‘Because I wouldn’t have felt comfortable leaving you alone here,’ he corrected.
‘That must have made me even more popular with Jennifer,’ she grimaced.
‘She understood,’ he dismissed arrogantly. ‘I’ve invited her over to dinner tomorrow evening so that the two of you can meet.’
The thought of being ‘looked over’ by Lucas’s mistress didn’t exactly thrill her, but for the sake of the few weeks she was going to be here she knew she didn’t have the right to upset his relationship with the other woman. ‘That will be nice,’ she answered flatly. ‘Do you think the two of us will get on well together?’
‘Does it matter?’ he dismissed.
‘No, I suppose not,’ she sighed. ‘I’ll be okay this evening on my own if you want to go and see her.’
‘I don’t,’ he stated haughtily. ‘I told you, it’s been a long and tiring day,’ he reminded as they entered the lounge together, Lucas moving to pour them both a drink.
‘I thought that sort of thing was supposed to relax you,’ she dared to tease.
‘Don’t you know?’ he mocked.
‘Little Ol’ Innocent me?’ she pretended to be shocked.
‘Yes.’ The semblence of a smile softened the sternness of his mouth, and in that moment Chelsea determined to make him laugh, really laugh, before she returned to the States. It wasn’t right that any human being should have so little laughter in his life, and if Lucas would only lighten up he—
Yes, he what? He was attractive now, but if he would only relax and enjoy life a little more he would be devastating!
‘I have no idea,’ she told him truthfully.
‘But you were engaged for a while, weren’t you? I thought that gave you licence to do anything you wanted nowadays?’ He handed her a glass, sitting down opposite her, his long legs stretched out in front of him as he relaxed.
‘Randy and I had been friends since High School,’ she shrugged. ‘I don’t know, I guess we just didn’t think about making love.’
‘Isn’t that a little strange?’
‘Maybe,’ she conceded with a frown. She and Randy had been so busy having fun, sharing a lot of athletic activities with their friends, that it hadn’t occurred to either of them that they should be taking every opportunity they could to jump into bed together. Maybe her ignorance, her disinclination, had been the reason Randy had made a pass at her mother. ‘But we didn’t,’ she frowned.
‘Well “that sort of thing” is supposed to help relax you,’ Lucas drawled softly. ‘And most of the time it does. But Jennifer is a very social woman, and I don’t feel in the mood to go to a party before we can go to bed.’
Her eyes widened. ‘You can be very forthright, when you want to be, can’t you?’
‘I thought that was what you wanted from me?’
‘I do. I just—’
‘Don’t tell me I’ve succeeded in shocking you, Chelsea?’ he mocked.
‘I—Of course not,’ she dismissed with more nonchalance than she felt.
‘Liar!’ he taunted.
‘Did you do it on purpose?’ she frowned.
‘Well, you aren’t the only one with shock value, you know,’ he mused.
‘You did do it on purpose,’ she looked at him with new eyes. ‘I bet you’re lethal in a court-room!’
‘So they tell me,’ he nodded, sipping his drink.
Chelsea tried her own drink, surprised to find it was the Scotch and coke that she liked, exactly as she liked it. ‘How much did Jace tell you in that cable?’
‘Certainly not your preference in drinks,’ Lucas laughed softly. ‘No, I remembered that from something else he once told me.’
‘I can’t think what?’ she frowned, somehow disconcerted by the fact that Jace seemed to have talked to this man about her when she knew nothing about this Lucas other than what she had learnt the last two days.
‘It seems that last year you went to the expense of buying him a twenty-year-old bottle of Scotch for Christmas, and then proceeded to drink half of it for him by drowning it with Coke. Any man with a sense of values would have to be disgusted by such an action,’ he taunted. ‘It’s sacrilege!’
She met the laughter in his eyes with a rueful grin. ‘Neat Scotch tastes awful.’
‘Not when it’s twenty years old!’ Lucas shook his head.
‘Any neat Scotch,’ she insisted.
‘I bet you also close your eyes on a Roller Coaster,’ Lucas mocked.
‘Isn’t that the same as closing your eyes when you make love?’ she asked guilelessly.
