by Penny Jordan
Ultimately the police had agreed, that since Jeremy was prepared to drop his accusation, there was no real case against her and she did not need to return to the station.
He had, Leo recognised, barely an hour left to go before he was due to talk with the factory’s workforce, and there was still that vitally important and delicate issue he needed to discuss with Jodi!
Showered and dressed, Jodi hesitated at the top of staircase. Although she had pretended to be asleep, she had been fully aware of Leo getting out of bed and leaving her.
How was it possible for a supposedly intelligent woman to make the same mistake twice?
As anxious as she was about what might lie ahead of her when she returned to the police station, she was even more concerned about her feelings for Leo. Her feelings? When was she going to have the courage to give them their proper name?
Her love!
A tiny sound somewhere between a denial and a moan bubbled in her throat. If only last night hadn’t been so…so perfect. So everything she had ever wanted the intimacy she shared with the man she loved to be. If only Leo had been different, if only he had done something, anything, that had made her want to distance herself from him.
As she started to make her way down the stairs Leo suddenly appeared in the hallway, standing watching her, making her feel breathless and shaky, weak with the sheer power of her love for him.
‘I’ve just finished speaking with the police,’ Leo began.
‘Yes, I haven’t forgotten that I’ve got to go back,’ Jodi informed him quickly. Somehow she managed to force herself to give him a tight proud look, which she hoped would tell him that she was completely unfazed by the prospect. ‘I’m not sure just what the formalities will be.’ Her voice startled to wobble slightly, despite her efforts to control it. ‘Presumably I shall have to contact a lawyer.’
‘There wouldn’t be any point in you doing that,’ Leo began to inform her, and then stopped as he saw the look of white-faced anxiety she was trying so valiantly to conceal from him. ‘Jodi. It’s all right,’ he told her urgently. ‘I—that is, the police have decided that there’s no need for you to go back.’
Leo wasn’t entirely sure why he had decided not to tell Jodi of the role he had played in that decision; it just seemed like the right choice to make.
‘I don’t have to go back?’
It wasn’t just her voice that was trembling now, Leo recognised as he watched the relief shake her body. The urge to go to her and wrap her in his arms whilst he told her that he would never allow anything to hurt or frighten her ever again was so powerful that he had taken several steps towards her before he managed to pull himself back.
Jodi was convinced she must have misunderstood what Leo was telling her.
‘You mean I don’t have to go right now, today?’ she questioned him uncertainly.
‘I mean you don’t have to go back ever,’ Leo corrected her. Adding in a softly liquid voice, ‘It’s over, Jodi. There isn’t anything for you to worry about.’
‘But what about Jeremy Driscoll?’ Jodi protested.
‘Apparently he’s changed his mind,’ Leo told her carelessly, turning away from her as he did so.
There was no way he wanted Jodi to feel that she was under any kind of obligation to him for speaking to Jeremy.
He was still aware that last night he had to some extent coerced her into making love with him, at least emotionally. And when the time came for him to tell her how he felt about her he didn’t want her to feel pressured in any way at all.
He had a right, he believed, to explain how he felt now and how his own fight against his feelings had led, in part, to his original misjudgement of her. But he was not going to use any kind of emotional blackmail to compel Jodi into saying she felt the same.
When it came to whether or not they had created a new life together; well, that was a very different matter. Leo would use any means possible to make sure he would be a presence in that child’s life.
‘Look, Jodi, I have to go out shortly,’ he told her. ‘But before I do, there’s something we have to discuss.’
Jodi felt her stomach lurch, a cold feeling of dread swilling through her veins.
She knew what was coming, of course; what he was going to say to her…
‘Last night was a mistake. I’m sorry. But I hope you understand…’
Mentally she steeled herself for the blow she knew was about to fall.
‘Let’s go into the kitchen,’ Leo began unexpectedly. ‘I’ve made some coffee, and you must be hungry.’
Hungry!
‘I thought you were in a rush to go out,’ Jodi tried to protest as Leo ushered her towards the kitchen.
‘I’ve got an appointment I have to keep,’ Leo agreed, ‘but I can talk whilst you eat.’
Eat! Jodi knew there was no way she could do that, but still she allowed Leo to fill her a bowl of cereal, and pour them both a mug of coffee before he began quietly, ‘The first time we met I made a grave misjudgement, not just of the situation, Jodi, but of you as well.’
Leo paused, as though he was searching for the right words, and Jodi began to stiffen defensively.
‘I’m concerned, Jodi, that because of the…the circumstances surrounding the intimacy we’ve shared we may both be guilty of having neglected to—er—think through the consequences of our actions and do something to ensure…’ Leo stopped and shook his head.
‘Look, what I’m trying to say, Jodi, is that if there’s any chance that you might be pregnant…well, then something will have to be arranged. I wouldn’t want you to…’
Pregnant. Jodi’s heart bumped and thudded against her ribcage as she stared at Leo in mute shock. ‘Something will have to be arranged…’ She tried to absorb the meaning of his words. Did he think for one minute that if she was carrying his child she would allow that precious new life to be ‘arranged’ away? She would never agree to anything like that. Never!
