Wild Jasmine

by Yvonne Whittal

  That hurt—that really hurt! She did not want to be crossed off, overlooked, ignored. She wanted… Sarika pulled her thoughts up sharply. She had to stop thinking of Sean in this way. He was a man; a member of the sex she had sworn never to trust again, and she had to go on remembering that if she did not want to find herself falling in love all over again with someone who could never care for her in return.

  The home of Stephen and Claudia Nicholson, Jaishree's friends, was situated on the outskirts of Poona in a quiet suburb. They were a bright, cheerful, and amusing couple, and Sarika actually found herself shaking off her depression and deep sorrow. Accompanying Jaishree on this visit provided exactly the right antidote Sarika had needed, and the Nicholsons' son, Michael, provided further entertainment by taking Sarika and Jaishree to the stables after lunch to show them the chestnut foal which had been born only a few days prior to their visit. It was still wobbly on its legs, and very wary of the attention it was receiving.

  Sarika was also not unaware of the attention she was receiving from Michael, a lanky, fair-haired young man a few years her senior. She was conscious of his grey eyes watching every move she made, and she had also witnessed that flicker of something more than interest in his glances. She had encountered this sort of thing often enough not to let it trouble her, but her aloofness seemed to intrigue him rather than repulse him.

  The day had passed so swiftly that it was with some regret that Sarika said goodbye to the Nicholsons, but Michael was determined not to end their acquaintance there.

  'Will you have dinner with me one evening when I'm in Bombay?' he asked when he and his parents accompanied Sarika and Jaishree out to the MG parked in their drive.

  Sarika had her usual refusal ready, but she hesitated. Perhaps it would not be such a bad idea to see Michael occasionally if it would help take her mind off the dangerous feelings Sean was arousing in her.

  'I can't promise anything,' she said with some caution, 'but please do give me a call when you're in Bombay.'

  She got into the car beside Jaishree and, with a final wave, the MG sped down the drive and out through the gates.

  'Am I wrong in thinking Michael made a date with you?' Jaishree questioned Sarika as they sped away from the house.

  'He asked me to have dinner with him one evening when he happened to be in Bombay.'

  Jaishree cast a quick glance in Sarika's direction. 'What did you think of him?'

  'He's… nice,' Sarika said for want of a better word.

  'He couldn't take his eyes off you all day,' Jaishree winked impishly at Sarika.

  'So I noticed,' murmured Sarika dryly, then she directed the conversation elsewhere. 'I thought Stephen and Claudia were two of the loveliest people I've met in a long time.'

  'They used to live in Bombay before they moved to Poona, and they have been friends of my family for many years,' Jaishree enlightened her. 'Michael has always been like a brother to me, and I would like to see him married one day to a nice young woman.'

  Sarika glanced suspiciously at her friend. 'A young woman like myself, perhaps?'

  'Perhaps,' Jaishree smiled a little slyly, and Sarika was instantly annoyed.

  'Jaishree, if you planned this trip today with the intention of indulging in a bout of matchmaking, then you can—'

  'Wait!' her friend interrupted her sharply. 'I planned this outing today for the simple reason that I felt you needed a break away from home after your terrible ordeal this past week. I had no idea that Michael would be at home today, and if I appear to be indulging in a bout of matchmaking, as you put it, then it is because of the way he looked at you, and for no other reason. I also happened to be teasing you.'

  Sarika's annoyance turned to guilt. She was not usually in the habit of jumping to conclusions, and she had never before objected to being teased. Sarika knew that Jaishree had meant no harm, but everything inside her had suddenly come into revolt when she had suspected her friend of wanting to pair her off with Michael. Too much had happened to unnerve her since her return to Bombay. Her parents were dead, she had to come to a decision about her future, but… dammit, there had been no need to take it out on her friend.

  'I'm sorry,' she apologised. 'I guess I'm just a little touchy.'

