The Marriage Merger (8 page)

The smile he gave her was one of genuine
pleasure. “Noosa has a conservation edict ‘that no building shall
be higher than the trees’ so wherever you are down there you can
always look up and see the trees of the National Park or Noosa
Hill.”

“Don’t you find that rather restricting when
you want to carry out any major development work here?”

“No. I’ve always believed that man should
live in harmony with nature. I’ve seen too many places in the world
where development has turned a delightfully natural spot into a
rat-race of the worst kind. Luckily the Sunshine Coast has grown at
a slow enough pace to enable sensible decisions to be made
regarding the future lifestyles of the residents as well as the
tourists.”

A warm glow spread through Jenna. That a man
of Braden’s wealth was concerned with the environment and lifestyle
of ordinary people was a refreshing discovery.

“I think that’s wonderful,” she agreed.

Although he turned his head away quickly, she
caught the pleased look which crossed his face. He was a complex
man - cold and hard, warm and loving - a combination of opposites.
An intriguing, exciting combination. A combination she longed to
know more about. But the Caution sign flashed through her mind once
more.

As Braden drove slowly down Hastings Street,
the main street of Noosa Heads, he watched Jenna gaze at the chic
sidewalk cafes, restaurants and designer boutiques nestled between
low-rise luxury resorts, motels and apartment buildings.

"Aren't the colours fascinating? Peach,
green, apricot, lilac, blue, cream - it's like watching a concrete
fruit salad," she laughed.

Braden smiled at her enthusiasm. He tried to
analyze why he was so inordinately pleased that Jenna approved of
him, or at least his stance on development. It had never occurred
to him before that a woman’s approval could cause this swelling in
his chest, this grin that kept appearing on his face for no
apparent reason.

Alicia had always approved of him, no matter
what he did, a fact that sometimes annoyed him. Occasionally he
wished she would develop some backbone and stand up for herself.
She was so compliant all the time. Even with her husband. Luckily
David, a quiet, gentle man, had doted on her. Braden had never
heard a cross word pass between them. He sighed. Perhaps if Alicia
had a bit more backbone she would have been able to cope with
David’s death and Caitlin’s injuries.

He glanced again at Jenna. Her face was
animated, green eyes sparkling in delight as she gazed at the
sights before her. The swelling in his chest lowered to his groin
as his eyes caressed the fullness of her lips, the curve of her
breasts against the soft fabric of her blouse.

For some reason he thought of Veronica and
for the first time the thought irritated him. When Veronica looked
at him he always felt like the dollop of cream that had been added
to the caviar on the cat’s dish. It had never worried him before;
he knew Veronica saw him as the perfect addition to her already
perfect, wealthy lifestyle. And because one of his companies often
worked in tandem with one of hers and she was a useful business
contact, he rarely refused any social invitations she offered.

He had no illusions as to her interest in
him. She was a woman with a voracious sexual appetite, but a shrewd
business brain, honed by a father whose early death left her in
charge of his multi-million dollar empire, dictated that her sexual
encounters never interfered with her acquisitive goals.

Her immediate goal was to merge one of her
companies with one of Braden’s in equal partnership. There was a
lot to be gained by the merger, but Braden knew the gain would be
more his than hers and it was this knowledge that bothered him. She
had invited him to stay behind after the dinner party last night to
discuss the merger. He'd considered her proposals without comment,
cautious not to let her see he was in any way concerned about her
more than generous offer.

In the intimacy of her study she had made it
obvious that she would have welcomed him if he had indicated he
wanted to stay the night. There was an ache in his groin that
needed assuaging but he knew instinctively if he took what Veronica
was offering the ache would still be there in the morning. So he
had kissed her politely and left.

Since the first moment he had seen Jenna a
heat had invaded his body. An itchy, unscratchable heat that had
given him more cold showers than he’d ever had in his life before.
When he’d kissed her the blood had roared in his head, spinning him
crazily into an arousal of unprecedented proportions.

