His Wedding Day Revenge

Chapter Ten

CHAPTER TEN

J AMIE ’ S EYES WIDENED and he winced. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean it to sound like that.’

‘It’s all right. I know what you mean.’

‘You haven’t changed at all,’ he marvelled.

‘You have,’ Jane said, taking a step back to look at him.

‘I’m flattered you didn’t recognise me,’ he joked. ‘And—’

‘Jamie, my darling boy!’

Jane could almost feel the energy being sucked out of the young man. She could see the gawky boy he had once been as he froze, turning slowly towards the voice.

The connections were being made in her head as she watched the blonde from earlier kiss the air a foot or so either side of Jamie’s face.

This was his mother, Draco’s stepmother. Jane’s heart went out to him.

‘Oh, my darling, you still have the glasses, I see.’ She shook her blonde head. ‘They make you look so geeky. Tell him,’ she said, appealing to Jane. ‘Contact lenses or, better still, laser surgery and...’ She brushed an invisible crumb off her son’s immaculate lapel, her lips twisting into a grimace of distaste. ‘You always were a messy little—’ The eyes swivelled slyly towards Jane. ‘Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend? I’m Jamie’s mother. I know, before you say it, I look too young.’

Jane, who hadn’t been about to say anything of the sort, took a deep breath. ‘How lovely to meet you—again,’ she said calmly, not even bothering to disguise her insincerity. ‘So sorry, but Jamie promised me this dance.’

Jamie blinked at her as she inclined her head to the empty space in the centre of the floor, her eyes flashing a message.

‘Nobody is dancing,’ the woman pointed out petulantly.

Jane took Jamie’s hand and laid it on her waist, and after the slightest pause he placed his other in the small of her back.

‘They are now!’ she cried as they twirled away.

‘Thank you,’ Jamie said quietly as he held her eyes, gratitude shining in his.

Jane could see the beads of sweat along his upper lip and her heart went out to him as she reflected how terrible it was that a mother-son relationship could be so toxic.

‘Oh, hell, thank God you can dance!’ she said a few moments later and was pleased to feel some of the young man’s rigid tension relax as they moved to the music.

‘A lot better than you,’ Jamie retorted. ‘You have trod on my feet three times.’ He laughed and leaned in, his expression serious as he emphasised, ‘Really, thank you for that.’

‘Any time,’ she said, meaning it. ‘I suppose I’ve broken some rule by dancing,’ she said, half gloomy, half laughing.

‘What’s the worst that can happen?’ Jamie said.

Jane lowered her eyes and thought, It already has.

She’d been hiding behind the illusion that she was in charge, she set the rules and boundaries, which meant she was safe, but, for all the smoke and mirrors, it was self-delusion. She wasn’t.

She was in love with Draco and the heartbreak coming her way was inevitable, but in the meantime, she told herself fiercely, she was going to enjoy every precious moment of it.

‘Wow!’ The dizzying circle of alternating despair and determination in her head was broken as she allowed herself to be manoeuvred around another couple to avoid a head-on collision.

The floor was now quite crowded. Several couples of varying abilities had joined them, and the quartet had reacted by switching seamlessly to a slow, dreamy waltz number.

‘Wow, you are so good at this,’ Jane said truthfully.

‘When I didn’t make the soccer team, Draco advised me to find something I was good at. Turned out that women like dancers more than they like jocks, or it might just be me,’ he said smugly.

Jane laughed. ‘Oh, you sound so like Draco.’

‘I’m not sure I’d take that as a compliment, Jamie. Do you mind if I cut in?’

Grinning, Jamie released Jane and as Draco bent to say something in his ear he nodded, flashed a grin at Jane and mouthed thank you before threading his way through the dancers.

‘May I have this dance, cara ?’

She nodded, feeling suddenly incredibly shy. ‘I should warn you, I’m not a very good dancer.’

‘I think that is for me to say.’

He did not pull her into his arms immediately. Instead he took her elbows and held her a little away from him, his head dipping as his glittered dark stare swept down her body.

Jane felt the quiver start deep inside until her entire body was engulfed by a hot tide of sexual awareness... It seemed crazy to her at that moment that she had ever convinced herself she could enjoy him and then walk away.

‘You look very beautiful.’

It was not the words, it was his voice, his eyes, it was everything about him that stalled her brain. She knew they were surrounded by people and she ought to be acting normally—she had forgotten what normal was!

