‘I like it very much,’ Rod assured her. ‘And I can assure you the pleasure in meeting you is all mine.’
Kathy looked a little disconcerted by the way he held on to her hand a little too long, releasing herself with effort. ‘I actually came over to ask if you would mind helping me with the teas for a few minutes?’ she spoke to Keilly, pleading in her troubled blue eyes. ‘As usual I’ve been let down with my helpers. You wouldn’t mind, Mr Bartlett?’
‘I—’
‘I’m sure Mr Bartlett has other people to meet and talk to,’ she firmly interrupted him. ‘Perhaps I’ll see you again later,’ she dismissed, giving him a saccharin-sweet smile.
‘Keilly!’
She moistened her lips as she turned back to face him, Kathy fast disappearing back to the kitchen among the crowd. ‘Yes?’ She released her arm from his grasp.
Rod compelled her to look up at him with the quiet intensity of his gaze. ‘You will see me later,’ he told her softly.
It was a warning, she knew that. Damn the man, why couldn’t he just go and leave them all in peace? But she knew the answer to that already, knew that he was staying because he wanted her, because he had the time and inclination to pursue her until he was sure she would give in. And all the time he was here Kathy would fear recognition. What a tangle it all was.
‘Keilly, how good to see you again,’ called an enthusiastic voice that she recognised as belonging to the youngest son of their local doctor.
‘Michael,’ she greeted him more warmly than usual, grateful for his timely interruption of a situation she just didn’t know how to cope with. She had been out with Michael on a casual basis several times in the past, although his charming manner and blond good looks did little more than make her feel relaxed in his company. ‘How lovely to see you here. Excuse me,’ she told Rod in a preoccupied voice, walking away to join Michael, sure that Rod would make no more of a scene here. He had made his warning, he knew it was enough. ‘How are you, Michael?’ she smiled up at him encouragingly, aware of deep blue eyes boring a hole into her back.
‘All the better for seeing you,’ he was pleased by her warmth. ‘It’s been too long,’ he smiled down at her.
‘Only a few weeks;’ she gave him a bright smile. ‘Look, I have to go and help Kathy out in the kitchen,’ she excused herself, looking across the room to find Rod now surrounded by a group of ecstatic fans. No doubt he was revelling in the recognition, egotistical man that he was! ‘It really was lovely to see you again.’
He looked disappointed. ‘But, Keilly, I—When can I see you again?’ he delayed her.
She really had no wish to encourage him, knowing from experience that he could be a little intense. But if Rod Bartlett thought she was already involved with another man he may be a little less insistent in his own pursuit of her. She was desperate enough to try anything! ‘How about tonight?’ she suggested decisively. ‘I should be able to get away by about eight.’
‘Eight o’clock sounds good,’ he agreed enthusiastically.
Kathy was on her own when Keilly finally reached the kitchen, and from the look of the queue waiting for their tea she wasn’t coping very well. Keilly took over with cool efficiency, her usually unflappable cousin actually shaking by the time they were once again alone.
‘What on earth is he doing here?’ she groaned, the strain about her eyes having increased during the last few minutes.
‘The same as everyone else,’ Keilly shrugged. ‘Looking round.’
‘At a local bazaar!’
She knew Rod had come here for the sole purpose of seeing her, and she blushed guiltily.
‘You have to get rid of him, Keilly,’ her cousin raised a shaking hand to her brow.
‘How?’ she sighed.
‘I don’t know,’ Kathy shook her head. ‘I couldn’t believe it when I saw him just standing there, as if he’s been coming to small-town functions like this all his life!’
Keilly knew exactly how her cousin felt, she had been stunned herself. ‘He probably did when he was younger,’ she reminded. ‘After all, he did live here until he was eighteen.’
‘He has to go,’ Kathy said shakily. ‘He just has to go!’
‘We can’t make him leave,’ she pointed out gently.
‘Well he can’t stay here!’ Kathy was on the verge of tears. ‘I can’t keep running into him like this, I’ll be a nervous wreck!’
