Passionate Winter Read online

  Leigh stared up into a pair of deep blue eyes set in a ruggedly handsome face. At the moment his features were grim and forbidding, but even so Leigh found him completely devastating. It was perfectly obvious that this was Gavin’s father, the likeness between them was too great to be any other. But whereas Gavin’s face was still young and boyish, this man’s was hard and cynical, as if he had seen all life had to offer and found it wanting. He was aged between thirty-five and forty and Leigh found herself trembling at his nearness.

  No man had ever affected her like this before and she found it impossible to look away from his narrowing eyes. Dark brown hair, almost black, flecked with grey at the temples, grew low on his collar and the sideburns low down his jawline. He was dressed in close-fitting black trousers and a black silk shirt unbuttoned almost to the low waistband of his trousers, and looked very lean and attractive. Over these he wore a thick sheepskin jacket, and Leigh found herself wishing he would take it off so that she could see him better. No wonder Gavin’s mother had left such a man! Any woman would have difficulty holding and keeping him by her side.

  He dropped her arm, stepping back to survey her tousled dark hair and dishevelled appearance before turning his mocking eyes on his now standing son. Gavin was studiously brushing down his denims, effectively avoiding his father’s eyes. ‘Well?’ Piers Sinclair demanded, his expression deceptively lazy. To Leigh he had the look of a sleepy feline, a black panther perhaps.

  ‘Well what?’ Gavin asked evasively.

  Gavin was playing for time and Leigh knew it, unfortunately for Gavin, so did his father. But he had told his father about her—or at least, he had told him something. Whatever the information had been she felt sure Piers Sinclair had not expected her to be here. Then why had he asked about Leigh? It was all too puzzling for her and she sighed deeply.

  Piers Sinclair looked at her with cold indifference. ‘As my son doesn’t seem forthcoming perhaps you wouldn’t mind supplying a few simple answers to a few simple questions. Like, who the hell are you? What are you doing here, if that isn’t a rather too stupid question,’ he added enigmatically. ‘And why do you smell like a whisky bottle? Unless of course you’ve drunk the contents of one, which wouldn’t surprise me—your eyes look over-bright and your appearance isn’t exactly perfection.’

  Leigh gasped in disbelief. Somewhere along the line she had come out of this as the person in the wrong, how she didn’t know, but she felt her temper rising at this man’s unwarranted rudeness. ‘My name, Mr Sinclair, happens to be Leigh, Leigh Stanton.’ She saw dawning realisation in his eyes and carried on, her voice stilted with disapproval at his attitude. ‘I’m here because your son chose to bring me here. And I smell of whisky because Gavin tipped a whole glassful down my jeans. And may I add that after meeting you I understand his actions much better than I did.’

  ‘Really, Miss Stanton?’ His voice had softened dangerously, and Leigh saw that even Gavin was beginning to shift uncomfortably. ‘It this true?’ Piers Sinclair demanded of his son.

  ‘Yes, I suppose so,’ mumbled Gavin.

  ‘Don’t ever lie to me again, Gavin!’ his father said harshly. ‘You know it’s the one thing I will not tolerate, not after your mother.’

  ‘But I—I didn’t lie.’ Gavin’s eyes, so much like the older man’s, began to look pleading and Leigh began to feel sorry for him. ‘I did tell you I was bringing Leigh here for the weekend.’

  She glared accusingly at Piers Sinclair. So he actually condoned his son’s outrageous behaviour. How dare he! No wonder Gavin behaved in this fashion with such a father for an example.

  As if reading her thoughts Piers Sinclair smiled with mocking amusement, and walking lazily over to the drinks cabinet helped himself to a liberal amount of whisky before turning to face them again. At the moment his not undoubted anger was directed towards his son, but Leigh was tensing in anticipation of his attention turning on her, as she surely knew it would.

  Piers Sinclair looked coldly at Gavin. ‘You told me you were bringing someone called Lee here, knowing full well that I would think it was that boy Lee you share your flat with,’ he put up a silencing hand as Gavin tried to speak. ‘All right, I accept that you didn’t lie, but you certainly didn’t tell the truth either. You omitted to mention the most important fact, that Lee was—no, is a female.’

