by Kim Lawrence
Kate had been rather touched by Susie's unexpected visit to her sick bed until she realised that her sister had come to make sure that she had managed to retrieve the negatives before she'd been taken ill. Susie had been extremely relieved when Kate had handed over the envelope.
Once her own problems were solved, an elated Susie had moved on to the next thing on her agenda-Javier Montero and how did well Kate know him anyhow?
It had been insultingly easy for Kate to convince her sister that her own supposed friendship with the fabled Javier Montero was a big misunderstanding.
`I knew it was,' Susie had revealed smugly. `I mean, no insult intended, Katie, but the likes of Javier Montero is hardly likely to date someone like you.' But not someone like me, her smug expression seemed to imply.
`True, but that's his loss,' Kate had replied grandly.
`That's right, Katie.' Susie patted her sister's shoulder in an encouraging manner. `I do so admire your positive attitude. Tell me,' she added casually, `is he seeing anyone at the moment?
'Positive attitude nothing! If 1 had that man for a couple of weeks I might be able to teach him a bit of humility,' Kate boasted ambitiously. `And that,' she declared, `would be doing womankind a big favour!'
`But, Kate, when I saw him he was charming!'
`If you were wearing that outfit, I'm not surprised!' Kate retorted; the idea of Javier slobbering over her nubile baby sister was particularly unappealing.
Susie laughed and slid her hands complacently over her slim, evenly tanned hips.
`Stay away from him, Susie!' Kate advised abruptly.
Susie glanced at her in astonishment.
`He'd eat you up and spit you out. He's a devious snake,' Kate had elaborated with so much vehemence that her sister had laughed nervously and remembered a previous engagement.
Just how she was going to explain away her comments when Susie discovered she'd married the snake she didn't know, but when she considered her other problems this one didn't rate priority treatment! No matter what spin you put on it, the bottom line was Javier had bought his bride, and she was it!
Despite her initial reluctance to keep her family in the dark, the encounter with Susie had made her think that Javier had a point when he had said that the fewer people that knew about this beforehand the better. There was certainly no way she was going to convince anyone who knew her that she was anything other than a very reluctant bride!
Javier gave her a veiled look. `You would have preferred the support of your family today...?'
Rebellion simmering not far below the surface flared up as she eyed him resentfully.
`Hardly!' she responded scornfully. `Marrying you is not an event I'd want anyone I know to witness; I've got a reputation as a rational human being to protect. Or did you mean it in a someone to hold while you're having a tooth pulled sort of way? Or maybe...'
The sound of his hissing exhalation brought her diatribe to an abrupt halt. She got the impression that he wanted to say quite a lot to her but he contented himself with, `I'm prepared to put up with your sarcasm up to a point.'
Despite his level tone Kate was left with the impression that dismissal was implicit in his cool manner. Kate, who had felt nervous and anxious when she'd got into the car felt her anger climb. She watched as he loosened a button of his exquisitely cut jacket before adjusting the driving mirror a fraction; it was obvious to her that he was a man to whom such minor details were important. He was also a man who she knew next to nothing about... So far, she'd kept her anxiety levels in check by not thinking too far ahead, but she wouldn't have that luxury soon, she'd be married!
Filled by pure panic, she launched immediately into a vitriolic attack.
`If you want people to believe this marriage is for real, you'll have to start talking to me as if I'm a human being, not a disobedient puppy being brought to heel...' Yes, mate, she thought as he turned his head, I can actually instigate a conversation without permission.
For a split second she thought he was going to explode, then a dangerous, contemplative expression slid across his grim features. She observed the transformation with deep foreboding.
`In what sense, real?'
Kate's head snapped back at this totally unexpected response. Heat flooded her face; the speculative gleam in his eyes made it impossible for her to mistake his meaning.
`Not that one!' she advised him darkly.
