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His expression darkened. ‘No,’ he rasped. ‘Although I had the right; when you left you promised to marry me!'
‘I said I would be back in the summer and we could talk about it!’ she corrected heatedly. ‘Obviously I decided we didn't even need to talk about it!'
‘Wouldn't it have been more polite to come back and tell me that yourself?’ he ground out.
She hadn't felt able to do that, had feared—yes, feared that he might be able to persuade her into bed as he had during her Easter break at home. Because she knew if he managed to share her bed again she wouldn't be able to deny him anything. Even now she could vividly remember the strength of his lean body wrapped about hers, the musky male scent of him as his mouth nuzzled against her neck. The memories of that night hadn't faded at all during the last sixteen months away from him.
‘We had nothing to talk about,’ she dismissed in a hard voice.
‘I'd told you that I loved you!’ he reminded her tautly.
And that claim had caused her more pain than happiness; it still did! ‘And as you can now say you don't, it's as well I didn't take you seriously,’ she derided. ‘Now could we, for once, stop bringing our conversation back to a personal level and concentrate on Lesli and the fact that she's alone somewhere and seven months pregnant?'
Nathan gave an abrupt inclination of his head. ‘I'll have to call Grant and let him know I've had no luck finding her here.'
And Brenna could see how much admitting that failure irked him. ‘You can do that once we get back to London,’ she snapped. ‘Right now Lesli is the important one.'
His mouth thinned. ‘Grant is suffering too, you know,’ he rasped.
‘Of course,’ she scorned. ‘After all, Lesli is carrying the Wade heir! It wasn't enough to make him leave his prize herd, was it?’ she accused.
‘Brenna—–'
‘Oh, let's get back to the cottage so that I can get my things together,’ she bit out impatiently. ‘I'd like to get back to London this afternoon.'
He grabbed her arm and swung her round to face him, his features contorted with anger. ‘If Lesli leaving Grant had anything to do with you I promise you you'll regret it!’ he threatened harshly.
Brenna frowned. ‘What do you mean?'
‘You've shown your contempt of the Wade family for so long maybe a little of it rubbed off on Lesli. Maybe I should have read those letters!'
Her eyes shot flames at him. ‘If Lesli has come to her senses and no longer sees you and Grant as big fearless heroes, then all I can say is it's about time!’ she challenged. ‘But I can assure you nothing I've said influenced her; I've been telling her for years that you're both arrogant sons-of—–'
‘Your success as an illustrator of children's books doesn't seem to have moderated your language any,’ Nathan bit out grimly. ‘Your mouth still needs washing out with soap!'
Brenna's eyes flashed like emeralds. ‘And who taught me every curse in the book?'
His mouth thinned. ‘I always told Dad he should have kept you away from the ranch hands.'
‘I was referring to their boss!'
He gave a deep sigh. ‘A lot of things can go wrong on a ranch,’ he defended.
‘And you swear about every one,’ she recalled softly, her expression hardening as she realised she sounded almost wistful. ‘How did you know about my illustrating?’ she bit out.
He shrugged. ‘Lesli was very proud of her baby sister's accomplishments,’ he drawled. ‘The copy of the book that you sent her has been put by for the baby.'
‘What did you think about it?’ she mumbled.
Grey eyes glinted with humour. ‘Koly the Koala is not exactly my taste in literature.'
‘No,’ she snapped. ‘I remember Mum throwing out of the house a few of your ideas of literature,’ she scorned.
‘They were Grant's,’ he rasped. ‘He brought them back from university.'
‘And you didn't even glance at them,’ taunted Brenna.
‘Oh, I glanced at them,’ Nathan drawled derisively. ‘But they were giving me an inferiority complex; I didn't realise most of those positions were possible!'
Carolyn had got back from the village during their absence, and Brenna made the introductions Nathan had been in too much of a hurry to bother with when he arrived. Carolyn, beautiful blonde, blue-eyed Carolyn, had difficulty hiding her surprise at the sudden appearance of a stepbrother she had never heard of.