‘I’m not a very good dancer,’ she said as his hand came to the small of her back. She could feel the warmth of his splayed fingers through the silky fabric.

‘You said that.’

‘Did I?’ she said vaguely. He took her hands, which lay loosely at her sides, her fists clenched white, and placed them on his shoulders and put his one hand on her back between her shoulder blades, the other to her waist.

‘Follow me.’

A bubble of laughter emerged as a strangled choking sound through her clenched teeth as she realised she would probably follow him over a cliff.

No, you wouldn’t, said the stern voice in her head. Because a) he wouldn’t ask, b) you are a mother, so your first responsibility is to Mattie, and c) you wouldn’t be standing on the edge of a cliff because you are scared of heights.

This sense-inducing line of logic at least gave back the ability to breathe, but only shallowly, as he began to move, no, they began to move as one unit. Draco didn’t have Jamie’s fancy steps, or if he did he wasn’t using them, it was just silky smooth harmony and hypnotic sway, the closeness intense but, in a contradictory way, seductively soothing.

Jane’s nostrils flared as she breathed in the warm male scent of him, revelling in the coiled strength of his hard body. Enclosed by his arms, she felt cut off from everything but him—he was everything.

His breath was on her hair and then her neck. ‘I saw what you did.’

‘I felt like dancing and your brother is a very good dancer.’

‘Better than me...?’

‘Much better.’

His chest lifted in a laugh. ‘Really, cara , it was good of you to rescue him. She...his mother, Christina.’ On his lips the name sounded like a curse. ‘She is a vindictive bitch, utterly selfish, but, more than that, vicious, and let’s just say that when they were handing out maternal instincts she was not at the back of the queue. She missed it totally.

‘She traumatised him when he was a kid. Her voice could make him shake. It wasn’t physical abuse, it was—’ He heaved a deep sigh. ‘The best thing she ever did for Jamie was desert him.’

‘Why did you invite her?’

‘Invite?’ he exploded, looking outraged, then, in response to her widened eyes, lowered his tone as he explained. ‘It seems like she came as a plus one and ditched her escort the moment the helicopter landed. I don’t know why she’s here but I’m assuming it’s not concern for our mental well-being! Look, let’s not talk about her just now...’ he said, drawing her into his body.

Jane had no issue with this suggestion.

She lifted her head and placed a hand on his chest. ‘Draco, the music has stopped.’

He stood still and Jane caught a dazed look drift across his face as he saw the people leaving the floor and others moving in to take their places as the music struck up a jazzy number. Well, as jazzy as a string quartet went.

Jane watched his previously distracted expression clear as he scanned the room with a practised eye. ‘There are people I have to talk to.’

Was she imagining the underlying hint of frustration in his lean face? ‘We will talk later,’ he said, pulling back, but leaving his hand on the base of her spine as they left. The gesture felt possessive, and she found herself wondering if other people saw it that way.

‘Maybe we should be careful. People might make the connection, put two and two together and—’ She gestured with her head. A few loose curls had already escaped the Grecian coil at her neck that had taken ages for someone whose idea of a hairdo was a comb and shake. ‘I think people are looking.’

He stopped as they reached the edge of the area that had become an impromptu dance floor and tugged her around to face him. ‘Of course they are looking, you look... That is your second-hand dress?’

She felt his warm gaze move over her body. ‘Vintage,’ she corrected, her green eyes laughing up at him. ‘It is also much greener to shop locally, as you should know,’ she reproached, tongue in cheek.

‘So true, and here is someone you might like to educate on that subject... Tabitha Greenwood, Jane Smith... Tabitha is a—’

‘I know who Miss Greenwood is!’ Jane protested, flushing as she smiled at the fashion designer with the international reputation, who was instantly recognisable even if she had changed her hair colour from jet black to platinum blonde. ‘Hello,’ she said to the woman studying her with open curiosity through a pair of massive pink designer glasses.

‘Jane was just lecturing me on waste in fashion. She’s a big fan of charity-shop bargains.’

‘Actually, I am.’ She slung a look up at Draco. ‘He is putting words in my mouth and I am quite capable of speaking for myself.’

‘Well, that is telling you!’ cried the other woman, looking amused by the interchange.

‘Actually my dress—’

‘Vintage,’ the designer cut in, casting an expert eye over the blue silk gown. ‘It is gorgeous and, I suspect, updated a little?’ She quirked a quizzical eye at Jane, who nodded.

‘I can’t really do frills.’ She grinned and made an expressive sweeping gesture towards her foot. ‘I’m too short.’

