Burning Obsession Read online

  Her father hooted with laughter, wincing as it hurt his head. ‘You should have been born with green eyes,’ he grinned.

  Jordan held her firmly against his side, bending his head to kiss her lightly on the lips, his grip tightening as she struggled. ‘Kelly knows she has no need to worry about me straying, I’m the typical faithful husband,’ he assured her father.

  ‘I should damn well think so,’ the other man growled. ‘You’ve only been married a few weeks.’

  ‘Lie still, Mr Darrow,’ Sister Fellows told him firmly. ‘Or you’ll give yourself a colossal headache.’

  He grimaced. ‘I think I already have.’

  Kelly bent to kiss him on the cheek. ‘We’ll see you in the morning, Daddy.’

  ‘Not too early,’ his blue eyes twinkled teasingly. ‘I understand from Dr Jones that you’ve been taking it in turns to sit with me. Spend some time together tomorrow.’

  ‘This is terrible,’ Kelly groaned once they were outside in the car. ‘I’m not sure if I can keep this up.’

  ‘You’re doing fine.’ Most of Jordan’s attention was on his driving. ‘That little show of jealousy convinced him more than anything else. A brilliant piece of acting.’

  Except that she hadn’t been acting! It was starting all over again, all the bitterness and anger, the burning jealousy that seemed to eat her up. So where did that leave her feelings concerning Jordan? She preferred not to think about it.

  ‘I thought so,’ she agreed lightly. ‘Although you didn’t do too badly yourself.’

  ‘Thanks,’ he drawled mockingly. ‘I’m a little out of practice, but no doubt I’ll soon pick up the habit of the doting husband again.’

  ‘Doting!’ Kelly scorned. ‘You treated me like an expensive toy.’

  ‘I told you I don’t want to discuss the past.’ His eyes were a light, icy grey, his jaw rigid. ‘From here on in we think of it as the future. As far as your father is concerned that’s exactly what it is.’

  Her expression became uncertain, her bottom lip trembling slightly. ‘You do think he’ll get better, don’t you?’

  ‘You heard the doctor, the amnesia is only temporary.’

  ‘And when he gets his memory back, how do we explain our living together?’

  ‘We don’t,’ Jordan said arrogantly. ‘I have no need to explain living with my wife to anyone.’

  ‘No one?’ she asked disbelievingly.

  ‘No one at all,’ he said firmly. ‘Can the same be said of you?’

  ‘A boy-friend, you mean?’ Kelly flushed.

  ‘That’s right,’ he nodded.

  ‘No,’ she told him jerkily, ‘I have no boy-friend.’

  She had never had one. She had believed it was because after Jordan she didn’t trust men, but now she wasn’t so sure. Maybe the real reason was that she couldn’t get Jordan completely out of her system, had felt a loyalty to her marriage even if he hadn’t.

  ‘I believe you dated Ian a couple of times after you left me,’ Jordan surprised her by saying.

  ‘I would hardly call it dating.’ Not when she had spent the whole time talking about Jordan! Ian had always been a good listener, and she liked him, had readily agreed to meet him when he called her a few weeks after she had parted from Jordan. ‘I suppose Ian told you we’d met?’

  ‘Yes,’ he didn’t elaborate.

  Kelly licked her lips nervously, shooting him a searching glance, although his bland expression revealed nothing of his inner thoughts. ‘What did he say?’ she asked with feigned casualness.

  Jordan shrugged. ‘Just that you had met.’

  ‘Nothing else?’

  ‘No,’ came his abrupt reply.

  Thank God for that! She had talked to Ian quite openly, although not even to him could she reveal the full extent of Jordan’s betrayal. Ian had perhaps known of it anyway—after all, he worked with both Jordan and Angela, might have realised what was going on between his boss and his secretary.

  Janet Amery was in their suite when they got back to the hotel. There were papers strewn all over the desk in the lounge, and Janet seemed to be working very hard as she typed out a report, but Kelly still couldn’t help wondering if this show wasn’t being put on for her benefit.

  ‘Did the call from Burrows come in yet?’ Jordan demanded imperiously, striding over to the desk.

  ‘No, Jordan.’ Janet looked up from her typing, her eyes a deep clear blue, her complexion perfect, her smart silky suit the perfect outfit for the perfect secretary.

