The Vengance Affair

by Carole Mortimer

  'Jaz, you did not do anything wrong, all right?' Once again his hands tightly gripped her upper arms, pain­fully so as he shook her slightly. 'In fact,' he bit out between gritted teeth, 'hard as I try, there isn't a damn thing I can find to dislike about you!'

  Her frown turned to bewilderment. 'You want to find something to dislike about me...?'

  His face was pale, a nerve pulsing in his tightly clenched jaw. 'Yes, I want to find something to dislike about you!' he snapped. 'Maybe you talk in your sleep? Snore?' he added as she gave a negative shake of her head. 'Not that either of those things is too important in the grand scheme of things,' he added disgustedly as Jaz gave another puzzled shake of her head. 'But there has to be something—'

  'My inferiority complex "the size of a house"?' she put in helpfully.

  Beau gave a shout of laughter, shaking his head as he sobered. 'Jaz, you aren't supposed to help me in this!'

  'Sorry!' She grimaced.

  His laughter turned to a chuckle, his gaze warmly affectionate as he looked down at her. 'You see,' he gave a rueful shake of his head. 'Even when I'm being less than kind to you, instead of being angry, you turn around and make me laugh! What am I supposed to do with you?' he muttered self-disgustedly.

  Jaz swallowed hard as she looked up at him, aware that the atmosphere had suddenly changed between them, now charged with—she wasn't sure what it was charged with! She did know that Beau's hands had stopped painfully gripping her arms and were now lightly caressing, that his impatient anger of a few minutes ago had turned into something she couldn't quite define—but it was definitely no longer anger.

  She moistened dry lips. 'What do you want to do with me?' she prompted huskily.

  He gave an impatient shake of his head. 'Jaz, what I really want to do to you would frighten the hell out of you!'

  'No—'

  'Yes!' he insisted harshly. 'And therein lies my prob­lem.' He sighed deeply. 'With any other woman it would be a simple matter of satisfying the curiosity and moving on.'

  Her throat felt dry, her voice coming out as a rasp. 'But not with me?'

  'No, not with you.' He sighed again. 'Jaz, you're twenty-five, and I shall be forty in two months' time—'

  'Which means you're only thirty-nine now,' she cut in pointedly, her pulse racing.

  'Pedantic,' he muttered.

  'Not at all,' she assured him softly. 'You see, in two months' time, I shall be twenty-six.'

  He blinked. 'The tenth of May.'

  'I'm the tenth of May.' She nodded, her eyes glowing with laughter at his less-than-pleased expression at the fact that they had the same birthday.

  Beau shook his head. 'This is too much!'

  'What is?'

  'All of this!' He moved away impatiently. 'I moved to Aberton because I was tired of London, of the people, of the life I lived there—and within days of moving here I literally bump into you!' He gave another im­patient shake of his head. 'Someone up there—' he glanced skywards '—has it in for me!'

  Jaz shrugged. 'In that case, isn't it more likely to be "someone down there"?' She glanced towards the floor.

  He looked stunned for a moment, and then he gave a rueful smile. 'It could be—but taking into account the fact that it's you, somehow I doubt it! Jaz—'

  'Beau,' she interrupted firmly, taking a step towards him, still not completely sure of all the implications of this conversation, but sure enough to realize that Beau liked her. Unless she was mistaken, a lot more than he wanted to...!

  He glanced at her warily as she stood only inches away from him. 'What?' He tried to sound aggressive, but the fact that he was so disturbed by her closeness completely negated the effort.

  Jaz smiled shyly. 'I like you too,' she told him huskily.

  He groaned, closing his eyes briefly, those eyes glit­tering silver when he opened them again. 'Jaz, you can't just go around telling men you like them—'

  'Why can't I?'

  'Because that isn't the way it's done!' he said im­patiently.

  'But I just did tell you I like you,' she pointed out reasoningly.

  'I know you did,' he acknowledged impatiently. 'But I—you—Jaz, you're just a baby compared to me! I've been married, for goodness' sake, and I wasn't a saint before or after that marriage, either, whereas you—' He broke off, breathing hard in his frustration with this sit­uation.