‘Although I don't blame you for keeping him a secret, darling,’ her friend told her as she put her arm in the crook of Nathan's, smiling up at him warmly. ‘He's beautiful!’ Carolyn laughed softly as Nathan raised surprised brows in Nick's direction, the dark-haired man lounging in an armchair, completely unperturbed by his fiancée's flirtatious manner. ‘Don't worry, Nathan, Nick isn't likely to challenge you to a duel or anything just because I like the way you look. Just because we're getting married there's no reason to act as if we don't see the attraction of other people.'
Brenna was well aware of Carolyn's views concerning her engagement, just as she was also aware that Carolyn had been faithful to Nick and the love they shared, since the moment they first met. But Nathan couldn't know that from the way Carolyn was acting, and Brenna could sense his sceptical gaze on her.
‘Carolyn is the author of Koly the Koala,’ she defensively explained her friendship with the other woman; the two of them had been introduced through the publisher almost a year ago. ‘We're currently working on another book together,’ she added protectively as she could still feel the sting of his contempt for the arrangement he thought Carolyn and Nick had, obviously considering her part of their relationship at the moment.
‘How nice,’ he drawled uninterestedly, managing to extricate himself from Carolyn's languidly dangling arm before moving to stand in front of the window. ‘If you would like to pack your things, Brenna,’ he added hardly, ‘we can be on our way.'
‘I'll help you,’ offered Carolyn with a generosity uncharacteristic of her, almost pushing Brenna from the room and up the narrow stairs to the two bedrooms and bathroom above. Brenna had one of the bedrooms, Carolyn and Nick shared the other one. ‘Where are you going with that delicious hunk of a man?’ Carolyn demanded to know as soon as the bedroom door closed behind them, making herself comfortable on the bed as Brenna ruefully began to pack.
‘That “delicious hunk of a man” is merely my stepbrother—–'
‘Nathan Wade has never been merely anything in his life,’ her friend dismissed knowingly. ‘I can't believe you haven't noticed how handsome he is,’ she chided. ‘After all, a stepbrother is no relation at all.'
It would be useless to deny that she hadn't been aware of Nathan's masculinely magnetic pull from the time she had first met him; there had been a constant and steady stream of women in his life the last ten years to testify to that even if she hadn't been aware of it.
‘When someone has watched you progress through braces on your teeth, pimples, braids, and a flat chest, there doesn't seem any place left for romance,’ she avoided drily.
‘I would have made sure he noticed the disappearance of the braids, the brace and the pimples, and the appearance of my breasts,’ Carolyn told her enviously. ‘We would probably have been sharing a bed by the time I reached seventeen!'
Brenna didn't doubt that, and smiled affectionately at her friend. Before she met Nick, Carolyn had known a lot of other men, she was a woman that men seemed to like instinctively. Except Nathan, she realised frowningly. Probably her friends weren't good enough for him!
‘I was still wearing the brace at seventeen,’ she dismissed scornfully.
‘But surely… Oh, never mind,’ Carolyn sighed frustratedly at Brenna's closed expression. ‘Where's he taking you?'
‘London. I… He and my sister decided to pay me a surprise visit and I ruined it by not being there.’ She had no intention of discussing this family crisis with Carolyn, considering it too personal. ‘She's waiting in London for me.’ Which was true—she hoped!
‘Your sister came over with Nathan?’ Carolyn frowned. ‘But I thought she was married to someone called Grant? Why…?'
‘She is. Look, I really don't have the time to talk right now, Carolyn,’ Brenna cut in briskly. ‘I have to get my packing done; Nathan doesn't like to be kept waiting,’ she added truthfully, remembering a couple of times he had been waiting up for her when she arrived home later from a date than she had said she would. And she could do without his chilly sarcasm in front of her friends!