Her blood ran cold. She had been expecting him to tell her that last night had been a mistake, an impulse he now regretted, a mere sexual encounter which she wasn’t to take seriously nor read anything meaningful into. But to know that he had already thought as far ahead as wanting to dispose of any possible consequences of their intimacy hurt her more than she felt able to cope with and, at the same time, made her more angry than anything else he had either said or done.
What was it he was really worried about? Fathering a child he didn’t want, or having her make any kind of financial or emotional claims on him on behalf of that child? What sort of a woman did he think she was?
Before she could even think about what she was saying she told him quickly and sharply, ‘There is no chance of me being…of anything like that.’
Her heart was still thumping as she spoke, but her reactions were instinctive and immediate. How could she possibly continue to love him after this?
Jodi sounded so coldly positive that Leo started to frown. Had he been wrong to presume that just because she wasn’t experienced that meant that she was unprotected from the risk of pregnancy?
Before he could stop himself Leo heard himself insisting fiercely, ‘But that night in my suite was your first time, and—’
‘How could you possibly know that?’ she demanded, oblivious in her anger of the fact that she herself had just confirmed his gut feelings. Without waiting for him to answer her she continued emotionally, ‘Well, just because I happened to be…because you were my first…’ she amended hurriedly, ‘that does not mean that I am going to get pregnant!’
As she spoke Jodi was getting up from the table and storming out of the kitchen, telling Leo acidly as she did so, ‘I’m going to get my things and then I’m going home right now. And I never want to see you again! From the moment you arrived in Frampton you’ve caused misery and made life impossible for everyone. And just let me tell you that there’s absolutely no way I would ever want to inflict on my child the burden of having you for a father.’
; ‘Are you sure you’ll be all right?’
Jodi glowered at Leo as he reached out to open the passenger door of his car. It had been galling in the extreme after her outburst to be forced to accept his offer of a lift home.
‘Well, I shall certainly be far better here in my own home than I was last night in yours, won’t I?’ she demanded with pointed iciness as Leo insisted on carrying her bag to her front door for her and waiting to see her safely inside.
As she gave in to the unwanted temptation to watch him drive away Jodi felt sick with fear for her future, and anger against herself.
She was surely too adult, too mature for this kind of emotional folly!
As he drove away from Jodi’s cottage Leo discovered that he was actually grinding his teeth. The last thing he felt like doing right now was sitting down at the negotiating table. The only thing he wanted to do was to take hold of Jodi Marsh and tell her in no uncertain terms just how he felt about her, and what his life was going to be without her…
So much for his earlier high-minded promise to himself not to use any kind of emotional blackmail to press his suit, Leo reflected grimly. But those comments Jodi had made about not wanting him as a father for her child had hurt—and badly—and he had been within a breath of telling her in no uncertain terms that if her body was allowed to speak for itself it might have a very different story to tell. ‘Because make no mistake about it, Jodi Marsh, your body damned well wanted me!’
To Leo’s consternation he suddenly realised as the sound of his own voice filled the car that he was talking to himself! No wonder they called love a form of madness!
More drained by everything that had happened than she wanted to admit, Jodi suddenly discovered that she was craving the escape of sleep. She normally had buckets of energy, but these last couple of days she had felt physically drained. On her return home she went upstairs, intending to collect some washing, and then she saw her bed, and one thing led to another and…
It was the sound of her doorbell ringing that finally woke her. Realising that she had fallen deeply asleep, still fully dressed, she made her way groggily downstairs, her heart leaping frantically as she wondered if her visitor was Leo.
It had hurt her so badly this morning, after the wonderful night they had spent together, to know how desperate he was to distance himself from her and to make sure she knew that he didn’t want her.
However, her visitor wasn’t Leo, but Nigel her cousin. As she let him in he was waving a newspaper in front of her.
‘You’re on the front page,’ he told her. ‘Have you seen the paper yet?’
The front page! Jodi took the newspaper from him and studied it, her face burning with consternation and embarrassment as she studied the photograph of the previous evening’s arrests.
‘I was half expecting I was going to have to bail my strait-laced cousin out of prison,’ Nigel joked as he made his way towards her small kitchen.
‘Only, as I understand it, Leo got there before me.’
He shot Jodi a wry look as she demanded, ‘Who told you that?’
‘I rang the police station,’ Nigel informed her. ‘Reading between the lines, it sounds as if Leo must have put one hell of a lot of pressure on Jeremy Driscoll to get him to back off from charging you.’
To back off? Jodi began to frown.
‘But Leo said that Jeremy had changed his mind,’ she protested shakily.
‘Yeah, but probably only after Leo had told him that if he didn’t he would change it for him, if my guess is correct,’ Nigel agreed derisively. ‘Apparently Leo was on the phone to the police for nearly half an hour this morning, insisting that he did not want charges pressed against you, or any of the workforce. It seems to me that Leo must think an awful lot of you, little cousin, to go to so much trouble on your behalf,’ Nigel teased her. ‘This wouldn’t be the beginning of a classic tale of romance between two adversaries, would it?’ He grinned, his smile fading when he saw the look of white-faced despair Jodi was giving him. ‘Are you OK?’ he asked in concern.