  ‘Damn him,’ Jordan muttered. ‘Doesn’t he realise I need those figures before I go ahead with this deal?’

  ‘I’m sure he does,’ Janet soothed.

  ‘Get him on the phone again,’ he ordered tersely. ‘Hell, Jimmy is only keeping my option open until ten tonight.’

  ‘Excuse me,’ Kelly said softly, knowing of old that air of excitement about Jordan. He thrived on work, continued with his wheeling and dealing even though he had enough money to last him ten lifetimes. ‘I’m going to my room.’

  Jordan turned to look at her, as if for a few minutes he had forgotten her very existence. ‘You’ll join me for dinner?’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ she shook her head. ‘You appear to be rather busy.’

  ‘I still have to eat,’ he dismissed abruptly.

  ‘I wouldn’t want to intrude,’ a trace of bitterness entered her voice. ‘I’m sure you and Miss Amery don’t need me around. I’ll eat in my room.’

  Jordan strode over to her, grasping her arm and pushing her roughly out into the corridor of their suite. ‘You’ll damn well eat with me,’ his eyes glittered angrily. ‘And you can cut the remarks about Janet and myself, I think her fiancé might have something to say about them.’

  Kelly’s eyes widened. ‘She’s engaged?’

  He nodded, his expression mocking. ‘To my personal assistant.’

  ‘Burrows?’

  ‘That right.’

  ‘Then it wasn’t very polite of you to talk about him that way to Miss Amery.’ A feeling of relief rushed through her, and she made every effort to hide it from Jordan. If he should ever realise that her jealousy over Janet Amery and Sister Fellows was real, very real, she would die of embarrassment.

  ‘I don’t approve of those sort of relationships in business,’ he said haughtily. ‘It isn’t conducive to work.’

  ‘And nothing must interfere with your work, must it?’ Kelly scorned, her head tilted back. ‘I’m surprised you bother any more, after all you’re rich enough already.’

  ‘Haven’t you heard, it’s a good substitute.’ His mouth twisted.

  She frowned. ‘For what?’

  ‘This!’ With a groan his mouth claimed hers for the third time in two days, if anything his hunger increased, his open mouth devouring all her resistance.

  His hands were firm on her back, although Kelly needed no force to keep her against him, feeling as helpless as metal pulled to a magnet. Her neck was arched, her feet almost off the ground with the force of his embrace.

  His lips moved against hers with fierce insistence, demanding that she meet his passion in full, unrelenting as she began to gasp for air. She felt lightheaded, dizzy, and she refused to put this down to anything but her breathlessness, refused to acknowledge the fire in her veins, the fever in her eyes.

  ‘Put me down!’ she demanded indignantly, knowing her mouth must be bare of lip-gloss, her hair tumbled about her face.

  ‘Certainly.’ He lowered her to the ground, although there was strength enough in him to ignore her command and carry her off to one of the four bedrooms in this suite if he should care to. Kelly told herself she would have fought such a move, but she also knew it was a fight she would have lost.

  Anger burnt at his ability to look unmoved by the passion and desire he had just forced from her. ‘Don’t ever to that again!’

  Jordan gave a soft laugh, his expression lazily mocking. ‘But I told you, I like kissing you.’

  ‘And I hate it
!’ She glared at him.

  ‘Liar!’ he taunted. ‘You love it, you always did.’

  ‘I thought we weren’t going to discuss the past,’ she said stiffly, her face bright red with shame. Jordan was too experienced not to know she had surrendered to him completely a few minutes ago.

  ‘But, Kelly,’ he mocked throatily, ‘that wasn’t the past.’

  ‘It wasn’t the future either,’ she snapped.

  ‘It was here and now, and you liked it as much as I did. Besides, we should get in some practice.’

  ‘P-practice…?’

  ‘Well, it won’t look very good in front of your father if I don’t even know how to kiss my wife. You might have learnt to kiss differently since last we met.’

  Her eyes flashed with anger. ‘And how would I have done—Ooh!’ she cried at his smile of satisfaction. ‘I’ve been out with other men,’ she told him defiantly.

  ‘But apparently none of them for long enough for them to have kissed you,’ he drawled, straightening the cuff of his shirt beneath the navy blue suit he wore.

