‘You’ll do as you’re damn well told if you don’t want me to come back and deal with you once I’ve dealt with what’s going on outside!’ he growled.
‘You could try,’ she seethed.
Jonas’s mouth tightened as there was another sound of glass breaking. ‘I really don’t have time for this right now, Mac. Just do as I ask and don’t complicate the situation by forcing me to worry about your safety when I should be concentrating on putting an end to this!’ He didn’t stay to argue with her any further before disappearing from the bottom of the stairs.
Mac heard the outside door closing seconds later, her heart pounding erratically as she quickly grabbed up her leggings and panties before hurrying down the metal staircase to use her mobile and call the police, her hand shaking so badly she could barely press the right three buttons.
She had to calm down. Had to at least try to be coherent when she gave the necessary information to the police.
Despite those inner warnings Mac knew she sounded slightly hysterical as she talked to the dispatcher who answered.
She hadn’t just sounded hysterical, Mac acknowledged after she had ended the call and hurried over to the picture window to look outside. She had sounded frantic.
Because she didn’t care who was outside, or what damage they had done to her home this time. All she cared about was Jonas. That he should come back safely.
Mac might have been uncertain about her feelings for Jonas until tonight, but she had absolutely no doubts now that she had fallen totally in love with him…
Jonas knew he was white-faced by the time he wearily accompanied Mac back up the stairs and into the living area of her home almost an hour later.
Who would have guessed it?
Who could have known?
He gave a heavy sigh. ‘I told the police I would join them down at the station as soon as possible.’ He picked up his jacket and slipped it on, all without looking at Mac.
He couldn’t look at her. Couldn’t bear to see the accusation that was sure to be in her face.
It had all been his fault, he realised numbly. The initial break-in. The graffiti. The windows broken this evening on Mac’s Jeep parked downstairs in the garage. All of it was Jonas’s fault.
He hadn’t known. Hadn’t realised. Despite Mac’s teasing remark earlier in the week, he had still never guessed that Yvonne had feelings for him; the sort of feelings that had prompted his PA into trying to scare Mac into selling the warehouse to Jonas.
‘Drink some of this first.’
Jonas looked up to see that Mac had refilled his wine glass and now held it out to him. As if wine were going to erase the horror of finding Yvonne downstairs systematically breaking the windows on Mac’s car. Or numb his disbelief at the conversation that had followed. The hysterical conviction Yvonne had that she was helping him. That she loved him. Was sure the two of them were meant to be together.
All of it made worse by the fact that Mac had disobeyed his instruction by then and come downstairs to join him, hearing every word Yvonne said. Along with the police who had arrived only minutes earlier.
Nothing could ever erase the horror of any of that from Jonas’s mind!
He grimaced. ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to arrive at a police station smelling of alcohol.’
Probably not, Mac acknowledged as she put the wine glass down on the table.
What an evening! She and Jonas had made love. Mac had realised—and still shied away from looking at it too deeply—that she was in love with Jonas. And now this.
By the time she had dressed and hurried downstairs to the garage, Yvonne Richards had been in full spate, professing her love for Jonas, explaining that she had only terrorised Mac because she wanted to help him. That she had only done those things in an effort to convince Mac into selling the warehouse to Buchanan Construction.
This whole evening had been surreal from start to finish. And it wasn’t over yet!
‘Would it help if I told the police I have no intention of pressing charges?’ Mac asked softly; Yvonne Richards seemed more in need of psychiatric help than prosecution!
Jonas’s expression was bleak. ‘I have no idea.’ He gave a slightly dazed shake of his head as he sat down suddenly. ‘I—Do you think Yvonne has done anything like this before? Tried to “help me” like this before?’ He frowned darkly as the possibility occurred to him.
Mac shrugged. ‘Let’s not even go there, Jonas. It’s the here and now that we have to deal with,’ she added cajolingly. ‘Perhaps I should come to the police station with you—’
‘No!’ Jonas refused harshly as he stood up. He felt humiliated enough for one evening, without Mac having to hear—yet again—how Yvonne had only done the things she had because she was in love with him.