  ‘It had the female spelling, L-E-I-G-H,’ she put in resentfully.

  Those blue eyes flickered over her contemptuously. ‘We didn’t actually go into the spelling of it during our telephone conversation.’

  Leigh picked up her case and marched purposefully towards the door. ‘I couldn’t give a damn what you talked about during your telephone call. If you and your son will excuse me, I am going home.’

  ‘Don’t let me spoil your little weekend,’ put in Piers Sinclair smoothly, discarding the thick sheepskin jacket in the warmth of the room. ‘Just try and forget I’m here.’

  It was something Leigh knew she could never do under any circumstances, let alone now when she was alone here with him and his son. In every way that Gavin was still a boy this man was very much a man. Her eyes were drawn again and again to the dark sensual face of Piers Sinclair, the power of his body clearly outlined in the close-fitting trousers and shirt he wore, the shirt clinging to his hair-roughened chest.

  Leigh drew herself to her full height, and being a tall girl she was usually on a level or near level with most of the men she knew, but Piers Sinclair was at least a head taller than she was and she felt at a distinct disadvantage. ‘I don’t know the type of person Gavin usually mixes with, Mr Sinclair, but let me tell you now that if I’d known what Gavin’s plans were for this weekend I would never have come here.’

  He sat down in one of the soft leather armchairs, resting the ankle of one leg on the knee of the other, his eyes veiled and mocking. ‘It pretty obvious to me that you were progressing very satisfactorily until I arrived,’ he gave a nod to Gavin. ‘A fact for which I now apologise. If you’d explained the situation to me earlier, Gavin, I wouldn’t have burst in here and broke up your evening.’

  ‘That’s all right, Dad. I—’

  ‘When the two of you have quite finished!’ exploded Leigh, flicking her long hair away from her face. She walked angrily back into the room to glare at the two of them. ‘The two of you disgust me! But you, Mr Sinclair, you disgust me the most. Gavin can’t be expected to act any differently with you as an example. The only trouble appears to be that I’m not that type of person.’

  Piers laughed tauntingly. ‘Oh, come on, girl! You mix in Gavin’s crowd, don’t you? And even the most shy innocent, which I’m sure you aren’t, couldn’t miss seeing where their scene is—where most young kids’ scene is nowadays.’

  ‘Not mine,’ Leigh denied vehemently. ‘I know very few of Gavin’s friends, and after today I don’t think I want to know any of them.’

  ‘You don’t have to defend yourself to me, Miss Stanton. I’ve already been there.’

  ‘That’s perfectly obvious!’ she said with disgust.

  ‘Dad, Leigh is—’

  ‘Shut up, Gavin!’ Leigh snapped at him. ‘Your father isn’t in the least interested in what I am or am not. And I’m not sure it’s any of his business anyway.’

  ‘I should think there’s very little to tell. Most of Gavin’s friends are long-haired layabouts,’ he looked at her from head to toe, his nostrils flaring sneeringly, ‘and you seem to be no exception. If you want my opinion—’

  ‘But I don’t! You see, your opinions don’t really matter to me,’ Leigh cut in angrily, aware by the tightening of his well shaped stern lips that Piers Sinclair wasn’t accustomed to being spoken to in this manner. This only made her feel better for being the one to do so. ‘Now if you don’t mind I really do have to go home,’ she smiled bitterly. ‘I won’t say it’s been fun, because that’s the one thing it hasn’t been.’

  ‘But you can’t go home now, Leigh,’ interrupted Gavin. ‘It’s very late. I’m certainly not taking you back at this time of night.’

  ‘I didn’t ask you to.’ And she had thought him a nice harmless boy! How wrong could she have been? If she had met his father before tonight she could possibly have guessed at his plans for her; no son of Piers Sinclair would ask a girl away for an innocent weekend. ‘I have two perfectly healthy legs and I’m sure some nice kind person will offer me a lift home.’

  Piers Sinclair stood up, shrugging the sheepskin jacket back over his powerful shoulders. ‘You’re right—I will.’

  Leigh’s eyes widened. ‘I wouldn’t exactly call you kind, Mr Sinclair,’ she told him rudely.

  He released the case from her resisting fingers. ‘Is this all you have with you?’ he asked, ignoring her previous comment.

