘I bought your father’s company two months ago,’ he stated calmly. ‘I also made your father a member of the board. And I paid the full price for it.’

  Caroline looked at him dazedly. ‘You—you did?’

  He nodded. ‘I did. Now do I merit an apology?’

  ‘I—I don’t know, I don’t know anything any more. Wh-what am I doing here? Why did you bring me here?’

  ‘I already told you that. I need you.’

  ‘But you have Daddy’s company, and the last time we spoke together you told me you didn’t want to see me again.’

  ‘You know the reason for that. You’re a Rayner, that takes some getting used to, especially after the things I’d accused you of being.’ He gave a grim smile. ‘I think I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that you’re Matt’s daughter.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘And I’ve been in contact with him pretty regularly over the last few months, organising the take-over and so forth. We’ve had some long interesting chats about you.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘Will you stop saying that! Your father tells me you’ve done a very creditable portrait of me.’ He watched her closely.

  ‘I had, but I destroyed it.’ In a fit of temper! She had finally finished the portrait only to destroy it. She had been so depressed of late and the likeness of him staring at her day in and day out had been just too much to bear. It now stood in shreds in the corner of her studio, possibly her best effort to date, and all she had left of André.

  He looked as if she had physically struck him. ‘Why?’ he asked dazedly.

  She shrugged. ‘I didn’t want it any more.’

  ‘I see.’

  ‘Do you?’ She hoped not; the last thing she wanted was for him to know she loved him. She didn’t want to give him something else to taunt her with.

  ‘I suppose so. You hate me—and I can’t say I blame you after some of the things I’ve accused you of. But I want you to know the reason I treated you as I did, the reason I’ve taunted and abused you until you can’t even bear to look at me. From the moment I first saw you I was deeply attracted. But I didn’t want to be,’ he added ruefully.

  ‘You thought I was the maid,’ she reminded him.

  ‘And I thought you the most beautiful maid I’d ever seen. I wanted you, let’s make no mistake about that. From the first I told you there was someone in my life, that someone was you. I wanted you very much. And then something happened that shook my world to it foundations.’ He paused as if finding it difficult to carry on.

  If Caroline didn’t know better she would have said the cool, always self-assured André, was uncertain of himself. But that couldn’t be possible, he was always confident, always sure. ‘What happened?’ she asked because it was expected of her, not because she cared to hear his answer.

  ‘I fell in love with you,’ he admitted simply.

  His words were so quietly spoken that she couldn’t be sure she had heard him correctly. ‘Wh-what did you say?’

  His eyes snapped with anger. ‘I think you heard me, Caro.’

  ‘But I—I don’t believe you!’ She tu
rned away so that he shouldn’t see the unshed tears shimmering in her eyes. ‘This is just another way of tormenting me. What are you hoping for, a declaration of love on my part so that you can throw it back in my face? Because you won’t get one, I can assure you of that!’

  His face was twisted with emotion. ‘God, you must really hate me if you can think that of me. But I don’t care. You’re attracted to me physically, and if that’s all I can have from you then I’m prepared to accept that. I love you, Caro,’ he said firmly, moving closer to her, the look in his eyes one of passionate intensity. ‘I desperately want to make you my wife.’

  ‘You want to marry me?’ she squeaked, still not quite believing what he was saying.

  He was so close now their bodies were touching. ‘Want to marry you!’ he groaned huskily. ‘I think I shall go mad if I don’t soon have you.’ He bent his dark head to slowly caress her neck with his fevered lips.

  ‘Surely you don’t need to marry me for that?’ She felt again that weakening of her limbs at his touch, felt his full arousal against her own body.

  ‘Nothing less than the rest of my life with you will satisfy me. And I want you to have my children, I want that very much. But I don’t want to talk any more, Caro, I just want to love you, to feel you close against me and your lips on mine.’

