Single Girl Abroad (Mills & Boon M&B) (Mills & Boon Special Releases) (16 page)

‘He’d have to threaten me before I could do that. As I said last night, he never does anything
wrong
. Not in the eyes of the law.’ Jianne gave a weary shrug, her expression beyond bleak. ‘You don’t know what he’s like. He’s very very good at winning people over to his way of thinking. He’ll be charming and helpful and invoke guanxi and then they’ll be his. That’s what he does. It’s how he wins. He gives people nowhere else to go but to him.’

‘How long has this been going on?’ She didn’t answer. ‘Jianne?’ he said more gently.

‘Five years,’ she said, with an alarming tremor in her voice. ‘It took a while for me to realise what he was doing and how he was doing it. My father called me crazy at first, and then he too got caught up in Zhi Fu’s web. My father doesn’t think I’m crazy any more, only now there’s nothing he can do about it. I’m so
sick
of there being nothing anyone can do about it. I want my life back. I want to fight this.’ Her chin rose stubbornly. ‘I want to win.’

‘What do you want from me, Ji? You want me to accompany you to his house party? I’ll do it. What else?’

‘I want him to think we’re in the process of renewing our relationship.’ Hot colour stained Jianne’s cheeks but she held his gaze. ‘I want you to give off signals that we’re … that you’re …’

‘Protective?’ he offered gruffly.

‘That too.’

Jake Bennett had never considered himself a twice-cursed man. Until now. ‘What else?’

‘I can’t stay at my uncle’s any more, knowing Zhi could
be watching every move I make. I
can’t
.’ Twelve years ago Jianne’s calm reserve had seemed to run soul deep. Either she’d come out of her shell somewhat over the intervening years or she was deeply spooked by Zhi Fu’s latest move. ‘I need a place to stay. Somewhere that fits with the overall plan. Somewhere I can feel safe.’

She looked at him then and he knew, he just
knew
what was coming next. ‘Oh, no,’ he said. ‘No,’ and ran his hands through his hair for good measure. ‘You
can’t
be thinking of staying here.’

‘Madeline says you have a row of rooms out the back that you put people in.’

‘Yes, but … have you
seen
them? We’re talking no frills here, Jianne. Not one.’

‘I don’t need much.’

‘No cook, no maid, just me and Po and four or five karate classes a day, starting at six and running through until late. The kid hardly sleeps. Sometimes if I’m awake we’ll train during the night. And this is the kitchen. It’s also the dining room, lounge room, and Po’s study.’

She stared at him steadily.

He couldn’t believe she thought this would work. That they could make it work. Escorting her here and there on occasion was one thing, but this … ‘Wait till you see the bathrooms.’

‘If you don’t want me here, just say so,’ she said calmly. ‘It’s a lot to ask of you. An invasion of your privacy that makes going through your wallet look like child’s play. I know that. I
will
understand if you say no, Jacob.’

‘And if I do say no?’ he countered. ‘Where will you go?’

She had no answer for that.

‘You won’t like it here. There’s no softness here,’ he warned her one last time. ‘It’s sweaty and hot and noisy and raw. The street is two steps away. It’s not a particularly peaceful street.’

‘I’ll manage.’

He couldn’t believe he was even considering her request. Thinking forward to where to put her and how best to protect her. He paced the tiny kitchen with growing agitation. He scowled for good measure. She looked like a fragile fairy-tale princess. Snow White in need of a haven. He, on the other hand, was wearing black track sweats, a ratty grey T-shirt, and he wasn’t wearing shoes. Where the hell were a bunch of pickaxe-toting dwarves when you needed them?

‘Come with me,’ he muttered and led her up a narrow staircase to one side of the training floor, and opened the door to his crib.