The other woman, who was a sturdily constructed five nine, smiled back. ‘But perfectly formed, as they say, don’t you think so, Draco?’

Draco gave her a sardonic smile and said nothing.

‘See you later, enjoy...’ He paused and swung back. ‘Have you eaten anything more substantial than a canapé?’

Jane, who hadn’t had a canapé yet and was very aware of the speculative gleam in the birdlike gaze of the designer, shook her head in irritation. ‘Don’t fuss.’ To prove a point she grabbed a handful of canapés from a tray and put them one by one into her mouth. The last one was rather delicious. ‘Happy now?’ she challenged.

Never as happy as when I am looking at you.

The extraordinary recognition just popped fully formed into his head.

As there was no answering grin, her own smile faded. His expression was about as revealing as bulletproof steel shutters. It made her realise that she had not seen that closed-off look in a while, and she really hadn’t missed it!

Watching the tall figure stride away, the two women exchanged glances.

‘What was that about?’ the older woman wondered.

‘Not got a clue,’ Jane said with a tight, strained smile.

‘I’m here for research purposes and, of course, the champagne,’ Tabitha added, grabbing a fresh glass from a passing waiter. ‘These days you have to go green or go out of business. What about you?’

‘I have a place on the course here.’

‘Yes, but you already know Draco.’

‘What makes you say that?’

The older woman threw back her head and laughed. ‘It’s pretty obvious, my dear. I hear you’re staying in the palazzo? And yes,’ she added in response to Jane’s expression, ‘I am a nosy old biddy, but I’m only saying what other people are thinking after that dance.’

Jane looked at her in dismay. ‘I’m staying at the palazzo because I have my baby with me and Draco kindly put us up there because it’s quieter.’

‘A baby...?’

Jane could see the wheels turning and thought, Beam me up!

‘Mattie, the baby’s parents,’ she said quietly, ‘they died. I’m his guardian.’ There was some relief in fessing up even if it was to the wrong person.

The mockery in the other woman’s eyes faded, to be replaced by compassion that brought tears to Jane’s eyes. ‘Oh, my dear, how tragic.’ She squeezed Jane’s shoulder. ‘I’ve never been a mum, it just didn’t happen, but, you know, I think you will be a really good one. Come on, I have a friend who I know would love to meet you. She is very into vintage as well.’

As Draco did the handshakes and smiles he was aware of Jane in the middle of a diverse gaggle of people who seemed to be having more fun than anyone else in the room.

He felt a swell of admiration, a possessive pride that he knew he didn’t deserve as he watched Jane shine, her natural warmth drawing people to her.

A phenomenon he understood totally.

It seemed bizarre that he’d been concerned she would not feel comfortable today. His concern had been misplaced. Four years ago it wouldn’t have been. If he’d shown a shred of empathy back then, if he had actually picked up on the signs of stress...and had a conversation about it...the wedding might have gone ahead.

He felt a surge of self-disgust because he had picked up on the signs, but he had ignored them, filing them under inconvenience, because beautiful, desirable Jane would always be there, smiling at his elbow and fire in his bed.

It was more difficult to slip away than Jane had imagined but she finally managed.

‘You running away from the ball?’

She was good at running, he reminded himself, nursing the old hurt, channelling old anger and resentment as a barrier when he felt himself getting closer to her, when he found himself thinking family when he played with Mattie.

Lately the embers of old hurt were harder to kick into life. Logic suggested that it was probably a good thing she would be leaving soon, but he found it hard to summon much enthusiasm because logic was a casualty of the passion that burnt between them, a passion that had not as yet burnt itself out.

Jane’s breath caught at the sound of his deep voice. She ignored her thudding heart as she turned, channelling calm that was not even skin deep.

Being around Draco made her feel more alive somehow. His presence heightened her perceptions. A moment before she hadn’t noticed the romantic twinkle of the thousands of white fairy lights that wound around the trees that lined the path back to the palazzo, or the scent of rosemary and pine in the soft sea breeze or the moon that put blue highlights in Draco’s dark hair and accentuated the perfect angles and planes of his face.

His dark jacket hung open, the white of his shirt was dazzling, and underneath was the silky brown skin and the light dusting of body hair, the directional line that vanished as it met... She inhaled and thought, Pull yourself together woman—focus!

Not on that, she thought as her eyes sank just a little lower.

Cheeks hot, she dragged her eyes to his face. ‘Well, I was not running.’

