Passionate Nights: The Mistress Assignment / Mistress of Convenience / Mistress to Her Husband
She stopped as Harry gave a fierce snort of disapproval.
‘Of course you’re upset,’ he comforted her. ‘You’ve every right to be, especially after the way …’
‘He was flirting a little with Kelly at the ball,’ Eve agreed, guessing what he was going to say. ‘But I know that they’re old friends and Julian is such an attractive man …’
Harry gave another snort.
‘Oh, I know that you probably don’t like him. After all, Kelly is your girlfriend.’
‘No, she isn’t,’ Harry told her promptly. ‘I don’t have a girlfriend … haven’t ever really wanted one until … I escorted Kelly because my cousin asked me to …’
‘Oh, I see. So you aren’t actually going out with Kelly, then?’ Eve asked him ingenuously.
Harry shook his head. ‘Nice girl but not my type,’ he told her.
Inexplicably, as they walked, Eve discovered that she had moved so close to Harry that when they had to pass another couple it seemed the most natural thing in the world for him to shield her protectively by placing his arm around her.
It was very pleasant to be treated as though she was so fragile, so vulnerable and valuable, Eve acknowledged. It made her feel very safe and very protected … It made her feel happy. Nothing like as happy as she was with Julian, of course, she decided loyally as Harry gently drew her into the protection of a small grove of trees just off the river path.
‘Now look,’ he told her firmly, ‘you mustn’t let Cox upset you. He’s damn lucky to have a lovely girl like you … damn lucky …’
‘Oh, Harry, I’m the one who’s lucky,’ Eve corrected him. ‘I’m just plain and ordinary, but Julian …’
‘You’re no such thing’ Harry contradicted her immediately. ‘You’re beautiful, Eve,’ he told her huskily as he looked at her mouth. ‘Thought so the moment I saw you …’
An odd quiver of sensation ran right through her body as she recognised the way Harry was looking at her mouth. She might be naive, as she was constantly being told, but she wasn’t that naive. She was woman enough to know when a man wanted her all right … and when one didn’t.
Julian hadn’t wanted her tonight. He had pushed her away when she had tried to snuggle into his arms.
‘Harry,’ she whispered huskily.
‘Don’t look at me like that, Eve,’ he groaned, adding gruffly, ‘I want to kiss you so damn much … In fact, I’m going to kiss you,’ he announced boldly.
Going into Harry’s arms was like going home, Eve decided blissfully, all warm and cosy and safe. Happily she turned her face up to his and waited.
She didn’t have to wait very long.
His kiss was everything she had known it would be—gentle, reverential, asking, not taking; and it was something more as well, something entirely unexpected and exciting, she recognised as the tiny quivers darting through her body began to grow and gather strength.
‘I shouldn’t have done that,’ Harry told her harshly as he suddenly pushed her away. ‘In fact …’
Without saying anything more he turned his back on her and started to walk very quickly away from her.
Feeling as though she had been completely abandoned, Eve stared after him. Why had he left her like that? Had he lied to her about not being involved with Kelly? She knew instinctively that Julian had done so when he had told her that Kelly meant absolutely nothing to him. She wasn’t completely blind. She had seen the way Julian had been watching Kelly at the ball, but she loved Julian so much … far too much to give him up … Far, far too much to enjoy kissing another man … Hot-cheeked, she pressed her hands to her face. What on earth had she been doing? And why?
It was no wonder, really, that Julian had been so out of sorts and cross, she decided compassionately as she made her way back to her car. It had been a big disappointment for him, poor darling, when Brough had refused to finance his new venture.
She had tried to tell him tonight that she had absolutely no influence at all over Brough’s decision, and then he had started to ask her about her own inheritance and she had had to tell him that she couldn’t touch a penny of it until she was twenty-five.
‘That’s four years away,’ he had exploded irritably. ‘What happens if we get married and you need some money to buy a house?’
If they got married …
‘I don’t know,’ she had confessed, adding brightly, ‘Maybe the bank would lend me some money against it … I’d have to check with Brough …’
‘No! No, don’t do that,’ Julian had told her hastily.
‘Yes, because when we get married I shall move in here with you, won’t I?’ she had agreed, blissfully trying to snuggle up against him.
‘Yeah …’ he had said so unenthusiastically that she had started to frown.
It was then that she had made her first mistake, asking him uncertainly, ‘You do want to marry me, don’t you, Julian? Only I couldn’t help noticing at the ball that you seemed awfully interested in Kelly …’
‘Kelly’s an old friend,’ he had told her angrily. ‘Not that it’s any business of yours …’
Poor darling, of course he was irritable and on edge with all the money worries he was having. It really was too bad of Brough to refuse to help him. Eve’s brow creased. She knew, of course, that her brother didn’t really like or approve of Julian, but he didn’t know him the way she did.
CHAPTER SIX
‘HI, KELLY, it’s Dee.’
Kelly smiled as she recognised their landlady’s voice. It was eleven o’clock in the morning and Kelly had just served her third customer and put on the kettle to make herself a cup of coffee.
‘Anything to report?’ Dee asked her. ‘Has Julian been in touch?’
‘He rang yesterday,’ Kelly told her, ‘but I couldn’t really talk to him; I had someone here in the shop. You know that Julian is hoping to persuade his girlfriend’s brother to finance some new venture he’s getting started?’
‘Was hoping,’ Dee corrected her wryly. ‘Brough has turned him down.’
How did Dee know that? Kelly wondered curiously.
‘Look, we could do with having a meeting,’ Dee told her. ‘How about lunch tomorrow?’
‘Tomorrow? No, I’m afraid I can’t,’ Kelly told her. ‘I’m going to Staffordshire.’
‘Staffordshire?’ Dee queried sharply. ‘On a buying trip? But I thought …’
‘No, not that. Actually I’m going with Brough; he’s asked me to undertake a private commission for him.’
‘And you’ve agreed?’ Dee asked her. ‘Be very careful, Kelly. Don’t forget his sister is dating Julian and hopes to marry him and he’s bound to be extremely suspicious of your role in Julian’s life. You haven’t told him the truth, have you?’ Dee demanded.
‘No, of course I haven’t,’ Kelly reassured her immediately.
‘Well, you mustn’t. It would ruin everything.’
‘I’m not a complete fool, you know, Dee,’ Kelly informed her a little irritably. She liked Dee, but sometimes her autocratic attitude irritated her a bit. She wasn’t like Beth, who accepted Dee’s slight bossiness with placid gentleness even whilst she accepted that the older girl’s heart was in the right place and her motives good.