It was spacious. Space he had in spades, which was something of a luxury in Singapore. A huge expanse of polished wooden floorboard covering an area the same size as the training hall below. A bed made up with white sheets, a navy-coloured coverlet and a couple of pillows graced the far corner. He’d had a shower and toilet plumbed into the opposite corner, with a half-wall and a makeshift screen providing some semblance of privacy. A highset band of slatted warehouse windows ran the length of both longways walls. He’d covered one of those walls with a row of silk tapestries depicting a battle scene, heavy on the death and destruction. A reading chair, a reading lamp, and a not-quite-straight bookshelf crammed
with books completed the tableau. Narrow storage space behind the far wall hid his belongings and his clothes.

‘It’s still not much but it’s better than what’s on offer downstairs,’ he said curtly.

‘But …’ Jianne gazed around her in silence and he gritted his teeth at how sparsely furnished his home no doubt looked to her eyes. ‘This is your space.’

‘I’ll clear out. I can stay downstairs.’

‘No! There’s no need to turn you out of your bed. I never meant to do that. Have me stay downstairs. Whatever’s there, it’ll do.’

‘This is what I’m offering, Jianne. It’s the only offer you’ll get from me when it comes to accommodation. You, up here, out of the way.’

She hesitated.

‘Take it or leave it.’ On this he would not bend.

‘Okay.’ She took a deep breath, as if shoring up her resolve. ‘I’ll take it. I’ll pay rent, of course,’ she added hurriedly, and named a weekly rate that would have kept her in six star luxury, not a warehouse bedsit atop a downtown dojo.

‘Keep your money,’ he grated. ‘I don’t want it.’

Jianne recoiled as if he’d struck her.

Jake gritted his teeth and prayed for mercy. ‘Must you
flinch
every time I look at you?’

‘Must you
glare
every time I open my mouth?’ she replied in kind. ‘People pay rent when they live in a place that’s not their own. Why is my offering to do so such an insult to you? Is your pride such an enormous thing that there can be no room for mine?’

Money had been a sore point between them from the
moment Jianne had revealed exactly how much of the stuff she had. Tens of millions, probably hundreds of millions by now. A tiny detail she’d waited until six months into their marriage to let slip, when she’d offered to pay for a housekeeper to come in each day and help clean the Bennett family house and prepare healthy meals for a hungry family.

She’d been drowning in household chores she had no idea how to cope with and all Jake had seen was the blow to his pride. The housekeeper hadn’t eventuated. Jianne’s drowning had continued.

Not the Bennett family’s finest moment.

‘Fine,’ he amended. ‘Contribute something to the running of the place if it makes you feel better. A cleaner comes in daily—I can have him do up here too, that’s not a problem. But a couple of hundred Sing a week will cover your stay. If you still don’t think that’s enough, I’ll give you an account you can put some money into. It’s one I’ve set up for Po. Put however much you want in there.’

He thought it a fair compromise, the accepting of her money on Po’s behalf. Never let it be said that Jacob Bennett didn’t learn from his mistakes.

She sent him a long, considering look, before nodding slightly. ‘I’ll do that.’

Jake could move fast when he wanted to. Ask any opponent he’d ever faced in a championship match. Hell, ask Jianne—their courtship had lasted all of five minutes before he’d put a ring on her finger. Ever since then he’d tried to slow down some and
think
when it came to life-altering decisions. ‘Does your uncle know that you want to move in here?’

‘He does.’

‘And he approves?’ Jake had faced Xang family disapproval before. He knew its power. He needed to know on how many fronts he’d have to fight.

‘He does. Whatever you need, you’ll have his full co-operation.’

‘And your father?’

‘My father can’t help me,’ she said flatly.

‘Are you
sure
you don’t want to think about this some more?’

‘If I think about it I won’t do it.’

‘Doesn’t this
tell
you something?’ he said in a last-ditch effort to sway her to another—
any
other—course of action.

‘Yes.’ A faint smile tilted her luscious lips. ‘Don’t think.’

They agreed, over a scalding-hot cup of tea back in the shabby kitchen, that Jianne would move in later that afternoon. Jake figured, in an ‘if I’m going to be damned I may as well burn’ kind of way, that Jianne had better accompany him on his lunch and dinner rounds. No way was he leaving her here on her own while he went out. Not going to happen. Not until her unwanted paramour had learned the meaning of the word no.

