Freedom To Love. Carole Mortimer

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ no such thing. Just because I’ve made a few mistakes——’

      ‘A few!’ he scorned. ‘You can’t seem to do anything without getting into trouble.’

      ‘I can,’ she defended. ‘But this is my first time on an aeroplane. I was nervous, frightened on occasion,’ she said with remembered embarrassment. ‘I think that’s ample excuse for those few mistakes I made.’

      He shook his head impatiently. ‘Your first time in the air and you choose to fly to Canada!’ He gave her a scathing glance. ‘You could have been sick for the whole of the flight. I suppose I would have had to cope with that too,’ he finished disgustedly.

      ‘I didn’t ask for your help. I could have managed perfectly well on my own.’

      ‘Oh sure,’ he scorned. ‘You’re the epitome of cool efficiency.’

      Hot colour entered her creamy cheeks. ‘And you’re the arrogant bighead I would have expected you to be! Just because I’m a little inexperienced about dealing with airport officials and——’

      ‘Inexperienced!’ he mocked. ‘You’re like a babe in arms. And it looks as if your sister has already gone through. Will she wait for you?’

      ‘Of course she will!’ Katy was still angered by her sister’s desertion of her. Some holiday this was going to be if Gemma and Gerald were going to keep leaving her out like this!

      ‘I hope so,’ the man at her side said grimly, ‘because I simply don’t have the time to help you out of another disaster. I’m being met.’

      ‘You have friends in Canada?’

      ‘A few,’ he nodded.

      ‘Female friends,’ she said knowingly.

      ‘Some,’ Adam Wild smiled.

      ‘Will she mind my being with you?’

      ‘She——? Oh, I’m not being met by a she, Katy. And I’m sure Jud won’t mind seeing you with me, in fact he’ll probably enjoy it.’

      ‘I see.’

      ‘Disappointed?’ he bent his head to whisper against her earlobe. ‘Would you have enjoyed being the cause of trouble between a girl-friend and myself?’

      ‘I might have done.’ Katy’s head was back challengingly.

      He shook his head, smiling. ‘Why on earth you were blessed with such tranquil grey eyes I’ll never know. They’re at complete variance with your stormy nature.’

      ‘I don’t have a stormy nature,’ she snapped, immediately contradicting the statement. Blushing, she turned away.

      Once they had shown their passports and collected their luggage, Katy’s brand new case, and Adam Wild’s battered holdall, they made their way outside to the curiously empty airport.

      A tall man with deep red hair and laughing blue eyes detached himself from several people standing outside and made his way towards the man standing confidently at Katy’s side.

      ‘Adam!’ He shook his friend’s hand with unconcealed pleasure. ‘Glad you could get back so quickly.’ His accent was distinctly Canadian.

      Adam grinned at him. ‘I always like to finish what I start. God protect me from jealous women!’ He grimaced.

      Jud turned to look pointedly at Katy. ‘This isn’t——’

      Adam laughed. ‘Good God, no!’

      ‘In that case … I’m Jud Turner,’ he introduced himself to Katy.

      She couldn’t help returning the open friendliness of this man. ‘Katy Harris,’ she divulged shyly, still wondering what Adam Wild had meant by his remark about ‘jealous women’. Jud Turner obviously knew the answer because he hadn’t questioned the remark. She turned to Adam Wild, her smile instantly fading. ‘Thank you for your—help,’ she said reluctantly, politeness calling for some acknowledgement of the assistance he had given her. ‘If you’ll both excuse me, I have to join my sister.’

      Adam nodded. ‘Take care, Katy,’ he advised with ill-concealed humour. He took another of his cards out of the breast pocket of his denim shirt. ‘Don’t tear this one up,’ he warned. ‘Call me when you get back to London.’ He put the card in exactly the same place as he had the first one.

      Katy’s cheeks flamed, and she would have liked to have slapped that taunting smile off his face. Instead she removed the card and with one last glance in Adam Wild’s direction she walked off, her head held high.

      ‘Pretty girl,’ she heard Jud Turner remark.

      ‘Passable,’ Adam Wild drawled. ‘It wasn’t her face I was interested in.’

      ‘It never is,’ his friend returned.

      Katy heard the two men laugh together and anger flared within her. So she was just a body to Adam Wild, just a faceless piece of flesh and bones that he thought photographable. God, she hated him!

       CHAPTER TWO

      GEMMA and Gerald were waiting outside the airport building. Well, at least they hadn’t gone on to the hotel without her!

      ‘Do hurry up, Katy,’ her sister snapped. ‘We’ve been waiting ages for you.’

      She didn’t think five minutes constituted ‘ages’, but she wasn’t going to start an argument in the middle of Calgary airport. ‘Mr Wild was just helping——’

      Gemma sighed, interrupting her. ‘You’ve been talking to him again!’ It was almost an accusation.

      ‘Did you take him up on his offer?’ Gerald wanted to know.

      Katy gave him a contemptuous glare, wondering how she could have let herself in for two weeks of this unbearable man’s company. She would just have to try and keep out of his way as much as possible, otherwise there were going to be a few heated arguments before the end of this holiday.

      ‘Don’t be silly, Gerald,’ Gemma giggled as she held on to his arm. ‘Katy’s too much of a prude to take her clothes off for any man.’

      Hot colour flooded Katy’s cheeks, and out of the corner of her eyes she saw Adam Wild and Jud Turner leaving the airport, their avid conversation showing that she had long been forgotten. ‘There’s a time and place for everything,’ she told them stiffly. ‘And in front of a camera, before a complete stranger, is neither the time or the place.’

      ‘Oh, we know the right place,’ Gemma gazed up adoringly at Gerald. ‘Don’t we, darling?’

      ‘You bet!’ he grinned down at her.

      Katy was feeling decidedly in the way. Surely they weren’t going to behave like this all the holiday, making her feel completely unwanted. ‘Shall we get a taxi?’ she suggested СКАЧАТЬ