Single Girl Abroad (Mills & Boon M&B) (Mills & Boon Special Releases) (15 page)

‘Trust us,’ said Luke.

But Jianne was no longer the hopeful young bride who’d once thought she could shower love on a wild and broken family and receive love in return. ‘Trust must be earned,’ she countered quietly.

‘All right, don’t trust us.’ Grim determination replaced Luke’s earlier encouragement. ‘But stay, and watch us do
everything we can to make you feel welcome here this evening.’

Jianne stayed, and before half an hour had passed Tristan had greeted her and introduced her to his wife, Pete had done the same, and the small Chinese youth in the smart western suit, who seemed to be being passed around from Bennett to Bennett, had found his way to her side.

‘Hello,’ she offered warily.

After careful appraisal the boy decided to speak. ‘I’m Po. The sensei’s apprentice,’ he said in flawless Cantonese. When she didn’t reply at once he repeated his introduction in Mandarin.

‘Which sensei would that be?’ Jianne chose English as her language of reply and the boy did not disappoint.

‘Sensei Jake.’ And when again she didn’t reply immediately, ‘Bennett.’

‘And does Sensei Jake Bennett also teach you English?’

‘I know it already,’ said Po. ‘And Tamul. And some Malay.’

‘I’m impressed. How do you come to be fluent in so many languages?’

Just like that the boy’s openness disappeared. ‘I just do.’

‘Well, then.’ She offered up a smile. ‘Hello, Po. I’m Jianne.’

‘Hello.’ Fathomless black eyes regarded her steadily. ‘You’re prettier than your picture.’

‘Thank you.’ Coherent thought followed the automatic reply. ‘What picture?’

The light from a nearby lamp dimmed as someone moved into place beside her. Jianne knew before she looked up that
Jacob had joined them, a silent brooding presence bringing new tension to her already overloaded senses.

‘Hello, Jacob,’ she offered, and if her voice shook, and her insides trembled, well, it was only to be expected. He always had been able to unnerve her. ‘I’ve been making the acquaintance of your apprentice.’

‘So I see.’ Jacob turned his gaze on the boy. ‘What picture?’ he echoed grimly.

Po hesitated as if caught between devil and demon. Jake’s gaze hardened. ‘Po?’

‘The one in your wallet.’

‘You’ve been in my wallet?’

‘I didn’t steal anything,’ the boy said hurriedly. ‘It was ages ago. The day I came to the dojo. I—’ The boy stuttered his way to silence beneath the weight of his sensei’s glacial glare. ‘I wanted to know more. About you. Wallets are good for that.’

Boy and man stared at one another in fraught silence.

‘You dishonour me,’ said Jacob finally, in a flat, measured voice.

With a stricken glance for Jianne, Po bolted into the crowd. Jianne stared after him, wishing she could do the same.

‘He’s yours?’ she asked tentatively.

‘After a fashion.’

Not Jacob’s by blood for the boy was wholly Chinese, but there were plenty of other ways a child could become a man’s responsibility. Po’s mother could be dead. Jacob could have been seeing her,
living
with her even, and then when she died … and in the absence of other relatives … responsibility for Po could have fallen to him. ‘How?’

‘Ask Madeline.’

Hardly a comprehensive answer. ‘Will you punish him?’

Jacob’s lips tightened. ‘He took my wallet and went through it. He deliberately invaded my privacy. You don’t think he should be disciplined for that?’

‘Yes, but … Jacob, he’s just a child.’

‘What? No beating him?’ The deadly edge in Jake’s voice flayed her. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t breathe. Jianne ducked her head and stared blindly at her champagne glass.

‘For heaven’s sake, Jianne, I’ve never raised a hand to either a child or to you and I don’t intend to start now. So why don’t you just drink your champagne and stop behaving as if I’m about to crucify you? I’m not. I won’t. And the sooner you and everyone else watching us realises that, the better.’

Jianne lifted her glass to her lips and sipped. It seemed as good a suggestion as any. Another sip and her champagne half gone while she tried to think of a way to rescue a conversation that had plunged to hell with effortless inevitability.

