The Wade Dynasty Read online

  ‘I’ll go and make up the bed in the studio for you,’ she mumbled.

  He nodded abruptly. ‘And I’ll go out and buy those pyjamas,’ he jeered.

  Brenna sat down heavily once he had left, not sure who had won that last argument. If anyone had! There was really no point in arguing about the fact that she had decided against marrying him; she had never said that she would, and they both knew that too! For a while, for the space of a single night, she had allowed herself the luxury of dropping the guard of bitterness she felt towards all the Wade family, for the space of that one night she and Nathan had seduced each other into believing they actually cared about each other. At least, she had allowed herself to be seduced; despite what Nathan had said to the contrary his motives had been much more basic.

  His mention of marriage had unnerved her into agreeing to consider the possibility once she had finished college in the summer. And if her father hadn’t re-instilled some of the Jordan pride in her she just might have done that. She was grateful for her lucky escape.

  The cot-bed was made and a snack dinner partly prepared by the time Nathan knocked on the door just over an hour later. Brenna answered it, her denims and T-shirt replaced with a purple lounge dress.

  ‘Are we dressing or undressing for dinner?’ Nathan drawled as he walked past her.

  Brenna paused at the door, willing her temper to remain under control. She should be used to Nathan’s caustic tongue by now, she had been listening to it long enough! Besides, the dress was perfectly respectable, even if the softness of the material did more than flatter her curves. She always changed into something loose and comfortable during her evenings at home, and she wasn’t about to change her routine for this man.

  He had thrown his paper-bag-wrapped parcel into a chair, had taken off his jacket and was loosening the buttons on his shirt by the time she joined him. Her senses baulked at the sight of his tanned, hair-roughened, muscular chest, knowing there was a slight scar just below his left nipple, from a childhood accident. She willed her expression to remain bland as she remembered caressing that scar, and above it, the night in his arms.

  ‘What are we having for dinner?’ he drawled. ‘Bean sprouts and carrot fritters?’

  He certainly wasn’t making it easy to be polite to him! ‘We’re having omelettes—cheese or mushroom, whichever you prefer, with salad and baked potato. And there’s fruit to follow. It’s all I could get together at such short notice.’

  ‘Sounds good. Better than the last time you fed me, anyway,’ he grinned. ‘Whoever heard of a girl brought up on a ranch being a vegetarian!’

  Brenna’s eyes flashed deeply green. ‘I wasn’t brought up on a ranch, I was transplanted to one at an age when I could realise those lovely little calves born in the spring would ultimately be fattened up to be sent for slaughter!’ She shuddered at those childhood memories. ‘It isn’t that I don’t like meat, I’m as carnivorous as the next person, I just feel nauseous every time I think of some poor animal being murdered so that I can eat something I don’t need in the first place! We don’t need to eat cows, we can live just as well on the things they produce, the same goes for fowl, and sheep provide wool to keep us warm. We don’t have to eat the poor creatures.’

  ‘Get off your soap-box, Brenna,’ Nathan ran a tired hand over his eyes. ‘I’ve heard it all before. Ranching is what I do for a living.’

  ‘That’s probably what all those whalers say!’

  He gave an impatient sigh. ‘There’s no connection between the destruction of the whale and my ranching a few cows.’

  ‘It’s thousands of cows,’ she corrected fiercely. ‘And the connection they both have is that they die for man’s gain. You—’

  ‘Could we have our omelettes—make mine cheese,’ he ground out. ‘It’s been a long day, and I can do without this old argument. You don’t accept the money that’s due to you from the ranch because of your beliefs, and I respect that, but I don’t expect to get lectures every time we see each other.’

  The fact that she abhorred the slaughter of those beautiful animals that lived such a short time was only part of the reason Brenna had refused the Wade money, and the fact that Nathan had never realised that was just part of his insensitivity.

  ‘I’m sure you know where the shower is if you would like to freshen up before dinner,’ she suggested distantly. ‘The food will be ready in about fifteen minutes.’

  ‘Thanks.’ He picked up his parcel and carried it through to the studio, emerging a few minutes later with fresh clothes and accurately locating the shower; obviously he had found that too when he ‘looked around this morning’!