Carolyn stood up in a graceful movement, sighing her disappointment. ‘You're really no fun when it comes to confidences, Brenna,’ she complained. ‘I've told you all about my life before I met Nick.'
And some of it had made her toes curl! But she liked Carolyn, and the two of them worked very well together, she just had no intention of discussing her complicated family tree, and the problems her mother's marriage to Patrick Wade had made for all concerned.
‘Maybe when I get back.'
‘How long will you be gone?’ Carolyn was completely professional now, the deadline for the book being only weeks away.
Brenna grimaced. ‘I'm really not sure.’ Everything depended on whether or not Lesli came to her, and what her sister decided to do then.
‘Call me as soon as you know,’ Carolyn instructed as she made her way out of the room. ‘We're really on a tight schedule.'
She knew that, it was the reason they had sought the peace and privacy of this out-of-the-way cottage. But if Carolyn and Nick hadn't disappeared to Florida for the month of July they wouldn't have had this problem.
But she didn't argue that point, but nodded abruptly, concentrating on getting her cases packed so that she and Nathan could leave.
Carolyn had prepared a tray of coffee during Brenna's absence—it had to be coffee, Nathan didn't drink tea!—as the three of them sat together in the lounge. Nathan looked very relaxed as he lounged in his chair, his jacket casually flung over the back of it, as if he had no intention of giving it up in case it got lost in the clutter that Carolyn surrounded herself with wherever she went. Brenna anxiously searched their faces, deciding that Nathan looked the most relaxed—and wondering what he had said or done to put that wary look in the eyes of the other couple. He returned her accusing look with bland indifference to her discomfort.
She said hasty goodbyes to Carolyn and Nick while Nathan put her luggage in the back of the sleek car he had hired, its smooth compact lines telling of its exclusive nameplate. She barely waited before they were down the lane and out on to the road before turning on him. ‘Well?’ she demanded.
He shot her a cursory glance before turning back to the road. ‘Well what?’ he drawled unhelpfully.
‘What did you say to them?’ Her eyes were narrowed suspiciously.
He shrugged. ‘We barely spoke while you were upstairs packing.'
‘What did you say to them?'
‘Calm down, Brenna,’ he advised impatiently.
‘I am calm,’ she ground out. ‘I just want to know what you said to upset my friends.'
‘They weren't upset.'
‘Nathan!'
He gave a weary sigh. ‘I merely expressed regret for breaking up your ménage à trois. That is the fashionable description for what you were doing, isn't it?’ he added harshly.
Strangely the insult made her feel like crying rather than shouting. That Nathan could think she had changed so much as to be involved in anything so distasteful! She had been a virgin when they made love, did he really think she could have become such a wanton in the last year?
‘Maybe I shouldn't have made love to you when I did.’ The same memories seemed to be going through his mind, making his expression grim. ‘If I hadn't maybe you wouldn't have felt free to experiment with other men.'
There had been no other men. She wasn't stupid, she knew that what she and Nathan had shared that last night in Canada had been unique, unmatchable with any other man. She knew that just as surely as she recognised that, for her own sanity, it could never be repeated. Never, she vowed with a shudder. It had taken her months to accept that she and Nathan had made love. And she wasn't going to let herself fall into the same trap her mother and Lesli had.
‘Brenna?'
She flinched as he would have touched her, moving as far away from him as she could.
‘What the hell!’ Nathan's face darkened like a thunder-cloud as he turned to look at her. ‘Brenna, what is it?’ He frowned at how pale she had become.
‘What is it?’ she repeated haltingly, still very disturbed. ‘It isn't every day I'm accused of being a whore!'
‘I never called you that!’ he rasped.
‘As good as.’ She flushed in her anger.
He gave a deep, ragged sigh. ‘Okay, what was your relationship to those two?'
‘I told you, Carolyn writes the books, and I illustrate them.'
