Too true! she thought, definitely beginning to love Jake’s grandfather.
‘I’m not talking about bottle blondes,’ came the fierce retort. ‘Her hair is dark brown. She’s wearing a wig!’
That was a mean blow. Completely below the belt.
Byron re-appraised her hair. ‘Damned good wig!’ he approved. ‘Had me fooled.’
Jake went for the kill. ‘And she’s fooling with you, Pop.’
Byron grinned at her. ‘Nothing like having a beautiful woman fooling with me.’
The tight place in Merlina’s chest loosened up as imminent humiliation passed. She grinned back. ‘I wore it to please you on your birthday, Byron. Jake said you preferred blondes.’
‘Well, I now find myself leaning towards sassy brunettes. And speaking of my birthday…’ Byron half turned, offering his arm to her. ‘Allow me to escort you to my table where we can toast it together.’
‘How kind!’ she purred, curling her arm around his.
She wasn’t sure if Jake actually growled but he looked at her as though he’d like to go for her throat. The aggression emanating from him was definitely dangerous. And thrilling.
Byron patted her hand and smiled benevolently at his grandson. ‘Thank you, Jake. Best birthday gift you could have given me.’ He blithely waved a dismissal. ‘You can have the cake rolled away now but I’m keeping Merlina. And please ask the orchestra to play Lerner and Loewe’s classic, ‘The Night They Invented Champagne.’
Jake was left standing in fight mode with nothing to fight as Byron led Merlina away in a triumphant walk back towards his guests. Maybe he’ll kick the cake, she thought, and decided to flirt outrageously with his grandfather for as long as the party lasted.
‘Oh, what fun!’ Byron burbled in her ear. ‘I take it you have issues with my grandson and you’ve just given him a wake-up call.’
She smiled at him, noting the merry amusement in his eyes. ‘Something like that.’
‘Brilliantly done, my dear. Don’t know what he sees in all those skinny women.’
She sighed. ‘I don’t think it will change anything, Byron.’
‘Nonsense! You have him on toast.’
‘Just the heat of the moment. And that does my pride a lot of good,’ she wryly confessed. ‘But unlike you, Jake isn’t the marrying type, and I’ve already wasted too much of my life on him.’
‘This is not the day to give up, Merlina. You’re on the crest of a wave and you must ride it through,’ he advised. ‘It’s time the boy did get married and I heartily approve of you as my granddaughter-in-law. A sassy woman puts a bit of excitement in one’s life.’
She laughed, hugging his arm with real affection. ‘You are a darling, Byron. But I don’t think…’
‘Leave it to me. I’m a master of manoeuvres.’
‘I’d have to agree with that. Asking me to marry you was wonderful!’
‘We can play on it. Give me the pleasure of your company and I’ll give you a diamond engagement ring.’
Merlina halted, suddenly unsure of where she was going with Jake’s grandfather. ‘Byron, I think you’re a lovely man but I couldn’t really marry you.’
He laughed. ‘Just setting the cat amongst the pigeons, my dear. How long did you work for Jake?’
‘Nineteen months.’
‘So the hook is well and truly in, even if he doesn’t know it yet.’
Merlina shook her head. ‘I wouldn’t go that far. He’s had a string of women while I’ve been working for him.’
Byron nodded knowingly. ‘The best of both worlds without having to give any commitment.’ He patted her hand again. ‘Let’s nail the pay-time. Be my live-in companion for a week. Just one more week of your life, Merlina, to see if Jake will come to your party.’
It was a tempting prospect. The idea of driving Jake Devila into a jealous rage was the stuff of giddy dreams. If it could actually happen…
‘I promise you we’ll have fun. I’ll take you shopping. Trips to the theatre, dining out. I’ll parade you everywhere, make us a conspicuous couple. I bet Jake won’t be able to ignore that.’
‘You’re as much a devil as he is, Byron,’ she said, thinking Why not? A week of being a pampered companion would be easy to take, wouldn’t it? Some fun time before looking for another job. And if her being with his grandfather did get to Jake…
‘Got his genes from me.’
Warning bells instantly rang. Byron Devila might be eighty but Merlina suspected he hadn’t lost any of his virility. She drilled him with her eyes. ‘I’d need you to be an absolute gentleman if I’m to live in.’
He laughed. ‘Hands off, I promise. I know where your interest lies, Merlina, and I’m feeling very inclined to further it if I can.’
She believed him. With a mad sense of throwing her hat well and truly over the windmill, she said, ‘Okay. I’ll do it.’
‘That’s my girl!’ he rolled out with beaming approval. ‘What a lovely birthday I’m having. Now let me introduce you to Jake’s mother.’
And they resumed their stroll towards his table.
Behind them the orchestra started to play ‘The Night They Invented Champagne.’
CHAPTER FIVE
JAKE returned to his table, furiously smouldering over Mel’s—Merlina’s—hijack of his birthday surprise. It made his grandfather’s delight in her totally intolerable. She’d done it to thumb her nose at his male chauvinist game, to put the icing on the cake of her resignation, to walk away wagging her rose petalled bottom at him. He was so burned up by her triumphant exit from his life, he could barely respond to the bubbling good humour of his friends, the guys in particular.
‘Got to hand it to you, Jake. That was a maxi show-stopper. Marilyn Monroe and American Beauty rolled out in one!’
‘Top wow factor. Talk about sex on legs!’
‘If she was in the garden, any man might be tempted to take time out to smell the roses!’
‘Looks like your grandfather is doing just that. Good one, Jake!’
‘Where did you find her?’
‘I bet she cost a bomb.’
A bomb that had exploded right in his face. And the cost was totally unacceptable. Losing Mel as his personal assistant…there was going to be one hell of a hole in his life. Then he remembered the exorbitant fee for the model. That was a kiss-my-arse hit if ever there was one. He almost erupted as he thought of how Mel had fooled him and feather-bedded her retirement from the job.
‘I was not counting the cost,’ he replied, using every gram of control not to sound as violently put out as he felt. ‘I just wanted to please my grandfather.’ And get under Mel’s skin. Except she’d got under his instead. Big time!
‘No doubt about that,’ Vanessa said dryly, nodding towards his grandfather’s table. ‘He’s obviously smitten with her.’
There he was, introducing Mel to his mother and aunts and she was laughing her head off. Jake’s hands curled into fists. Then, to really rub salt into his wound, one