  '"Whereas I"...?' she prompted softly. He blinked, his expression softening as he looked at her. 'You're all brand-new, Jaz. Untouched. All youth and vitality, and as yet unfulfilled dreams—'

  'You don't sound as if your dreams have been ful­filled yet, either,' she cut in softly, her heart beating a tattoo in her chest, barely breathing in the tension of the moment.

  He gave a humourless smile. 'Maybe my dreams were never the same as yours!'

  She looked at him closely, at those guarded grey eyes, the cynicism of his expression, the wary stance of his body. 'Oh, I think that they were,' she finally said slowly. 'I just think they got slightly bruised along the way.'

  'You see!' he bit out tensely. 'There's no reasoning with you!'

  Her lips curved into a smile. 'Only because you know I'm right'

  He gave a derisive smile. 'Since when did you be­come so. wise, Jaz Logan?'

  She wasn't in the least daunted by his taunting tone. 'A person's age doesn't necessarily make them wise or unwise, it's the life they've lived that does that,' she said quietly.

  Beau's look became searching. 'And the life you lived with your parents and grandparents has given you a wisdom beyond your years,' he guessed huskily. 'Yes,' she confirmed simply.

  She didn't have the experience, or the worldliness, that Beau was probably used to in the people he spent time with, but her knowledge of people was no less than his own.

  'Jaz...!' Beau reached out and took her into his arms, at the same time his mouth coming down possessively on hers.

  All of today, probably all of yesterday evening, too, had been building up to this moment, the attraction be­tween them so strong it was impossible to deny, Jaz's lips opening to deepen the kiss, her arms up about his shoulders, her fingers enmeshed in the dark thickness of his hair.

  She loved this man. Was in love with him, too. Wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of her life with him.

  But if that wasn't to be, then she wanted now with him!

  He felt so good, his skin firm as she unbuttoned his shirt, covered in fine dark hair, tiny goose bumps of pleasure appearing as she broke their kiss, her lips fol­lowing the same path as her hands, Beau groaning low in his throat as her tongue flicked lightly over his sen­sitivity.

  She was guided completely by instinct, only knew that she wanted to touch Beau and be touched by him, wanted to completely lose herself in him, wanted—

  There was a sudden clattering noise overhead, a loud curse, the sound of something sliding, and then that something crashing to the ground outside the kitchen window.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  'What the—?' Beau blinked dazedly.

  Jaz was as stunned as Beau by this unexpected in­terruption, but they realized in unison the possible source of the noise.

  'Dennis!' Jaz cried concernedly.

  'Davis!' Beau rasped grimly.

  They both rushed across to the kitchen door, hurrying outside to stand on the pathway and look up at the roof.

  Dennis Davis stood poised on the rooftop, a sheepish expression on his face as he looked down at them. 'Sorry about that. One of the roof slates slipped out of my hand.'

  Now that they were outside, Jaz could see that was the case, found herself actually standing on some of the smashed slate.

  Well, on the positive side, at least Dennis hadn't ac­tually fallen off the roof himself, as they had at first suspected. But on the negative side, what on earth was Dennis doing letting slates slide off the roof in that dan­gerous way; it was pure luck that no one had been ac­tually standing on this pathway when the slate had dropped!

 
; From the look on Beau's face, now that his initial concern had been satisfied, it was the latter side that interested him!

  'Get off my roof,' he growled at the other man.

  Dennis looked stunned. 'But—'

  'Now,' Beau grated coldly.

  Jaz touched his arm. 'I'm sure it was only an acci­dent, Beau,' she said soothingly.

  'An accident that should never have happened,' he snapped without taking his gaze off the older man as he carefully manoeuvred his way down from the roof. 'Now get off my property,' he told the other man as he stepped down onto the path beside him.

  Dennis still looked dazed. 'But I've only half finished the job.' He frowned.

  'Half started it, you mean,' Beau rasped scathingly. 'Take yourself, and any of the equipment that happens to be yours, and go. And don't bother to come back,' he added grimly.

  Dennis turned to Jaz. 'It was just a little accident,' he began wheedlingly.

  'A costly one—for you,' Beau was the one to answer him before Jaz could even think of a suitable reply.

  Actually, she thought he was probably being a little harsh on the older man; Dennis never had been known for his efficiency. Beau had no idea how lucky he was that Dennis had continued to turn up to do the job at all!