  It was amazing how much more sensually Nathan’s faded denims seemed to mould to him, how much more blatantly masculine he looked, with the top three buttons of his shirt undone as they usually were, here in her small fitted kitchen. They were things she had barely been aware of her years in Canada, but here he had the look of a caged tiger, and she knew he was as dangerous.

  ‘You didn’t have any luck with the less than major hotels, I take it?’ he drawled before biting crisply into an apple after their meal.

  ‘No,’ she muttered, having been hoping her own lack of success in locating Lesli would go unquestioned, but having known that it wouldn’t.

  ‘What a pity. And you were so certain too!’ he mocked.

  ‘Nathan—’

  ‘Shall we clear away?’ he suggested briskly. ‘The last couple of days have seemed like a week, and I’d like to get some sleep now. When you Jordan women decide to run off you make sure it disturbs as many lives as possible, don’t you?’ he bit out hardly.

  ‘I’m sure you’ll find Lesli has a very good reason for acting this way.’

  ‘So you’ve already said,’ he nodded, giving a wry grimace. ‘But as Grant isn’t in a talkative mood right now, and Lesli probably won’t be any more forthcoming when she turns up, we may never know what it was.’

  ‘As long as they sort out this mess and get back together it’s none of our business,’ Brenna dismissed shruggingly. ‘No matter what you may think I don’t want their marriage to break up. They love each other.’

  ‘Yes,’ Nathan sighed. ‘I wonder why so many people bother with the emotion, it seems a painful one to me.’

  ‘I can clear away these few things if you would like to go to bed,’ she said abruptly. ‘Although it’s still light outside, and with no curtains…’ she added doubtfully.

  ‘Have you forgotten you’re talking to the man who fell asleep on horseback in the middle of the day?’ he drawled drily.

  ‘Oh, yes,’ her mouth quirked. ‘Patrick really laid into you for that, didn’t he?’ she chuckled.

  ‘He sure did.’ Nathan’s eyes were warm with the memory.

  ‘What was it he accused you of?’ she mused mischievously. ‘“Whoring all night with—"’

  ‘You shouldn’t have been listening to that, young lady,’ he grimaced.

  ‘The whole ranch must have heard it,’ she grinned. ‘At that age I wasn’t quite sure what he meant—’

  ‘You shouldn’t have even half understood it,’ Nathan glowered.

  ‘Maybe I wouldn’t have done if you hadn’t shouted right back that it was your business and no one else’s who you went to bed with, and—’

  ‘I remember the rest of it, thank you,’ Nathan grimaced again.

  ‘I never thought you were an innocent, Nathan,’ she taunted.

  ‘All the same—’

  ‘Go to bed, Nathan,’ she mocked. ‘If I hear from Lesli I’ll let you know.’

  ‘Will you?’ he looked at her with narrowed eyes.

  She sighed. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Brenna…’

  She neatly avoided his reaching hands. ‘Will you just go to bed?’ she said tautly.

  His eyes had narrowed to icy slits. ‘You needn’t be afraid of me,’ he rasped. ‘I answered an invitation when I came to your room sixteen months ago, I wouldn’t do it again unless the same
invitation were made. You’re perfectly safe from me tonight.’

  Her gaze remained steady in the face of his derision. ‘Good night, Nathan.’

  She was very much aware of him in the adjoining room as she prepared for bed, and she knew he was right when he said she had given the invitation that night. They had all been to a party at a neighbour’s ranch the last night of her Easter break from college, and Nathan had been her partner for the evening. After years of treating him as an older brother she didn’t particularly like, she had become sharply aware of his masculinity as they danced together. She hadn’t wanted to be aware of him as anything other than one of the arrogant Wades, who bought people as they did their livestock, but the wine she had consumed had put a hazy red glow around the evening, so that by the time they drove home her head was resting on Nathan’s shoulder as he sat behind the wheel.

  Lesli and Grant had made their excuses without seeming to notice Nathan and Brenna’s absorption with each other, the married couple having eyes only for each other.

  ‘We may as well go to bed too,’ Brenna had said throatily, her gaze held by his.

  ‘Yours or mine?’ he said, half teasingly, and yet half seriously too.

