Jennifer stared up at him for a moment, feasting her eyes on the man who had become so vital to her existence, and it was at that moment that she realised there was something different about him. He looked drawn and tired, with eyes that showed signs of lack of sleep, but this was no time to wonder at the reason, for his jaw was hardening with angry impatience.
'I discussed my departure with your mother, and that was sufficient, I thought,' she replied, moving away from his awe-inspiring nearness on legs that felt like jelly.
'So you left without so much as a goodbye,' he concluded harshly, following her across the room and giving her no time to regain her much needed composure.
'It was best that way.'
'Best for whom?'
'For all of us.'
'That was your opinion, of course,' he snarled at her.
What was he trying to do? she wondered when she found the courage to face him once more. Was he trying to destroy her? Her eyes travelled over him with barely concealed hunger, and there was that raw masculinity about him that never failed to stir her senses in a way that always alarmed her. The burning intensity of his eyes frightened her suddenly and, terrified of what he might see, she lowered her lashes.
'Stop splitting hairs, Hunter!' she exclaimed, resorting to anger as her only defence. 'If you hadn't made it quite clear to me before that I was unwelcome in your home, then you certainly succeeded on my last night at Vogelsvlei. I heard you telling your mother that you wanted me dismissed from my duties, and in the light of that information I didn't consider it necessary to consult you, nor to ask your permission to remove my unwanted presence from your farm.'
'Dammit, Jennifer, I could shake you!' His hands bit into her shoulders, inflicting a new kind of pain as he put his words into action and shook her until it felt as if her neck would snap before she found herself subjected to the dark fury of his glance. 'The word I used was released, not dismissed and, contrary to what you and my mother thought, my request was made in the hope of having you to myself more often.' He shook her again until she fell limply against him. 'Do you have any idea what I've been going through since I was given the news that you'd gone without so much as a word to me?'
She swallowed nervously, realising her mistake. 'I imagined you would be relieved.'
'Relieved?' he thundered at her, making her flinch.
'Yes, relieved,' she repeated, not quite succeeding in divesting her voice of that note of anguish.
'I feel like throttling you!' he grated harshly, and there was a dangerous look in his incredibly blue eyes when his hands slipped about her throat, his thumbs exerting a pressure that choked back her involuntary cry of fear. 'I've spent the last few days contemplating it,' he added threateningly, 'and it would give me the greatest pleasure now to put my thoughts into action!'
Jennifer wished desperately that she understood the reason for his anger as she managed to whisper, 'Hunter… please!'
'You would do well to be afraid, my dear Jennifer,' he warned, easing his hands away from her throat and allowing her to breathe more freely. 'And you can thank your lucky stars that I waited this long before coming here to see you.'
'Why did you come?' she asked hoarsely. 'To insult me for the last time before you finally leave me in peace?'
'I came because I've never wanted another woman the way I want you.'
There it was; direct and to the point, and so typical of Hunter, she thought, a cynical smile curving her soft mouth. 'Were you afraid that you might have missed out on something; something the others had had which I'd denied you?'
'For God's sake, Jennifer!' His eyes blazed down into hers, and he released her at once with a force that made her stagger backwards a pace. 'I don't care about the men in your past; I don't even care about the men in your present. All I want is to be the only man in your future.'
'I'm afraid that's impossible,' she replied, turning away from him with a measure of distaste.
'Why?' he rapped out the question.
'Several reasons,' she snapped, 'and one of them is Carte.'
'Carla is a grasping child playing at being an adult!' he told her harshly, and when she turned slightly to slant a glance up at him, he added savagely, 'She and Stanley have been in love with each other for years, but she imagined it would be more glamorous being mistress of Vogelsvlei, and it amused me to let her think she had a chance. If you must know it all, then I admit that I used her as a barrier against you.'
This disclosure did not surprise Jennifer as much as it might have done had she not suspected something of this nature for quite some time, but the latter part of his statement did have the power to shake her considerably as she discarded Carla mentally to divert their conversation along a different avenue.
