He visibly relaxed. ‘I’ll forgive you—because you called me James for the first time.’
He had far from forgiven the slight, she could see that, but he was willing to forget it, for the moment. ‘I—if your partner is away, and unable to sign this document,’ she began slowly, chewing on her inner lip, ‘is it still legal? And binding?’
James smiled at her suspicion this time. ‘Completely,’ he drawled.
‘But——’
“‘Oh ye of little faith”,’ James mocked. ‘One of these days you’ll have to tell me why you’re so distrusting. But not now,’ he accepted ruefully at her silence. ‘OK,’ he sighed. ‘Well, whenever either my partner or I are away the other has complete power. My God, if I had to wait for Adrian’s approval to anything every time he took his wife on holiday I’d never get anything done!’ he scorned.
Aura felt herself pale. Wife? Adrian was married? Oh God, not again, she couldn’t go through that again!
‘HE,’ James continued gratingly, unaware of Aura’s distress, ‘takes Selina away with sickening regularity.’
She swallowed hard. Married. Why hadn’t she realised that? ‘Sickening?’ she echoed dully, lost in the misery of what could have happened if she had been attracted to Adrian enough to accept the intimate relationship he had wanted.
‘Mm,’ James sighed his impatience. ‘You would have to know Adrian well to realise why. My business partner isn’t—well, he isn’t as faithful as he could be. Damn it, he isn’t faithful at all,’ he rasped disgustedly. ‘As soon as his latest affair ends he whisks his wife away on an expensive holiday. I think his guilty conscience catches up with him,’ he added grimly.
Latest affair? Oh God, was that her? Well, unless Adrian had met someone in the last week it had to be! She felt ill. ‘Doesn’t his wife realise what’s going on?’
James turned away. ‘I’ve never spoken to her about it,’ he bit out.
A wife could usually tell if it went on long enough, and if Adrian made a habit of this …! ‘Perhaps she doesn’t mind,’ Aura suggested lightly. ‘Some women don’t, you know.’
He shrugged. ‘I really wouldn’t know, Selina doesn’t discuss her marriage with me. But after ten years of it——’
‘He’s been unfaithful to her all that time?’ Aura gasped.
His mouth twisted. ‘I would say that even Adrian was faithful to begin with. Besides, there was Robert to consider.’
Aura blinked, almost afraid to ask the question, but knowing she had to. ‘Robert?’
‘Their son,’ James confirmed her worst dread. ‘He’s nine now, and away at boarding school most of the time, but I’m sure my partner would have been a little more discreet in his actions when the boy was still at home.’
A child was involved too. It was like a sickening rerun of a nightmare. Adrian had acted nothing like a man with a wife and child to go home to, hadn’t seemed to care what time of night he left her, or how often he came to see her and took her out. Surely his wife had to realise there was something strange about his constant absences? Maybe she considered the holidays ample recompense. She knew of other women like that.
But what she had learnt about Adrian today made Aura want to run away and hide so that no one need ever know that she had been out with him. My God, when she considered the times she had been out with him; anyone could have seen them together. She wouldn’t be able to survive another scandal like that.
She looked at James Ballantine with wary eyes. ‘I shouldn’t keep you any longer. Thank you for bringing round the lease, and——’
‘Aura,’ he cut in gently, ‘when I told you earlier today I don’t have a mistress, a girlfriend, or a casual date, I should also have included a wife to that list.’ He put his arms about her. ‘I’m not a married man.’
She was relieved to learn that, but she still couldn’t have anything to do with this man. If he should ever realise that she had been his partner’s ‘latest affair’ … Well, not quite, but who would believe a denial of that coming from her? And she was sure that when this man looked at a person with disgust they would feel as if they had been burnt.
She tried to pull out of his arms. ‘I think you should go——’
‘I’d rather not,’ he groaned into her hair.
She stod completely still. ‘I’m asking you to go,’ she said shakily.
He drew back slightly to look down at her. ‘Aura, I realise we don’t know each other very well——’
‘We don’t know each other at all,’ she corrected— and as far as she was concerned it was going to remain that way!
James smiled at her stubborn expression. ‘That can easily be remedied——’
‘I don’t want to know about you,’ she told him vehemently.
‘—I’m thirty-four,’ he continued as if she hadn’t interrupted. ‘The only son of deceased parents. I like children, and animals—especially cats,’ he added as the sleek ginger tomcat entered the room. ‘Hello, boy,’ he greeted, going down on his haunches to tickle the ecstatic animal behind the ears.
‘Marmaduke,’ Aura supplied abruptly. ‘He belongs to my mother.’
‘He’s a beauty.’ Piercing green eyes suddenly looked up at her. ‘Couldn’t we have dinner together one evening?’
She drew in a sharp breath at the abrupt change of subject, sure he had deliberately tried to catch her off guard. ‘No,’ she answered firmly.
He straightened, ignoring the ginger cat as it twined in and out of his legs at the sudden, deprivation of his caressing fingers. ‘You have— someone, in your life?’ His eyes were narrowed.
If she said yes, would he go away and leave her alone? The determined set of his mouth said no, that he would merely set about eliminating the competition. ‘Is it unusual for a woman to say no to you, Mr Ballantine?’ She was deliberately scoffing.
‘One that kisses me the way you do, yes,’ he nodded slowly.
A flush burnt her cheeks, and she knew this man wasn’t flirting with her, that he didn’t know the meaning of the word; he seduced with candour and the certainty of his own feelings. ‘Mr Ballantine, I have no wish to have dinner with you,’ she told him abruptly. ‘I have a business to run, my mother to take care of——’
‘That can’t take up all your time,’ he chided.
‘It does!’
‘What do you do for relaxation?’
She sighed. ‘I read, occasionally go for long walks, play tennis——’
‘I’ll pick you up Sunday afternoon and we’ll hire a court for a game——’
‘—badly,’ she finished ruefully. ‘Martina Navratilova has nothing to fear from me.’
‘Sunday,’ he said again firmly. ‘Two o’clock. I’ll give you a coaching lesson; John McEnroe taught me everything I know about tennis.’
Her eyes widened. ‘You know——? But——’
‘I’ll see you Sunday afternoon, Aura.’ He gave her a quick kiss on her parted lips before leaving.
For seconds after he had gone Aura was unable