‘I’m fine,’ Jodi lied.
‘Feel like going out for a meal tonight?’ Nigel suggested.
Jodi shook her head. ‘No; I’ve got some work I need to prepare for school on Monday,’ she told him, ‘but thanks for asking.’
Nigel was almost at the front door, when he turned round and told her, ‘Leo was meeting with the representatives of the factory this morning. Did he drop any hints about what he was going to say to them?’
‘No, why should he?’ she asked Nigel primly.
He was, she could see, giving her a worried look.
‘Something’s wrong; you’re not your normal self, Jodi. What—?’
‘Nothing’s wrong,’ she lied grittily. ‘I’m just tired, that’s all.’
She felt guilty about lying to Nigel, who was practically her best friend as well as her cousin, but what alternative did she really have?
A small, uncomfortable silence followed her denial, before Nigel turned to open the front door.
Jodi watched him go. She had been unfairly sharp with him, she knew, and ultimately she would have to apologise and explain, but not right now. Right now she just wasn’t capable of doing anything so rational! All she really wanted to do was to think about Leo, and what Nigel had told her.
It had confused her to learn that Leo had intervened with the authorities on her behalf. After all, he had allowed her to believe that they had been the ones to contact him, and not, as Nigel had implied, the other way around.
It galled Jodi to know that she was in his debt—not that that made a single scrap of difference to what she felt about what he had said to her earlier. No way! Those words were words she would never forgive him for uttering. Still, she knew she would have to thank him for what he had done, and the sooner she got that onerous task over with the better! Gritting her teeth, she went upstairs to shower and get changed.
Leo saw Jodi as she walked up the drive towards the front door of Ashton House. He was standing in the room he was using as an office, having just completed a telephone call with his new partner in the haulage and distribution business he intended to site at the motorway-based factory.
As he had informed the representatives of the Frampton workforce earlier, he had now decided to keep that factory open, but it would be up to them to prove to him that he had made the right decision, with an increased output to ensure his business kept its competitive edge over its overseas rivals.
Despite the fact that it was a hot summer’s day, Jodi was wearing a very formal-looking black trouser suit, its jacket open over a white T-shirt.
Leo, in contrast, had changed into a pair of casual chinos on his return from his meeting, but that did not prevent Jodi from thinking how formidable he looked as he opened the door just as she reached out to ring the bell.
Formidably male, that was, she admitted to herself as he invited her into the house.
Why, oh, why did she have to feel this way about him? Her pain at loving him was laced with her furious anger at his unbelievably callous words of the morning.
Perhaps to him, a high-powered businessman, an unplanned child was just a problem to be disposed of, but there was no way she could contemplate taking such an unemotional course.
If she thought for one moment that there was the slightest chance that she could be pregnant…After all, she had lied to Leo when she had intimated that she had taken precautions to ensure that she did not conceive.
Now she was deliberately trying to frighten herself, Jodi decided firmly, dismissing her uncomfortable anxiety. She was not pregnant. Totally, definitely not.
And, besides, didn’t she have enough to worry about?
As she followed Leo inside the house she began with determination, ‘Nigel’s been to see me. He says that I have you to thank for the fact that I did not have to return to the police station this morning.’
The way she delivered the words, with an extremely militant look in her eyes, made L
eo curse her cousin silently.
‘Jodi—’ he began, but she shook her head, refusing to let him continue.
‘Is it true?’ she demanded.
‘The police agreed with me that there was no reason to take things any further with any of those concerned in what essentially had been a peaceful demonstration,’ Leo palliated.
‘So it is true,’ Jodi announced baldly. ‘Why did you do it?’ she asked him bitterly.
‘So that you could have me under some kind of obligation to you? Why would you want that, or can I guess?’ she demanded sarcastically. ‘So that you could demand that I—?’
‘Stop right there.’
Now it was Jodi’s turn to fall silent as Leo glared furiously at her. Did she really think that he would stoop so low as to try to demand that she make love with him?
Beneath his anger, running much, much deeper, Leo could feel the savage, ripping claws of pain.
Jodi told herself that she wasn’t going to back down or allow him to make her feel she was in the wrong. After what he had said this morning it seemed perfectly logical to her that he would consider using the fact that he had negotiated her freedom to demand that she acquiesce to his demands over an accidental pregnancy.
All the anguish she was feeling welled up inside her. Ignoring the oxygen-destroying tension crackling between them, and the anger she could see glinting in Leo’s eyes, Jodi protested, ‘You just don’t care, do you? Feelings, human life—they don’t matter to you. You’re quite happy to close down the factory and put people out of work…’
And quite happy, too, to deny his child the right to live, Jodi reflected inwardly, the pain of that knowledge twisting her insides like acid—not just for the child she was positive she had not conceived but also for the destruction of her own foolish dreams.
Somewhere deep down inside herself she had seen him as a hero, a truly special man, imbued with all the virtues that women universally loved, especially the instinct to protect those weaker and more vulnerable than himself. It hurt to know just how wrong she had been.