A Little Revenge Omnibus (11 page)

Now, here in his arms, she was all feeling, yearning, loving woman, her natural female instincts overturning the conditioning of modern society and its demands. As boldly as some long-ago ancestor might have done, she was recognising and claiming for her own her man and her right to love him.

‘Brough.’ She whispered his name throatily, a husky purr of aroused pleasure, heavy with sensuous promise shot through with love.

‘You feel so good. I want you so much...’ Was that her saying that, or was it Brough? Was she the one reaching for him or was he the initiator of their increasingly passionate caresses? The shadowy confines of the hallway, normally surely the last place she would have ever thought of as romantic, now seemed as private and protected as the most secret of sanctuaries. And it was a dizzying, tantalising thought to know that not so very far beyond its closed door lay her bedroom—her bed.

Her whole body shuddered as it wantonly followed where her thoughts were leading, where she already ached for Brough to lead her. A feeling of the most incandescent joy filled her; a sense of throwing off the past and turning to welcome the future and their love made her feel as though suddenly something unacknowledged deep within her had sprung to life, as though the person she had been before the wonderful, miraculous discovery that she loved Brough had been someone who was only half alive, someone who had been deprived of the true pleasures and meaning of life.

‘I don’t want you to go...’

As she murmured the words against Brough’s mouth she could feel him start to tense; his mouth left her throat, which he had been kissing and nibbling, sending a cascade of tiny erotic shivers all the way from the top of her head to her toes.

‘I don’t want to either,’ he whispered back as his thumb caressed her throat and then her jaw, slowly moving towards her mouth. ‘But I must. I’m expecting a call from Hong Kong—I had some business dealings there, which I’ve sold out of, but there are still some legal ends I need to tie up. And tomorrow I have to go to London to see my accountants. But when I come back...’

As he turned away he paused and then turned back, taking hold of her hand and urging her gently towards him.

‘Thank you...’ he told her softly.

‘For what?’ she managed to ask him in a shaky voice.

‘For today...and this...and you...’ he told her throatily as he bent to place a soft kiss on her half-parted lips.

For her... For a moment Kelly felt close to tears. There was so much more about her that he still didn’t know. So much that she still had to tell him—especially... But now, when he was on the point of leaving, wasn’t the time to start explaining about Julian and Beth.

‘I know you’re only being like this because you’re worried about how much I’m going to charge you for the teaset,’ she told him teasingly and a little chokily.

‘Aha...so you’ve seen through my dastardly plot, then,’ Brough responded in the same vein.

Suddenly anxious, she clung to him and whispered, ‘Oh, Brough, it’s all so new, so unexpected. I don’t...’

‘It’s perfect...you’re perfect,’ Brough assured her as he tightened his arms around her and cradled her head against his shoulder. ‘We are going to be perfect...together... Right now, there’s nothing I want more than to stay here with you.’

He looked betrayingly towards the inner doorway to the flat and, guessing what he was thinking, Kelly quickly reassured him. ‘I know and I understand. You’ve got your responsibilities, and anyway, perhaps... Everything’s happened so quickly, so...’

‘I’ll call you the moment I get back from London,’ Brough promised her huskily.

‘There’s so much I haven’t told you,’ Kelly protested as he started to release her.

‘Such as?’ Brough grinned. ‘I’ve already discovered for myself all that I need to know, and what I have discovered, what I do know...I love...’

‘Oh, Brough...’

It was impossible not to throw herself back into his arms and share another passionate kiss with him, and then he was gone, leaving her to touch her fingertips to a mouth that still tingled from the passion of his kiss and to acknowledge with a small, cold shiver that he was wrong, that there were things that he still had to learn.

Would it change what he thought, what he felt, when he learned of her deceit, or would he understand and accept that her deliberate pursuit of Julian had been prompted by loyalty to Beth?

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘S
O
YOU
DO
understand, Dee, don’t you?’ Kelly asked the older woman anxiously as they sat opposite one another in Kelly’s flat.

