by Penny Jordan
As it happened, Natasha had. The girls had taken her round it, and she had been amazed and awed at the work that must have gone into creating such a very pretty and English garden in such an alien landscape. A box hedge surrounded it, the paved walks enclosed with traditional border plants; there was a rose arbour covered in sweet-smelling damask roses and a clinging wisteria. There was even a herb garden, which Cherry had told her contained some of the plants originally used by their Indian ancestress.
In the evening the garden was an especial delight, its scents released into the night air. Natasha often went for a stroll around it before going to bed, but she suspected it wasn’t so much the scents that Jenneth wanted to enjoy as the solitude, and Jay’s company.
It was sheer devilment and nothing else that made Natasha reach out and place lightly constraining fingers on Jay’s arm, her pout almost matching Jenneth’s, as she murmured seductively, ‘Oh, darling, please stay here. I’ve seen so little of you today… I’m sure Jenneth, being such an old friend, will understand. Perhaps she could show Howie the garden, since she’s so familiar with it.’
Behind her Natasha just caught the sound of a stifled giggle, one of the twins, no doubt! At her side, she could feel the furious disbelief emanating from Jay, but oddly he didn’t say anything.
It was rather touching, that small vein of gentlemanly courtesy; of a code of behaviour now long dead running through the otherwise austere and ruthless harshness of his personality.
Much as he longed to deny the claims she was making on him, Natasha saw that he would not, not in public, at least. But there would be a reckoning to come. However, the presence of the twins made her feel safe, and if need be she could avoid Jay for long enough for his temper to have died down. The twins were quite right, anyway, she decided firmly. Jenneth was not the woman for him. She was too greedy, too grasping. In fact, she was surprised that Jay was deceived by her. How odd men were…leaping to totally erroneous conclusions on the smallest of evidence, and yet unable to see what lay plainly beneath their noses.
Howie was standing up, and Jenneth had no alternative but to go with him. The look she darted Natasha as she stalked past her promised retribution.
Smiling complacently, Natasha sat back in her chair. It was very pleasant here, sitting on the long porch, and enjoying the coolness of the evening breeze.
Her complacency vanished abruptly when, after a whispered conference, both the girls stood up.
‘We’re going to bed now,’ they claimed in unison. ‘We’re both tired.’
They were gone before Natasha could stop them; leaving her alone in the darkness with Jay.
Even with the width of the wicker table between them, she could feel the searing fury of his anger. She wanted to get up and run, but she didn’t think she had the nerve.
‘Now,’ he said menacingly, the soft, low sound of his voice reaching her through the half-lit darkness making her jump. ‘Perhaps you would care to tell me exactly what’s going on.’
She didn’t even think of lying to him; there was something too threatening and dangerous in the very quality of his stillness for her to do that.
‘The twins are frightened that you’re going to marry Jenneth. They wanted me to…’
‘Warn her off?’
It was too dark for her to make out his expression properly, but the grimness in his voice made her shiver violently, despite the warmth of the evening.
He got up and came slowly towards her, her own chair almost falling and trapping her as she jumped up too quickly, desperate to escape.
‘Oh no, you don’t!’ he rasped, grasping her arms painfully. ‘You might have got away with playing those tricks off on other men, but not with me you don’t. The way you were coming across all through dinner made it plain just what sort of relationship is supposed to exist between us. No one makes a fool out of me like that without paying for it, lady. Especially a little tramp who’s had more men in her bed than she can remember.’
She knew that he was going to kiss her, and instinctively jerked back from him.
‘Stop acting like a scared virgin. We both know I can make you want me…’
‘No!’ Natasha choked out the denial, infuriated by his claim, and yet knowing it held a grain of truth… It was only half a truth though; he wanted her too, no matter how much he might prefer to deny it. Hadn’t he already told her as much?
As though her denial, and the way she instinctively arched back in his hands to avoid any contact with his body brought out a latent well of savagery in him, he swore under his breath and dragged her against the hardness of his body.
