The No Sex Clause (14 page)

“What’s wrong with him? I don’t like to ask him, but he really doesn’t seem himself.”

“Shhh! Don’t ask – he’ll snarl. You know what? I think our Media Playboy has been smitten – by that writer he interviewed the other day.”

“The one who wrote the sex book? That would explain why he gave her such a hard time! Tell you something, I wouldn’t mind a few hours with her myself – learning about her subject, that is!”

“You and every other guy in the station!”

Their laughter grated on Jed’s nerves, and the suggestion in their jokes flamed hot rage through him. He rose from the desk, about to charge through and deliver a snappy lecture, when his phone rang.

“Is that Jed Walker?” a soft female voice asked.

For a moment Jed thought it was Anna, and his heart did a little happy dance in his chest. Then he realised the slight English accent was missing. This voice, though sexy, was all-American.

“Mr Walker, this is Alex Peterson. I work with Anna Findlay’s publisher; I’m her publicist.”

The happy heartbeat dance changed into something sinister and pounding.

“Has something happened to Anna?” He could barely force the words out through the obstruction in his throat.

“Well, no – I don’t think so. It’s just that – well, she’s usually very good at staying in touch. Anna’s kind of shy and doesn’t go wandering far from her hotel room without reason – yet I haven’t been able to contact her for a couple of days now.”

“I’m sorry, I haven’t seen her – I didn’t really expect to. “

“I’m asking because she was at the Freyer’s charity party, and I saw you go after her when she left. And, of course, there was that magazine article….I thought perhaps she might have said something to you…”

Jed drew in a shaky breath.
Anna was missing…no-one had seen her for the past two days?

“You read that article?”

“Mr Walker, everyone in New York read that article. I know there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but I know Anna had taken a liking to you and, well, I’m wondering if you know where she is now?”

“I…Anna had hurt her ankle and I took her to the hospital, and then back to her hotel…that’s why I was carrying her when the photographer…” Oh, hell. Sweat was beading on his brow as he chattered on to this woman. Her response to his excuses was silence. He swallowed hard, and added.: “I did try to find her the next morning, you know, to apologise and explain things…But she was getting into a taxi outside her hotel and she drove away before I could get her attention.” It was far too humiliating to recount that moment when Anna had looked right at him and made no attempt to stop the taxi.

“Oh, dear, you were my last hope.” The woman sounded truly worried. Jed’s anxiety climbed up a few notches.
Anna, alone in New York…wondering the streets in a severe winter storm, alone, lost…

He pulled himself together. Anna wasn’t a child.

“Do you have any idea where she might have gone? Perhaps visiting old friends?”
Or lovers from her book research
…Jed felt his neck muscles tensing even more.

“Well, as you know, she went to her old high school reunion…maybe she has family still living in wherever Knotting Grove is.”

“I can try and find out…”

“Mr Walker – Anna told me that you had accompanied her to that reunion….she was very embarrassed about the way she treated you. She had hired an escort – we laughed over the No Sex Clause in the contract – and mistook you for him when you arrived at her hotel. “

So that’s what Anna had been trying to explain. And a No Sex Clause? He wanted to laugh as he remembered the night in the shabby little hotel in Knotting Grove, the night he’d spent with Anna.
Guess it depends on how you interpret ‘no sex’….

“I’ll see what I can find out about family. And
Ms..Alex…would you let me know if you hear from her?”

“Ditto, Mr Walker – I was going to ask her to join myself and my family for Christmas – her flight back to England was cancelled and I tried to rebook for her but there was no seat available until after the holiday. It’s not nice to be alone at this time of the year.”

That’s when Jed realised that today it was Christmas Eve.

Normally, Christmas was just another day in the life of the media corporation he owned. The show must go on, and all that.

A vision of himself holding a toddler up to place the star on the top of the tree, Anna beside him holding the ornaments, all three of them laughing, suddenly appeared in his brain. Normally he’d have been horrified at such a notion. Yet this one vision brought tears to his eyes.

He hadn’t realised how lonely he was, playing the Most Eligible Bachelor.

He pulled out his wallet and rummaged through it. Ah, here was the business card the would be country singing star – what was her name? – Maria Wilson – had given him at Anna’s high school reunion.

He pulled his desk phone towards him and punched in her number.

It’s not nice to be alone at this time of the year.

* * *

Anna had fallen asleep, tucked in the warmth of Sofia’s knitted Afghan blanket. She stirred when Jed put his hand on her shoulder, and wriggled with delight when he pulled her into his arms and kissed her – a deep, masterful kiss that betrayed his longing for her. His love….

Strange little fireworks were going off inside her as she responded to his touch.

Wait a minute – his love? Jed Walker loves me?

But the hand on her shoulder was shaking her steadily now, and she opened her eyes to see Sofia, standing over her with a suspicious expression on her face.

“Wake up, Anna – I think you were dreaming.” Sofia’s accent still betrayed her Russian roots, and Anna suddenly realised that words she’d thought were harsh were actually coloured by that accent. Maybe Sofia had been speaking kindly many times and she’d misinterpreted. Maybe misinterpreted deliberately in keeping with the idea of her evil foster parents.

“Anna, please wake up!” There was an edge of panic in the voice now, and Anna shook herself awake.

“I think that you were dreaming – a nice dream, yes?” And Sofia’s wrinkled face was wreathed in smiles.

Anna coloured –
surely her foster mother couldn’t guess what she’d been dreaming about?

“There is a young man at the door, he wants to see you. You didn’t tell us you already had a date for tonight.”

Anna’s heart leaped. Had Jed found her here? She remembered with a touch of shame the way she’d told Eileen, the cab driver, to drive away and leave Jed standing in the snowy street. Here she was, bedraggled, probably sporting bedhead hair, and wearing clothes she’d last worn when she was sixteen….but the door was already opening.

