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‘Look, I realise that you are a busy woman. I know it’s probably a shock my turning up like this. But I need to talk to you, Beth…it’s urgent.’
She hesitated.
‘So, what do you say?’ he murmured. ‘Will you give me a few hours of your time…please?’
Hell, he wasn’t going to start being nice to her, was he? She could handle his disdain, his arrogance, but she couldn’t hack it if he started to be kind. That led to all sorts of dangerous grey areas.
Her eyes moved over the handsome face. It was hard to tell what he was thinking, his features were impassive.
She sighed. ‘Okay, but I’ve only got an hour. I’ve got work to do.’
‘Thanks.’ He smiled. ‘I appreciate it.’
He held the door for her as she got in. She told herself she was only doing this to avoid a scene. Her work colleagues would be coming out at any moment and she didn’t want them asking her questions tomorrow.
He slammed the door and then came around to join her.
She watched as he fastened his safety belt then checked his mirror before pulling out into the steady stream of traffic.
This was really weird, she thought. If anyone had told her this morning that Jay would pick her up from work she would have looked at them as if they were mad.
‘So…you haven’t really come all this way just to see me…have you?’ she asked cautiously.
He glanced over at her. ‘Yes. I have.’
She wanted to ask why, but she couldn’t. She was too afraid he was going to say the dreaded D word. But of course that had to be the reason. What other one was there? He wanted a divorce.
She noticed the familiar tang of his aftershave. It made a curl of remembrance stir painfully inside her. She squashed it immediately.
‘Where did you get the car?’ she asked, more for something to say than anything else.
‘I rented it.’
‘Where are you staying?’
‘I don’t know. I haven’t booked in anywhere yet.’
She frowned. ‘You mean you’ve just arrived?’
He nodded. ‘Yep. I rang you from the airport.’
‘Oh!’ She wished she could think straight.
She watched as he drove into an underground car park. Watched the reflection of the neon lights as they played over the hard contours of his face.
He parked and then turned to look at her. ‘I’ve booked a table at a restaurant around the corner.’
‘You’ve booked a restaurant but you haven’t booked a hotel?’
He shrugged and grinned. ‘I can think better on a full stomach.’
She stared at him, trying to work this out. But her brain was befuddled with confusing, sidetracking thoughts, like how his smile lit up his eyes, how his lips were firm and yet sensual, how the shape of his face was hard-boned and square, giving him a look of arrogant determination.
Sometimes in her dreams she had imagined seeing him again, had imagined what it might be like. Sometimes she had thought that she would feel nothing and sometimes her body had twisted with an empty kind of longing. Now she didn’t know what her body was telling her, except how wonderful he looked…and that was crazy.
‘Elizabeth.’ His eyes seemed to be resting on her lips. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Of course I’m okay.’ She wrenched her gaze away from him. Picked up her briefcase and opened the car door. ‘I’m hungry,’ she lied. ‘Like you, I can’t think on an empty stomach.’
CHAPTER TWO
THE restaurant which was one of the best in town was a place that Elizabeth had only ever visited when she had been entertaining clients for the firm. And even then she hadn’t got one of the tables in the private side booths; they were always reserved weeks in advance.
‘How did you get this table?’ Elizabeth asked as the waiter disappeared with their coats and they settled themselves opposite each other in the private alcove.
‘I just bribed the head waiter,’ he answered nonchalantly.
Her eyes widened. ‘Really? I didn’t see you.’
He grinned as he handed her a menu, and she realised he was teasing her.
For a moment their eyes held. Then she felt his gaze sweeping over her, assessing the heart-shaped face, the sophisticated style of her raven-dark hair, the slender lines of her figure.
‘You’re looking well,’ he murmured.
‘Thanks.’ She gave him a strained smile. ‘So are you.’ They sounded like two strangers, she thought. Who would believe that they had once promised to love, honour and stay together, forsaking all others? Her lips twisted wryly as she reminded herself what a sham that had been.
‘You’ve cut your hair,’ he remarked.
She put a hand self-consciously to the short, urchin cut, remembering that he had once told her how much he liked her waist long hair. ‘It got a bit hard to manage.’