  His actions closely followed his words and after a momentary holding back she felt herself melt against him in total abandon, her lips parting to receive the full onslaught to her already heightened senses. She fitted against him as if she had belonged there all her life—and she felt as if she had, that any life without André wasn’t life at all but mere existence. Hadn’t the last few months proved that!

  He removed her jacket to move her back against the sofa, pushing her gently down into a prone position and quickly lying down beside her. His lips travelled passionately over her face, slowly down her throat, pushing aside the cream blouse to nuzzle against her bare breasts. His body was shaking in her arms.

  ‘Oh God, oh God!’ he groaned throatily, his skin moist with the effort it took him to control his longing to take her right now. ‘I love you so much, Caro. You can’t understand what that does to me. It makes me very vulnerable where you’re concerned, and it’s a vulnerability I’ve never welcomed into my life. But with you I find I don’t care. Whether a marriage can work with love only on one side I have no idea, but I mean to give it a damn good try if you’ll have me.’ Those green eyes that could be sarcastically mocking gazed down at her pleadingly.

  ‘André, I—’

  His eyes darkened. ‘Don’t turn me down, Caro. I don’t think I can take it. I’m completely at your mercy, and you could hurt me very badly. Please don’t do that, darling. If you have to let me down, do it lightly.’ Suddenly his face hardened, his skin almost grey in colour. ‘But I won’t let you go! If you turn me down I swear I’ll follow you everywhere you go until you take pity on me and give in. Believe that!’

  He really loved her! André, whom she had always believed to be above such things, was so much in love with her that his arrogant pride was no longer important to him. He wanted to marry her at any price, the least she could do was show him how much she loved him in return, that marriage wasn’t important to her as long as he loved her.

  Her eyes glowed as she looked up at him. ‘I’m yours, André. You can take me now if you want me. You don’t have to marry me, I’m all yours now.’

  His eyes searched her face with disbelief. ‘But you can’t just offer yourself to me like this. I want to marry you!’

  She smiled up at him in the darkness. ‘And I’m telling you that you don’t have to go to that extreme, that I’ll come to you willingly without tying you to me for life.’

  He shook his head. ‘I want to be with you for life. Loving you means wanting you with me always, sharing and giving, and all that marriage entails. I’m not stupid, I realise we’ll have a stormy time of it, we’re both too stubborn for it to be any other way. But it’s marriage or nothing,’ he stated adamantly.

  ‘Can’t it be both?’ she teased softly.

  His brows drew together. ‘Both?’

  ‘Marriage and making love to me now.’

  He shuddered in her arms, his hardened thighs pulsating against her. ‘Do you mean that?’

  Her gaze never flinched once under his intent look. ‘I mean it. Oh, André, I love you. I love you so much that the last six months have been absolute hell for me, tortuous frustrating months when just one smile from you would have made me die of happiness. You can’t imagine how I feel now, how much your love means to me.’ Her voice shook with emotion.

  It was as if a light had been lit behind those emerald eyes of his, and he heaved a tremulous sigh of exquisite relief. ‘You really love me?’ he asked uncertainly.

  Her answer was to reach up and pull his head down so that their lips met in searing pleasure, she taking the initiative and parting his lips to deepen the kiss. After his first initial reaction André took over, his hands cupping her breasts, caressing them to full burgeoning life. At last he drew away from her, resting his damp forehead on her own, his hands unsteady as he ran them through his hair already ruffled from her fevered caresses, moving back to take possession of her bare breasts.

  ‘Mine,’ he murmured at last. ‘All mine. We’re going back to London tomorrow to apply for a licence,’ he stated firmly. ‘And in four days we’ll be married.’

  ‘Married…’ she echoed glowingly.

  ‘Yes,’ he said, taking control in the old André manner, the manner she preferred him to adopt. ‘And then we’re returning here for a couple of weeks’ secluded honeymoon before flying over to see your father. And this time we’ll steer clear of the Wells farm. Do my plans meet with your approval?’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ she sighed happily.