'What about Louella?' she asked coldly.
Hunter removed his jacket and flung it across the back of a chair before replying. 'Louella was an acquaintance who put in an untimely appearance. She was the only card I had left eventually, and I played her for all I was worth.'
Jennifer was not quite sure where this conversation was leading, but her glance was accusing as she said: 'You went to her that night when we returned to the hotel.'
'When I left you in the foyer I went to the bar for a stiff whisky before I went up to my room… alone,' he explained with a hint of mockery in his voice. 'I telephoned her the next morning to tell her that I'd give her a lift to Plettenberg Bay if she still wanted it, and she accepted.'
'You decided to stay over in Plettenberg Bay because of her,' the words were torn from her lips, and the next moment his hands were heavy on her shoulders, swinging her round to face him, and his ferocious expression made her tremble with a new kind of fear.
'We stayed over in Plettenberg Bay because I'd hoped that, in those surroundings, I would have another opportunity to speak to you, to persuade you, if necessary, that I wouldn't be such a bad proposition, but instead of spending the evening with me, you picked up Dirk Pienaar.'
'I did not pick him up,' she contradicted fiercely. 'We met quite by chance that afternoon when I was on my way down to the beach, and when he asked me to dine with him, I accepted.'
'Jenny,' he began after an angry silence had prevailed, 'let's forget about everyone else, and talk about ourselves for a change.'
Jennifer's mind was in a turmoil. It was gratifying to know that Hunter wanted her despite the murky past he imagined she possessed, but that was not enough for her.
'I'm sorry, Hunter,' she said at last, twisting herself free of his grasp, 'but I can't accept whatever it is you're proposing.'
His eyes narrowed to angry slits once more. 'Why not?'
'Because I don't intend to go to bed with you as your mistress.'
His jaw hardened, and a tiny nerve pulsed against his left temple. She had seen it before, and it was a sure sign that he was furious, or emotionally disturbed, but as that moment she felt almost certain that he was both.
'I'm not asking you to become my mistress, Jennifer,' he replied savagely. 'I'm asking you to become my wife.'
His incredible statement seemed to hover in the air between them. She was tempted to grasp the offer like a drowning person grasped at a lifebelt, but there was a part of her that rejected what he was offering her. He was offering her marriage merely because he knew he could not have her any other way, and she was not prepared to accept that.
'I never thought you would ever go as far as asking a woman to marry you in your efforts to get what you wanted,' she remarked in a voice that was heavy with sarcasm, but she regretted it the next instant when his face became distorted with fury.
'Damn you, Jennifer! Give me a straight yes or no.'
'No!' she cried hoarsely, refusing him with her lips while with every part of her being she screamed the opposite.
He reached for her, but at that moment the doorbell rang, and she escaped from him to answer it, considering that she had been lucky so far, but the tension piled higher within her, for she had no doubt as to t
he identity of her caller.
'Jennifer, sweetheart!' Mike greeted her with his usual enthusiasm, pulling her into his arms to plant a friendly kiss on her cheek. 'You're like a breath of fresh air to a dying man,' he added dramatically, then his glance went beyond her towards the man who had been observing them with smouldering intent, and Mike drew an audible breath as his arms fell away from her. 'Oh, dear! I seem to have come at the wrong moment.'
'Come in,' said Jennifer, taking his arm and literally dragging him inside as some sort of protection. 'The more the merrier at the moment.'
'I was passing when I saw your light on, so I thought I'd come up for a chat before going home,' Mike explained, but Jennifer suspected that his explanation had been directed at Hunter, and not herself.
She knew that he had come out of concern for her, but Hunter would naturally never believe that.
'Do you make a habit of calling on Jennifer at this late hour for a… chat?' Hunter questioned sarcastically, and the atmosphere in her small lounge became electrifying as the two men faced each other.
