‘Sorry I’m a little late.’ He bent to kiss her fleetingly on the lips.
Brooke had become accustomed to these casual caresses by now, although they still excited her. ‘Is there anything wrong?’ She indicated the suit.
‘I have to leave almost immediately,’ he said with irritation. ‘Something turned up unexpectedly.’
‘Oh?’ She gave him a knowing look.
Jarrod looked at her sharply. ‘Don’t you believe me?’
She shrugged. ‘Why shouldn’t I?’
‘Because you don’t,’ he said with certainty. ‘And I don’t have the time to stay here and argue with you. An important business colleague arrived from the States this afternoon and I have to entertain him.’
‘Oh, I see, a night out with the boys, hmm?’
‘God, you can be so infuriating at times! But perhaps your attitude proves you can be jealous. A good sign,’ Jarrod added with satisfaction.
‘I wouldn’t count on it being jealousy,’ she told him coolly. Disappointment was a better word. Each evening she wondered if she would be strong enough to hold out against him, and yet now that he was leaving after only a few short minutes she was disappointed. ‘Elation might be a better word,’ she lied.
‘Elation, is it!’ he said grimly, pulling her effortlessly into his arms and forcing her lips apart with no sign of gentleness at all. He was bent on punishing her, and although she didn’t want to respond there was nothing she could do to stop herself.
By the time he had finished the onslaught she lay limp in his arms, her lips swollen and aroused, her eyes slightly glassy.
Jarrod drew back to look at her, passion blazing as he saw the desire in her face. ‘Damn Clive and his business dinner!’ he groaned throatily. ‘I’d much rather stay here with you.’ His lips moved along her neck. ‘Much rather,’ he repeated with agonising intensity.
‘But you can’t.’ It was almost a question.
‘No, I can’t.’ His eyes half-closed as he continued to look at her. ‘Oh God, I want you!’
Brooke wanted him too, but common sense was starting to return. He could just be trying to trick her into admitting defeat, as he had done in the past. And that was the one thing she wasn’t going to do, not if it meant becoming the wife of a man in love with another woman.
She looked pointedly at her wrist-watch. ‘It’s getting late, you’ll be late for your dinner engagement.’
He too looked at the time. ‘You’re right, I have to leave now. How the hell I’m supposed to think and talk of business when all I have on my mind is you is going to be quite interesting. I’ll probably babble about what a beautiful body you have in the middle of an important discussion,’ he said self-disgustedly.
Brooke pouted. ‘You don’t consider my body important?’
His eyes darkened. ‘At the moment I consider it the most important thing in the world,’ he admitted thickly.
‘But you’ll get over it,’ she taunted.
‘You think so?’ His mouth moved to caress her throat again. ‘I’m not so sure.’
‘You seem to get over it every other night, so why not tonight?’
He looked down at her, a mocking smile lighting his cynical features. ‘That rankles, doesn’t it?’
So she had fallen into his trap after all! She moved stiffly out of his restraining arms. ‘Why should it?’ she asked carelessly. ‘I believe men get over these little disappointments much easier than women.’
Jarrod’s snort of laughter showed his scorn for such a statement. ‘You’ve just proved to me that you know little or nothing about the mechanism of men. We don’t get over our disappointment at all. We may be able to dampen things down a little, but inevitably it flares up again. You don’t hear of many rape cases being carried out by women.’
‘But it does happen.’
‘Oh, sure,’ he grinned. ‘But even so I don’t believe it can be classed as rape. He may have been coerced into it in the beginning, but a man really has to be willing. I’m sure you know what I mean, you aren’t that innocent.’
‘I know what you mean,’ she answered, her cheeks fiery red.
He laughed. ‘I see you do.’
‘Shouldn’t you be leaving now?’ she said hastily.
‘Embarrassing you, am I?’ he mocked.
‘Not at all,’ Brooke said sharply. ‘But you did say you were in a hurry. I was just reminding you.’
‘After being aroused so much I don’t want to leave you at all,’ he said derisively. ‘God, you’re torture to be with!’
‘Then leave!’ She turned away from him.
