by Fox, Natalie
‘What’s the problem?’ he asked quietly.
Jade controlled the leap of her heart. He still stood stiffly in front of her, not making any move to sit down again and discuss it with her. She wondered if she should buzz for coffee; it might relax him, persuade him to take a seat, and make her feel more at ease. Perhaps it would be too presumptuous. He’d only asked what the problem was; that wasn’t an acceptance that he would help her.
‘I’m hoping you can tell me,’ she told him, handing him a weighty file she had prepared earlier, detailing their current financial status, projects—existing and proposed, staffing—everything that was relevant. ‘It’s been a bad year—not disastrous, but another year like this and it could be. I’m loath to involve my father and I decided to ask your advice and…’ She stopped, realising he probably didn’t know her father had handed the running of the company over to her.
‘Four years ago…just after…just after I turned twenty-one…my father allowed me to take over the agency.’ It had been her lifeline at the time. Just what she had needed to help her get over Mel. ‘You may remember I came here from art school and a year’s business course in America…Anyway, Daddy had had enough of London Life and wanted out. He still owns the company but I run it and make all the decisions. He lives in the South of France now. He has a new love in his life and…’
Jade swallowed hard. Mel was flicking through the file, evidently not in the least bit interested in her private life or that of her father.
She went on, ‘Everything was going fine with the agency till last year when my top graphic artist left…’ He wasn’t listening. He didn’t care. He wouldn’t help. ‘He set up on his own and took with him a lot of the company’s clients…some of the best clients…and the best advertising.’
Mel looked up then, eyes as steely and implacable as ever. ‘You let him?’ he said, aghast that she should have allowed such a thing to happen.
Jade bristled at that. ‘I didn’t know, not till it was too late!’ she protested quickly.
‘You should always tie up your top staff in contracts they can’t get out of. For your own protection,’ he told her sternly.
‘This is a small agency; I like to think of it as a family business…’
He shot her a look of pure derision. ‘With you as the mother hen, I suppose, all clucking—’
‘That’s enough, Mel,’ Jade interrupted. ‘I trust my staff and I’m not ruthless enough to tie them all to contracts,’ she argued, though fully understanding his way of thinking. If she’d had the employee in question under a more restrictive contract she wouldn’t have lost valuable clients and wouldn’t be struggling so hard now as a consequence.
‘Trouble is, these days being ruthless pays, Jade,’ he told her tightly, his eyes darkening even further as he narrowed them at her. ‘Surely your ruthless stockbroker husband has taught you something since you were married?’
Her full lips parted in protest. Mel really believed she had gone through with the marriage to Nicholas—and how did he know he was a stockbroker? Had her father mentioned it in his engagement announcement? Had that business associate of Nicholas’s, who had arranged all this, named his source?
Jade had sworn Nicholas to secrecy, terrified that her staff would find out that all wasn’t well with the company. Whatever, whoever, however, she couldn’t let it go. If this was a one-off meeting she could let him go on thinking she was married, but if he took on this assignment he would find out that she wasn’t and despise her even more for, as he would see it, yet another deception.
‘I…I didn’t marry Nicholas,’ she told him in a half-whisper she barely heard herself. How could she even consider marriage to anyone after the great love they had shared? And how enormously hurtful that he still thought so little of her.
But she hadn’t the courage to add that Nicholas was still very much a part of her life. He couldn’t help but be, since he shared her London flat with her when he was in town, albeit to save money for when he and his fiancee, Trisha, married and bought their own property. No, her arrangement with Nicholas had no bearing on all this, was nothing to do with Mel. She’d told him the truth—that she hadn’t married Nicholas. It was enough.
There was nothing, no reaction whatsoever to her revelation in his gleaming grey eyes. It meant nothing to him and she felt a small sorrow deep in her heart. Hope; she had always lived with it, though she often thought it a silly little hope to hang onto. She even despised herself for the irrationality of it, but deep, deep down inside her she had nurtured the hope that one day he would come back into her life and…and care.
