Brand of Possession

‘You will, Stacy. Besides, I do have work to do. Any problems they come up against I’m supposed to sort out. I only stayed back this morning because I thought you needed to sleep.’

Stacy looked puzzled. ‘But you haven’t been on the set the last few weeks.’

‘I was held up in America, something personal,’ he supplied abruptly.

‘I see,’ she bit her lip. ‘But I don’t have to come down there with you. I would rather not see anyone right now.’

‘That’s precisely the reason you’re going to. Come on, Stacy, you’re an actress, a damned good one, surely you can carry this off with some degree of pride.’

‘How do you know I’m a good actress?’

‘I’ve seen your screen test hundreds of times.’

‘Oh yes, I remember you saying Mr Weston had seen it.’ She gave a wan smile. ‘That was before I realised you were Mr Weston.’

‘Yes,’ he said tersely. ‘I think we’ve covered that subject enough.’ He looked at the gold watch on his wrist. ‘Can you be ready in fifteen minutes?’

‘If I have to.’

‘You have to. You’ll be seeing all these people tomorrow anyway, you can’t just stay in your room.’ He gave a derisory smile. ‘If you’re lucky everyone will think I did that to you, that my passion got a little too savage.’

Colour flooded her cheeks. ‘You don’t really think anyone would imagine that?’ she asked in dismay.

He shrugged. ‘I’m saying they could do, and that perhaps it would be as well if they did.’

‘Oh no!’ she shook her head. ‘I couldn’t bear it.’

‘You would rather everyone knew Forbes tried to rape you?’ he demanded harshly.

‘No! But I—I can’t let them think that you and I—that we—’

‘Why not? Surely that’s preferable to the truth? Or don’t you think so? Would you prefer everyone to know the truth rather than have them think you slept with me?’

He was angry, cold chilling anger that she couldn’t mistake. ‘I didn’t mean that,’ she pleaded for his understanding.

‘Then get yourself ready,’ he snapped.

‘Jake, are you—why are you so angry with me?’

His blue eyes narrowed. ‘You were flirting with Brad in my absence.’ He didn’t attempt to deny the emotion.

She gasped. ‘I wasn’t.’

‘Yes, you damn well were! And only minutes after being in my arms.’

‘I wasn’t, Jake. Honestly. He was kind to me, that’s all.’ And he had told her the truth about Jake’s marital status, something she would always feel grateful to him for.

‘And if I’m kind to you will you smile at me as you did him?’ He moved forward to grasp her forearms in a painful grip, pressing into her already bruised flesh. ‘Will you, Stacy?’ he demanded.

‘You’re hurting me!’ She squirmed in his grasp.

‘I’ll do more than that if I ever see you smile at any other man like that again,’ he told her grimly.

Stacy looked up at him with startled green eyes, her red hair tumbling down her back. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked tremulously.

Jake thrust her away from him. ‘Forget I said it,’ he ordered fiercely. ‘I’ll meet you downstairs in ten minutes.’

She hurried to her room, not wanting to anger him any more. He had changed from the curiously gentle man to a man racked by jealousy. It gave her hope for their future relationship, although how she could possibly show him how attracted she was to him when he could become so distant from her she didn’t know.