by Penny Jordan
Jodi couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
‘I don’t...I didn’t...’ She began to defend herself instinctively, before shaking her head and telling him fiercely, ‘There isn’t any amount of money that could compensate me for what...what I experienced last night.’ And then, before he could say or do anything more to hurt her, she managed to wrench her hand from his and run down the corridor towards the waiting lift.
A girl wearing the uniform of a member of the hotel staff paused to look at her as Jodi left Leo’s suite, but Jodi was too engrossed in her thoughts to notice her.
Leo watched her go in furious disbelief. Just how much of a fool did she take him for, throwing out a bad Victorian line like that? And as for what she had implied, well, his body had certain very telltale marks on it that told a very different story indeed!
* * *
To Jodi’s relief, no one gave her a second glance as she hurried through the hotel foyer, heading for the exit. No doubt they were used to guests coming and going all the time.
‘Stop thinking about it,’ she advised herself as she stepped out into the bright morning sunlight, blinking a little in its brilliance.
The first thing she was going to do when she got home, Jodi decided as she drove out onto the main road, was have a shower, and the second was to compose the letter she would send to Leo Jefferson, putting to him the case for allowing the factory to remain open—there was no way she was going to try to make any kind of personal contact with him now!
And the third: the third was to go to bed and catch up on her sleep, and very firmly put what had happened between them out of her mind, consign it to a locked and deeply buried part of her memory that could never be accessed again by anyone!
* * *
Jodi opened the front door to her small cottage, one of a row of eight, built in the eighteenth century, with tiny, picturesque front gardens overlooking the village street and much longer lawns at the rear. After carefully locking up behind her she made her way upstairs.
It was the sound of her telephone ringing that finally woke her; groggily she reached for the receiver, appalled to see from her watch that it was gone ten o’clock. Normally at this time on a Saturday morning she would be in their local town, doing her weekly supermarket shop before meeting up with friends for lunch.
As luck would have it, she had made no such arrangement for today, as most of her friends were away on holiday with their families.
As her fingers curled round the telephone receiver her stomach muscles tensed, despite the fact that she knew it was impossible that her caller could be Leo Jefferson; after all, he didn’t even know who she was, thank goodness! A small frisson of nervous excitement tingled through her body, quickly followed by a strong surge of something she would not allow herself to acknowledge as disappointment when she recognised her cousin Nigel’s voice.
It was no wonder, after all she had been through, that her emotions should be so traumatised that they had difficulty in relaying appropriate reactions to her.
‘At last,’ she could hear Nigel saying cheerfully to her. ‘This is the third time I’ve rung. How did it go with Leo Jefferson? I’m dying to know.’
Jodi took a deep breath; she could feel her heart starting to pound as shame and guilt filled her. The hand holding the receiver felt sticky. She had never been a good liar; never been even a vaguely adequate one.
‘It didn’t,’ she admitted huskily.
‘You chickened out?’ Nigel guessed.
Jodi let out a sigh of relief; Nigel had just given her the perfect answer to her dilemma.
‘I...I was tired and I started to have second thoughts. And—’
Before she could tell Nigel that she had decided to write to Leo Jefferson rather than speak with him her cousin had cut across her to say tolerantly, ‘I thought you wouldn’t go through with it. Never mind. Uncle Nigel has ridden to the rescue for you. My boss has invited me over to dinner tonight, and I’ve asked him if I can take you along with me. He’ll be speaking to Leo Jefferson himself next week, and if you put your case to him I’m sure he’ll incorporate the plight of the school into his own discussion.’
‘Oh, Nigel, that’s very kind of you, but I don’t think...’ Jodi began to demur. She just wasn’t in the mood for a dinner party, and as for the idea of putting the school’s case to Nigel’s boss, who was the chief planning officer for the area, Jodi’s opinion of her own credibility had been so undermined that she just didn’t feel good enough about herself to do so.
Nigel, though, made it clear that he was not prepared to take no for an answer.
‘You’ve got to come,’ he insisted. ‘Graham really does want to meet you. His grandson is one of your pupils, apparently, and he’s a big fan of yours. The grandson, not Graham. Although...’
‘Nigel, I can’t go,’ Jodi protested.
‘Of course you can. You must. Think of your school,’ he teased her before adding, ‘I’m picking you up at half-past seven, and you’d better be ready.’
He had rung off before Jodi could protest any further.
* * *
Wearily Jodi studied the screen of her computer. She had spent most of the afternoon trying to compose a letter to send to Leo Jefferson. The headache she had woken up with had, thankfully, finally abated, but every time she tried to concentrate on what she was supposed to be doing a totally unwanted mental picture of Leo Jefferson kept forming inside her head. And it wasn’t just his face that her memory was portraying to her in intimate detail, she acknowledged as she felt herself turning as pink as the cascading petunias in her next-door neighbour’s window boxes. Mrs Fields, at eighty, was still a keen gardener, and as she had ruefully explained to Jodi she liked the strong, bright colours because she could see them.