‘I need to go get cleaned up,’ he muttered, running a hand over the stubble on his chin for confirmation. ‘I’m heading over to Maddy’s soon for lunch. You may as well come too. Your uncle can have your belongings delivered there.’

‘Who else is going to be at this lunch?’ she asked warily.

‘Luke and Po. Probably everyone else as well.’

‘Everyone, as in all your siblings and their families?’

Jake nodded. ‘It’s not often we have a chance to get together these days. When we do get the opportunity we take it. Hallie’s booked us in somewhere for dinner too. I’ll get her to change the reservation to include you.’

‘Don’t. Please. I really don’t want to intrude on your family meals.’

Jake smiled bitterly. Everyone had their little crosses to bear. His siblings had always been one of Jianne’s. ‘I know what you think of them, Jianne. That they’re too wilful, too bent on trouble, too unrestrained. But that was then and this is now and I’m proud of them, all of them, and you should know something. In asking for my help, you don’t just get me on side, you get them too. Whatever they can do to protect you, whatever needs doing, they’ll do it, and that’s worth something. You could try being grateful.’

‘I am grateful.’ She squared her shoulders and held his gaze, something she would never have done twelve years ago. ‘But you need to know something too. About your brothers and your sister … and me. There are no unconditional ties of love between us, no bonds of trust or acceptance. If they follow your lead I’ll be grateful, but I’ll never make the mistake of thinking that they’re helping me because they want to. They’ll be doing it for you.’

‘You’re wrong.’

‘No.’ She sent him a careful smile but the shadows in her eyes spoke of deeper, darker, memories. ‘I’m not. I’ll come to Madeline’s for lunch but I’ll not join you all for dinner. I’ll stay at my uncle’s tonight and sort out a few things I need to sort out like transport and the belongings
I want to bring with me. I’ll move in tomorrow. That way you can join your family for dinner without thinking you have to be responsible for me, and everyone will be happy.’

The suggestion was quintessentially Jianne and dredged up memories of her making similar suggestions, over and over again during the course of their ill-fated marriage. Forfeiting
her
needs in an attempt to accommodate
his
needs and the needs of his siblings. And they’d let her. Every last one of them, Jake included, had let her do it. ‘No,’ he said grimly. ‘Lunch at Madeline’s if you want to, and only if you want to, and then we’ll go to your uncle’s and get your stuff and then we’ll come back here and get you settled. Dinner with my family doesn’t have to happen.’

‘But—’

‘No, Jianne. Just … no,’ he said, and glared at her for good measure, before stalking out of the room and making his way to the dojo showers. He stripped down and stepped beneath a measly drizzle of lukewarm water. The spray from the next showerhead wasn’t any better. Sighing, he added new showerheads and possibly new plumbing to tomorrow’s work list. He shoved his face beneath the spray and rubbed it hard before looking down at his decidedly aroused anatomy.

‘No.’ The ‘no’s were coming thick and fast today. ‘No way.’ He
would
not give into his desire for his lovely and ever so vulnerable wife no matter how much his body urged differently. Get clean. Get dressed. Get Jianne’s unwanted suitor off her back and get her out of here.
That
was his plan. And if he could show her in the
process that he knew these days how to respond fairly to the needs of those around him, well, so much the better.

This
time round Jianne’s needs would not come last.

He wouldn’t let them.

M
ADELINE’S
luxury penthouse was about as far removed as a person could get from Jake’s spartan existence. Madeline’s gracious hospitality was legendary and she didn’t disappoint when she opened the door to him and Jianne shortly after midday, blinked once, and swung smoothly into a warm and welcoming hostess routine.

Luke stilled when he saw Jianne at Jake’s side and so did Hallie. Pete shot him a searching glance. Tristan just watched. Not one of his siblings said a word.

‘Jianne’s staying at the dojo for a while,’ he said to no one in particular, and you could have heard a butterfly breathe in the silence.

