An Old Enchantment (Harlequin Treasury 1990's)

by Amanda Browning

  Gathering scattered wits, she saw him glance at the clock, and at the same time heard a door open further along the corridor.

  ‘Six forty-five. Fliss certainly is a punctual girl,’ Kerr observed, standing and looking down at her still lying sprawled on the bed. ‘Like that you look as if you’ve spent a glorious night of debauchery. I think she’ll get the message.’ With a last slow look, he turned and headed for the door.

  She understood then what that meant, what his whole presence had been about, and shamed colour swept into her cheeks as she recalled she was still lying there so suggestively. Struggling upright, angry tears making her eyes glitter at the way he had used her, she stumbled over his slippers. Kerr was already going through the door as she picked them up and ran after him.

  ‘Don’t forget these, you rat!’ she cried, lobbing them after him. One caught him on the back and made him turn, revealing a face alight with mocking laughter.

  ‘Quiet, darling, we don’t want the whole house to know. Morning, Fliss.’ This last was addressed to her sister, who had come to a stunned halt only a yard away.

  Maxi had been so intent on Kerr that she hadn’t seen they weren’t alone. It didn’t take much intelligence to put a telling interpretation on the scene, and one look at Fliss showed the message had been received. It was hard to know which of the two sisters was more embarrassed, but Maxi didn’t wait to find out; she dived back into her room and slammed the door behind her.

  ‘Oh, God!’ Pressing her hands to her cheeks, she wished the floor would open and swallow her up. Then almost at once she straightened. Why the hell should she feel cheap? It was all Kerr’s fault. He had had no right to set her up that way. It was one thing to agree to put Fliss’s mind at rest, but quite another to make herself look easy!

  With her dislike growing by leaps and bounds, Maxi went into the bathroom, determined to wash away every last touch of him. She emerged cleaner and more level-headed. Of course he hadn’t had to use the method he had. The choice had been deliberate, to pay her back for what she had said last night. He was totally without scruples, so why should she be so nice? It was time to take the gloves off.

  Her hackles up, she dressed in a buttercup-yellow halter-necked sun dress, put matching canvas espadrilles on her feet, brushed her hair until it shone, and went down to breakfast. Prepared to do battle, she was just crossing the hall when the telephone rang, and she automatically answered it.

  ‘Maxi?’ Andy’s question came out hesitantly.

  ‘Hello, Andy. Did you want to speak to Fliss?’ She kept her voice cool, not quite sure if she’d forgiven him yet. Especially when, despite their argument, he and Fliss had ended the evening together happily enough.

  ‘Actually, it was you I wanted to talk to,’ he corrected awkwardly. ‘I wanted to apologise for my stupid behaviour last night. Even if Fliss did make me angry, I had no business using you to make a point. I’m sorry. I fully deserved that slap. Do you forgive me?’

  He sounded so boyish and contrite, she didn’t have the heart to deny him. ‘How could I refuse such a gracious apology. You’re forgiven.’

  ‘Great. Now I don’t have to worry about Kerr coming after me for stepping on his toes! I had no idea you and he were getting on so well,’ he declared facetiously. ‘I can’t imagine how Fliss managed to get such a bee in her bonnet about you and me, when it’s as plain as the nose on your face where your interest lies.’

  Maxi was glad he couldn’t see the colour rise in her cheeks as she wondered just how much he knew. She fiddled with her hair. ‘Er—it was that obvious, was it?’

  Andy chuckled. ‘Getting clearer by the hour by the sound of it,’ he enlarged, making her heart sink. ‘Boy, won’t I pull Kerr’s leg about this. You know, I always thought he had a soft spot for you, even when he was running you down over that Ellis chap. I’m glad he seems to have changed his mind.’

  Maxi was hardly in a position to argue the point, even though she could give him chapter and verse about how wrong he was. ‘So am I, Andy,’ she concurred wryly, keeping up the fiction. ‘Do you want me to get Fliss now?’

  ‘She always rings me before breakfast, but thanks all the same,’ he refused, and a short while later they rang off.

