Passion Becomes You

‘But without the pleasure it would have given me to do so,’ he stated. ‘Tonight I expect reparation. Wear something sexy—like that disgraceful black thing you wore for me the first time I took you out. We are going somewhere special. I will pick you up at eight.’

The phone went dead. Jemma grinned at it. ‘Arrogant devil,’ she murmured, and spent the rest of the day smiling like an idiot because he was breaking from routine and taking her out on a Thursday.

Cassie rang during the afternoon. ‘Will he speak to me?’ she enquired stiffly.

‘I’m not sure...’ Jemma gave the closed door between the two offices a dubious glance. ‘But I shall certainly try for you. How are you, Cassie?’ she then asked gently.

‘I’m fine,’ came the cool reply. ‘He’s offered to keep me and the child, did you know that?’

Jemma mumbled a denial, hurting for both of them. Josh had not been the same person since this thing with Cassie blew up in his face. He walked around the office like a man made of stone, hard-faced and unapproachable.

‘I was informed of his proposal through his solicitor,’ Cassie continued tightly. ‘A quarterly allowance and the mortgage taken care of on my flat.’

Jemma winced. ‘I’m so sorry it worked out this way,’ she murmured inadequately. In all honesty, she didn’t know which of them she felt more sorry for. The whole situation was hopeless and ugly. ‘If you need anything,’ she offered, ‘a sympathetic ear or just someone to yell at, I’m available.’

‘Thanks, but no, thanks,’ Cassie refused, her tone softened slightly by the offer. ‘I don’t think that would be a good idea.’

She meant her closeness to Josh, of course, and Jemma sighed as she buzzed him to tell him who wanted to speak to him. Surprisingly, he took the call without the bitter anger that Cassie’s calls before had aroused in him.

They talked for several minutes before her console told them they’d finished. And she began to hope that, at last, tempers had calmed enough for them to begin talking sensibly about what they were going to do.

Those hopes were dashed the moment she saw Josh’s face a few minutes later. He was even more stone-like than he had been before.

That evening, Leon was in a much livelier frame of mind. He even took Trina on, provoking her with teasing little remarks that ended with her stalking from the room. ‘She’s all fire, that one,’ he remarked admiringly as he watched her go.

‘Keep your eyes off!’ Jemma warned. ‘She’s taken and so are you!’

His eyebrows shot up at her heated tone. ‘That wouldn’t be a hint of green-eyed jealousy, would it?’ he taunted.

You can bet you sweet life it was! Jemma thought angrily, and lifted her chin. ‘Do I need to feel jealous?’ she challenged right back.

‘Maybe,’ he murmured thoughtfully. ‘Red-haired witch or not, she does tend to grow on one, does she not?’

Jemma spun her back on him to collect her bag, refusing to rise to the bait. He was riling her deliberately; she knew that even as she seethed inside. Stalking haughtily out of her flat, she vowed to get her own back, if only to cut the arrogant devil down to size!

She got her opportunity sooner than she could have hoped.

Tom MacDonald was just coming out of his flat as she came down the stairs.

His face lit up when he saw her. ‘Where were you the other Saturday night?’ he demanded. ‘I thought we had a date, but when I knocked on your flat door nobody answered!’

‘Oh, Tom—I’m so sorry!’ she cried, genuinely contrite because she had forgotten all about him! Impulsively, she lifted her hands to his shoulders and kissed his cheek. ‘How could it have slipped my mind like that?’

‘Maybe because you had other, more important things to think about,’ another voice coolly suggested, and Jemma flushed with embarrassment when Leon pointedly gripped her wrists and lifted her hands away from Tom. ‘Shame on you, darling,’ he added smoothly, ‘standing one man up while you made love to another.’

‘It didn’t matter,’ Tom put in awkwardly, seeing more than his match in Leon and not even trying to stand up to him. ‘It was only a tentative arrangement.’

‘Ah,’ drawled Leon. ‘Then thankfully her...memory lapse did not cause too much inconvenience.’ He dropped one of Jemma’s wrists but held on to the other one with a grip aimed to hurt. ‘You are lucky, my darling,’ he murmured smoothly to her. ‘Your—friend is willing to forgive your—tardiness. Other people may not be so willing.’

Now there was a threat if Jemma had ever heard one. She glowered at him, and he gazed coolly back. ‘Now, say goodnight to your—friend,’ he chanted softly, but his teeth were clenched tightly together while he said it. ‘We are late enough as it is.’

‘You’re hateful!’ she whispered as he pushed her in front of him and out of the house, leaving Tom staring awkwardly after them. ‘How dare you tell him we were making love?’

‘We were, were we not?’ he challenged, wearing his arrogance like a mask on his mocking face.

She tugged at her wrist. ‘Let go of me,’ she demanded. ‘You’re hurting!’

‘And if I ever see you kissing another man like that—’ he turned angrily on her ‘—I shall hurt you a lot more!’ His grip tightened for a short threatening second before he threw it away from him.