  'That's understandable,' Jaishree accepted her explanation readily, and the rest of the journey back to Bombay was taken up with Jaishree discussing her wedding arrangements.

  Sarika did not listen to everything her friend was telling her. Her mind was too occupied with her own pressing thoughts. She needed to be occupied; she needed to work, and if she was to stay on in the house with Sean, then she would have to earn the right to do so. She had sat around idle long enough and, as the only other shareholder in the Apex Company, she was going to do exactly what her father had intended her to do when he had sent her away to university.

  Sean was not at home when Jaishree dropped her off at the house. He was dining out with friends, Ayah informed her, and he was not expected back until late that evening. Sarika was disappointed. She had wanted to discuss her plans with him, but now it would have to wait until the following day.

  She went down to breakfast early the Sunday morning, but once again her discussion with Sean had to be postponed. He had gone out for the day, and Ayah had no idea when to expect him back.

  Patience was not one of Sarika's virtues that particular day. She filled the hours swimming and sunbathing, and yet the day dragged infuriatingly. Ayah and Sarika sat down to dinner that evening without Sean, and by ten o'clock Sarika had given up hope of confronting him with her decision. Frustrated, she went up to her room to take a bath before going to bed, and she was pulling back the covers to get between the sheets when the stillness of the night was disturbed by the sound of the Land Rover coming up the drive.

  She hesitated for barely a second before she pushed her feet into soft mules. She slid her arms into the wide sleeves of her silk robe, and was still tying the belt about her waist when she left her room and hurried down the stairs into the hall. The front door opened, and Sean stepped into the hall at the same time as Sarika. In white tennis shorts and shirt, with a racquet in one hand and a white sweater slung across his shoulder, he presented an awe-inspiring image of masculine fitness, and Sarika stood there staring at him as if she had never seen him before in her life. His muscled thighs and calves were tanned as deeply as his face and arms, and the sheer height and breadth of him when he closed the door and walked towards her was enough to make her heart race madly.

  'Well, well, well!' His eyebrows rose in sardonic amusement as he looked her up and down, and she suspected that he had had a little too much to drink. 'I never thought I'd ever come home to find you waiting up for me, Sarika.'

  She swallowed nervously and wondered if she ought not to leave it until the morning, but then she squared her shoulders and followed him into the living-room. 'I want to talk to you.'

  'Do you?' he smiled mockingly, flinging his racquet and sweater on to a chair. 'Or is this what you were hoping for?'

  She was pulled into his arms and his mouth came down on hers with a precision that caught her off her guard. She felt insulted, but for long dizzying seconds she was too stunned to react.

  CHAPTER SIX

  The world began to right itself when Sarika felt Sean's hands roaming over her body in an intimate exploration that seemed to burn her through the silk of her robe. Her mind rejected the sensations he seemed to arouse with such ease, but her treacherous body responded to the sensual demand of his lips and hands. Logic fought a lone battle against the alien desires that swept through her, but it was the realisation that this meant nothing to him that finally made her go rigid and cold in his arms.

  She somehow managed to get her hands in between them and, with an unexpected burst of strength, she pushed him away from her. She was shaking so much that she could scarcely stand unsupported as she faced him with a blaze of fury in her tawny eyes. 'If you do that to me again, Sean O'Connor, so help me I'll—' />
  'You'll what?' he prompted derisively when she choked back the rest of her words. 'Dig your nails into the other side of my face?'

  She stared up at the faint scars her nails had left on his cheek and clenched her hands at her sides until her nails bit into her soft palms. 'If you continue to misunderstand me, then I might just do that!'

  'Okay, you little vixen, so you waited up to talk to me and not for the pleasure of my kisses,' he mocked her as he turned away to pour himself a whisky. 'I feel slighted, but I guess I'll overcome it.'

  Sarika bit down hard on her trembling lip while she fought to regain her composure, and she waited until he turned again to face her. 'I'm coming to the office as from tomorrow morning.'

