The Billionaire Bodyguard(17)

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.