  And that, Maxi thought glumly, explained exactly how much he did know. Fliss hadn’t been able to keep the scene she had witnessed to herself. Just how many others she had told didn’t bear thinking about. Deciding breakfast would sit like lead in her stomach, she continued on her way out to the terrace.

  Last night she had actually started to think things were looking up. Her mother had come to her room after everyone had gone to bed, and they had had a long chat. Her father had been as good as his word, and now a great deal of misunderstanding had been put right. They had both cried a lot, but it had cleared the air. She had gone to sleep believing that if only Fliss would relax hostilities enough to listen for a change then her visit would be a complete success.

  There was, however, still one fly in the ointment. A bluebottle named Kerr. After his behaviour this morning, she felt even less inclined to give him an explanation. As for having a soft spot for her, Andy was mistaken. He didn’t miss an opportunity to get in a dig. But that wasn’t what really worried her. She could take the animosity, and give back almost as good as she got. The danger lay in their physical attraction. He might not be the Harlequin she remembered, but the effect he had on her hadn’t changed. Her defences against him were puny, so, if he really did make a play for her, could she resist him?

  Stupid, there was no ‘could’ about it. She had to. That was the legacy of her marriage to Colin. It had been a battleground, and she had won the hard way. Because he hadn’t been able to have her, he had wanted to destroy her. She wouldn’t let any man try to do that to her again, however much he attracted her. Kerr had the power to sweep everything from her mind with just one kiss, and Kerr wanted revenge. Oh, he hadn’t said ‘destroy’, but if he used her attraction against her that would surely be the result, because ‘love’, ‘marriage’ and ‘forever’ were not words in his vocabulary. She had to get control over her wayward senses, because control was all she had to save her pride with.

  Lost deep in her troubled thoughts, she didn’t realise she was no longer alone until the grate of iron on cement broke through, making her jump. Glancing round, she discovered Fliss had come to join her. Like herself, her sister looked cool in a strappy sundress covered in sunflowers.

  ‘What are you and Kerr up to?’ was Fliss’s opening gambit, stunning Maxi, who hadn’t been prepared for any doubt after that scene earlier.

  ‘Up to?’ she laughed huskily, prepared to follow a course not of her choosing because she had no option. ‘I thought it was obvious, or do you really need me to spell it out, Fliss?’ She gave her sister an old-fashioned look.

  Colour stole into her sister’s cheek. ‘But...after what you did, how could he?’

  Maxi crossed her arms to better resist the temptation to give vent to her irritation, and shake some sense into her sibling. ‘Perhaps he feels seven years is long enough to hold a grudge. Perhaps what he feels is stronger than an old prejudice. And what does it matter to you what Kerr does? I thought it was Andy you loved.’

  Fliss shot to her feet. ‘I do love Andy!’

  ‘You’d never know it, the way you’ve been behaving. You’re going the right way to losing him with your paranoia about me. I don’t want Andy. I’m not a threat. If Kerr and I can be happy together, would you really begrudge us that?’ It was stunning how easily one lie followed another.

  Fliss flung her hands over her ears. ‘Oh, I don’t know what to think any more. Andy was so angry last night. I’d never seen him like that before. It frightened me. I don’t want to lose him.’

  Immediately Maxi’s compassion rose to the fore and she crossed swiftly to her sister’s side, slipping an arm around her. ‘You won’t, I promise. He loves you, he just doesn’t understand why you’re letting my visit affect you when he
knows I don’t want him. Everybody knows it but you.’

  Fliss looked driven. ‘You took Colin.’

  Maxi sighed; would they always go round in circles like this? ‘I know, but I can explain, if only you’d listen. I want us to be friends again, Fliss.’

  Biting her lip, Fliss eased away. Finally she sent Maxi a sideways look. ‘It’s really Kerr you want?’

  Oh, what a tangled web they were weaving. ‘After catching us out this morning, I wouldn’t have thought you could doubt it!’ she said drily, and was more than a little amused to see Fliss regard her curiously.

  ‘I don’t know why. Oh, he’s kind, I know, but much too bossy. Much too...you know,’ she ended, with an expressive shiver.

  Maxi had to laugh, for she certainly did know, and it was what attracted her. ‘Vive la difference,’ she misused the quote, pleased to see her sister smile for a change.