‘But he didn’t recognise you—’
‘Maybe not this time, maybe not even the next time, but one of these days he just might,’ she shuddered at the thought.
‘What could he do if he does remember you?’ Keilly reasoned.
‘You can ask that?’ Kathy trembled.
‘He’s hardly likely to go out and broadcast it in the street that the two of you once slept together—’
‘If just one person should find out…! You know what the gossip is like in a small place like this,’ she groaned. ‘One person could know at lunchtime and by the evening the whole town would know! You should realise that better than most, Keilly—Oh God, what have I said now!’ she groaned as she saw Keilly pale. ‘I didn’t mean it like that, love,’ she touched Keilly’s arm pleadingly. ‘Keilly, please! I’m just in a panic, I don’t know what I’m saying.’
But it had been said now. She could forget it for weeks at a time now she was older, wouldn’t allow it to bother her even when she did think of it. It was only when someone close to her, someone she cared about made such remarks that she remembered the taunting she had taken as a child, the misery of being the teenage daughter of a woman who hadn’t married her child’s father. It was considered a woman’s right nowadays, her choice whether to marry the father, or indeed whether to keep the baby either, but over twenty years ago it still had the stigma of illegitimacy attached to it, the natural assumption that it had been the father who rejected his responsibility. And maybe her father had, her mother had never discussed him or his identity with her, leaving Keilly with a questioning shadow in her life that would never be answered.
It was the reason she rarely dated, of course, the reason she had been so shocked by her behaviour with Rod on the beach that night, the reason she had felt so betrayed when she knew how he had deceived her, the reason she found his seduction of Kathy so unacceptable. As a vulnerable teenager without a father or mother too many boys had lied to her believing, because of her fatherless background, that she would accept the brief warmth and love they had so ‘generously’ offered. Rod Bartlett had been no better; she already knew he would lie to get what he wanted!
It was her gratitude to her mother’s brother and sister-in-law for the way they had always stood by her and her mother that made Keilly so loyal to them and the cousin that had become like a true sister to her. It was also because of the shame her mother had been made to feel by other people that she was so determined Kathy should not be put in the middle of such a crisis.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ she dismissed, although she knew that it did. The origin of her birth would always matter to her, which was another reason she despised Rod Bartlett’s life-style. ‘You just have to calm down, Kathy. If anyone should see you like this…!’
Her warning had the desired effect: Kathy regaining her composure. ‘You’re right,’ she said in a controlled voice. ‘I’ll be all right now,’ she smoothed the silky skirt of the dress she wore as she prepared to take care of the refreshments once again. ‘I’ll be fine,’ she assured Keilly.
And Kathy did seem to have regained her equilibrium as she smiled her way through the rest of the afternoon. Although that might have had something to do with the fact that Rod Bartlett left after only half an hour, making a polite if firm exit from the fans who crowded around him interestedly.
They probably wondered why he was slumming too, Keilly thought unfairly. If only they knew he was pursuing the daughter of Elise Grant, the woman who had caused so much of a scandal herself twenty-two years ago!
It was just her luck that
they had to be busy that evening and Brenda was off sick. When Michael arrived she had to ask him if he would rather cancel their date or wait in the bar for her until about ten-thirty when she would have finished serving the meals. He had chosen to wait, although between running to the kitchen and serving she didn’t have a lot of time to talk to him.
She knew the minute Rod Bartlett came into the hotel, knew it by the tingle of awareness down her spine. She turned to see him coming in from the blustery weather outside, wearing the sheepskin jacket of their first meeting to keep out the January wind.
‘Keilly, I want to talk to you,’ he warned as she turned away, his eyes narrowed.
Her mouth twisted as she turned back to him with rebellious eyes. ‘As you can see, I’m busy,’ she looked down pointedly at the plates she was returning to the kitchen.
He frowned. ‘No Brenda tonight?’
The other girl would have been thrilled that he had remembered her name! ‘Obviously not,’ she derided.
‘Okay,’ he nodded. ‘I’ll wait in the bar until you’ve finished.’
