She threw a huge handful of her most expensive bath-soak into the tub and submerged herself, right up to her nose, closing her eyes and breathing in the fragrant fumes as she prayed for the glowing ache to leave her.
The messages were from David, her model agency, her sister, her model agency again-yes, the driver had contacted them about the diamonds and would she please let them know she was back safely?-and David again-where the hell was she?
Her head was aching by the time she pressed the 'delete' button. With a slight sense of cowardice she left a message on David's home phone and told him she was safe and would call soon. Then she punched out her sister's number, and the connection was made on the second ring.
In the background, Keri could hear the sound of a toddler screaming. 'Erin?'
'Keri! Thank God! Are you okay?'
Tough call. 'Well, I'm back-safe and sound.'
'What happened? David's been ringing-he said you hadn't showed and that he couldn't get hold of you.'
'I didn't know he had your number.'
'Neither did I. Keri-what the hell has been going on?'
Her whole world had been turned upside down, that was what. 'Can I come over and see you?' she questioned slowly.
'Of course you can. When?'
'I'm on my way,' said Keri grimly.
Her sister lived in the same city, but a few miles away from the expensive centre which Keri inhabited. It was short on parks and green open spaces, and maybe not the ideal place to bring up a young child, but for now it was home. One day, her sister said, she might just do the sensible thing and move to a cheaper and far-flung place in the countryside, but not yet. Erin still had too many memories to be able to bear to tear herself away from them.
Her husband had been killed in a hit-and-run, his life snuffed out like a candle. He had never seen his unborn son, nor lived to achieve the success he had worked so hard for. For a while Keri had thought that Erin might crumble and go under, but she hadn't. Thank God she'd had the baby. Thank God.
The door opened and Erin stood there, her dark eyes narrowed as she stared at her twin.
Nature had given her exactly the same mix from the genetic paintbox as Keri-black eyes, black hair, tall, rangy build-yet the two sisters no longer looked like two peas in pod. Or maybe their experience of life had just made them different.
Erin's hair was tied back in a French plait-her face entirely free of make-up. She was slim, though slightly rounder than Keri, and she rarely wore anything other than her tough workaday uniform of jeans and a shirt.
Her eyes narrowed as she stared at her sister. 'What's happened?' she demanded.
It was that shorthand, that telepathy of someone knowing you so well and so instinctively, who could read your face in an instant. Erin had had it with her husband, but Keri had never had it except with her sister.
'Where's Will?'
'Asleep. Tantrummed-out. So let's make the most of the peace.'
Keri slumped into an armchair and sighed, and then it all came tumbling out. The snowstorm. The breakdown. The man with the grey-green eyes who had been so unfazed by her while she had been dazzled and captivated and infuriated by him in turn.
'And attracted?' questioned Erin shrewdly. 'I mean sexually?'
There was a pause. 'Oh, God, yes. Overwhelmingly.'
The silence spoke volumes.
'So you slept with him.'
It was a statement, not a question, and Keri's head shot up. 'You're shocked?'
'Utterly.' Erin laughed. 'And, no, before you ask-not because I'm making a judgement, but because it's so unlike you!'
'I know it is,' said Keri unhappily.
'And now you've fallen for him big time?'
'I hardly know him.' But something had been forged that night-something she couldn't even come close to explaining, not even to herself.
'So get to know him better! Are you seeing him again?'
'Sort of.' Keri met a pair of eyes identical to her own.
'What's that supposed to mean?'
'He'll be at the diamond launch-it's at the Granchester Hotel, on Saturday.'
Erin frowned. 'As your guest?'
Keri shook her head. 'No. He'll be guarding the jewellery.'
'So it's not a date?'
'Nowhere near a date.' Keri sighed. 'The point is that he didn't ask for one.' Even after everything that had happened between them. Or maybe, she thought, with a sudden painful sense of insight, because of what had happened between them.
'You could have asked him,' Erin pointed out. 'This is the twenty-first century.
'A woman shouldn't have to,' Keri said stubbornly.
'Oh, Keri!'
'Anyway, it wouldn't work. He's a driver.'
Erin assumed a look of disgust. 'You don't believe all that crap?'
'No,' said Keri slowly. 'But I suspect he does.'
'Maybe that's why he didn't ask,' said Erin. 'And you can't really blame him. Think about it-you're one of the country's top models and he sits behind the wheel of a car for a living! Of course he isn't going to ask you out, because he isn't going to risk what he sees as certain rejection!'
'Despite the fact that we made love?' But the words seemed wrong, as if she was using them to dress up the act, to give it more importance than it actually merited.
'Of course!' Erin scoffed. 'Having a physical compatability is one thing-but going out together throws up all kinds of problems! Maybe he'll be worried about using the wrong knife if he takes you out to eat!'
Keri wanted to tell her sister she'd got it all wrong, that Jay had qualities which superseded his lowly position. Indeed, she'd never met a man so comfortable in his own skin. 'No. He isn't like that,' she said slowly.
'Well, in that case, just wait to see what happens on Saturday.' Erin leaned forward. 'Forgive me for sounding prurient, and you certainly don't have to answer this, but some of us live in a sex-free zone these days. Was it … ?' Her voice was tentative. 'I mean, was it … good?'
There wasn't possibly anyone else in the world she would have told-except Jay, of course-but her sister was her own flesh and blood, and closer than close.
'Oh, Erin, it was the best,' she said simply. 'The very best … ever.'
There was silence for a moment, and then Erin nodded. 'Then maybe he's liberated you at last, Keri,' she said gently. 'And now you're free to find yourself a real relationship with someone else.'
Without intending to her twin had made it all sound like a question of mechanics-as if fulfilment was what it was all about. So was it? When something like that happened-did it bind you close to a man, even if he was the wrong man? And wouldn't it sound crazy to admit to her sister that she didn't want anyone else other than a sloe-eyed stranger who had made her feel like a real woman?
She drank tea and helped her sister make cupcakes, and when Will woke up Keri went upstairs to him. His bedroom was a bright, colourful and adventurous room-she had decorated it herself, in blues and greens, and painted a mural of the seashore on one wall.
His sleepy eyes blinked open and he held his arms up, and Keri snuggled her little nephew tightly to her, closing her eyes and breathing in the warm, clean, child-like scent of him. She loved him dearly, though often she looked at Erin's dark-ringed eyes and wished he wouldn't run her so ragged, and today it was as if all her senses were sharpened-as if someone had left them raw and open and she saw his innocence and beauty as never before.
It was dark by the time she arrived home, and she walked slowly into her bedroom. The flat was quiet and dimly lit, and she hugged her arms tightly around herself, closing her eyes and wishing that Jay was here and that they were his arms.
And wondering how she could bear to wait until Saturday to see him again.
CHAPTER NINE
JAY hadn't realised he was waiting. Waiting was not in his nature; he was a man of action, not contemplation. But the moment he saw her walk into the crowded ballroom, he expelled a soft breath of expectation.
The ice-queen was back. Big-time.
Had the agency told her what to wear? Or did she normally attend functions like this-dripping in diamonds with a satin dress so clinging that it looked like gleaming black skin?
Probably. The room was full of beautiful women, all dressed up to the nines, but he couldn't stop staring at Keri, and his appetite was sharpened by the fact that she did not look his way. Not once. Which whetted his appetite even more.