Millionaire's Women Part 16

Kate's eyes flashed ominously. 'We didn't break up over money!'

'I'm sure you didn't.' Anna patted her hand. 'But whatever the reason, don't let it spoil the party for you. This whole shebang is in your honour, remember.'

'I know, and I appreciate it.' Kate gave her an apologetic hug. 'Let me give you a hand with your guests.'

Kate helped her friend supervise while the catering staff served the buffet supper, exchanged banter with those who knew her and pleasantries with others-and without making it obvious managed to avoid Jack Logan entirely. By the time the last guest was served she was beginning to regret her killer heels and agreed with grat.i.tude when Anna filled a plate for her and insisted she take a break.

'Sneak off to the study with this-if those jeans let you eat!'

Kate made her escape along the hall to the study, but almost turned tail again when Jack Logan rose from the sofa, plate in hand.

'Looking for sanctuary?' he asked. 'Maitland rescued me from people determined to talk shop. But I can find somewhere else.'

She shrugged indifferently, and settled behind the desk with her supper. 'Stay if you want.'

He looked amused as she attacked her meal. 'You're obviously hungry.'

'I was too busy to eat lunch today.'

There was a pause while they ate in fraught silence, Kate determined to get the food down, even if it choked her.

'Are you up for the weekend?' Jack asked at last, as though he were a polite stranger instead of the man who'd once broken her heart.

'Longer than that.' Kate munched on a mouthful of cheese torte for a moment.'Actually,' she said,looking him in the eye, 'I've left London for good. I live here now.'

He stared at her incredulously. 'Alone?'

'No.' She held the hard gaze steadily. 'I live with my niece.'

'Ah, I see.' His eyes softened. 'I was very sorry about your sister. Tragic accident.' He raised a quizzical eyebrow. 'But I'm curious, Kate. What brought you back to this neck of the woods? At one time you couldn't get away fast enough.'

'My aunt left me a house here in Park Crescent. When Elizabeth and Robert were killed-'

'I was at the funeral.'

She stared at him, startled. 'Were you? I didn't see you.'

He shrugged. 'It seemed like a bad time to intrude. But I was there.'

'Why, thank you, Jack, that was very kind,' she said quietly. 'After it was over I brought my niece to stay here with Anna and Ben. Joanna was desperate to leave London after her parents died, and she liked it here so much I resigned my job, sold my flat and moved to Park Crescent to make a home for her.'

'Amazing.' Jack's eyes were cold. 'Not,' he added, 'the admirable aim to make a home for your niece, but to provide it here instead of London. At one time a career there was all you wanted in life. You thought I was mad to stay here and work with my father.'

Kate shrugged. 'It was your choice to make. Mine was different.'

'Obviously the right one. I heard you climbed pretty far up the tree in your job. Was your niece your only reason for leaving it?'

'It was the deciding factor, yes, but I'd had a move in mind for a while.The chain of department stores I worked for merged with a bigger outfit a while back. I stayed on for a year or so after the takeover, but it wasn't the same with the new regime. So when Liz and Robert died I decided to accept the company's very generous pay-off and make a life for Jo back here.'

'So what will you do now? Look for a job here in town?'

'I've already sorted one,' she said, and got up with her empty plate. 'Can I get you some pudding?'

He stood up. 'Let me bring some for you.'

She shook her head. 'No, thanks, Jack, I must get back to the fray. In case you didn't know, Anna gave the party just for me-a sort of welcome home for the prodigal.'

'I did know. Lucy Beresford told me.'

She gave him a mocking smile. 'Yet you still came?'

'It was the sole reason why I came. I rarely go to parties, let alone turn up at one uninvited. Tonight curiosity won over manners.' His eyes locked with hers. 'I'm glad it did. It's good to see you again, Kate.'

'You too, Jack.' Kate gave him a cool little smile, and hurried back to the sanctuary of the dining room.

'There you are, Kate.' Anna trickled damson sauce over two plates of hazelnut meringues and handed them over. 'I promised Richard you'd join him to eat these.'

'Richard,' repeated Kate blankly.

'Richard Forster, the man I invited for you!'

'Are you matchmaking again?' said Kate, exasperated. 'Give it up, Anna. It's no sin to be single and thirty-something.'

'Thirty-four, if we're counting,' Anna reminded her. 'And I'm not asking you to marry the man, just talk to him for a bit. You've hardly spoken two words to him yet.'

'Sorry, sorry, situation remedied right now.' Kate went off to hunt down her quarry and found him in the conservatory, looking out at the moonlit garden. 'Hi,' she said, handing him a plate. 'I hope you like this kind of thing.'

In actual fact Richard Forster actively disliked sweet things, but wasn't fool enough to refuse food, or anything else, offered by a woman like Kate Durant.