How or why that had happened, Jonas had no idea. Yvonne had worked for him as his PA for almost two years now. She had proved to be particularly good at her job, and as far as Jonas was concerned the two of them had an excellent working relationship. Obviously there had been business trips they had taken together, as well as long hours spent alone together, but Jonas was sure there had never been the slightest suggestion on his part that the two of them had any sort of personal relationship.
He looked across at Mac. ‘I’ve never given Yvonne the slightest encouragement to feel the way she says she feels about me.’ He rubbed the back of his neck. ‘To my knowledge I’ve never so much as touched her or spoken to her in a way that could possibly be misconstrued as sexual interest.’
Mac knew that her gaze didn’t quite meet his. ‘I’m sure you haven’t—’
‘Don’t patronise me, Mac,’ Jonas rasped harshly, eyes narrowing to steely slits. ‘I do not have relationships with the people who work for or with me. Besides complicating things unnecessarily, it’s bad business practice.’
‘And why bother when there are so many other women willing to give you what you want?’ she came back tartly.
‘Was that comment really necessary?’ Jonas snarled.
Was it? Probably not. But Mac was feeling less than composed herself after their lovemaking earlier this evening.
She and Jonas had made beautiful and erotic love to each other. At least…it was love on Mac’s side. She doubted Jonas’s feelings went any further than lust.
It just seemed too much to now learn that she had been terrorised this past week by another woman suffering from that same unrequited love for him!
Mac accepted that it wasn’t his fault. Jonas had made it clear from the beginning that he didn’t even believe in love, let alone a committed relationship, and so it wasn’t his fault if the women he met were stupid enough to fall in love with him.
But that didn’t mean Mac couldn’t feel a little angry and resentful about it! ‘You had better go,’ she said distantly.
Jonas knew he had to go. That he should drive to the police station where they had taken Yvonne and try to make some sort of sense out of this ludicrous situation. He would just prefer not to leave things so strained between himself and Mac.
‘I’ll come back later—’
‘I would prefer it if you didn’t,’ Mac cut in firmly. ‘We have nothing else to say to each other, Jonas,’ she reasoned as a scowl creased his brow.
‘Don’t you even want to know what’s going to happen to Yvonne?’ he asked tonelessly.
She shrugged. ‘I’m sure the police will inform me if I need to be involved any further.’
In other words, Jonas realised darkly, Mac considered her ‘involvement’ with him to be at an end.
Like hell it was!
He reached out and gripped the tops of her arms. ‘I’m coming back later, Mac,’ he insisted determinedly. ‘If nothing else, you and I need to talk about this evening—’
‘There’s nothing else to say.’ Mac wrenched out of his grasp, her cheeks fiery red. Whether in temper or embarrassment, Jonas wasn’t sure. ‘I’m grateful for the experience, of course, but I certainly don’t wa
nt to have a post-mortem about it!’
Temper, Jonas acknowledged. Maybe tinged with a little embarrassment…
He should just cut his losses. Take the opportunity Mac was giving him to extricate himself from this situation with a little grace allowed to remain on both sides.
Yet looking at her he couldn’t help but remember how he had kissed her. Touched her. Pleasured her. Just as she had kissed and touched and pleasured him.
‘I’m coming back later,’ he repeated firmly.
‘I’m going to bed as soon as I’ve locked up behind you and cleared away,’ she argued just as stubbornly.
Jonas’s mouth twisted. ‘Then you’ll just have to get out of bed and unlock the door and let me in again, won’t you?’
Her mouth compressed. ‘Don’t you understand that I don’t want you here, Jonas?’
‘I would have to be pretty stupid not to realise that when you’ve said it three times in as many minutes,’ he commented.
Mac had never felt so—so frustrated, so irritated with anyone in her life before. ‘Isn’t finding out one woman is in love with you enough for one evening?’ she shot back.
