by Sara Wood
Suddenly she discovered she was stupidly standing in the circle of his arms, and he was watching the fleeting expressions on her face with lazy amusement. With a quick intake of breath, she tried to escape.
'Don't struggle,' he murmured in her ear. 'People near us are watching.'
He threw her a crooked smile and drew closer, moving with her on to the dance-floor. Jade felt a quiver run down her spine as his hand slipped around to splay warmly over her bare skin. She held herself very erect, wishing he'd do more than sway sensually to the music and look at her with bedroom eyes. All kinds of sensations were chasing through her body, creating needs she had long forgotten.
'Jade,' he murmured, bringing her head to rest against his chest. She made to move back, but his arm was like a steel band. Gradually she became aware of the heat of his body and the way his fingers burned into her flesh. He was tense with desire, a wayward pulse leaping in his jaw, the hard thrust of his hips telling her that he was highly aroused and determined to let her know this fact.
Gritting her teeth, she tried not be affected by him, but he was a master of seduction. The way he breathed, the way he shifted his body, the way he looked at her with such depth of meaning—all combined to form an irresistible and potent sexual lure.
Jade's head spun as the flames of passion rose within her. Whatever attraction this man possessed, she seemed helpless in its path.
'I want you,' he murmured.
A stab of desire shot through Jade's body, and she was ashamed. 'I'm well aware of that,' she said coldly. 'And probably half the village is aware of it, too. Have you no control?'
'None. And you're fast losing yours, Jade—don't pretend otherwise. Ever since we first set eyes on one another it's been obvious that we'd end up together.' His fingers surreptitiously massaged the back of her neck.
'Has it, indeed?' she said in a ridiculously high voice, crushing the electrifying sensation his touch produced. 'You're tickling. Stop it.'
'No, I'm not. You're loving it. Jade! I want to kiss you very badly!'
Shocked by his intensity, she slanted her eyes at his mouth and instantly regretted it, watching his lips part hungrily. Her breath became erratic and her legs so shaky that she knew she couldn't move away or she'd make a fool of herself and stagger from the wonderful, hazy weakness.
Everyone would know that she'd been rendered helpless by Saxonbury's untamed Don Juan. And yet, if she stayed in his arms, he'd continue to seduce her! The dilemma was intolerable.
'I wish you'd leave me alone,' she mumbled miserably.
'Not till I have what I want,' he whispered in her ear.
His warm breath sent shivers down her neck. 'Please, Dane…'
'Yes. I intend to,' he promised huskily.
Jade's eyes closed. What she felt right now was indecent. He was married! Her panic-stricken eyes flickered to the door. It was near. Suddenly she ducked out of his arms and ran out, not caring what anyone thought. She'd long earned a reputation for behaving in an odd way, and the villagers wouldn't find anything surprising in her actions tonight with any luck. To her dismay, as she stumbled down the cart track in the semi-darkness, she heard Dane calling out to her.
With a muttered exclamation, she slipped over the low wall into the school playground, but he'd seen her and vaulted the wall in one easy leap.
'Jade!'
A moan escaped her lips. She made a frantic dash to Jubilee Meadow, too afraid of her own responses even to face him in anger. It was there that he caught her up. An arm suddenly snaked around her waist and she was being hauled roughly back against the length of his hard, virile body. For a moment, she tried to catch her breath, and that gave him boldness. His right hand crept teasingly towards her heaving breast while she struggled unsuccessfully to speak; petrified with fear, trembling with unwanted desire.
One long forefinger lightly touched her nipple and it rose treacherously to a hard peak. Dane groaned and bent his head to kiss her neck, his finger creating more pleasure with its tiny, circular movements than she'd every experienced before. This was madness! Jade was still paralysed, wanting his touch to go on, hating herself utterly.
She let out a breath and threw back her head, the long black hair falling like a waterfall.
'No!'
'Yes! You've driven me crazy over the last few months. I know how badly you want me, every part of your body tells me. I'd be mad to let you go now. This lovely summer evening, Jade, this black night, in this sweet meadow; here is the place I will make love to you!'