‘Well, it’s a pity you didn’t,’ he said frostily. ‘His business sense might have saved you from this.’ He waved the file in his hand and then transferred his attention to its contents again.
At least he hadn’t insulted Nicholas by presuming he had no business sense. She waited, shifting her weight from one high heel to the other as he flicked through the pages, reading only what interested him. But was anything interesting him? she wondered. His expression didn’t change. Finally he tossed the file down on the desk in front of her.
‘By the look of those financial statements you can’t afford my fees anyway. I don’t come cheap, Jade.’
She hardened her heart and stiffened her back. She shouldn’t have asked him. She shouldn’t have allowed herself to be persuaded by Nicholas that this was the best course of action to take. She should have known it would be hopeless, that Mel wouldn’t help her—even if she could afford his wretched fees.
‘You never did come cheap, Mel,’ she said coldly, and astonishingly this brought a small, thin smile to his lips.
‘No, I didn’t,’ he drawled smoothly. ‘But you did, didn’t you? Bargain basement.’
The insult was unbearable. So painful, she felt almost sick. It was worse than all his other insults that night of her birthday. He had accused her of every moral misdemeanour in the book of proprieties. She had tried to explain the situation with Nicholas but, up against a barrage of raw accusations and offensive remarks, what chance had she stood? According to proud Mel Biaggio, she had deceived him, hurt him, cheated him and insulted him. He never wanted to see her again as long as he lived. It had turned out to be the worst night of her life instead of what should have been one of the happiest.
She watched him come round the side of her desk, her eyes misted by that insult, her heart flapping weakly in her breast He stopped, only inches from her. She felt his heat and steeled herself against it, wishing with her very soul that she hadn’t started all this. She should have known that his fiery Mediterranean ancestry harboured no leeway for forgiveness.
His breath, when he spoke, came with the heat of the devil, fanning her responses till she almost physically recoiled from him.
‘I wonder if you are still such a bargain, or if perhaps life has finally taught you what honour is? I can’t resist the temptation to try you out.’ His voice was leaden with menace and his mouth so close to hers that it was almost touching. ‘Don’t kid yourself that it’s a weakness on my part. One thing you taught me was never to let a little tease like you get under my skin again.’
Jade naively opened her mouth to form some sort of insult in retaliation, but her parted lips were given no chance to respond. They were suddenly claimed by his, hot and punishing and so shockingly sexual that all fight she might have summoned if forewarned disappeared for evermore.
His arms slid around her, crushing her to him just in case she thought of escape. Hard arms that had once melted her bones and melded her to him in the prelude to their passion. His mouth, scouring hers so painfully now, was a wicked reminder of the depth of feeling that had once charged between them. But then that feeling had had its roots in love and desire; now it was powered by the need for punishment.
Jade knew this and yet it made no difference to the aching need that Mel’s kiss thrust into her unwilling heart. She didn’t want to want him but she did. After all this time she still
yearned for a small miracle to happen so that he would love her again. She wanted to tear herself away but couldn’t. She knew she should be making some attempt to fight him but she couldn’t.
She was utterly weak and senseless and she thought he must have sensed her submission. For one fleeting second she imagined his lips were softening. Was she willing the pressure to ease, to soften away from punishment and veer towards what they had once been to each other—passionate lovers?
She didn’t know. The only thing she was sure of was that Mel Biaggio could still arouse her so deeply that she lost all control. And that must mean that he was still very much in her heart, and the thought was despairing and so very painful.
Her eyes were filled with tears of past regrets as she drew back from him, the first to move. So much loss and so much heartache to carry on living with. Where was the indifference she had hoped would take the place of her love after four years without sight of him?
He was completely unaffected by her look of despair, his eyes cold as his hands dropped to his sides.