Aware his glance had wandered to her legs, neatly crossed at the ankle, she began smoothing down the skirt of her short cream shift dress, angry at herself for allowing him to discompose her so easily.
Her actions drew his gaze and inevitably his criticism the girl he married for real was in for a rough ride, she decided sourly.
`You are wearing that?' If he were to be her husband in the real sense, the idea of other men lustfully ogling those long, extremely shapely legs would have disturbed him.
Kate drew herself up huffily. She may have to marry him; she wasn't going to let him criticise her dress sense into the bargain! Even if the dress in question had returned from the dry cleaners a good two inches shorter than it went there... This discovery had almost reduced her to tears, but there had been no time to change.
`I had this boyfriend once,' she explained, as she fixed him with a dangerously narrowed gaze. `He thought I ought to wear winter colours, whatever they might be. He also wanted me to grow my hair and shorten my skirts... I have to tell you he lasted about five minutes, but I expect you've already learnt this from your in-depth dossier on my life and loves...' she observed sweetly.
`Your love life didn't take up much space, which surprises me for you are clearly a very sensual, passionate woman.' This frank observation was accompanied by a slow, sensual smile of the heart-stopping variety.
Kate felt her composure, already in pretty bad shape from sharing a confined space with him, shatter into a thousand fragments.
`Leave my love life out of this!'
`But you introduced the subject.'
`I wasn't introducing any subject; I was simply laying down a few ground rules,' Kate gritted.
`You, are laying down rules for me!' he responded with an air of startled incredulity.
Kate shrugged. `You can like it or lump it.'
His eyes narrowed. `I thought me not liking it was what this was about; you are determined to make the time we spend together as unpleasant as possible. Do you always feel the need to be in charge in a relationship?
'We don't have a relationship.'
`Not of the conventional kind,' he conceded. `Not of any kind.'
`We're going to be seeing quite a lot of one another, and life would be a lot more comfortable if rather than pick fights you tried to get along with me...'
`That's a big ask.'
`If you're nourishing some hope that I will find you so intolerable I will call off the wedding-don't. Incidentally, did the hospital receive the funds...?
'Yes.' His smooth question threw her off balance.
David Fenner, the clinical director, had been euphoric. `I don't know how to thank you,' he kept saying over and over. `Please tell the anonymous donor how much this means to us, Kate. It's a marvellous thing he's doing for us.' It was at that moment Kate had realised that she'd burnt her boats big time!
`They were grateful.'
`I don't want their gratitude.' She felt him studying her face and lifted her head. `I want you.'
Kate knew he didn't mean it that way, but all the same she felt the knot of sexual heat in her belly swell to bursting point. `I have that effect on men.'
Her quip didn't make him laugh the way it was meant to. If anything, the tension between them increased.
`I won't have you dictate what I wear,' she heard herself babble. `I'm sorry I don't meet your high standards...' Her glare moved disparagingly over his tastefully clad figure nothing to criticise there; everything about him shrieked good taste and money. `Though some people might consider your orthodox style a
bit on the well... on the insipid side,' she mused spitefully. `But then I suppose not everyone has an individuality to reflect...' Her spite suddenly ran out of steam as a giant wave of despondency hit her. `Oh, God!' she groaned. `I wish I'd just worn the pink shorts suit and been done with it.' That childish act of rebellion would have at least shown him how totally unsuitable she was for the role he wanted her to play.
`And I'm sure you'd have looked charming in it,' he responded grimly.
A sudden giggle welled in Kate's throat; the sound as it escaped made him stare at her in a startled fashion. `You wouldn't have said that if you'd seen me in it. My bottom looked like the size of a double-decker bus...' she elaborated.
A gleam of startled amusement appeared in his eyes. `You are very frank and rather severe on yourself. I didn't actually say that I didn't like your dress...' he reminded her, his eyes sliding of their own volition to her legs.