The sheer bulk of his muscled frame pressing her back against the house wall made her panic. She struggled wildly, hitting out at him with bunched fists, adrenalin pumping fiercely through her veins as she responded to instincts as old as time, in her efforts to escape from his physical domination.
‘Stop it! Stop pretending you’re scared.’
His words reached her, but meant nothing… She wasn’t pretending! Why should she? She gave a frantic push that almost unbalanced him and then cried out in shock, the sound smothered against her lips by the hard pressure of his.
I can make you want me, he had claimed, and appallingly it was true. Her senses recognised him, wanted him, she realised as she froze in shock.
He made a sound in his throat, the pressure of his hands slackening, his fingers caressing where they had gripped. His mouth moved hungrily on hers, his tongue pushing fiercely past the barrier of her closed lips. He kissed her almost as though they were already lovers, she realised, and the sounds he was making against her mouth were a mixture of anguish and need. He wanted her… She felt it in the aroused movement of his body against hers.
Her breasts swelled and hardened, aching in a way that was totally unfamiliar. When he slid one hand over the silk of her top to caress her, her body arched instinctively to facilitate his movements.
She wanted him in a way she had never wanted any other man. She shuddered as the knowledge ripped through her.
Someone called Jay’s name. It took her several seconds to realise that it was Jenneth, and that the other couple were returning to the veranda. Almost as though it had taken him time to realise what was going on, Jay’s reactions were slow too, his movements slightly clumsy as he released her and pushed her away. Even in the darkness she could see the heavy rise and fall of his chest, hear the tortured sound of his breathing.
‘Damn you!’ he swore at her, wiping his hand across his mouth in much the same gesture that she had previously used to wipe his touch from hers. ‘Damn you to hell!’
She fled before the other couple reached them. Let Jay make whatever explanations he chose to the other woman. She no longer cared.
But she did care, Natasha recognised bleakly as she prepared for bed. She cared far too much…far, far too much.
* * *
‘UNCLE JAY’S gone to Dallas again. Do you think he’s meeting Jenneth?’ Cherry scowled horribly as she asked the question.
The twins and Natasha were sitting in Jay’s mother’s ‘English garden’.
‘I don’t know.’
Jay had paid several visits to Dallas since the débâcle of the dinner party. No one knew what had transpired between Jay and the woman whom the twins suspected was determined to become his wife, after the twins and Natasha had gone upstairs. Perhaps he had told Jenneth the truth: that she, Natasha, had simply been deliberately trying to stir up trouble between them by pretending to a relationship that did not, and never would exist.
‘You were great, Natasha. You did your best,’ Cherry comforted her. ‘But that Jenneth…’
‘I wish Uncle Jay really would fall in love with you and marry you,’ Rosalie interrupted, speaking almost fiercely. ‘And then you would always stay here…’
‘I’ll be here for six months out of every year,’ Natasha told her.
‘That’s not the same… If you and Uncle Jay were married then you would ha
ve babies, and we’d all be a real family…
Natasha didn’t know what to say.
‘Look, someone’s coming,’ Cherry announced.
A dust cloud along the straight road through to the ranch house confirmed her claim.
‘Let’s go and see who it is.’
Unwillingly, Natasha followed the two girls to the front of the house.
Jenneth was just stepping out of an expensive limousine. She was alone, Natasha noticed, sighing over the other woman’s elegance. She was dressed in jeans and a cotton top, whereas Jenneth was wearing a silk dress and a matching cocktail hat, her blonde hair pleated in a neat chignon.
‘I want to talk to Natasha alone,’ she announced, dismissing the twins with a regal wave of her hand. ‘Let’s go somewhere where we can’t be overheard, shall we?’ she suggested once they had gone.
The only place Natasha could think of was the English garden, and so, reluctantly, she led the way there. She could think of only one thing Jenneth would want to discuss with her. Jay must have told her the truth.