'Now look here, Hunter, if you'll let me explain—'
'There's no need to explain,' Hunter interrupted Mike harshly, his tight-lipped expression forbidding. 'I understand the situation perfectly, but you may as well know that from this moment onwards Jennifer is no longer available to you. I've asked her to marry me.'
'And I've said no,' Jennifer intervened sharply, her eyes flashing with anger.
'And I don't intend to leave here this evening until she says yes,' Hunter continued as if she had not spoken.
'You have a nerve!' she exclaimed angrily, and Hunter, turned abruptly to direct the full fury of his gaze at her.
'I have plenty of nerve, and plenty of time, and you're going to give me the answer I want before I leave here tonight.'
'May I intrude for just a moment?' Mike's voice sliced through the angry silence which had followed Hunter's statement. 'There's one thing you ought to know, Hunter, and, knowing your determination, I'll offer it to you as a wedding present, if you like.'
Hunter turned his glowering glance on Mike. 'The only reason why I'm going to listen is because I like your reference to a wedding present.'
'What I want to say is this,' Mike began before Jennifer had the opportunity to stop him. 'Jennifer and I have known each other for seven years now, and she saw right through me from the start. She's always known me too well to take any amorous advances I may have made seriously, and I've always respected her too much to lure her into bed with me.' Jennifer felt a wave of embarrassing heat sweep up into her face as Mike smiled crookedly and added: 'No one, I'm sure, has had that privilege yet.'
'That's enough, Mike!' she said abruptly, aware of the intensity of Hunter's gaze as it travelled over her, and she turned away from them both to walk towards the window where the cool night air gently brushed against her inflamed cheeks. Tears stung her eyelids, but she blinked them away rapidly, not daring to let them spill over for fear of further humiliation.
'Send me a wedding invitation, will you?' she heard Mike say, and moments later the front door closed behind him. The silence in the room was strained all at once, and it was broken only by the frightened thudding of her heart. She was afraid of Hunter, but she was more afraid of herself, and she was aware of him now with every fibre of her being as she approached her. She felt the heat of his body against her back, and then his hands were on her shoulders, turning her to face him. Her eyes were defiant when they met his, but it was the hard, unrelenting line of his jaw that made her realise exactly what she was up against. His thumbs moved against the sensitive hollows at the base of her throat where her pulse was beating fast and erratic, and his sensual touch was arousing emotions she was finding desperately hard to suppress.
'Jenny…'
'You're wasting your time,' she said jerkily.
'I love you.'
'I don't care! I'm not going to—' His words penetrated at last, leaving her to wonder incredulously whether she had suddenly gone quite mad. 'What did you say?' she asked in no more than a hoarse whisper.
'I want you, I need you, I love you, and I'm damned if I'm going to let you go until you say you'll marry me,' he elaborated harshly, his hands no longer caressing, but punishing against her shoulders as he dragged her up against him with a fierceness that was a sweet agony. 'You tore the heart out of me that first day we met,' he blazed down at her, 'and since then I've had to fight every inch of the way for my existence. You've frustrated and infuriated me, and I've spent most of my days and nights in a jealous rage, wanting you, yet damned if I would share you. I've hated myself, and I've hated you, but these last few days at Vogelsvlei without you have been sheer hell.'
The most exquisite happiness surged through her, warming her chilled heart, and lighting a glow within her that spread to her eyes. 'Hunter…'
'You've become the essence of my life, Jenny,' he continued as if she had not spoken, 'and it took these past few days without you to make me realise that, no matter what you are, or what you've been, my life would be worthless without you.'
'Don't say any more… please,' she begged, his tortured expression wrenching at her heart. 'I'm to blame for many of the opinions you formed of me, but there's one thing you must believe.' The colour deepened in her cheeks, but she withstood the probing intensity of his eyes. 'I've never slept with a man before,' she said unsteadily. 'Never, Hunter. Not even once.'
