Seduction on the Cards (15 page)

“My way,” he murmured, kissing her lips again, lightly and tenderly. 

Kerri held herself frozen; did not respond in the least.

Resigned to that being the last he’d see of her, Alex rose and collected Gaston’s chilly-bin from the kitchen. Kerri pushed herself up, crossed to the blue door, and opened it for him.

He paused just long enough to register the shimmer of unshed tears in her huge brown eyes.

“
Au revoir
, Kerri,” he said, and was out of the house before the shining drops could slide down her cheeks and undo his resolve.

He bolted down the steps and shoved the chilly-bin onto the back seat, slammed the door far harder than he needed to, felt no better for it, and muttered a string of curses as he loped around to the driver’s door.

He needed to leave before he changed his mind. She might be pretty and lively, and dynamite in the sack, but she was unsuitable in every other way.

Unsuitable for what? You’re not considering marrying her. 

That brought him up short. No, he certainly wasn’t considering marrying her, or anyone else for that matter. Kerri had been fun for a day. A girl to fill in some time with, but nothing else. 

He was immensely relieved the research for her article had not apparently revealed where the money had come from to set up his company and ultimately pay for the GANZ headquarters. If she’d exposed his strange and guilty secret she could have made him a laughing stock on both sides of the world.

Grateful he’d escaped such ignominy, he gunned the big vehicle through the suburban streets, steering with his right hand and banging his left again and again on the side of the steering wheel as though it would dislodge her from his mind. But she stayed vividly there, his cheeky journalist. The girl who had a gambling habit and paraded around in public dressed as a newspaper with rude headlines—or even worse, a sausage.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Kerri pushed the door shut the instant Alex was through it.

She couldn’t bear to look at him a moment longer if she was never to see him again. Didn’t want to put herself through any more torture.  

But she leaned her forehead on the cold glass and listened intently in case he changed his mind and returned. 

No—that was the ‘thunk’ of the door closing as he stowed the chilly-bin. No again—that was the driver’s door slamming shut. The engine firing... and Alex driving away fast. It sounded as though he couldn’t wait to leave her. Finally her tears welled over and spilled down her face. She wiped at them again and again, cursing under her breath at her weakness.

Everyone left her.

Her beloved Daddy had left, all those years ago.

Only months after that, her mother had left to follow her new husband across the world.

Granny and Granddad had left, suddenly, horribly in a car-smash and with no goodbyes.

School-friends and workmates leaving didn’t matter—Kerri was used to that.

Splitting up with boyfriends hadn’t been traumatic.

But now Alex had left. And Alex was somehow incredibly special. Not obtainable. Not available in a million years. But special in a way that no-one had been before.  

There’d been that instant connection between them; that easy sassy flirting, and the delicious slowly-building tension. 

She’d been starving, and Alex was food and drink and attention all rolled into one tempting package. He’d breathed life into her, and now he was gone.

She stayed leaning against the door, breath misting the glass, while the tears trickled down and dripped off her chin to soak the front of her red top.

Eventually she pulled herself together enough to go and knock on Sarah’s strategically-closed bedroom door.

“Are you awake?”

“If I have to be,” Sarah groaned, switching on her bedside light. “How was it? Not too great, to judge by your faces over dinner?”

“No,” Kerri said, starting to sob again. “That’s the trouble – it was fantastic. Far too good, and now it’s over. One perfect day, and that’s all I get.”

“Oh Kerri-babes,” Sarah said. “At least you had a good time. You don’t look very sunburned though – I expected you’d come back all pink and peeling from the reflection off the water. You forgot your sunhat.”

Kerri nodded miserably and took a deep breath.

“Didn’t need it. It wasn’t a yacht, so there was a cabin for shelter.”

“A cabin—with a bed?” Suddenly Sarah was all ears.

“Nooooooo...” Kerri sniffed back tears and decided Sarah didn’t need to know everything. There were pieces of today she would hug to herself forever. Secrets only she and Alex would ever share. “A cabin like a living room—it was quite a big boat.”

Sarah decided she’d probably learn more by feigning indifference. “As long as you enjoyed it.”

“The best day ever. You can’t imagine...”

