Old Desires/A Stranger's Kiss (2-in-1 edition) (13 page)

‘Misdemeanours?’ She wrapped the bathrobe around her in a self-conscious gesture, tightening the belt, reminded by his warm gaze that she was quite naked beneath it. ‘What are you talking about?’

He bent down and picked up the news clippings, raising his eyes to meet hers. The amusement died in them and they blanked. ‘Or perhaps I’m mistaken.’ He stood up and threw the cuttings down beside her, the change in his voice so marked that her head jerked back in sharp surprise. ‘You’ve obviously had other things to occupy your mind.’

‘Joshua?’ She turned to follow his eyes and saw David in the doorway, his hair wet from the shower, wearing nothing but a thick white towel that he was holding around his waist, and making a brave attempt to hide his dismay as he realised that the one man in the world he was determined to talk to had caught him without his trousers on. He tried a smile. There was no response from the unyielding features of Joshua Kent.

‘This is a bit awkward.’ David threw a glance at Holly, hoping for rescue.

But Holly was unable to help, rigid with shock at what Joshua must be thinking.

‘Is it?’ Joshua threw into an atmosphere so thick with tension that the words almost bounced off it. ‘I’m sure it would help if you put some clothes on.’

‘I would, but my bag is in the car.’

Holly made a move to fetch it, but Joshua’s hand on her shoulder kept her pinned to her seat. ‘Allow me,’ he said dangerously. ‘Is the boot unlocked?’

‘Yes,’ David said unhappily. ‘I’m parked around the back somewhere. I wasn’t sure where I was going.’

‘You seem to be doing well enough to me.’ He didn’t wait for an answer and without even glancing at Holly he turned and strode from the kitchen.

‘Well,’ David dropped into the silence that followed his departure, ‘that’s a bit of luck.’ He glanced sideways at Holly. ‘Now he’ll have to talk to me.’

‘Eat your breakfast, David, and be quiet.’ She banged a plate down in front of him, stuffed the cuttings back in their envelope and left the kitchen, in urgent need of some clothes herself.

When she descended fifteen minutes later, her hair brushed and fastened back from her face by a large tortoiseshell clip, wearing a pair of long cream shorts and a chocolate T-shirt, it was to find Joshua alone in the kitchen pouring himself a cup of tea. He glanced up at her entrance.

‘Where’s David?’ she asked stiffly as she saw the untouched breakfast.

‘Gone to get dressed, I imagine. He suggested that it would be in my best interest to talk to him and then, quite suddenly, remembered that he needed a shave.’

‘What have you done to him?’ she demanded. ‘He’d only just arrived, for heaven’s sake.’

‘I know. His engine was still warm.’

‘Still…’ She exploded. ‘That’s why you were so keen to fetch his bag. To check whether he had been here all night. Did you actually think that I would welcome him?’ She couldn’t even say it, she was so angry. ‘After last night?’

He leaned back against the sink, his face impassive. ‘If he’d turned up last night, just after I’d gone, I think he would have tried to take advantage of the situation. Or maybe you’re going to tell me that he wouldn’t do anything so underhand?’

‘Then you shouldn’t have gone,’ she snapped and her face flamed. ‘I didn’t ask him to come, Joshua.’ She had to warn him. ‘It’s you he’s after. Apparently he’s found out about Ashbrooke Leisure.’

‘So he said. He wants an exclusive on the takeover.’

‘The takeover.’ As the reality of what it meant struck home, she thought she might be sick. ‘It’s true then?’

‘Everything was signed yesterday afternoon. Luigi is now the proud owner of the Hall and I have a new company so I’m afraid that if that’s his scoop David has come galloping after cold news.’

‘But are you...? Do you intend to develop Highfield?’

‘Would it matter?’ he asked, and the importance of her answer was all too evident in the intensity of his expression.

She took a deep breath. ‘Yes, Joshua. I’m rather afraid it would. If you’ve bought the company on the expectation of profits from Highfield, I’m afraid you’ve made a mistake. I won’t sell. You should have let me sign the contract in France when I didn’t care, instead of making me come home to do it.’

‘If I’d had the slightest intention of allowing you to sell Highfield, my dear Holly, I would have done just that.’

‘If... Oh, Joshua,’ she exclaimed. ‘What have you done?’

‘Done, my dear? I’ve sold a house I had no use for and bought a business that I intend to expand. One deal to finance another. One way or another I expect to make a great deal of money.’

A movement in the doorway alerted them to the fact that they were no longer alone.

