Millionaire's Woman

‘I don’t want to put you out—’

‘You’re not. I was driving into town to see Dad, anyway. If you’ll get your things I’ll bring the Jeep round.’

Feeling well and truly put in her place, Kate went up to the guest room. She removed the sweatshirt, folded it neatly and left it on the bed, put on her camisole and suit jacket and went downstairs. Jack was waiting with her raincoat over his arm. He held it out, and in silence Kate put it on and belted it tightly.

‘I’ll just say goodbye to Bran before I go.’

‘No need. He’s coming with us.’

The sunshine had gone, leaving an overcast afternoon as dark as Kate’s mood as Jack helped her up into the Jeep, her only consolation the welcome from Bran behind his wire screen.

When they reached the main road there were large stretches of surface water in some places. As they drew nearer the river, the water grew deeper and Kate realised that Jack had been right. Only a four wheel drive could have made the journey in safety.

‘If you can’t get my car back tomorrow it doesn’t matter,’ she told Jack. ‘I can walk into town if I need anything.’

‘Fine.’

And that was the sum total of their conversation until they arrived in Park Crescent. Instead of getting out right away, Jack looked at her for a long moment and she waited in foreboding, sure she wouldn’t like what he had to say.

‘I made a big mistake when I asked you to share my bed last night,’ he said at last.

‘And I made an even bigger one in agreeing.’ Kate gave him a mirthless smile. ‘I realise now that there was a much better solution to the sleepwalking problem. Instead of sharing your bed I should have taken Bran up to the guest room to share mine.’

‘Dogs aren’t allowed upstairs in Mill House,’ Jack said after a pause, and got out. He came round to lift her down, and then waited while she unlocked her door and deactivated her alarm.

‘Thank you for driving me home,’ Kate said politely.

‘My pleasure,’ he said with sarcasm.

‘Goodbye, Jack.’ She closed the door, turned the key in the lock and rammed the bolts home hard enough for him to hear.

It was only after the Jeep moved off that she conceded that Jack had every right to be angry. Even hurt. This was the second time she’d rejected him.

As she went upstairs to change her clothes Kate felt a deep, mounting sense of guilt. For the first time in her life she had let her hormones take control. She had known, in her heart of hearts, that if she let Jack make love to her he would take it as a sign of something far more significant than mere sex. Last night, when he was smiling at her down the length of his dinner table, it was obvious that he’d taken it for granted they were back together again in every sense of the word. But she’d assumed he just wanted them to be lovers again. The idea of marriage had never occurred to her.

If only it hadn’t rained so much.

Kate pulled on thick socks and jeans and a heavy sweater and tied her hair back from her tired face. She eyed her reflection with distaste. The way she looked now it was pretty amazing that Jack had wanted her at all. But their relationship had never been about looks. It was about the kind of rapport they’d shared over lunch today as much as the heat and rapture of their lovemaking earlier on. And there was no use blaming the rain. Without the flooding she wouldn’t have stayed the night, it was true. But even after the upset about the sleepwalking she should still have had the strength to control her own libido in broad daylight. She scowled at herself. Normally she never noticed that she had a libido. With Jack it was different. Just one look from those silver-flecked grey eyes and every clamouring hormone she possessed ran riot.

CHAPTER TEN

THAT weekend marked a downward turn in Kate’s ‘tidy little life’. Her painting and decorating was finished, it was too cold to start gardening, and it was so hard to fill her free time she accepted another client. When she found her keys posted through the door and her car parked outside she wrote a polite letter of thanks to Jack, but after that had no further contact with him of any kind. And felt the lack of his forceful presence in her life just as painfully second time round as the first.

Over supper mid week Anna was agog to hear details of the sleepover at Mill House. Armed against this in advance, Kate reported that she’d slept in a guest bed and stayed for lunch next day, after which Jack had driven her home in the Jeep.

Anna sighed, disappointed. ‘We thought there might have been more to it than that.’

‘You did, not me,’ protested Ben. ‘Leave the girl alone.’

Kate blew him a kiss. ‘Thanks for the “girl” bit.’

‘Pity though,’ said Anna with regret. ‘I hoped that spending the night together would do the trick.’

‘We didn’t spend the night together,’ Kate reminded her. At least, not all of it.

Kate was heartily glad when the weekend arrived at last and she could make for Manor House School to spend a few happy hours with Joanna. The time with her passed far too quickly, as always, and Kate was in melancholy mood after taking Jo back to school that evening. When Philip Brace intercepted her in the car park she was pleased to see him and this time, with

nothing in the world to hurry home for,she accepted his offer of a drink or coffee in the nearest pub before the drive back. Philip was an interesting companion and the interlude was pleasant, but when he saw her to her car afterwards Kate thanked him rather formally for the coffee and his company.