‘You look well,’ she offered. Nothing but the truth. ‘More formidable than ever.’

‘Was that a compliment?’

‘I meant it as one.’

‘I don’t think it was a compliment.’

More champagne seemed as valid a response as any. ‘Congratulations on your successes,’ she said next. ‘The world titles. The master classes. Madeline tells me students come from all over the world to learn from you.’

‘You hate karate.’

No, she’d hated the time he’d dedicated to karate. She hadn’t realised that, for some, karate was a way of life that bordered on religion or that without it there would have been no way for Jake to restrain the fire that raged inside him. ‘I don’t hate it. I just never quite understood it. There’s a difference.’

‘And do you understand it now?’

‘A little.’ For what it was worth. Nowhere for this topic of conversation to go but downhill so she tried another tack. ‘Madeline and Luke seem well suited.’

‘They are.’

‘And your other brothers … and Hallie … They all seem so civilised now. You did a good job with them.’

‘It wasn’t my doing.’

Well, it certainly hadn’t been hers. She dragged her gaze away from Jake and scanned the room. So many eyes upon them. Not one person inclined to join them.

‘Excuse me,’ she said after an eternity of silence. ‘I think my aunt’s looking for me.’ She started to walk away.

‘Wait,’ he said gruffly.

One word, with nothing to follow, but she stayed her ground and waited. Obedience or curiosity? Courage or self-destruction? She did not know.

‘How are you enjoying Singapore? Are you settling in?’

That
was his question? He’d held her back for
that
? ‘Singapore’s lovely,’ she said warily. ‘And I’m settling in well enough.’

‘Your aunt told Luke that you had an unwanted suitor.’

Her aunt talked too much.

‘She implied that he’s pressuring you into considering his offer of marriage.’

‘Jacob, I really don’t see how this is any of your business.’

‘You don’t? How very blind of you.
Wife
.’ His voice was soft and measured and fooled her not. Beneath the surface calm Jacob Bennett simmered.

‘Thing is, I’ve only heard from others that you have no interest in marrying this man. Maybe you do want to marry again. Maybe I’m just standing in your way.’ Jacob looked down at her with those arctic eyes. ‘Do you want a divorce?’

‘No!’ Her reply came too fast, too frightened. While the estranged husband she’d never quite managed to cut from her heart watched her through narrowed eyes. ‘I mean … Do you? Po’s mother—’

‘Is a woman I’ve never met and Po never mentions. Po’s a pickpocket, one of Madeline’s strays. She brought him to the dojo so that he’d at least have a roof over his head and a skill to learn.’

‘Oh.’ Po mystery solved, with Jianne none the wiser about Jacob’s current romantic entanglements.

‘Your aunt seems to think that if this man doesn’t get what he wants, he could become a danger to you,’ continued Jake. ‘Madeline thinks the same. They’re concerned for your safety.’

‘They really shouldn’t worry so much.’ Jianne had done enough worrying these past few months for all of them.

‘Has he followed you to Singapore yet?’

‘I haven’t seen him here.’ Yet. No need to burden her husband in name only with the knowledge that Zhi Fu
had indeed tracked her down. That the unwanted gifts just kept coming.

‘Jianne, is this man a danger to you?’

‘In all honesty, I don’t know. He never does anything
wrong
.’ Frustration had crept into her voice, she knew it had, and she tried to bring her demeanour back to even. ‘He plays games, that’s all.’

‘What kind of games?’

But Jianne had said far too much already. ‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘Mind games?’ Quiet. Lethal.

‘Jacob, this isn’t your fight.’

‘You don’t think that it’s up to me to protect my wife from a stalker?’

‘Estranged wife,’ she said softly. ‘Twelve years estranged.’

Jacob’s lips twisted bitterly. ‘So you want the protection my name affords you and nothing else. Nothing else from me.’

It sounded so wrong when he put it like that but that was exactly what she wanted. She’d thought, hoped, that everything could stay the same and that their travesty of a marriage could continue on as before. She hadn’t once considered Jacob’s needs. ‘Jacob, if you want a divorce just … get one. If there’s someone else …’

He stared at her broodingly. ‘What would your unwanted paramour do if he knew you were free of me?’

