Danie would just bet he had! She hadn’t been unaware of Jonas Noble’s dislike of her, knew that he had found her brash and rude. Which she had been, she conceded ruefully. But she had also been aware, when she’d entered the sitting-room before lunch, that he had been surprised by, if not attracted to, the difference in her appearance without the baseball cap, that he had been momentarily stunned by her looks. Only momentarily, she acknowledged wryly; she was sure that not too many things wrong-footed the arrogant Mr Noble for long!
‘I was only talking to Audrey,’ Danie muttered resentfully. ‘You said you would give me a call when Jonas was ready to leave.’
Her father’s humour disappeared. ‘I preferred him to be driven back with Charles,’ he stated firmly.
Effectively removing any chance she might have to talk to Jonas Noble again!
She didn’t like this. Not one little bit. And if her father thought he had got the better of her, then he was going to be disappointed. Jonas could only have left with Charles minutes earlier, which meant they couldn’t have got very far yet.
‘Where are you going?’ her father called after her as she turned to run up the wide staircase.
Danie glanced back only briefly. ‘I think I’ll go back to town too,’ she told him.
‘But—’
‘You’ll have to excuse me, Daddy,’ she interrupted his protest, turning to go up the stairs two at a time. ‘I’m in rather a hurry.’
It took very little time to collect the things she needed from her bedroom, and race back down the stairs again. On her way to the front door she heard the murmur of voices coming from the sitting-room.
‘—will have to be told soon, Rome,’ Audrey was saying gently. ‘Very soon, I would have thought. This isn’t something you can keep to yourself for very much longer.’
It wasn’t in Danie’s forthright nature to eavesdrop, but those few words held her transfixed in the hallway, her heart beating faster, her eyes dark with apprehension as she listened to the rest of what Audrey had to say.
She’d believed Audrey when the other woman had told her earlier that she didn’t know who or what Jonas Noble was, or what he was doing here, but obviously the little Danie had told the other woman about him had given Audrey the answer to the latter at least…!
‘I realise that,’ Rome groaned in a pained voice. ‘It’s just that— This isn’t the sort of thing you can just blurt out over breakfast one morning!’ he rasped impatiently.
Audrey sighed. ‘I know, but if I’ve been able to guess…’
‘Yes, yes,’ Rome muttered heavily. ‘I will tell them. But in my own time,’ he said grimly. ‘I have to get used to the idea myself first!’
‘I know, Rome,’ Audrey returned huskily. ‘I do know. I just— Oh, Rome!’ she choked emotionally. ‘It will only be a matter of weeks before they all realise—’
‘It’s all right, Audrey,’ Rome soothed, appearing to be the comforter now. ‘It will be all right, you’ll see.’
Danie couldn’t stand and listen to any more, hurrying from the house, closing the door softly behind her, loath to let her father or Audrey know she had heard any of their conversation.
Weeks…! My God, did that mean—? Was her father—?
She didn’t care whether Jonas Noble wanted to see her again or not—he was damn well going to. Because she was determined to get some answers from somewhere—and at the moment Jonas Noble seemed to be the man who had them all!
It was warm and comfortable in the back of the Rolls Royce, and Jonas could feel the effect of that warm comfort as his eyes once again began to close sleepily. Thank goodness it was the weekend and he could sleep in late tomorrow.
You’re getting too old for this, Noble, he told himself. One sleepless night had reduced him to being almost a walking zombie. Almost, he smiled to himself sleepily. He had been awake enough to visit his patient today.
And he had certainly been awake enough to appreciate the beautiful, if caustic, Danie Summer!
He shook his head as it rested back against the leather seat, smiling slightly, his eyes closed. Not a woman to be trifled with, he decided, knowing that she believed he had done exactly that. And had resented him intensely for it. He—
‘I’m going to pull over, Mr Noble,’ Charles announced from the front of the car, glancing in his driving mirror as Jonas opened his eyes to look across at him. ‘Miss Danie seems to want a word,’ Charles added helpfully.
Miss Danie—!
Jonas sat up straighter in his seat, turning to look out the back window of the car. But as far as he could see, ‘Miss Danie’ was nowhere to be seen. There was only a motorbike behind them, a huge monster of a black machine, with its rider bent low over the handlebars—
Jonas narrowed his eyes to look more intently at the driver of the powerful black bike, instantly recognising the deep green eyes that could be seen clearly beneath the black crash-helmet.
When she wasn’t flying planes, it seemed Danie Summer rode a motorbike that looked powerful enough to crush her if it fell on her! Not that it ever would, Jonas decided; it wouldn’t dare!
A woman who liked to live life dangerously, he decided.
He turned to sit patiently in the back of the car while Charles got out to talk to Danie. The back passenger door opened seconds later and Danie Summer herself climbed into the back of the vehicle to sit beside him.
Jonas raised dark brows as he looked at her. She had taken off the black helmet, releasing that cascade of flamered hair. The black leathers she wore seemed moulded to the curves of her body—and very sexy it looked too, Jonas realised as he felt a faint stirring of his own body in response to such feminine perfection.
‘To what do I owe the honour?’ he prompted sarcastically, annoyed with himself for his own reaction to this woman. Beauty, he knew, was only skin deep; Danie Summer was the most outspokenly rude woman he had ever had the misfortune to meet.
Her mouth twisted derisively. ‘You forgot to say goodbye,’ she murmured huskily.
Jonas looked at her through narrowed lids. He didn’t believe for one moment that was the reason she had followed him. Although it was becoming patently obvious that was exactly what she had done…
‘Goodbye, Danie,’ he said.
She smiled. ‘Very politely delivered, Jonas.’
He gave an acknowledging inclination of his head. ‘My mother made a point of instilling good manners into all of her children,’ he returned.
Danie nodded. ‘But does it have to be goodbye?’ She quirked dark brows, eyes gleaming brightly.
With what, Jonas wasn’t sure. A cross between challenge and flirtation, he thought; although the latter seemed unlikely in the circumstances!
He eyed her warily now. ‘What did you have in mind?’ he asked slowly.
Danie shrugged, colour heightening her cheekbones even as she spoke. ‘I was wondering if you would have dinner with me this evening?’
Jonas drew in his breath quickly. He wasn’t fooled for a moment into believing this young woman really wanted to have dinner with him—her motives for the invitation, in view of her earlier curiosity concerning the reason for his visit to her family home today, were all too obvious!—but at the same time, he was intrigued in spite of himself…
‘In a word—no,’ he told her bluntly, his gaze becoming amused as he saw the way angry colour suffused her cheeks now; obviously not a young lady who was used to hearing that particular word!
She swallowed hard—doing her