Jessica Hart: No Mistaking Love

`Was he upset?'

`He was angry. Not shouting and raving, but just cold anger in his eyes. It was terrifying. I wished I hadn't gone then, because he seemed to notice me for the first time. He asked if I'd been sent to report back on how devastated he was, and when I said no he said had I come to offer myself as a consolation prize.' Kate's cheeks burned with the memory. `It was awful. I tried to back off but he caught me with one hand and pulled me back.'

She glanced involuntarily down at her wrist, as if it still bore the imprint of his fingers. His hands had been very strong, his grip like steel as he had forced her chin up.

`Is that when he kissed you?' Serena asked, agog. They were both oblivious to the hubbub going on around them.

Kate nodded.

Serena glanced over at Luke and then leant closer to Kate. `What was it like?' she whispered. `Do you remember?'

Do you remember? Kate's eyes deepened to amber. She would never forget. Her feeling of terrified exhilaration as he had jerked her back into his arms was still vivid. The roughness of his hands against her skin, the unexpected warmth of his lips, the bitter anger in his eyes: Kate remembered them all. She remembered the dappled shade of the woods on that still, hot afternoon and the damp smell of earth beneath her feet.

She had never been kissed before. She hadn't known how strong a man's body could be, or how lips could be firm and fierce and persuasive all at the same time. She hadn't known about the trembling, treacherous excitement as he slid his hands slowly, lingeringly, down her bare arms, had never guessed at the ache of need that could swamp fear and dislike at the mere touch of his mouth.

Oh, yes, she remembered all right. Out of the corner of her eye Kate could see Luke. He looked bored and irritable, but his mouth was just as she remembered.

`It was just a kiss,' she said. She had never been kissed like that again.

`Oh.' It was clear that Serena was disappointed. `Did he say anything to you afterwards?'

She had stared up at him as he had released her, shaken and dazed by the strength of her own

reaction. Luke's eyes had been narrowed as if he was taken aback at suddenly finding her in his arms, and he had stepped back abruptly. Kate had read disgust in the gesture, and she had flinched as the stinging slap of humiliation had hit her with the force of a blow.

`He said, "Go home, Catherine, and grow up,"' Kate said slowly, reliving that devastating moment before she had turned and stumbled away from the contempt in his eyes.

`Catherine? Is that what he called you?' Serena asked, diverted. `I thought you were always Kate.'

`Not at home. My mother always called me Catherine in the French way, and I was known as Catherine in Chittingdene. It was only when I went away to school that I became Kate to you lot. '

'I see.' Serena risked another glance at Luke. `What happened next time you met him?'

`I never saw him again. He left the village a few days later. I don't know if he ever went back. Dad died a couple of months later and my mother couldn't wait to sell the manor and take us to France, so I never went back to Chittingdene. This is the first time I've seen him since.'

`I wonder if he would recognise you,' Serena said thoughtfully.

`Not a chance. Remember what I was like at sixteen, Serena? All bottle-bottom glasses and straggly hair! I've changed a lot since then, thank goodness. There's no way he'd recognise me. It's not as if I'm like Helen.'

`Why, what was she like?'

'She was-' Kate broke off, staring into the mirror, where Luke's face had lightened as a woman walked towards him. She laid her hand on his arm possessively, and took the drink that he handed her, apparently unconcerned that she had kept him waiting.

`See for yourself,' Kate said in an odd, toneless voice. `That's Helen with him now.'

At eighteen, Helen had had a golden, provocative beauty, and the past ten years had merely added gloss and a subtle exoticism to her looks. She had slanting green eyes and silver-blonde hair that fell in a glittering, rippling fall to her waist. In a short strapless turquoise dress, she looked literally breathtaking.

`But that's Helen Slayne, isn't it?'

'That's right.' Kate looked at Serena in surprise. `Why, do you know her?'

'Hardly! But she's a famous model. I've seen her in all sorts of things. That hair's a sort of trademark. I suppose you wouldn't have seen her while you've been in France. She's stunning, isn't she?'

'Yes,' said Kate flatly. `She always was.'

There was a dull ache in her chest. Why was she so surprised to see Helen here with him? It was stupid to feel disappointed because Luke had evidently allowed himself to be taken in by that glittering beauty a second time. Why expect him to have had more pride? It was none of her business if he'd chosen to make a fool of himself again.

With Helen standing next to him, Luke wasn't going to be noticing anyone else in the room. Kate turned round and allowed herself to study him properly. It was strange that after all this time everything about him should be so familiar. The way he stood, the way he turned his head, the hard line of his mouth… especially his mouth… There had always been an air of arrogance about him, a kind of reckless pride. How could he stand there, smiling at Helen like that after the way she had treated him?

As if she had shouted it aloud, Luke lifted his head and stared over Helen's shoulder straight into the unguarded criticism in Kate's eyes.

Kate's heart lurched alarmingly as she found herself staring into those slate-grey eyes. He was nowhere near her, but she felt skewered by that cold, hard look. She wanted to look away, but the eyes held her immobile. They might have been alone in the room. The crush and hubbub in the bar faded to insignificance, Serena and Helen were forgotten. There was only a narrowed slate grey gaze and the nervous jolt of her heart.

And then a couple in front of her stepped back to let someone through en route to the bar and cut Luke from view.

Kate swallowed and dropped her eyes, annoyed to find herself flushing.

`Do you think he did recognise you after all?' Serena said excitedly. She had watched the look Luke and Kate had exchanged with interest.

`No.' Kate sounded curt, but she was having difficulty bringing her heart under control again. It kept jumping around in an alarmingly erratic manner. `No, I don't think so,' she said again, more lightly. The eyes had been as unreadable as ever, but she would swear that there had been no recognition in them, only a speculative sort of contempt.

To Kate's intense relief, a bell began to ring insistently over the noise of the crowd just as Serena opened her mouth to pursue the matter.

`Come on, drink up,' she said, taking a hasty swig of her gin. `The second half's about to start.'

They joined the queue shuffling noisily back into the auditorium. Serena seemed to have forgotten Luke, and was telling Kate about her not-so-subtle attempts to get her handsome neighbour to notice her. Wedged in the middle of the crowd, Kate rolled her eyes and laughed at her friend. She had a warm, arresting smile that lit up her quiet face-but which switched off abruptly as she found herself looking once more into Luke Hardman's hard eyes.

He and Helen were unhurriedly finishing their drinks while the crowd pushed past them. Luke Hardman had never been a man to waste time standing in a queue with everyone else.

Someone was pushing Kate from behind, but she hardly noticed. Luke had lifted his glass in a silent toast and sent her a swift, mocking smile that flamed the colour in her cheeks.

`Can you get a move on? You're blocking the door and the play's starting in a couple of minutes!' The impatient voice behind her jerked Kate out of her trance and she looked quickly away from Luke.