‘I intend to—but I’ll be back tomorrow. We’ll go out to dinner and then on to a nightclub. Sunday we can spend the day together.’
‘You seem to take it for granted that you can organise my free time for me,’ she snapped resentfully.
He lifted her left hand, looking down at the ring he had put on her finger. ‘This gives me that right.’
Brooke snatched her hand away. ‘I’ve told you before, it gives you no rights at all. Please go.’ She pushed her hair back from her face. ‘Please, Jarrod,’ she implored him, before she broke down and begged him to stay.
‘I’m going—but not because I want to.’ He claimed one last kiss before moving swiftly to the door. ‘I should get an early night, we could be out quite late tomorrow evening.’
‘I’ll go to bed when I damn well please!’ She turned on him angrily.
‘I thought you might.’ He closed the door softly behind him.
Ooh, he was so infuriating, getting under her guard all the time! If only he weren’t so attractive—and so expert when it came to lovemaking. But so he should be, he had had plenty of experience—too damned much!
Once again he had left leaving her quite unsatisfied, aroused her and then left her flat. Oh, this time he had expressed disappointment at their parting too, but it didn’t ease the ache deep inside her or the restless feeling that would take hours to leave her.
When the doorbell rang again fifteen minutes later she thought Jarrod must have changed his mind and come back. Her face elated, she ran to the door. ‘Oh, Jarrod, I—’ She broke off as she saw who her visitor was. ‘Dave,’ she said weakly.
He looked a little hurt by her obvious disappointment at his identity. ‘I’m afraid so,’ he shrugged. ‘Perhaps I called at an inconvenient time. You’re obviously expecting Jarrod.’ He turned away.
‘Oh no, no, I’m not.’ She put out a hand to delay him. ‘Jarrod’s already been and gone. He has a business engagement this evening. I just thought—well, I thought he might have forgotten something.’ She could hardly say she had hoped he had come back to make love to her!
Dave looked slightly relieved. ‘So you aren’t expecting him back tonight?’
‘No.’ She opened the door further. ‘Would you like to come in?’
‘If you wouldn’t mind.’
‘No, I—I would be glad of the company. It’s strange really, but even with so many people living in London it can still be the loneliest place in the world. I suppose it’s because everyone has their own circle of friends and they rarely move out of that circle.’ Brooke was aware that she was babbling nervously, but she didn’t seem able to stop herself.
Dave looked about her sitting-room appreciatively. ‘Nice flat you have here. You should see mine,’ he grimaced. ‘It’s like a cupboard with a bed in.’
‘Oh, but surely—’
‘I know what you’re going to say,’ he interrupted. ‘But I don’t accept help from my family. Oh, they give me the usual boxes of food parents seem to think their children who have left home need, but that’s all. I simply wouldn’t fit in at the hospital if I were living in the lap of luxury while all my friends lived on the poverty line.’
‘And is that important to you?’
‘Fitting in?’ He shrugged. ‘I suppose so. Do you mind if I sit down?’
She blushed at her lack of manners. ‘Please do. I’m sorry I didn
’t think of it earlier. The surprise of seeing you, I suppose,’ she explained nervously. She sat down opposite him as he sat in one of the armchairs. ‘I wasn’t expecting anyone else tonight.’
‘No, it is rather late.’ He looked at his wrist-watch. ‘Nine-fifteen. Did Jarrod leave very long ago?’
‘He’s been gone about half an hour, I should think.’
Dave grinned. ‘It could have been rather embarrassing if he had been here. I know how suspicious my big brother can be,’ he added by way of explanation. ‘Lucky I picked a night when he had to be somewhere else.’
Brooke would have said fortunate, not lucky. Jarrod, in his possessive mood of late, would undoubtedly have suspected his brother’s motives. She wasn’t too sure of them herself, not after her birthday party when he had expressed such an interest in her himself. And she had to admit that he was very attractive.
‘Yes,’ was the only answer she gave to his statement.
Dave laughed. ‘Hey, don’t you start getting suspicious on me too! I’ve been meaning to come over and see you for weeks now. I would have been over earlier tonight, but I had to work late at the last minute. Perhaps it was as well I was later than I expected to be.’