  ‘Well, well!’ A voice from slightly below made them both start and turn towards the garden. ‘It’s good to see you two laughing,’ Kerr declared, smiling up at them. Then holding out a peremptory hand to Maxi, he added, ‘Come and say good morning, sweetheart, before it’s afternoon.’

  ‘I thought you’d already done that,’ Fliss whispered archly, giggling, watching them with open interest.

  Maxi, who could have done without the audience so that she could give him a piece of her mind, knew she had to respond or waste all the effort she had just gone to to reassure her sister. However, she didn’t have to make it easy for him to gloat.

  Crossing her arms, she tossed her head. ‘I don’t know that I want to. I’m not speaking to you.’

  Kerr laughed up at her, and she could tell he wasn’t pretending to enjoy himself. ‘Don’t tell me you were embarrassed because we got caught out? There’s no need. Fliss is a woman of the world. She’s engaged herself, so she understands these things. Come on, you know you want to,’ he teased, and there was nothing else for her to do but descend the steps to where he stood.

  He held open his arms. Dear God, he’s too damned good at this, she thought as she went into them, feeling her heart contract as they closed about her. To counteract it, her eyes sent him a message of dislike, then his head dipped, and for the next few exhilarating seconds she couldn’t have cared who was watching as Kerr wove his magic.

  She tried later. Fought herself as hard as she could, but it was impossible not to press closer, to slide her hands up around his neck and let her fingers tangle in the vibrant mass of his hair. The touch and taste of him set off fireworks throughout her system. Though she knew she was only storing up grief for herself, there was just no way of denying him a response.

  Her lips parted on a soundless sigh, welcoming the possessive thrust of his tongue, her own darting out to tease him until he pulled away, burying his lips against the throbbing pulse at the base of her throat. Then, as he began to explore lower, she heard from a distance the rapid departure of footsteps.

  That brought with it a small measure of sanity, and her fingers tugged at his hair. ‘She’s gone,’ she declared, then caught her breath as a shiver ran through her.

  ‘Good,’ Kerr muttered thickly, his breath brushing the inviting V of her breasts. ‘Let’s go to the summer-house.’

  Oh, God! Trembling faintly in every limb, she closed her eyes and willed her blood to cool. ‘Stop!’ The command was almost a groan.

  He finally raised his head, revealing banked fires in his eyes. ‘Why? You don’t really want me to.’

  She tried to push herself to arm’s length, but he defeated her easily. ‘I do.’

  ‘Liar,’ he charged with a husky laugh, and brought his lips down on hers again. She struggled against drowning under the ravishment of his touch, feeling herself weakening. ‘Maxine Ambro, you are some kind of witch,’ he breathed against her lips, bringing her heart leaping into her throat.

  It was the strength of desperation that helped her tear her lips free, but she could go no further. ‘I’m just me, and I want you to let me go,’ she ordered forcefully.

  Breathing heavily, he stilled, regarding her through narrowed eyes. ‘Is this some kind of game you play with all your lovers, or just me? I know you want me, Maxi, so why make me an exception? Or am I supposed to beg to be allowed into your bed?’

  Maxi went white, unconscious of the pain revealed in her navy eyes. ‘You really have the lowest possible opinion of me, don’t you?’

  Kerr’s lips curled. ‘Do you really expect me to see you as some kind of saint?’ he drawled sardonically, making her gasp.

  ‘I never said I was that, and you aren’t either. I’m a human being, and I don’t deserve to be talked to as if I’m as cheap as dirt,’ she threw back, lips tight with anger.

  Kerr dragged a hand raggedly through his hair, his whole frame telling her he wasn’t prepared to back down an inch. ‘Don’t expect an apology from me, Maxi. I’ve been angry with you too long for that. Maybe once I would have weakened before that hurt look in your eyes, but not now. Now I speak as I find. I want you, and I don’t care to wait around in frustration while you play more of your little games, because I know you want me, too,’ he growled.

  Maxi hugged her arms around her waist. ‘If you don’t want to be frustrated, stay away from me, Kerr. I’ve already told you I won’t get involved with you,’ she reminded him curtly.

