The Deserving Mistress

‘I drove you here,’ he protested impatiently.

‘Then I’ll get a taxi,’ she told him uncaringly, picking up her bag and walking out of the restaurant, glancing neither left nor right as she went, intent only on leaving.

Jude stared after her frustratedly, at the same time aware that several other people in the restaurant had watched May’s obviously stormy departure with interest, watching curiously now to see if he would follow her.

Not that he was in the least interested in what other people thought, about him, or anyone he was with, for that matter. It was May that concerned him now.

And, damn it, he didn’t want to be concerned about her. Didn’t want to be concerned about any woman to the extent that May Calendar had got under his skin.

Because he could no longer deny that she had done that, completely, and, he was very much afraid, irretrievably.

Which left him precisely where?

Following May out of the restaurant, that was where that left him, he acknowledged begrudgingly even as he stood up to pay the bill and hurry outside in pursuit of her.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

WHY was there never, ever, a taxi around when you wanted one? May wondered emotionally as she stood on the pavement looking up and down the road, tears of frustration blurring her vision.

She should have known Jude wouldn’t help her, should have known that he would take April’s part in all this. She didn’t know what she had been thinking of even considering appealing to his caring instinct—Jude Marshall didn’t have a caring instinct in the whole of his body, had only invited her out this evening at all because he still intended to buy the farm. He—

‘Get in the car, May,’ Jude instructed through the open window of the car he had just parked on the road in front of her.

‘I would rather walk the whole way home than get in a car, or anything else, with you!’ she assured him emotionally, hurriedly wiping away the tell-tale tears with the knuckles of her hands as she turned away with the intention of doing just that.

Jude swung out of the driver’s side of the car, slamming the door behind him before walking round to where May faced him so defiantly. ‘Do all three of you have some sort of death wish?’ Jude rasped angrily even as he grasped her arm and swung her round to face him. ‘First January is involved with some sort of stalker,’ he enlarged at her

outraged expression. ‘And now you’re contemplating walking the ten miles home, at eleven o’clock at night, along roads that are so dark an attacker could be hiding behind every bush.’ He gave a disgusted shake of his head.

May stared up at him in the light from the street-lamp overhead. ‘An attacker behind every bush’? What sort of area did he think this was? This wasn’t London. Or one of the other crowded cities. This was a quiet little backwater in the north of England—

And only weeks ago there had been a stalker in the area, someone who had taken pleasure in beating up women.

But he had been caught, May instantly derided her own thoughts; what were the chances of there being a second person like that in an area this uninhabited?

She shook her head. ‘I’ll find a taxi along the way,’ she assured him dismissively.

Jude’s mouth thinned. ‘Get in the car, May.’ There was no menace in his voice, just flat fury, his eyes glittering silver in the lamplight as he opened the passenger door for her to get in.

She looked up at him frustratedly. ‘You’re overreacting, Jude—’

‘I’m overreacting?’ he repeated explosively. ‘You just walked out on me in the middle of our meal in a crowded restaurant—’

‘The coffee stage is hardly the middle of a meal, Jude,’ May cut in impatiently.

His hand tightened painfully on her arm. ‘May, so far this has been far from the most enjoyable evening of my life, I am not going to add returning to the hotel, only to worry about your safety for the next couple of hours, to the list of things that went wrong with this evening.’

She glared up at him frustratedly, knowing him well enough to realise that if she did start to walk home, he was quite capable of following slowly along beside her in his car all the way back to the farm. Put like that, she might as well be warm and comfortable inside the car…

‘All right,’ she conceded forcefully. ‘But I do not want to discuss April Robine any more tonight.’

He arched dark brows. ‘May, do you really think you’re in any position at this point to attach conditions?’ he muttered impatiently.

The passenger door to the car stood open; Jude was obviously much bigger and stronger than she was, perfectly capable of pushing her inside the vehicle whether she wanted to go or not, in fact. And yet she somehow didn’t think he would do that…

Her mouth set stubbornly. ‘You agree not to discuss April Robine, or I don’t get in the car.’

He gave a frustrated sigh. ‘All right,’ he snapped harshly. ‘Just get in, will you?’ he added wearily.