Kelly had telephoned Dee as soon as Brough had left, despite the fact that it was late evening. The disquiet she had experienced over the role she was playing vis-à-vis Julian had coalesced following Brough’s departure into a sharp and intense need to free herself from the restrictions that her commitment to Dee’s plans were placing on her. There was no way she wanted to deceive Brough, and there was certainly no way she could even pretend now to be anything other than totally revolted by Julian Cox.

‘I think so,’ Dee confirmed dryly. ‘You’re telling me that you’ve fallen in love with Brough Frobisher and that because of that you don’t want to carry out your part of our scheme.’

‘It isn’t that I don’t want to,’ Kelly corrected her quietly, ‘it’s that I can’t; and even before I realised how I felt about Brough... I’m not trying to be dramatic, Dee, but there’s something about Julian I just don’t trust.’

‘Join the club,’ Dee told her sardonically. ‘I don’t want to cast a shadow over love’s sweet dream, Kelly, and you’re certainly old enough and I believe mature enough to be the best judge of your own feelings, but Brough is Eve’s brother, and he does have a vested interest in monitoring your relationship with Julian therefore.’

Kelly looked at her for several seconds before asking her sternly, ‘What are you trying to say? That Brough is deliberately and callously pretending to...to care about me because he wants to leave his sister with a clear field to Julian Cox?’

‘No. What I’m trying to say is that you would be well advised and wise to be aware that things are not perhaps as straightforward as they could be, that people do have hidden motives and personal agendas for what they do. After all, on the face of it, so far as Brough is concerned, he has a potential rival for your love in Julian, hasn’t he?’

‘I wanted to explain to him but I just didn’t have the chance, and then I decided that I owed it to you to let you know what I intended to do first,’ Kelly told her quickly.

She had found it extremely unsettling and disturbing listening to what Dee had to say. Dee was wrong, of course; Brough would never do anything like that... Would he?

‘I know you must feel that I’m letting you down,’ Kelly told Dee quietly.

‘I’m disappointed, yes,’ Dee acknowledged, ‘but I do understand. I have been in love myself, you know, and I do—’ She broke off, and to Kelly’s surprise she saw that the older girl’s face was slightly flushed.

Why?

Dee was only thirty, and what could be more natural, after all, than that she should have experienced falling in love?

‘I can’t pretend that I don’t wish you’d change your mind,’ Dee continued honestly, ‘but at least Julian seems to be biting on the bait so far as Anna is concerned. Anna was able to “accidentally” bump into him at yesterday’s mayoral function, and vaguely mentioned that she had recently received rather a large sum of money from an insurance policy which had matured and that she was looking for somewhere to invest it with a view to making the maximum amount of profit.’

‘You do realise, don’t you,’ Kelly said a little uncomfortably, ‘that I’m going to have to say something to Brough about our...about what we planned?’

Dee’s eyebrows rose.

‘Dear me, it is love, isn’t it?’ she acknowledged dryly. ‘I appreciate what you’re saying, Kelly,’ she responded firmly, ‘but I would at least ask you to keep my part in our plans to a discreet minimum. I’m sure your Brough isn’t one to tittle-tattle or gossip, but I do have a certain position within our local community and I wouldn’t want our plans bruited about.

‘I personally believe that Julian Cox deserves all that we planned for him and more, that what we intended to do doesn’t come to even one tenth of the punishment he deserves, but I have to be honest and admit that there are people who might take a very different view, and I certainly don’t want to be judged as some sort of melodramatic woman, bent on exacting revenge for some imagined slight...’

‘Oh, I’m sure Brough would never think that,’ Kelly assured her, so quick to defend her beloved.

‘Maybe,’ Dee acknowledged, ‘but others might.’

‘Well, if you prefer it, I could simply say that we’d all agreed that Julian needed to be taught a lesson,’ Kelly offered.

‘I thought that was what we had all agreed,’ Dee commented wryly as she stood up.

‘One thing that does still worry me,’ Kelly told her as she followed her to the flat door, ‘and that’s Eve, Brough’s sister. She’s desperately in love with Julian...’