  She felt as if she stood on a precipice at that moment, wanting the treasure she was sure was just beyond the edge. ‘Mine,’ she said recklessly.

  Nathan was no inexperienced teenager to match her, but the surprise of her answer had obviously unnerved him, for he swallowed hard. ‘Ten minutes?’ he suggested gruffly.

  ‘Make it five,’ she taunted, laughingly running to her room.

  She had felt lightheaded and happy, singing in the shower, curled up like a sensuous kitten by the time Nathan quietly knocked on the door and entered her room, the belted towelling robe obviously his only clothing.

  ‘Why don’t you slip into something more comfortable?’ she teased. ‘Skin!’

  She had been wrong, the towelling robe wasn’t his only clothing; black briefs clung to the perfection of his thighs.

  ‘Those too,’ she encouraged huskily.

  ‘Are you going to regret this in the morning?’ he frowned his hesitation.

  ‘Probably,’ she dismissed. ‘But what’s that saying, “Tomorrow is another day"?’

  Still he hesitated, a golden god bathed in the lamp’s warm glow. ‘Are you going to hate me?’

  ‘More than I already do, you mean?’ she giggled.

  ‘Brenna—’

  ‘If you question all your women like this before you make love to them I’m surprised you’ve had any lovers at all,’ she pouted, provocatively letting the sheet fall down to her waist as she sat up, her breasts thrusting forward in rose-tipped invitation.

  And she knew exactly what she was doing; she felt like a stranger apart from herself watching her actions, unable to stop what was about to happen.

  ‘This is different, Brenna—’

  ‘Why?’ she mocked. ‘Because of who I am? Forget about that, Nathan. For goodness’ sake,’ she snapped impatiently. ‘If you aren’t interested, there were a dozen men at the party tonight who were!’

  ‘I’m well aware of that,’ he grated, discarding the black scrap of material before joining her beneath the bedclothes. ‘You’re like a witch, Brenna, casting your spells over every man you meet,’ he groaned. ‘In fact, you’re probably descended from one!’ His mouth claimed hers, and Brenna became lost in the whirlpool of emotions that was Nathan Wade.

  No part of her remained bereft of his touch, and she writhed beneath him in ecstasy as his tongue rasped across the turgid peaks of her breasts, her legs becoming entangled with his as she arched into him.

  But as in everything else, Nathan took his time making love, bringing her again and again to a peak of pleasure before denying her the full glory of it, until in self-defence she began an assault on his senses that soon made him gasp as his body leapt out of control.

  ‘No, not too fast,’ he groaned as he pulled her above him. ‘God knows I’ve waited long enough!’ he muttered raggedly. ‘Brenna, have you… will this be the first time for you?’ he frowned up at her.

  ‘Do we have to bother with details?’ she dismissed impatiently, nipping at his chest with her teeth.

  ‘They aren’t details, you silly girl. There could be a child—’

  ‘A baby?’ she realised in a puzzled voice. ‘Don’t be silly,’ she said scornfully.

  ‘God, Brenna, you have to know that it wouldn’t bother me if you did become pregnant; I’d like to have a child with you,’ he rasped huskily. ‘How I love you! Will you marry me?’

  ‘Marry you?’ she blinked dazedly.

  ‘Yes.’ He rolled over until she was beneath him, cupping each side of her face with his gentle hands as his thighs parted hers, catching her pained gasp in his mouth as his lips met hers the same time as he gently stroked her.

  She couldn’t think, let alone answer him, and it was a long time later, with her cheek resting against his damp chest, that he returned to the subject of marriage.

  ‘Are you going to marry me, witch?’ He absently played with the tangle of her hair as it lay down her spine.

  Sobering up could be a hard lesson, in more ways than one, and Brenna shied from committing herself to the son of a man who took everything he wanted as if it were his right, knowing Patrick Wade had brought up his two sons to believe the same was true of them.

  ‘I still have to finish college,’ she evaded.

  ‘And I wouldn’t dream of trying to stop you, a few more months isn’t going to make that much difference,’ Nathan said indulgently.

  ‘Then could we wait until I come home for good before we make any decisions?’

