‘Jessica, listen to me. You can’t stay there, the joist isn’t strong enough. I’m going to lie down here and reach out to you. I want you to wriggle as far forward as you can.’
Jessica measured the distance between them in disbelief—no matter how much both of them stretched out, they couldn’t bridge it.
‘No,’ she whispered croakily. ‘No, it’s too much of a risk.’
‘All of life is a risk. Trust me, Jess. Trust me. I promise I won’t let you fall.’
Trust me…All of a sudden hot, salty tears began to flood her eyes. What had she got to lose? If she fell, if she died…what was her life anyway, without him?
‘Watch me, Jess,’ he told her quietly. ‘Watch me, and I’ll tell you when.’
Her throat had gone dry and sore. Painfully she watched as he lay down on the floor and stretched out towards her.
‘What I want you to do is to wriggle as far forward as you can, and then when I say jump…’
He couldn’t mean it! But he did…‘Trust me,’ he had said, but why should he put his own life at risk to save hers? Why should he give her so much when she had given him so little?
‘Now, Jess…Now!’
Fear thrilled through her, but his command couldn’t be ignored. She edged as far forward as she could, fighting to ignore the dreadful slow swaying of her precarious perch.
‘Now…jump! Jump!’
Closing her eyes, she levered herself off her small platform. The sensation of falling…was sickening…She opened her eyes just as Daniel grabbed hold of her, hauling her unceremoniously on to the landing beside him.
The relief of it affected them both.
‘What the hell were you doing up there?’ Daniel demanded roughly, almost shaking her, while the tears poured down her face and she stammered huskily,
‘I came to apologise. You weren’t here…and…I fell.’ She gave a deep shudder, and suddenly realised that he had stopped shaking her, but that he was still holding her. She tried to move away from him and immediately his hold tightened.
‘Oh, no, you don’t. Why did you want to apologise?’
So he was determined to extract his pound of flesh. Well, she could scarcely blame him.
All her carefully prepared speeches had gone completely out of her mind. She looked at him, and whispered huskily, ‘Ma told me…about you taking over the bank. I realised Emma had lied to me. I just don’t know what to say.’
She bit her lip and turned her head.
There was silence, and then he said softly, ‘You could always try telling me that you love me.’
Her head snapped round, her eyes widening with anguish. ‘Please, don’t,’ she begged, thinking he was deliberately taunting her. ‘I know it’s what I deserve, but I don’t think I can…’ and then to her horror fresh tears started to fall.
‘Say it!’ he insisted.
Through her pain she stared at him, and knew there was no escape.
‘I love you.’
Again there was silence, and then he told her quietly, ‘And I love you, too.’
‘Don’t,’ she whispered brokenly, unable to bear the pain of his mockery.
‘Don’t what?’ he mocked her, but his voice was rough and slightly unsteady. The way he was looking at her transfixed her, flooding her with a shock of hope.
‘What is it you don’t want me to do, Jess? Don’t love you? Don’t ache for you? Don’t need you? Tell me how I can stop. Oh God, Jessica!’
And then he was kissing her, urgently, desperately almost, and her senses, starved of the intimacy of him, flooded her with their tumultuous response to him. She clung to him, kissing him back, opening herself to him, murmuring soft words of longing deep in her throat.
When he eventually released her, half laughing and half crying, she said the only thing that seemed to matter.
‘Daniel, I love you so much. Can you forgive me? I was so wrong, so stupid…’
‘We both made mistakes,’ he told her gently. ‘When I walked into the hall and saw you clinging to that joist, realised your danger…If I’d thought your lack of trust in me had killed my love—if I’d thought that, well, I very quickly realised how wrong I was, and I knew then that I’d rather go through that rejection a hundred times than see you die. And besides, it wasn’t entirely your fault…I could have made you listen, explained. I should have told you earlier that I knew your father, but after what you said about not trusting people who knew your parents…’ He gave a brief shrug. ‘I was already committed…knew I loved you. I told myself I’d tell you the truth once I’d won your trust—’
‘Mother told me everything,’ Jessica interpolated. ‘I should never have listened to Emma.’
‘And I should have realised what a vindictive little soul she is, and been a little more careful in telling her that there was no place for her in my life and that I loved you. I should have realised she’d try to make trouble between us, especially after she gatecrashed my meeting with your father and overheard me telling him I was worried about the fact that I hadn’t been able to tell you about my take-over of the bank, and that I didn’t want my take-over as chairman officially announced until I’d had a chance to tell you about it. I was going to tell you that evening…had been screwing up my courage to tell you—’
‘That money I threw at you,’ Jessica interrupted unhappily. ‘That was awful of me. There isn’t any excuse. I was so unhappy.’
‘Mmm…and you still owe me one piece,’ he teased her, adding thoughtfully, ‘Maybe you should give me a kiss instead.’
‘Suppose I were to buy back the other twenty-nine pieces from you?’Jessica suggested instead.
He pretended to consider it. ‘At what rate?’
‘Mmm…A thousand per cent—one kiss at a thousand per cent for each of the twenty-nine pieces.’
‘Twenty-nine thousand kisses? I don’t know…how about twenty-nine thousand nights spent in my arms instead?’ he murmured. ‘Twenty-nine thousand…of course, you’d have to marry me. Now that I’m the chairman of such a respectable institution as Collingwood’s I have my reputation to consider, you realise.’
‘Twenty-nine thousand nights?’ Jessica pretended to consider.
‘In my arms,’ he reminded her. ‘Of course, if you’re not sure you could meet such a long commitment, I could always…’
He was kissing her throat as he spoke, the words muffled against her skin.
‘You could always what?’ Jessica prompted huskily, trying to ignore this blatant seduction.
‘I could always find some way of making the terms more acceptable.’
‘In what way?’
He was still kissing her, his teeth nibbling provocatively at her vulnerable flesh, making her quiver outwardly as well as inwardly. ‘Perhaps a small demonstration.’ His hands were shaping her body, and she made a soft yearning sound deep in her throat, her fingers curling round his wrist, holding his hand against her breast while she moved her lips eagerly along his jaw, seeking his mouth.
‘Never again,’ he told her rawly, meeting the eager pressure of her kiss, ‘never again are we going to let anything come between us.’
‘Never,’ Jessica answered. ‘Never!’
* * * * *
Now, read on for a tantalizing excerpt of Dani Collins’ next book,
CLAIMING HIS CHRISTMAS WIFE
After their marriage ends in heartbreak, Travis never wants to see Imogen again. But to avoid a scandal they must agree to a temporary reconciliation—leaving Travis tempted to reclaim his wife…for good!
Read on for a glimpse of
CLAIMING HIS CHRISTMAS WIFE
CHAPTER ONE
“MR. TRAVIS SANDERS?”
“YES,” he confirmed shortly, willing the woman to hurry to the point. His PA had interrupted a high-level meeting with this “extremely important” call. “What is this about?”
“Imogen Gantry. She’s your wife?”
Memory washed through him in a rush of heat and hunge