Catching Katie

by Sophie Weston

  He held up a hand to stop her. ‘You shouldn’t have let anything keep you away. My God, with talent like that, you ought to be nursing every one of those canvases personally. And the hell with me or anyone else who gets in the way.’

  Katie peered at him suspiciously. It seemed he was serious. She flushed, pleased.

  ‘Did you like them, then?’

  ‘I’m not sure “like” is quite the word.’ He hesitated. ‘I know I wasn’t supposed to see them. Simon. . .’

  Katie’s blood ran cold. ‘What has Simon done?’

  ‘He—er—went back to your studio.’ Haydon let it sink in. ‘The portraits are not very comfortable.’ He was rueful. ‘You think I’ve let you down very badly, don’t you, Katie?’

  ‘Oh.’ She pressed her hands to her flushed cheeks. Those portraits revealed her every raw emotion. If Haydon had seen them. . . ‘How could Simon?’

  ‘He thinks he owes it to art.’ He paused. ‘I don’t have that excuse,’ he said quietly. ‘I knew you would think I was spying on you, but I thought I’d go mad, having no clue what you were feeling.’

  Katie made a small sound of distress. Haydon took both her hands and held them strongly.

  ‘I had to take any chance I was offered, even if it was underhand,’ he told her earnestly. ‘I’ve never felt so helpless in my life.’ A little laugh shook him. ‘Andrew said it was good for me,’ he said ruefully. ‘I must have driven him mad but he kept telling me to hang on in there. So I did.’ His expression grew grave. ‘I know you didn’t want to see me again. I can even understand why. But will you just give me a chance to put my side?’

  Katie hesitated. But he had nearly thrown Douglas Grove through a plate glass window. It would be sheer ingratitude not to give him a hearing. She indicated that she was listening.

  ‘Thank you,’ said Haydon. ‘Now—what was all that nonsense about before you walked out on me in Tuscany? You were babbling about photographs, as I recall. Elucidate.’

  Katie bit her lip. She told him what Viola had said. There was an incredulous silence.

  ‘And you believed her?’

  ‘It seemed the most obvious reason why you would want to go to bed with me,’ Katie said simply.

  The silence was longer and even more incredulous.

  Then Haydon said in a hard voice, ‘I could quite easily tear all your clothes off now and make love to you here in the middle of the public street and the hell with decency. Or even the law.’

  ‘Wh-what?’

  ‘How dare you say that to me? How dare you?’ His rage was palpable. ‘I wanted you from the moment I saw you.’

  ‘The moment you saw me you told me I was a disgrace to the neighbourhood,’ Katie pointed out, not without a certain satisfaction.

  The blue eyes gleamed. ‘That doesn’t mean I didn’t want you.’

  ‘You hid it well.’

  ‘And I suppose I was hiding it well when you fell off the wall into my arms?’

  She remembered. Her face heated.

  ‘No,’ agreed Haydon. He chuckled and reached for her.

  ‘Listen,’ he said into her hair, ‘I’m no saint I don’t pretend I am. I had a little walk out with Viola Lennox months ago. No commitment on either side. Then I realised. She was just like Carla. She looked at me and all she saw was a credit card in a suit.’

  Katie could not bear it. She reached up to touch his face. He caught her hand and turned it over, her palm against his lips.

  It was the most softly erotic kiss she had ever imagined. But Haydon was still talking. Katie shivered and tried to concentrate.

  ‘I told her I wasn’t interested. So she thought she’d set me up. Manipulate the takeover rumour so we all thought there was a crisis. Then suggest that I go away on holiday with a woman to prove there was no crisis.’

  ‘She being the woman?’

  ‘Yes.’

  He kissed her hand again. Katie’s concentration rocked.

  ‘It doesn’t sound a very good plan,’ she said in a strangled voice.

  ‘The worst.’

  ‘So why did you take me?’

  ‘Mmm?’

  He put the tip of his tongue into the very centre of her palm. Katie’s eyes began to drift shut. She shook herself mentally and sat up straight

  ‘Why?’ she said sternly.

  He looked down at her. ‘Because I wanted to.’

  ‘Oh, great.’ She looked away. ‘Never mind what I wanted.’

  He cupped her face and looked straight into her eyes. ‘My love, you never wanted the same thing two minutes together.’

  Katie stared. She had never seen the harsh face so softened. So—she hardly dared to say the word to herself—loving.

  ‘Think,’ he urged softly. ‘That night you went cathunting. We ended up in bed. You seemed to be happy. And then you ran away.’

  Before he could put the light on and see. Katie turned her head away. And he still had not seen. He brought her very gently back to face him.

  ‘I wanted to get you somewhere where you couldn’t run out on me. Can you blame me? I thought we could work out whatever it was if we just had space and time.’ His voice grew rueful again. ‘I reckoned without Viola, of course. The last time she cornered me I was jet lagged. So I was pretty brutal, I’m afraid. She said she’d make me pay. And by heaven she did.’

  Katie searched his face. He seemed to be telling the truth. But how could she tell? She felt her lips tremble.