  ‘I’ve been kissed!’ She almost stamped her foot with rage.

  Jordan’s rage was even fiercer than hers, deep lines grooved beside his nose and mouth. ‘By how many?’ he asked tightly.

  ‘A few,’ she refused to meet the demand of his gaze. ‘Not as many women as you’ve had, I’m sure.’

  His fingers bit into her arms, and Kelly felt sure they would leave bruises. ‘We aren’t discussing me, Kelly. How many men have there been? Have you slept with any of them?’

  She was white with shock, hardly able to stand as he shook her. ‘Certainly not! Can you say the same about your women?’ she challenged as he at last let her go.

  He watched her between narrowed lids, his eyes a metallic grey. ‘And if I can?’

  Kelly gave a scornful snort. ‘After five years?’ she derided, a smile on her lips. ‘You couldn’t go for five days without a woman, let alone five years!’

  ‘Maybe not,’ he shrugged, his anger apparently forgotten.

  ‘If you’re looking for a reason to divorce me, Jordan, you won’t find one that way.’

  ‘After this amount of time we could claim incompatibility. But I’ve already told you I don’t want a divorce.’

  ‘Of course, a wife in the background suits you.’

  ‘Exactly,’ he nodded, completely in control again. ‘Do you want a divorce? Is there someone you want to marry?’

  She frowned. ‘No.’

  ‘And you don’t want children, so—’

  ‘Who says I don’t?’ she cut in sharply.

  ‘You did.’ His gaze was tense.

  ‘When—? That was before,’ she realised what he meant. ‘I was upset at the time, confused. I didn’t know what I was saying.’

  ‘You knew you were telling me you hated me,’ he recalled bitterly. ‘You knew it, and you enjoyed watching me crumple. What do you think it did to me having you say you hated me when we’d just lost our child?’

  ‘My child,’ she corrected vehemently, remembering all too well the reason she had lost it, remembering him with Angela Divine. ‘It was never your child, Jordan. For all the interest you took of it—her,’ she amended bitterly, ‘she might as well not have existed.’

  ‘You don’t understand,’ he shook his head wearily. ‘You never did.’

  ‘No. It’s strange, isn’t it?’ You see, I always thought a husband was very interested in the existence of his child. I was going to call her Jordana, you know.’ Her eyes flashed with dislike. ‘Thank God she was never born and named after a bastard like you!’

  His hand shot out and hit her hard across one cheek, and her head reeled back from the blow. ‘Oh God!’ he groaned as she stared at him with tear-filled, accusing eyes. ‘God!’ he groaned again, his face buried in his hands. ‘Now what have you made me do?’ he muttered in an agonised voice. ‘Kelly—’

  ‘Don’t touch me!’ She stepped back as he reached out. ‘Don’t come near me!’

  ‘Kelly—’

  ‘No!’ She turned on her heel and ran into her bedroom, turning the key in the lock before leaning heavily back against the door.

  ‘Kelly!’ the muffled sound of his voice came through the door. ‘Kelly, I’m sorry. Open the door, darling.’

  ‘No!’ she answered in a shaky voice, her cheek stinging.

  She heard him sigh. ‘I didn’t mean to frighten you. For God’s sake let me in so I can explain.’ He rattled the door-handle. ‘Let me in, Kelly.’

  ‘I said no and I meant no!’ she told him vehemently.

  ‘Okay!’ he snapped, his patience having run out. ‘If that’s the way you want it. I’ll order dinner for eight-thirty, make sure you aren’t late.’

  ‘I’m not dining with you,’ she gasped.

  ‘Try not being there and see what happens,’ he said threateningly, his firm tread moving away.

  Kelly moved over to the bed, her legs feeling shaky as she slowly sank down on to the mattress. Jordan had hit her! No one had ever hit her before, not her father, no one, and to say she had been shocked by the action was an understatement.

  But she had deserved it! She had deserved much more than that. How could she have said such a cruel thing to him? Only with Jordan had she ever lost her temper so completely, her emotions were always in the extreme where he was concerned. She had put him up on a pedestal, and because he wasn’t able to share her enthusiasm for the baby the foundations to that pedestal had started to rock. She hadn’t allowed for the fact that not all men want children, that some even disliked them. She could have sworn Jordan wasn’t one of those men, but his instant aversion to touching her and his turning to another woman had more than proved that he was.