  'Did I disturb you in the middle of something?' Dennis eyed the younger man speculatively.

  'Go,' Beau told the other man with barely controlled violence, his hands clenched into fists at his sides.

  Dennis took one more look at the younger man's face, shot Jaz a raised-brow look, and went.

  Jaz looked at Beau too now, realizing the reason for Dennis's last comment as she saw that Beau's shirt was still unbuttoned from their lovemaking earlier, his tanned skin covered in fine dark hair. Skin and hair she had caressed and kissed only minutes earlier...

  Colour darkened her cheeks as she accepted that little gem of information would quickly pass around the vil­lage, no doubt greatly embellished now that Dennis had actually been sacked from working here any longer!

  Beau frowned across at her. 'What is it?'

  She shook her head. 'I'm just not sure that sacking Dennis in that way was a good idea.'

  Beau's expression darkened. 'The man is completely incompetent. What if you had been standing under here at the time?' he added grimly. 'Damn it, you could have been killed!'

  'So could you,' she pointed out huskily, finding the very idea of that made her feel sick.

  Beau took a step towards her. 'Jaz—'

  'Hello, you two,' greeted a warm friendly voice that Jaz instantly recognized as Madelaine.

  'Your shirt, Beau!' she managed to mutter before turning to smile at the older woman, effectively block­ing Madelaine's view of Beau as she did so, giving him time to button up his shirt; no point in adding to the speculation by piquing Madelaine's curiosity concern­ing his partly undressed state!

  Madelaine looked as beautiful as ever today in a deep red trouser suit and white silk blouse, showing no ad­verse effects of having had guests staying with her over the weekend.

  'I've just passed a very disgruntled-looking Dennis Davis in the driveway,' she told them ruefully after kiss­ing them both on the cheek in greeting.

  'I sacked him for incompetence,' Beau stated flatly, moving to stand at Jaz's side, his shirt neatly re-buttoned.

  'Oh, dear,' Madelaine sympathized. 'I did try to warn you that the man is a terrible slacker.'

  'An idiot would be a more apt description,' Beau rasped disgustedly.

  Madelaine shot Jaz a questioning grimace. A question Jaz wasn't completely sure how to answer. Yes, Dennis was less than efficient at what he did—but, in his fa­vour, no one had ever claimed otherwise, least of all him! And to be honest, she was still slightly stunned herself with the way Beau had just sacked the other man on the spot...

  'He certainly isn't worth forgetting my manners!' Beau sighed impatiently. 'Come inside, Madelaine, and join us for a cup of coffee.'

  'Lovely,' the other woman accepted warmly. 'I've just driven the last of my guests to the railway station and wished them a happy journey,' she explained lightly as they all went into the kitchen. 'I was just driving past when I saw Jaz's van outside and thought I would pop in and say hello to you both,' she added brightly.

  Jaz was still feeling slightly uncomfortable from Beau's remark of 'join us' for a cup of coffee; almost as if the two of them were a couple, instead of host and guest. Madelaine's comment about popping in to say hello to 'you both' only seemed to add to that air of intimacy...!

  'You were lucky you didn't arrive a few minutes ear­lier,' Beau told the other woman disgustedly as he pre­pared the coffee percolator. 'You could have had a roof slate crash down on your head if you had,' he explained grimly.

  'Oh, dear, is that what Dennis did?' Madelaine gri­maced. 'I say, I haven't interrupted your lunch, have I?' she exclaimed as she saw the remains of their meal on the table.

  'Not at all,' Jaz answered firmly, deftly picking up the mats and condiments and placing them on a worktop out of the way. 'I was actually just about to leave...' she added pointedly, only to have Beau glance across at her frowningly.

  Whether it was genuinely because he wanted her to stay and have coffee, or just that he didn't want to be left alone here with Madelaine, Jaz wasn't quite sure.

  In either case, she took pity on him. 'But a coffee would be nice,' she accepted dryly. 'I was going to telephone you this afternoon anyway, Madelaine,' she told the other woman as the two of them sat down at the kitchen table. 'To thank you for a lovely evening yesterday,' she added lightly.

  Madelaine beamed. 'It was rather fun, wasn't it.'

