‘Keilly!’ He swung her round to face him as she would have turned away without interest. ‘Don’t pretend, darling,’ his eyes pleaded with her.
‘I really don’t know—’ her second denial got no further than the last, although this time it was Rick’s mouth on hers that stopped her, moving slowly, searchingly, over hers, mastering her with the light thrust of his tongue, deepening the caress as she gave a groan of capitulation, straining up to meet the kiss now.
‘I really missed you, Keilly,’ he held her face framed in his hands. ‘I didn’t want to talk to you on the telephone, be able to hear your voice and not be able to touch you. Can you understand that, darling?’
It was all happening too fast again, spiralling out of the control of either of them. ‘Yes,’ she breathed huskily. ‘I understand.’
Rick gave a relieved smile, holding her gently against him. ‘I knew you would.’
‘How long will you be here this time?’ she asked huskily.
‘Indefinitely,’ he stepped back to look down at her. ‘I intend getting to know my sea witch better. Is that all right with you?’
She smiled up at him happily. ‘Of course. But can you take the time off from work?’
‘Freelance, remember,’ he dismissed, looking up as several sea-gulls swooped down overhead.
Keilly admired the gentle strength of his face, the strong column of his throat. She was falling in love with this man, she knew it just as surely as she knew the sun was setting. ‘It must be nice to take time off when you feel like it,’ she taunted to hide the shock of her discovery.
He turned back to grin at her. ‘Hard on the pocket, though,’ he smiled. ‘Well, are we going for this swim or not?’ He arched dark brows at the fast-disappearing sun.
‘We are,’ she gave a smile of anticipation, imagining his shock when he stepped into the icy cold water. ‘I hope you’re insured for hypothermia,’ she gave a mischievous laugh, throwing off her robe to run down the beach to the water’s edge. ‘Otherwise you could be in for a nasty surprise.’ She ran into the water without waiting for his reaction, striking out forcefully into the waves.
Rick joined her seconds later, seeming none the worse for the coldness of the water, matching his smooth strokes with hers. Keilly had never before had a companion to her evening swim; she enjoyed the challenge of trying to keep up with the power of his body, playing like two seals, Rick’s hair curling darkly now that it was wet.
‘Enough,’ he suddenly decided. ‘Or my insurance premium could go up.’
She gave a happy laugh, following him out of the water, swallowing hard as she saw how beautiful he looked in the body-hugging trunks, the black material moulded low down on his hips, his lean body covered with a fine body hair that grew thicker across his chest and lower over his navel. He was beautiful, like a sculpture of a Greek god. Keilly blushed as he turned to see what was delaying her, rushing into speech. ‘I bet you didn’t get that tan in England.’ She picked up her towel, drying herself quickly before pulling on her robe.
He shook his head. ‘California. That’s where I’ve been the last nine weeks.’
‘Lucky you,’ she pulled a face. ‘Did you get your story?’
‘Yes,’ he answered abruptly, dressed himself now. ‘We had better get back, it’s getting cold now I’m out of the water. Dinner?’ he asked as they walked, his arm about her shoulders.
‘I can’t,’ she grimaced her disappointment, remembering she had promised to help Kathy with the organisation of the bazaar in the church hall tonight. It wasn’t something she could really get out of, having agreed to help weeks ago. ‘Not tonight,’ she frowned, thinking quickly. ‘But I’m sure Aunt Sylvie won’t mind if I have my day off tomorrow instead of Friday,’ she suggested with eagerness. ‘We only have a couple of guests left over from Christmas. That is—if you would like to spend the day with me?’ she added uncertainly, wondering if she had taken too much for granted.
‘It’s what I’m here for,’ he held her close to his side. ‘Who’s the lucky man tonight?’ his tone was casual, too casual.
Keilly felt a warm thrill at his unspoken jealousy. ‘A friend I promised to help out,’ she teased him.
‘Yes?’
Her eyes danced with mischief. ‘A female friend.’
‘Witch!’ Rick bent and kissed her hard on the mouth. ‘You’ll pay for that tomorrow,’ he warned. ‘But to tell you the truth, an early night wouldn’t be a bad idea,’ he held back a tired yawn with effort. ‘I only got back from California this morning, and it took me most of the day to drive up here.’
