Summer Sins

‘You couldn’t possibly have been in love with Myles Lederman. You wouldn’t have responded to me like that if you were.’

She gave him a furious look. ‘For your information I’ve cried myself to sleep for the past week. I don’t think I’ll ever get over Myles’s betrayal.’

‘Well it’s about time you did,’ he said. ‘He was only marrying you because he thought you were going to inherit the bulk of my father’s estate.’

Hayley’s mouth fell open. ‘That’s a despicable lie!’

He jerked one shoulder up and down as if he didn’t care what accusation she levelled at him. ‘I’ve recently run some checks on his background,’ he said. ‘He’s up to the eyeballs in debt. It’s my guess he knew you were very close to my terminally ill father, and, since it’s been no secret in the press that I wasn’t exactly on good terms with the old man, Lederman decided to move in for the kill. He swept you off your feet within weeks, fast-tracking your wedding so he could get his hands on your inheritance.’

She swung away in disgust. ‘I don’t believe a word of this. You’re making it up.’

‘I was speaking to Max, the part-time gardener out at Crickglades,’ he went on. ‘It seems Gerald didn’t like your choice of fiancé although he didn’t think it his place to say so to you. Duncan Brocklehurst confirmed that the will had been changed a few days before he died.’

Hayley turned back to look at him in bewilderment. ‘So what you’re saying is Gerald preferred me to marry you rather than Myles?’

‘I guess he was thinking along the lines of better the devil you know than the one you don’t,’ he said. ‘One assumes he thought I wouldn’t go as far as to rip you off and break your heart in the process.’

She frowned as she tried to take it all in. ‘But Gerald knew how much we hated each other … Why would he force a marriage between us?’

‘It was probably his idea of a sick joke,’ he said. ‘He knew very well what my views on marriage are, having put pressure on me before. Even a month living as husband and wife is going to seem like a lifetime. But I didn’t have to go along with his plans; I could have walked away without a cent. Raymond would have got the lot and you and I would have been left out in the cold.’

Her eyes came back to his. ‘But you wanted Crickglades,’ she said. ‘And were prepared to do whatever it took to get it.’

‘Yes,’ he said, and reached for his keys, his jaw stiff with determination. ‘That’s exactly right. I want Crickglades.’

‘Why do you want it so much?’ she asked with a puzzled frown. ‘I thought you hated the place. You left as soon as you got the chance, hardly even coming home to visit your father more than once or twice a year.’

‘I do hate the place,’ Jasper said with emphasis. ‘It has too many memories I would rather forget.’ Memories of Eva Addington prancing about h

is mother’s beloved house and garden, changing the decorating to fit her lurid taste, flirting with anything in trousers, including himself on one occasion. The property he had loved as a child had been tainted and he couldn’t wait to bring it back to what it had been when his mother had made it a home instead of a house.

‘So what are you going to do with it when you get it?’ she asked, her tone liberally laced with censure. ‘Raze it to the ground and build hundreds of stupid town houses on it?’

‘What do you think I’m going to do with it?’ he asked with a curl of his lip. ‘Keep it for sentimental reasons?’

Hayley followed him back out to the car, her brain struggling to make sense of his motivations. Jasper wanted Crickglades but he’d made it perfectly clear he didn’t want her. She wasn’t sure why that should hurt so much. She had battled with him for years so it should be no surprise he would resent being tied to her, albeit temporarily, but it did hurt.

It hurt a whole lot more than it should.

CHAPTER FIVE

JASPER SWUNG HIS gaze to the silent figure beside him on the way back to the salon. He felt a bit of a heel for having to be the one to burst her bubble over her ex-fiancé, but he reassured himself she would get over it in time, if she hadn’t already.

He was still feeling a little intrigued over her reaction to the ring he’d bought her. He had assumed she would have grasped at it greedily, counting the diamonds and rushing off to have it valued at the first opportunity as her mother Eva had done, but instead her eyes had shone with tears and her bottom lip had trembled as if she had been deeply affected by his gesture.

He could still taste her in his mouth, her response to him surprising him considering how much she claimed to detest him. He wasn’t so sure he was ready to examine too closely his response to her, however. He had spent years avoiding the temptation of her young womanly body, but, no matter what he did to counteract it, her ripe curves still heated his blood whenever he was within touching distance.

‘If you’re free this weekend I thought we could do a quick run down to this property I’m interested in,’ he said into the silence. ‘You can meet the Hendersons, the couple I was telling you about.’

‘Right at this point in time I don’t feel like going anywhere with you,’ she said with a little pout.

‘Listen, Hayley, don’t go shooting the messenger. I only told you what you would have found out given more time. As I said the other day, I’ve saved you a lot of future heartbreak.’

She sent him a brittle glance. ‘I bet you’re sitting there gloating right now, aren’t you? You probably think it’s been one big joke to destroy my ego in one fell swoop.’

‘I did no such thing. Besides, I would have thought I gave your ego a massive boost back there when I kissed you. I can’t remember a time when I was so turned on so quickly. It must be that perfume you’re wearing.’

Hayley refused to be mollified by his somewhat backhanded compliment. ‘I hope you’re not going to get into the habit of using me to satisfy your animal urges,’ she said.