So no excuse for the breathless delivery.

She lifted her heavy silk hem, exposing her calves, and angled a wry grin at her feet, a really safe place to stare at. ‘Not in these, and this was officially designated a party, not a ball, also no relation at all, as far as I know, of Cinders.’

‘That is a very thorough analysis. I will always come to you for fact-checking. I will rephrase—walking away from the party.’

She tried to smile but it just wouldn’t come. ‘I want to head back to check on Mattie. Yes, I know Val can cope,’ she added quickly, anticipating his response, ‘but he’s not been himself today.’

‘Mother’s instinct?’ He watched her flinch and took a step closer, a concerned frown tugging his brows.

She shook her head. ‘No, just observation,’ she said, ignoring the slug of guilt and changing the subject. ‘Tonight was a success for you. You must be pleased.’

Was he?

Draco hadn’t even thought about it, and the success of this project should have been his main focus—tonight was part of that. Yet the entire evening he had felt as though he was playing a part, saying the right things, and occasionally the wrong thing, while all the time his eyes had been searching for a flaming redhead.

He had brought Jane here with some vague idea of making her hurt the way she had hurt him. At some point the plan had lost impetus and derailed itself...and ironically the only person hurting, it seemed to Draco, was him.

The pain had centred on his frustrated primal urge to possess her. Being lovers ought to have solved that issue, leaving him to walk away when the hunger had burnt itself out. The hunger was still raging and now it came with excess... He refused to call it emotional baggage, but what else could you call it when he looked at her, so small, so vulnerable, so bloody-minded and stubborn he kept feeling the alien urge to protect her.

It wasn’t meant to be like this.

Sex should not be like this. It should be uncomplicated. It was one of the most uncomplicated things in life, a need that he prided himself on being able to control. It never got in the way of the more important things.

‘It was a success for you,’ he countered finally.

‘I had fun,’ she said, a wistful note in her low voice.

Not with me!

‘It will be something nice to remember when I go back home,’ she said with an upbeat smile. She’d die before she’d let him know how much it hurt to say that. ‘And I have made some friends I will keep in touch with, and young Val is showing me her brother’s apiary tomorrow. I have had a crash course in beekeeping and its importance, not just to the rural economy, but basically the future of the world.’ She painted on a smile.

‘Yes, he is very entrepreneurial. He’s got orders from a major London store,’ Draco, who wasn’t at that moment interested in bees, told her. ‘You could come back?’

The suggestion seemed to surprise him as much as it had her.

‘To see your friends, Luciana and her boyfriend—’

‘Joe? Won’t he be going home next week too?’

‘He and Luciana have taken out a lease on one of the studios in the creative hub.’

This was news to Jane. ‘Jamie seemed shocked to see me here.’

‘I didn’t think he was going to get away. He was playing a chess tournament, but it got cancelled.’

The tiredness that had been kept at bay by adrenaline was hitting home as Jane took the few steps across to a carved wood bench, situated to make the most of the incredible view out to sea, which was utterly spectacular. At night the ocean was just another shade of darkness in the distance and the light and magic came dappled from the fairy lights threaded through the branches.

‘He’s still in college though?’ she said, trying to work out the age of the teenager.

‘His last year at school. He’s thinking of turning professional when he leaves.’

‘Professional?’

‘Chess. He is really very good.’

Jane searched his face curiously. ‘Do you mind? Don’t you have plans—?’

‘I would prefer he went to university,’ Draco admitted. ‘But that’s probably because I missed out. I want Jamie to have freedom, the opportunity to do what he wants and change his mind if that’s what he needs.’

‘Why did you miss out?’

‘My father was not the most caring of parents.’

Jane thought about the scar on Draco’s skull and realised that he had stayed around to make sure that Jamie didn’t suffer the same way. ‘His mother—?’ She stopped and shook her head. ‘Sorry, I don’t mean to pry.’

‘Christina used him like an accessory,’ Draco responded, his voice as flinty and unforgiving as iron filings. ‘And while he was a pretty cute baby she had him wheeled out by nanny for the photo ops and charity events, but Jamie had issues with his eyes. He needed corrective surgery and wore thick glasses...’ His lips thinned with distaste. ‘Not so cute, apparently,’ he finished with contempt. ‘She moved on from him and this place and our father had zero interest in him.’

Jane remembered how the comment about his glasses had paralysed Jamie, and her heart broke for him. ‘Poor Jamie.’ Or maybe lucky Jamie, because he’d had Draco around to protect him.