A glimmer of a smile lit his dark eyes. ‘Pity…I always liked your hair.’
Meaning he didn’t like it now? Well, she didn’t care, she told herself crossly. In fact part of the reason she’d had cut it was because she knew he had liked it. She had finished worrying about what Jay did and didn’t like. That game was over long ago.
‘It’s been a long time…hasn’t it,’ he remarked casually. ‘Must be what…nearly a year?’
It was over a year, but she wasn’t about to admit she was counting. ‘Something like that. How are things in Jamaica?’
‘Hot.’ He smiled. ‘Do you miss it?’
Of course she missed it. Although she was originally from England her parents had moved to the Caribbean when she was just nine. In her heart Jamaica was still home. But she wouldn’t admit to Jay that she felt homesick. She had moved away because of him, because of their sham of a marriage. She had to put a brave face on things. So she just smiled and shrugged. ‘Sometimes,’ she said easily.
The wine waiter interrupted them to ask what they’d like to drink.
‘Would you like wine, or something stronger?’ Jay asked her.
‘A glass of white wine would be fine, thank you.’
Jay ordered a bottle, then settled back in his chair again.
She shouldn’t really drink, she told herself. She needed to keep a clear head.
He looked remarkably fresh and healthy considering he had just made a ten-hour transatlantic flight, she thought.
He leaned back in the chair, stretching his long legs, looking the epitome of well-honed manhood, muscular, yet trim, broad and strong, arrogantly relaxed. She was pleased to note a few grey strands amid the dark thickness of his hairs.
He was getting older, she told herself. Good…maybe one day women would stop finding him so attractive. If there were any justice in the world, maybe one day he would know what unrequited love felt like. And serve him right, she told herself darkly. He might even look back on his life and say, If only I hadn’t let Beth go. She was the only woman who truly loved me. And meanwhile she would be living with a hunky guy who worshipped the ground she walked on. And she would laugh and say. I’m glad I left Jay.
He leaned forward, and Beth snapped out of the ludicrous daydream, feeling foolish. Jay was only thirty-seven, and losing his looks was probably something he would never have to worry about. There was no justice in the world. What was more, he was the one who wanted a divorce, which must mean there was someone else in his life…someone serious.
Was he planning to marry Lisa? The question twisted painfully inside.
‘So, I take it life in London is as wonderful as you thought it would be?’
‘Better than wonderful,’ she found herself gushing. ‘I absolutely adore it.’
‘Really?’ His voice held a hint of dry irony. ‘Well, I’m glad you haven’t been disappointed.’
Beth’s eyes narrowed. ‘This is all very cosy, Jay, but, at the risk of sounding rude, I’m sure you haven’t come all this way to make idle chit-chat with me. Do you want to cut to the bottom line?’
‘You know the bottom line. I want you to sign those papers,’ he said calmly. ‘Why haven’t you?’
She avoided his eyes. ‘I just haven’t got around to it, that’s all.’
The waiter brought their wine and poured it for Jay to taste, before filling up their glasses.
A piano struck up at the other side of the room, a relaxing romantic melody that blended with the gentle hum of conversation around them, but was at discomforting odds with their situation.
‘Are you ready to order?’ Jay asked as another waiter approached.
‘Yes.’ She ordered with the briefest glance at the menu, choosing a salad, her usual preference when she came here on business.
Then she snapped the menu closed and handed it back with a smile. She would pretend this was a business deal. She could handle those. ‘I’m surprised you remember London well enough to select this restaurant. How long ago is it since you were here?’
‘About seven months.’
She’d expected him to say seven years, because she knew he had visited London before they first met. It was a shock, therefore, to know he’d been here and hadn’t looked her up.
‘Oh?’ She took a sip of her wine. Well, why should he look her up? she told herself. He’d only do that if, like now, he wanted something. It wasn’t as if he missed her, or that they were even still friends.
‘I was here on business. I’m designing a craft for the round the world yacht race.’
‘The boat yard is doing well, then?’ she asked idly.
He frowned. ‘Beth, you are still a sleeping partner in the business. I send you cheques every quarter, direct to your bank account. You know how the business is doing.’
