Burning Obsession. Carole Mortimer

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СКАЧАТЬ mouth turned back. ‘Then I’m going to come as something of a shock to him.’

      ‘Yes,’ he agreed tersely, his expression grim.

      She patted her flattened stomach bitterly. ‘Quite a shock,’ she repeated.

      ‘Yes,’ he said again, turning to fill a glass with whisky.

      Kelly eyed him coldly. ‘Isn’t it a little early in the day for that?’

      Grey eyes raked over her. ‘Do you care?’

      She shrugged. ‘Not particularly.’

      His mouth twisted tauntingly. ‘I thought not,’ he swallowed half the liquid in one gulp. ‘What the hell’s got into you?’ he rasped. ‘Losing the baby was traumatic——’

      ‘I’m glad you realise it.’ Her voice was harsh.

      Jordan gave her an angry look. ‘I’m not completely insensitive. But I don’t expect this to have changed you out of all recognition.’

      Kelly idly picked up one of the cut-glass vases that adorned the alcove, admiring its cool beauty with icy detachment. ‘Things like that have a way of making one grow up in a hurry. After all, Jordan, I’m not a child any longer,’ she scorned.

      ‘I wouldn’t call eighteen old. And I always liked your youthful enthusiasm for everything.’

      ‘Appealed to your jaded senses, did it?’ she taunted.

      ‘You see?’ he snapped impatiently, swinging her round to face him and knocking the vase out of her hand in the process. It shattered at their feet. ‘Oh hell,’ he swore, ‘now look what you’ve done!’

      ‘What I’ve done?’ she looked at him with accusing eyes, that vase a particular favourite with her. ‘You’re the one who had to use brute force—as usual,’ she sneered. ‘Take your hands off me, you—you——’

      ‘Yes?’ His narrowed eyes levelled on her mouth.

      Kelly could tell he was going to kiss her and she jerked back, regretting her impulse as she saw the mockery in his eyes. ‘Just don’t touch me! I hate to be touched.’

      ‘That’s not the way I remember it.’

      She blushed at his implication, remembering the nights when she had almost begged for his possession of her. Memories of other nights spent in his arms, of his lithe muscular body working a familiar magic on her, made her glare her dislike of him. ‘Forget the way you remember it. I don’t want——’

      ‘Here we are, then,’ Mrs McLeod bustled in with the tea things, beaming happily at the two of them. ‘Oh dear,’ she spotted the shattered vase, ‘did you have an accident?’

      ‘It slipped out of my wife’s hands,’ Jordan said smoothly.

      Kelly compressed her lips to hold back her angry retort. After all, what he said was the truth, but it had only happened because of him. His touching her had been provocation enough for her to drop the vase.

      ‘Never mind,’ the housekeeper picked up the pieces. ‘It’s only glass.’

      Kelly could see Jordan’s mouth twitch at the understatement. It had been a very valuable vase, one she had been very fond of, and although Jordan didn’t share her enthusiasm he could appreciate its value.

      She sat down in front of the tea-tray. ‘Milk or lemon?’ she enquired coldly of her husband.

      ‘Milk,’ he drawled slowly. ‘There’s enough sharpness in this room already.’

      Kelly glared at him, conscious of Mrs McLeod still picking up the broken glass. ‘Sugar?’ she asked with exaggerated politeness.

      ‘No, thanks.’ He sat down, his long legs stretched out in front of him. ‘But you have some—you need the energy,’ he added tauntingly.

      She knew he hadn’t meant that at all, and her mouth tightened angrily. ‘How kind of you to think of my health. Isn’t he a considerate husband, Mrs McLeod?’

      ‘Well, of course he is.’ The housekeeper finally stood up. ‘We’ve all been very worried about you, Mr Lord most of all.’

      ‘But you had no need to be worrried,’ Kelly smiled warmly at the other woman. ‘I’m young and resilient.’

      ‘Of course you are. But I was telling Mr Lord he should take you away for a holiday, get you away from here and into the sunshine.’

      ‘No! No.’ Kelly studiously erased the sharpness from her voice. ‘I—I’d rather not.’ She didn’t want to go anywhere where she would have to be alone with Jordan.

      The mockery in his eyes told her that he knew exactly the reason she had turned down the idea of a holiday. ‘Maybe later on,’ he said smoothly. ‘I can’t get away at the moment.’

      He couldn’t leave his secretary! Angela Divine was beautiful, a tall shapely blonde. She was in her late twenties, ten years Kelly’s senior, and Kelly felt sure the other woman would make sure Jordan appreciate her added experience.

      Kelly shivered as she remembered what it was like to feel like a woman in Jordan’s arms, to know the wonder of his caresses that could quickly turn to demanding passion.

      He had been so patient with her on their wedding night, had gradually introduced her to the delights of her own body, until the initial pain of their consummation had seemed as nothing compared to the blinding pleasure that quickly followed.

      She pushed these erotic thoughts to the back of her mind as she remembered the day of humiliation that had followed in Jordan’s office six months later.

      Because of Jordan’s inability to get away Kelly had suggested that perhaps she could go away on her own. She had known she had to get away from Jordan; the love she had had for him had turned to hate in such a short time, the love that had seemed to be the pinnacle of her life.

      Jordan waited for the housekeeper to leave them before vetoing that idea. ‘You aren’t going anywhere without me,’ he snapped. ‘Even if you do have this ridiculous aversion to me at the moment.’

      Kelly stood up. ‘Go to hell!’ she said fiercely, turning in the direction of her bedroom, the bedroom that she had slept in alone since telling Jordan of her pregnancy.

      He swung her round before she reached the door, a dangerous glitter in his cold grey eyes. ‘Don’t ever talk to me like that again, little girl!’ he rasped. ‘I won’t stand for it.’

      Tears flooded her huge navy blue eyes. ‘And what happens if I do?’ she choked. ‘I suppose you’re going to beat me.’ She gave a bitter laugh. ‘I suppose you’d like that.’

      He shook his head impatiently. ‘You ridiculous child,’ he chided gently, pulling her against him to bury his face in her thick black hair. ‘Cry, Kelly,’ he encouraged. ‘It will help.’

      She at once stiffened in his arm, feeling as cold to human warmth as a beautiful statue. ‘I have no intention of СКАЧАТЬ