And standing there, with a big loopy grin on his face and clutching a huge poinsettia plant in his arms, was Joey Henderson.

“Anna – I was so happy to hear that you were back in Knotting Grove – back home. I couldn’t wait to see you and catch up on things.”

Jed Walker loves me? Only in my dreams.
She smiled at Joey to try to cover her disappointment, and a little voice in her head reminded her that once upon a time she’d have felt like the princess in a fairy tale if the high school football hero had arrived on her doorstep.

* * *

Maria was thrilled to get a call from Jed Walker himself. To think this rich, important and influential man had singled her out, remembered her from the school reunion and the chat they’d had at the bar – and then he’d actually called her! She could have sworn she’d never hear from him, even though she’d handed him her business card –
Maria Wilson, Singer/Songwriter, Available for Your Special Event!

In fact, she’d been pretty sure that, although he’d accepted the card and her angling for a TV spot very politely, his eyes had been fixed on the Mouse. She’d expected that he had probably filed the card in the round file – the waste bin – long before he’d even returned to his fancy office in the city.

And who would have thought that the Mouse had it in her not only to write a bestselling book on sex, but to hook up with a guy like Jed Walker? You had to hand it to the little rodent; she’d certainly taken herself in hand and gone after what she wanted. Including, it appeared from the front cover of City Folks, the millionaire media mogul. Although it must have been a bit of a blow to poor Anna to hear that Jed was about to announce his wedding nuptials to that sour faced rich girl, Felicity Fernley.

Maria fantasised for a moment about what it must be like to be born into wealth and influence, to have others dance attendance on you while the biggest thing you had to worry about was where to buy your next designer outfit, and whether you should drive the SUV or the convertible, or have the chauffeur pick you up…

Such daydreams got Maria through to the end of her shift, waiting tables in the Okay Café. Shouting that she was off home to get ready for a date, she blew a kiss to Geordie, the café’s owner and chief cook, and flew out the door.

Jed Walker was picking her up in a couple of hours, at her home. He’d insisted that he collect her and her heart had sighed softly at his gentlemanly manners. Most of the guys she’d dated recently had wanted her to pick them up and be the designated driver, so that they could scoff down a snoot full of alcohol and have her drive them home again. Boring!

She couldn’t wait to walk into the Cattleman Bar with Jed Walker dancing attendance. She intended to make the absolute most of her grand entrance – and of the opportunity to sweet talk the TV station owner. All artists craved that one big chance, and Maria issued a fervent prayer to the God she’d been raised to believe in, that this would be hers.

But Maria Wilson was nobody’s fool. She’d heard that Anna Findlay was back in town and knew when Jed called and asked if Anna had family still in Knotting Grove that his agenda centred on the Mouse, not on her. Even so, he’d offered to buy her a drink and chat a while, so she had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

* * *

“You be careful, my Anna, when you are out with that Joey Henderson. The boy has a bad reputation.” Sofia was standing in the door of Anna’s room, watching as she put on make-up and brushed her hair into a smooth, glossy helmet.

“I thought you’d be happy to see me with a home-town boy; you always told me to settle down with someone local and raise a family.” She couldn’t keep the bitter note out of her voice. The Adams had never approved of any boy from Knotting Grove she’d dated, not that there had been many of them; they’d approved even less of the boys at college.

“He has never got over his swollen head when he was to play soccer in the big time. I am sorry that he hurt himself and lost his big chance; but I would hate to think he’d take you in like he has other girls. You deserve something better.”

Anna sniffed. “You don’t have to worry; I don’t seem to have much luck with men anyway.”

“Was there someone special in England? Someone you were glad to get away from? I cannot imagine that you did not have someone in your life.”

Anna paused with the brush in her hair and met Sofia’s eyes through the mirror. “There was a man named Louis; he said he loved me. We were very close.” She didn’t add that they’d lived together; such wanton behaviour would probably send Sofia into a swoon. “But when my book…when I became successful, he left me.”

“Ah, the book about sex.” Was that a twinkle in the old woman’s eyes? “I read your book, cover to cover – Dan ordered it from Amazon and we both read it.”

Anna choked back shock and embarrassment. “I thought you’d be ashamed.”

“Ashamed? Of your success? How could you possibly think that? Although, I did think that perhaps the book could have had a less sensational title, but I’m not a fool. I know that sex sells just about everything these days.” Sofia was smiling. It transformed her face; with the harsh cast of her frown gone, she looked younger, kinder. A mother figure.

“It’s not exactly how I wrote it, you know. The publisher took my thesis and had it rewritten.”

“Ah, yes; this is what they call sexing up, yes?”

“Sofia, I’m beginning to think that there’s a lot more to you than you’ve let on.”

“Well you’d better stop wondering and get downstairs; that young man will be getting impatient.” Sofia stepped back to let Anna pass, but not before straightening the collar of her scoop necked dress so that it displayed a little less cleavage. “That’s better – you don’t have to show everything, Anna – you are beautiful as you are.”

* * *

Joey jumped to his feet the moment Anna walked into the cramped living room. He looked relieved to be about to escape from Dan Adams’ stern glare; the silence in the room had hung heavily on him before Anna made her entrance.

“I have just been telling the young man here that you should not stay out late; you are tired from all your book touring and late nights and hard work. You are home to rest for a few days over the holidays, and he mustn’t make you too tired to enjoy your visit,” Dan said - his deep voice rumbling around the living room seemed to land on Joey’s head like a slap.

His face had gone red and he shuffled his feet like a schoolboy instead of a grown man of thirty. Anna stifled a laugh and, taking pity on him, she grabbed his hand and led him to the door. Calling back to the Adams that she wouldn’t be late, she smiled at Joey and followed his lead as they began to walk to his car.