Her breast was swollen and engorged. She had to bite her lips to prevent herself from demanding that he must arouse the other one too.
'No, Dane,' she said miserably. 'You mustn't! Your wife…'
'Mmm?' he muttered, only half listening, his teeth nibbling her shoulder.
'Your wife!'
He turned her around to face him. 'What on earth has she got to do with us?' he asked, astonished.
Jade went cold with horror. 'You bastard!' she breathed. 'The minute she leaves you, you make a play for me—'
'Wait a minute,' he laughed. 'It was all of five years ago that she left me. That's hardly rushing things.'
Her perplexed face made him look at her more carefully. 'I'm divorced, Jade,' he said quietly. 'Not very amicably, but everyone has to go through hell once in their lifetime, I suppose.'
Hell? That must be what he'd been talking about… Jade shook her head to clear it.
'But Soniver—who is she, then? Your mistress?'
'Surely you know she's my sister?' he said in amazement, sighing when she stared uncomprehendingly at him. 'That wretched woman! It never occurs to her to introduce herself in a civilised way. Scatterbrain that she is!'
'She's got red hair!'
'Good lord, no one has real hair that colour! She's dark, like me.'
'It looks real,' she said doggedly.
'Yes, well she can afford to have it done expertly. She's in a highly paid job—I ought to know, I employ her and I pay her. She's on my staff and runs my New York office. Dammit all, did you really think I'd wave goodbye to a wife and try to seduce you all in the space of half an hour?'
'Yes.'
'Thanks. You have a pretty poor opinion of me, I see.'
Jade nodded. She had.
'How long have you been under the impression I was married?' he asked softly.
'Since we met,' she said nervously.
'Now I understand! How very satisfying. That explains everything.' His smile was dangerous. Jade had the sensation that she was in deep trouble now.
'No, it doesn't,' she said quickly, moving back and being swung into his arms again. 'I'll—I'll—'
'Scream?' he murmured. 'Haven't we done that one before? It was enjoyable, but I like variety. How about…' His melting eyes contemplated her mouth. 'I know. We could play guessing games.'
'Guess…' Her voice tailed away into thin air.
'Yes, you shut your eyes and guess where I'm going to touch you next, and if you get it wrong, I kiss you.'
'What…' Jade cleared her choked throat. She was going to regret asking this. 'What if I get it right?' she breathed.
'Oh, then I kiss you, of course,' he smiled.
'Oh.' She frowned. There was something wrong with that, though she was too confused to work out what it was exactly. Her brain seemed focused on the way his fingers were exploring the contours of her naked back. 'I don't want to play any games. I want…'
'Me,' he growled throatily.
'Dane…'
'Sweet Jade, you can't carry a torch for your late husband for ever,' he said gently. 'You are young and beautiful and in need of loving. Here I am, here you are and here is this lush grass waiting for our bodies. Forget the man you married. You can't stay faithful to his memory all your life. I'm here, real, alive and needing you. Let me help you to forget him.'
Forget! If only she could! Jade moaned softly. If only she hadn't visualised the terrible moment when she came across Sebasti
an and his secretary, naked, making love in the grass that day!
She had become deathly still and his last, desperately spoken words reflected his realisation that he had lost her. He stared in frustration at the blank eyes which were filled with pain. His hands dropped away and he dug his nails into his palms.
It was several seconds before he had controlled himself sufficiently to speak. Jade was still numb and cold, hardly breathing, trying to shut Sebastian out of her mind.
'I said the wrong thing. I don't usually make mistakes like that and I'm sorry. I had no idea you were grieving so much. He must have been one hell of a man. I'll see you home,' he rasped.
Wordlessly she walked beside him, as silent and passionless as a zombie. At her front door, he reached out and tentatively touched her hair.
'I'm worried about you. Will you be all right?'
'You have to leave me alone,' she said tonelessly. 'If you like me at all, do that. I can't bear what's happening to me. You make me upset.'
