Kelly's Man (16 page)

'Let me get dressed,' she said, glancing towards the door in a hint that he should leave the room. 'I'm way behind with my tasks.'

'No tasks today.' At her astonishment he chuckled, the sound low and sensuous and very seductive. 'You've earned more than your sleep, Kelly. You've earned a day off—we both have.'

She stared at him, and wondered if he knew that her spirits had plummeted. A day off? A day to explore the gardens or take a walk along one of the easier mountain trails. A day alOne. Andrew would be busy with last-minute activities, and Nicholas would spend the precious leisure time with Serena The idea of an off-day was unappealing.

'That's nice,' she said brightly. 'I'll walk down to the river. I might even lie by the pool all day and just bake in the sun.'

That would provoke the mockery, she thought. But once more his reaction surprised her. 'You know you'd be bored to tears.' At her incredulous gasp his teeth flashed in a brief smile, strong and white and wicked against the tan of his skin. 'You'll spend the day with me, Kelly. At my plantation.'

It was a blue and golden day. The mountain peaks were free of mist. The air rang with the sound of bird-song, and through the open window of Nicholas's car came the aromatic scent of the veld flowers. Small brown-skinned children danced at the roadside, waving and smiling as the car slowed to pass them, and once a wild foal turned a startled head before vanishing in the long grass of the underbrush.

The mountain road was narrow and winding, but Nicholas took the hairpin bends with an ease which did not surprise Kelly. Nothing this man could do would surprise her, and excitement mounted within her at the thought of seeing his home. When he had told her that they would spend the day together she had been filled with a happiness which she had tried hard to conceal. For it would not do to let Nicholas know quite how much the idea of being alone with him, away from duties and obligations, meant tp her. He would mock her, would remind her of Gary, and make a sarcastic reference to the fact that her fiance did not know what she did when she was away from him.

Her fiancé ... Her shoulders stiffened and a frown creased her forehead. 'We must think about things,' she had told him. Gary must be wondering about her decision. She owed him an answer. She knew already what the answer would be, but she would put it to him gently. What she would not tell him was the thoroughness with which Nicholas had succeeded in surplanting him in her thoughts and in her dreams. That was something which Kelly herself, on leaving Great Peaks Lodge, would have to do her utmost to forget. For if she did not, the years ahead would hold only unhappiness.

With an effort she tried to force her concentration back to the loveliness of the passing countryside. If she was going to spend the day brooding she would spoil things not only for Nicholas but also for herself. Kelly wanted very badly to enjoy this day. It would be part of a memory—there was no way she could hide the knowledge from herself—a memory of a time which had been very important to her, a time which would always linger in the secret reaches of her mind as one of the most memorable she had known.

For a while the road ran beside a narrow stream. There were no bends ahead, and no traffic. Some instinct told Kelly that Nicholas was watching her. She turned from the window and met his gaze. Grey eyes were lit by a warmth which made him look more human than she had seen him, his lips were curved in a slight smile, making her wonder at the cause of his amusement. A fawn sports shirt clung to the contours of a muscled chest, revealing broad shoulders, and from the open collar his throat rose strong and tanned. There was never a time when Kelly was unaffected by the sheer impact of the man, an impact that was basic and primeval and thoroughly devastating in its intensity. Colour washed her cheeks as an answering chord struck deep within her, shattering her with the raw desire to reach out and touch him. She longed to move across the seat where her shoulder and hip and thigh could rest against his. With difficulty she swallowed, and saw the smile deepen.

'Enjoy today, Kelly.' The words, so quietly spoken, were nevertheless in the nature of a command.

'I will,' she said a litde breathlessly as she turned back to the window, unable to sustain the gaze which registered soft flushed cheeks and radiant wide eyes and the little pulse which beat frenziedly in the hollow of a slender neck.

They came at length to Pinevale. All around were the forests. Acres upon acres of healthy-looking trees. Kelly had imagined that the forest reserves were all state property. In the main she was right, Nicholas told her, but here and there a private plantation existed, and Pinevale was one of them.