‘You must be very tired! You shouldn’t—’
‘And your concern is encouraging.’ He raised questioning dark brows.
Keilly avoided his glance, too conscious of what had happened between them the last time he was here to offer him too much encouragement. They had time now to get to know each other, could explore more than their physical attraction for each other. ‘I really do have to be going now, Rick, otherwise I’m going to be late.’
He nodded. ‘Nine o’clock tomorrow?’
‘Not too early for you?’ she teased.
He returned her smile as they entered the hotel. ‘Not too early. Now you had better go and get out of those wet things, your aunt tells me you caught flu just after I left the last time,’ he revealed dryly.
Keilly gave him an irritated look. ‘That wasn’t caused from swimming.’
‘No,’ he acknowledged throatily. ‘Neither was mine,’ he added wryly.
‘Rick?’ She gave a burst of laughter at his confirming nod.
‘I love to see you laugh,’ he hugged her to him so tightly Keilly felt as if she might break in half. ‘Sorry,’ he said ruefully at her pained expression. ‘But we’ll have to choose somewhere a little warmer for our lovemaking next time.’ He chuckled as she blushed. ‘You’re adorable!’
‘And you aren’t a gentleman,’ she pretended anger, feeling self-conscious as two of the other hotel guests walked through the reception area on their way to the dining room. ‘I have to go, Rick,’ she lightly touched his chest. ‘I’ll see you in the morning.’
His eyes deepened to navy blue. ‘That sounds good,’ he murmured softly. ‘So good.’
She left him with an embarrassed blush, not knowing how to slow things down between them when Rick said things like that, not even knowing if she wanted to!
He was in the dining room when she hurriedly left twenty minutes later, and she gave him a friendly wave before going out to her car, not having time to do more than that; Kathy was going to be cross with her already for being late, she should have been at the hall half an hour ago.
Kathy gave her a disapproving frown when she rushed into the cold hall a few minutes later, both women dressed in denims and sweaters for the task ahead of them.
‘Before you say anything, I’m sorry,’ Keilly sighed, throwing off her gloves and coat.
‘I wouldn’t mind,’ her cousin said tightly. ‘But every time it’s the same, people promise to come and help and they never do. The committee I can understand, but I didn’t ask you, Keilly, you offered.’
‘Yes, I know. But—’
‘Just look at this mess,’ Kathy groaned at the bags of goods that surrounded them. ‘It’s been arriving all day, and I don’t even know where to start.’
‘Don’t worry,’ she soothed. ‘It’s always like this, you know that. It won’t take long to organise once we get started.’ She was already sorting goods out on one of the trestle tables that had been put up for the occasion. ‘No one else has arrived at all?’
‘No,’ Kathy sighed. “They make me the chairwoman of these committees and then leave me to do the work. It’s always the same,’ she mumbled. ‘I don’t know why I agree to do it.’
‘Because you love it,’ she chided, receiving a wry smile in reply.
Her certainty of it not taking long proved correct, and pretty soon they had things sorted to the appropriate tables, Kathy’s
tension easing as they neared the end of their task, the two of them sitting down to a well-earned rest and a cup of tea when they finished shortly after eleven o’clock.
‘Mm, thanks,’ Kathy accepted her cup gratefully. ‘Thank goodness that’s over, I’m sure it gets worse every time. You never did tell me why you were late,’ she eyed Keilly curiously.
She had thought herself beyond coy blushes, but just thinking of Rick was enough to make the colour flood her cheeks. ‘Rick came back,’ she didn’t attempt to prevaricate, knowing her expression must give her away.
‘He did?’ Kathy said sharply, lowering her cup down on to her knee. She smiled her pleasure. ‘Yes.’
‘And?’
Keilly looked puzzled. ‘And?’ she echoed.
Her cousin sighed her impatience. ‘It’s been a long day, Keilly, in fact it’s been a long couple of months,’ her brittle tone was evidence of her renewed tension, ‘and I’ll take a bet on your not even asking this Rick if he’s heard any more about Rod’s plans.’
She gasped her dismay, blushing her guilt.