And she’d smelled of lavender. He couldn’t
believe it. No woman he knew smelled of lavender. He had become so
used to the heavy, exotic perfumes of the women of his acquaintance
that it was like being thrust into a bright Spring morning after a
long, bleak winter.

He caught a slight scent of lavender again as
Jenna leaned towards him to watch something on his side of the
street. His grandmother! He hadn’t thought of her in years. She had
been a haven of love and caring in his childhood. An infrequent
haven, sadly. His father had taken him and Alicia to their
grandmother’s home in Cairns every school holidays in the years
before her death when Braden was eleven.

Happy memories of cuddles and baking and
story-book reading immersed him in a flood of nostalgia. The big
old Queenslander home with its wide verandahs and the backyard of
enormous mango trees and hiding places. Their grandmother had let
them build a cubby-house from old timber and it had become a fort,
a ship, a castle, in their childish imagination. And she always
smelled of lavender. Of lavender and love.

A wave of sadness washed over him. His
Grandmother’s death had been as grievous as his mother’s leaving.
With one he had lost the only motherly love he had ever known, with
the other he had lost all chance to gain her love. If there had
ever been any there to start with, he thought bitterly.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and
swerved into a parking spot.

“The ice-creamery is a couple of shops down.”
His voice was slightly husky but neither Jenna nor Caitlin seemed
to notice.

They sat under a shady tree and watched
swimmers and surf board riders enjoying the perfect rolling waves
of Laguna Bay. A light breeze, fresh with the ocean’s salt, cooled
them and melted their ice-creams as fast as they could eat them.
Braden bit into his cone, his eyes watching Jenna’s tongue as it
slid around the melting ice-cream, drawing the thick liquid into
her mouth.

His imagination took over and the hairs on
his body rose as he imagined her tongue tracing warm trails over
his body. He moved abruptly as more than his hairs rose and he had
to force his mind to concentrate on less erotic thoughts. Hell,
maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

When he’d seen Jenna’s grumpiness this
morning he had regretted his impulse of the previous evening to
make her jealous. He wondered how she would react if she knew he
had spent a boring and frustrated night making small talk while his
thoughts were occupied with the exquisite memory of her beautiful
body emerging from his swimming pool.

As they drove back through Noosa after
exploring the shops and having lunch Braden casually asked, “Would
you mind if we call in at Veronica’s home? She has some paperwork I
really should take down to Brisbane with me tomorrow.”

Jenna looked sharply at his profile, but
there was no teasing glint in his eye. If anything, he looked
almost apologetic. And this was the first time he had mentioned
going back to Brisbane. Did he have an ulterior reason for wanting
to call in on Veronica? Or was he just so anxious to see her after
last night that it didn’t matter that Jenna and Caitlin were with
him. Jealousy warred with common sense and politeness but finally
she replied, “Caitlin’s tired, but if it won’t take too long, I
suppose it will save you an extra drive back here.”

“Thank you. I promise we won’t be long.”

It was precisely because Jenna and Caitlin
were with him that made Braden decide to pick up the paperwork now,
rather that come back on his own in the evening. Veronica was
becoming more blatant in her sexual overtures and he knew she was
not a woman to be put off easily. But with the merger agreement
still in the discussion stage he was loathe to reject her outright.
She could cause a great deal of trouble for him if she chose to do
so. Not that he would run from a fight with her, but at the moment
he had a large project pending and it was more expedient to keep
her on side.

Braden gave his name into the intercom and
the electronically controlled gates swung open. The high steel
fence backed by thick shrubbery completely surrounded Veronica’s
house at Sunshine Beach. Jenna felt all her old qualms coming back
as Braden pulled up in front of an imposing double story house
which looked like it had been transported from the movie set of
‘Gone With The Wind’.

The impression deepened as the three of them
walked up the curving concrete steps, past tall marble colonnades,
through a huge carved wooden door opened by a maid, and into a
marble floored foyer. A foyer larger than Braden's penthouse
lounge-room, with twin staircases circling down from the upper
story.

