by Kay Thorpe
Ross grasped the hand held out to him. ‘Thanks for coming, Sam. It can’t have been easy.’
The shrug was brief. ‘What is? I’ll catch your mother on the way out. Keep in touch.’
‘He lost his wife last year,’ Ross explained as the older man wended his way through the throng. ‘As Hollywood marriages go, theirs was one of the rare exceptions.’
‘You don’t think he’ll ever marry again?’ Gina murmured.
‘Doubtful. Although there are plenty would be more than willing.’
Gina could imagine. The head of a leading studio would be some catch! She felt a sudden wave of self-disgust; she was turning into a real cynic herself. The sooner she was on that plane heading homewards, the better.
‘I owe you an apology,’ said Ross unexpectedly. ‘I was pretty rotten to you when you first arrived.’
Green eyes met grey, striving to conceal her inner emotions. ‘Nothing I couldn’t handle.’
‘So I discovered. I doubt if anything could faze you.’
He didn’t know the half of it, she thought. ‘I try not to let it,’ she returned. ‘Shouldn’t you be circulating?’
‘I’ve spoken with everyone I need to. Some of them are here uninvited anyway.’ He indicated an unoccupied sofa near by. ‘Why don’t we sit down for a few minutes? It’s been a long day.’
Gina couldn’t argue with that. She felt bone weary. Ross seized two cups of coffee from the trolley being wheeled around the assembly, depositing them on the low table in front of the sofa to take a seat alongside her.
‘Better,’ he said.
‘Much,’ Gina agreed. ‘A good thing you decided to hold this inside. The heat out there would have been too much.’ She viewed the spacious, luxuriously furnished living room. ‘Do you think your mother will stay on here?’
‘It’s a question I’ve already asked myself,’ he said. ‘She’d be better off taking an apartment, where she’d be among people. Whether she’ll be ready to do that is something else. She and Oliver spent the whole of their married life together in this house. Not the same one he shared with your grandmother,’ he added.
Gina cast an oblique glance at him as he lifted the coffeecup to his lips, devouring the clean lines of his body in the black suit, the strongly defined contours of his face.
‘Does Roxanne always stay here when she’s in town?’ she asked, needing some distraction.
‘When it suits.’ There was a sudden harder note to his voice. ‘Roxanne does what’s best for Roxanne.’
‘That doesn’t sound very brotherly.’
‘Siblings aren’t always compatible. We live very different lives. The odds against the two of you getting on were pretty high.’
Gina shot him another glance. ‘Why do you say that?’
‘Ideals. You have them, Roxanne doesn’t. None that I’ve gleaned, anyway.’
People were beginning to show signs of leaving. He put the cup down and got to his feet again. ‘I’d better go and do the honours.’
Gina retired to the terrace until it was over, taking stock of what he’d said about his sister. It had come as something of a shock, she had to admit. Whatever her own opinion of the woman, she would have anticipated a very different attitude from him. It was almost as though he despised her.
Something radical had to have happened between the two of them to cause such a reaction. Not that she was ever likely to find out; she wasn’t even sure she’d want to. In a day or two she’d be gone, and could put the whole thing behind her.
It wasn’t going to be that easy, she knew. Ross had made too much of an impression to be cast from mind. She’d known the first moment she set eyes on him that it was going to be like that. It happened sometimes; she’d just never expected it to happen to her.
One thing she was pretty certain of: while he’d mellowed towards her on a general front, that was as far as it went for him. No surprise there. She had nothing at all in common with the kind of women he was accustomed to.
Elinor had apparently retired from the fray when she made her way back indoors again, leaving Ross to deal with the remaining stragglers. A glass still in hand, Roxanne viewed her with open contempt.
‘There’s nothing for you to hang around for now,’ she said. ‘Why not book yourself a flight home?’
‘I intend to,’ Gina told her levelly. ‘First thing in the morning.’
‘What’s wrong with tonight?’
‘I’m tired.’