‘Because of Jarrod?’
‘Mm. He’s been very clamlike and possessive about his relationship with you. I’ve tried to talk to him several times about you, but he always changes the subject.’
‘Probably because there’s nothing to tell,’ she evaded.
‘Oh, come on, you’re the interest of the year in his crowd. The girl to capture Jarrod Stone. That’s no mean task, let me tell you.’
‘I wouldn’t exactly say I’ve captured him,’ she denied quickly. ‘We’re engaged, yes. But an engagement doesn’t mean that much nowadays.’
Dave’s interest quickened. ‘Does that mean what I hope it means?’
Brooke’s blue eyes never flickered once. ‘What do you hope it means?’
‘That you and Jarrod are breaking up.’
‘I don’t think that’s the normal reaction of the brother of the engaged man. Or is it just that you don’t approve of me for Jarrod?’ She had sensed Dave’s reluctance about them ever since she had first been introduced to him.
‘For Jarrod, no—for me, yes.’
She gave an amazed laugh. ‘Dave!’ Humour wrestled with shock, and it was humour that finally won. ‘How can you say such things?’ she chuckled.
‘It’s the way I feel. The more I think about it the more I wish I’d met you first.’
‘You’re sure it’s not just a case of wanting something that belongs to your brother?’
His candid blue eyes narrowed. ‘And do you—belong to my brother, I mean?’
She blushed. ‘We’re engaged, so in a way I suppose I do.’ According to Jarrod she belonged to him completely. Her mouth tightened at the thought of him.
Dave didn’t miss that look. ‘You don’t exactly look ecstatic about that. And your engagement wasn’t what I meant and you know it. I wondered if anything had changed since you were at the house together.’
The subject was embarrassing to Brooke and she wished he wouldn’t pursue it. Things could have been very different for her and Jarrod by now if she had just verbally admitted how much she wanted and needed him instead of just physically capitulating. They could have been married by now and she wouldn’t have these constant partings from him. The more she thought about it the more she wondered at herself for holding out against him. Pride, that’s what it was, just pride. And pride was a poor bedfellow.
‘Well, we still haven’t decided on our wedding date if that’s what you mean,’ she deliberately misunder-stood him.
‘You’re being deliberately obtuse, you must have been taking lessons from Jarrod.’
She had been taking lessons from Jarrod, but not the sort Dave meant! ‘I’m not being obtuse, Dave. There are just some things that are too private to talk about.’
‘I see.’ He chewed his bottom lip thoughtfully. ‘And has Jarrod seen any more of the beautiful Mrs Howard?’
‘How would I know?’ she asked sharply. She had wondered the same thing herself, but as they had seen each other every night for the last two weeks she didn’t think he could have had much opportunity. But where there was a will there was a way …
‘I really like you, Brooke,’ Dave said gently. ‘And I wouldn’t like my big brother to hurt you in any way. If he’s being faithful to you it will be the first time he’s been faithful to any woman in his life.’
She gave a bitter smile. ‘That’s what I like, brotherly loyalty.’
Dave had the grace to flush a little. ‘All’s fair in love and war.’
‘I don’t think this could be called either of those things, not between the two of us anyway.’
‘But with Jarrod it’s different,’ he said resignedly. ‘If he feels that way about you why don’t the two of you get married and stop putting temptation in my way? Or could it be that Jarrod is still holding out on actually getting married?’
Brooke shook her head. ‘I’m sorry to disappoint you, Dave, but I’m the one holding out.’
‘You are?’ He didn’t attempt to hide his surprise.
She nodded. ‘Jarrod would get married tomorrow if I would agree to it. But marriage is the ultimate, and I want to be very sure before I make any definite agreement.’
‘So you aren’t sure?’ Dave persisted eagerly.
She couldn’t help laughing at his impetuosity, his complete lack of guile. She could imagine Jarrod had been very like Dave at this age, that once he had seen something he wanted he wouldn’t rest until he got it. Maturity had given him a more subtle approach. And he used it shamelessly.