‘I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. Whatever it is, I’ll deal with it. If you want a divorce, do it. You shouldn’t have to consider my needs in this.’

‘You know, one of these days, Jianne, you’re going to realise that martyrdom isn’t what people want from you,’
he said with quiet viciousness. ‘That it’s perfectly okay to state your needs and expect them to be considered.’

‘Okay, then.’ She took a steadying breath and stated her needs straight. ‘I do need to stop Zhi Fu’s pursuit of me. Coming to Singapore has helped with that. I’m staying with my aunt and uncle, and they’re not inclined to encourage his pursuit. He’ll not have the access to me here that he had in Shanghai. He’ll tire of his games soon.’
Surely
he would tire of his games soon. ‘And I’ll be free of him.’

Jake stared at her broodingly.

‘Jake, I’d rather not involve you. Not unless I absolutely have to.’

He didn’t like that. He jammed his hands deep in the pockets of his dress trousers, ruining the line of his suit or enhancing it, depending on one’s preference. He looked away, to the window. He looked anywhere but at her. ‘Will you at least call
someone
if you think you’re in danger and need help?’ he said finally.

‘I will. I have my cousins and my uncle to call on. Maybe even Madeline or Luke. But I’d rather not call you. Surely you can see why it can’t be you?’

‘Because I’m as unwanted as he is?’

‘What? No! For pity’s sake, Jacob. You and Zhi Fu are
nothing
alike. Him, I don’t want at all, whereas you … you I once wanted too much.’ It was hard to admit that. Her failings. Her flaws. But he deserved that courtesy from her, this husband who asked if she was in danger.

‘Do you think I can’t protect you?’ he said next.

‘Have you always been this self-effacing?’

‘It’s new,’ he said grimly. ‘I hope to hell it’s temporary.’

‘I’ve seen you fight to save your family, Jacob. I’ve experienced firsthand what you can do, and
will
do, to protect the people in your care. I
know
you’d protect me if I asked it of you.’

‘But you won’t ask.’ He looked at her then and she gathered her courage and held his gaze. Timid rabbit, staring down the tiger.

‘I can’t.’

‘Why not?’ Always such absolute focus on the issue at hand or the person he was with. When he’d taken her in his arms and made love to her, ecstasy had rained down on them from the heavens. And when his attention had shifted to other responsibilities, Jianne’s demons had surfaced and demanded their due. Obsessive love was like that. Incandescent. Unforgettable. And ultimately destructive. ‘Jianne, I need a reason. Why won’t you let me help you?’

‘How? By pretending to be the happily reunited couple? By bringing you back into my life again until Zhi Fu goes away?’

‘If that’s what it takes,’ said Jake. ‘We could set boundaries.’

Jianne smiled mirthlessly. ‘So we could.’ And she would break them. ‘Have you ever been so addicted to something that it nearly destroyed you to give it up?’ she asked gently. She held his gaze. He didn’t hold hers.

‘Yes,’ he finally muttered.

‘So have I.’

This time when she moved away he made no move to stop her.

J
IANNE
managed her goodbyes to Madeline and Luke well enough. She offered up a wistful smile for a sleeping baby Layla and deftly sidestepped Hallie’s invitation to lunch the next day. She told her aunt and uncle that she was heading home and watched with affection as her uncle phoned his driver and arranged for her collection. Uncle Yi was taking no chances with her safety—not on his watch—and for once she didn’t mind his protectiveness.

A half-grown boy in a carefully pressed suit stood in the shadows cast by hotel towers as Jianne made her way to the waiting car. She slowed her steps until finally she came to a stop beside him. ‘Not a party person?’ she queried gently.

Po shook his head to signal no, his gaze not leaving her face. Looking for something, wanting something from her, but what? She’d never been good with children. Jake’s younger brothers and sister could attest to that. ‘I’m sorry our conversation got you into trouble.’

Anguish flickered briefly in Po’s dark eyes. ‘Me too.’