'God, Jennifer,' he groaned, and there was something close to remorse in the way he looked at her that told her he believed her, and, tightening his arms about her, he buried his face against her pulsating throat. 'I owe you an apology, and I don't quite know where to begin.'
'Hush!' she whispered urgently, finding it oddly disquieting to see him humbled in this manner, and slipping her arms about his waist, she pressed closer to him and said the words she had whispered so many times before into the darkness of her lonely room. 'I love you, Hunter.'
He raised his head and, for the first time, she held his glance without hiding what was in her heart. His eyes, too, were saying the most incredibly wonderful things.
'Do you love me enough to marry me?' he asked.
'Yes,' she replied without further hesitation.
She slid her hands upwards across his back towards his shoulders, and felt the muscles ripple and harden beneath her touch. His deep blue eyes were almost black now with the intensity of his emotions, and then his mouth was ravaging her willing lips, plundering their softness with a hunger that matched her own. Their arms tightened about each other, as if they could not bear to let anything come between them, until desire, sharp and sweet, made them draw a little apart. Jennifer's face was flushed, and her eyes glowed with a happiness she knew she could never put into words, but one look at her was enough to make Hunter draw a sharp breath before he moulded her to the hard length of his body once more. It was a long time before he released her again, and this time she was not only flushed, but breathless and trembling with the force of the emotions he had aroused within her.
'I almost forgot,' he said, moving away from her towards the large flat box he had flung so angrily into a chair on his arrival. 'I have something for you.'
The box exchanged hands, and while she undid the wrapping Hunter eased his great length on to her small sofa and watched her from beneath lowered lids with a faint smile playing about his hard mouth.
Jennifer finally lifted the lid and carefully removed the layer of tissue paper. What she saw made her heart leap wildly into her throat, and her hands were shaking almost uncontrollably when she lifted out the ostrich feather cape and held it up before her. It was made from the white plume feathers of the male ostrich, but what caught her enchanted attention were the spotted plumes which had been sewn in to form a perfect border around the outer edge of the magnificent cape.
'Oh, Hunter, it's beautiful!' she whispered, her heart too full to say much more as she ran her hands lightly and caressingly over the soft feathers.
'This is another reason why I waited so long before coming here to see you,' he explained. 'Danny's wife is pretty good with this sort of thing, and she hadn't finished it yet when you left so unexpectedly, but I practically had her working round the clock these last few days to complete it for you.'
Jennifer went weak with love for him. 'Do you know what Agnes said when she saw these spotted plumes?' she asked, and when he shook his head she said: 'She claimed it was a sign that you would be married before the end of this year, and it seems that she was right after all.'
'Damn right!' Hunter agreed, his glittering glance travelling over her with, a certain intimacy which set her nerves quivering responsively. 'Come here, woman. I want you.'
He gave her no opportunity to refuse. His fingers latched on to her wrist, and she was pulled down roughly on to the sofa beside him. His mouth came down on to hers before she had time to draw breath, and her lips were not unwilling when he brushed them apart with his. With his body he forced her into the corner of the sofa, and then his hands were travelling over her in a sensual caress that did not fail to arouse her. His fingers pulled the pins from her hair, and when it cascaded down on to her shoulders he buried his face in its fragrant silkiness.
'I have instructions to take you back to Vogelsvlei with me tomorrow,' he finally told her, his lips moving warm and urgently against her throat where her pulse was throbbing with primitive haste.
'It seems to me your mother was very sure you would succeed in your quest,' she murmured unsteadily, running her hands lovingly over his crisp, dark hair until her fingers came to rest against the back of his strong neck.
'I was practically ordered not to return if I failed.'
Jennifer laughed softly. 'I can almost believe that, but 'what about my job?'
'It took a little persuasion, but my aunt, in her capacity as Matron, has agreed to sign your release papers,' he said, and this explained Matron Griffiths' reluctance to see her that morning.
The Spotted Plume Page 16