The scowl he gave Dave was evidence of his displeasure, and Dave wasn’t insensitive to his mood. ‘Did I arrive at the wrong time again?’ he asked innocently.
‘Completely the wrong time.’ Jarrod brushed past him on his way back to the house, anger in every line of his rigidly held body.
Dave shrugged helplessly at Brooke as his brother marched off. ‘I’m sorry.’
She brushed the grass from her trousers to cover her embarrassment. ‘That’s all right.’ She made to follow Jarrod, but Dave’s hand on her arm stopped her.
I really mean it, Brooke. I didn’t mean to interrupt.’ He looked as embarrassed as she did.
‘You didn’t interrupt anything.’ On top of her embarrassment she had the hurt that Jarrod could walk away and leave her like this.
Dave followed her gaze as she watched Jarrod’s fast disappearing figure. ‘I shouldn’t worry about Jarrod, if he hadn’t left when he did he would probably have hit me. I’ve seen him mad in the past, but never that mad,’ he whistled between his teeth.
Brooke tried her hardest to regain her composure. ‘You’ll have to blame me for that. I had rather a silly argument with him.’
He nodded. ‘And I came along and interrupted you making-up your argument.’
‘Not really, you just came along at the wrong time and said the wrong thing.’ She gave a light laugh. ‘I suppose I’m just feeling particularly sensitive at the moment.’
‘They tell me it isn’t easy being engaged.’
‘After two days?’ she teased.
‘Well, Jarrod’s a pretty arrogant man and very overpowering. Considering the way he rushed to protect, your name with my mother this morning I would say you aren’t sleeping together yet. That can make things rather tense.’
Brooke’s eyes widened at his forthright attitude. ‘I—’
‘I’m too honest for you, hmm?’ Dave guessed the reason for her hesitation.
‘Blunt, I would say,’ she agreed huskily.
‘But right,’ he grinned. ‘Jarrod’s really strung up about you.’
‘I don’t think—’
‘Oh, but he is.’ Dave fell into step beside her as she began to make her way across the grounds. ‘I guess you’re the type of girl men marry, and Jarrod isn’t used to waiting. Besides, he isn’t getting any younger.’
She burst out laughing. ‘I don’t think he would thank you for saying that!’
‘Neither do I,’ he chuckled. ‘But Mum’s over the moon about the wedding. She’d just about given up on Jarrod, we all had. He never seemed to have the same girl-friend longer than a few weeks, and he never brought any of them home.’
‘Perhaps they weren’t the sort of girl he could bring home.’
‘You could be right, in fact you probably are. Are you coming into the ‘house now? I promise not to say anything too outrageous for the rest of the day.’
Brooke couldn’t help smiling at the ‘little boy look’ on his face. ‘I think I’ll go for a walk, get myself an appetite for lunch.’
‘Okay.’ He gave a friendly salute before leaving her.
Brooke wandered around the well-kept grounds for well over an hour. It was a beautiful estate, really well cared for. It must take an army of gardeners to care for a place this size, and even more staff to run the house itself.
It made her all the more aware of the difference in background between Jarrod and herself. He had been brought up in the lap of luxury, surrounded by his family who loved him, whereas she had been brought up by an aunt who hated her, and who begrudged every penny she had to spend on her.
She would never fit into this sort of background, so perhaps it was as well that their engagement wasn’t a real one. She could cope with a weekend, but anything else would be out of the question. But there never would be anything else; this engagement would end as soon as she could make it possible.
Lunch was a pleasant family affair, but Brooke fell in readily with Jarrod’s suggestion that they leave mid-afternoon. His family protested strongly, but he was adamant, managing their departure with consummate ease.
‘You’d had enough, hadn’t you?’ he remarked as they drove out of the driveway.
She sighed. ‘Was it that obvious?’
‘Only to me.’ His narrowed eyes remained on the road.
‘You didn’t have to leave because of me,’ she said stiffly. ‘I was fine.’
‘You were getting jumpy. You could have said something that would have landed us in a lot of trouble.’