‘Is this the first time you’ve dishonoured him?’ Him being Jacob, stern sensei and keeper of strays. Would-be protector of the weak.

‘No,’ said Po. ‘When it comes to honour and what it is, sometimes I don’t get it.’

‘What
do
you get?’

The boy considered her question for a very long time. ‘Need.’

‘Then you and I are more alike than you know.’ Jianne offered up a smile, one needy soul to another. ‘It’s been a pleasure making your acquaintance, Po from the dojo. If ever you have need of me, look me up. Madeline knows where to find me.’

‘What if Jake needs you?’

‘Po …’ How to tell a child something she’d never before put voice to. ‘Jake’s always known where to find me.’

With a dignity born of desperation, Jianne Xang-Bennett took her leave.

Five minutes after Jianne took her leave from the party, Jake took his. Finding Po took some doing for the kid had skipped out of the hotel. Not far. Not Bugis Street or any of the boy’s old haunts. Instead Po had taken refuge in the shadows a few steps beyond the glamorous hotel façade. Tolerated by the hotel doorman because of his smart suit and his shiny black shoes. Mistrusted by the doorman because of those all-seeing eyes.

Hotel staff had fetched Jake’s ride up from the hotel’s underground parking area. Too much horsepower for practical purposes. Too few opportunities here in Singapore
to let speed have its way. Two helmets, the smaller one recently purchased. And a boy who watched him through desolate black eyes. ‘You coming?’ he asked and held out the kid’s helmet.

‘Am I still your apprentice?’

‘Do you still want to learn karate?’

The boy nodded jerkily.

‘Then here’s the deal. You steal, you’re gone. You make other mistakes, you get one warning about them. Go through anyone’s private possessions again and you’re gone. Are we clear?’

Another nod.

‘Then get on.’

The boy clung on tightly all the way home. And when Jake hit the training floor around two a.m., unable to sleep and needing to work off the tension that came of dredging up old memories best forgotten, a half-grown shadow joined him.

Brothers were useful at times. Jake hadn’t expected to see Luke at the dojo the day after Luke’s engagement party. He certainly hadn’t expected to see Luke waltzing into the dojo at six-thirty a.m., daisy fresh and whistling cheerfully.

‘What time did the party finish?’ asked Jake.

‘Two-ish.’

‘So you’re here this morning
why
? Maddy kick you out?’

‘Madeline opted for Tai Chi by way of morning exercise.’ Luke yawned hugely. ‘Me, I’m looking for something
with a little more kick. It occurred to me that I knew exactly where to find it. You good for a little one on one?’

Jake smiled, slow and sure. ‘I guess I could indulge you.’ No holding back with brothers the way he held back with students. Blood bond between brothers and unspoken comprehension of intent. A man might spar for exercise or to perfect his warrior’s art. A man might spar to compete and to win. Sometimes a man sparred in order to tame the beast inside him. And sometimes he fought to forget.

This morning, Jake was all about the forgetting.

‘So how’d it go?’ said Luke as he shed his T-shirt and shoes and waited for Jake to do the same. Bare chests, bare fists, black cotton trousers, and neither of them giving a damn about the colour of their belts.

‘How’d what go?’

‘Last night. Seeing Jianne again.’

‘About as well as expected.’

Luke rolled his shoulders. Worked his way into a stretch. ‘You talked for long enough.’

‘You here to fight or to gossip?’

‘Either. Both. Whatever. I’m here for you, precious. Never forget that.’

Jake favoured his brother with a smile a smart man would have been wary of. ‘When’s the wedding, again?’

‘Three weeks.’

‘I’ll try not to mark you up.’ Jake let his fist connect with Luke’s unprotected jaw. ‘Much.’

Luke countered with a knee to Jake’s groin and followed up with an elbow that would have taken a rib out had it connected. Game on, with Luke’s reckless smile
signalling that if Jake wanted to play by nobody’s rules, Luke was perfectly happy to comply.

They fought with fury and catlike grace. Jake had the edge when it came to technique but Luke had a knack for delivering the unpredictable. They both had a generous supply of killer instinct. It was exactly the kind of mindless pleasure Jake needed to take his mind off the living, breathing ghost that was Ji.