‘I knew it,’ Kathy sighed again, standing up wearily. ‘I’ve been worrying myself sick the last two months and you didn’t even give Rod Bartlett another thought, did you?’ she snapped accusingly.
It wasn’t true that she hadn’t thought of the actor over the last weeks, she had, but as soon as she saw Rick again she completely forgot the film star’s existence. ‘I’m sorry, Kathy,’ she grimaced. ‘Although I can ask him in the morning. He says he’s staying on for a while,’ she revealed softly.
Kathy was so deeply immersed in her own worrying thoughts that she didn’t notice Keilly’s happiness at the thought of a prolonged visit by Rick. ‘Well I wish you would ask him,’ she said with biting sarcasm. ‘I’d be interested,’ she understated.
‘I really am sorry,’ she groaned her dismay. ‘I just never thought… Rick didn’t mention anything about Rod Bartlett,’ she added as if to vindicate herself, very much aware that she had gone down several notches in her cousin’s estimation. ‘I’ll call you as soon as I’ve spoken to him.’
‘Thanks,’ Kathy sounded preoccupied now, taking their cups through to the kitchen to wash them through. ‘I think we’ve finished here for now, would you mind dropping me off at home? Peter has the car this evening.’
‘Kathy—’
‘Shall we go?’ she asked briskly. ‘I’m sure you must be as tired as I am.’
She wished there were something she could do, something she could say to make up for her lapse, but only talking to Rick could do that, and that would have to wait until the morning. It had been thoughtless of her not to think of Kathy’s worry, her cousin had obviously been under severe strain the last two months, had even been short-tempered with Heather a couple of times, something that usually never happened. She just hadn’t given Rod Bartlett’s involvement with Kathy any thought once she saw Rick again and they had established how much they had missed each other. She would have to correct that oversight and call Kathy before she and Rick went out tomorrow.
She sorted through the mail as she waited for him to come downstairs the next morning, her aunt agreeing to take over as soon as she wanted to leave.
‘Good morning, my darling,’ Rick nuzzled his face into her throat as his arms came about her from behind, his body hard against her as he bent into her.
‘Rick!’ she squirmed, half in pleasure, half in embarrassment at someone coming in and finding them in such a compromising position. ‘Not here,’ she protested as he made no effort to release her. ‘Someone could see us—There’s something different about you!’ She put her hand up to caress his cheek. ‘Your beard!’ she gasped. ‘It’s gone!’
‘It may not have tickled,’ he growled against her ear. ‘But it certainly itched. I’m glad to get rid of it at last, it’s been six months of discomfort.’
‘Then why grow it?’ she still touched the smoothness of his jaw, leaning back against him.
‘Because I don’t like false beards.’
‘False—?’ She pulled out of his arms to turn and look at him with a puzzled frown, her eyes widening as she looked not at Rick but at a complete stranger, a stranger she knew and yet didn’t know.
‘I’d be glad to give you a private viewing of “any part of my anatomy” any time you feel in the mood,’ Rod Bartlett winked at her suggestively.
CHAPTER THREE
KEILLY stared at him in numbed shock. The voice was surely Rick’s, but the face, the face was known to millions as Rod Bartlett, film star and sex symbol. Without the beard the lean length of his jaw was visible, the firm sensuousness of his mouth. There could be no doubting it, Rick, the Rick she had found so devastatingly attractive, was in truth Rod Bartlett.
Her eyes chilled to an icy grey, her mouth firming to hostility. ‘Very funny, Mr Bartlett,’ she said with smooth sarcasm. ‘What do you do for an encore?’ she asked coldly.
‘Keilly—’
‘And to think we’ve had Rod Bartlett staying with us not once but twice,’ she moved behind the protection of the reception desk, her legs shaking so badly she was glad of its support as she leant weakly against it. ‘You honour us, Mr Bartlett.’
‘Keilly—’
‘Maybe we could put up a plaque or something, “Rod Bartlett stayed here”. Or better yet, “Rod Bartlett slept here”,’ she taunted with bitterness. ‘Think of the guests we could attract, women of course, who would like to sleep in the same bed Rod Bartlett did. Yes,’ her voice rose shrilly. ‘It certainly is an idea. I’ll have to suggest it to my—’
‘Keilly, that is enough!’ Rick—or Rod, spoke sternly, glancing round impatiently as an elderly couple approached the desk, moving aside to study the notice-board as they lingered to pay their bill.