‘I see. I’m sorry,’ she said shortly, angry with him and herself, angry with him because he was right and angry with herself for letting him get under her skin in this way. But she couldn’t forget what had happened between them this morning, most of all, she didn’t want to forget.
Jarrod had been very cool towards her when they had met again, treating her to a strained politeness solely for the benefit of his family. But his attitude had only made her more tense. He was right, of course, if they hadn’t left when they had she would have exploded, with repercussions on both of them.
‘No need to apologise,’ he told her abruptly. ‘I realise I’m to blame for your tension. But God damn it!’ he swore savagely. ‘You didn’t resist me, you invited me even.’
Brooke was taken aback by this attack on her. ‘There’s nothing wrong with letting a man kiss you,’ she answered hotly. ‘You may consider me young, but I’m not that inexperienced.’
‘I think you already proved that,’ he said dryly.
‘What do you mean?’ she frowned.
He gave a harsh laugh. ‘You know all the right moves, don’t you, all the little tricks to turn a man on.’
She gasped, angered and hurt by what he was saying to her. She might have made all the right moves, but only with Jarrod had she ever come sensually alive, liking him to touch her and to touch him in return. But he was making it sound something it wasn’t, making her sound something she wasn’t and never could be.
‘It would appear so,’ she said chillingly. ‘If I could manage to turn you on. With all your experience with women that can’t be too easy.’
‘Right,’ he agreed grimly, obviously not liking what she said.
‘If you can’t take it don’t dish it out,’ she returned swiftly.
‘Oh, I can take it, but from you I don’t intend to take anything, not your body or your sarcasm.’
‘The first you won’t get a chance at and the second you shouldn’t evoke.’
‘I’ll try to remember that,’ he said coldly. ‘You would do well to do the same.’
‘Oh, go to hell!’
The silence during the rest of the journey was very oppressive and Brooke for one was glad when he stopped the car outside her flat. She hesitated. ‘Would you—would you like to come in for coffee?’ she invited, more out of politeness than a genuine wish for his company.
‘No, thanks,’ he replied curtly, getting her case out of the back of the car before opening her car door for her to get out.
‘It’s early yet.’
‘Goodnight, Brooke,’ he said firmly. ‘I’ll call you tomorrow.’ His grey eyes raked over her with chilling intensity. ‘I have a dinner appointment this evening,’ he added coldly.
Brooke’s eyes sharpened. ‘With Selina Howard?’
His smile was cruel. ‘Who else?’
CHAPTER FIVE
‘YOU’RE very quiet today,’ Jean said softly.
Brooke forced herself to take an interest in what Jean was saying. ‘Sorry?’
‘I said you’re very quiet. You’ve been like this all day, and yesterday too. Is there anything wrong?’
Anything wrong! She hadn’t heard from Jarrod since their parting on Sunday evening—that was what was wrong. He had said he would call her, but she knew for a fact that he had flown to Paris for the day yesterday. But he had no excuse for today. And he was definitely upstairs in his office.
‘Brooke?’ Jean prompted.
She gave a vague
smile. ‘Sorry. No, there’s nothing wrong.’
‘Sure?’
‘Yes.’
‘I didn’t know if perhaps something had happened over the weekend. It must have been quite nerve-racking to meet Mr Stone’s family. I would have been terrified myself.’
‘They were all very nice,’ Brooke said dully. Why hadn’t Jarrod called her? It was her birthday today and he hadn’t even remembered. He could remember it for the benefit of his family, but he hadn’t even had the courtesy to send her a card.
‘You don’t sound very enthusiastic.’
‘They really were,’ Brooke insisted. ‘Although as you say, I was a bit nervous. But they did make me very welcome.’
Jean sighed as her telephone exchange began to buzz again, but it left Brooke to sink into the misery of her thoughts. In just two days Jarrod had worked his way into her heart, become the most important person in her life. And she felt lost without any contact from him, with no word from him at all.
He had already been up in his office when she had arrived at a quarter to nine this morning and he hadn’t yet come down for lunch. She was hesitating about going to lunch herself in the hope that she might see him.