It was always going to end in bruises. Jake’s meeting with Jianne. This bout with his brother. They hit the floor hard, no mats for the wicked, and Luke groaned and Jake saw stars on the ceiling that he was pretty sure hadn’t been there earlier.

‘Are you going to look out for her?’ asked Luke as he fought free and staggered to his feet.

‘She doesn’t want me to.’ Jake didn’t bother to get up, just kicked out with his leg and took Luke down again with ridiculous ease. ‘Why do you
never
guard the backs of your knees?’

‘Because I like looking at your ceiling.’ This time Luke did not get up.

‘Hnh.’ Jake attempted to rise and decided against it.

‘I think you should watch out for her,’ said Luke.

‘She doesn’t want me to.’

‘Yeah, like that’s ever stopped you.’

‘You’re family. It was my
job
.’

‘And Jianne’s not family? So you’ll be divorcing her, then?’

Jake had his knee to Luke’s chest and his hand to Luke’s throat before his brother had time to draw breath.

‘Guess not.’ Luke’s words emerged breathless and strangled.

Jake loosened his grip, and staggered to his feet. He held out his hand to help his brother from the floor. ‘Sorry about that.’

‘It’s fine,’ murmured Luke hoarsely as Jake hauled him to his feet. ‘I’m fine. Are we done yet?’

‘Yes. You staying for breakfast?’

‘Only if it comes with painkillers.’

‘Wimp.’ As they hobbled towards the door.

‘Moron.’

Jake slid his brother a sideways glance. ‘That bruise on your cheek is never going to clear in time for your wedding.’

‘Dimwit,’ muttered Luke. ‘Idiot.’ And after a couple more shuffles towards the door, ‘So you’ll be seeing her again, then. Calling her. Asking her along to some highbrow show or charity do?’

‘She’ll never agree.’

‘Not if you don’t ask. Maybe I’ll get Maddy to call Jianne this morning,’ said Luke as they hobbled towards the kitchen. ‘See if she’s had any unexpected callers. Or gifts. Jianne’s suitor’s big on gifts, according to Maddy. A week ago he sent Ji a wedding dress. Custom made by some fancy fashion house to her exact measurements. She sent it back to him by courier.’

‘He sent her a
wedding
dress?’

‘It gets better,’ said Luke. ‘The courier company said they couldn’t deliver it because they were told that no one of that name lived at that address. Ji checked with friends in Shanghai. Her gift giver hasn’t moved house. But the
dress is back with her because the courier company is no longer willing to deliver it. Ji’s uncle reckons he’s going to hand deliver it. He’s currently debating whether to slice it to pieces first.’

‘What’s to debate?’ rasped Jake. ‘The size of the scissors?’

Luke smiled ever so slightly. Jake scowled and turned to the fixing of breakfast. ‘Jianne doesn’t
want
my help. Besides, her uncle’s looking out for her. So’s Madeline. And so are you. What more does she need?’

Luke reached for a couple of mismatched coffee cups and the tin of instant coffee. ‘Some would say you.’

Luke headed out of the dojo some time after nine, fully fed and limping only a little. Jake closed up behind him, for the dojo was closed to the public on Sundays. Nothing to do with prayer and everything to do with rest and retreat and time he could call his own. The dojo phone rang not ten minutes later. Hallie trying to organise a Sunday evening meal for the Bennett clan before everyone headed off to their various destinations the following day. Then it was Madeline on the phone arranging an impromptu lunch at her place. When the phone rang for the third time Jake glared at it and almost didn’t pick up, but Tris and Pete were around too and they hadn’t checked in yet this morning and like as not they would.

Jake loved his siblings, unconditionally and always, but when everyone got together it reminded him of days long gone when his first priority had been to
keep
them together and inevitably his thoughts would turn to Jianne and then the guilt would kick in that he should have done
more, that he
could
have done more to help her fit into the chaos that had been his life.

