Jennifer Taylor - Wife For Real

Katherine felt her heart lurch as she felt its springiness. She curled her fingers into her palms, to free them from the bondage of hair, and felt her nails rasp down his skin—almost... almost as though she were caressing him...

Unbidden, her eyes lifted, and she felt the blood rush to her face as she saw the gentle amusement in Jordan’s heavy blue eyes. ‘Mmm, I bet you didn’t bargain for this when you offered to help me, did you, Katherine?’

The wryness in his voice made her smile despite the tension which was coiled like a tightly wound spring inside her. She smoothed her hands flat against his chest, trying not to notice how the hair curled around her fingers again, as though intent on holding them there. ‘I definitely didn’t!’

He gave a throaty laugh as he looped his arm around her shoulders. ‘Well, I for one could stay here all day like this, but I don’t imagine it would be wise—for any number of reasons. Shall we try and get to the bedroom, sweetheart?’

The tender endearment made her heart turn over. Katherine didn’t try to answer because she was afraid of what Jordan might hear in her voice. She slid her arm around his waist as he took a tentative step away from the wall, and felt a rush of alarm as his legs seemed to buckle.

‘Careful! Hold onto me, Jordan. Don’t let go!’

He drew a deep breath, yet his voice seemed to grate breathlessly. ‘That sounds like the best suggestion I’ve ever heard. Holding onto you is my intention, Katherine.’

Katherine shot him a startled look, but there was nothing on his face to explain her feeling that there had been a double meaning to the words. She concentrated on helping him back to the bed, and was relieved when he finally sank down onto it. Jordan was a big man, tall and well-built, despite the fact that he didn’t carry an inch of spare flesh, and if he had passed out then she would have had no hope of moving him.

He lay back against the pillows with a sigh and closed his eyes, his body bathed in sweat and trembling from the exertion. Katherine drew a ragged breath, then bent to lift his legs up onto the bed to make him more comfortable. Even his legs were hot to the touch, the fever obviously raging through every bit of him...

Her gaze skimmed upwards before she realised what she was doing, and she felt her pulse leap. Jordan’s legs were long and well-muscled, his calves firm under their heavy coating of black hair, his thighs powerfully contoured, his hips narrow...

Katherine’s heart raced so that the blood drummed inside her head. She wasn’t a prude, but the reality of looking at a naked man as powerfully built as Jordan was a world removed from studying a painting or a piece of classical sculpture. Jordan’s masculinity was raw and potent, and something inside her responded to it despite herself.

She turned away abruptly, aware that she was trembling as she hurried to the wardrobe and found a spare blanket. Her hands were shaking, as though she were the one caught in the throes of the fever, as she carried it back to the bed and spread it over him.

‘Don’t want...’ Jordan stirred as he felt the soft wool envelop him. ‘Too hot, Katherine. Take it ’way...’

He tried to push the blanket off, but Katherine caught his hands and held them still. She took a deep breath, deliberately ridding her mind of those dangerous feelings by focusing on making him comfortable. Oddly it was something she wanted to do rather than simply feeling she had to.

‘No, leave it there. You’ll get a chill if you push it off. Just lie still, Jordan, and go to sleep, then you’ll feel better. Will you do that for me?’

His lips twisted into a smile as he gazed at her with heavy blue eyes. ‘Just for you, Katherine. Only for you...’

His lids lowered and he was asleep in seconds, the raspy sound of his breathing filling the room. Katherine stared down at him, studying the way his thick black lashes lay on his cheeks like two small fans. She felt something inside her stir. Tenderness? Compassion? Neither seemed to be exactly what she felt right then, but then neither seemed to be the sort of thing she usually felt when she thought of Jordan either!

She glanced down, suddenly realising that she was still holding his hands. He had nice hands, she thought as she turned them over. They were strong, capable hands; his fingers were long and beautifully shaped, his nails were cut blunt, and his skin was so darkly tanned that it made a startling contrast to her own...

Katherine felt her senses swim. She closed her eyes, trying desperately to blank out the pictures which suddenly filled her head. She had tried so hard to forget that night, yet suddenly it was as clear as though it were happening all over again: Jordan’s hands sliding up her pale, naked body to cup her breasts; the hunger in his eyes as he looked at her; the hot, moist feel of his mouth as it closed over her nipple...

And the clearest, most terrifying memory of all: the way she had responded as he had shown her that she was a woman...exactly like her mother!

‘Normally I would insist that your husband went to hospital, Mrs James. However, in view of the fact that he is so adamant that he doesn’t want to go, and that this isn’t the first time he has had malaria, I think it will be safe enough to allow him to remain here.’

‘Is there anything else I need to know?’ Katherine opened the door as the doctor picked up his bag. ‘I’ll make sure that he takes the medicine you’ve prescribed for him, of course.’

‘That’s the main thing.’ The doctor smiled reassuringly as he saw the concern in her eyes. ‘Your husband will be fine, Mrs James. It’s just a question of letting the illness run its course. There will be bouts of fever followed by periods when he will feel chilled, and he may even appear slightly confused at times. However, just make sure that he’s comfortable and he should be right as rain in a day or so.’

‘Thank you, Doctor.’

Katherine closed the door, then went back to the bedroom. Jordan was asleep again, lying quietly enough beneath the blanket now. She tried to decide if he looked any better but it was hard to tell. All she could do was wait for the illness to run its course, as the doctor had said, although she still couldn’t quite believe what was the matter with Jordan.

Malaria! Never in her wildest moment would she have suspected that was what was wrong. But the doctor had seemed in little doubt after Jordan had explained that he’d had it before. It made her wonder suddenly where he had caught it, but then there were so many things about him which she didn’t know. Their marriage hadn’t been founded on a mutual need to get to know one another, but on something far more basic. Maybe they had been foolish to imagine that it could have worked in the circumstances.

Katherine moved away from the bed and went to the window to stare out. The evening rush hour was almost over but there was still plenty of traffic moving along the street. Its sound was muted to a low hum which made a background for the thoughts humming inside her head.

Would either of them have gone into this marriage if they’d had any real idea of how it would turn out? She couldn’t speak for Jordan, and it was equally difficult to answer the question herself. Even with the benefit of hindsight she had trouble deciding.

She turned to glance at the man lying in the bed and sighed. There was a strange sense of déjà vu about everything which had happened in the past two days. Eighteen months ago there had also seemed little alternative but to ask Jordan for help...

When Katherine discovered that her home in Suffolk had been mortgaged to the hilt and that the bank was about to call in its loan, she realised that something had to be done. Carstairs Engineering had been losing money for years, and since her father’s heart attack six months previously affairs had gone from bad to worse.