Thank heaven for partners. Serena, Pete’s wife, swung into action first, smiling and moving and making some kind of small talk that involved Tris’s wife, Erin. A gentle reminder that astonishment was no cause for rudeness and that the Bennett siblings needed to lift their game.

‘She’s nervous,’ he said to Madeline as he watched Jianne interact with the other Bennett wives.

‘Why wouldn’t she be?’ countered Madeline. ‘With the exception of Serena and Erin—to whom I’m eternally grateful—not one of you knows how to relax around her. What’d she do? Torture puppies?’

Jake glowered at her.

‘All right, don’t confide in me,’ she murmured. ‘But if you want my advice on how to make Jianne relax in this company I suggest you look to yourself. If
you
can relax, the rest of them will. Beer or spirits?’

‘Beer.’

‘Perfect,’ she said with a sunny smile. ‘I’ll go and see if I can tempt Ji to a champagne. And I still think a lilac tie would help
a lot
.’

‘Never going to happen.’

‘Objection noted.’ Madeline sent him a considering look that Jacob had learned to be wary of. ‘Fortunately I’m a woman of uncommon inventiveness when it comes to bringing out a man’s softer side.’ Moments later an angel-faced baby girl had been deposited in his arms and there was nothing for it but to keep on holding her and let Po hover protectively over them both and suffer Madeline eyeing him with evil glee as she headed towards Jianne.

Jianne had been doing all right during those first few minutes of her arrival at Madeline’s lunch gathering. Right up until the moment someone had seen fit to deposit baby Layla into her uncle Jacob’s arms. Everything started hurting after that.

Watching the husband she’d once loved so fiercely cradle his niece with such gentle authority and fend off all attempts to get him to hand her over scraped at Ji’s
heart. She’d wanted children once. Not immediately following her whirlwind marriage, but at some stage in her and Jacob’s future she’d imagined them. Imagined Jake with them.

She accepted the champagne Madeline handed her and smiled and hid the assault on her heart as best she could. If she wanted to continue this charade she’d have to get used to being in Jake’s company again and the company of his siblings. And that meant conversing with them.

Bracing herself, Jianne turned her attention once more to the small knot of people that now included Luke and Tristan as well as Serena and Erin. She summoned a smile and admired the design of the glittering rings on Erin’s fingers, and discovered that Erin was a jeweller and had made the rings herself. Small talk between strangers, the kind that made people relax, and it was working, sort of, until Jake and a sleepy baby joined them, and all conversation ceased.

When the silence grew beyond awkward, Tristan pinned her with his golden gaze and asked her if she’d ever managed to finish her visual design degree.

‘Yes,’ she stammered, startled that he’d even remembered such a thing. ‘Yes, I finished it. I make my living nowadays doing design work for various organisations. International companies in need of multilingual branding, mostly.’

‘Do you need to make a living?’ asked Jake quietly, his blue gaze unreadable. ‘What happened to your trust fund?’

‘It matured, I reinvested it, and now there’s more of it,’ she said calmly. ‘If you’re asking me if I need the money
my work brings in the answer’s no. If you’re asking me if I like to work and imagine that what I do is of value to people, the answer’s yes.’

Jacob stared at her through those unreadable eyes, until finally Tristan spoke up again. ‘Will you be able to work from Singapore?’

‘Easily. I’ve clients here as well as in Hong Kong and Shanghai. My travelling schedule should stay about the same.’

‘Will you need office space?’ asked Jake.

‘I already have it.’

‘Is it secure?’ asked Jake.

‘Yes, it’s in my uncle’s office complex.’ Baby Layla kicked out with her legs and struck her uncle square in the chest, a blow that made three besotted uncles beam and Jianne’s heart bleed a little more for the picture they made.

‘Girl’s got talent,’ said Luke, and shot Jianne a considering glance. ‘Would you like to hold her?’

‘What?’

‘Would you like to hold Layla for a while?’ he repeated. ‘You’re the only one here who hasn’t had a turn yet.’

‘Okay,’ she said faintly, damping down the chaos of her emotions and summoning a polite smile for the benefit of Jacob’s family.