She sat down and waited for Jenneth to begin the attack.
She didn’t have to wait long.
‘Look, I know exactly what you’re doing out here,’ Jenneth told her acidly, ‘but you’re wasting your time. The old man might have hand-picked you to be Jay’s wife, but he won’t marry you.’ Her mouth curled scornfully. ‘Oh, you might think you fooled me with that idiotic little bit of by-play the other night, but I know Jay. He’s a man with strong passions…very strong passions… You’ve never shared those passions. Anyone can see that! I suppose that’s why Tip picked you.’ Her mouth curled bitterly again. ‘A virtuous English virgin for his only grandson. That would be typical of him and his dynastic ideas. But Jay won’t marry you, no matter how long you hang around…’
She paused to draw breath and Natasha got in quickly and coolly, ‘I presume when you say that you must be speaking from personal experience?’
Her dart hit home; a tide of angry colour swept over the other woman’s carefully made-up face. ‘All right, so Tip did manage to part us, but he wouldn’t have done it if it hadn’t been for that bitch, Helen, Nat’s wife. And believe me, the fact that Jay didn’t marry me won’t help you. He’s a romantic, you see, and he’s in love with a woman he can never have.’
She laughed triumphantly as she saw Natasha’s shock. ‘Oh, it’s true! I’m surprised you haven’t heard all about it. Quite a shock it all caused at the time. Two brothers both in love with the same woman. Two brothers—one married to her and one not. Oh, yes, it’s all true. She threw herself at Jay from the moment she arrived… Well, Nat never was the man that Jay is…and she soon realised that, when it came down to it, Jay was the one who would get the ranch. She almost succeeded as well. She and Jay were going to run off together.
‘She was going to leave here and get a divorce, and then she and Jay were going to get married. They had it all arranged, but then Nat found out and drove after her. He found her in Dallas just before she reached the border and forced her to come back with him. They had a fight. No one knows what really happened, but the car went off the road and both of them were killed.
‘So, you see, Jay will never marry now. His heart’s buried in Helen’s grave. Of course, he’s still a very…sensual man. He has his needs, needs that he can’t satisfy with a passionless woman like you.’
‘But that he can satisfy with you?’ Natasha interrupted quietly. ‘You’ve nothing to fear from me, Jenneth,’ she added in open disgust. ‘I wouldn’t lower myself to giving my body to a man who I knew was only using it to forget someone else.’
For the second time she saw ugly colour fill Jenneth’s face. In other circumstances she might have felt sorry for the older woman, but now, now she was too bitterly aware of her own pain, her own vulnerability.
Now so much that had been a mystery was explained. Now she suspected she knew exactly why Tip had made that will. He had known that Jay would never marry of his own volition. He had known that the woman his grandson loved was dead, and so he had brought her here, as bait; willing her half of his property so that Jay would… What? Marry her to regain it?
A bubble of mirthless laughter rose in her throat. Tip had made one vital miscalculation. He had forgotten the effect of his macho boasting and embellishment of their innocent relationship. Because he, like Jenneth, had seen instantly that she was sexually inexperienced, he had believed that Jay would see it, too. But Jay hadn’t. He only saw her as his grandfather’s leavings.
She couldn’t stay here now. She would have to leave. She bit her lip as she watched Jenneth stalk away, leaving behind her the venom of her sting, firmly implanted in Natasha’s heart. It would hurt to leave the twins. She would feel that she was letting them down, but she had no alternative.
She would forfeit her inheritance, but what did that matter? She had never wanted it in the first place. Never even remotely considered wanting it.
Only now, when she was contemplating the fact that very soon, very, very soon, she would never see Jay again, did she realise how much that would hurt. Perhaps it was as well that she was leaving, while she still could.
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘NATASHA, come downstairs! You’ve got a visitor.’