‘Our father was a man in thrall, so weak so...she was like a drug for him. He had no pride, no sense of duty to this place.’ He gestured towards the spotlit palazzo. ‘He sold everything he could, sold off land, put families who had lived here for generations off the land, and I couldn’t do a thing.’

Jane saw the echo of the remembered pain and frustration in his grim, almost haunted expression and her heart squeezed for the boy and young man he had once been.

‘But now you can and you have,’ she said gently.

Their eyes met and she watched the steel barriers sliding into place, until his face was an unreadable blank.

Frustration built up inside her. Just as he’d seemed to be opening up he had shut her out again.

‘I should go back in, and get it over with,’ Draco said, glancing back towards the lights of the building behind them. ‘Christina isn’t here for no reason.’ It would be money. On the rare occasion she appeared it always had been, and if it wasn’t for the fact she would stalk Jamie he would have sent her away empty-handed.

‘And you are still protecting Jamie.’

‘You like it here?’

Thrown by the abrupt change of subject and the tension in the atmosphere, she nodded. ‘Obviously—what is not to like?’ she said, her heart drumming.

‘Does it actually need to end?’

Jane’s thoughts raced as she closed her eyes against the chaos in her head... She took a deep breath and met his too intent dark eyes.

‘What are you saying, Draco?’ Not what you think, said the voice in her heart, except she didn’t know what she thought. You couldn’t kill hope.

Perhaps he saw something in her face because he said straight away, ‘Obviously I am not proposing.’

The idea that he suspected her dreams was utterly humiliating.

‘Obviously,’ she said, enunciating each syllable with elaborate care while inside she felt like a total idiot.

‘I think we both know, you before me possibly, that we would never have worked as a couple, but if we put our history aside there is no doubt that we have...something...?’

‘Sex,’ she intervened bluntly.

‘Our personal relationship aside, your enthusiasm for this community, they would welcome you.’

‘I know you look at me as the cure for some temporary testosterone imbalance!’ she flung out wildly as she surged to her feet. ‘But I don’t see that as my life’s work. I already have a life, and I don’t want a temporary bit part in yours. My future doesn’t involve you, Draco. Do you really think I would uproot Mattie, move to a different country where I have no friends...?’ she exclaimed, breathless with indignation. ‘My God, you have to be the most selfish, arrogant man in the universe!’

He ground his teeth. ‘Why can’t we discuss this situation like two sensible adults?’

‘Because there is no situation and only one of us is a sensible adult. Thanks for the offer, Draco, but I’m already spoken for. My life is in England.’

The words thrown out conjured the image of Jane throwing open her cottage door, her bedroom door, to some faceless male figure. ‘I’m here.’

‘Your arrogance sometimes, Draco, is... You think you’re the big selling point?’ If that was what he thought it was hardly surprising, given that her feelings must have been obvious. ‘I really need to go. I need to get back to Mattie.’

‘You use him as an excuse. I’m not going to tell you what you want to hear to keep you here.’

The charge brought a hectic angry flush to her smooth cheeks. Presumably he thought she wanted to hear him say he loved her, and he was right, she realised, despising herself for holding onto a dream. ‘I don’t use anyone, Draco. I leave that to you! And you have no idea what I want to hear.’

She turned as the tears spilled, before he could see them overflow, before he could tell her that she had wanted to be used.

She had begged to be used.

Draco watched her stalk up the path, spine rigid, chin high. Even in the midst of his anger, justifiable anger, at her attitude, her delicious bottom under the silk, the sway of her hips were a major distraction.

As he watched she stumbled and fell off her spiky heels and the instinct to go to her assistance made him surge forward, only to ask himself what the hell he was doing when she regained her balance and a string of curses drifted his way on the soft still night.

Without turning back, she bent down, pulled off her shoes and, with them dangling from the fingers of one hand, continued to walk up the incline.

The party was still in full swing and he had several people, donors and supporters, that he had to talk to.

He needed a few moments to compose himself before he could do his duty. Where was your devotion to duty a few minutes ago, Draco? he asked himself. He held himself to strict self-imposed rules, rules that meant he would never see his own father when he looked in the mirror.

Do you want rules or the woman you...? His clenched fist turned white as he fought the word before it formed in his head, words he didn’t want to say, emotions he didn’t want to feel.

He didn’t need Jane. He didn’t need any woman.

But he wanted her, how he wanted her.

‘Going to follow her?’