‘Can I quote you on that, Mr Kent?’ David Grantham enquired brazenly as he sauntered into the kitchen.

‘David!’ Holly warned, fierce as any vixen defending her cubs, and Joshua glanced at her in surprise before turning his full attention on the man on the other side of the room.

His expression hardened. ‘Quote me at your peril, Mr Grantham.’ David barely flinched despite the lash in the other man’s voice.

‘Or what?’ he demanded recklessly. ‘You’re not fireproof, Mr Kent, I already have a national newspaper ready to back me with this story and I’ve seen enough this morning to know I have got a story. Now I’m simply giving you an opportunity to make a statement before I go to press.’

‘I can’t think of anything that would excite such interest.’ The chill factor in Joshua’s voice dipped to sub-zero. ‘Perhaps you would care to enlighten me.’

‘An executor taking advantage of a vulnerable young woman who has just inherited a valuable estate is bad enough, Mr Kent—’ David’s voice rose in triumph ‘–but when he’s clearly seduced her to achieve his ends…’ He glanced from Holly, white with shock, to the glacial features of Joshua Kent. ‘I think you take my point?’ He sat down at the breakfast bar, produced a small tape recorder from his pocket and switched it on.

‘Now, what would you like to say to my readers?’

CHAPTER NINE

FOR a moment nothing happened. Then David was hanging from Joshua’s fist by his shirt-front.

‘I think, Grantham,’ he said, with paralysing insistence, ‘you’d better go. Or it’s quite possible that you will be the subject of your own front page.’

‘Joshua…’

‘Stay out of this Holly.’

‘I think it’s a little late for that,’ she said, and with a little lift of her chin she went on quickly, before she could think twice, ‘and in this case I’m quite capable of defending my own reputation.’

He brushed this aside and continued to glare at David with extreme prejudice. ‘You don’t have to. We both know that. But there’s nothing like a little sex to sell newspapers and this creature won’t care who gets hurt so long as he has a story.’ He gave David a little shake. ‘Will you, Mr Grantham? Tell the lady the truth.’ David opened his mouth, but never had an opportunity to tell Holly anything.

‘The truth, Joshua,’ she declared, interrupting with biting resolution, her eyes blazing with fury that either of them should feel entitled to exclude her from something that involved her so personally. ‘The truth is that if he prints one word of that story I will sue him and his newspaper until they retract in headlines a foot high.’ She took a deep breath as both men turned to her in astonishment. But she hadn’t finished. ‘I don’t know what you’ve done, Joshua. Frankly, it no longer matters, since I have no intention of selling Highfield to you or anyone else. But I will not have anyone believing I’m so pathetically weak-willed that I could be seduced out of anything.’

Joshua frowned and let David down rather suddenly, having apparently forgotten him in his concern for her.

‘No, Holly.’ He took her by the shoulders, gripping her painfully, all fierce protectiveness. ‘They’ll destroy you if you take them on. Tear you to shreds.’

‘Let them try. If necessary I’ll prove them liars.’ She lifted her chin, two bright spots of pink staining her cheeks. ‘I can do that, I assure you.’

‘Prove?’ For a moment he stared at her in disbelief. Then he swore softly.

David cleared his throat. ‘I think I’d better go.’

Joshua glanced at him, then at the plate of cold scrambled egg and congealing bacon. ‘Sit down, Grantham, and eat your breakfast; you’re not going anywhere until I’ve talked to you.’ It was not an invitation that could be refused and David sank unhappily back on to the stool. Then Joshua turned to Holly and took her arm quite firmly, his mouth compressed into a hard, straight line. ‘I don’t know about you, but I could do with some fresh air.’

He led her out into the garden and they walked along the cliff top where the breeze was blowing, fresh and cool from the sea.

‘What will you do to him?’ Holly asked, tentative in the face of such implacable fury.

He glanced at her and relaxed sufficiently for his lip to curve into a cynical smile. ‘I ought to throw him off the cliff.’

Encouraged, she said, ‘If you do that I’ll have to find another lodger. Whatever else David might be, he pays the rent on time.’

‘Sell the damned house and then you wouldn’t have to worry about it.’ At her stricken expression he stiffened. ‘Oh, don’t fret. I won’t damage the man. I’ll give him his interview, one that should be enough to make his career, even without the prurient side-interest of my sex life.’

‘You don’t have to do that. I’m very angry with him.’

‘Are you? Why? You asked him to check up on me.’