Jenna had stopped to re-tie Caitlin’s sneaker
lace and was partially obscured by a large marble statue on a
stand. A movement at the top of the staircase caught her attention.
Veronica stood, poised like an eagle planning to swoop on its prey,
on the top stair. Her outfit was an exquisite blend of sky blue,
aqua and lemon, beautifully tailored to emphasize her svelte
figure, her hair a smooth cap of gold around a flawless face.

“Braden, darling.” Her voice, husky and
eager, floated down. “How lovely to have you come ...” Annoyance
followed surprise across her features as Jenna stood and Veronica
focused on her and Caitlin. But she swiftly regained her beguiling
smile and glided down to them. “I see you’ve brought Caitlin and
... Jennifer.”

“Jenna.” Braden corrected, a faint tinge of
annoyance in his tone. “I thought I might pick up those papers we
were discussing last night. I’ll take them back to Brisbane with me
and give them my full attention.”

Jenna wondered what else he had been doing
that he wasn’t able to give his full attention to them last
night.

“There are a few details I’d like to go
through with you first, Braden.” Veronica turned away from Braden
and Jenna saw the swiftly disguised loathing in her eyes as she
looked at Caitlin. “Perhaps Caitlin and ... Jenna ... would be more
comfortable on the patio. I’m sure they’d find all this business
talk boring.”

Before anyone could protest she waved over
the maid who had been standing nearby and issued orders to take
Jenna and Caitlin to the patio and provide them with refreshments.
Then she took Braden’s arm and led him away.

The maid escorted Jenna and Caitlin through a
large room reminiscent of an old English banqueting hall. A table
large enough to seat at least twenty people dominated one end.
Statues on pedestals, paintings in gilt frames, luxuriant green
plants in huge brass pots surrounded the walls and left a large
floor space suitable for dancing.

Caitlin stared around her with interest as
they followed the maid through French doors out onto an enormous
tiled patio. It had to be straight from a movie set, Jenna decided.
Elegant wrought iron tables and chairs, pale blue, white-fringed
patio umbrellas, lush plants in built-up garden surrounds terraced
down to a swimming pool which was a smaller replica of the one at
the Taj Mahal, complete with spraying fountains. A surrounding
expanse of manicured lawn overlooked the ocean.

Far from feeling the inadequacies she thought
she would, Jenna felt like laughing. It was so ostentatious, so
lacking in subtlety, that Jenna realised that Veronica would always
use her wealth to dominate and put people down. For a fleeting
moment she felt sorry for the woman, then thoughts of her in
Braden’s arms made any pity swiftly dissipate.

They had just finished their cold drinks when
Braden appeared. He noticed Caitlin’s head drooping and quickly
gathered the child in his arms and carried her to the car. Veronica
didn’t see them off and Jenna wondered what had passed between her
and Braden. She hoped it was only business, then chided herself for
even allowing such wishful thinking. It was obvious Braden and
Veronica were involved, and if Jenna let herself fall in love with
Braden she would surely end up being hurt.

The long day out had exhausted Caitlin.
Braden laid her down on her bed and Jenna took off her sneakers.
For a minute they both stood gazing down at the sleeping child and
Jenna had a wonderful sense of family intimacy. In one short week
she had come to love this small child. She murmured dreamily.
“She’s so like you, Braden. Don’t you wish that one day you’ll fall
in love and get married and have children of your own?”

Jenna’s jaw dropped at the anger that
suffused his face. He whirled and strode out of the room.

CHAPTER SIX

Jenna gathered her wits and walked after him.
What had caused that reaction? It was meant as a rhetorical
question. She had never suspected that he might not want to have
children, but surely someone who loved Caitlin the way he did would
want children of his own?

He was standing in the courtyard, gazing out
towards the opposite bank of the river, his long legs apart, his
stance rigid. As she walked up to him she could see a muscle
twitching in the tight line of his jaw. Something in what she had
said had obviously touched a raw nerve. Hot-tempered though she
was, Jenna would never knowingly cause pain to anyone. She placed a
tentative hand on his arm.