Female agreement swiftly followed, though in a more good-humoured tone than Vanessa’s waspish scolding. Which reminded him that his grandfather had always said skinny women thought too much of themselves. It had probably put Vanessa’s nose out of joint to be upstaged by a woman with a far more voluptuous figure.
Jake tried to give her the attention she wanted, but his heart wasn’t it. He didn’t even find her attractive any more. As for having sex with her tonight…no, he didn’t want to. In fact, he could barely resist the magnetic pull of following Mel’s progress with his grandfather.
No way would he give his erstwhile personal assistant more satisfaction by showing an interest in her outrageous gallivanting at this party, but it was damned difficult to keep his gaze trained on Vanessa and his other companions, and he found the popping of champagne corks a major irritation. The whole situation turned into an agony of waiting for the party to end.
Eventually guests started leaving. His friends decided on continuing the evening at a fashionable bar. Jake didn’t want to accompany them. He was in no mood to be civil let alone convivial. Vanessa was seriously put out when he excused himself, inventing some other commitment. He suggested she go with the others if she was so inclined and she rather sulkily said she would.
It made Jake wonder how he could have ever thought she was desirable on any level. Nevertheless, pride insisted he didn’t end their relationship while Mel could still see them together. To his over-burdened mind, that would give the highly provocative Ms Rossi not only the icing on the cake, but the cake, too.
She was hooked to his grandfather’s arm, saying goodbye to guests, playing hostess to his host with all the aplomb of a seasoned performer, which irked Jake to the bone. He put his left arm around Vanessa’s waist as they approached to take their leave.
‘Great party, Pop,’ he said, showing as much teeth as was possible to put into a broad smile.
His grandfather shot out his right hand to give Jake’s a strong shake. ‘Made more so by you, my boy. Can’t thank you enough.’
‘Yes, the cake idea was brilliant,’ Merlina trilled happily. ‘I’ve had such a wonderful time with Byron.’
Jake steeled himself to look at her. ‘Thank you,’ he said, grimly holding his smile. ‘And may I compliment you on once again rising to the occasion.’ Then to underline how gracious he could be in defeat and to minimise his previous bad-tempered reaction, he added, ‘I wish you well in whatever occupation you choose next, Mel.’ Be damned if he’d call her Merlina!
‘Which will be married life if I have anything to do with it,’ his grandfather supplied, twinkling indulgently at her.
‘Oh, Byron!’ she purred, hugging his arm in demonstrative pleasure.
Jake felt his innards being clawed.
The lion in him came roaring out, wanting to carry Mel Rossi off and do some clawing of his own.
‘Do you have transport home?’ he asked, trying his utmost to sound considerate and caring.
She smiled, the golden amber eyes glowing warmly. ‘How kind! But I don’t need transport. Byron has asked me to stay here with him and I am so enjoying his company…’
‘What about clothes?’ came straight out of his mouth. The image of her prancing around in her rose bikini throughout a private evening with his grandfather made him want to club her over the head and drag her off to a cave.
‘I brought a change of clothes with me,’ she answered with limpid ease. ‘The butler kindly agreed to mind my bag until the party was over. You don’t have to worry about me, Jake.’
‘No, I’m sure he doesn’t,’ Vanessa slid in snidely. ‘Thank you for a lovely party, Byron.’
‘Glad you enjoyed yourself, my dear,’ he replied, brimming over with enough bonhomie to indulgently encompass a skinny woman who was showing signs of becoming bitchy.
‘Take care, Pop,’ Jake managed to toss out before leading Vanessa away.
‘I’m going to take care of Merlina instead,’ his grandfather declared extravagantly. ‘We’re off shopping tomorrow.’ He grinned at her in delighted anticipation. ‘There are some splendid boutiques in Double Bay. And we can have a marvellous seafood lunch at Doyle’s. The maître d’ can always find a table for me.’
‘Oh, goody!’ the femme fatale cried, snuggling closer to her sugar daddy.
Enough was more than enough!
Jake departed in a simmering rage, dragging Vanessa along with him. ‘Don’t walk so fast,’ she protested. ‘I’m wearing very high heels, you know.’
‘You can be barefoot in the park for all I care,’ he growled, having completely lost any semblance of playboy charm.
Vanessa came to a dead halt, spitting mad. ‘You had her lined up for yourself, didn’t you?’
The accusation pulled Jake up, too. ‘No, I didn’t,’ he bit out.
‘You hung around her after she came out of the cake and a moment ago you wanted to take her home,’ came the peevish argument. ‘What’s more, you’re now in a pet because she prefers to be with Byron.’
‘In a pet?’ Jake repeated incredulously.
‘Don’t bother denying it! And don’t think I’m going to play second fiddle to a birthday cake bimbo. Goodbye, Jake! I’ll leave with Tim and Fiona.’
Having slapped him with her rejection, she turned her back on him, strutted several haughty paces, then half- turned to hurl a piece of spite at him. ‘I hope she becomes your step-grandmother!’
Over my dead body!
Jake stood stock-still as the thought crashed through his mind with stunning violence.
For once in his life he didn’t know what to do.
He didn’t have a plan.
Running after Vanessa made no sense. He didn’t want to hang onto her. Best that their relationship be severed and it didn’t matter who’d done the severing. Let Vanessa have the satisfaction of being the one to walk away.
But Mel Rossi’s defection was something else.
That was definitely a blow below the belt.
He had to fight back.
He had to win.
She was using his grandfather as a weapon and a shield but once she was on her own…
Tonight, when she returned to her apartment at Chatswood, he’d be waiting for her, and no way was he about to let Mel Rossi close her door on him!
Midnight…and she hadn’t come home!
Jake’s frustration knew no bounds. She had to be staying overnight at the Vaucluse mansion. In any event, there was no point in camping here any longer. Even if she turned up now, he’d look like a jealous fool for waiting to confront her at this hour, and he was not—not—a jealous fool. He knew what she was up to, playing a one-upmanship end-game, and if nothing else, he was determined to get in the last word.
He drove home to Milson’s Point with that resolution burning in his mind.
However, opening up the opportunity to get in the last word proved difficult. Mel did not answer her telephone on Sunday and Jake seethed over the possibility that she was, indeed, out shopping and lunching with his grandfather. He told himself to calm down. It was only a matter of waiting out some more time before he caught up with her.
Monday was filled with more frustration. He found it increasingly wearing to be civil to his temporary assistant because she wasn’t Mel. She was a skinny blonde who kept transmitting availability signals