‘And four years ago you were—–?’
‘Sixteen,’ she admitted quietly, remembering all too well the terrible things her aunt had said to her about her father.
‘That makes you twenty now. God, I’ll be thought a cradle-snatcher!’ Jarrod Stone muttered in disgust. ‘I’m thirty-seven,’ he added by way of explanation.
‘And you’ve never married?’ It seemed strange in this day and age to think of a man of his age not marrying.
For the first time since she had entered the room he smiled, and she felt some of the tension start to leave her body. He sat back in the chair. ‘I thought about it once, when I was a couple of years older than you are at this moment. She turned me down, thank God.’
‘Oh.’
‘Right—well, I think you’ve taken up enough of my time for one morning,’ he said, rising. ‘I’ll see you downstairs at twelve-thirty. And arrange to have a two-hour lunch break.’
‘I can’t do that,’ she protested. ‘I have a job to do.’
‘And I’m your employer. Get whoever it is that usually covers for you when you’re off sick to take over. And I won’t expect an over-show of emotion in front of other people, but I will expect you to be a little bit more relaxed with me than you are at this moment.’
‘Relaxed? How can I possibly feel relaxed? I’ve never even spoken to you until today!’
‘Too bad,’ he said callously. ‘Now I’ll see you out to the lift.’
Brooke stiffened. ‘That won’t be necessary.’
He opened the door for her. ‘But I insist. I must show a natural consideration for my brand new fiancée,’ he taunted.
Her eyes were beseeching. ‘Please, Mr Stone, don’t—–’
‘Jarrod,’ he corrected curtly. ‘Call me Jarrod.’
She couldn’t do that! ‘Please don’t make me go through with this. I’ve apologised, I don’t see what else I can do to make amends.’
‘An apology isn’t enough,’ he said cruelly. ‘I’ve already explained my reasons. I could make things very unpleasant for you if you prove difficult.’
‘I could leave.’ Brooke hung back defiantly, not willing to leave his office until she had this thing settled. ‘You’re far from being the only well-paying firm in the country.’
‘Oh, I know that. But with no references from here you could find things rather difficult.’
‘You—you can’t do that! I’ve been a good employee.’
‘You call what you’ve just done being a good employee?’ he demanded. ‘Are you aware that you could land up in court for that deliberate lie you chose to tell the newspapers? I could sue you. You’re quoted, so it’s pretty obvious who gave them the story.’
She went first pale and then red. ‘You—you wouldn’t?’
‘No, I wouldn’t. But I do expect a little co-operation from you. This is your fault, after all.’
‘All right, all right. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!’
Jarrod Stone looked unmoved. ‘Like I said, it isn’t enough.’ He opened the door further. ‘I have an important appointment in five minutes.’
‘Okay, I—– But what do I tell everyone?’ she cried.
‘Oh, tell them I’ve fallen madly in love with you and rushed you off your feet.’
‘Don’t tease—please!’ Her head was downbent.
He wrenched her chin up roughly between thumb and forefinger. ‘I don’t know what the hell else you expect me to do. I can assure you that if I did what I really want to do to you you wouldn’t like that either.’
Brooke was mesmerised by his glittering grey eyes, aware of the darkness of his skin and the tangy aftershave he wore. ‘What do you want to do?’ she asked breathlessly.
His hand fell away and he turned her firmly out of the room. ‘Put you over my knee and give your backside a good thrashing. Just what you hoped to achieve I have no idea. But still, it might prove interesting.’
He silenced her as they entered his secretary’s office, pausing at the door to look down at her with dark brooding eyes. Again he raised her chin, uncaring of the two curious pairs of eyes watching them. ‘I’ll see you later, darling,’ he said, huskily soft, but loud enough for the other two girls to hear. ‘We’ll have lunch at the usual place.’
Before Brooke could answer him his dark head swooped low and his lips fleetingly touched hers. She felt herself tremble in his arms, her eyes wide with surprise. She looked self-consciously at the girls in the room, but they were apparently busily working. She doubted they had been so engrossed a couple of seconds earlier!
Her mouth tightened. ‘Did you have to do that?’ she muttered angrily, her almost violet eyes glaring her dislike of him.
Jarrod laughed throatily. ‘You say the nicest things, Brooke.’
He was obviously still playing to his audience, and she decided to play him at his own game, reaching up to wind her arms about his neck, her lips raised invitingly. ‘Just to last me until lunch-time, darling,’ she coaxed, revelling in the anger displayed in his deep grey eyes. ‘Darling?’ she questioned innocently.
His grip on her arms was quite painful and it took great effort not to cry out. ‘Later, Brooke. Later.’ His words sounded romantic enough, but she knew his words promised something completely different from what they were implying.
She pouted up at him. ‘Oh, Jarrod!’
‘If you don’t behave yourself I’m like to give you that good hiding I promised you,’ he warned her quietly.
‘Oh, Jarrod, how sweet of you to say so,’ she smiled up at him, uncaring of the dangerous look in his eyes. ‘Until later, darling.’
By the time she stepped out of the lift into the reception area the two bright wings of colour in her cheeks seemed to be a permanent fixture. How she was going to get through the next few months she had no idea.
Jean was looking rather harassed by this time, having difficulty managing her switchboard and also dealing with people at the desk. Brooke hadn’t realised she would be so long or she wouldn’t have left her alone. She had expected to be only a few minutes, just long enough to be sacked.
‘What gives?’ Jean asked once the rush had died down and they had a couple of minutes to themselves again. ‘First of all you receive a telephone call that makes you look like death and then you calmly step into the boss’s private lift and disappear for an hour.’
‘I’m sorry I was gone so long, Jean. I didn’t mean to leave you in the lurch like that.’ She shuffled the papers about on her desk, not anxious to answer the real question in Jean’s words.
‘So what’s happened? Is someone you know ill or something?’
‘Er—no.’ She didn’t quite know how to explain what had just happened to her. She certainly couldn’t tell Jean the whole truth, it would be too humiliating. ‘I—er—I seem to have got myself engaged.’
Jean’s eyes brightened with excitement. ‘You do? Who to?’ She frowned. ‘You haven’t mentioned seeing anyone special.’
‘No—well, it seems to have happened all of a sudden. I’ve hardly had time to think.’ Which was true; she certainly hadn’t had time to realise exactly what this bogus engagement was going to mean to her. She did know that she had felt a strange floating sensation at the touch of Jarrod Stone’s lips on her own. And also, to her shame, she had responded! Only