Margaret Mayo – Bedded At His Convenience (страница 7)

And now that they’d met again he’d spent all night working out how to get his revenge. It was a simple plan, really. He would make her fall in love with him again and then he would dump her—just as callously as she had dumped him. She would experience hurt and pain and bewilderment; she would rack her brains to find out where she had failed him.

It would destroy her.

While he would feel nothing except triumph.

But first would be the very pleasurable experience of gaining her trust again. He might hate her for walking out on him, for cheating on him, for making him look like a fool, but he still ached for her sexy little body. And he fully intended to take advantage of it!

Hunter watched her face as he showed her over his house. He was proud of his achievement, and Keisha’s expression was stunned to say the least. Was she regretting walking away from all that he could have given her?

It was hard to believe that she was still living in the same tiny cottage that she’d been brought up in. He was naturally sorry to hear that her mother had died, but surely Keisha could have done better for herself? To still live in that cramped little house didn’t make sense.

‘What do you think?’ he asked as they finished their inside tour and began walking down towards the river.

‘It’s magnificent,’ she said.

‘And it could all have been yours,’ he responded, quietly awaiting her reaction.

Not that Keisha had ever wished for the moon. Indeed, she’d been shocked when he had asked her out on their first date. He had almost expected her to say, Who? Me? and look round to see if there was anyone behind her.

He had discovered that she worked mainly to support her mother, and although he still found it hard to understand why she had run away from him, he had found it inconceivable to believe she had left her mother in the lurch too.

Perhaps she’d been sending money to her parent? Salving her conscience that way? Whatever the situation, he’d not been able to find out about it. Keisha’s mother had kept admirably quiet about her daughter’s whereabouts. For that he respected her, even though it had angered him at the time when she’d stonewalled every enquiry he made.

Keisha must have cast him as the biggest villain out.

And now she was going to get her just deserts.

‘I’m waiting for your answer,’ he said.

Keisha frowned. ‘Did you ask me something?’

‘I said all this could have been yours. Do you have any regrets?’ He watched her face closely. It hadn’t changed much. With her green eyes and dimples and her smooth skin it still held the innocence that had first attracted him.

She shook her head vehemently. ‘None at all! I’m not materialistic—you should know that.’

‘So you prefer living in your mother’s old house?’

‘I have little choice.’

He frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean I can’t afford to move.’

Hunter looked at her closely, and for the first time saw the pain deep behind her eyes. He took her arm and led her to the rose arbour. ‘I think we need to talk.’

Keisha looked as though she didn’t want to, but he was determined to find out what had happened to make her so vulnerable. He felt fairly certain that it had nothing to do with her walking out on him.

Had the boyfriend something to do with it? Had he left her in the lurch? Anger filled him. This was the woman he had once loved; he would never have hurt her. Never! And to think that someone else had made his blood boil!

‘So why can’t you afford it?’ It was hard keeping his voice quiet and even, but he knew that if he wanted her to talk then he would have to. ‘What are you doing these days?’

Keisha shrugged. ‘Temporary work.’

‘Why haven’t you got a permanent job?’ he queried.

‘Because,’ she said, so softly that he assumed she didn’t really want him to hear, ‘I was out of work for a long time looking after my mother, and now it seems no one wants to employ me.’

‘Really?’ Far from feeling sorry for her he felt pleased. In fact he felt jubilant. Fate was on his side. She was playing right into his hands. This could work very well to his advantage. ‘Maybe I can help?’

Keisha looked at him warily. ‘I want nothing from you.’

‘Can you afford to turn me down?’ he asked, keeping his voice low and sympathetic.

He saw her brace herself; he saw her struggling with emotion. ‘I couldn’t work for you. Not again.’

Hunter allowed himself a small smile. ‘Maybe you need time to think it over?’

Keisha closed her eyes. What she ought to do was snap his hand off. She needed a good, solid job—desperately! She would be a fool not to take him up on his offer. But working for Hunter again? How soul destroying would that be?

Except that maybe she wouldn’t see much of him. He was the top man; he was very busy; he would be here, there and everywhere. Perhaps even abroad a lot of the time? She would have nothing to worry about.

She was very much aware of the clean, fresh masculine smell of him, so close to her nostrils that it was like breathing him in, filling herself with his sexy male body, allowing memories to come flooding back.

One memory in particular.

It had been their honeymoon night. They had showered after their flight, and then sat on their hotel balcony watching the incessant movement of the ocean, watching a blood-red sun slowly sink, marvelling at the drama taking place in the sky.

Their balcony hadn’t been overlooked, and both of them had been as naked as the day they were born. Hunter had warned her on the flight over that this was the way he intended to keep her for the whole seven days.

An army of butterflies had filled Keisha’s stomach at the prospect, but her inhibitions had flown once they were there, and there on their balcony the scent of Hunter had drugged her. She’d no longer wanted to watch the sea or the sky; she’d wanted to make love!

She’d drunk in the essence of him, inhaled it deep into her soul, and then she had taken him by the hand and led him through to their bedroom. What had happened afterwards had been out of this world. There on that magical island, on that first night of the rest of their life together, they had reached heights never dreamed of—and she had thought if that was what their future was going to be like then she was one hell of a happy woman.

But of course it hadn’t ended up like that, and drinking him in now, smelling that same pagan smell, feeling sensations desperately trying to make themselves known all over again, created an irrational fear.

Fear and need!

Foolish desire!

Having anything to do with Hunter was a disaster waiting to happen.

And yet she needed a job. He was her only hope! He was offering her a lifeline. It would be stupid to throw it back in his face because of something that had happened three years ago.

‘Have you thought about it?’

‘What would I be doing?’ she asked next.

Hunter gave her a devilish smile. ‘My PA is about to go on maternity leave. I’ve not yet found a replacement. You’ll do very nicely.’

Keisha was horrified. She couldn’t! She wouldn’t! She wanted distance between them, not togetherness.

‘You look shocked!’

‘I am. I can’t work that closely with you.’

‘Why ever not?’ he asked pleasantly, though she feared his pleasantness was that of a wolf about to pounce.

‘Because—because…’ Her voice tailed off miserably. She could come up with no convincing justification.

‘There, you see—you have no excuse.’ Hunter’s lips curled upwards in a gleeful smile. ‘The matter’s settled.’

‘No, it isn’t,’ declared Keisha bravely. ‘I need time to think about it. I hadn’t envisaged working so closely with you. I’ll think about it overnight and give you my decision in the morning.’

Hunter’s smile was slow and confident. ‘And we both know what it will be.’

Keisha shook her head. ‘No, we don’t. Maybe I do need a job, but I’m not that desperate.’

Mocking brows lifted. ‘Brave words, my beautiful Keisha! If what you’ve told me is true, then you’d be a fool to turn me down.’

She didn’t think so. She would be a fool to line herself up for more heartache—because surely that was what would happen? Spending time together would be disastrous.

‘You think what you like,’ she tossed irritably. ‘I’d like to go home now.’

‘But you’ve only just got here,’ he declared with a fierce frown.

‘I made a mistake. And if you don’t want to take me I’ll ring for a taxi.’

‘And spend money you can ill afford?’ he queried irritably. ‘If you’re that determined I’ll take you.’