‘So we’re back to that,’ he derided. ‘Wait until you have some experience of your own and then we can discuss it.’
‘Very neatly avoided,’ she laughed softly.
‘It’s called evasive tactics,’ he almost smiled with her.
‘A legal term?’
‘A self-protective one,’ he drawled. ‘Would you like to put a record on the stereo?’ he invited, standing up to show her a cupboard that contained an extensive collection of records and cassettes. ‘Some of them are Camilla’s,’ he added mockingly. ‘So you should find something in there that you like.’
‘You don’t have a television?’ she ignored the taunt, looking through the cassettes.
‘A socially destructive machine,’ he stated with his usual arrogance.
‘Yes,’ she nodded.
‘You agree?’
‘Sure,’ she pulled out a Barbra Streisand cassette. ‘Did you see her latest movie?’ she asked as she deftly put the cassette on.
He shook his head. ‘I very rarely find the time to go to the cinema.’
Chelsea nodded, not able somehow to imagine his settling down with a tub of caramel popcorn and a Coke while he watched a two-or three-hour movie. ‘The critics were undecided, but Mom and I—’ she broke off, pain flickering across her face.
‘It never hurts to remember the good times, Chelsea,’ Lucas encouraged gently.
‘We had a good time,’ she continued determinedly as the silky voice of the famous actress-singer filled the room. ‘It was worth going just to see her sing.’
To say she and Lucas spent a pleasant evening together would perhaps be going a little too far, there were too many awkward silences for that, but when she made her way to her bedroom just over an hour later Chelsea could say in all honesty that they had progressed towards an uneasy friendship tonight, that they may even reach a complete one before she left. She hoped that they would.
And she didn’t have to pretend with Lucas anymore, could show him the pain her mother’s suicide gave her without having to hide behind the truth as she did with Jace. Having the truth between them gave Lucas and herself a bond that sat strangely between them.
* * *
‘You stupid little idiot!’
Chelsea came awake with a startled jerk, staring up at Lucas, a beige silk robe over his pyjamas, in stunned surprise. Whatever tenuous friendship they had reached last night was wiped out by the furious anger in Lucas’s harsh face as he towered over her.
‘I—What is it?’ she sat up, blinking at him dazedly, looking very young with her make-upless face and her hair confined at her nape. ‘What time is it?’
‘Just after seven,’ he rasped. ‘Someone very kindly delivered this outside the door before disappearing!’ He threw down the newspaper that he held in his hand down on to her bed.
Chelsea still blinked foggily. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘You will after you’ve read that,’ Lucas ground out.
She grimaced. ‘I don’t think I can even see it, let alone read it!’ she said ruefully.
‘This is no time for levity,’ he growled with angry impatience. ‘Read the story on the front cover.’
‘Can I brush my teeth first?’ Her mouth felt awful!
‘No!’
She flinched at the fury he projected in that one word; so much for thinking they might be becoming friends!
She straightened in the b
ed to lean back against the headboard, wearing the ivory coloured nightgown, the lacy cups over her breasts revealing her darkened nipples, her skin palely transluscent against its delicacy. But she forgot her own appearance as a photograph of herself appeared on the front cover of the newspaper, the story accompanying the photograph getting worse and worse as she read on.
‘Oh no,’ she cringed. ‘Oh no!’ she gasped. ‘Oh no,’ she groaned her embarrassment.
‘I think, with the evidence in your own hands, that we can safely assume, oh yes!’ Lucas bit out impatiently, having been pacing the room as she read.
Chelsea could now understand his blazing anger. The story clearly stated that the daughter of Gloria and Jace Stevens was staying at the apartment of eligible bachelor Lucas McAdams, that he was reputed to be ‘an old friend of the family’—and the innuendo behind that was enough to make her cringe! It also said that she had flown to England to be with Lucas as soon as her mother’s funeral was over. It then went on to detail her mother’s death and the speculation attached to that, ending with a query as to what Lucas McAdam’s long-time companion Jennifer Sutton thought of him having the beautiful Chelsea Stevens in residence with her lover.