‘No, Joshua,
I didn’t. I telephoned him to let him know I was home, that was all. He’s jealous, I can see that, although heaven knows why. I’ve never given him the slightest encouragement. In fact he used to regularly bring his girlfriends
home for the night.’

‘And recently?’

‘Well, he’s stayed in a lot more…’ She sighed. ‘Oh, I see. I didn’t realise. A bit slow-witted of me.’

‘Perhaps, but if he’s that keen on you, what’s he playing at?’

‘He clearly thinks you’re trying to cheat me in some way. And I’m afraid that is my fault. I mentioned Ashbrooke Leisure wanted to buy the house and he had found out you were taking them over. Put the two together and it reeks of something a bit nasty in the woodshed.’

‘Do you think I would cheat you, Holly?’

‘I think,’ she said carefully, ‘that you’d better explain exactly what’s been going on. Is there a buyer for Highfield or not?’

‘If you want to sell, then I’ll cover the sum I told you was on offer. But I was rather hoping that the prospect of losing the place would make you think twice.’

‘Then you were right.’ She offered a tentative smile. ‘You always are, apparently. So what are you going to do about David?’

‘I find it incredible that he would have hurt you to get at me. It’s hard to forgive, Holly.’

‘Is it? Don’t you feel just a little bit sorry for him?’ she asked him.

His eyes softened as he looked at her. ‘Possibly,’ he conceded. ‘But I hope to heaven that he never finds out.’ He thought for a moment. ‘He’ll have to forget the tabloids. But I’ll give him a piece that any one of the quality papers will fall over themselves for. That way he might be persuaded to forget that he saw me making love to you in your kitchen at six o’clock in the morning.’

‘But you’d only just walked in,’ she protested. ‘You were dressed.’

‘You weren’t.’

‘Oh!’ Her face was a picture of confusion. ‘You shouldn’t have noticed.’

‘I’m only human.’

‘Not that human,’ she retorted quickly, then put up her hands to cover hot cheeks.

He laughed softly. ‘Under the circumstances it’s a good thing I didn’t accept your invitation to stay last night.’ He took her hands away from her face and regarded her with grave eyes. ‘If I had, there would have been precious little left with which to prove my innocence.’ After an almost imperceptible pause he said, ‘Unless of course you were bluffing?’ She made an effort at a lack of concern that she was very far from feeling. ‘You’ll have to call me to find out, won’t you? Are you innocent, Joshua?’

He shook his head, a slow smile lighting his eyes. ‘Don’t ever play poker, Holly. You haven’t got the face for it.’ Then he said, ‘You obviously didn’t get very far with Grantham’s press cuttings.’

Grateful that he had let her off the hook, she sighed with relief. ‘I haven’t read any of them.’ Then she glanced at him sideways. ‘What have you done that’s so bad?’

‘Read all the news that’s fit to print and I’ll leave you to make up your own mind, but when you do, bear in mind what he would have made of that scene in the kitchen and take it all with just a pinch of salt.’

She turned and looked at him, her lips parted in soft laughter. ‘Joshua Kent, are you telling me that you have a reputation?’

His grip on her elbow tightened momentarily. They had been gradually walking back towards the house and he indicated the garden seat and sat down beside her. She found her breath quite suddenly caught in her throat, wondering what on earth he could be going to tell her with such a solemn face. What could be that bad?

He propped one elbow on the back of the seat and began to toy with a wayward strand of her hair, wrapping it tightly around his finger, holding her captive by that slender thread as surely as if he had her in chains.

‘Once, Holly, when you were still in pigtails, I made a complete ass of myself over an actress. I was young enough, and I have to say green enough, when I made my first really big deal to attract the notice of the press. Idiot that I was, I actually thought that it made me someone important, someone who Shelly would fall in love with. What she actually loved was publicity. She was very beautiful, very exotic. At least five years older than me.’ He paused, a sudden glint in his eye. ‘Possibly more.’ Then he shrugged, as if it didn’t matter. ‘I was quite bowled over. But youthful pride is fierce and when I overheard a remark at a party about her ‘cradle-snatching’, well—’ he shrugged ‘ — I’m afraid I behaved very badly. I won’t draw a picture, but I was lucky not to be charged with assault. The ensuing publicity caused me a great deal of embarrassment and everyone else much amusement, except for the lady involved. The affair ended somewhat abruptly.’ He smiled slightly. ‘The incident taught me a lot. Mainly about self-control. But for a long time I was pursued in the hope that I might make the same mistake again. And the tabloids have a long memory. They never miss an opportunity to remind their readers what you did in the past, if given the slightest excuse.’