  Leigh made an effort to retrieve her case but found all her efforts quite ineffectual against such stubborn strength. ‘Will you please give me back my property?’ she said stiffly.

  He shook his dark head. ‘Sorry. I realise you probably hitch-hike all over the country, and get into all sorts of trouble by doing so, but I will not be held responsible for you travelling nearly a hundred miles in that manner at this time of night. That’s just asking for trouble, you may welcome it, I really don’t care. I’ll take you home and that’s that. My son doesn’t feel gentlemanly enough to return you to your home, a feeling I quite understand in the circumstances, so I feel obliged to carry out the task, with or without your co-operation.’

  ‘Don’t trouble yourself!’ Leigh told him tartly. ‘As you’ve just pointed out, I’m accustomed to hitch-hiking. You meet some very interesting people that way.’ In actual fact she had never hitch-hiked in her life and felt little inclination to do so now. She had heard too many stories of different girls being
attacked and molested in such circumstances to ever contemplate such a reckless idea. Until now! But this wasn’t from choice, but necessity. Unless of course she accepted Piers Sinclair’s forced offer of a lift, which she had no intention of doing.

  ‘I’m sure you do,’ retorted Piers Sinclair dryly. ‘But not this evening,’ he flicked an indifferent look towards his son. ‘I take it you have no objections to my taking your—girl-friend home?’

  Gavin shook his head sulkily. ‘Not if you want to take her.’

  Leigh’s eyes glittered her distaste. ‘Quite the gentleman, aren’t you?’ she smiled bitterly. ‘And I actually liked you! And as for you—’ she turned angrily on the older man, ‘I’d rather risk getting into some of that trouble you mentioned earlier than spend any more time in your company!’

  ‘You certainly know how to pick them, Gavin.’ Piers Sinclair viewed his son with narrowed eyes. ‘Quite the little spitfire, isn’t she?’

  ‘Would you mind not talking about me as if I weren’t here!’ snapped Leigh. Really! This man was the absolute end!

  ‘Oh, we know you’re here all right,’ he said with some humour. ‘I must say you’re quite an improvement on some of the girls Gavin has introduced me to.’

  ‘I don’t need your approval, Mr Sinclair. And if I never see you or Gavin again it will be too soon. I’ve never been so insulted in my life before as I have been by you and your son!’

  ‘Now that I find very hard to believe.’

  ‘But Dad, she really is—’

  ‘Will you please keep out of this, Gavin!’ Leigh almost shouted in her anger. ‘You’re only making the situation worse—if that’s at all possible. Your father has already formed his opinion of me, and I’m certainly not going to disillusion him.’

  ‘I doubt very much if you could do that, Miss Stanton, that was done a long time ago, when you were only a baby. Now—if you’ve quite finished wasting time I’m ready to leave. I gather you live in London?’

  ‘Yes, but I—’

  ‘Please, Miss Stanton!’ he said tersely, guessing she was about to protest again. ‘No more arguments. I’ve had a long day and am not really in the mood. They’re quite pointless anyway as I have no intention of leaving a kid like you to her own devices. I can well imagine what they might be.’

  Leigh followed him out of the house, not bothering to say goodbye to Gavin; she felt sure he already knew that was what it was. ‘I’m not a “kid”, Mr Sinclair!’ She glared at him defiantly, for once glad of her height. This man was a positive bully!

  She almost gasped out loud at the beauty of the car he led her to. That it was much more powerful than Gavin’s she had no doubt; as an ex-racing driver Piers Sinclair would obviously crave speed. Its deep green colour was also to be expected, as he was more conservative in his tastes than his son, and not as showy in any of his mannerisms.

  Piers Sinclair viewed her admiration with amusement, deftly flicking open the door for her to enter before climbing in next to her. ‘You like it?’ he asked softly, turning to look at her.

  Leigh looked with pleasure at the luxurious interior of the car, its smoky windows giving it an intimate atmosphere she found slightly claustrophobic with such a man. She was wholly aware of his warm compelling body so close to her own, and could smell the aftershave lotion he wore and the clean male smell of him.

  ‘It’s very nice,’ she told him primly, sitting as far away from him as it was possible to do in such close confines.