'Thank you.' He began on his meringues with apparent relish while he asked her how she was settling back into small town life after her years in the capital.

'It's quite an adjustment,' she admitted. 'But I grew up here, so I don't feel totally alien. And I've been so busy with my new job and setting my house to rights I haven't had time to miss my old life. Friends and colleagues, yes, but not the hours I put in, or the endless meetings.'

'I'm with you there,' he said with feeling.' Until recently I worked in a City law practice.'

'What brought you back here?'

His face shadowed. 'My father's health began to deteriorate. I left London to lighten his load in the family firm.'

'Of course.' Kate clicked her fingers. 'That's why the name rang a bell-your father was my aunt's solicitor. He's been very helpful to me.'

'Great man, my dad.' He smiled at her. 'So, Miss Durant, you and I have something in common; we're both newly returned to the fold.'

'Has settling back here been hard for you?'

He sobered abruptly. 'Afraid so. My wife didn't settle back with me.'

'Oh.' Kate smiled in quick sympathy. 'I'm sorry.'

He nodded. 'Me too. I felt very strongly about joining my father but Caroline felt equally so about keeping her job in London. So now we're a statistic; one more marriage heading for the rocks.' He smiled ruefully. 'Sorry! That was more than you wanted to know.'

He was right there, thought Kate with a pang of guilt. Years ago she had refused to stay here with Jack for a not too different reason. She thrust the memory away and smiled warmly at Richard.

'Can I tempt you to more pudding?'

'No, thanks,' he said hastily, and took her empty plate. 'My turn. I'll fetch coffee.'

Kate moved behind a concealing fern, glad of a moment alone to get herself together. Just seeing Jack Logan again had been shock enough, but the news that he'd been divorced for years was shattering. No surprise in some ways; straight, attractive men of Jack's age-and Richard Forster's-were rarely just plain single. But Richard was clearly still affected by his break-up, while she doubted very much that Jack's recovery had taken long. Her eyes kindled. Lord knew it had taken him no time at all to find someone else after she'd left for London. Whereas she'd taken years to get over Jack Logan. She gazed out over the moonlit garden with nostalgia. She'd been so young and so madly in love...She tensed, the hairs standing up on her neck when a voice spoke in her ear.

'Why are you hiding in here?'

She felt Jack's breath, warm on her skin, and turned sharply. 'Waiting for my coffee to arrive.' She looked past him, smiling brightly as Richard joined them.

'I was told you like yours black and sweet, Kate,' he informed her, handing her a cup. 'Can I bring some for you, Logan?'

'Good of you, but no thanks, I'm leaving,' said Jack. 'I just came to say goodnight.'

'Goodbye, then. So nice to see you again,' Kate said politely.

Jack nodded to them both and strolled off to find his hostess. Kate stared after his tall,commanding figure for a moment then turned to Richard with a smile. 'Jack and I were friends a long time ago.'

'So I gather,' he said wryly, well aware that there'd been a lot more than just friends.h.i.+p between them. And Jack Logan still wanted it.

Jack could have confirmed this. After leaving the party he'd felt a crazy impulse to head for Park Crescent to wait for Kate. But common sense warned that a brandy before bed was a better idea than hanging about outside her house in the small hours only to find that someone else had brought her home-Forster, probably. Or she could be staying the night with the Maitlands. His mouth twisted in sudden derision. It was unlikely she'd have fallen into his arms if he had lain in wait for her. But his body's reaction to even the thought of it made it plain that he still wanted her. He always had, from the moment he'd first set eyes on her.

Kate had been standing on the steps of the Guildhall, selling poppies for Remembrance Day. She'd accosted him with a smile, rattling her tin when he parked near her pitch. He'd bought the biggest poppy on her tray and on impulse presented it to her with a bow, and she'd blushed. Jack had never seen a girl blush so vividly before. He'd stared, fascinated by the tide of colour, but more people came up to buy poppies, he was late for an appointment, and when he returned to his car later she'd gone.

Back in the cold, dark present Jack Logan pressed a remote control and drove through tall iron gates along a winding drive to the stables he'd converted to a garage when he'd first started developing the property. At that turning point in his life, with a broken engagement, a hasty marriage and even hastier divorce under his belt, he'd made a conscious decision to steer clear of close relations.h.i.+ps with women in future. From that day forward all his pa.s.sions would be channelled into expanding the family building firm.

When he first bought the Mill House property his original plan had been to get rid of the house itself and use the land for one of the mixed housing projects that were rapidly winning Logan Development a respected name. But the almost derelict house, sleeping at the centre of wild overgrown grounds, cast such a spell on him he couldn't bring himself to demolish it. Instead he put the property on the back burner and concentrated on more pressing projects. When he eventually turned his attention to Mill House he'd planned to make it into a show house as an advertis.e.m.e.nt for the company's restoration skills before putting it up for sale. But the process of converting a virtual ruin into a dreamhouse backfired on him. While the house was slowly, carefully restored, and the land around it tamed and nurtured, he'd looked from tall windows at a seductive veview of mill pond and chestnut trees and felt a sense of possession almost as fierce as the emotion once experienced for Kate. When the work was completed Mill House was so much his own creation it was impossible to let someone else live there.