When he picked up the phone and Jianne said hello he almost dropped it. When she said hello again because he still hadn’t spoken he put his fingers to his temple and summoned a reply. ‘Are you in trouble?’

‘Is that a regular greeting for you?’ came the softly spoken reply.

‘Regular enough.’

‘What’s the usual answer?’

‘It’s usually a variation on “I’ve met this woman and she’s messing with my head.”’

‘Well, I haven’t met this woman,’ said Jianne, and lapsed into silence.

‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘Are you safe?’

‘I’m outside your dojo,’ she said, with a quiet dignity that only Jianne could wield. ‘And I’d like to come in.’

He was at the door within moments, opening it and stepping back to allow her entry, glancing past her to see what trouble might have followed in her wake, but the street was quiet, and the faces on it familiar ones. He shut the door behind her and turned around warily.

She looked breathtaking in a lemon coloured sundress that fell in soft waves to her knees. Her hair had been pulled back from her face with ebony combs, and she clutched her handbag in front of her like a shield.

He gestured for her to precede him through the entrance foyer and on into the training hall, and closed his eyes and prayed for mercy when he saw the length of her hair. She’d kept it long, a glossy rippling river than ran almost to the base of her spine. Once upon a time, Jianne’s
hair had framed their lovemaking like a silken shroud. It still would.

His body approved of the notion, even as his mind shied away from it.
Surely
he’d learned his lesson the last time Jianne had come into his life? Some things were simply too fragile for a man like him to touch.

‘What did he do?’ he said harshly, bringing his thoughts back to now and the possible reasons for Jianne’s visit. ‘Your unwanted beau.’

‘How do you know that’s why I’m here?’ she said as he walked her through the training hall and out into the tiny kitchen area. He didn’t have a sitting room. He didn’t have a rec room either. Just a few sparsely furnished bedrooms out back for occasional guests and visiting students, and a loftlike crib of his own above the training hall.

‘Why else would you be here?’ he countered. ‘Last night you considered my company the greater of two evils. This morning, here you are. The balance has changed and I didn’t tip it. So what did he do?’

‘You always tip the balance, Jacob. It’s what you do.’ She looked at the shabby table and chairs and remained standing.

‘You want to sit?’ he offered, belatedly remembering Jianne’s reliance on protocols and manners and his general lack of them. ‘Something to drink?’

Jianne sat at his shabby Formica table. She decided against refreshment. Jake crossed his arms, leaned against the counter and waited.

‘He’s here,’ she said quietly. ‘Zhi Fu. An invitation arrived from him this morning to his house party here in Singapore.’

‘So he followed you.’ Jake didn’t like this latest development but, given the man’s obsession with Jianne, he wasn’t overly surprised. ‘You had to have known it was a possibility.’

‘I had hoped Zhi’s business ties would prevent it,’ she murmured. ‘I was counting on it.’

‘So what now?’ he asked somewhat more gently.

Jianne shook her head. ‘I don’t know. I was going to refuse his invitation, I always refuse his invitations, but then my uncle suggested that a stronger message might be warranted. He suggested I attend Zhi’s housewarming party. With you.’

‘Aggressive,’ murmured Jake. ‘I like it.’

A tiny smile from Jianne. ‘You would.’

‘Was that a compliment?’ he asked silkily. ‘I don’t think it was.’

‘Suit yourself,’ she murmured. ‘The thing is I find myself in need of a protector. A Shaolin in the purest sense, and I’ve only ever come across one of those in my lifetime. You. Zhi Fu’s here in Singapore. He’s renting the home directly across the road from my aunt and uncle’s house. He’ll be able to monitor my every move, just as he did back in Shanghai.’

Protectiveness kicked in hard, and with it a cold hard rage at the man’s predatory behaviour.

‘My uncle thinks that getting my own place in some other part of Singapore would be unwise,’ continued Jianne. ‘He thinks Zhi Fu would follow.’

‘Your uncle’s probably right.’ Jake eyed her steadily, noting the shadows beneath her eyes, and trying not to notice the curve of her cheek or those crushed rosebud
lips. ‘Have you considered taking out a restraining order on him?’