  The ice tinkled in his glass, jarring her nerves as he raised it to his lips and swallowed down a mouthful. 'I'm afraid I can't allow that.'

  'Since I'm part owner of Apex I don't think you can stop me.'

  The silence was rife with antagonism as they stood glaring at each other, then he lessened the distance between them in a few long, angry strides. 'You expect to walk in and take over your father's position,' he snapped his fingers, 'just like that?'

  'I'm not quite the idiot you think I am, Sean,' she protested, refusing to be intimidated by his menacing attitude as he towered over her. 'I know I can't step into my father's position without the necessary experience, so I intend to work my way up to it, starting from the drawing office.'

  'There aren't any vacancies in the drawing office.'

  'There doesn't have to be,' she argued, raising her chin to meet his angry glance. 'I'll find something to do, and a place to do it in.'

  Angry defiance brought a sparkle to her eyes and a glow to her cheeks which enhanced her beauty, and Sean's eyes narrowed speculatively as he studied her intently. 'You're determined, aren't you.'

  'And you're equally determined to stop me,' she retaliated cynically. 'I wonder why?'

  Sean was silent for a moment, then he laughed unexpectedly, but it was a harsh, mocking laugh that raked unpleasantly across her nerve ends. 'I can imagine the sinister thoughts running wild at this moment through that pretty little head of yours.'

  'Can you blame me?' she challenged him.

  'Not entirely,' he shook his head, 'but you're way off the mark, honey, and that's a fact.'

  'Explain to me, then, why you don't want me in the office?'

  His expression was suddenly strangely hooded. 'You've had a rough time, and you need a break before you get yourself involved with the company.'

  Everyone was so concerned about giving her a break that it was beginning to sicken her. 'I can't sit around doing nothing, and I want to earn the right to those shares.'

  Sean swallowed down the remainder of his whisky and put down his glass before he slumped into a chair with his legs stretched out comfortably in front of him. His eyes were still narrowed, but his mouth twisted in a derisive smile as he sat there looking up at her slim, straight figure. 'What really bugs you is having to live in a house that now belongs to me.'

  He was shrewd and clever, but she was not going to be persuaded to change her mind. 'I'm not going to deny that having to live here is part of the reason why I need to get out and work,' she confessed.

  'This is your home, Sarika, for as long as you want to stay,' he reminded her with that calmness which always seemed to infuriate her. 'That was the understanding I had with your parents, and the same applies to you.'

  'I don't want your charity!' she retorted distastefully.

  'I'm being sensible, not charitable,' he pointed out tolerantly. 'Pretty soon now this house is simply going to be a place which I could call home when I'm in Bombay, so why shouldn't you stay on here with Ayah?'

  Sarika felt something cold clutch at her heart. 'What do you mean?'

  'I mean, Sarika, that I travel a lot,' he explained in the same tone of voice one would use to a child. 'My home base is in the United States, but I have corporate companies in several other countries, and Apex is now one of them.'

  'You mean Apex has become a part of—of—'

  'Premier International,' he filled in for her when she faltered incredulously. 'My father started the company twenty years ago, and it now consists of smaller companies which can cope with building and engineering requirements in many parts of the world.'

  She had heard of Premier International, and she knew the vastness of this particular organisation, but instead of being impressed she was aroused to an unreasonable anger. 'I'm surprised you didn't buy my father out completely while you were about it!'

  'It always pays to leave the original owner with a substantial part of the shares,' Sean smiled mockingly as he lit a cheroot and blew the smoke towards the ceiling. 'That way I know that my interests will be well taken care of.'

  'I thought you said that my father had intentions of retiring from the business,' she retorted suspiciously.

  'That's what he said,' Sean acknowledged, 'but I had hoped that I would have time to make him change his mind, and I think I would have succeeded.'

  'All the more reason then why I should learn the business as soon as I can,' she took advantage of his remark.

  'Unless, of course, you want to sell out to an interested party.'

