Carole Mortimer - New Year Kisses

‘No, I won’t,’ she came back predictably.

His mouth tightened even as he gave an acknowledging nod of his head; stubborn didn’t even begin to describe this particular woman!

‘I take it our date for dinner this evening is also cancelled?’ he prompted dryly.

Her eyes flashed deeply grey. ‘You take it correct!’ she snapped.

‘I thought so,’ he murmured mildly. ‘As I obviously no longer have any other plans for today, and as I’m already halfway there already, I may as well drive up the rest of the way to the farm and have another talk to your sisters.’

January’s eyes widened incredulously at this suggestion. ‘You will be wasting your time!’

He shrugged. ‘It’s my time to waste.’

Her mouth twisted scathingly. ‘I thought your time belonged to the Marshall Corporation?’

It was true that the Marshall Corporation had become the main part of his life for almost fifteen years, that his hours of work weren’t the usual nine to five, Monday to Friday of a lawyer in a normal law practice. But with no family ties to speak of, only an apartment in London that he rarely visited to actually call home, that had never particularly bothered Max. In fact, he had welcomed the long hours of work and travel that were often necessary in his job.

In the circumstances, hearing January casting aspersions on that particular aspect of his life was not something he welcomed!

‘Even I have weekends and holiday off, January,’ he snapped, knowing, even as he made the claim, that it wasn’t strictly accurate.

He could probably count the number of holidays he had taken the last fifteen years on the fingers of one hand. But holidays had never seemed important to him, were often an inconvenient interruption to business. Besides, he visited such exotic places during his business travels that holidays weren’t really necessary.

‘You were still working on New Year’s Eve,’ January reminded tauntingly.

His mouth tightened at her obvious implication. She still believed he had deliberately singled her out that evening, that it was all a part of some elaborate plan on his part to gain control of the Calendar farm.

But there was no way he would have deliberately planned to meet January in that way, certainly not to have been completely knocked off his feet by her in the way he had been. It was simply an unwritten rule with him never to mix business with pleasure.

Not that he thought there was much chance of him doing that now, either!

Oh, he was still attracted to January, in a way he had probably never been to any other woman, but there were two ways of looking at the fact she had turned out to be one of the Calendar sisters. The first way meant that he now had an uphill struggle ahead of him if he were to continue his personal pursuit of her. The second way was as a timely intervention, Fate not playing games with him at all, but instead stepping in to stop him from making the biggest mistake of his life.

Damn it, he liked his life the way it was: completely uncomplicated by personal ties! And there was no way, now, that he could have an enjoyable, but brief, relationship with January.

He drew in a deeply controlling breath. ‘I’ll back my car up and let you past,’ he told her evenly.

Her eyes widened at his unexpected capitulation. ‘You’re still wasting your time going up to the farm,’ she assured him hardly. ‘My sisters aren’t interested in selling any more than I am.’

He gave another shrug. ‘If that’s the case, it will cease to be my problem and become someone else’s.’ He hoped!

She gave him a guarded look. ‘Are you threatening us?’

‘Not in the least!’ He gave an exasperated shake of his head. ‘January, no one can force any of you into selling if you’re really not interested in doing so.’

But even as he said the words he knew that wasn’t strictly true; Jude wasn’t a man used to hearing the word no, let alone actually taking any notice of it. And he wanted the land the Calendar farm stood on pretty badly…

January didn’t look any more convinced of his sincerity than he had actually making the claim, that guarded look having turned to one of wariness now.

‘It’s cold out here, January,’ he added briskly, not quite meeting her searching gaze now. ‘I’ll back up and let you continue on your way. Your car is a mess, by the way,’ he added hardly, having driven past the car in the ditch on his way up here, wincing as he imagined January behind the wheel as she lost control and crashed. Worse, that she had been driving to meet him at the time it had happened…

Not that he thought that would happen again; January had made it more than obvious the last ten minutes or so that she would never agree to meet him again, for dinner or anything else!

Cut your losses and move on, Max, he mentally advised himself determinedly. Goodness knew he had done it often enough in the past, never in the same place long enough to allow himself to become too attached to any woman. Or them to him. January Calendar was no different, he told himself firmly. Only the force of his attraction to her was different…

All the more reason to get as far away from here as he could, as quickly as he could!

Except Jude seemed to have other ideas on the subject, Max discovered later that afternoon when he returned to the hotel, after a frustrating hour spent at the Calendar farm with May and March Calendar, to put a call through to his boss and friend.

‘You can’t have put our case strongly enough,’ Jude drawled unsympathetically. ‘How difficult can it be to persuade three old maids that they would be better off living in a nice bungalow somewhere than working their fingers to the bone on a hill farm that simply doesn’t, and never will, pay for itself?’

‘Three old maids’, indeed! Max could easily predict the reaction of any of the three undoubtedly beautiful sisters to being called that! It had been interesting to meet the third sister, March, when he’d got to the farm, to see the physical similarity between all three sisters. Although March, he had quickly learnt, was the most tempestuous of the three, telling him in no uncertain terms exactly what he, and the Marshall Corporation, could do with their offer to buy the Calendar property. May had been a little politer, but her answer had still been the same as that of her siblings.

But for some reason Max didn’t actually want to correct Jude in his mistake concerning the age of the three sisters, didn’t want to give the other man the opportunity to perhaps put two and two together and come up with four, to question the reason for Max’s own reluctance to pursue this thing any further.

‘They were born there, Jude,’ he repeated March’s indignant remark of earlier. ‘The family has lived there for generations—’

‘Max, are you going soft on me?’ Jude cut in disbelievingly.

As well he might. He and Jude had been at school together, had lost touch for a while when attending different universities, but Jude had sought Max out several years later when his business empire had begun to expand, easily persuading Max to become his personal and company lawyer. It was a decision that Max had never regretted. Until today…

‘No, of course not,’ he dismissed harshly. ‘I just—’

‘You just…?’ Jude prompted speculatively.

‘Leave it with me for a few more days, okay?’ he answered impatiently, willing himself to relax as his hand tightly gripped the receiver—so much for his earlier decision to tell Jude to just cut and run over this proposed deal. So that he could cut and run himself! ‘How are you doing with the beautiful April?’ he prompted tautly.

‘Changing the subject, Max?’ Jude guessed shrewdly.

That was the problem with Jude: he was too astute. And the last thing Max wanted was for the other man to even begin to guess at the emotional tangle Max now found himself in.