Angela Devine - Mistress For Hire

‘How did his father die?’ asked Lisa hesitantly. ‘Tim has never told me.’

A shadow crossed Matt’s features.

‘He was piloting a light aircraft, which crashed. Tim was only two years old at the time.’

Something in the grim lines of Matt’s face told her that long-ago grief still haunted him. She thought about how she would feel if her own adored brother, Brian, had met with such a disaster and instinctively flinched.

‘I suppose he was your older brother, wasn’t he?’ she said huskily. ‘I’m so sorry.’

Matt’s gaze darted swiftly across the table to meet hers, as if he was startled by the sympathy in her voice. Then he shrugged.

‘Thank you,’ he replied. ‘But it was a long time ago. I seldom think of it now.’

‘You can’t have been very old when it happened.’

‘I was eighteen. There was a ten-year age gap between my brother and myself.’

‘Only eighteen?’ she exclaimed. ‘And yet he made you trustee for the whole estate?’

Matt’s mouth hardened. ‘Yes. He thought I was the tough one in the family and he knew I was shrewd at handling money even then. I bought my first portfolio of shares when I was sixteen. You’d do well to remember that, Lisa.’

Lisa gave him a baffled look. Why would she do well to remember it? What did it have to do with her? Although perhaps this was the opening she had been waiting for, to turn the conversation round to Tim’s interests again. If she could persuade Matt to give Tim more financial freedom, perhaps she need not even mention the delicate subject of art.

‘Can I ask you something?’ she said. ‘If you wanted to, could you wind up the trust and leave Tim in control of his money?’

‘Yes,’ said Matt in a clipped tone.

Lisa let out a long sigh.

‘I really think you ought to do that,’ she urged.

‘Why should I?’ demanded Matt suspiciously. ‘He’ll come into his inheritance at the age of twenty-five in any case, and all his expenses are paid for him at the moment. He doesn’t go short of anything.’

‘No, he doesn’t go short of anything,’ agreed Lisa passionately. ‘But he doesn’t have control of anything, either, and that really infuriates him. I’m sure he wouldn’t get involved in so many silly stunts at the university if he didn’t feel so hemmed in by you and his mother. In my opinion, half the reason he’s so silly and disruptive is that he feels as if he’s treated like a child.’

‘Does he now?’ said Matt dryly. ‘Well, he’ll simply have to put up with it until I’m convinced that it’s in his best interests to change my approach. And I’m not convinced of that yet. Tell me, are you in love with Tim?’

Lisa choked with laughter.

‘Of course not!’ she retorted.

‘Yet you live with him?’ demanded Matt sternly.

All the hostility between them seemed to come bubbling to the surface as the implication of his words sank in.

‘So you assume—’ cried Lisa hotly and then bit off the words.

‘I’ve seen for myself that you lie around naked on the dining table inviting his attentions,’ continued Matt in a hushed, rapid tone so that she had to strain her ears to catch the words. ‘So I assume that you’re having an affair with him. Is that unreasonable?’

Lisa flushed scarlet and glanced uneasily around her, but the other guests in the restaurant seemed quite unconscious of what they were discussing. Her mind raced as she tried to gather her thoughts. She could have told Matt Lansdon the simple truth, every bit of it, including the bargain about the art lessons. But why should she? What business was it of his?

‘It’s nothing to do with you,’ she flared.

‘I see,’ he replied mockingly. ‘Then I’ll simply have to go on making my assumptions, won’t I? But if you’re not in love with Tim, are you at least fond of him?’

‘As a matter of fact, I am!’

‘Then leave him alone, Lisa,’ urged Matt, leaning forward across the table and seizing her wrist. ‘Move out of that flat and give him a chance to grow up. He doesn’t need a woman like you in his life when he’s barely out of school and still wet behind the ears.’

‘A woman like me?’ echoed Lisa. ‘And what exactly is that supposed to mean?’

‘You know damned well what it’s supposed to mean. You’re a sensual, ambitious little schemer and you’re using your considerable charm and physical attraction to lure him into your nets.’

‘I’m flattered that you think I have charm and physical attraction,’ jeered Lisa.

‘Don’t be. It’s a simple statement of fact, not a compliment. What baffles me is why you bother. Is the money really worth it?’

‘What money?’ demanded Lisa contemptuously.

‘The money you hope to get when Tim marries you,’ snapped Matt.

Lisa’s mouth fell open. ‘Is that what I’m supposed to be after? Marriage to Tim?’

‘Oh, I love the bewildered innocence, sweetheart! But you’re wasting your time trying to fool me. Sonia’s already told me you and Tim are planning to get married.’

Lisa very nearly picked up the champagne bottle and emptied it over Matt’s head. Then she took a long, deep breath and exhaled slowly. She had disliked Tim’s mother from the moment she met her, considering her snobbish, patronizing and extremely silly, but even Sonia was incapable of such a pearl of fantasy without at least a grain of truth to get her started. Tim must have said something to set this whole tale in motion!

‘Where did you hear this?’ she asked.

‘Tim told her. She says she’s found you in the house twice when she went to visit him. The first time she suspected you were living with him, so the second time she arrived unannounced, found a wild party in progress and Tim draped all over you.’

‘It wasn’t a wild party!’ protested Lisa. ‘It was just a few of Tim’s friends at the end of third term. We’ve had much wilder parties than that.’

‘Have you?’ demanded Matt in an ominous tone. ‘As your landlord, I hardly find that reassuring. Anyway, be that as it may, Sonia tackled Tim about it afterwards and demanded to know what you were doing there. At first he told her a lot of implausible stories and then finally blurted out the truth—that he had fallen in love with you and was planning to marry you.’

Lisa gave a low gasp of indignation.

‘That idiot,’ she muttered. ‘I might have known he’d go to pieces once Sonia started interrogating him. He’s nothing but a big, silly kid.’

‘Exactly,’ growled Matt. ‘So why are you wasting your time on him? You don’t need a boy, you need a grown man, and a powerful one at that, to keep you occupied, young lady.’

‘Oh, so you’re offering your services, are you?’ demanded Lisa sarcastically.

Matt’s hold on her wrist tightened.

‘I might be, I just might be,’ he growled. ‘Not marriage, Lisa. I’ve no intention of marrying a woman who’s available to the highest bidder, but a love affair, that’s something else.’ He leaned forward and his voice was so low that she could scarcely catch the words, but when she did they made her quiver with rage and something else. ‘I can make you tingle and ache with sexual passion in a way that boy hasn’t even discovered yet. You’re a gambler and a deeply sensual woman, Lisa, and I’m a man of considerable experience. Why don’t you try your luck with me?’

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