  Fun wasn't quite how Jaz would have described the evening, but it certainly wasn't Madelaine's fault she hadn't enjoyed herself.

  'Yes, thanks for a great evening,' Beau said as he placed the cups of coffee down on the table, along with the cream and sugar, before sitting down to join them. 'We'll have to return the favour,' he continued deci­sively. 'I take it you can cook, Jaz?' He raised mocking brows in her direction.

  Jaz looked across at him frowningly. What on earth did he think he was he doing? They weren't a couple, there was no 'we', and, as such, it was totally irrelevant whether or not she could cook!

  'More than my take-it-out-of-a-packet-and-stick-it-in-the-oven-lasagne, at any rate,' he added self-derisively.

  She could cook, yes, had done so a lot when her father had still been alive, and they had been left on their own. Although she was sadly out of practise in recent years, tended to just get herself whatever was easiest.

  'I'm sure you underestimate yourself, Beau.' Madelaine laughed appreciatively.

  'No, I don't,' he assured her dryly. 'But if we can persuade Jaz into cooking the meal, perhaps you would like to come to dinner on Saturday evening?'

  And 'perhaps' he should have asked 'Jaz' first whether or not she wanted to come here on Saturday evening and cook them all a meal!

  Because then he would have learnt that the answer was no! Not that she thought the information about this initial invitation would go any further than Madelaine; the other woman certainly wasn't one of the village gos­sips. But if the dinner actually took place, it was sure to become public knowledge, whether they wanted it to or not. And Jaz certainly didn't want it to!

  'I would love to,' Madelaine accepted graciously. 'Jaz?' she enquired teasingly.

  Madelaine obviously found this as funny as Beau did, and in the circumstances Jaz couldn't exactly blame her. But her friend didn't know about those anonymous let­ters.

  But to give him credit, neither did Beau...

  'Fine.' She nodded abruptly—but with the intention of getting herself out of it as soon as she had a chance to talk to Beau alone. Which she was going to do before she left today!

  However, that didn't happen for some time, the three of them chatting amiably as they drank their coffee, Madelaine the one to finally look at her watch and ex­cuse herself.

  'I have an appo
intment at the hairdresser's this after­noon,' she explained as she stood up. 'But I'll see you both on Saturday,' she added with a teasing look in Jaz's direction.

  'We'll look forward to it,' Beau was the one to an­swer smoothly.

  'You may be looking forward to it.' Jaz turned on him as soon as she heard Madelaine's car depart. 'I most certainly am not.' Her eyes flashed deeply blue. 'What do you mean by inviting Madelaine to dinner with us both?'

  'Calm down,' Beau soothed as he cleared the cups from the table. 'I thought I was doing you a favour by having the dinner here, that's all.' He shrugged.

  'Doing me a favour!' Jaz repeated incredulously.

  'Well, you have to admit, this house is bigger than your cottage for entertaining,' he nodded unconcern­edly.

  'If I was intending to entertain—which I wasn't!' she snapped accusingly.

  Beau shrugged. 'It just seemed to me that we both owed Madelaine a dinner.'

  They probably did. In fact, the amount of times Jaz had either been to Madelaine's for afternoon tea, or a dinner, she probably owed the other woman a lot more than one dinner; she just wasn't happy with the idea of jointly entertaining with Beau, of all people.

  'What's the problem, Jaz?' he prompted lightly. 'I'm sure between the two of us we can come up with some­thing edible.'

  'It isn't a question of that.' She shook her head im­patiently.

  For someone who had a very short time ago com­plained to the fates for even introducing the two of them, he had a very strange way of wanting to keep his distance!

  'Then what is it a question of?' He tilted his head to one side as he looked at her questioningly.

  The fact was, she was in love with this man, and it was going to be sheer torture coming here on Saturday and preparing dinner with him as if they really were a couple.

  'I just don't think this is a good idea, that's all,' she muttered disgruntledly.

  He shrugged. 'Madelaine didn't seem to find any­thing unusual about it.'

  No, she hadn't—which only made it all the more ob­vious that people were starting to think of Jaz and Beau as a couple. A completely mismatched one! It was also going to make things more difficult for her when Beau decided to move on...