  Throwing his head back, he uttered a mirthless laugh. ‘How the hell do you think you’re going to avoid it?’

  Did he think she would just fall on her back if he clicked his fingers? Never! ‘I’d go away.’ Right now, this minute, she wanted to run, and run, and keep on running.

  He didn’t believe her. ‘And leave Fliss in the lurch? I don’t think so. For once in your life you’re going to finish what you started. First Fliss, and then me. We never did settle what lay between us, and it’s time we laid the ghost. Make no mistake, you will sleep with me, Maxi. Not because I demand it, but because it’s what you want too. Every time I touch you I know that you’re mine for the taking, but I won’t have to take, because you’ll give yourself to me.’

  His words frightened her, not because of their intent, but because deep down inside she knew that every single one of them was true. Which made her denial all the more vehement. ‘No!’

  ‘Yes!’ Kerr corrected emphatically. ‘You’re fooling yourself if you think this will just go away. It won’t. One day or another, you’re going to end up in my bed, and we both know it. Seven years is long enough to want someone. The ghosts need to be exorcised, and there’s only one way to do it. I may have been surprised by how much I still want you, but that doesn’t mean I can’t control it, until you come to me. I won’t force you, I won’t need to, because you will come, that I promise you,’ he finished grimly.

  Throat working madly, she shook her head slowly, as if it hurt to move it. ‘You’re crazy if you think I’ll stand for this!’

  Kerr smiled thinly. ‘What will you do, run? I don’t think so. Your running days are over, as of now. It ends here. We’ll end it together, the way it started.’

  Hot tears stung the back of her eyes but she refused to let them fall. ‘It will never be the way it was.’

  His face became set. ‘No. But better or worse, it’s all we have. Now, as we have to spend time together, I suggest we try and get along. The car’s waiting out front. If you’re ready, we’ll go to lunch. And don’t tell me you’re not hungry, because, the mood I’m in, the menu might well contain you!’

  Shaking inwardly, Maxi promised to be outside in five minutes and escaped to her room. Once there, she sank weakly on to the dressing stool. Kerr’s threat sat like a spear in her heart. It was cruel in its honesty, but what they felt was the darker side of the coin, passion without love or respect. She couldn’t succumb to it, she had to fight, because she had sworn to herself that she would never give any man power over her unless he loved her as much as she loved him.

  Three impatient blasts on a car horn brought her to her feet. He might
summon, but she didn’t have to respond. He had just told her himself that he would wait, but as far as she was concerned he would wait forever. She wasn’t weak or a pushover, that she had proved a long time ago. She was more than a match for any man, as he was going to discover! Quickly running a brush through her hair, she grabbed up her bag and went to join him.

  Kerr drove them to an inn several miles away. Nestled in a valley, the gardens ran down to the edge of a tumbling stream. It was pretty nearly idyllic, which was probably why there were plenty of customers, despite its being off the beaten track. The setting revitalised Maxi’s appetite, reminding her she hadn’t eaten so far today, and she readily agreed to Kerr’s choice of a ploughman’s lunch.

  They ate outside in the sunshine, washing the food down with glasses of cider. Much to Maxi’s relief, the drive seemed to have eased Kerr’s mood, and the good food, plus the lazy warmth of the day, added to the mellowing process. Resting her elbows on the wooden table, and her chin in her hands, she studied him. In faded jeans and shirt, he couldn’t look less like a lawyer. He could have been anybody, although the air he had about him made him quite definitely somebody. She experienced a wistfulness for things lost, then told herself not to be such a fool. It was a dangerous madness to imagine her stranger wouldn’t have turned out like the Kerr she knew today. Love was blind, everybody knew that.

  ‘Why did you choose the law? Because of your father?’ she queried, breaking the mood of introspection, and bringing his eyes back from their study of a little girl playing catch with her doting father.

  ‘No, although he likes to think so.’ Kerr grinned affectionately at a memory. ‘Nor was I a fan of Perry Mason. I chose law because I wanted to see justice done. I wanted to put wrong things right.’

  She looked at him from under her lashes. Now that she could believe. ‘And doubtless you thought you were the best person to do it?’ she murmured, lacing her words with heavy irony.