‘You mean you’re hoping my mother is going to beg you to stay on!’ The striking face was hard set. ‘Don’t think I’m blind to the way you’ve been sucking up to her!’
‘I’ve been doing the job you should have been doing,’ Gina retorted bitingly, unable to hold back under the onslaught. ‘Trying to offer some comfort.’
‘I don’t need you to tell me how to act,’ came the scathing reply.
‘Somebody should.’
‘What’s going on?’ asked Ross, approaching unnoticed by either of them. He looked from one to the other, brows lifted. ‘So?’
‘I suggested it was time she thought about going home, that’s all,’ said his sister.
‘It’s up to Gina to decide for herself,’ he stated flatly. ‘You could say she’s more right to be here than any of us.’
‘That’s garbage!’
‘It’s immaterial,’ Gina put in firmly before Ross could answer. ‘Anyway, I’m going up to change.’
‘Good idea,’ he said. ‘Oliver would probably have disapproved of the black to start with. He always thought the Irish had the right idea when it came to funerals.’ He eyed his sister, expression hardening. ‘Are you planning on staying?’
‘I’m not planning on going anywhere until I know how I stand,’ she retorted.
‘Now, why would I think otherwise?’
Gina left them to it. Whatever the source of their alienation, it wasn’t her business. Gaining the privacy of her room, she stood for a moment or two to collect herself. It was already coming up to six o’clock, which meant they’d been on the go for almost eleven hours. A well-organised eleven hours, perhaps, but no less draining. Elinor must be feeling totally done in.
It was going to be hard leaving her too. They’d become close over the past days. Elinor hadn’t said a word against her daughter, though the latter’s neglect must have hurt. Roxanne was only interested in what was good for Roxanne, Ross had said. She could believe it.
A needle-like cold shower went some way towards a physical refreshment. The lounging trousers and matching loose top she donned had been worn before, but her wardrobe had been meant to see her over two or three days at the most, not a week or more. The dress she’d worn that day was the one she’d worn that first evening here, with a silky black jacket concealing the low-cut neckline. She could have bought more clothes, of course, only what would have been the point?
She found Ross on his own downstairs. He’d changed from the black suit into cream trousers and shirt.
‘Drink?’ he asked.
‘Just orange juice, please,’ she said.
‘Still keeping a clear head?’
‘Still recovering from the whisky you gave me,’ she countered. ‘Is your mother coming down?’
‘Shortly.’ He brought the glass across. ‘Roxanne won’t be joining us. She decided there were far more entertaining places to be downtown.’
‘Has she always been like that?’ Gina asked after a moment.
‘Self-centred?’ He lifted his shoulders. ‘As far back as I can remember. Having Oliver as a father did her no good at all. He was so anxious for her to accept him, he indulged her every whim.’
‘Did he indulge you too?’
‘He didn’t need to. We hit it off from the start. He’d always wanted a son. Maybe if you’d been a boy…’ He left it there with another brief shrug. ‘We’ll never know, will we?’
There was a pause before he spoke again, his regard steady. ‘You’ve been a godsend this last week. Don’t
think it isn’t appreciated.’
‘I did nothing special,’ she protested.
‘You were there for my mother when she needed the kind of support only another woman can provide. You encouraged her to let it all out instead of bottling it up the way she probably would have done. If Roxanne…’ He broke off again, shaking his head. ‘What’s the point?’
Gina bit back the question trembling on the tip of her tongue. Her involvement with this family was over. It had to be over.
She had to keep reminding herself of that throughout the evening. Pale but composed, Elinor accepted her daughter’s absence with a wry expression that made Gina seethe at the latter’s total lack of filial feeling. None of them ate a great deal, and she was unsurprised when Elinor retired almost immediately after the meal.
‘I think I might have an early night myself,’ she said into the silence that followed her departure.
‘Stay a while,’ Ross requested softly. ‘I don’t feel like being on my own.’
Meeting the grey eyes, Gina subsided back into her seat. ‘It must have been hard,’ she said, ‘to keep up the front all week.’