‘Low blow, Mac,’ Jonas muttered between clenched teeth, his face paling one more.
It was a low blow. Not only that, it was spiteful when Jonas’s shock earlier at learning of his PA’s feelings for him had been self-evident. ‘Sorry,’ she murmured uncomfortably. ‘I’m just not sure you should come back here later.’
‘Why not?’
Mac moved away restlessly. ‘Frankly, I find this whole situation embarrassing,’ she admitted. ‘I—We—Earlier—’ She shook her head. ‘Maybe you’re used to these situations, Jonas, but I’m not.’ And she never would be. Not if the cringing awkwardness she now felt with Jonas was any indication of how traumatic it was to be in the company of a man you had been intimate with. A man you were in love with but who didn’t, and never would, love you back…
It was no good telling herself how stupid it was to have allowed her emotions to become involved with a man like Jonas. No good at all when she knew herself to be deeply, irrevocably, in love with him. In the circumstances, her only option had to be never to see him again!
‘I really can’t take any more tonight, Jonas,’ she told him with quiet conviction. ‘I just want to go to bed, fall asleep, and hope that when I wake up in the morning I’ll find that this whole evening has been just a nightmare.’
Jonas had never heard any woman describe making love with him as a nightmare before, but there had been so many firsts for him with Mac already, why not add that one to the list?
His mouth firmed. ‘I’m not quite sure what you’re referring to by “these situations”,’ he said. ‘However, I do accept—for now—that you feel you want some time alone.’ He ran a hand impatiently through the dark thickness of his hair. ‘If it’s any consolation, this evening didn’t turn out the way I expected it to, either.’
Mac gave a humourless smile. ‘Nothing ever seems to turn out as “expected” between the two of us.’ The fact that she had met the owner of Buchanan Construction at all, let alone made love with him, certainly shouldn’t have happened.
‘No,’ Jonas acknowledged heavily as he studied her for several long minutes before turning sharply and walking over to the door. ‘I’ll ring you tomorrow.’
Jonas could ring all he wanted; Mac had already decided she wasn’t going to be here.
No doubt her parents were going to think it a little odd when she turned up in Devon again so soon after her last visit, but what choice did she have? She couldn’t stay in London after tonight. Well…she could. If she wanted to have another embarrassing conversation with Jonas like this last one!
‘Fine.’
Jonas’s eyes narrowed suspiciously on her suddenly expressionless face. ‘What aren’t you telling me, Mac?’
She gave a brittle laugh. ‘Nothing you want to hear, I assure you!’
Jonas continued to look across at her in utter frustration. Would he still be leaving like this if they hadn’t heard the sound of glass breaking downstairs, if he hadn’t discovered that it was one of his own employees causing the damage to Mac’s property, scaring the hell out of her in the process, and if he didn’t now have to go to the local police station and sort the mess out? If none of that had happened, would he now be joining Mac in her bed, or would he have left anyway?
It had certainly been his intention to leave before any of those things happened. For him to get as far away from her disturbing presence as possible. Now the only thing he wanted to do was crawl into bed with her and make love to her all over again. Which, in itself, was reason enough for him to get the hell out of here!
‘Make sure you bolt and lock the door behind me,’ he advised gruffly.
Mac waited only long enough for Jonas to close the door behind him before quickly crossing the room and doing exactly that, to then turn and lean weakly back against it as her legs threatened to buckle beneath her.
She had fallen in love with Jonas Buchanan.
A man who would never love her because he had no time for the emotion.
What was she going to do?
Chapter Twelve
AS IT turned out, MAC wasn’t able to leave London the following morning as planned, after all.
The telephone rang for the first time just after eight o’clock. Fearing, as promised, that it might be Jonas, Mac reluctantly answered the call, immensely relieved when it turned out to be the police asking if she would come down to the police station this morning so that they might talk to her.