It was a terrible story, one that concentrated more on conjecture and innuendo about herself and Lucas than it did on the terrible tragedy of her mother’s death.
‘It’s awful.’ She pushed the newspaper away disgustedly.
‘But it’s basically accurate,’ Lucas said grimly.
‘Basically,’ she agreed contemptuously. ‘But the facts have been embroidered out of recognition.’
‘And just how do you think this particular reporter got hold of the “facts"?’
She shrugged. ‘I have no idea. I suppose—’ she broke off, frowning deeply. ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’ she asked slowly, not liking the condemning expression in his eyes at all.
‘I called the newspaper as soon as I’d read the story,’ Lucas bit out with icy precision, as if he wanted there to be no misunderstanding about what he was saying. ‘They told me that their informant was a man called John Anderson. Ring any bells?’ he asked softly.
Chelsea had gone paper-white at the mention of John’s name. ‘But he—He isn’t a reporter,’ she protested weakly. ‘He lives here!’
Lucas shook his head. ‘I have no idea where he lives, but it certainly isn’t here!’
She closed her eyes in denial of her own stupidity. John hadn’t actually said that he lived in this apartment building, only that he had been on his way up to the eighth floor, and that he knew Lucas lived there. She realised now that he must have been looking for her, and that by some quirk of fate she had stepped in the lift as he was arriving.
‘I didn’t realise,’ she groaned. ‘He was so nice, and so—so easy to talk to.’
‘Obviously!’ Lucas said disgustedly.
‘You don’t think I actually told him this garbage?’
‘You told him enough,’ Lucas grated.
Tears glistened in her dark blue eyes. ‘I’m sorry,’ she choked.
He glared at her. ‘Being sorry isn’t going to help this situation at all. I’ve already had to take the receiver off the hook to stop the calls from other newspapers. Thank God I’ve been able to stop them actually coming into the building!’
‘How did you do that?’
‘It’s private, as I’m sure I’ve told you at least once before,’ he said with heavy sarcasm. ‘If any more reporters attempt to come up here I’ll have them arrested!’
He would too, she could tell that by the implacability of his mouth.
‘I’d sue the damned newspaper if I could,’ he continued grimly. ‘But unfortunately they printed nothing but the truth. And that truth was freely given to them!’
Her bottom lip quivered precariously. ‘I’ve said I’m sorry. I had no idea John was a reporter.’
Lucas’s eyes narrowed. ‘Just how did you actually come to meet him and reveal so much?’
The embarrassed colour was a fixture in her cheeks by the time she had explained the meeting and how she had found it easy to talk to the other man. Of course she had found it easy to talk to him, it was his job to make it easy. She mentally winced as she remembered all the questions he had asked—and that she had answered. She may have been innocent in her confidences, but she should have had more sense than to talk to a stranger in that way. Lucas obviously thought so too.
‘Why didn’t you tell me about the meeting?’ he demanded to know.
She swallowed hard. ‘John said you didn’t approve of him,’ she revealed reluctantly.
‘He’s right, I don’t!’
‘I assumed he lived here and had done something to upset you. I realise now that he didn’t want me to tell you and give you time to stop the story,’ she said miserably.
‘I doubt I could have done that,’ Lucas rasped. ‘But I might have been able to set his editor straight on a few of those so-called facts.’
‘I really am sorry, Lucas,’ she looked at him appealingly. ‘I don’t know what else I can say.’
‘I think, in future,’ he bit out coldly, ‘it might be better if you said as little as possible—to everyone.’ He stormed out of the room.
That she had made Lucas furiously angry, and with good reason, she didn’t doubt, that she had made an absolute fool of herself she didn’t doubt either. A child would have seen through John’s questioning, and yet she had gone ahead and told him things about herself she had told no one else. Although surprisingly John didn’t seem to have written everything she had revealed to him, had omitted the reason for her broken engagement for one thing.
But something else was worrying her at the moment, something she had to talk to Lucas about immediately.
He was wearing only a brief towel wrapped about his hips when she entered his bedroom after the briefest of knocks, his mouth tightening at her intrusion.
‘I don’t remember telling you to come in,’ he rasped.