  Now how could she prepare to have dinner with him this evening as if that slap had never happened? Things had been strained before, but surely they were impossible now.

  After soaking in the bath for an hour she took a look at her face. There was a slight discolouration and swelling to her bottom lip, the marks of Jordan’s fingers starting to fade now. She had been aghast when she had first looked at it, shocked at the livid marks on her face. Skilful make-up covered the last of these marks, although there was nothing she could do about her bruised and swollen lip, her lip-gloss just seemed to emphasise it.

  Her gown was pastel green, very figure-hugging, clinging to her narrow waist. It gave her a look of coolness, of sophistication, and made her eyes deeply violet, her hair even blacker, and gave her skin a wonderful honey tone.

  Dinner would be served at eight-thirty, Jordan had said, so she made her entrance at exactly eight twenty-five, sure that Jordan would be no more eager than she was to indulge in light conversation.

  He was already in the lounge when she came in, sitting in one of the armchairs, his expression morose as he swirled some whisky around in his glass. Kelly knew it was whisky, Jordan never drank anything else. The room was also filled with the aroma of his cheroots.

  He stood up as soon as he saw her, his suit cream, the collar of the black shirt he wore beneath it turned back over his jacket. His hair was newly washed, very dark and springy, and as he moved forward Kelly could smell his tangy aftershave.

  Jordan’s dark gaze searched her pale features. ‘I’ve telephoned the hospital,’ he told her huskily. ‘You father is sleeping comfortably.’

  ‘Thank you,’ she accepted coolly.

  ‘Kelly…’ he groaned, grasping her hands in his. ‘Can you ever forgive me?’

  ‘There’s nothing to forgive,’ she extricated her hands moving away from him. ‘If I ever say anything like that to you again I hope you’ll deal with me in the same way. Could I have a sherry, please?’ she changed the subject.

  ‘We can’t just dismiss it like that,’ he poured her sherry for her. ‘You mouth, your beautiful mouth!’ He shut his eyes as if wishing he could shut out the memory of that painful scene. ‘It must hurt like hell.’

  Kelly flinched as he would hav
e touched her, rescuing her sherry from his shaking fingers. ‘It will remind me in future to keep it shut,’ she said lightly. She smiled as a knock sounded on the main door, wishing an end to this conversation. ‘That will be our dinner—I hope. I’m very hungry. What did you order for me?’

  ‘Duck.’

  Her eyes glowed. ‘My favourite.’

  ‘Still?’ he quirked his eyebrows.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘It’s nice to know some of your tastes haven’t changed.’ He moved to answer the door.

  The waiter stayed to serve them their food and wine, making anything but general conversation impossible, so at least Kelly was able to eat her meal in peace.

  She poured their coffee in the lounge, the waiter having wheeled away the service trolley. ‘I’ve been thinking, Jordan,’ she sipped her coffee.

  ‘Mm?’ He was relaxing in the chair opposite her, his long legs stretched out in front of him.

  Kelly nodded, trying not to notice how attractive he looked, that wary look having left his face now. She could almost believe they were the happily married couple they were trying to appear—and that wouldn’t do at all. She must keep up her guard against Jordan, he had already shown he wasn’t averse to kissing her when the mood took him. ‘It’s about the house,’ she hastily explained.

  Jordan frowned his puzzlement. ‘Your father has a housekeeper, doesn’t he?’

  ‘Oh yes,’ she dismissed, automatically passing him the sugar. Sugar and cakes were Jordan’s weakness, and yet he didn’t put on an ounce of weight. ‘I didn’t mean Daddy’s house, I meant ours.’

  ‘What about it?’

  ‘We don’t have one. And Daddy’s sure to remember the house, we spent months decorating it before I moved in. He’s going to think it strange if we bring him back here. I suppose we could always rent an apartment, but—’

  ‘Not necessary,’ Jordan cut in lazily.

  ‘But we can’t go back to his house either, he didn’t have it then. Don’t you remember—’

  ‘I still have the house, Kelly.’

  Her eyes widened. ‘Our house?’

  ‘That’s right,’ he nodded.

  ‘And Mrs McLeod? Do you still have her too?’ Kelly asked dazedly.