By the time two-thirty came round she had come to the conclusion that he wasn’t leaving for lunch and by this time she really had no enthusiasm for eating herself. It was as if Jarrod was deliberately avoiding her. But that couldn’t be so, he didn’t consider her important enough to go to that extreme.
She wandered home alone at five-thirty, still unable to find any appetite when she saw the makings of the chicken salad she had left in the refrigerator for her dinner. It was miserable having to spend her birthday alone, although she knew it didn’t have to be that way, one of her friends would have come out with her. But tonight she wasn’t fit company for anyone. Oh, damn Jarrod, damn and blast him!
She moped about the flat for half an hour or more, picking things up before putting them down disinterestedly again. Her twenty-first birthday, and she was spending it alone. Not even her friends at work had remembered.
Finally, through boredom, she washed and curled her hair. That wasted at least an hour for her. Oh, she was so bored! Only seven-thirty and already she had no way left to fill her evening.
The ringing of the doorbell seemed a welcome interruption to her loneliness and she rushed to answer the door before whoever it was went away again. But apparently they had no such intention: the doorbell rang again as she reached for the door-handle.
She wrenched it open, staring open-mouthed at Jarrod as he stood on her doorstep. ‘Jarrod!’ she murmured wonderingly, completely overwhelmed by how handsome he looked.
He looked devastatingly attractive, the wine-coloured velvet jacket fitting smoothly across his shoulders, the black trousers moulded to his firm muscular thighs, and the velvet bow-tie matched the colour of his jacket perfectly and emphasised the snowy whiteness of the silk shirt he wore.
Brooke’s breath had caught and held in her throat at the sight of him, and even though she felt slightly ridiculous standing there unable to say anything she just couldn’t force a word past her lips. It was the complete unexpectedness of his appearance here that had unnerved her the most.
Jarrod quirked a mocking eyebrow. ‘Are you going to keep me standing here all evening, or do you think I might possibly come inside?’
‘Oh—oh, sorry,’ she blushingly opened the door. ‘Come in, by all means.’
He strolled into her cheaply furnished but clean lounge and Brooke followed him, feeling much too casually dressed in her denims and vest-top against his sophisticated elegance. She watched as he sat down on the sofa, placing a huge white box down next to him. The box looked familiar and she remembered he had given her one like it before.
She twisted her hands together nervously. ‘Why are you here?’ she asked bluntly, curiosity getting the better of good manners.
‘I am your fiancé,’ he pointed out.
‘That hasn’t seemed to bother you for the last two days,’ she said bitchily.
‘Are you angry about something?’ He watched her through narrowed eyes.
‘Angry?’ Brooke repeated sharply. ‘What do I have to be angry about? What right do I have to be angry about anything?’
‘You tell me,’ he said mildly—too mildly.
‘You said you would call me,’ she reminded accusingly.
‘And now I’m here instead.’
‘Two days later.’
His mouth tightened. ‘I was out of the country yesterday.’
‘I know that.’
‘Then you also know the reason I didn’t call you. Use your common sense, Brooke—I was away on business, I didn’t have time to make personal calls.’
‘Not to me anyway,’ she muttered. ‘I’m sure some of your other—acquaintances didn’t merit the same casualness.’ She didn’t need to mention Selina Howard’s name, he would know very well who she meant.
Jarrod looked impatient. ‘What’s the matter with you?’ he demanded. ‘I’m sure the fact that I haven’t called you hasn’t been enough to put you in this mood. You couldn’t give a damn about me and you know it.’
‘I care about the fact that I look pretty stupid when I can’t even say when I’m seeing you again. You’re the owner of Stone Computers, and as you can imagine we gained quite a lot of attention by getting engaged. I’m asked questions about you all day and I simply have no answers.’
‘It’s none of their damned business anyway,’ he declared arrogantly. ‘I don’t care to have my personal affairs discussed with them.’
Brooke gave a harsh laugh. ‘Then maybe you shouldn’t cause so much gossip.’
His eyes snapped angrily, icily grey in colour. ‘May I remind you that you started this charade, not I, and consequently caused the gossip!’