‘I’m sure I love him, I’m just not sure a marriage between us would work.’ She stood up, a tiny figure in her denims and checked shirt, her reddish-brown hair tumbling in disorder down her slender back. ‘I’ll make us some coffee.’
‘Playing safe?’ He quirked a mocking eyebrow.
‘I am safe. Would you like some coffee? It’s only instant, I’m afraid.’
‘That will be fine. So you don’t consider me a threat to Jarrod at all?’ Dave looked disappointed, like a little boy denied a treat.
‘I’m afraid not,’ she told him gently. ‘But I could do with a friend.’
He looked sulky. ‘It wasn’t what I had in mind.’
She chuckled. ‘I’m sure it wasn’t.’ She went out into the kitchen.
She moved about the room with a familiarity that was habitual, preparing the tray with the coffee cups, humming to herself as she worked. She placed the tray on the coffee-table in front of Dave. ‘Would you like something to eat? I don’t suppose you’ve eaten if you came here straight from work.’
‘I had something at about four-thirty, but I could eat a sandwich if it’s not too much trouble.’ He took the coffee cup she handed him.
‘No trouble at all. Ham and tomato all right?’
‘Fine. But drink your coffee first.’
‘It won’t take me two minutes. Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer something a little more substantial? I have some steaks in the refrigerator. I could do you chips and peas with it,’ she added temptingly.
He licked his lips at the sound of the appetising meal, slowly shaking his head. ‘You live well. I can’t even afford mince, let alone steak.’
‘I bought the steak because I thought Jarrod was staying to dinner,’ she told him honestly. ‘As a matter of fact I haven’t had dinner myself yet.’
‘In that case get cooking.’ Dave smiled with relish. ‘I shall enjoy eating the food intended for Jarrod.’
She grinned. ‘I thought you might.’
She wasn’t a good cook, but she could peel potatoes and get the chips cooking and open a packet of frozen peas with the best of them. The steaks were even simpler to cook and within twenty minutes she had the steaming hot meal on the table.
Dave’s eyes lit up at the sight of the food and although
he professed to be only moderately hungry he despatched the meal with consummate ease. Brooke opened a tin of cream to go with the apple pie she had and he ate this with similar gusto.
He sat back with a sigh of satisfaction. ‘That was lovely. I could do with someone like you cooking for me full-time.’
‘There wasn’t much cooking involved. You could make yourself a meal like that if you wanted to. But I’m the same when I’m on my own, it just doesn’t seem worth cooking for one. And I don’t think, at this stage in your career, that a wife would be a good idea.’ Brooke began to clear away the debris from the meal.
He raised one dark eyebrow. ‘Who said anything about a wife?’
‘But I thought—Oh, I see what you mean.’ Her nose wrinkled up with disgust.
Dave chuckled at her expression. ‘I thought you would. No wonder Jarrod finds you fascinating, your naïveté is charming. This is the age of the permissive society, or didn’t you know that?’
‘Does that mean we all have to forget our morals and jump into bed with anyone we care to?’ she snapped, stung by his taunting tone. She marched out to the tiny kitchen and began to wash up noisily.
Dave had followed her out, shifting from one foot to the other as she continued to ignore him. ‘Hey, I didn’t mean to annoy you. It’s just that most of the kids I know indulge in casual affairs.’
Brooke determinedly didn’t look at him, handing him the cloth to dry the draining dishes. He had helped make them dirty so he could help with the work too. ‘Including you?’ she asked through stiff lips.
He was very red-faced. ‘Well, I—I—It’s expected of a man!’ he said defensively.
‘Oh yes!’ Brooke agreed scathingly. ‘Don’t say any more, I’ve heard it all before.’
‘Hey, look—where do you come off preaching to me?’ he asked nastily. ‘You might look prim enough, but I actually saw you in bed with my brother. The whole family knew about it.’
She stopped what she was doing to glare at him. ‘Jarrod explained to your mother exactly what had happened,’ she said fiercely.
Dave looked equally angry. ‘Oh yes, the nightmare you were supposed to have had. I doubt if it was true, you probably sleep with Jarrod all the time. It would be so easy to invent something like a nightmare to fool my parents.’
Engaged to Jarrod Stone Page 12