‘I thought you did.’ She looked away awkwardly. ‘I—I just wanted to ask you, will Jace get to see the article?’ God, Lucas was magnificent when he was undressed! The conservative suits and shirts he wore went a long way to hiding just how broadly muscular he was, a fine sprinkling of hair covering his chest, thickening over his navel and down beneath the towel, his long legs covered in the same fine hair. And there was no way he could look coldly remote, dressed—or undressed—as he was now! He was blatantly masculine, his ruffled dark hair giving him a rakish appeal.
‘It’s possible,’ he answered her. ‘But I doubt it, not when it’s an English newspaper. Why?’ His eyes were narrowed.
‘Because it’s obvious from what they’ve written that I know my mother didn’t die from natural causes.’
‘It’s unlikely that Jace will get to see it—or hear of it,’ Lucas relented a little in his own anger to comfort her on that score. ‘Although he’s going to have to realise some day that you know.’
She nodded abruptly. ‘That all I wanted to know, I’m sorry I bothered you.’
‘Yes,’ he acknowledged tersely. ‘And, Chelsea,’ he stopped her at the door, ‘I shouldn’t leave the apartment today,’ he warned.
She flushed. ‘Don’t worry, I’ve learnt my lesson; I won’t talk to any more amiable strangers.’
‘That wasn’t the reason I said it,’ he shook his head. ‘There are sure to be reporters outside most of the day, I wouldn’t advise you to try and get past them.’
‘No,’ she agreed heavily. ‘I—Will Miss Sutton still be coming to dinner this evening now?’
‘I doubt she would miss it for anything,’ he derided hardly. ‘That should give the press even more reason for speculation,’ he added grimly.
Chelsea nodded. ‘I’ll see you both this evening, then.’ Her head was bent as she left the room, lost in her own thoughts, looking up with a guilty start as someone cleared their throat noisily. ‘Mrs Harvey, you startled me!’ She gave a bright smile.
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‘Indeed?’ the frosty manner was back with a vengeance.
And no wonder, if the other woman had just seen her leaving Lucas’s bedroom! Yesterday she had seen her returning his pyjama jacket, today she had actually seen her leaving Lucas’s bedroom at seven-thirty in the morning wearing one of the sheer nightgowns he had purchased for her! It must all look very damning.
‘I—er—I just went to talk to Lucas about something…’ even to her own ears her excuse sounded lame, and Mrs Harvey obviously didn’t believe a word!
‘Is there anything special I can get you for breakfast?’ the other woman asked coldly.
‘I—’
‘Chelsea, I—’ The expression on Lucas’s face as he stood in his bedroom doorway wearing only the towel was a sight to see as he took in the presence of his housekeeper, the disapproval on her tight-lipped face obvious. ‘Good morning, Mrs Harvey,’ he recovered quickly. ‘I didn’t realise you had arrived yet.’
The housekeeper’s knowing expression seemed to say she realised that! ‘I’m just about to cook breakfast,’ she told him abruptly. ‘I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me.’ Her expression said she clearly doubted that!
Chelsea looked at Lucas with wary eyes as the other woman’s ramrod back disappeared in the direction of the kitchen. After all, she had been the cause of yet another embarrassment to him.
‘I—You—’ he seemed to be having trouble articulating, shaking his head ruefully. ‘I can’t believe this is happening to me,’ he finally groaned.
‘I—’
‘For God’s sake don’t say you’re sorry again!’
‘I’m not sorry?’ she grimaced.
His mouth quirked as he began to smile, the smile turning to full-blooded laughter. ‘You’re amazing, do you know that?’ he chuckled.
She grinned back at him. ‘I am?’
He nodded, completely relaxed, the anger she had been expecting at this latest situation she had created not materialising as he continued to smile, his husky laughter having left his eyes a warm brown. ‘Since you arrived my life has been anything but dull. And now I think Mrs Harvey may resign because of you.’
He didn’t sound particularly concerned considering how invaluable he had claimed her to be Chelsea’s first evening here. ‘Do you really think she will?’ she frowned, having come to like the other woman; she certainly wouldn’t want Mrs Harvey to give up a good job that she obviously liked just because of a misunderstanding.
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