Jacob’s blue eyes were dark with some unidentifiable emotion. His generous, kissable mouth was set in unsmiling lines. His hands were impossibly gentle as he deposited baby Layla into her arms.

‘There’s a rule that says whoever’s holding her gets to keep her for at least fifteen minutes before handing
her on,’ he said gruffly. ‘Don’t let them con you out of your time.’

‘I won’t.’ Jianne smiled down at the sleeping cherub. ‘She’s so tiny,’ she whispered, and smoothed the soft cotton wrap away from Layla’s face with the gentlest of fingertips. ‘So fragile. I’m scared I’ll breathe and break her.’

‘So am I,’ said Jake, and the agony in his voice had her glancing up at him in concern, only he wasn’t there any more, he was already halfway across the room, with Po the boy who saw everything, shooting her a lightning glance before following in his sensei’s wake.

The afternoon bled into the evening with a speed Jianne hadn’t anticipated. Evening plans swung into place. Po successfully begged a sleepover at Madeline’s and taxis were ordered to take everyone to the restaurant. Everyone but Jianne and Jacob.

Hallie had started to protest when Jacob had told her that he wouldn’t be joining them for dinner. Jacob had silenced her with a glance and shortly thereafter they’d taken their leave.

A silent taxi ride later and he and Jianne stood beside the darkened dojo door. He unlocked it and ushered her inside, her two bags of luggage slung over his shoulder. He carried the bags upstairs to his room—her room now—and collected up a handful of clothes before telling her he was going to grab some Thai food from the takeaway across the road and for her to come down whenever she was ready.

‘Jacob, wait.’

He turned around slowly, his brilliant blue eyes guarded
and wary. Jianne tried a tentative smile and his eyes grew warier still. ‘I still think you should be up here and I should take one of your other guest rooms.’

‘Don’t start.’ Two words, with a world of quiet warning behind them.

‘I’m not a child to be reprimanded, Jacob. I have an opinion. I have a right to state it.’

‘You stated it this morning. I told you then that if you wanted to stay, you’d be sleeping up here. It’s safer and more comfortable.’

‘It’s yours.’

‘Not any more. Was there anything else?’

Yes. The desire to touch him was all encompassing, even if only to find out just how big a mistake she’d made in coming here. Jianne stepped out of her comfort zone and into Jacob’s personal space and watched his magnificent body go predator still. Leashed, in a way she’d never seen him be. ‘Thank you for this,’ she said. ‘For your help.’

‘It’s nothing.’

‘It’s not nothing to me. I feel safe here. Safer and stronger than I’ve felt in a long time.’

‘You’re taking control of the situation,’ he said with the rarest of smiles, a smile just for her. ‘Those are just side effects.’

‘I still couldn’t have done it without you.’ She reached out and brushed his hand with hers. She had to know if the all-consuming heat that had once engulfed them was still there beneath his skin, beneath all that daunting self-control.

It was.

Jake trembled beneath her touch, dark lashes dropping down to shield his eyes as he jerked his hand away from hers and stepped back as if stung.

‘Don’t,’ he said raggedly.

Jianne absorbed Jacob’s startling response to her touch with a calmness born of desperation. ‘It wasn’t an invitation to intimacy, Jacob. All I did was touch you.’

‘Don’t,’ he repeated, and this time his eyes blazed with fierce warning. ‘Not here. Not when we’re alone. I can’t.’ He turned away and headed for the door as if all the demons of hell were after him.

He shut the door firmly behind him and Jianne let out the breath she’d been holding along with a ragged whimper to accompany it. Jacob had meant his words as a warning. Who knew that they would lodge in her soul as a bright arrow of hope?

She looked around the room lit dimly by the light filtering in through slatted windows. Red neon up one end, stripes of blue hue at the other and not a curtain in sight. Too light for sleeping unless a person was used to it or they got tired enough for light not to matter. On the bright side, there’d be no creeping up on her in the darkness while she slept.

