The Billionaire Bodyguard(24)

His  mouth hardened. It was what women did. They built on relationships  and  then they worried and fretted about them. Put a woman on a ship  full of  men, and everything was altered. Inevitably. Women changed the  dynamic,  and it was both their weakness and their strength. Slowly but  surely  they sapped the strength of their men with the stealthy allure  of  domesticity.

Well, he didn't want it. He'd never wanted it. And  the sooner she  learnt that the better all round-and if she couldn't cope  with the  situation as it was, rather than how she wanted it to be, then  she had  better resign herself to the fact that it was over.

There was a text message from her awaiting him. It said. Come straight round and I'll cook you dinner. K xxx

His  eyes narrowed. He knew what he wanted from her, and it wasn't any   damned dinner-just to lose himself in her body and forget the memory of   the human drama he had just dealt with.

When she answered the  door, her hair was all over the place and she  looked flustered, but he  felt it all the same-that strong and  overpowering need in him she always  provoked.

Her eyes widened. 'Oh, God, is that the time?'

He pulled her into his arms. She smelt of warm milk and apples. 'Well, hello to you too!'

She  gave him a brief, distracted kiss and pulled away, just as the  sound of  a child's wail came wafting through from the sitting room.

Jay  froze, memories of the child he had just rescued playing tricks  with his  mind, taking him right back to the cold and the dark and the  terror.  'What the hell is that?'                       
       
           



       

But she was already dashing along the  corridor towards the sound of the  wail, calling over her shoulder,  'It's-oh, come through, Jay-it's  William.'

He followed her. The  wail had become a noisy, gulping cry, and when he  walked into her  usually restful rose-pink room it was almost  unrecognisable. Cushions  and crayons littered the floor, the contents  of a fruit dish were  scattered all over the sofa, and in the midst of  the general chaos a  small child was sobbing against Keri's neck.

She met Jay's eyes  over William's silky ebony hair and gave him a  helpless expression.  'Shush, Will,' she crooned. 'It's all right.  Look-here's Jay.'

William turned his head, looked at Jay, and then screamed even louder before burying his face again.

'He'll be all right in a minute, once he gets to know you,' she said. 'He's always a bit funny with strangers.'

This must be her nephew, he surmised. Her sister's child. What was he doing here?

'Erin wanted to go for a pedicure,' she explained, as William drummed his feet against her hips.

This  explanation fuelled his vague feeling of discontent, and he let it   flood in with a sensation of relief. So her sister was getting her   toenails painted while her child screamed. Were both of them hostages to   beauty, then?

'Why don't you help yourself to a drink?' Keri  asked, wondering why his  face was looking so thunderous. Surely  William's presence wasn't that  bad? Or was anything bad in Jay's mind if  it impeded their journey to  the bedroom?

'I don't want a drink,'  he said shortly. 'I've had a long night and I'm  pretty bushed. Looks  like you've got your hands tied here-I'll see you  tomorrow.'

He  saw her mouth open by a fraction. Her tousled hair fell and mingled  with  the dark hair of William, who seemed now to be more interested in  Jay,  for he kept darting him little looks from eyes as ebony-dark as  hers. He  saw the relaxed way she rested the child on her hip and it was   light-years away from the frozen silver model. Her cheeks were all  pink,  and with the child clinging onto her she looked extremely sexy in  a  very wholesome way. Who would have dreamed she could do a very  credible  imitation of an earth mother?

It made him want her even more. But he wanted her to himself and damn it-he didn't want to want her this much at all!

'I'll let myself out.'

'Okay,  then,' she said faintly, and watched him leave. She couldn't  stop the  dull sense of foreboding which began to gnaw away at her  heart.

Something  was happening-he was growing distant from her. But, come to  think of  it, hadn't there been more and more of that just lately?

She knew  she was falling in deep-past the point of no return-but she  couldn't  seem to do anything about it. On a good day she told herself  that there  was no reason why she should.

But today was a bad day, for no  reason she could think of, and when  something was bad it made you dwell  on the negative. She settled  William on the sofa and he began eating one  of the apples which was  lying there. She began to pick up all the  cushions, her mind fixing and  staying on the things which caused her  pain if she let them, so she  didn't often let them.

Like the fact  that Jay had never stayed the night with her. Not once.  Even that first  night at the house he had left her side while she'd  been sleeping.

She  hadn't remarked on it at first. Hadn't wanted to scare him or have  him  think she was getting needy or possessive, though in fact it was   neither-she just wanted to hold his strong, warm body during the night   and to wake up with him the next day. To touch his face, to outline the   strong, firm line of his lips. To make him breakfast and to drink  coffee  together, just like a normal couple.

But one night, when she had  lain back against the pillows with a lazy,  satisfied grin just refusing  to wipe itself from her face, she had  risked it.

'Do you have to go, Jay?'

He  didn't pause in the act of pulling a sweater over his head. 'I'm  afraid  so.' There was an odd, fraught kind of silence. 'I do work from  home at  all kinds of ungodly hours,' he explained tightly. 'The time  difference  means I can't deal with the States during the day.'

Slowly and deliberately, she sucked the end of her finger and saw his eyes darken.

'And what if I told you I didn't mind being woken up?' she questioned softly.

'I  couldn't do it, Keri,' he murmured. 'Think of the trouble I'd be in   with your agency if you started to get dark rings underneath your  eyes.'                       
       
           



       

Which was a very neat and diplomatic way of getting out of it, but it hurt.

I'll never ask him again, she had vowed. Ever.

Nor did he ever take her to his apartment.

Now, why was that?

But  her thoughts were broken by the arrival of Erin, minutes later, her   face glowing. 'Oooh, I feel wonderful,' she confided. 'Haven't had  that  done since … ' She bit her lip, but then smiled bravely. 'Well, not  for  ages, anyway.'

'Who knows?' Keri teased. 'We might even get you to the hairdresser's soon.'

'Steady on!' Erin paused in the middle of buttoning up William's coat and frowned at her twin. 'What's up?'

'Nothing.'

'Keri, it's me you're talking to-remember?'

Keri shrugged. 'Jay just came by.'

Erin looked around. 'So where is he now?'

'He went home.'

'In a grump?'

'What makes you say that?'

'Your face does. Did you have a row?'

'No. No, we haven't had a row.'

'Well, what is the matter, Keri?'

Was she fussing over something unnecessary? 'I was just thinking that I've never actually seen where he lives.'

Erin's eyebrows shot up. 'How very peculiar.'

'You think so?'

'Of course I do. Maybe he's shy about asking you.'

'Jay? Shy?' Keri gave a hollow laugh. 'I don't think so!'

'Look, you don't have to be so passive about this, you know. Why don't you call over there and surprise him?'

'No,' Keri said slowly. 'I couldn't.'


Erin  looked cross. 'Oh, for goodness' sake, Keri-are you a grown woman  or  some kind of compliant mouse? What's the worst thing that could  happen?  He won't let you in?'

But that wasn't the worst thing that could  happen. The worst thing was  something which haunted her in darker  moments, even when she tried not  to let it. It all finishing. Jay no  longer wanting or needing her.  Could the world continue to turn if that  should happen? She turned to  stare out to where stars twinkled  untouchably in the distance. Not her  world, that was for sure.

And if it all hinged on whether or not she turned up unexpectedly at his apartment, then wouldn't it be better to find out now?

She  took a cab. He lived in Greenwich, close to the river and the park,  and  his motorbike stood out from all the expensive cars parked along  his  street.

Her fingers were trembling as she rang the bell, and when  he answered  he was wearing just jeans, his hair still damp from the  shower, his  feet bare, the expression on his face watchful and wary.