She listened attentively as he told her about the lands, about the trees and the sawmills and the innovations he had made. Now and then she asked a question, and her questions must have been intelligent, for he answered seriously and with due consideration. Not for nothing was Kelly Robert Stan- wick's daughter. She quickly grasped the magnitude of responsibility and foresight involved in an operation of this size, and had only respect for the man who had the energy and the dedication to control it.

But even greater than her interest was her joy in hearing him talk. While she had hated the mockery and the arrogance to which she had been subjected until so recently, she had suspected that Nicholas must also possess other qualities. She had glimpsed his gentleness with Mary, and the quiet friendliness in his dealings with people he liked, though she had doubted she would ever see these qualities applied to herself.

As they drove between the forested slopes of Pinevale, she was seeing a new Nicholas. The power and authority were still there, coupled with the intoxicating maleness. But as if he had dropped a mask which he no longer needed, he now allowed Kelly to see his love for the land, his dedication to the plantation he had built up, the intensity of his feeling for the place which was his home.

This was how she must remember him, Kelly thought, as she listened to Nicholas talk. Today would give her an insight into the man who had made more impact on her than anyone she had ever met. It would also give substance to the memory of the man she loved.

For she loved Nicholas. Useless to deny the fact to herself. Until yesterday she had tried to push the knowledge from her mind, for it was a love without any future. Nicholas Van Mijden was the one man who would never return her feelings. He did not like her, had never liked her. And his marriage to Serena could be only a matter of time.

There was so much to see at Pinevale, so much to marvel at. Kelly had realised very soon that whatever Nicholas did he would do well, but she had not expected quite the degree of lushness and expanse which now met her eyes. It had puzzled her at the beginning that he treated her so differently from all the other men she had known. Now she was puzzled no longer. It was not in Nicholas Van Mijden to fawn upon someone else. This would hold true no matter what his position might be in the world. He was master of himself and proud of it, a state of mind that was not governed by riches or status or the lack of them both. It just so happened that Nicholas
was
in fact a man of great wealth. Kelly had only to look around her to know that.

Emerging from the forests they came to a long winding drive which led to the homestead. Set in a cleft between the folds of two wooded hills, Kelly thought the house one of the loveliest she had ever seen. It was long and low, with great picture windows which sparkled like polished diamonds where the sun caught the glass, and creepers which trailed and climbed in a soaring thrust towards the thatched roof. Kelly saw that the house had been built so that the view from the main windows was into the mountains. She thought of Nicholas sitting in the late afternoon on the patio, relaxing after the work of the day, with a dog by his side and a glass of cold beer in his hand. She could imagine him looking towards the mountains, watching the colours of the sunset turn the high peaks from scarlet to gold and at last to a mysterious shade that was somewhere between yellow and grey. The picture was vivid, and for no reason at all a lump formed in her throat.

Then a new figure entered the picture: Serena.

Poised and cool and beautiful, in a chair by Nicholas's side, listening as he told her all that happened that day. And added to the lump in Kelly's throat came a dull pain beneath her ribs which was becoming all too familiar.

There was no time to brood, for already Nicholas was leading her across a thick carpet of lawn towards the wide stone steps that led on to the patio.

Just as the house was the very antithesis of Kelly's idea of a bachelor's domain, so she imagined the rooms would be different too. That they would be well furnished she expected—Nicholas Van Mijden was a man who would never be content with second best—but she was curious to discover the actual nature of his tastes. When he asked if she would like a tour of the house she accepted with alacrity. Just for a moment the grey eyes gleamed with satisfaction, and it came to Kelly that he wanted her to see his home just as much as she wanted to see it. The reason was not hard to find. Nicholas was proud of his home. It would give him pleasure to let people see it—there could be nothing more to it than that. And yet the warmth lighting the dark eyes filled her with a breathless kind of happiness.