‘And he, by all accounts, is still desperate to secure her—if he can’t get you,’ Dee concluded. ‘I certainly don’t envy you that relationship, Kelly...Julian Cox as your brother-in-law by marriage.’

‘Oh, no, don’t say that,’ Kelly pleaded with her. ‘He’d make Eve so dreadfully unhappy. Maybe I should try to talk to her, warn her...tell her what he did to Beth.’

‘Do you think she would listen?’ Dee asked her doubtfully. ‘Julian’s told so many lies, it might be hard to convince her.’

‘I’ve only met her a couple of times,’ Kelly said, ‘but she strikes me as someone who would think deeply about the situation if we put it to her.’

‘Mmm... You and Harry both. He’s been singing her praises to me ever since the night of the ball. When are you seeing Brough again, by the way?’

‘I don’t know. He’s going to London on business in the morning, but he said he’d get in touch just as soon as he could.’

‘Goodnight, then,’ Dee told her as she opened the flat door and stepped out into the fresh air.

* * *

D
EE
HAD
PARKED
her car quite close to the shop, but instead of going directly to it she chose, instead, to walk in the opposite direction through the town and down towards the river.

The walk along the river path had been one of her favourites as a girl. It had been her route home from school and, later on when she had gone to university, it had been one of the first places she had headed for on her return home.

Her family had lived in the area for many generations; her mother had died shortly after Dee’s birth and her father, older than her mother by some eighteen years, had died just before Dee was about to take her degree.

She had returned home to sort out his affairs and to discover that she was an extremely wealthy young woman.

One of the first things she had done with her money had been to make a large, interest-free loan to her uncle in order to enable him to modernise the family farm and buy more land.

Her own father, his brother, had sold his share of the family farmland as a young man, preferring to deal and speculate in the commodities market rather than follow the custom of his forebears, and it had seemed to Dee to be a good memorial to him that she should help her uncle to buy back the land he had sold away from the family. The two brothers had never quarrelled over his decision, and had always got on amicably for two such very, very different people, but Dee, who had inherited her father’s intelligence, knew that it was becoming increasingly difficult for small farmers to make a decent living and she had seen that there could come a time when her uncle, for financial reasons, would either have to sell up or rent out his lands.

With the rest of the money she had made several donations to local charities, and then amused herself by finding out if she had inherited her father’s gift for making the right investment.

It had turned out that she had.

But, at twenty-one, a girl wanted far more from life than a healthy bank balance, and Dee had had all the normal urges and needs of her sex and age—a man to love and love her, the prospect of a relationship that would last a lifetime and one which included commitment, children...love...

And, for all too brief a space of time, while she had been at university, she had thought she had that relationship...that love...had thought...but had thought wrongly. Had made the worst, the most disastrous decision of her life, had prejudiced everything she had, everything she was, because of someone who had proved to be so false, so cruelly betraying that even now she still bore the scars.

She stopped walking, shoving her hands deep into the pockets of her lightweight jacket, and stared angrily up towards the stars.

She had waited a long time for this opportunity to turn the tables on Julian Cox, to get him in a position where he was vulnerable and unable to protect himself...as she had once been. Oh, yes, she had been vulnerable...

Fiercely she bit down hard on her bottom lip. She wasn’t being vindictive, she was simply exercising her right to have justice, avenging the wrong which had been done to her, and neither were her motives totally selfish. She had been concerned for Beth’s pain and heartbreak and, despite what Kelly seemed to think, she was aware of the difficult position she had potentially put her in, and of the heartache that Eve could suffer if no one warned her what Julian was.

She had, of course, assumed that Eve would immediately refuse to have anything further to do with Julian once his involvement with Kelly became public knowledge; Brough would have surely insisted on that for his sister’s own sake and, from what she knew of him, Brough was certainly a strong enough character to be able to achieve that end.

It was a pity that Kelly had changed her mind, but the game wasn’t over yet, not by a long chalk. One way or another, Dee was determined that Julian Cox was going to make full recompense for the debt he owed her. Full recompense...with interest, the interest at the punitively high rate caused by the sheer extent and weight of the emotional anguish and despair she had suffered.

