Australian Affairs: Claimed. Margaret Way

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СКАЧАТЬ swept the tip of her tongue over her kiss-swollen lips, her heart skipping all over the place. ‘I guess not…’

      He held her gaze captive for a long heart-stopping moment. ‘I want you.’

      The blunt statement shocked and yet thrilled her. Charles had waited years before asking her to sleep with him. ‘But for how long?’ she asked.

      ‘That’s not a question anyone can answer specifically,’ he said. ‘Relationships run their course. Some last days, others weeks, others years.’

      She toyed with a button on his shirt rather than meet his gaze. ‘Yours don’t last years, though, do they?’ she said.

      It seemed a long time before he answered. ‘I’m not promising anything long-term, Kitty. You’re only here until the end of April. It wouldn’t be fair to pretend this could turn into an affair of a lifetime.’

      Kitty raised her eyes to his. ‘Because you don’t want to fall in love.’

      ‘You don’t have to be in love with someone to have great sex,’ he said. ‘Aren’t your parents proof of that?’

      Her shoulders went down on a little sigh as she moved away. ‘I’m not like my parents,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t bear to live the way they do. I don’t want to play musical beds with faceless strangers. I want security. I want love. I want marriage and babies and happy ever after.’

      He gave a cynical crack of laughter. ‘You want a fairytale that doesn’t exist in the real world. Fifty percent of marriages end up in divorce. The other fifty live snappily ever after.’

      She threw him an exasperated look. ‘There’s no point arguing with you. I can see you’ve collated enough evidence to support your cynical take on things. But there are plenty of relationships that last the distance. I see them all the time in A&E. Old couples who’ve spent a whole lifetime loving each other. I want that. I want to be with someone for my whole life—not a month here or there or a measly week or two.’

      ‘Then I’m not your man,’ he said, his expression stony, his voice even harder. ‘I’m happy to have a bit of fun, but don’t expect anything else from me.’

      Kitty held that steely blue gaze. ‘I feel sorry for men like you, Jake. You have plenty of fun now, but what about later? What about when you’re old and sick and no one wants you any more?’

      A muscle flexed in his jaw. ‘I’ll take my chances.’

      ‘You’ll end up lonely and alone,’ she said. ‘You’ll have no shared memories of the phases of life you’ve journeyed through. No children to share your genes. No grandchild—’

      ‘Look,’ he said, cutting her short. ‘I get what you’re saying. Do you think I haven’t thought through all of that? Of course I have. I just can’t make promises I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep.’

      Kitty nailed him with a flinty look. ‘You don’t want to make promises.’

      He held her gaze for a second or two before he blew out a breath on a long exhale. He tipped up her chin using two fingers, while his thumb moved back and forth over the cushion of her bottom lip. ‘It wouldn’t work, you know,’ he said. ‘You. Me. Us. You’re too innocent for someone as hard-boiled as me. I’d end up walking all over you.’

      ‘I know how to take care of myself.’

      ‘Do you, Kitty?’ he asked looking at her intently. ‘Do you really?’

      Her heart tripped as his gaze centred on her mouth. Heat pooled in her belly and her legs felt that betraying tremble again. ‘Of course I do,’ she said. ‘I’m a big girl now.’

      He brushed an imaginary hair away from her face. ‘Even big girls can get their hearts broken.’

      ‘So can big boys.’

      He gave her a twisted smile as he reached for the door. ‘Not this big boy.’

      ‘You’re not truly alive if you don’t allow yourself to be open to happiness and to hurt,’ she said. ‘It’s what makes life so rich and rewarding—the highs and the lows and all the bits in between.’

      ‘Goodnight, Dr Cargill,’ he said. ‘Sweet dreams.’

      Kitty blew out a breath when the door clicked shut behind him. ‘Watch it, my girl,’ she said in an undertone. ‘Just watch it, OK?’

      * * *

      ‘Where’s Kitty?’ Gwen asked, looking past Jake’s shoulders when he arrived at the new staff welcome drinks on Friday night. ‘I thought she might be coming with you.’

      Jake took one of the light beers off a tray that was being handed around by one of the interns. ‘Then you thought wrong,’ he said.

      Gwen angled her head at him. ‘What’s going on with you two?’

      ‘Nothing.’ He took a sip of froth off the top of his beer.

      ‘You had dinner with her,’ Gwen said. ‘Brad told me when I had lunch with my daughter at the grill yesterday.’

      He shrugged. ‘So?’

      ‘Don’t break her heart, Jake.’

      ‘I have no intention of doing any such thing.’

      ‘She’s not your type.’

      Jake frowned as he put his beer on the chest-high drinks stand beside him. ‘That’s surely up to her to decide, isn’t it?’

      Gwen lifted her brows. ‘I’m just saying.’

      ‘Then don’t,’ he said, shooting her a look.

      ‘How is Robbie?’

      He shifted his gaze, his left hand tightening to a fist inside his trouser pocket. ‘I’d rather not talk about my brother right now.’

      ‘You never want to talk about him, Jake,’ Gwen said. ‘You used to chat about him all the time. How well he was doing. How nice it was to have him drop by with his friends. What’s going on? Is he in some sort of trouble?’

      Jake glared at her. ‘Leave it, Gwen, OK? I don’t want everyone talking about what a crap job I’ve done of watching out for my brother. He’s an adult. I can’t control him any more.’

      ‘No one could possibly criticise you for what you’ve done for your family, Jake,’ she said gently.

      He let out a weary breath. ‘Sorry, Gwen,’ he said. ‘I know you mean well. It’s just that things are pretty tough right now. Robbie’s being so irresponsible. I don’t know how to handle him any more. It’s like I’m dealing with someone else entirely.’

      ‘Jim and I had a rough trot with one of our boys a few years back,’ Gwen said. ‘Matt gave us a couple of years of hell but he eventually grew out of it. Maybe Robbie’s just going through a similar thing.’

      Jake looked at her. ‘When СКАЧАТЬ