Jack unlocked the boot room at the back of the house and bent to pat the black retriever who came rus.h.i.+ng in exuberant welcome to meet him. He let Bran out into the garden for a quick run and stood at the door, eyes absent on the moon's reflection in the water. After a few minutes he whistled and the dog shot back inside, getting underfoot in the kitchen as Jack made coffee in preference to fetching the brandy decanter. He sat down at the table to drink it and scratched Bran's ears, his smile wry as he looked down into the adoring eyes. Canine love was a lot easier to deal with than the human variety.

In bed later Jack gave up any pretence of trying to sleep. Normally he never allowed himself to dwell on the past, but one look at Kate tonight had opened a mental door that refused to slam shut.

Logan and Son had already won recognition as the town's premier building contractor when Jack's father sent him to make an estimate for a house extension. While Jack was making notes of the owner's requirements the kitchen door burst open and Kate had come running in, slender and coltish in T-s.h.i.+rt and jeans, bright hair flying.

She'd stopped dead at the sight of the visitor, colour high. 'Oh-sorry. Didn't know we had visitors.'

'It's all right, dear,' said Robert Sutton, and introduced the girl as his sister-in-law, Katherine Durant.

Jack held out his hand. 'I'm the son in Logan and Son,' he said, smiling, and Kate put her hand in his.

'I'm Kate,' she said breathlessly. 'I sold you a poppy the other day.'

'I remember.' Conscious that Robert Sutton was watching them like a hawk, Jack returned to facts and figures and Kate left them to it. To his intense disappointment she was nowhere to be seen when he left the house, but as he drove out into the road his heart leapt at the sight of Kate walking a little way ahead. He halted alongside and rolled the car window down. 'Can I give you a lift?'

She smiled demurely. 'How kind of you.'

On the way into town Jack learned that Kate had just celebrated her twentieth birthday. After a business course at the local college, she was currently temping with local firms while making applications for something permanent in London.

'Now you,' she ordered.

Jack told her he was four years her senior, with a degree in civil engineering, and had worked for a big name construction company during university vacations to gain experience. 'But my aim was always to join my father's firm once I had the education part out of the way,' he told her. 'Dad and I make a good team. Business is booming. Where shall I drop you?' he added, and from the corner of his eye saw familiar colour rise in her face.

'Confession time,' she admitted reluctantly. 'I wasn't going anywhere. I lurked in the road to-well, to ambush you. Just drop me anywhere convenient and I'll walk back.'

Bewitched by her honesty, Jack turned into the car park of the Rose and Crown. 'Have lunch with me first.'

She smiled at him radiantly. 'I'd love to!'

Their first meal together was a sandwich and a gla.s.s of lager, but to both of them it was nectar and ambrosia as they sat in a corner of the crowded bar, so absorbed in each other they could have been on a desert island. It was over an hour before Jack remembered to look at his watch.

'h.e.l.l, I must get back to work. But I'll drive you home first.'

'Absolutely not. I'll walk back.' Kate looked up at him anxiously as they reached the car. 'You probably think I had the most awful nerve, lying in wait for you like that.'

He'd smiled down into the dark eyes fastened on his as though his answer was a matter of life and death. 'I couldn't believe my luck,' he a.s.sured her huskily, and clenched his hands to stop them reaching for her. 'Are you free this evening?'

Later that night, after a session in the cinema more like hours of foreplay to Jack, he parked in a lane on the way back to Kate's home, ready to explode if he didn't kiss her, and almost before he could switch off the engine she was in his arms and his mouth was on hers. They devoured each other greedily, kissing and caressing until neither could breathe and the inside of the car was like a sauna.

'You're killing me,' groaned Jack. 'But I'll die a happy man-almost.'

Kate rubbed her cheek against his, threading her fingers through his thick black hair. 'What would it take to make you really happy?'

'Honestly?'

'Honestly!'

He cupped her face in fierce hands. 'To get you naked, kiss every inch of you and make love until we're both brainless.'

s.h.i.+vering in delight at the thought, Kate licked the tip of her tongue round her parted lips and Jack growled and began kissing her again. At last he thrust her away with unsteady hands and fastened her seat belt.

'Does your sister know you're out with me?' he demanded.

'Of course,' she said breathlessly, and slanted a sparkling look at him. 'Elizabeth is looking forward to meeting you.'

Jack swallowed. 'Really?'

'Don't panic.' She gave a wicked chuckle. 'She only wants you to finish her extension quickly!'