‘Oh.’ She hid a smile.

‘Quite. I’ve never come so close to hitting anyone again as I did this morning and that would have been a very big mistake. An exclusive interview will be quite a coup for a young reporter trying to make his name and it’s a small price to pay for a little discretion.’

‘But he wouldn’t…’

‘Wouldn’t he? He’s ambitious. He would like you to be in love with him, but you’re not and he knows it. Would you trust him with the story of your life?’

Put baldly, like that, Holly had to concede that she wouldn’t — she hadn’t — and she shook her head.

But with that knowledge came something else: a clarity of mind that had been eluding her all the long, dark hours of the night. Because with the discovery that she didn’t trust David came the equally startling knowledge that she would trust Joshua not only with the story of her life, but life itself.

She turned to him and the twirling of his finger immediately stopped as her face was suddenly inches from his. It was an effort to concentrate under the perilous nearness of a pair of eyes so clear and deep that she thought it would be possible to drown in them. She turned quickly away.

‘Thank you for helping me to see that I should stay, Joshua.’

‘I actually quite enjoyed myself.’

‘Not as much as you might have.’

‘I didn’t want to confuse things.’

‘No? Then you’d better ring Marcus and explain what you’ve been doing. He must be very confused.’

‘Marcus was extremely annoyed when he phoned me yesterday afternoon. Demanded that I tell you the truth or he would do the decent thing. I had a devil of a job with him.’

‘I began to suspect that something was wrong after I’d had lunch with him. He tried very hard, but it was obvious that he was paddling way out of his depth.’

‘You’re very quick.’

‘Not quick enough. Why didn’t you just suggest I stay put for a while?’

‘This from a woman who prefers her advice upside-down?’ His voice, his eyes, his whole body challenged her to admit the truth. ‘You had to make your own decision. Stay here because it was what you wanted more than anything else in the whole world. But you made it damned difficult. I thought if I could just get you home I could work something out. But I never expected so many questions.’

‘Why on earth did you say Ashbrooke Leisure wanted to buy the house?’

‘It was the first name that came into my head. I could hardly use one of my own companies.’

‘And the caravans?’

‘Mary’s father tried to get a scheme through years ago. He thought that because he was mayor he could do what he liked. He found out differently. I thought it was suitably gruesome and, because of that, perfectly likely.’

‘You went to a lot of trouble.’ She stood up, pulling away from him, unable to think with the warm heat of his body against her, needing to put a space between them, needing to look away from those disquieting eyes. ‘Why didn’t you stay last night?’ she asked a little stiffly.

There was a moment of utter silence. ‘You’ve been through a difficult time. I didn’t want you to do anything you might regret later.’ He rose quickly to his feet. ‘You are sure?’ She waited, breathless, uncertain what he meant. ‘About staying?’

For a moment she stared at the dark, tanned V of his chest where his shirt revealed a few dark hairs, forcing herself to face the fact that he had simply been keeping a promise to a dying woman. His kiss had been a response to the desperate need he had seen in her eyes, to their closeness on the back of that crazy motorbike, to the tension caused by continual bickering. A thousand reasons, but none of them important.

Now he had fulfilled his promise, done everything her mother had asked of him, and he could walk away and get on with the rest of his life with a clear conscience. She must do the same.

‘Yes, Joshua,’ she said. ‘I’m quite sure about staying.’ She shrugged quickly free of his touch, stepped around him and walked quickly down the path. ‘I found something yesterday that made up my mind for me,’ she said with a forced cheerfulness, coming to a halt in front of the hidden studio, then faltered. ‘Oh, I haven’t brought the keys.’

‘You’ve found the studio?’

She turned on him. ‘You knew it was here and you didn’t tell me?’ She felt stupidly close to tears and that wouldn’t do, so she put her hands on her hips and her head on one side and demanded, ‘What else haven’t you told me, Joshua Kent?’

He raised his hand to her chin, tilting it up to read the expression in her face. ‘One or two things, Holly Carpenter, but there’s no rush. Now you’re staying.’ He glanced at the studio. ‘This has been waiting for you for a long time.’

‘Waiting?’ She thought of the pristine tubes of paint, the new brushes and fresh canvases. She’d known something had been missing — it was the smell of paint and turpentine. The studio had never been used. ‘Mary did that for me?’ He nodded and let his hand fall to his side. It was easier to think without his warm hand under her chin, yet a little lonely, and she shivered slightly. ‘You never said a word.’