  He laughed slightly, a deep pleasant sound, and not full of mockery as his humour had been earlier. ‘Very politely said. You don’t give much away, do you?’

  ‘Not much. What sort of car is it anyway?’ She relaxed back in her seat, finding his driving more efficient and self-assured than Gavin’s. Here was a man who had complete control of himself, and the car he drove. And the people in it, she thought wryly. She wouldn’t ever like to oppose this man, knowing he would be a formidable adversary for anyone, let alone her.

  ‘A Ferrari. Have you never driven in one before?’

  She shook her head. ‘Contrary to your imaginings, Mr Sinclair, I do not idle my time away riding about in expensive cars and generally wasting my life. I do work!’

  ‘Oh yes?’ Arrogant amusement shone from his taunting eyes. ‘And just how did you meet my son?’

  ‘I met him at college, but—’

  ‘And you call that work?’ he interrupted.

  Leigh bridled angrily at the scornful mockery in his voice. Who was he to scoff at her when he had chosen racing driving as a career! ‘One has to learn before one can achieve,’ she said tautly.

  ‘Does one?’ he taunted, his long slender hands moving with expertise on the steering wheel. ‘Then why is it that Gavin doesn’t seem to have learnt anything? Not that I’m complaining, you understand. I’m sure he’ll find his vocation one day.’

  Leigh didn’t miss the ring of steel in his voice and wondered if his father’s attitude had anything to do with Gavin’s behaviour this evening. It seemed to her that Gavin was trying to justify himself to his father in any way he could. But he surely didn’t imagine this evening’s episode was the right way to go about it! No matter what sort of morals his father had she felt sure they weren’t expected to be followed by the son.

  She sat quietly beside him, willing the miles away and wishing she hadn’t been obliged to accept this lift. But then she hadn’t accepted it at all, but was ordered here by Piers Sinclair. He had already put her in the same category as his son, and he had nothing but contempt for him. But what gave him the right to judge other people? Nothing, if his attitude was anything to go by.

  Leigh studied him under lowered lashes, noting the cruel hard set of his mouth, the unrelenting strength of his finely carved features. He wasn’t the sort of man that she thought she would ever want to become involved with. Not that she would ever be given the chance, but he was much too overpowering to ever be ignored, whatever the situation.

  ‘Satisfied?’ His eyes momentarily flickered over her before returning his attention back to the road.

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘You’ve been staring at me for the last five minutes as if any second you expected me to attack you or something. I can assure you that my tastes run to something a little more sophisticated.’

  ‘I don’t doubt it for a moment.’

  ‘Then why the appraisal?’

  ‘Is that what it was?’ she asked coolly. ‘I thought it was more of a perusal.’ She gazed at him with wide violet eyes. ‘You don’t like me very much, do you, Mr Sinclair?’

  ‘Not much,’ he replied smoothly. ‘But then I think the feeling is reciprocated. If you were my daughter I’d give you a good hiding when you get home and keep a closer watch on you in future.’

  ‘But you aren’t my father.’

  ‘Thank God for that! As it is I intend to tell your parents about this evening and leave your punishment to them.’

  ‘Aren’t you being rather hypocritical? I mean, you’re all for Gavin gaining more experience.’

  ‘He’s a boy.’

  ‘I know that. But he can hardly get this experience on his own.’

  ‘Is that what you were doing? Gaining experience?’

  ‘Maybe,’ she lied.

  ‘You’re a mass of contradictions, young lady,’ he said disapprovingly. ‘First of all you deny that you knew of Gavin’s intentions, and now you say you were actually encouraging him. Which is it to be, Miss Stanton? The outraged virgin or a young girl looking for excitement where she can find it?’

  Leigh coloured at his insulting words. ‘Neither. I wouldn’t think either of those descriptions fits me, both in part maybe. You’ll have to decide for yourself which parts.’

  ‘I think I can do that quite easily,’ Piers Sinclair replied shortly. ‘Why don’t parents keep a closer watch on their kids nowadays?’

  ‘Like you do?’ she enquired sweetly, and instantly regretted her impulsiveness as she saw his mouth tighten cruelly and his hands grip the steering wheel as if he might hit her if he didn’t hold on to something. After all, it was none of her business what his relationship with his son was like. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said quietly, unable to look at him.