  ‘In the meantime I’m not letting you out of my sight, day or night. I want you with me every hour of the day. When we’re married I’m never going away from you on business. If you happen to be unable to come with me, maybe producing one of the several children we shall undoubtedly have, then I’ll stay home with you. I’ve learnt during the last few months that life without you isn’t worth living.’ He looked down at her slender body. ‘How does it feel to know you hold my entire happiness in that delicious body of yours, in the love I never guessed you could ever feel towards me?’

  ‘Do you believe me now about not trying to trick you into marriage?’

  ‘I believe you. Matt put me right about a few things, including my slight on your morals. I realise I was just as much to blame for your deception as you were. I was an arrogant swine.’

  Caroline laughed gently. As if he would ever be any different! But it didn’t matter, she loved him, arrogance and all. ‘And I was being that snooty little girl you accused me of being. I was conceited enough to believe I should be the one to teach you a lesson. I was being arrogant too.’

  ‘Mm,’ again his lips travelled the length of her throat. ‘Marriage to you is definitely never going to be dull. It can’t begin soon enough for me.’

  ‘Or me.’ Long days and endless nights spent in André’s arms. She longed for the time.

  ‘But as far as I’m concerned my taking care of you begins right now.’ His eyes became mesmerised by her breasts. ‘Do you mind?’ his head lowered.

  She responded to his caressing lips, gasping her pleasure. ‘I don’t mind at all. Oh, André, André…’

  * * * * *

  Now, read on for a tantalizing excerpt of Sharon Kendrick’s next book,

  THE SHEIKH’S SECRET BABY

  Sheikh Zuhal is shocked to discover he has a son! To claim his child, he must get former lover Jazz down the palace aisle. And he’s not above using seduction to make her his wife!

  Read on for a glimpse of

  THE SHEIKH’S SECRET BABY

  CHAPTER ONE

  IT WAS THE LAST place he’d imagined her living.

  Zuhal frowned. Jasmine? Here? In a tiny cottage
in the middle of the English countryside, down a lane so narrow it had challenged the progress of his wide limousine? The woman who had loved the sparkle and buzz of the city, hiding herself away in some remote spot. There had to be some kind of mistake.

  His frown became a flickering smile of anticipation. Not that he had given a lot of thought to her accommodation. If ever he’d stopped to think about his lusciously proportioned ex-lover—something he tried not to do, for obvious reasons—then it had usually been a predictable flashback to her soft skin. Or the tempting pertness of her breasts. Or the way she used to rain kisses all over his face so that his heart used to punch with pleasure. His groin, too.

  He swallowed.

  And that, of course, was the reason for his unexpected appearance today. The reason he’d decided to drop in and surprise her.

  His throat dried. Why not? He liked sex and so did Jasmine. Of all his lovers, she had been the one who had really lit his fire. Sparks had flown between them from the start and it seemed a pity not to capitalise on that explosive chemistry with a little trip down memory lane. After all, it wasn’t as if either of them had entertained any unrealistic expectations. There had been no dreams to be shattered. They hadn’t asked for the impossible and had known exactly where the boundaries lay. They had conducted their affair like adults. What possible harm could it do to revisit the past and revel in a little uncomplicated bliss at a time in his life when he needed some light relief like never before?

  He felt the smile die on his lips as part of him questioned the sanity of revisiting the past—and a woman—like this. Because he never went back. If you reignited an old relationship, then a woman could almost be excused for thinking it meant more to you than it really did…and no relationship ever meant more than sex to Zuhal Al Haidar.

  And since Jazz was realistic enough to accept that, maybe this one time he could be excused for breaking one of his own rules, because destiny was leading him down an unwanted path—a path which had altered his whole future. Silently, he simultaneously cursed and mourned his foolish brother, but all the wishing in the world wasn’t going to bring him back, or rewrite the pages of history which had changed his own destiny. He wasn’t going to think about that. He was going to concentrate on Jasmine Jones and her soft body. To have her obliterate everything except desire and fulfilment. He was growing hard just thinking about it, because she was the sweetest lover he had ever known.