'I realise that now. I'll try,' he whispered. 'God knows, I'll try.'
In the same mesmerised daze, Jade walked into the cottage and straight up to her bedroom. Carefully she undressed, stepped into the shower and soaped herself with infinite care before letting cold water flood over her pinkened body.
Then she curled up in bed and lay very still, not moving, not thinking. Providing she didn't think, she told herself, the anguish wouldn't surface. One barrier to wanting Dane had been removed, and it would be harder to resist him, but she couldn't get involved with someone who would hurt her as badly as she'd been hurt before.
It seemed that Jade had only just fallen asleep when the telephone rang. Groggily she sat up in bed and stumbled downstairs in her short cotton nightdress, seeing to her astonishment that it was morning.
'Jade?'
'Damn you, Dane!' she raged in sudden, inexplicable fury. 'I told you…'
'You said keep away and I'm doing that. I had to ring this morning to find out if everything was all right. I've hardly slept at all, wondering. I nearly came to see you. This is very restrained of me, you know.'
'What time is it?' she muttered.
'Eight o'clock and I'm late for work. I've been ringing for the last hour and I've been going frantic. Tell me how you are and I'll ring off.'
'Tired.'
He swore. Then spoke more gently. 'Go back to bed, Jade. I'm sorry I woke you. I had to ring.'
In the days following after that, he did ring occasionally with a polite enquiry, and she would tell him she was fine. In fact, she was feeling increasingly lonely and knew that she missed him. When three weeks had passed he called in one evening on his way home from work while she was listlessly eating supper in the garden, her books spread around her.
Polly was ecstatic, of course.
Jade looked longingly at the elegant figure in the silver-grey summer suit. He was hugging the retriever affectionately and a lump formed in her throat. His features seemed intensified by his absence, his brow smoother, his cheekbones higher, his mouth and eyes filled with more desire than she'd ever seen them. But his tone was properly distant. If it hadn't been, she might have run to him and let herself be swept into his immoral world for a short while.
'I heard you had some honey for sale.'
'Honey and eggs,' she said brightly.
'I'd like some, please.'
'Step this way, sir,' she called gaily, dropping him a mock curtsey and leading him into her kitchen.
Her fumbling fingers selected the eggs from the big basket and put them into the egg box.
'Laid this morning,' she said. 'They're still warm. I expect those two will have double yolks—they're big enough. They tend to topple out of egg cups, though,' she babbled on wildly. 'That's why I can't sell them through the normal channels. My hens lay funny-shaped eggs.'
'They would,' he said drily.
'Yes,' she said with a nervous laugh. 'It must be something to do with the things I tell them.'
'Pardon?'
'When I talk to the bees—you must know you have to tell bees what goes on—I think the hens hear, too. They always cluster around my feet hopefully, thinking it's feeding time. Anyway—' Jade was conscious of the fact that she had launched on a long, inconsequential speech and didn't know how to finish. Her fingers twisted. 'Well, they do tend to go broody after that and lay enormous eggs.
'I see.' Dane's eyes studied her seriously.
Jade fiddled with the box. 'Is a dozen enough?'
'Thank you. And two jars of honey, please.'
They both knew that Mrs Love did the shopping for him. Buying eggs and honey was an excuse. Jade didn't want to spoil the charade: she was seeing him and talking to him, and for the moment that was enough. Dane King was like a drug that she couldn't give up.
As he dropped the money into her open palm, he hesitated. 'How's the situation in hell?' he asked.
'Still not frozen,' she said quietly, her lashes lowered.
'I see. Er… next week… I expect I'll be needing some more eggs and honey.'
'Yes. Fine. See you then.'
So every week, apart from the chance meetings in the village or on the Downs when they both greeted each other briefly and went on their way, they went through the same ritual. Always he wanted to know whether hell had frozen over, and she told him it hadn't.