As they went from one room to another, Kelly saw how Nicholas had made the most of the house and its setting. Lovely Persian rugs were scattered on the polished oak floor, and much of the furniture was antique. The woods were African, stinkwood and teak and a fine-grained mahogany, each piece with a sheen which indicated love and care and pride of possession.

In contrast, the curtains and cushions were light-coloured and modern, well chosen to blend quite naturally with the dark woods, brightening the rooms and giving them a sense of space and colour appropriate to the rustic mountain setting.

'Well?' Nicholas asked from behind her, when Kelly turned from admiring a Pierneef landscape that dominated one wide wall, gracing the dining- room with the master painter's touch.

'It's all so beautiful.' Her voice was low, and she wondered if he could hear her breathlessness. She wanted to ask if someone had helped in the furnishing of the house—Serena perhaps?—but it was a question she could not frame, not when he stood so near to her that she was aware of every inch of the virile male body.

'I'm glad.' He spoke very simply. For once there was neither mockery nor amusement in his expression. Just a deepening of the satisfaction which she had glimpsed a little earlier. That in itself was no cause for notice, and yet, inexplicably, the adrenalin shot through her nerve-stream.

'Want to see more?' A hint of teasing.

The master bedroom—it could only be that. She wanted to see it so badly that she had to conceal her eyes beneath long dark lashes, for otherwise their expression would have been fatally easy to read. No, was what she should have said. It was the only correct reply in the circumstances. But sometimes, particularly when one's heartbeat is doing funny things inside one's chest, words have a trick of coming out differently from the way they should.

'Yes,' she said simply.

T
HE
room was large. It was also simply but tastefully furnished. Kelly did not take in the actual objects in the room so much as the atmosphere. It was basic and strong and male, much like its owner. Even while her senses assimilated the overall impression, another thought came to mind—without much difficulty the bedroom could be adapted into one which a woman would enjoy sharing.

As if to erase the thought, Kelly shook her head. The movement did not escape Nicholas.

'You don't like the room, Kelly?' His voice was very soft. To Kelly's fevered imagination it seemed to hold a deep undercurrent of meaning.

'Like?' She turned to him, unaware that her eyes were naked with the rawness of her emotions. 'Oh, yes!'

'Kelly...' He had taken a step towards her. His eyes were very dark, a tiny muscle worked in his jaw, and his long limbs seemed tauter than she had ever seen them.

Did she meet him half-way? Later she could not have put into words what happened. There was just the meeting of two bodies, the soft feminine one crushed against the hardness of the tall male one, and as he kissed her time ceased to have any meaning. His lips were hard and demanding, but in place of the punishment she had experienced on occasion there was a passion which indicated the depth of his desire. His hands were light and tantalising, strong and sensual, all at the same time, caressing and exploring and moulding her to him.

Kelly was swept by a torrent of desire that was stronger than anything she had ever known. There was no thought now, no moralising on what was right and what was wrong. There was just the wish, which superseded all else, to be close to this man, ever closer, part of him ... There was no thought as she slid her arms beneath his shirt. There was just glory in the feel of the muscles which tightened beneath her fingers, in the knowledge that she wanted him.

She did not protest as he lifted her on to the bed. With an unsuspected tenderness he took the clothes from her body, and then began to undress himself. His eyes never left her face. He did not ask any questions. None were needed; the longing in her eyes spoke for itself.

As he came towards her she reached out her arms. Her lips were parted to reveal tiny white teeth against the apricot tan of her skin, and a pulse beat a feverish tattoo in the little hollow at the base of her throat. Her breasts were firm and round, and she made no attempt to cover them with her hands. There \yas no embarrassment, no thought of shame. There was only the knowledge that she loved Nicholas. If there was also the knowledge that she could have no future with him, she did not dwell on it consciously. There was only the desire to be with him as a woman is with the man she loves more than life itself.

'Kelly.' The word emerged in the form of a groan. Coming from this strong and self-sufficient man the sound was strangely moving. 'Kelly, do you know what you're doing to me?'