Diana Hamilton - The Faithful Wife

She, Bella, had always got along well with Jake’s sister, but Kitty and Evie had struck up a firm friendship shortly after the wedding, where they’d met for the first time.

Jake was convinced his sister was due here—had she told him that much? Had he needed to get in touch with her for some vital reason or other and couldn’t, not without coming in person, because there wasn’t a phone?

Had he reluctantly driven up, swallowing his dislike of seeing his estranged wife again, because he had to talk to Kitty for some important reason?

If so, he would be desperately worried over her non-appearance, just as she was worrying over Evie. She took a deep breath and said, ‘Was Kitty supposed to be joining us?’

She would have thought it highly unlikely, given that her own sister had booked this break in order to take Bella’s mind off her broken marriage at this special and, for her at least, traumatic time of year. But, given his unshakable conviction, his very obvious concern...

Jake Fox dragged air deep into his lungs and exhaled it slowly, shudderingly, through gritted teeth.

She’d lost the small amount of weight she’d gained during their marriage, he noted bitterly—it had to be because of her return to her modelling career, he thought. But she was still the beautiful, sensuous woman who had drifted in and out of his dreams so maddeningly over the past twelve months. He could order his long waking hours with almost military precision, but he had found it impossible to regulate his dreams.

However, he was working on it.

He took a step towards where she was sitting, defensively hunched in an armchair that dwarfed her delicate frame, his body moving without direction from his brain.

Something about the hunted look in those crystal eyes, the tremulous droop of the lush mouth that had been responsible for the birth of many a male fantasy, touched him despite himself.

That protective streak rearing its head again, he decided cynically.

‘We need to get the facts out in the open.’ Purposefully, he took the chair opposite hers. His heart was banging about under his ribcage but he’d sounded cool, in control, thank the Lord. He’d give up significantly more than his eye-teeth rather than let her know how she could still affect him and touch his heart.

He gave her a narrow-eyed stare. Her unbelievably long and heavy dark lashes had fallen, hiding her expression. The truth had always been there in her eyes if you looked long and hard enough to find it As he’d found it—had had it forcibly thrust upon him—when he’d walked in on her and that creep, Guy Maclaine.

Abruptly he shifted his mind from that often-replayed scenario, watching her closely.

‘You’re here to spend a quiet Christmas with Evie, and you claim you had no idea Kitty was expected,’ he stated levelly.

That was obviously what she meant him to believe. But he knew differently. Kitty, damn her, had used the ruse of needing to talk her problems over with him to get him here. She had needed peace and quiet, she’d said. Just the two of them. If her troubles had been as dire as she’d intimated she wouldn’t have wanted his estranged wife and her sister around to add to the jollity!

Kitty wouldn’t be turning up. That had never been her intention.

He watched Bella closely. Her confusion was very convincing. But to rise to the dizzy heights of top photographic model, internationally sought-after and universally fêted, she would have had to become a reasonably proficient actress. She could have set this whole thing up, drawing his own sister, and hers, into her web of deceit. Deceit had turned out to be her middle name.

She said nothing, merely nodded after considering his statement, the silky swathes of her hair falling forward, hiding her face.

‘And I’m here because my sister begged me to be. She’s in trouble, or so she said. She needed to talk and a friend had offered her the use of this place.’

The sardonic explanation of his presence brought her head jerking up, her silver eyes locking with his, clouded with more expertly portrayed confusion, her soft lips pouting with almost child-like perplexity. Over-acting, Jake decided, feeling his heart go hard—a not unusual occurrence these days. Her betrayal and subsequent defection had atrophied that particular organ.

‘The three of you set this up.’ A cold statement, spoken with concise deliberation. He could find no other explanation for the way he’d been tricked into coming here. ‘If you’d wanted a meeting you could have made an appointment with my secretary. There was no need to go to such ridiculous lengths.’

He glanced impatiently at his watch. He had no intention of prolonging this farce. She deserved to be left here to stew, but his conscience wouldn’t let him take that road.

He’d seen no sign of a phone when he’d investigated this place, so she couldn’t contact anyone for transport out of here, and the way the weather was looking she could be marooned in the mountains for weeks. He’d drop her off at the first hotel they happened across on his way to Kitty’s home in Chester. He’d rout his sister out of her cosy love-nest and give her the tongue-lashing of her lifetime for her part in this time-wasting piece of lunacy.

Bella pushed the hair off her face with the back of her hand. He was accusing her of conniving with their respective sisters to get him here. There could be only one reason why she would stoop to doing that—couldn’t there just? To ‘persuade’ him to take her back.

‘In your dreams!’ She answered his accusation rawly. As if she would! His conceit was beyond belief!

She snapped to her feet, anger drenching through her. He had always treated her like a mindless doll, with no needs of her own, no thoughts that weren’t his, without direction unless he pulled her strings. Simply a body to be seen on his arm, making him the envy of every red-blooded male around, and a gratifyingly willing body in his bed whenever he decided to remember to come home.

He wouldn’t be able to believe she could exist and prosper without him. Even though he didn’t want her anywhere near him, his conceit would make him believe she couldn’t carry on without him and would go to any lengths to get him back.

He was on his feet, too, and the sheer breadth and height of him swamped her, was in danger of sapping her will. But she wouldn’t let his masculinity intimidate her. She would not! Drawing breath to tell him to get out of here, now, she held it, ears straining as she caught the distant sound of an engine.

‘Evie!’ she breathed, her eyes glowing with vindication. And not before time! She would back her up, tell this arrogant beast that any conspiracy was all in his twisted mind. Why should she want him to take her back when he was unable to give her the one thing she craved?

‘Bravo!’ Black eyes glinted with sardonic applause, even a hint of humour. ‘Nice touch. But we both know your sister won’t be showing her face within a hundred miles of this place, don’t we?’

The story about Evie having popped down the road to pick up the groceries was thin, and that was putting it mildly. And Bella was still hamming it up, making a show of listening intently, so he, too, listened to the resounding silence, then snapped out an order.

‘Get your things together while I rake out what’s left of this fire. We’re leaving. I’ll drop you at a hotel.’

The faint sound of the engine had long since faded. A farmer making his way home along one of those tortuous mountain tracks, she decided tiredly. Disappointment hit her like a charging elephant. And then came the cruelly sharp anxiety. She stared at him, frowning, shaking her head.

‘No. I’m staying here, waiting for Evie.’ Didn’t he care that something must have happened? Her happy-go-lucky, impulsive little sister had set out over two hours ago now, promising to be back within thirty minutes. Despite all his faults, he had never been a heartless man. So why wasn’t he concerned?