She shrugged. In truth she never looked at that money; she didn’t want it. It felt like blood money.
‘You don’t have to pretend. I know how much that money means to you,’ he grated quietly. ‘And I suppose the reason you won’t sign my papers is monetary as well.’
‘I’m sorry to disappoint you, Jay, but I don’t need your money. I’m an independent, successful career woman.’
‘Well, you like to play at being one, anyway,’ he said suddenly, impatiently.
‘I’m not playing, Jay. I am independent.’
‘May I remind Elizabeth Hammond that she wouldn’t be where she is today if it wasn’t for my help,’ he grated mockingly.
‘And you wouldn’t be where you are today if it wasn’t for my help,’ she retorted, her eyes flashing fire. ‘Our arrangement was to our mutual benefit, and don’t you forget it.’
‘Well, that took all of, what, fifteen minutes?’ He glanced at his watch. ‘And we are right back to the same argument we were having a year ago.’
‘You started it,’ Beth murmured.
‘No. You started it when you proposed marriage to me,’ he reminded her grimly.
‘I didn’t propose marriage; I proposed a business merger.’ With difficulty she kept the colour from flooding into her face. ‘And I wouldn’t have done it except for the fact that I was desperate and I thought you were my friend. I also thought you were a gentleman. It seems I was wrong on both counts.’
‘Maybe I’m not much of a gentleman.’ He shrugged and sat back in his chair. ‘But I was your friend.’
She noted his use of the past tense and felt her heart heavy against her chest. She had ruined everything. Once upon a time Jay had liked her. They had been friends. Now he looked on her with contempt. He thought she was money-orientated; he thought she had used him. She supposed she was guilty of being greedy, but her greed had nothing much to do with money. Her greed had been to want more than Jay’s friendship. She had wanted him to love her, as she had loved him. But because of her pride she had gone about it the wrong way. Used the terms of her father’s will to provide a convenient excuse.
She remembered clearly the day she had made the outrageous proposal. They had been sitting at the beach bar. She had ordered a rum punch, downed it quickly and ordered a second.
‘It’s not like you to drink in the middle of the afternoon,’ he had remarked softly. ‘I know you are upset about your dad’s death, but this isn’t the answer.’
‘So what’s the answer then?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know. Henry’s death is a shock; you must still be reeling from it. Coming to terms with his will on top of that must be hard.’ Jay shook his head. ‘I can’t believe that he actually went ahead and made out his will the way he did.’
‘Can’t you?’ Elizabeth’s tone was dry. ‘You know what a strong character he was. How stubborn he could be when he got an idea in his head. He always made it clear that his dearest wish was for you and I to get together.’
‘Yes, I suppose he did,’ Jay said thoughtfully. ‘In the two years I worked for him, I don’t think a day went by without him mentioning your name in a very positive way to me.’ For a moment a gleam of humour lit Jay’s dark eyes. ‘We used to find his matchmaking antics amusing, didn’t we, Beth? But this is going some even by his tenacious standards.’
‘Let’s not go through all that.’ Beth cut across him hastily, cringing with embarrassment. Jay might have found her father’s matchmaking attempts amusing but they had always flustered her. They’d been too near the mark, too near what she wished for secretly in her heart. Whether her father had realised her feelings or just thought their union would make sound economical sense, she had no idea; she just hoped that Jay didn’t perceive how she felt. That would be too humiliating by far.
Elizabeth tried to sound cool and objective. ‘The fact is that he did make his will out with the clear purpose of pushing us together, and if I don’t marry you within seven weeks the boat yard, plus a substantial sum of money, go to my stepmother, along with everything else.’
‘Cheryl will probably see that you are well provided for. I’m sure your father will have left her very well off. The boat yard is just a tiny proportion of your father’s assets.’
‘Cheryl will be all right. But that’s not the point is it?’ Beth retorted, hurt beyond words. ‘I shouldn’t have to ask for what is rightfully mine.’
‘Well, there’s not much you can do about that, is there?’
‘Aren’t you worried about your job?’ Beth tried a new track. If he wasn’t worried about her, maybe he was worried about his own position.
‘Not really. I suppose Cheryl will keep me on.’