“Looks like I’ll have to if you’re not dishing up details. I guess you want to see him again?”

“Not going to happen, Sarah. You heard him say it—he flies to Noumea tomorrow. Then he goes home to France. This was just a business trip to launch the building and do a bit of sightseeing around New Zealand. It’s where his mother was born.”

“He’s half Kiwi? He seemed totally French.”

“He does card-tricks. If you think I’m fast with cards, you should see him in action.”

“What?” Sarah asked, baffled by the swift change of direction.

“It was so lovely,” Kerri said. She sniffed again, and drifted back to the door. “Night Sarah. Thanks for listening.”

If the week before had dragged, the next was intolerable. Kerri moped and dreamed and schemed and sulked, and relived every minute of her day on the boat with Alex, over and over again.  

On Thursday morning she sat slumped at her computer in the newsroom, trying to inject life into a piece about a bypass road being urgent and important. Any other time she’d be worrying at it like a terrier, chasing facts and opinions, stirring up interest. Today the assignment had as much appeal as a plate of cold porridge.  

Suddenly the phone shrilled.

“Kerri Lush.”

“Alexandre.”  

His husky accented voice caressed her from thousands of miles away. Kerri felt her heart and lungs stop working.

“Where are you phoning from?” she managed to croak.

“Noumea—where else?”

Where else indeed, she wondered, registering that something was making an effort to start banging about inside her ribs again. God, she was trying so hard to get over him and here he was stirring everything up again.

“I bet it’s warmer in New Caledonia than here.”

“And in return,
cherie,
I will bet you’re not free this weekend, but I’m asking anyway.”

“Free for what?”

“Free to visit me. I have such a big empty bed in such a big empty room...?”

Whatever was trying to restart itself in her chest suddenly increased its rhythm to double-time. Kerri swallowed and gulped in a deep breath.

“I can make myself free...”

“You have a passport? I’ll arrange the air ticket for you to collect at the airport.”

“Yes to both.”

“Just like that—yes?”

“
Yes!
” 

Suddenly an awful thought hit her, and the chill of trepidation shivered down her spine. Good things like this didn’t happen to her. Was it too good to be true? She drew a brave breath. “Or don’t you really mean it?”

“Of course I mean it, Kerri. Why would you doubt me? I’ll meet you at Tontouta International when you land.”

“What clothes do I bring?”

“Very little, I hope...”

Kerri could picture his wicked grin and dancing eyes. And could suddenly see him sprawled on his huge bed, ready and waiting—all for her.

“Bring one pretty dress and some beach clothes,” he added. “The flights are not direct from Wellington. Can you get to Auckland in time to fly at 8.20 on Saturday morning?”

“Count on it! There’ll be an overnight bus or train if there’s not a really early flight.”

He hesitated, drew a deep breath, and continued. “Kerri, it was never my plan to do this. I thought it was goodbye on Sunday night. But we have this one last chance. It would be so good to see you again.”

Did she hear anything more than hopeful flirtation in his voice? Probably not, she decided with resignation. He was just a man feeling lonely a long way from home.

“I’ll look forward to seeing you,” she whispered, conscious that Sarah’s eyes were wide and enquiring, not too far away.

“I’ll email the flight details, yes? I have your business card.”

“Yes. See you Saturday, Alex.”

“
Au revoir
until then, Miss Hiccups.”

“What!?”

“That’s what I named you before I knew you were Ms Kerrigan Lush, ace reporter.”

“Not much of an ‘ace’ today. I’m not thinking straight, and I’ll be even worse now.”

“Until Saturday then?”

“Until Saturday, Alex.”

She replaced the handset with deliberate care and stared at it, seeing nothing.

“So...?” Sarah asked, close beside her.

Kerri turned and drew a deep breath.

“So—yes, it was Alex.”

“And...?”

“And he’s flying me to New Caledonia for the weekend!” she said in a small thrilled voice that only Sarah would hear. “To a lovely hotel and beautiful beaches. What am I going to wear?”

“For a couple of days? You won’t need much.”

“He said to bring a pretty dress. To go out to dinner I guess. Or maybe to a casino for the evening?”