Jade stared at him, determinedly now, the tears swallowed down hard and her eyes clear once again. She was the first to speak—bitingly, to hide the hurt.
‘If I had thought you had sunk that low, Mel, I would never have dreamt of asking for your help. You came here today with no intention of even considering helping my company. Your sole purpose for being here is to insult me and humiliate me in revenge for what you think I did to you four years ago.’
He shook his head and his mouth twisted into a cruel half-smile. ‘Revenge has nothing to do with my coming here today, Jade,’ he grated roughly. ‘And if you think that kiss was a punishment you are very wrong. What you think and feel is no concern of mine any more.’
There was nothing there, not a smidgeon of feeling for her, and it was irrational to be hurt but she couldn’t ignore the pain that sliced through her.
‘So why, Mel?’ she cried impatiently. ‘Why come here at all if it wasn’t to make a fool of me?’
‘I came here for my own selfish reasons,’ he told her darkly. ‘Something for me, nothing to benefit you, nothing to do with humiliation or insults or revenge.’ His eyes suddenly narrowed and his jaw stiffened. ‘I came here to lay a few ghosts of my past before I make the big commitment myself.’
He paused to let that sink in, a pause that homed in on its target—her heart—and then he added softly and yet lethally, striking where it hurt, ‘Get my drift?’
Jade stared at him in horror, her dark eyes wide and brimming with pain. She was skidding on emotional black ice and couldn’t stop. Her head was spinning. Had she got his drift, and was he…? Oh, so cruel, wicked even. She ran a tongue over dry lips before stuttering helplessly, ‘Y-you’re going to—to be married?’
There was a long, leaden silence before he responded. How clever he was at using those pauses to full effect. They were worse than words, the anticipation of what was to come the real cruelty.
‘That’s the drift,’ he murmured at last. ‘The ghosts of our past are firmly buried, Jade; and I’ll tell you something—I’m glad, relieved, too. I’ve just one small regret. I’d have liked to think that by kissing you I might have aroused just a small measure of remorse in you for what we lost, because then I could have asked you how you felt about my betrothal.’
He turned then and Jade squeezed shut her smarting eyes against the pain, to close the world out. When she opened them the world was still spinning and Mel Biaggio was smiling at her from the open doorway—a cold, cynical smile. He held her file aloft.
‘I’ll take this with me. It’ll make good bedtime reading. I’m a slave to insomnia. Hopefully, this should cure it.’
He slammed the door after him and shakily Jade sank into her chair and covered her face with her trembling hands. No, this couldn’t be happening; she hadn’t heard right, she hadn’t got his drift and this was all too awful to bear. Mel, the great womaniser, had finally made a commitment to the woman he loved, and she, Jade Ritchie, wasn’t that woman. Somehow it was so much worse knowing that his reputation had been grounded at last, because that must mean the lady in question was someone very special. Far more special than she had ever been to him. Oh, it hurt, so very much.
How irrational could you get? she asked herself in abject misery, because now she knew exactly how Mel had felt that night her father had announced her engagement to Nicholas. Totally, utterly betrayed and deeply hurt. And it was stupid, stupid, stupid, this awful feeling inside her, because he wasn’t a part of her life any more. And yet he would be if he took her and her ailing company on. Everything was getting desperately worse instead of better…
CHAPTER TWO
JADE had her feelings of betrayal under control a few days later. How could she feel betrayed when she hadn’t seen him for four years? But the truth was that she had never completely given up hope because he had always been in her heart. All the time she’d been reading about his latest amorous adventures with women in the gossip columns she’d allowed that hope to stay firmly implanted in her. Perverse as it might seem, she had thought that so long as he was womanising he wasn’t finally lost to her. Now that he was about to be married, however, he definitely was. It was a thought she was trying to come to terms with and she was not having a whole lot of success. When you were dealt a devastating blow like that it wasn’t easy to carry on as if the world was still turning.
