The Friendship Barrier

by Penny Jordan

  ‘Shush… it’s all right. I just don’t want to hurt you. You taste of honey and strawberries,’ he murmured, bending over her, letting his mouth drift across her skin. ‘I could almost eat you.’ His teeth nipped gently at the curve of her breast and she arched up in a mute plea, trembling with the force of her emotions.

  ‘Stephanie…’ Her name seemed to come from deep inside him, the sound spilling out from his throat, and then lost against her skin, as his hands slid to her hips and his mouth moved caressingly downwards, tasting every tremulous satin inch. Her nails raked against his shoulder, her gasps of pleasure filling the thick silence enveloping them, as his teeth nipped gently against her inner thigh and she cried out her need to touch and kiss him as intimately as he was doing to her.

  ‘I want it all, Stephanie,’ Jake told her hoarsely, his lips now against her mouth, ‘everything…’

  He broke off to groan in protest as she moved down his body to scatter wild kisses along his thighs, pulling her into his arms and silencing her protests as his mouth ground down on hers, his body shuddering with the force of his desire.

  Stephanie melted mindlessly against him, aware of the hard warmth of his chest crushing her breasts; the heat of his thighs as they parted her own, her body lifting and arching, wanting his possession.

  ‘Now, Jake, please now,’ she demanded huskily, pressing her mouth to his skin with feverish urgency, and as though her words were what he had been waiting to hear, he surged against her.

  His mouth on hers absorbed her brief cry of surprised pain just as his body carried her through it to an exploding crescendo of pleasure; a pinnacle almost too beautiful to endure, so perfect that it could not last, and had to be allowed to shatter into a downward glide back to normality.

  ‘Jake…’

  She wanted to ask him if he was free now, but her voice was slurred. Her eyes stung with silly tears and, as though he knew they were there, Jake bent his head, licking her face dry with the rough warmth of his tongue. ‘Go to sleep.’ His voice was thick with emotion. ‘We’ll talk in the morning.’

  She pulled away from him, intending to reach for her robe and go back to her own room, but his arm tightened round her waist, his other hand pushing her face back into the curve of his body.

  ‘Where do you think you’re going?’

  ‘Back to my room. You told me to go to sleep…’

  ‘Tonight you’re not sleeping anywhere but in my arms. I need to feel you there, Stephanie, just to reassure myself that it wasn’t all a dream. Stay with me.’

  As though she had ever wanted to leave! Dear God, how was she going to live without him? His lovemaking had been a revelation; a banquet of sensations that would always remain sharply clear in her mind and after which starvation was preferable to trying to sublimate the hunger for him with anyone else.

  * * *

  ‘Stephanie… time to wake up…’

  Drowsily, she burrowed into her pillow away from the soft male voice tempting her to quit sleep.

  ‘Stephanie.’

  Firm hands touched her shoulder and then withdrew and she opened her eyes grudgingly She had liked that brief touch but she would have liked more, and then, as Stephanie opened her eyes properly and saw Jake standing by the bed, already dressed in a thin cotton shirt and tight-fitting jeans, the last vestiges of sleep fled. She struggled to sit up, and then subsided beneath the quilt as she realised that she wasn’t wearing anything. The flush of colour that this knowledge brought was soon superceded by a far more intense surge of embarrassment as memories of the previous night came flooding back.

  ‘Jake…’

  ‘I’ve brought you a cup of coffee,’ he told her easily, apparently oblivious to her embarrassment. ‘You’ve got half an hour before Brice arrives.’

  ‘I’ll get dressed… as soon as you’ve gone.’ She hunted wildly for some signs of her clothes and then remembered that she was in Jake’s room

  ‘Gone?’ His eyebrows rose, his eyes mocking her. Everthing about him this morning seemed to glow with an electric energy that, for some reason, she resented. He seemed more vitally alive than usual, amusement deepening the creases at the corners of his mouth as he watched her.

  ‘Oh, so you’re a grouch, first thing in the morning, are you? Well, I do believe I know a cure for that, but unfortunately, right now, we don’t have time. Remind me to show it to you later.’