Kate viewed this blatant attempt to steer the conversation away from the thorny subject of her bottom with a sour smile. Of course, if he'd been a total hypocrite he could simply have said, It's a delicious bottom, just the right size, but Kate recognized this was not the most likely of scenarios!
`I couldn't care less!' she sniffed childishly.
`Then why are you making such an issue of it? The fact is I have no desire to act as some sort of fashion police. I was merely vexed that I hadn't taken into account the likelihood you would not have a suitable outfit with you. I know women care about such things as wedding outfits...'
`Your concern is touching, but quite unnecessary. You're confusing me with a real blushing bride again. I'm not going to be flicking through the wedding album all dewy-eyed and remembering how fantastic you looked in your wedding suit-at least one of us looks the part,' she inserted bitterly.
`My appearance seems to bother you.'
`Everything about you bothers me!' she countered with a frustrated groan. `Listen, there's no point acting as if this is a society wedding.' Kate was horrified to hear the wistful note in her voice...which, considering she had never lusted after a big wedding and all the frills in her life had no right to be there in the first place! It was too much to hope he hadn't detected it too?
`You are angry because I have cheated you out of your opportunity to float down the aisle in white on your father's arm.'
`I'm not bitter, and as far as I'm concerned the fewer things I have to remind me of today the better, so you see the fact that I can bin this dress is no bad thing.'
Javier was just about to deliver a biting response to this sneering retort when he saw a single tear slip down her cheek. As he watched she brushed it away with the back of her hand and blinked rapidly to prevent any more escaping.
`I expect Sarah will have something you can wear over your head. That will have to suffice.'
The mention of the other woman made Kate glance across at him; it was impossible to tell from his expression what he felt when he said her name, or even if he felt anything!
`My manner was a little terse when you arrived because I do not like to be kept waiting...' This conciliatory tack made Kate wary. `I think it's quite useful for you to know little details like this; it builds up a picture of familiarity... intimacy.'
`Intimacy... !' She laughed, her scorn more fierce because the mental link of intimacy and Javier stirred up an unsettling mess of confusing feelings deep in her stomach. `If you think I'm ever going to be able to act cosy with you, you're a deeply deluded man,' she observed pityingly.
'But you will try...' he replied, with a hint of steel in his voice.
'It was part of the agreement,' she conceded uneasily.
`Just so long as you don't forget it...'
`Don't you dare threaten or...'
`Or what...?' Javier immediately regretted that he'd allowed her to goad him into this taunt.
Kate felt her temper rise. They both knew the answer; she could do nothing. Flushing darkly she looked away.
`And while we're talking manners I think your own might need a little modification also...?' he suggested drily as he turned the ignition.
`What's wrong with my manner?
'You are petulant, confrontational and cranky,' he enumerated calmly.
`Well, that's one of those little details you should know about me. I'm always cranky when I'm being coerced into marrying a loathsome man I deeply despise. A man who will stoop to any depths in his pathetic pursuit of power and money-'
Javier's savage exclamation sliced through her furious diatribe. 'Madre mia,' he snarled, his air of faint indulgence vanishing as his patience snapped. `You will not speak to me in that manner.'
`Really! I thought it helped build up a picture of intimacy?' she returned innocently.
`Por Dios!' he breathed.
Kate felt the beginning of a guilty backlash to her nastiness as she watched him lean back in his seat. Pressing his head into the head rest, he closed his eyes and, with an expression of frustration on his face, dragged a hand through his dark hair.
She sighed as her sense of fair play kicked in hard... You'll probably regret this, she told herself as she cleared her throat. `I'm sorry.'
He looked up, startled, at the soft apology.
`I'm not being fair. I didn't have to agree to marry you ...it was my decision.' She sniffed and searched for a non-existent tissue. `Thank you,' she murmured as a freshly laundered handkerchief was pressed into her sweaty palm. `You dangled a carrot and I went for it...' So, as nice as it was to blame him for everything and absolve herself from all responsibility, it just wasn't on.