His smile was faint. ‘Pretty hard, yes.’
‘I never could understand why men feel they have to keep their emotions under wraps.’
‘Childhood conditioning.’ There was a pause, a change of tone. ‘What was your initial reaction when you got Oliver’s letter?’
‘Disbelief,’ she acknowledged. ‘I was sure there must be some mistake.’
‘It made no difference to your feelings for the Saxtons?’
‘Of course not. There’s more to parenthood than just giving birth. They’ve been wonderful parents.’
‘Are they in a position to help you buy your way out of this partnership?’
Brought up short, Gina took a moment or two to gain a hold on herself. ‘What makes you think I want out?’ she demanded.
Ross lifted his shoulders. ‘Instinct. You’re unwilling to talk about the business, and you obviously don’t have much of a regard for your partner outside of it.’
‘That’s very little to go on.’
‘But you can’t deny it.’
Green eyes flared, the anger overtaken almost immediately by wry acknowledgement as they held the steady grey gaze. ‘All right, I can’t deny it. And yes, I suppose they would be in a position, if I were willing to ask them. It was my mistake. I’ll deal with it.’
‘You’re a one-off, do you know that?’ he said softly. ‘In this part of the world, at any rate.’
Gina felt her pulse rate shoot into overdrive as he got to his feet and came over to where she sat. She made no protest when he drew her from the chair, going into his arms without thought of anything beyond this moment.
His mouth was gentle at first, seeking rather than demanding, hardening to passion by slow degrees as the response built in her. It was what she had wanted all week: what she had wanted since the moment she set eyes on him, if she was honest about it. Nothing else mattered right now but the need he was arousing in her, the overwhelming desire to be closer still. He felt the same way, that was obvious. For the moment, at any rate.
She had a brief moment of sanity on the way to her room, but it didn’t last. The feel of him at her side, the hand so strong and firm on hers, the subtle masculine scent of him, were enough to drive all other considerations into oblivion.
They undressed each other between kisses, scattering garments behind them as they moved inexorably towards the bed. Ross stood for a moment to view her as she lay nude on the silken cover, eyes travelling the length of her slender curves.
‘You’re beautiful,’ he breathed.
Magnificent, was the adjective that sprang to her mind as she studied him in turn. His body was honed to a peak of fitness, chest broad and deep, narrowing down to waist and hip, the muscle ribbed across his stomach. The wiry curls of hair covering his chest were marginally lighter in colour than those enclosing the essence of his manhood.
He lay down at her side on the bed, propping himself on an elbow to watch her face as he drifted a fingertip down between her breasts and over the fluttering plane of her stomach with exquisite sensitivity. Gina felt the spasms start deep, her thighs parting of their own accord to allow him free access to the moist centre he sought.
She was ready for him now, but he was in no hurry to seek release for himself, making her writhe and arch in a mixture of agony and ecstasy—drawing moan after moan from her throat as he took all control away from her.
‘Enough!’ she heard herself pleading. ‘No more!’
Ross gave a low laugh. ‘We didn’t even get started yet!’
He lowered his head to take one peaking, aching nipple between lips and teeth in a combination of nibbling and sucking that drove her wild. She ran her fingers into the thick dark hair, relishing the clean crisp feel of it—holding him close even as she begged him to stop.
By the time he finally moved on top of her, she was almost over the top herself. The sensation when he slid inside her was like nothing she had ever known. Even then, he kept control of himself, his movements measured, deepening the penetration by slow degrees until he reached a point where he couldn’t hold out any longer himself.
It was some time before either of them could find the strength to move so much as a limb. Gina had never felt so totally enervated in her life.
‘Well worth waiting for,’ Ross murmured against her shoulder.
‘Waiting for?’ she queried hazily.
‘I could have done that the very first night you were here,’ he said.
Gina was silent for a moment or two, absorbing the claim. ‘You didn’t give that impression,’ she said at length.