  ‘Jake, about last night…’ She couldn’t put it off any longer. Not when she was lying naked in his bed, her body still sensitised by his lovemaking, her skin still flushed and bruised…

  Jake moved, putting the mug of coffee on the bedside table next to her, his collar pulling away from his throat and Stephanie felt as though her whole body were burning with shamed embarrassment as she saw the faint tell-tale marks on his skin.

  ‘Left your mark on me, well and truly, didn’t you?’ His teeth gleamed in amusement as he caught the direction of her transfixed stare. ‘Stephanie,’ he murmured in a different tone, ‘we have to talk. I know you’re not indifferent to me—last night proved that.’ Stephanie forced herself to keep her gaze fixed rigidly on the third button of his shirt, willing herself not to give way to the humiliation she could feel rising inside her in an inescapable tide. Had he guessed that she loved him? She couldn’t endure his pity.

  Fingers clenching into her palms, she said in a stilted voice, ‘We can’t talk now, Jake. Brice will be arriving. You said so yourself. What happened last night wa… happened… I don’t want to talk about it… I think perhaps we were both a little mad… These things happen, and I don’t suppose either of us would deny that there are deep emotional ties linking us… Mainly because of… of my being attacked. I’ve been selfish I know, never stopping to think of the effect it might have had on you. I…’

  ‘Enough.’

  She practically jumped when Jake’s hard, angry voice cut through her stilted sentences. He moved towards the bed, leaning towards her, supporting himself on rigid arms as he stared angrily down into her face, all his earlier humour gone. ‘I don’t pretend to know what you’re trying to say to me, Stephanie… You can theorise and analyse as much as you like, but that doesn’t detract one single jot from the fact that, last night…’ he swore suddenly, his ears picking up the sound of a car before hers did.

  ‘That sounds like Brice,’ he told her, ‘but don’t think I’m letting it end here. We’ll talk about it tonight.’

  He left her before she could speak, and when she heard him talking to Brice outside, she hurried into her own room, showering and dressing almost haphazardly. She had been saved from further humiliation now by Brice’s arrival, but the threat still hung over her. What did Jake intend to say to her tonight? That he realised how she felt? That he felt sorry for her? A small moan forced itself through her clamped throat. Last night, in her urgent impulse to free Jake from what she had perceived as the prison she had unwittingly put him in she had never stopped to consider that she might be betraying herself to him. She couldn’t deceive Jake, he knew her too well. He was bound to ask himself why she had responded to him so eagerly, far too eagerly for someone who was simply trying to help a friend. And then what? Then she would be forced to endure his pity, and possibly that of Susy as well when the two of them eventually got together.

  ‘Stephanie, are you ready yet?’

  His query put an end to further heart-searching. Downstairs she found both men in the kitchen. Jake was busy making toast, and pushed a plate of it towards her as she walked in.

  ‘Sorry about this,’ he apologised to Brice, ‘but I’m afraid we overslept a little this morning.’

  The atmosphere in the small kitchen suddenly became tense with a hundred unspoken thoughts. Stephanie willed herself not to blush as Brice looked at her. If Jake had shouted from the top of the stairs that they were lovers, he could have hardly made it plainer, Stephanie thought bitterly. What on earth had got into him? He was normally so discreet and close-mouthed about his personal a
ffairs. It was almost as though he wanted Brice to know what had happened between them. She pushed away her toast uneaten, suddenly feeling acutely sick.

  ‘I’m not hungry,’ she told him listlessly. ‘I don’t want to hold you up…’

  ‘Where do you want to start?’ Brice asked, diplomatically, glancing from Stephanie’s pale face to Jake’s hard one. ‘I’ve arranged a meeting for you at twelve with the lawyers, and then there’s lunch afterwards. I’m afraid you and I aren’t included in that,’ he apologised to Stephanie, ‘only because we didn’t realise you would be coming.’

  ‘That’s all right. It will give me an opportunity to do some sightseeing.’ She was speaking for the sake of speaking, but jumped and was completely surprised when Brice said eagerly, ‘Well, if that’s the case, you must let me be your guide. No, I insist,’ he continued when she opened her mouth to refuse. ‘Miami isn’t exactly the safest place in the world. I’m sure Jake wouldn’t want you wandering around all by yourself.’ His eyebrows rose as he looked at Jake for confirmation, but the grey eyes were hooded and cold.