  ‘Katie.’ His voice was very gentle. ‘Will you tell me why you ran out? Not just at San Pietro. Here in London, too.’

  She felt very cold. She would have drawn away from him, but he would not let her.

  ‘Please,’ he said in a low voice.

  She was not proof against that.

  She swallowed, and said with an effort. ‘I was hurt. You’d lied once before. You even admitted you wanted to teach me a lesson. For the rest—what Viola said—how did I know whether it was true or not?’

  ‘You could have asked me.’

  She could have asked him. Of course she could. If she had not been such a coward. If she had not been so inexperienced. If it had not been for her whole life up to then.

  Katie shut her eyes tight and said rapidly, ‘I’ve got a horrible scar. I didn’t want you to know.’

  There was a profound silence.

  Then Haydon said quietly, ‘Do you mean the one at your waist?’

  Katie jumped and swung round to look up at him. ‘You—you know?’

  Haydon took both her hands and held them strongly.

  ‘I saw it that first day. When you fell out of the tree, your tee shirt was all over the place.’

  Katie’s cheeks whitened. A new and horrible thought occurred to her.

  ‘Did you feel sorry for me, then? Was that what all this—Tuscany and everything—was about?’

  He groaned. ‘Heaven help me. I’ve never met a woman with a more convoluted mind. No, I didn’t feel sorry for you. I’ve lusted after you painfully every time I’ve seen you. Can’t you tell?’

  But she was still unconvinced.

  ‘Look,’ Haydon said roughly, ‘that night when I came back into the square and saw you I was in a filthy temper. I’d heard you and Jonas in the bistro only the day before. Then we’d had that row on the terrace. I seethed about that all day. Then the Bateses were away and there was no milk for my coffee. I’d had to get the car out to go and buy some milk. I was tired and angry and deeply suspicious of you. The last thing on my mind was sex.’

  He looked down at their clasped hands and his mouth twisted. Katie could see this was the truth.

  ‘And then—there you were, in that blasted tee shirt, and my headlights went right through it. It brought me out in a cold sweat. There wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it. You were lucky I didn’t have you against the garage wall.’ He sounded disgusted with himself.

  Katie was not disgusted at all. Her lips parted. ‘Really?’

  ‘Really,’ said
Haydon with savage self-mockery.

  ‘Why didn’t you say so at the time?’ demanded Katie, injured.

  ‘Because you were mad as a hornet and covered in scratches. And later—well, it seemed superfluous.’

  She remembered the way he had touched her, the way she had responded to him.

  ‘And that,’ went on Haydon, ‘was quite apart from the fact that you were funny and brave and interesting and I just wanted to be with you all the time.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

  His hand tightened on hers. ‘I wasn’t sure you wanted me to.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Think about it. All the things that attracted Viola to me turned you off. You didn’t like my money. You called me a philistine. For a while,’ he added thoughtfully, ‘I really wanted to make you eat your words. That’s why I said what I did in San Pietro. It was true. But only for a while.’

  ‘You can’t have worried about that,’ Katie protested.

  ‘Oh, can’t I?’ He hesitated, then said with forced lightness, ‘Carla told me when we were having a row once that I wasn’t interested in anything unless I could coat it in plastic.’

  This was clearly important. Katie sought desperately for the right thing to say.

  ‘The San Pietro fountain isn’t coated in plastic,’ she said at last ‘No one is a philistine who can design a laseroperated cascade.’

  Haydon gave a choke of laughter and hugged her.

  ‘I love you,’ he said absently. ‘It’s a nice toy but it’s not art. Not like what you do.’

  ‘What did you say?’ said Katie faintly.

  He looked down at her, surprised. ‘You’re a real artist—’

  ‘Before that.’

  ‘I love you. But you already know that.’

  She swallowed. ‘First I’ve heard of it.’

  It was Haydon’s turn to stare.

  ‘If you love me, why did you pretend it was casual?’ she yelled.

  He did not deny it. His smile was crooked.

  ‘I didn’t want to tie you down. You’re so young. So full of energy and fire. When I saw you pulling that tee shirt down and trying to pretend you’d got some knickers on, I never felt so old in my life.’

  ‘Not old,’ said Katie firmly. She wriggled as close to him as he would let her get and fluttered her eyelashes. ‘Experienced. Just what I need.’

  Haydon went very still. ‘Katie. . .’ His voice was hoarse.

  He had said marriage was a trap. She would be taking an awful chance. Did she dare?

  Did she dare not to?

  Katie got even closer and murmured in his ear, ‘Marry me or I tear your trousers off.’

  There was a stunned silence. Then Haydon’s chest began to shake. She drew away and looked at him doubtfully. He let his head fall back.

  She realised he was speechless with laughter. For a horrible moment Katie was in total confusion.

  Then the blue eyes flew open. Haydon saw her uncertainty.

  ‘Don’t look like that, my darling. I know an offer I can’t refuse when I hear it.’ He kissed her enthusiastically. ‘I accept.’

  ISBN : 978-1-4592-5312-4

  CATCHING KATIE

  First North American Publication 1999.

  Copyright © 1998 by Sophie Weston.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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