Jianne looked to the bed, Jacob’s bed, plainly adorned. The sheets and pillowcases were fresh since this morning and so was the dove-grey coverlet. Jacob’s books were in the bookshelf and the leather reading chair held the imprint of his body. The faintest scent of him still lingered in the air, teasing at her senses, conjuring up memories of possession and surrender best forgotten.

Jianne undid her case and set her nightshift on the end
of the bed before collecting up her toiletries and making her way to the washroom. Did Jacob still sleep naked? She never had. Not since she’d fled his bed all those years ago.

Shedding her sundress, Jianne stepped beneath the shower spray, closed her eyes and let the water cool her overheated skin. Jacob’s warehouse apartment didn’t boast the kind of luxury she’d been born to, true enough, but there was a tranquillity here that came of simple needs being met. Shelter, food, discipline and purpose. A warrior’s needs. No room for softness, only that wasn’t quite true, for there
was
softness in Jacob along with a generous heart and a powerful need to protect those who needed protection.

He’d made room for Po here.

And he’d made room for her.

Amazing what snippets the brain dredged up when memories were allowed to surface. Like Jianne’s favourite Thai dish, which Jake figured he might as well order. She liked steamed greens too, so he ordered some of those then his own preference along with enough boiled rice to feed an invading army and then another fish dish for good measure. Jake didn’t care that he’d ordered way too much food for two. He needed something to focus on other than the woman he’d once loved beyond measure, and right now food would have to do.

Jake stood outside the shop and waited while they prepared his order, scanning the street for signs of strangers who didn’t belong. He knew this neighbourhood, knew the people who lived here. Zhi Fu might try and find purchase here, he might even succeed, but the watcher would
be watched and there was more than one way of getting in and out of the dojo unnoticed. Back ways, through alley ways and the shops of people whose businesses bordered his. Po used all of the back ways out of the dojo and had probably invented a few more by now. Po had a thief’s dislike of having less than half a dozen exits to choose from.

Jake stared up at the frosted and slatted warehouse windows of his second-floor apartment, trying to gauge how secure
they
were, and whether someone in the building opposite would be able to see in through them.

Not if he slanted the slats the right way.

His order came up so he collected it along with the cook’s well wishes for good eating. He crossed the road and headed up the side alley towards his kitchen door entrance this time, rather than the front entrance. The kitchen door was old and the lock a simple one. He’d never had a security system installed. Maybe it was time he did.

Jianne opened the door to him before his key even hit the lock.

‘Don’t do that,’ he said as she stood back to let him in.

‘If I wanted to live in a prison I’d have stayed at my uncle’s.’

‘If you want to live here you’ll do as I say.’ Jake shut the door behind him and put the food on the table, trying to ignore the scent of freshly washed woman that permeated the air. He did his best not to notice the way Jianne’s lightweight skirt and camisole showcased her fragile beauty or the way his pulse kicked at the sight of her. ‘Just humour me, Jianne, and check that you know who’s at the door before you open it. Especially when you’re alone. It’s a good habit to get into.’

‘I bet it’s not one of your habits.’

‘I’m not the one being harassed by a stalker.’ Jake rummaged about in the kitchen drawer. Chopsticks if she wanted them, spoons and forks if not. Jianne assisted by collecting up soy sauce and salt from the kitchen shelf, and glasses from the drying rack.

‘What do you want to drink?’ he asked. ‘I have beer, Scotch, or water. Or there’s a vending machine in the dojo that does sports drinks and high-energy cola. If none of that appeals, there’s a supermarket around the corner.’

‘Water’s fine,’ she said. ‘Or beer, if you’re having one.’ So he fished both from the fridge and left it up to her to decide.

He’d forgotten Jianne’s knack for bringing order to chaos. For making teenage boys wash their hands before sitting down to eat. For taking quiet pleasure in the setting of a table, never mind that most everyone slated to sit at that table would be far more intent on inhaling their food than taking the time to converse and connect. ‘No bowls,’ he said as he peered in the cupboard. ‘I think Po used the last of them to mix up some furniture polish.’

‘For what?’ she said, bemused, and true enough he had no wooden furniture in the place that was in any way deserving of polish.