Where he would obviously see Michael. After her warmth to Michael this afternoon he was sure to put two and two together and come up with the right conclusion; that Michael was waiting for her too. For a girl that didn’t date very often she was lining them up tonight! ‘If that’s what you want to do,’ she agreed lightly.
‘I do,’ Rod said firmly.
‘Please yourself,’ she shrugged, smiling to herself as she went into the kitchen.
When she came back to the dining room to find Rod seated alone at one of the tables she knew he had indeed added two and two together, and from the dark scowl on his face he didn’t like the conclusion he had come to at all!
He had the menu open in front of him as she went over to take his order, although he didn’t appear to be interested in choosing anything.
‘Is young Fenwick waiting for you?’ he bit out tautly.
‘He’s twenty-four,’ she scorned the ‘young’ Fenwick. ‘And how do you know who he is?’
‘I was at school with his elder brother,’ Rod dismissed tersely.
‘I should have known!’ She pulled a face. ‘Now would you like something to eat, I’m afraid it’s almost time to stop taking orders,’ she added without a shred of regret.
‘I only want a dessert and coffee—’
‘This isn’t a coffee shop, Mr Bartlett,’ she flashed.
He looked up at her with calm eyes. ‘I’m sure your aunt wouldn’t refuse a recent ex-guest a little sustenance. Dessert and coffee are all I can manage.’
‘Why?’
‘Use your imagination,’ he taunted.
‘You’ve already eaten,’ she sighed.
‘Quite adequately,’ he nodded. ‘I can cook myself a meal if the need arises.’
‘Then why eat again?’ she demanded impatiently.
‘So that I can see you, of course,’ he was perfectly relaxed as he sat back in the chair, the black roll-neck sweater fitting smoothly to his muscular chest and shoulders, the black corduroys moulded to the lean length of his long legs.
‘You’ve seen me,’ she looked down at him defiantly, seeing everything in him that must have been in her father, all the selfishness he must once have shown her mother, that Rod would show her given the chance. ‘There’s no need to go to the bother of having dessert and coffee.’
‘It’s no bother,’ he drawled challengingly. ‘You didn’t answer my question, is Fenwick waiting for you?’
‘Yes,’ she avoided the steel of his eyes. ‘He’s a friend of mine, he has been for some time.’
Rod’s hand clamped about her wrist as she would have moved away. ‘How much of a friend?’ he demanded to know.
‘Just a friend,’ she repeated tautly.
‘Then he won’t mind you coming out to dinner with me tomorrow night, will he.’
‘He might not,’ she moved pointedly away from him. ‘But I would. If you’ll excuse me, Mr Bartlett, I have other, more genuine, customers to serve.’
He looked pointedly at the last couple still in the dining room besides himself, quirking dark brows as they exited, leaving them completely alone. ‘There appears to be—only me.’
‘And you’re merely wasting my time,’ she snapped.
His expression hardened. ‘I’ll have some of your aunt’s delicious cheesecake. And coffee, of course.’
Her mouth set angrily but she went off to get the pie and coffee anyway; her aunt had never turned a customer away, no matter how little they chose to eat.
‘Thank you,’ Rod taunted her as she brought back his order. ‘I’m sure Fenwick won’t mind waiting for you.’
She gave a sarcastically sweet smile. ‘I’m sure he won’t.’
‘Talking of your friends,’ he said slowly, savouring the cherry cheesecake. ‘Your friend of this afternoon seemed, familiar.’
The coffee pot shook precariously in her hand. ‘Which friend was that?’ Her mouth suddenly felt dry.
He seemed to think for a moment. ‘Mrs Carmichael, I think you called her. The pretty blonde woman doing the teas,’ he supplied by way of explanation, looking up enquiringly. ‘I have the feeling I’ve met her before.’
Keilly’s tongue felt cleaved to the roof of her mouth. ‘You used to live here, I’m sure a lot of people are going to seem familiar,’ she was finally able to speak. Could he possibly remember Kathy, after ten years?
‘Maybe,’ but he didn’t sound convinced.
‘Maybe you were at school with her too,’ she suggested quickly. ‘You’re probably of a similar age group.’