That was a barren time for Jade, lit by the brief moment when he stood in her kitchen—moments which were followed by self-recrimination and emptiness. Perhaps the only one good thing to come out of the empty weeks was that she had made a great deal of headway on the history of Saxonbury village and its surrounding area. Soon, though, she would be hampered by the fact that the books she needed were in the manor library, and she didn't want to ask if she could research there, not with different women coming and going on days he stayed at home. His promiscuity was bad enough without witnessing it in close-up.
One Friday she heard his car drawing up outside as usual, a little late. She'd been waiting nervously, unable to settle, listening for the familiar throaty roar, and was relieved when it eventually arrived. But this time there was a woman in the passenger seat and it wasn't Soniver.
Jade's eyes glazed with pain. He was obviously trying to tell her something, to show her that he'd waited long enough and there were other fish in the sea. Miserably she stared through the window at the woman. She was about thirty, tiny, fragile and with long, straight, brown hair. She wore no make-up and had an interesting, arresting face: a woman of character. Jade would have preferred her to be a glamorous blonde. This one was the kind who could hold a man by personality alone.
Glumly Jade went through the ritual of selling him produce he didn't need to buy, and suddenly could bear it no longer. As Dane made to leave, and join his companion, she came to a decision.
'Wait, Dane. I have an idea,' she said, keeping her head down and taking a long time to put the money away in her purse. 'Why don't I get Mrs Love to pick up what eggs and honey you need? She passes by here most mornings, and it would save you calling in on your way home. You must be tired after a day's work. It does seem silly for you to do the shopping, doesn't it?'
He turned his back on her, the broad shoulders masking any reaction as he stood looking down her garden. Anxious to remember as much detail of him as possible, she devoured everything about him: that neat dividing line of black hair and tanned neck, the intricate folds of his ears, the set of his shoulders and the width of his back. Then he spoke quietly.
'I wonder why neither of us thought of that before?'
'One never sees the obvious,' she said with a nervous laugh, her eyes continuing their wistful journey over his body.
He spun around. 'No. Perhaps you're right. And one thing is obvious, Jade,' he said, his voice growing harsh, his face taking on a cruel expression. 'You are married to a dead man!'
Jade flinched at the pain within her. He didn't know how that hurt her! If only she could tell him—but then he'd be relentless in h
is pursuit of her.
'Don't keep your woman-friend waiting,' she spat.
'Jade, she—'
'I don't want to hear! You are hurting me more than you can know! Go and look after her, she looks as if she needs your comfort…'
'She does, she—'
Jade's curse shocked them both. Dane hesitated for a moment and then, with an angry snarl, banged the egg boxes and the jars of honey down on her kitchen table.
'I have my pride,' he growled. 'I'm tired of being scorned and sworn at, of being reviled and told I can't be trusted! Lie in your damn lonely bed, Jade, and warm yourself with memories if you want—I need a flesh and blood woman, not one who lives in the past, however tempting she might be!'
Jade picked out one of the eggs and threw it wildly at him, missing completely. With a snort of derision, he stormed out of the cottage.
Jade's anger and bitterness at Dane's cruelty succeeded in turning her against him, and she renewed her life with a determined vigour, entering enthusiastically—if a little wildly—into everything: the Lewes May Revels, the Raft Race down the Ouse River, the Beacon Bonfire party on Midsummer's Day when fires were lit on ancient beacon sites in an unbroken link across Sussex.
To the last event, Dane brought his tiny companion, setting alight the local gossip. The villagers knew by now that Soniver was his sister, and had apparently learnt from one of the gardeners that the woman he acted so protectively towards had been staying in the manor with him for some weeks now.
Jade laughed and sparkled brilliantly that evening as the wine flowed and the fireworks broke overhead. Dane kept back from the general merriment, preferring to look on. It was Jade who led everyone in a dance around Saxonbury Hill's ancient fortifications, each person holding a blazing torch. It was Jade who regaled the children with stories and legends from the past, imbuing them with dramatic excitement, sending thrills into her listeners as she spoke in hushed tones of witchcraft and magic, of local battles and the Great Plague which left the village decimated and filled the churchyard.