`I exploited your weakness.' An expression she didn't understand flickered into his iridescent eyes as they swept over her face. `If caring about other people is a weakness?' he added softly.
`You get something you want and I get something I want.' Quietly she outlined the bare bones of their contract. `You've kept your end of the bargain, I'll keep mine,' she promised with a stoic little grimace. `I just think you could have invested your money more wisely.' Just thinking about the sheer volume of money they were talking scared her; for that amount he could have employed an Oscar winning actress! `Nobody is going to believe you wanted to marry me.'
`That is because...?
'I'm not exactly a supermodel...'
`Is this any supermodel in particular or...?'
Kate bristled at his smooth sarcastic tone. `You know what I mean.'
`I do indeed,' he replied, fingering the leather steering wheel.
Kate eyed his steel-reinforced jaw with some misgivings; it seemed even when she went out of the way to avoid conflict she still managed to aggravate him.
`I have to tell you again that I don't consider the British habit of self-deprecation an attractive one... Neither do I care for someone assuming to know what I find attractive in a woman.'
This was too much for Kate, who laughed in disbelief ...he was different from other men, but she refused to believe he was that different.
`It's not exactly a big assumption. I'd say that ninety-nine point nine per cent of men in the world fantasise about women like that. The only difference between you and them ' other than a perfect masculine physique, a strikingly handsome face made to haunt a girl's dreams, and an indecent quantity of rampant sex appeal `-is you're in a position to do something about it,' she finished breathlessly-her unwise contemplation of what he had going for him had played havoc with her breathing.
Her wariness increased as Javier absorbed her words in brooding silence.
'My money, you mean.'
`Well, that too,' she conceded dismissively. She was sure that even had he been dirt-poor Javier would never have lacked female attention. 'But it was thinking more about your...' Kate stopped, aghast at what she'd been about to say. You couldn't go around telling men they were incredibly beautiful.
`My...?' he prompted attentively as her cheeks grew pink.
Kate gave a sigh of defeat. `Well, it's not as if you'
re exactly bad to look at, are you`?' she observed crossly. `And don't act as if you didn't know.'
`I'm flattered, Kate...'
His blue-eyed mockery was just too much.
`No you're not, you're...' Javier watched as she valiantly struggled to bite back a scathing retort. `I'm trying,' she gritted. `I'm really trying, but it's really hard to be pleasant to you. I was just attempting...I know you're rich, but even for you we're not talking small change here. I'm just worried I'm not going to be good value for money,' Kate observed before she subsided into red-cheeked silence.
`Actually, I consider you excellent value for money,' he revealed in a tone that made his exact meaning hard to define. `And leave me to worry about my money. I'm considered by some to be quite astute, financially speaking. Incidentally, though I appreciate your restraint, Kate, on the whole I think I prefer your acid retorts to the wooden dummy look.'
She was so relieved to be given the green light to speak her mind that she was prepared to overlook this unflattering comparison.
`Don't you think it's possible that the thought of losing your inheritance has affected your judgment...?' she began tentatively.
Maybe she was right, though not in the way she thought. Perhaps wanting to make his grandfather happy had blinded him to the inherent flaws in his scheme? He was certainly acting more on instinct than objectivity, but that didn't bother him too much. Javier believed strongly in following his gut instincts.
`Even if that were so, I'd hardly admit it, would I? 'You wouldn't...?
'Are you forgetting you're talking to an arrogant, conceited Spanish male? We are never wrong,' he explained with an ironic glint in his eyes. `If you remember that in future, we'll deal very well together.'
This particular Spanish male was disturbingly attractive when he revealed that under his macho exterior there lurked an unexpectedly dry sense of humour.
`Thanks for the tip,' she responded in a similarly ironic vein. `Any more on offer?
'Well, treating my every pronouncement as though it is a pearl of wisdom would probably not come amiss,' he admitted gravely. `And laugh at my jokes.'