Jodi’s own lovingly planted boxes were a more subtle combination of soft greens, white and silver, the same silver as Leo Jefferson’s sexy eyes.
Jodi’s face flamed even hotter as she stared at her screen and realised that she had begun her letter, ‘Dear Sexy Eyes’.
Quickly she deleted the words and began again, reminding herself of how important it was that she impress on Leo Jefferson the effect the closure of the factory would have not just on her school but also on the whole community.
All over the country small villages were dying or becoming weekend dormitories for city workers, although everyone here in their local community had worked hard to make theirs a living, working village.
If she could get Nigel’s boss on her side it was bound to help their case. Frowning slightly, she pushed her chair away from her computer. She ought to be used to fighting to keep the school going now. When she had first been appointed as its head teacher she had been told by the education authority that it would only be for an interim period, as, with the school’s numbers falling, it would ultimately have to be closed.
Even though she had known she would get better promotion and higher pay by transferring to a bigger school, as soon as Jodi had realised the effect that losing their school would have she had begun to canvass determinedly for new pupils, even to the extent of persuading parents who had previously been considering private education to give their local primary a chance.
Her efforts had paid off in more ways than one, and Jodi knew she would never forget the pride she had felt when their school had received an excellent report following an inspection visit.
Her pride wasn’t so much for herself, though, as for the efforts of the pupils and everyone else who had supported the school; to have to stand back and see all the ground they had gained lost, the sense of teamwork and community she had so determinedly fostered amongst the pupils destroyed, was more than she wanted to have to bear.
She had proved just how well the children thrived and learned in an atmosphere of security and love, in a school where they were known and v
alued as individuals, and Jodi was convinced that the self-confidence such a start gave them was something that would benefit them through their academic lives. But somehow, trying to explain all of this to Leo Jefferson was far harder than she had expected.
Perhaps it was because she suspected that he had already made up his mind, that, so far as he was concerned, the small community he would be destroying simply didn’t matter when compared with his profits. Or perhaps it was because all she could think about, all she could see, was last night and the way they had been together...
With every hour that distanced her from the intimacy they had shared it became harder for her to acknowledge what she had done. It just wasn’t like her to behave in such a way, and the proof of that, had she needed any, was the fact that he, Leo Jefferson, had been her first and only lover!
Too overwrought to concentrate, Jodi stood up and started to pace the floor of her small sitting room in emotional agitation.
Shocking though her behaviour had been, she knew and could not deny that she had enjoyed Leo Jefferson’s touch, his lovemaking, his possession.
But that was because she had been half-drunk and half-asleep, she tried to defend herself, before her strong sense of honesty ruthlessly reminded her of the way she had reacted to him when she had first seen him, when she had quite definitely been both sober and awake!
It was nearly six o’clock. Her letter wasn’t finished, but she would have to leave it now and go and get ready for the evening.
Nigel was going to a lot of trouble on her behalf and she ought to feel grateful to him. Instead, all she wanted was to stay at home and hide from the world until she had come to terms with what she had done.
CHAPTER THREE
LEO GRIMACED AS he ran a hand over his newly shaven jaw. There was no way he felt like going out to dinner, but when Graham Johnson, the chief planning officer for the area, had rung to invite him to his home Leo had not felt he could refuse.
It made good business sense to establish an amicable arrangement with the local authority. Leo had already met Graham and liked him, and when Graham had explained that there was someone he would find it interesting to meet on an informal basis Leo had sensed that Graham would not be very impressed were he to turn him down. And besides, at least if he went out it would stop him from thinking about last night, and that wretched, unforgettably sexy woman who had got so dangerously under his skin.
As yet, Jeremy Driscoll had made no attempt to contact him, and Leo was hoping that he had the sense to recognise that Leo was not to be coerced—in any way—but somehow he doubted that Jeremy had actually given up. He wasn’t that type, and, since he had gone as far as paying his accomplice to play her part, Leo suspected that he was going to want value for his money.
Did Driscoll avail himself of Leo’s tousle-haired tormentor’s sexual skills? It shocked Leo to discover just how unpalatable he found that thought! Was he crazy, feeling possessive about a woman like that, a woman any man could have? Unwantedly Leo found himself remembering the way her body had claimed him, tightening around him almost as though it had known no other man. Now he was going crazy, he told himself angrily as he peered at the approaching signpost to check that he was driving in the right direction.
* * *
‘Jodi, you aren’t listening to me.’
Jodi gave her cousin an apologetic look as he brought his car to a halt outside his boss’s house.
‘Come to think of it, you’re not exactly looking your normal, chirpy self.’ He gave her a concerned look.
‘Worrying about that school of yours, I expect?’
Ignoring his question, Jodi drew a deep breath, determined to tackle him about an issue that had been weighing very heavily on her mind.
‘Nigel, what on earth possessed you to order that cocktail for me last night? You know I don’t drink, and because it never occurred to me that it was alcoholic...well, there was so much fruit in it...’
‘Hey, hang on a minute,’ Nigel protested in bewilderment. ‘I never ordered you anything alcoholic.’