  ‘Stephanie must do whatever she wishes,’ he said curtly. ‘Personally, I would have thought there was enough to keep her entertained here without her having to go to Miami.’

  In normal circumstances, Stephanie could have thought of nothing more enjoyable than spending the day exploring the site and the shore beyond it, but today, some perverse inclination made her say stubbornly, ‘No, I’d be bored here. I’d rather go to Miami…’

  If the truth were known she was afraid to stay behind because if she stayed she wouldn’t be able to stop remembering last night… the heated urgency of Jake’s lovemaking… the sounds of need and hunger he had stifled against her skin, and the pleasure he had taken in eliciting complementary sounds of need from her. Against her will, she felt her body respond to those memories, her breast swelling, her nipples taut against the thin silk of her bra. As though he knew exactly what was happening to her, Jake’s head turned, his eyes inspecting her slowly. All the strength and breath seemed to drain out of her, leaving her limp, and yet aching with a curious emptiness.

  ‘Are you sure you really want to go to Miami? You don’t look up to it to me.’

  Stephanie hoped that Brice wouldn’t interpret the sexually loaded tone of Jake’s voice as easily as she could. Even the way Jake was looking at her was a smouldering reminder of last night. Her legs were boneless and she just about managed to stop herself from turning to him.

  ‘I’m fine,’ she lied brittly, ‘absolutely fine.’

  ‘You know best,’ Jake’s tone suggested that she knew nothing of the sort, but Stephanie ignored it, following both men out to the car. This time, Jake didn’t sit in the back with her, for which she was heartily grateful.

  This time, she was more aware of the scenery as they drove back along the route they had travelled the previous evening. Jake had decided that they would leave a full examination of the site until the following day. As they arrived in Miami with an hour to spare before his interview, Brice took them both into his office, introducing them to some of his staff. ‘I’ve got some PR stuff to show you, but we’ll wait for that until the contract’s finally signed. What do you think of the villas now that you’ve spent the night in one?’

  ‘They’re fine—as far as I can judge, but I’ll want an independent surveyor’s report before the contract’s signed. That’s something I’ve already organised from the London end though, so you don’t need to concern yourself with that.’

  ‘Well, I hope all goes well,’ Brice smiled when the three of them stood in the foyer of the lawyer’s building. ‘Stephanie and I will see you back here at about three, if that’s okay?’

  ‘Fine,’ Jake sounded terse, but Stephanie suspected it was because his mind was on the coming interview. He probably didn’t mean to be curt with Brice, but that was how he came across, and she felt slightly uncomfortable as she accompanied Brice out into the late autumn sunshine.

  ‘Quite a man, your boss,’ he commented, smiling at her, ‘but then, I guess you don’t need me to tell you that?’

  With those few words, Stephanie knew that Brice was aware of the relationship between Jake and herself, and she bit her lip, not knowing what to say.

  ‘I meant it—about that job offer I mean,’ he said quietly, as he guided her towards his parked car. ‘If you should ever want a job, it’s there.’

  ‘What makes you think I might?’ Her throat was tight with pain and tears she dared not shed.

  ‘Oh, something that tells me that you’re not the sort of girl to have an affair with her boss because she thinks it might advance her career. Leaving that aside, and in view of Jake’s manner this morning, I guess you must be in love with the guy and…’

  ‘And you also managed to deduce that he isn’t in love with me, otherwise he’d never have let you see that,’ Stephanie struggled for the words, and then managed, ‘that we spent the night together…’

  ‘Hey now, hold on one second,’ Brice protested, helping her into the car, and then manoeuvring it out into the busy, pre-lunchtime traffic. ‘I never said that at all. All Jake did was let me know that you weren’t available—a pretty natural reaction if you’re involved with him. It was your expression that told me that you might be grateful for a hole to bolt into. I’m not going to pry,’ he added, when he saw her white, tense face, ‘all I am saying is that if you want a change of scene—for whatever reason, I’d like first refusal.’

  ‘On what?’