  Sarika's back stiffened with resentment and indignation. 'Do you think me incapable of doing my father's job?'

  'It was merely a suggestion,' shrugged Sean, drawing hard on his cheroot as he studied her speculatively through the cloud of smoke he exhaled. 'There aren't many women who could fill a position like that.'

  'So that's it!' she exploded furiously. 'It's sex discrimination! Because I'm a woman you would much rather I sell out my shares than take an active interest in the business. Well, I'm not going to do that, Sean O'Connor! I'm a woman, yes, but I'm also a qualified architect, and there's no reason why I should have to step aside for any man. I'll be at the office as from tomorrow, I'll learn all there is to know, and before long I'll show you just what this woman can do!'

  'That was quite a speech, honey, but speeches are not what I shall expect from you if you're determined to come to the office tomorrow.' There was a hint of contempt in the dark eyes that raked her from head to foot. 'I'm going to be mean. I'm going to give you two weeks before I throw you in at the deep end, and you'd better know how to swim.'

  He picked up his things and strode out of the living-room, leaving Sarika to stare after him with wide eyes that were beginning to reflect a hint of uncertainty. Had she not perhaps bitten off a little more than she could chew this time? He was going to give her two weeks. What could she accomplish in such a short space of time? There was no sense in thinking that he had not meant what he had said. He would give her two weeks before he threw her in at the deep end, and, as he had warned, she had better know how to swim.

  Talking about something theoretically and actually putting it into practice were two different things, Sarika discovered after her first few days at the office. There were so many facets to the Apex company that her mind boggled, and learning to take over her father's job was a mammoth task she would not have been forced to accomplish in two weeks if she had not goaded Sean into issuing that challenge. Sean was not going to help her, she had known that from the start, but she also knew that he was aware of every move she made, and she could almost see him observing her with a patronising smile while she worked at a frantic pace all day until she fell into bed exhausted at night.

  Sarika did not venture into the administrative side at once, and she concentrated first of all on the working procedures. She had a good memory, and a mind that absorbed facts, so it was not until her fourth day that she took that giant leap into her father's office. Sarika accompanied Sean to the office as usual the Thursday morning, and they did not speak as they entered the building and walked across the mirrored foyer with its exotic potted plants. The girl behind the reception desk could not take her eyes off Sean when they walked towards the lift, but Sean barely noticed her. He thumbed the button,
the doors slid open, and they stepped into the steel cage.

  'What floor this morning?' Sean broke the stony silence between them with his mocking query, but Sarika was determined not to let him unnerve her.

  'Fifth,' she answered abruptly, and his eyebrows rose in sardonic amusement as he pressed the required button.

  'You're going for the jackpot this morning, are you?'

  'I have to go for it some time, don't I?' she smiled up at him coldly. 'You set that ridiculous time limit, so don't blame me if I appear to be speeding things up a little.'

  'You've been burning the candle at both ends these past few days, and in this game you could burn yourself out if you're not careful.'

  'I must remind you again that you were the one who set the time limit,' she said, a glacial look in her tawny eyes when they met his.

  A deep frown settled between his dark brows. 'I didn't intend you to wear yourself out in the process.'

  'What did you imagine I'd do?' she demanded in an icy, controlled voice. 'Did you think I'd run like a frightened rabbit at the prospect of learning to take over my father's position in this company?'

  His narrowed gaze slid over her, from her hair which was coiled into a neat chignon in the nape of her neck, down to her comfortable shoes. He made her feel as if she had been weighed and found wanting, and that was not a feeling she could cope with very well at that moment.

  'I don't know what I expected,' he said as they stepped out of the lift on the fifth floor, 'but it's obvious I can't credit you with being a coward.'

  He walked away from her towards his office at the end of the passage, and left her standing there with the feeling that she had been accused of something rather than complimented. She was baffled as she followed him down the passage, but she shrugged it off the moment she entered her father's book-lined office with its enormous mahogany desk.