There was no despair like that of suffering a broken heart, destroyed dreams, the complete desolation of a once promising future.

Determinedly, Dee started to head back towards the town centre. It was time for her to go home. Yes, Kelly’s decision was going to cause her a problem, but no problem was insurmountable unless you allowed it to be and she, Dee, was certainly not going to do that.

* * *

W
HERE
WAS
B
ROUGH
now? Kelly wondered dreamily as she said goodbye to the customer she had just served. In another five minutes she was going to close the shop for the day and then she was going to go upstairs and indulge in the delicious pleasure of curling up in a chair whilst she relived every second of yesterday, and most especially what had happened after Brough had insisted on seeing her safely inside the flat.

Even now she felt as though it couldn’t be real, as though she had to keep mentally pinching herself to make sure she wasn’t imagining everything.

She had felt guilty telling Dee that she couldn’t go on with their plans, but wisely Kelly knew that even without the discovery of her love for Brough she would have found it extremely difficult to continue to practise the deceit her role had called for.

Where was Brough? Still in London? On his way back? When would she hear from him...see him...hold him?

She caught her breath as she heard the shop doorbell ring behind her, and out of the corner of her eye she caught the male outline of the person walking in.

‘Brough!’

She turned round eagerly, his name on her lips, only to be swept by a surge of disappointment as she recognised that her visitor wasn’t Brough but Julian.

‘What happened to you last night?’ Julian demanded without preamble. ‘We had a date...at the wine bar...remember?’

Guiltily Kelly frowned. She had completely forgotten about that, but even if she hadn’t... The last person she
really wanted to see was Julian Cox, but since he was here she could at least make it abundantly clear to him just where she stood, and, turning away from him so that he couldn’t see her face, she managed a dismissive shrug.

‘I changed my mind,’ she told him carelessly. ‘In fact...’

Summoning all her courage, she turned round and announced crisply, ‘In fact, Julian, I think it would be best if you didn’t try to get in touch with me any more.’

‘What are you trying to say?’ Julian demanded furiously, his mouth tightening as he stepped in front of her, blocking her exit. She couldn’t do this to him. He had got it all planned—Kelly, with her substantial fortune, unfettered by any access restrictions, was a much better proposition than Eve with her trust fund and her brother, and besides, he wanted Kelly. She excited him in a way that the Beths and Eves of this world could never do.

‘I’m trying to say that I think we’ve both made a mistake,’ Kelly informed him as diplomatically as she could. ‘You are dating someone else...’

‘So?’ Julian demanded. ‘You didn’t seem to consider that much of a problem the other night at the ball, nor when I rang you up...’

‘Maybe not,’ Kelly allowed. ‘But since then I’ve had time to think things through... Eve loves you, Julian,’ she told him directly.

To her disbelief, instead of looking embarrassed, he smiled triumphantly.

‘You’re jealous, aren’t you?’ he challenged her. ‘Well, you needn’t be. Eve’s a child, Kelly, but you’re a woman... The things you and I could do...’ he promised her thickly. ‘You know what I mean. You want them too. I’ve seen it in your eyes... Eve is a mistake. It’s you I want, Kelly.’

Thoroughly revolted, Kelly tried to step back from him, but the hard edge of the counter was behind her, jarring her back. She looked anxiously towards the door, wishing a customer would walk in and put an end to their unwanted privacy. Unwanted on her part, that was. Julian, far from accepting what she had told him, seemed to be trying to be deliberately obtuse, Kelly recognised. Was he really so vain that he didn’t realise how much she loathed him? If so, she would simply have to take a stronger line with him.

‘Julian, I meant what I said,’ she told him firmly. ‘I don’t want to see you. If I gave you the wrong idea—’

‘If?’ he broke in, his face changing as he understood the forcefulness of her determination. No way could he afford to let her go, he acknowledged inwardly. When he had first met Eve he had not realised just how much control her brother had over her financial affairs. There was no love lost between him and Brough at all.