‘But I didn’t start the rumours about you and Mrs Howard, your so-called friends did that.’ She allowed her hurt and disappointment to come out, hurt and disappointment that no one had remembered her birthday. But then that wasn’t Jarrod’s fault, he had no reason to remember it.
‘I didn’t come here to argue with you,’ he said reasonably. ‘But I think you would be well advised not to listen to rumours. They so often turn out to have no foundation.’
She gave him a scathing look. ‘Are you trying to say your friends were wrong?’
‘I’m sure the two women you heard talking weren’t friends of mine.’
‘But they would like to be,’ she scorned.
Jarrod stood up forcefully. ‘For God’s sake what’s the matter with you? I came over here to—’
‘Yes?’ she cut in rudely. ‘Just why did you come here? Dressed like that I would assume you’re going on somewhere.’
He nodded. ‘You would assume correct.’
Brooke turned away. ‘Don’t let me keep you,’ she said stiffly.
‘Oh hell!’ He ran an agitated hand through his thick dark hair. ‘You are keeping me—I came here to take you out.’
‘Why?’ she asked suspiciously.
‘Does there have to be a reason?’
‘Oh yes, there has to be a reason. Who do you want to parade me in front of this time?’
He sighed heavily, picking up the box he had brought with him and handing it to her. ‘Put this on and I’ll show you.’
Brooke looked down at the box as if he had physically struck her with it, knowing it had to be some form of clothing in a box of that name. ‘What is it?’
He pushed it towards her. ‘Open it and see,’ he encouraged.
Like most people Brooke had a natural curiosity and she reluctantly took the box, ripping off the lid to sort through the tissue-paper inside. Nestling amongst the paper was a silky gown, dazzlingly white in colour. She pulled it out with shaking hands and held it against her.
It was a beautiful gown, Grecian in style, and Brooke loved it on sight. She looked at Jarrod over its silky folds. ‘For me?’ she breathed softly.
; He gave a soft throaty chuckle. ‘Well, it isn’t for me.’
She blushed. ‘I know that, but I— Why is it for me?’ She was still hoping he had remembered her birthday.
‘Just put it on and then we’ll go out.’
‘But I—’
‘Brooke!’ he said warningly. ‘Go and change.’
She hurried quickly to her room, anxious to do as he said. She rushed into the bathroom, washing quickly before applying a light make-up. Thank goodness she had washed her hair earlier and the red lights were very pronounced.
The dress fitted her perfectly and she could only wonder at Jarrod’s correct assessment of her size. That certainly hadn’t been in her file! The gown had a plunging neckline, making it impossible for her to wear a bra, and she felt slightly self-conscious as she saw how her breasts were emphasised under the thin material.
She felt even more so a few minutes later as Jarrod’s grey eyes roamed freely over her body, lingering slightly on her firm uptilted breasts. She looked back at him below lowered lashes, longing for his approval.
‘Do you like the, dress?’ He watched her closely.
She smiled shyly. ‘Do you?’
His eyes darkened. ‘You look beautiful in it.’
‘Thank you. You have excellent taste. I would never have bought a dress in this style for myself.’
‘That’s a shame, because you have the perfect figure for it.’ He looked at his wrist-watch. ‘We have to go now, Brooke.’
She collected the velvet wrap he had given her the last time they had gone out for the evening. ‘I—’ she hesitated. ‘I don’t like you to keep buying me things.’
‘If you look good in them what does it matter who bought them?’ He took the familiar flat jewellery case out of his pocket. ‘I want you to wear these too.’ He held out the necklace and earrings she had insisted he keep.
Brooke attached the earrings, bending forward as Jarrod fixed the clasp of her necklace. She liked the feel of his firm sure fingers against her skin and the memory of the way he kissed’ her on Sunday came all too vividly into her mind.
She moved away from him jerkily. ‘We must be going somewhere important if you want me to wear all this finery. I would look decidedly out of place in a restaurant or somewhere equally casual.’
Engaged to Jarrod Stone Page 8