‘Maybe,’ he said again, finishing off his cheesecake with some relish. ‘I’m sure it will come back to me where we’ve met before. I’ll give it some thought.’
Unless he had something else, something he wanted more badly, on his mind. ‘Where were you thinking of going tomorrow night?’ she asked with a casualness she was far from feeling. The last thing she wanted was to leave herself open to the brand of seduction this man exercised, a brand of seduction she had already succumbed to more than once. But she had to take his mind off Kathy—any way that she could!
He looked surprised. ‘You’ll come?’
She shrugged. ‘Depends where you’re going.’
‘Anywhere you want to go,’ he said instantly.
‘I—’
‘Keilly, are—Oh, sorry,’ Michael stood awkwardly in the doorway. ‘Your uncle thought you had finished for the evening.’
‘She has,’ Rod stood up decisively, pulling on his coat with unhurried movements, leaving the money for his order on the table. ‘Say hello to your brother for me, Michael,’ he spoke smoothly to the other man, walking to the door.
‘Oh but—er—Rod?’ Keilly halted him, very self-conscious in front of the other man. ‘What about tomorrow night?’ she mumbled.
‘Tomorrow…?’ for a moment he looked puzzled, then his brow cleared. ‘I’ll call you,’ he nodded. ‘I’ve already delayed you long enough tonight.’ He gave Michael a wide smile. ‘I hope I haven’t fouled up your evening too badly.’
‘Er—no,’ Michael seemed confused by their conversation. ‘We were only going to have a drink together anyway, and there’s still time for that.’
‘Good,’ Rod nodded, turning to look at Keilly with enigmatic eyes. ‘Please tell your aunt how much I enjoyed the cheesecake.’ With a brief impersonal nod that encompassed them both, he left.
Keilly stared after him with frustrated anger. He had come to the hotel purposely to see her, had eaten food he didn’t really want for the same reason, and yet as soon as she had agreed to see him tomorrow he had lost interest. What game was he playing with her—and why?
‘Ready, Keilly?’
She turned with a start, having forgotten Michael was there at all ‘I’ll—er—I’ll just tidy away here,’ she said jerkily. ‘And join you in the bar in five minutes.’
She wasn’t very good company for him for what remaine
d of the evening, she knew she wasn’t, and yet there was nothing she could do about it, her thoughts were preoccupied. Why had Rod suddenly lost interest like that? Surely he couldn’t just have been testing that she was still attracted to him despite her date with Michael? That didn’t sound like him at all. And yet what did she really know of him, except that he could lie and cheat to achieve his objective. Had her capitulation tonight been enough for him, would he move on to a new quarry now?
CHAPTER FIVE
KEILLY woke with a mouth that felt as if it were coated with sandpaper and a dull throb in her temples. It was the first time she had ever had a hangover in her life, but after the five vodka and limes she had consumed with startling rapidity she thought she probably deserved it!
Her evening with Michael had not been a success. She had been tense and confused, and his brief goodnight kiss had done little to banish the thought of other, more experienced, lips as they moved over hers. After Michael had left she had gone back to the bar and had another drink with her uncle, loath to go up to her bedroom yet, wary of thoughts of Rod, of how much she really wanted to see him the following evening, and not just for Kathy’s sake. Considering her own fatherless background, she knew she was taking a risk being attracted to such a man, and yet she couldn’t seem to help it.
But she needn’t have worried about thoughts of Rod once she got to bed, the unaccustomed drink had taken its toll and she had fallen into a dream-filled sleep. A quick glance at the bedroom clock showed her that it was already after eight, that she had been asleep for almost nine hours, and yet she didn’t feel rested, startled into complete wakefulness as the telephone on her bedside table began to ring. Probably her aunt wondering why she wasn’t down to breakfast yet. Just the thought of food right now made her feel ill!
‘Yes?’ she managed to articulate into the mouthpiece.
‘Keilly?’
Even over the telephone Rod’s voice managed to sound smooth and melodious. ‘Yes,’ she managed again.
Taming The Notorious Billionaire (HQR Presents) Page 8