Mistress & a Million Dollars / Satin & A Scandalous Affair: Mistress & a Million Dollars. Jan Colley

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СКАЧАТЬ a little irritated being surrounded by males who thought they knew everything. “I think all the testosterone on this boat must be keeping it afloat.”

      A surprised look entered his eyes then he burst out laughing. For a moment she stared at him, then began to smile in return. It was quite funny, now she came to think about it.

      “I’d have thought a beautiful woman like yourself would be used to being surrounded by testosterone,” Jake teased.

      “In the modeling world?” she jokingly scoffed, and received a chuckle from Jake.

      “No, I guess not,” he agreed with a rueful grin.

      Suddenly she caught Jarrod looking at the two of them. A slither went over her skin and quickly she looked away just as the waiter brought the next course. Once the food was served, talk at the table turned to other things.

      Briana deliberately didn’t look at Jarrod after that, preferring instead to concentrate on the speeches and proceedings, though she was aware of him. Afterward, dark descended and they all moved to the well-lit top deck where the bride and groom began their first dance. Before too long, others had joined them, including her and Jake.

      As for Jarrod, he seemed to have disappeared. She remained on edge, at first expecting him to show up at any tick of the clock, but when he didn’t, she quickly pushed aside the disappointment that filled her. She wasn’t going to let herself be disappointed by a man again, she reminded herself, then promptly did the opposite when she saw the lights from a small boat moving away from the cruiser, taking Jarrod back to shore.

      He hadn’t even said goodbye, she thought, then something on the shoreline caught her attention. Myriad lights began to flash as the small boat approached them.

      The media.

      Not that Jarrod would give them a second thought. No doubt he’d stride through the pack to a waiting car like he was parting the Red Sea.

      After that the evening seemed flat. Briana smiled and talked, and when it came time for the yacht to return to shore, she was glad that the security people held back the media circus while they made their way into a fleet of cars.

      Lights flashed in her eyes as Jake guided her into the back of a limousine, but the media’s attention soon focused back on Kim and Ric, who had insisted they would only leave the boat after all their guests had alighted.

      “They’re a brave couple,” Jake said, shaking his head as a shower of flashes seemed to light up the night sky through the back window of the car.

      “Yes,” Briana agreed. “And very determined to show the world a united front.”

      His smile disappeared. “I can understand that.”

      The limousine drove off but they didn’t talk much while it weaved through the streets of Sydney to her apartment building. Then Jake walked her to her door.

      “I had a good time,” he said, moving in closer, pushing a strand of hair off her cheek.

      Briana knew it was a prelude to a kiss and she moved in closer, too. Jake had kissed her before and it had always been nice, but tonight she suddenly wanted him to kiss her like he meant it. As if she was the only woman in the world he wanted.

      Only, when the kiss finished, one thing was clear. Jake’s kiss had been just a kiss. And by the wry glint in his eye he knew it, too.

      “I think you’d better get some sleep,” he said, tapping her on the end of her nose with his index finger. And then he pivoted and headed back to the elevator.

      Briana watched him go with a sinking feeling in her stomach. Jake was an extremely handsome man who knew how to treat a woman right. And he knew how to kiss. It was just a pity she hadn’t felt anything when his lips were on hers. Not like she would if Jarrod Hammond had kissed her.

      Of that she was certain.

      Two

      The next morning Briana caught a taxi to Quinn Everard’s office and left the diamonds with his office manager. Then, after another couple of days in Sydney, including lunching with her agent, she caught a plane back to Melbourne on the Wednesday, and drove to her father’s house to check on him first. Then she’d go home to her apartment on the other side of the city. She still had to prepare for the Moomba Fashion Show this coming Labor Day weekend at the casino.

      So it was mid-afternoon by the time Briana parked in the driveway of the solid brick home that her parents bought when they’d moved to Melbourne from Sydney nearly thirty years ago. They’d never been rich but had been comfortable. Her mother had even insisted on sending her and Marise to one of the top private schools here in Melbourne, after a spinster aunt had left her some money.

      Now, when Ray Davenport opened the front door to her, Briana noted with concern that her father was looking tired. He’d been through so much, having kept her mother’s secret of the cancer that ravaged her body, until the end, when her mother had become so ill he’d finally told their daughters she was dying.

      “Want some coffee, honey?” he asked, walking ahead of her into the kitchen.

      “Thanks, Dad. That would be lovely.” She followed him, noting the stoop to his shoulders. “By the way, I dropped those diamonds off for an appraisal.”

      He looked over his shoulder with a frown. “Diamonds?”

      “The ones Marise left in my safe.”

      His face cleared. “Oh, that’s right. You found them in your safe after the plane crash, didn’t you?”

      “Yes.” Overcome with grief, she’d nearly forgotten Marise asking for the safe combination to keep some jewelry in there.

      Briana had thought nothing of giving the combination to her sister. She’d also let Marise stay in her Sydney apartment once she and her father returned to Melbourne, after Barbara Davenport had been buried next to her own parents in Waverley Cemetery. It was then that Marise seemed to go off the rails, those last few weeks before the plane crash. Their mother’s death had devastated Marise, but for her sister to remain in Sydney had been unwarranted.

      Especially after she’d started to be seen around town with Howard Blackstone.

      Especially when she had a husband and a small son back in New Zealand waiting for her.

      No wonder Matt had said he didn’t give a damn about any jewelry belonging to Marise. But she knew her brother-in-law wasn’t thinking straight, and that was part of the reason she’d decided to get them appraised. Perhaps if they were valuable they’d be worth keeping for Blake as a memento of his mother. Or maybe one day Matt would forgive his late wife and want the diamonds back. In the meantime, getting the diamonds valued was something she could do for her dead sister.

      “So you’re getting them appraised, you say?” her father said now, bringing her back to the moment. Again she noticed he didn’t look well.

      She stood in the kitchen doorway, her forehead creasing. “Dad, are you okay?”

      A moment crept by.

      “Dad?”

      He looked up at her then, and there was a despairing СКАЧАТЬ