He gave the same low laugh, putting his lips to the side of her neck just below her ear. ‘I didn’t intend to.’
‘Because you believed I was only here for what I could get?’
‘Something like that. There’s a hell of a difference between lust and trust.’
‘But you trust me now?’
‘After the way you’ve acted these past few days, I can’t do anything else,’ he said softly. ‘Mother would have gone to pieces without you.’
‘She’d have had you.’
‘I couldn’t have provided the kind of support you provided. I already told you that.’
He kissed her again, on the lips this time, bringing her back to life. Gina thrust the thoughts hovering on the edge of her mind aside as desire rose in her once more. Whatever the consequences, she was way past saying no to this.
The sun was well up in the sky when she woke from a sleep that had held a quality of exhaustion. Ross was gone from her side, of course. She would have expected nothing else.
Last night had been a serious mistake; she’d known it even while it was happening. Leaving was going to be so much harder.
Not that it would make a great deal of difference to Ross, she was sure. He’d needed a woman last night, and she had been available. He’d even been prepared, she recalled, which suggested forward planning. The pleasure he’d so obviously gained from making love to her would be no more than he was accustomed to gaining from any woman for certain.
Neither Ross nor his sister were about when she went down. She settled for coffee and toast for breakfast, then took the opportunity to make a phone call before going to look for Elinor. She found her laid out on the pool deck.
‘Why not join me?’ the other invited. ‘It’s going to rain later.’
‘I have to pack,’ Gina told her. ‘I rang the airport. I’m on a flight at ten-fifteen tonight.’
Elinor sat up abruptly. ‘You can’t go yet. There’s Oliver’s will to be read. I told you he’d made plans.’
Gina sank to a seat on a nearby lounger. It had been inevitable from the start, she supposed. ‘I really wish he hadn’t,’ she said. ‘It wasn’t why I came.’
‘I know that. I told Oliver how you felt.’ Elinor shook her head. ‘It made no difference. I didn’t rea
lly expect it to. The will was redrawn to include you before you got here. He didn’t tell me exactly what he intended, but I’m sure you’ll find yourself well able to travel first class from now on. If you try turning it down,’ she added, ‘it will be like kicking him in the face.’
Gina bit her lip. ‘That puts me in a cleft stick.’
‘So, accept it.’ Elinor gave a faint smile. ‘Is money such an evil thing?’
‘No,’ Gina was bound to admit. ‘I just didn’t…’
‘Didn’t want any of us seeing you as a gold-digger,’ Elinor finished for her as her voice petered out. ‘Oliver made sure you were a worthy bearer of the Harlow bloodline before he wrote you that letter, believe me. The fact that you looked for nothing from him only served to prove he’d made no mistake about you. Ross had his doubts to begin with, but you’ve even managed to win him over.’
‘But not Roxanne,’ Gina said, shying away from thinking about Ross right now.
Elinor gave a sigh. ‘I’m afraid Roxanne sees you as a threat to the size of her own inheritance. Not that Oliver will have left her anything but well provided for. Ross will be taking control of the company, of course. Oliver always intended he should. The reason he insisted on a legal adoption, so that the name at least would be continued. I was unable to have any more children myself,’ she went on, sensing the unspoken question. ‘Oliver knew that when he married me. What he did to Jenny and you was wrong—no one can ever deny that—but he was a good man in so many other ways.’
‘I’m sure of it.’ Gina’s voice was gentle. ‘He obviously loved you a great deal.’
Tears glistened momentarily in the older woman’s eyes. ‘I loved him a great deal too. Which is why I’d move heaven and earth to see his wishes fulfilled.’
Leaving her with very little choice, Gina acknowledged. ‘All right,’ she said resignedly. ‘What time will the reading be?’
‘Two o’clock.’
‘Then there’s no reason why I can’t make that flight.’
‘I’d really appreciate it if you could stay a little longer,’ Elinor entreated. ‘You’re the only one I can talk to. Your partner can surely handle the business for a few more days?’