‘You’re not cooking for me, are you?’ Nicholas asked, coming up behind her in the kitchen part of the open-plan living area. ‘I’m leaving for Paris almost immediately. The taxi will be here in a minute.’
‘I know, I heard you ringing for it, and I’m not cooking, just heating up some canned soup. How long will you be away?’
‘A couple of days. Did Mel Biaggio get in touch with you?’
Jade stirred the soup and gave a small sigh. ‘Yes, while you were in Belgium. No go, I’m afraid. After looking at my financial statements he said I couldn’t afford him.’ She didn’t tell him the content of the rest of their talk because Nicholas, being the sweetie he was, would show such concern that she’d be in tears before she knew it.
‘Arrogant swine.’
‘He has a point,’ Jade said defensively. ‘I’d have to mortgage this apartment to afford his fees.’
‘Don’t even think about it. I’ll advance you the money.’
Jade turned to him, grinned and tweaked his chin. ‘Your wedding money? Trisha would have a fit. She only tolerates you living here because I don’t charge you rent and you can save quicker. Thanks for the offer, though; you’re an angel. But it isn’t the answer. I’m going to have to swallow my pride and—’
‘Bargain with him?’ Nicholas suggested with a thin smile.
‘No way,’ Jade retorted, and then sighed heavily. ‘I’m going to have to tell Daddy. Hopefully he’ll inject some money into the company and I’ll struggle on.’
Nicholas took the wooden spoon from her, placed it on the counter, and put his hands on her shoulders. He was serious, worried about her. ‘You said you couldn’t bear the thought of facing him, and you know that isn’t the answer anyway, Jade. In another year you’d be back in the same position and beholden to your father again. The company needs restructuring and you need financial advice too, and Mel Biaggio is the only one who can help.’
‘Can’t you help?’ Jade pleaded softly, her limpid brown eyes wide and appealing. ‘You could look over the books and—’
‘I would have offered help before now if I thought I could be of service, but it isn’t my field, Jade,’ Nicholas insisted. ‘Biaggio has the expertise. I wish I knew him personally; I’d have a word with him—’
The door buzzer went and Nicholas shrugged and let her go. ‘That’s the cab. I have to dash. Chin up, sweetheart. We’ll talk about it when I get back.’
‘Have a good trip,’ she murmured as he went out of the door.
‘I’m lonely,’ she muttered to the soup. ‘Resorting to talking to a pan
of soup because there’s no one special in my life. But once there was…’
Mel groaned as he gathered her lovingly into his arms, nuzzling her warm hair as they lay sprawled in the corn-field. A perfect day, a perfect picnic; everything was perfect.
‘I hate parties, ‘ he moaned. ‘It’ll mean I’ll have to share you. Can’t we just swish away on a magic carpet to somewhere romantic for your birthday? Paris would be perfect. The city of lovers.’
Jade giggled and twined his hair around her fingers. ‘Daddy would never forgive you for whisking his baby away on her twenty-first. Besides,’ she added, her voice low, seductive and teasing, ‘you want to meet him, don’t you? Haven’t you something special you want to discuss with him?’
‘Like his daughter’s hand in marriage?’
He looked down at her, his eyes so full of love and adoration that her heart squeezed. He lowered his head and gently pulled at her lower lip with his teeth, mur-muring, ‘Do people still do that these days?’
‘Not before they’ve made their intention quite clear to the lady in question,’ she laughed.
He grinned down at her. ‘Was that ever in dispute, my pocket-sized princess? I adored you from the moment I first set eyes on you queuing for bagels in Harrods food hall.’
‘Doughnuts,’ she corrected him and they both started to laugh, remembering how corny their first meeting had been. Jade had dropped her purse and her money had scattered; everyone had helped to gather it up and then, in the confusion, she had tried to pay with pesetas, not pounds, because she’d just come back from Spain. People had grown impatient and Mel had stepped in, paying for her and then gently taking her by the elbow and steering her out of the food hall and into his life.