Millionaire's Woman

‘You’ve changed your mind?’ Jack sat down beside her and took her hand.

‘No.’

‘But you’re thinking of Joanna. You chose her without hesitation over the objectionable Rufus—’

‘Rupert.’

‘Right. So it was obvious you’d make the same choice if she objected to me.’

‘Exactly.’ Kate smiled ruefully. ‘So if I’m too much work as a friend I’ll understand, Jack.’

‘I’ve never been afraid of work.’

‘I know that. Your father is very proud of you.’

His eyes softened. ‘The funny thing is, Kate, that if you’d stayed with me I might not have achieved the same level of success. The all out concentration would have been impossible with you around to distract me.’

‘Then maybe I did you a good turn by running off.’

‘It didn’t feel like it at the time,’ he retorted.

‘Nor to me.’ Kate shook her head in wonder. ‘I was such a girl when I met you, Jack. But I grew up pretty quickly after you dumped me.’

His eyes glittered dangerously. ‘Your memory’s at fault, Katherine Durant. It was you who dumped me.’

‘Only technically!’ She glared back. ‘I had to salvage some remnant of pride! You wouldn’t even meet me to say goodbye.’

‘I was afraid I’d go down on my knees and beg you to stay.’

They stared at each other in silence broken suddenly by a log falling in the fireplace.

‘That’s an unlikely picture,’ said Kate at last.

‘The knees maybe,’ he conceded. ‘But not the begging.’

She shook her head. ‘I can’t imagine it.’

He shrugged. ‘It belongs in the past, anyway, Kate. Far better to focus on the present.’

‘You’re right about that,’ she said with a sigh. ‘When Liz and Robert were killed, my own mortality hit me in the face. I even made a will.’

‘Good move. Thinking in worst scenario terms,’ he added, ‘what provision is made for Joanna if anything happens to you, Kate?’

‘Guardianship would go to her Sutton grandparents, with Anna and Ben named in the will as trustees.’ She yawned suddenly. ‘Sorry. It must be this fire. I really must go home now, Jack. Sorry to drag you out.’

He got up at once, and held out his hand to help her up. ‘A gentleman—even the self-made variety like me—always sees a lady home, Miss Durant.’

‘Another time I’ll bring my car,’ she told him, and flushed as she heard the promise impli

cit in her words. ‘I’ll just say goodnight to Bran before we go,’ she said hastily.

‘I hit on a good idea by asking Dad along,’ said Jack on the drive back. ‘You relaxed the moment you saw him, so you were obviously worried when I took you to my place for dinner.’ He shot her a sidelong glance. ‘Were you afraid that I’d fall on you with ravening lust before the meal or after it?’

Kate let out a snort of laughter. ‘Neither, Jack. But you’re right about your father. It was an inspired move to ask him along.’

‘The idea was to convince you that my intentions were strictly honourable!’

‘It succeeded. I enjoyed the evening very much.’