  ‘What?’ Brice’s eyes narrowed. ‘On your services as a secretary,’ he told her quietly. ‘You see, I know how high Jake’s standards are. If you’re good enough for him, you must be first rate, and a first-rate secretary is something I could use.’

  ‘What’s the matter with whoever you’ve got working for you now?’

  ‘Oh, she’s fallen in love with me,’ he told her casually, ‘and being in love and efficiency just don’t go together…’

  At his side, Stephanie stiffened. Were all men callous and unfeeling? ‘She’s fallen in love with me,’ he had said as though he were talking about nothing more important than the weather.

  Brice must have registered her tension because he glanced at her and said disarmingly, ‘Don’t look like that. I guess I’ve put it badly. Perhaps I should have told you first, that I’ve fallen in love with her, and that my efficiency’s gone to pot as well.’ He grinned ruefully at her. ‘We’re getting married next month, and when we do, she says I’ve got to find another secretary.’

  Stephanie managed to laugh, but it was a high, strained sound.

  ‘Look, why don’t I take you to meet her?’ Brice suggested. ‘I’ve given her the day off and she said she’d spend it in the house we’ve bought. I’d like her to meet you.’

  ‘To give me her seal of approval as a potential substitute?’ Stephanie asked drily. That seemed to be her role in life at the moment. Substituting for other and more dearly loved women.

  ‘All right,’ she conceded. It was a way of passing the time… of trying to tame her chaotic thoughts while she decided how she could avoid the “talk” Jake had said they were going to have, and which she would give anything to avoid.

  CHAPTER TEN

  STEPHANIE noticed the dark clouds massing on the horizon as they drove out of town, but thought nothing of it until Brice said worriedly, ‘I hope that isn’t the tail end of Hurricane Elaine we can see building up over there.’

  ‘Hurricane Elaine?’ Stephanie’s alarm showed in her voice.

  ‘Don’t worry. It’s not quite as bad as it sounds. By rights we’re out of the hurricane season now, but Elaine’s proving somewhat capricious. It said on the radio this morning that she wasn’t going to hit Miami, but those clouds up ahead don’t look too promising.’

  His comment did nothing to calm Stephanie’s fears. ‘Do you think we ought to turn back?’ she asked uncertainly. ‘Jake…’

  ‘I doubt we’ll get more than a bad rainstor
m,’ Brice soothed. ‘If you like, we’ll ring for a weather check once we reach the house. It’s not far now.’

  The house Brice and his fiancée had bought was in a small township seventy miles from Miami. A pretty blonde-haired girl came running out on to the drive when Brice pulled up outside, and Stephanie felt a sharp stab of envy pierce her when she and Brice embraced.

  ‘Honey, I think I’ve found your replacement,’ Brice announced when he eventually released her. Feeling awkward and embarrassed, Stephanie was conscious of being surveyed by a pair of warm, brown eyes.

  ‘No way,’ came the firm response, ‘she’s far, far too pretty, Brice.’

  ‘She’s also in love with someone else, isn’t that so, Stephanie?’ Brice asked her. ‘Hollie, honey, Stephanie here works for Jake Lorrimer. You remember, the English guy…’

  ‘Of course I do. Who could forget a man like Jake?’ She rolled her eyes and smiled warmly at Stephanie. ‘Come on in. I’ll make us all a cup of coffee; not that you deserve one,’ she teased Brice, ‘driving beautiful women all over the estate whilst I’m slaving away here, trying to get this place cleaned up before we move in.’

  Stephanie took to Hollie Brewster straight away, and found herself responding to her warm friendliness. It was Hollie who kicked Brice warningly under the table when he started to explain why Stephanie might want to change her job, giving Stephanie an understanding look as she did so.

  ‘I don’t like the look of those clouds,’ she commented reinforcing Stephanie’s earlier fears. ‘They’ve been building up all day. Have you noticed how quiet it’s gone outside?’

  ‘I’ll ring the weather centre. I meant to do it before.’

  While he was gone, Hollie poured them all a fresh cup of coffee. ‘I’m as thrilled as can be that we’ve found this house,’ she confided in Stephanie. ‘Brice owns an apartment in Miami, but it’s not a place to bring up kids, and I aim to have at least two. Would you be seriously interested in working over here?’