  ‘Of course,’ he murmured, desire flooding back into his body. ‘Just remember, I love you.’

  He had made love to her all through the night, and Brenna had been exhausted when she said goodbye to him at the airport the next day, too weary to do more than sleep on the long flight back to London. Although she knew she had to seriously consider her actions of the night before, to try and work out what had possessed her to invite Nathan to her bed.

  But in the end she hadn’t needed to think about that or Nathan’s proposal. Her father had met her at the airport, a broken replica of the happy-go-lucky man she remembered from her childhood. And she knew it was the Wades who had so destroyed him; she hadn’t needed to be reminded of that as he drank his way through a bottle of whisky before telling her about his visit to the doctor that morning.

  CHAPTER THREE

  THE ringing of the telephone woke Brenna the next morning—afternoon, she corrected with a groan as she looked at the bedside clock to find it was almost twelve o’clock. Why didn’t Nathan answer the damned thing?—he was always up at six o’clock, no matter what the circumstances.

  It was on about the eighth ring that she realised he couldn’t be in the flat, otherwise he would have answered the telephone, so she crawled out of her double bed to answer it herself, pulling on Nick’s T-shirt that almost reached down to her knees to pick up the receiver and groggily recite her number.

  ‘You really shouldn’t do that in London,’ Carolyn instantly chided. ‘It could be an obscene telephone caller.’

  ‘They wouldn’t dare, not with Nathan here,’ retorted Brenna.

  ‘I don’t suppose your exhaustion could be due to your handsome stepbrother?’ Carolyn suggested hopefully.

  ‘No,’ she denied drily. At least, not in the way her friend meant; once those memories of Nathan that last night in Canada had been evoked she hadn’t been able to get them out of her mind, and it had been almost morning before she fell asleep.

  ‘Pity,’ her friend sighed. ‘Is he there?’

  ‘He doesn’t seem to be… wait a minute,’ Brenna turned the telephone pad around to face her, reading the large masculine scrawl on its surface. ‘He’s out,’ she sighed.

  ‘Damn,’ muttered Carolyn. ‘I wanted to thank him for the flowers.’

  ‘What flo
wers?’ she frowned, sleep still fogging her brain.

  ‘The ones he sent me, silly,’ her friend laughed. ‘A dozen long-stemmed white roses,’ she added delightedly.

  The fog at last cleared from Brenna’s brain as she realised the reason Nathan had sent the flowers. It wasn’t a gesture she would have expected from him, but she thanked him for his thoughtfulness anyway.

  ‘To apologise for his rudeness yesterday, the card with them said,’ Carolyn continued, very often not needing answers to her conversation, just taking the answers for granted. ‘I didn’t particularly think he was rude, but he—’

  ‘Nathan behaved disgracefully,’ Brenna contradicted firmly, sure that Carolyn would be blaming herself for Nathan’s erroneous assumptions if she didn’t stop her right now.

  ‘He was just concerned—’

  ‘He told me what he said to you and Nick while I was packing; he was very insulting.’

  ‘Hey, you’re lucky to have a brother to be that worried about you,’ Carolyn scolded. ‘The poor man walked in on a situation he didn’t understand—and which you certainly hadn’t explained to him, what was he supposed to think?’

  ‘He could have waited for the explanations—’

  ‘With me coming on to him like the vamp of the year?’ her friend laughed. ‘He probably thought I was trying to draw him into our happy circle.’

  There had been no ‘probably’ about the assumption, that was exactly what Nathan had thought was happening. ‘Stop defending him, Carolyn,’ scolded Brenna.

  ‘I’d defend any man who sent me white roses,’ the other girl assured her. ‘Still, if he isn’t there, I’ll have to thank him another time. Are you going to be in later today?’ she changed the subject.

  ‘You’re coming back to town?’ Brenna guessed with a groan, knowing they would never meet their deadline if Carolyn came back to London and joined her usual hectic social whirl.

  ‘Don’t sound so worried,’ her friend laughed. ‘I was a good girl after you left and stayed up all night finishing the story. So now Nick and I are going to reward ourselves by having a good time. I wondered if I could drop the rest of the story off to you when we get back. Although I don’t suppose you feel much like working with Nathan there,’ she realised.