Cherry burst excitedly into the room where Natasha was sitting, thinking how best to write to her solicitor explaining the position she found herself in, and asking his advice on how she might renounce her unwanted inheritance, and yet preserve some rights towards remaining in contact with the twins.
After a good deal of long and painful thought, she had decided that this was her only course of action. She would have to leave Texas, but somehow she would see to it that she was able to remain in touch with the girls, thus ensuring that they didn’t lose complete faith in her.
For a moment her heart sank as she contemplated another venom-loaded interview with Jenneth, but then she realised Cherry’s enthusiasm hardly suggested that the other woman was her visitor. But who on earth would visit her out here?
As she followed Cherry downstairs, the girl refused to divulge the name or identity of the unknown caller, simply pushing open the door to the ranch’s main drawing-room so that Natasha could go in.
To her shock, standing in front of the huge fireplace was Adam!
The sight of him wearing one of his formal dark Savile Row suits, his eyes a little wary, was so unexpected that she forgot all the reservations she had previously had about him and hurried towards him, greeting him enthusiastically.
‘Adam! What brings you here?’
‘A client wanted me to accompany some antiques he bought, to make sure they arrived safely. I had some time to spare, so I thought I’d look you up.’ His eyes narrowed assessingly. ‘It’s quite some inheritance Tip left you.’
Instantly Natasha frowned. ‘How do you know about that?’
Adam shifted his weight from one foot to the other uncomfortably. ‘Oh, I must have heard it somewhere in Dallas. You know how people like to gossip.’
She did, and she also knew Adam—always the man for the main chance. Her mouth compressed a little. She was just about to tell him that he had wasted his time in coming out to see her, when a sudden thought struck her.
Fate had presented her with an ideal excuse for leaving Texas, and with her pride intact. She didn’t need to write to her solicitor about renouncing her inheritance. She could fly back to London with Adam and do it in person!
In fact…hot colour stung her cheeks as she recalled Jenneth’s acid comments about Tip’s plans for her. How many other people had put the same interpretation on his actions? How long would it be before one of them said something to Jay that would force him to see the truth: namely, that his grandfather had never viewed her in the light of his own bedmate, but as his grandson’s wife?
Where initially she had anticipated with relish his discovery of his misjudgement of her, now she dreaded it. The very last thing she wanted now was for Jay to realise
how lacking in sexual experience she really was, and to start pitying her for it. No, a little gentle flirtation with Adam as her willing partner was exactly what was needed right now. That way no one would be surprised when she announced she was flying back to London with him. She need not say when she would be coming back… Quickly her mind sifted through the possibilities, blocking out the scornful little voice that warned her that she was running away.
‘How long do you have to stay out here?’ Adam asked her. ‘There was some mention of a certain amount of time that had to be spent out here to fulfil the terms of the will.’
‘Oh, I can go home any time I want to, really,’ Natasha told him evasively. ‘In fact, I was thinking of making a flying visit quite soon.’ No need to tell him too much… ‘Perhaps I could go back with you?’
She slipped her arm through his and smiled up at him, hating herself for what she was having to do, but knowing that she must.
When his hand covered hers, hot and moist, she almost shuddered. His flesh felt so soft, so alien, so different from the callused hardness of Jay’s hand, she realised, mentally jerking away from the realisation like a frightened filly.
‘You know I’ve always liked you, Natasha. More than liked you… And not just because of the money. Come back with me and let me show you how much.’
It was more, much more than she had hoped for, and yet Natasha experienced a tiny frisson of distaste at the way she had manoeuvred him. It didn’t really help much, either, to remind herself that her main interest for him was her wealth. She hated using people. She always had but, if she stayed, how long would it be before Jay lost his temper with her again…before he touched her again, kissed her again? Her whole body burned violently. She closed her eyes, trying to blot out the memory of his mouth against hers, but the ensuing darkness only reinforced her tormenting mental images. He affected her as no man had ever affected her. She wanted him to touch her, to kiss her. She wanted that and she despised herself for it. She was too vulnerable to him.