“Fat chance of a casino with Alex...”

“True. What a waste. I’ve heard the casinos are lovely there. Small and classy.”

“That’s the last thing you need right now. You still owe me plenty from the races on Saturday.”

“God!” Kerri exclaimed, clutching her breasts. “I’ve been so stroppy this week, and my boobs are huge. My damn period must be nearly due—I hope it holds off.”

“You’ve been stroppy ever since Alex left. I think that’s why you’re on edge.”

Kerri rolled her eyes.

“Maybe,” she said.

“Definitely.”

She sat there plotting for a while, pretending to fiddle with the bypass story. She needed money. Money for a new dress. Money to pay Sarah back. Money to get to Auckland, even if Alex was nice enough to refund that. And money to spend in Noumea, for surely there’d be all sorts of temptations in the French boutiques?  

Maybe she should extend her credit card limit by another thousand? They’d sent her a leaflet only a few weeks ago, along with her horrible account. And they seemed to be offering more credit instantly if she wanted it. Well, right now, she wanted it. She dug the card out of her wallet and got on line to see if she could arrange it.

“Yours,” she said, slipping Sarah a handful of banknotes when she returned after lunch. “There’s the race money back. Thanks for the loan.”

Sarah’s pretty mouth dropped open, and she sent Kerri a look of absolute surprise. “That was fast. Great. But how about you take it to Noumea and buy me some duty-free perfume?”

“No probs. Write down what you want because my brain’s so all over the place now.  And...” she added, producing a gold-and-silver-striped boutique bag from behind her back, “I got the dress.”

Reverently she drew it out—a red and black tiger-striped chiffon mini-dress with spaghetti straps and a softly flared skirt.

“It looks great on,” she assured Sarah. “The shaping is amazing. This bit,” she said, tweaking a curved band, “sort of holds the whole thing together.”

“There’s not much of it to hold together.”

“There’s enough—and it does fantastic things for my body. Alex is not going to be looking anywhere else.” 

Sarah turned the swing-tag and registered the price.

“Four hundred and fifty! Kerri, that’s outrageous for something the size of a handkerchief.”

“But it’s beautiful,” she insisted. “And it goes perfectly with my new red shoes.”

“So I suppose your Visa is maxed out again?”

“No, there’s almost four hundred dollars credit left on it,” Kerri said, assuming an air of hurt dignity, and omitting to mention she’d just whacked the limit up by another thousand. “I paid a chunk off last week, remember. Have some faith in me, Sarah.” 

Sarah flapped a hand to indicate vague apology.

“Yeah, gorgeous dress,” she agreed. “You’ll knock him dead.”

On Saturday morning the airliner ploughed ever onwards over water that sparkled green and blue—and deeper blue where the shadows of clouds moved across the surface of the ocean. Kerri yawned for the umpteenth time and peered out her window for the first sight of land.  

The book she’d bought at the airport was nowhere near as exciting as the back cover blurb promised. 

The man she was sitting next to had shuffled through paperwork for half an hour and then gone to sleep. Now he was snoring. Gusts of warm nasty air keep wafting over her. 

Her jeans cut in around the waist, her eyes felt dry and gritty from the plane’s endlessly circulating air, and she still fumed because the check-in clerk had insisted her hand luggage was over regulation size for the cabin lockers. Waiting around for it when they landed would waste precious time she’d planned to spend with Alex. 

Therefore she could have bought a bigger case with more clothes to look nicer for him. Her fantastic new dress would get crushed because her soft bag would no doubt end up squashed under heaps of others...  

She wriggled in her seat. The dark thoughts swirled around and around, and she clenched her teeth together in annoyance.

Deciding there was nothing to lose, she gave the man in the next seat a firm shove with her elbow. He half-woke, grunted, and his head lolled over to the other side. Well, that was better, anyway. No more stinky snores in her direction.

She cradled a hand around one of her breasts. Yes, sore, hot and heavy. Her period wasn’t quite due yet, but she just bet it would turn up early and spoil everything.

The plane began its long slow descent. Finally there was a glimpse of land after all the endless miles of ocean, and passengers began to shuffle belongings together and retrieve things from the overhead lockers.