Brand of Possession

‘Matthew and I have had a slight disagreement,’ she told him.

He raised his dark eyebrows. ‘Over me?’

‘Over you,’ she acknowledged.

‘He didn’t approve of your being with me.’

‘Neither did I when I found out the truth about you.’ She had never gone out with a married man before, and she hadn’t gone out with this one knowingly.

‘It really makes that much of a difference to you?’ Jake probed.

‘Did you think it wouldn’t?’

‘It didn’t occur to me.’

Stacy shook her head. ‘A thing like that isn’t easy to ignore.’

He shrugged. ‘It’s never caused me problems before.’

‘I don’t suppose it has,’ she retorted calmly. Not all girls would be put off by his married status.

‘But it bothers you?’ he persisted.

Of course it did, it would any self-respecting woman. ‘Yes,’ she said softly.

‘Then there isn’t a lot else I can say—except perhaps for you to be ca

reful of Forbes. I told you up front what I felt, what I wanted; he has a much more underhand way of doing things.’

What could be more underhand than a married man deliberately lying about that marriage? ‘I’ll bear that in mind. But you really have no need to warn me about him, I’ve only had dinner with him.’

‘I hope that’s all it remains,’ he said grimly.

Stacy gave a husky laugh. ‘Everyone seems to be warning me about him, and so far he’s been nothing but polite to me.’

‘Who else warned you off him?’

She blushed. ‘Matthew.’

‘That boy has good judgment.’

‘He doesn’t trust you either,’ she told him teasingly.

Jake grinned. ‘Like I said, he has good judgment.’ He laughed softly and took her hand in his. ‘Come on, let’s go back to the others. You obviously aren’t going to leave Forbes to come to me.’

‘As I’m not with Forbes I can hardly leave him,’ she retorted. ‘But I do think we should return to the table.’ His hold on her hand was strangely intimate, and yet she felt bereft without the close hardness of his body as they danced.

She pulled her hand free as they sat down, waving to Juliet as she sat with Matthew a few tables down. At least Juliet had got her wish to have Matthew’s attention, although by the brooding look on his face he wasn’t very good company.

Paul Forbes followed the direction of her smile. ‘Is Juliet a friend of yours?’

Stacy turned to look at him. ‘We only met here, but as we share a room we’ve become quite good friends.’

‘You share a room?’

She laughed at his amazement. ‘We aren’t all big film stars,’ she teased.

‘Yes, but I didn’t realise you were actually sharing a room.’