Mac was only too happy to agree—the thought of not being at the warehouse to take Jonas’s call, or at home if he actually came to the warehouse in person, was definitely an appealing one.
When she received a second telephone call a few minutes later, from Jeremy this time, asking her if she could call round to the gallery in the afternoon and meet a gallery owner from America who was interested in showing some of her work over there, she was only too happy to have an excuse not to be at the warehouse in the afternoon too.
Besides, the request from the police was one that Mac couldn’t avoid or simply ignore, and the one from Jeremy was one she didn’t want to avoid or ignore. The possibility of taking her work to America, too, would be a dream come true for her.
Consequently, Mac was forced to remain in London even though it was the last place she wanted to be. Forced to remain, perhaps, but at the same time given two legitimate reasons to avoid speaking to or seeing Jonas while she was here.
At least, until she returned to the warehouse at six o’clock that evening and once again found him sitting waiting for her at the bottom of the metal staircase leading up to her home!
Jonas stood up slowly as Mac came to a brief halt before she resumed walking cautiously towards him, her crash helmet tucked under her arm and her hair shaken loose about her leather-clad shoulders. ‘You’re a difficult woman to track down,’ he commented ruefully.
She shrugged those narrow shoulders as she came to a halt in front of him. ‘Is this something important, Jonas, or can it wait until another time? I’m rather busy this evening.’
Jonas’s mouth thinned at her dismissive tone. He had spent hours at the police station the previous night, talking, explaining, in the hope of avoiding having the situation go any further than it already had. But it had taken until lunchtime today for the police to telephone and inform him they were prepared not to proceed any further with the case as long as Yvonne sought professional help for her behaviour. At the same time making it clear to him that Mac’s refusal to press charges concerning the damage to her property had helped them to make that decision.
Trying to speak to Mac and thank her for her intervention had proved more difficult. She hadn’t answered any of Jonas’s telephone calls. She hadn’t been at home when he’d called round earlier this afternoon. When he’d called at the warehouse a second time about an hour ago, and found she still wasn’t at home, Jona
s had just decided to sit and wait for her.
‘Busy doing what?’ he grated harshly.
Her eyes narrowed. ‘I don’t believe that is any of your business, do you?’
The fact that Mac now made no effort to walk up the steps and go into the warehouse indicated she had no intention of inviting him inside. ‘It’s too cold to stand out here talking.’ The cold vapour on his breath gave truth to that statement.
Her chin rose stubbornly. ‘I didn’t invite you here, Jonas.’
He reached out and took a light hold of her arm. ‘Perhaps not, but now that I am here you could be polite and invite me inside.’
Mac eyed him impatiently. ‘Why change things now?’
Jonas gave her a humourless smile. ‘Meaning we’ve never particularly bothered being polite to each other before?’
‘Exactly!’ she said. ‘I really do need to shower and change, Jonas.’
‘You’re going out this evening?’
‘Not that it’s any of your business, but yes, I’m going out,’ she snapped.
Jonas felt his hands clench in the pockets of his long woollen overcoat. ‘With whom?’
‘That’s none of your business, either!’ Grey eyes glittered with temper.
His jaw tightened warningly. ‘I believe what we did last night made it my business.’
Mac tensed indignantly. ‘Like hell it did!’ She glared up at Jonas, so angry she could have hit him. ‘Last night was a mistake from start to finish. The finish obviously being the revelation that it was your own PA who was vandalising my home and property!’
Jonas scowled darkly. ‘You’re holding me responsible for that?’
‘Who else?’ Mac came back heatedly, knowing she wasn’t being completely fair in that accusation, but feeling too unnerved by finding him here waiting for her to even try to rationalise or calm the situation down. ‘There’s bound to be some sort of reaction when you play games with people’s emotions—’
‘I’ve already told you I’ve never so much as said a word out of place to Yvonne!’ A nerve pulsed in his jaw. ‘As far as I’m concerned, she has only ever been my PA, never my mistress, and—’
His Christmas Virgin Page 13