Pregnancy of Revenge(24)

His information about his parents, work and the difficulties he'd had in the past few months was a first, and Charlie was delighted. At last Jake was beginning to confide in her. Hugging him around his hips, she tilted back her head, her blue eyes dancing. 'Careful or you might spoil me,' she chided him, and Jake laughed.

'And you be careful where you hug a man.' He took her hands from around his hips and shot her a mocking glance. 'You could give him the wrong idea.'



She was late. It was almost seven, and she was so looking forward to the theatre. Dashing out of the lift, she opened the door to their suite and stopped.

'Where the hell have you been? We're due at the theatre in thirty minutes.' Jake was standing in the middle of the room, immaculate in a dark evening suit, but with a face like thunder.

'I know, I know,' she wailed. 'But the tube was delayed and I got stuck in the rush hour.'

'The tube? You travelled on the tube? Are you crazy?'

'Not so you would notice, I hope.' She moved towards him and opened her shoulder-bag at the same time, it's okay, I'll be ready in fifteen minutes.'

It is not okay.' She was made aware of the tension in his tall, commanding figure as he grasped her arm. 'The tube is dangerous for a woman on her own. Have you no sense?' Jake demanded, studying her in angry challenge.

'Oh, Jake, come down from your rarefied planet. It's perfectly safe. I've been using it all week, and no one has leapt on me yet.'

'You...all week!' Hooded eyes, glinting strangely, clashed with blue. 'No more tubes, Charlotte. There will be a car and driver at your disposal from now on. It will be a great deal more convenient and, whatever you say, I am not having you exposed to any danger, however slight.'

'Gosh, I never knew you cared,' she remarked with a grin, and saw the shutters fall across his dark eyes as his hand fell from her arm.

'I care for any person in my charge,' he said stiltedly. 'Hurry and dress. We will be late.'

Delving in her shoulder-bag, she lifted out a box. 'Here, this is for you. I got it in the gift shop at Kew Gardens. When I saw it I thought of you.' She placed it in his hand, and caught his look of astonishment as she turned and headed for the bedroom.

Jake looked at the box in his hand as if it were about to explode. Slowly he opened the box. He withdrew the glass globe, and blinked at the beauty of the delicate exotic flower within. He could not remember the last time anyone had given him a gift for no apparent reason, let alone such an exquisitely simple gift, and he was totally humbled.

A quick shower and Charlie was back in the bedroom in a matter of minutes. Slipping on white lace briefs, she withdrew from the wardrobe the dress she had bought on Monday. It had looked glamorous in the shop, pale pink with a bustier bodice and short straight skirt, but now it looked a little too daring to her mind, and she wondered if Jake would like it. She slipped it over her head anyway.

Wondering about Jake had become a full-time occupation, and she now wondered if he liked her present as she sat down at the dressing-table and began to apply a light moisturiser to her face.

It was a black orchid petrified in glass as a paperweight, and now she realised why it reminded her of Jake. He was dark and beautiful, like the orchid, and like it, his true feelings were buried deep in a protective layer. But in his case the glass was probably bulletproof. When she had teased him earlier about caring, the familiar shuttered expression had appeared. But was that so surprising, she mused, given his early life? He had lost his mother young, and been on his own for two years, and that must have affected him. And later, when he had thought he had found love, his fiancée had walked out on him. No wonder he had concentrated all his attention on building up a business empire, and put his feelings in cold storage.

A slow, sensual smile curved her warm mouth. Well, perhaps not that cold. Her mind was made up. She loved Jake and it was up to her to chip away at the glass until she pried the loving, caring man she knew he could be free.

Standing up, she ran a comb through her hair—there wasn't time for anything else—and, smoothing the skirt down over her waist and hips, she picked up her shawl and purse and turned towards the door.

Jake was standing where she had left him in the middle of the room, turning the paperweight over and over in his hand. He swung around, his hooded eyes gleaming with a brightness that looked almost like tears.

'You like it.' She smiled, and Jake's reaction was peculiar.

He placed the paperweight on the table and walked slowly towards her. He placed his hands on her shoulders and said in a low voice husky with emotion, 'Thank you for the gift,

Charlotte. I will treasure it always.' Very gently he pulled her against his hard body, and lowered his head to hers.

The kiss was like no other kiss they had shared. It was soft and unbearably tender and went on and on. She lifted her free hand to curve around the nape of his neck, but his head lifted and he released her with a small sigh.