‘Well, whatever the waiter brought to Leo Jefferson’s suite definitely was,’ Jodi informed him grittily.
‘They must have misunderstood me,’ Nigel told her. ‘I asked them to send you up a fruit cocktail. I thought it seemed expensive—what a waste; I bet you didn’t touch it after the first swallow, did you?’
Fortunately, before she was obliged to lie to him, he took hold of Jodi’s arm and walked her firmly towards the front door, which opened as they reached it to reveal their host, Graham Johnson, a tall grey-haired man with a warm smile.
‘You must be Jodi.’ He shook Jodi’s hand, and introduced himself. ‘I’ve heard an awful lot about you!’
When Jodi gave Nigel a wry look their host shook his head and laughed.
‘No, not from Nigel, although he has mentioned you. I was referring to our grandson, Henry. He’s one of your pupils and an ardent admirer. With just reason, too, according to his parents. Our daughter, Charlotte, is most impressed with the dramatic improvement the school has achieved in Henry’s reading skills.’
Jodi smiled her appreciation of his compliments and a little of the tension started to leave her body as they followed Graham into the house.
Mary Johnson was as welcoming as her husband, informing Jodi that she had trained as a teacher herself, although it had been many years since she had last taught.
‘My daughter was a little concerned at first when she heard that you were an advocate of a mixture of traditional teaching methods and educational play, but she’s a total convert now. She can’t stop telling us how much Henry’s spatial skills have improved along with his reading ability.’
‘We like to encourage the children to become good all-rounders,’ Jodi acknowledged, explaining, ‘We feel that it helps overall morale if we can encourage every child to discover a field in which they can do well.’
‘I understand from our daughter that you’ve actually got parents putting their children’s names down for the school almost as soon as they are born.’
‘Well, perhaps not quite that,’ Jodi laughed, ‘but certainly we are finding that our reputation has been spread by word of mouth. We’re above the safety limit we need to satisfy the education authority as regards pupil numbers and likely to stay that way, unless, of course, the factory is closed down.’
Jodi gave Graham Johnson an uncertain look as she saw his expression.
‘The final decision with regard to that rests with Leo Jefferson,’ he told her gently, ‘which is why I’ve invited him to join us for dinner tonight. It was Nigel’s idea, and a good one. It might help matters if the two of you were to meet in an informal setting. I suspect that from a businessman’s point of view Leo Jefferson hasn’t really considered the effect a closure of the factory would have on the village school. And, of course, it isn’t inevitable that he will close down our factory. As I understand it, of the four he has taken over he only intends to close two.’
Jodi wasn’t really listening to him. She had stopped listening properly the moment he had said those dreadful words, ‘I’ve invited him to join us for dinner tonight’.
Leo Jefferson was coming here. For dinner. She was going to be forced to sit in the same room with him, perhaps even across the table from him.
She felt sick, faint, paralysed with fear, she recognised as the doorbell rang and Graham went to answer it.
Frantically she looked at the French windows, aching to make her escape through them, but it was already too late, Graham was walking back into the room accompanied by Leo Jefferson. The man she had spent the night with... Her lover!
* * *
Leo had been listening politely to his host as Graham showed him the way to the sitting room, opened the door and ushered Leo inside. He proceeded to introduce Leo to the other occupants of
the room, but the moment he had stepped through the door Leo stopped hearing a single word that Graham was saying as he stared in furious disbelief at Jodi.
She was standing by the French windows, looking for all the world like some martyr about to be taken away for beheading, her eyes huge with anguish and fear as she stared mutely at him.
What was going on? What was she doing here? And then Leo realised that Graham was introducing her to him as the local school’s head teacher.
He felt as though he had somehow strayed into some kind of farce. He accepted that things were different in the country, but surely not so damned different that a village headmistress moonlighted as a professional harlot!
The surge of furious jealousy that burst over the banks of his normal self-control bewildered him, as did the immediate antipathy he felt towards the man standing at her side.
‘And this is Nigel Marsh, my assistant and Jodi’s cousin,’ Graham Johnson was explaining.
Her cousin. To his own relief Leo felt himself easing back on his ridiculous emotions.
‘A little surprise for you!’ Nigel whispered to Jodi whilst Mary was talking to Leo.
Jodi gave him a wan smile.
‘Jodi, can I get you a drink?’ Graham was asking jovially.
‘I don’t usually drink, thank you,’ Jodi responded automatically, and then flushed a deep, rich pink as she saw the look that Leo Jefferson was giving her.
‘She’s always been strait-laced, even before she qualified as a teacher,’ Nigel informed Graham humorously. ‘Can’t think how we came to share the same gene pool. I’m always telling her that she ought to loosen up a little, enjoy life, let herself go.’
Jodi didn’t want to look at Leo Jefferson again, but somehow she couldn’t stop herself from doing so. To her shock he had moved closer to her, and whilst Nigel responded to something Mary was saying he leaned forward and whispered cynically to Jodi, ‘That’s quite a personality change you’ve managed to accomplish in less than twenty-four hours.’