Keilly spoke to the couple with her usual politeness, even actively engaged them in conversation to keep them from leaving, and all the time she did her thoughts were racing. If Rick was really Rod Bartlett—and there could be no doubt that he was!—then what had he been doing here in Selchurch the first time? What was he doing here this time, for that matter? Rick Richards she had been inclined to give the benefit of the doubt, to believe that he had come back because he was attracted to her, but Rod Bartlett—! She wasn’t inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt about anything!
And least of all his being attracted to her. Since Veronica King had killed herself six years ago there had been a stream of women in Rod Bartlett’s life, all of them beautiful, usually as much in the limelight as he was himself, attracting twice the publicity to their romance.
‘Let’s get out of here now,’ he came back to the desk to growl as soon as the elderly couple were out of earshot.
Keilly looked up from the invoice she had been filing. ‘Go, Mr Bartlett?’ she met his gaze with accusing eyes. ‘Didn’t the letter I wrote to the magazine, and our conversation the last time you were here, tell you exactly what I think of Rod Bartlett?’ she scorned. ‘I have no intention of going anywhere with such a man.’
‘And Rick Richards?’ he grated.
Her mouth tightened. ‘I think we can all agree that he was a figment of our imaginations—’
‘Ah, Mr Richards,’ her aunt appeared from the kitchen. ‘I hope I haven’t delayed the two of you too much,’ she took over from Keilly behind the desk. ‘Well off you go,’ she encouraged as Keilly made no move to leave. ‘It’s a lovely day for January, so I should go now and make the most of it. It will probably rain later,’ she laughed ruefully. ‘Are you going anywhere special?’ she asked with interest.
‘I—’
‘We thought we would just drive for a while and see where it takes us,’ Rod Bartlett was the one to answer her, taking a firm hold of Keilly’s arm and almost dragging her towards the door.
‘Have a good time,’ her aunt called lightly.
Keilly pulled out of his grasp as soon as they were outside, glaring her dislike of him. ‘Don’t touch me,’ she spat the word
s at him. ‘I’m not going anywhere with you.’
‘We have to talk—’
‘What about?’ she snapped. ‘You’ve had your little game, Mr Bartlett,’ she scorned, looking very beautiful in that moment, her eyes a dark sparkling grey, a healthy glow to her cheeks in her anger. ‘Your acting was excellent, as usual,’ she added with dry sarcasm. ‘I’m only sorry you won’t get nominated for an Oscar for it.’
‘I’m already nominated for one,’ he rasped.
‘For “Beginning Again"?’
‘As a matter of fact, yes,’ he bit out. ‘I’m going over for the presentation in April.’
‘So sure you’re going to win?’
Anger flared briefly in the deep blue eyes. ‘Polite enough to go there personally if I’m nominated.’
She flushed at the rebuke, and then chastised herself for feeling in the least guilty for thinking badly of this man. She knew too much about him, his fatal betrayal of Veronica King, his selfish seduction of Kathy. He deserved every bit of scorn she felt!
‘I’m sure your adoring public will be ecstatic,’ she derided. ‘You’re sure to win.’
‘Keilly, I’m not going to stand here discussing some damned Oscar when I—’
‘Really, Mr Bartlett, what would your peers think of your attitude to their accolade to you?’
He heaved a deep sigh at her unhidden sarcasm. ‘When I really want to talk to you about something completely different,’ he finished determinedly. ‘And we are going to talk.’ Once again he grasped her arm, pushing her in the direction of the car park.
Her eyes widened with derisive appreciation as he took her over to a silver-grey Jaguar sports car. ‘You didn’t bring this with you last time,’ she mocked. ‘I would have remembered it.’
He flashed her a look of irritation before thrusting her into the passenger side, climbing in next to her to start the engine with a roar, speeding out on to the road and away from the hotel. ‘Last time I was here I flew up as far as Liverpool and then hired a car,’ he revealed tightly, driving with concentration, seeming to know where he was going.
Taming The Notorious Billionaire (HQR Presents) Page 5