‘And Nick Bancroft?'
‘Shares Carolyn's room,’ she told him resentfully. ‘The two of them go everywhere together.'
‘That wasn't the impression I got,’ Nathan bit out contemptuously.
‘Appearances can be deceptive.’ Although Carolyn had been very sexually active before meeting and falling in love with Nick, to her knowledge, for all her friend's talk, Carolyn had been faithful to him since they first fell in love. The habit of flirting with every man she met was obviously a hard one for Carolyn to break. ‘Carolyn writes children's books, not sex manuals!'
‘Okay,’ Nathan sighed. ‘If I was wrong, I'm sorry.'
The words were so quietly spoken Brenna couldn't help wondering if she had imagined them; Nathan never apologised for anything, none of the Wade men did. But this time Nathan had, she could tell that by the angry set of his mouth, the stiff way he sat behind the wheel of the car, as if he deeply resented having to apologise. And Brenna was sure that he did.
She neither accepted nor denied the apology, turning so that she was looking out of the side window, her face stiffly averted all the way back to London.
It was late afternoon by the time they reached London and the top floor of the Victorian building which Brenna occupied, one of the rooms having been converted into a studio for her, the light up there being excellent for her work. She had lived in the flat only a year, moving from the one she had shared with two other girls through college, so that Nathan shouldn't find her if he came looking. It seemed she could have saved herself the trouble, she thought ruefully; Nathan didn't give a damn about reading other people's personal mail to obtain what he wanted.
He carried her two suitcases up the six flights of stairs, putting them down outside her door while Brenna searched for her key in her bag.
She turned to him. ‘If you tell me the name of your hotel I'll call you if I hear from Lesli—–'
‘I booked out of my hotel this morning.’ Nathan took the key out of her hand and deftly turned it in the lock. ‘If Lesli calls or comes here, I'll be waiting for her.’ He gently urged Brenna inside the flat before he followed with the two suitcases.
‘Here?’ Brenna finally managed to gasp. ‘You mean here?’ She came to an abrupt halt just inside the lounge when she saw the brown suitcase standing in the middle of the room. ‘Yours?’ she squeaked at Nathan.
His mouth quirked. ‘When I explained to your landlady that I'm your brother, and flashed Lesli's and Grant's wedding photograph at her with the four of us standing together, she was kind enough to unlock your door and let me leave my case here. So you see, Brenna, I'm here for the duration.'
CHAPTER TWO (#u186c6edb-e7cc-5699-8f0b-ca125582568f)
BRENNA’S eyes shot sparks at Nathan's arrogance, his downright nerve in daring to assume he could do such a thing. ‘I don't care what you told Mrs Marlow, you are not staying here!’ she told him furiously. ‘You had no right to have your case put here under false pretences. I ought to telephone the police.'
‘And tell them what? I am your brother—–'
‘Like hell you are! You—–'
‘Brenna,’ Nathan's voice was soft, dangerously so, ‘what did I do the last time you swore at me?'
An embarrassed blush darkened her cheeks as she remembered how painful a certain part of her anatomy had been the time she had called him an arrogant bastard. She hadn't been able to sit down comfortably for a week!
‘I'm glad the memory is still with you,’ he drawled, carrying her cases through to her bedroom without the least sign of hesitation. His mouth quirked in amusement as he came back to find her glaring at him accusingly. ‘I had a look round this morning,’ he mocked.
‘Checking to see if I had a live-in lover?’ she snapped resentfully.
He shrugged. ‘I was just curious about where you had been living since you left college. I wasn't aware that an illustrator was paid enough to afford a place like this.’ He sat down uninvited in an armchair, stretching his long legs out in front of him as he turned to arch one eyebrow questioningly at her.
Brenna's mouth firmed. Although this was an attic flat she did occupy the whole floor, three smaller flats on each of the two lower floors, and he was right in his assumption; the rent on this place each month cost her a small fortune.
