Engaged to Jarrod Stone Read online

  He pulled a clean shirt out of the wardrobe. ‘Why not? They probably think we sleep together anyway. A lot of engaged couples do nowadays.’

  ‘I wouldn’t, and especially not with you. You’re the sort that would take advantage of the engagement and forget about the marriage.’

  ‘With you I may not be allowed to. My mother and father won’t simply accept the end of our engagement in a couple of months’ time, not after this morning. We may just have to get married to satisfy them.’

  Brooke gave him a puzzled look. ‘You’re very calm about it.’

  He stripped off his pyjama jacket, his torso rippling with muscle. ‘What else do you expect me to be?’

  Brooke sat up in the bed, uncaring of the inadequacy of her cotton nightdress. ‘I expect you to be angry at perhaps having to marry someone you don’t love.’

  ‘But you do see it may be a possibility?’

  Remembering the looks she had received from Angie and Dave and the kindness Mr and Mrs Stone had shown her she knew that it could happen. They were Jarrod’s family, and no matter how he might behave away from home, here he behaved like any normal son would to his parents, with respect and love. Besides, she couldn’t bear for them to think badly of her.

  ‘Yes,’ she acknowledged softly.

  ‘I’m no happier about it than you are,’ he snapped, picking up the sound of finality in her voice.

  ‘Then why don’t you get angry, shout a little?’

  He walked to the bathroom door, his fresh clothing in his hand, clothed only in the silk pyjama trousers that rested low down on his narrow hips, showing clearly the strength and power of his body. ‘Being married to you may not be so bad, you felt quite good in my arms last night, and when I kissed you on Friday I wouldn’t say we disliked each other.’

  ‘You mean—’ she paused for breath. ‘You mean you would expect—expect a normal marriage?’

  He gave a mocking smile. ‘You’ve been reading too many romantic novels. Marriages of convenience don’t happen nowadays, or if they do they certainly have a physical side. I wouldn’t marry any woman just to look at her,’ he scorned.

  ‘But it would be very convenient for you, wouldn’t it?’ she queried softly.

  Grey eyes narrowed to steely slits. ‘Would it?’

  ‘Oh yes,’ she scorned. ‘A newly married man would hardly be suspected of having an affair with another man’s wife.’

  ‘And who would that be?’ he asked tauntingly.

  ‘You know very well who I mean,’ she said tartly.

  ‘The beautiful Selina,’ Jarrod replied unhesitantly.

  ‘Exactly.’

  ‘Mm, you could be right,’ he said thoughtfully.

  ‘I wouldn’t stand for that if I were your wife. I couldn’t condone you having an affair with that woman. I didn’t even like her.’

  ‘Oh, I see, if you had liked her it would have been a different matter.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous! And I certainly wouldn’t be your real wife. I may have been reading too many romantic novels, but I think I prefer the way they turn out.’

  ‘You do?’ He looked surprised. ‘But they usually end up with the hero and the heroine in each other’s arms, don’t they?’

  ‘Well, yes, but—we won’t! And that’s why you aren’t ever going to make love to me. I happen to believe that sort of thing should only happen between people who love each other.’

  ‘And you don’t think you could ever love me?’

  ‘Never!’ She couldn’t meet his probing eyes in case he should see her lie. He was much too astute to miss the love shining in her eyes for him.

  ‘Then that’s too bad, because I have no intention of having a wife just to put her in a glass case. Women are for loving and—’

  ‘And you love them,’ she finished bitchily.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘God, you’re such a—’

  ‘I warned you once before about calling me names.’ His eyes glittered dangerously.

  ‘If the cap fits …’ Brooke said pointedly.

  He laughed softly. ‘I’ll see you at breakfast. I’m going for that ride now—if I were you I’d try to get a little more sleep, it may improve your temper.’

  His laughter still echoed in the room long after he had left it. Brooke threw one of the pillows at the closed bathroom door. Damn the man! Damn the arrogance of him.

  She went back to her own room; how could she be expected to sleep in his bed after what had happened to her this morning? She still blushed at the thought of Angie coming into the room and finding her in Jarrod’s arms. Whatever must she have thought? What a stupid question, it must be obvious what she had thought, what the whole family would think when they knew.

  And she had to face them all, probably at breakfast. Not that she was hungry, but she knew the dreaded moment had to be faced some time, and she would rather it was sooner than later. Besides, she knew Jarrod wouldn’t let her cower in her room all day.

  If only he weren’t so calm about the whole thing! It didn’t seem to bother him that his young sister had walked into his bedroom and found them in a compromising situation. And then he also had the nerve to say they would have to get married and that he would expect the marriage to be a real one.

  He had already called the tune far too many times in a situation that she herself had created, and she wasn’t going to let any man make love to her simply because he considered it his right to do so. Oh no, Mr Jarrod Stone had pushed her about far too much already, she wasn’t going to marry him too!

  Only his mother was in the dining-room when she came down to breakfast at eight-thirty, the others obviously not back from their ride yet. Brooke accepted the cup of coffee Sarah Stone had poured out for her, sipping the scalding liquid in an effort not to look at the other woman, her embarrassment too acute.

  ‘Have the two of you discussed a wedding date?’ Jarrod’s mother asked softly.

  Brooke’s cheeks flamed. No preliminaries, but straight to the point! ‘Not really. Look, Mrs Stone, I—’

  ‘Call me Sarah, please,’ she invited graciously. ‘And I hope that when you know me better you’ll call me Mother like my other children do.’

  Everything this woman said made her feel more and more guilty for her deceit. Her last words made her feel choked with emotion, never having had anyone she could call mother. And Sarah Stone was exactly the type of mother she would have liked herself, loving and concerned for her children but not interfering.

  ‘Thank you,’ she accepted huskily. ‘But I want you to know that what Angie saw this morning was not as it seemed. Jarrod and I hadn’t—well, we hadn’t—’

  Sarah smiled gently and patted Brooke’s hand reassuringly. ‘I know that, my dear. Jarrod has already explained to me what happened and I think he did the right thing. It wouldn’t have been right to leave you on your own after such a horrible experience. Jarrod did the only thing possible.’

  ‘Jarrod told you?’ Brooke repeated huskily.

  ‘My son is a very forthright person, if he’d been making love to you he would have told me that too.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘You mustn’t mind us, Brooke. We aren’t a family that likes to have secrets, although my eldest son rather surprised us with this engagement.’

  ‘It was all rather sudden,’ Brooke excused.

  ‘So he explained, and the press do have a way of finding out these things when you don’t want them to. Jarrod explained that the engagement wasn’t to be officially announced until your birthday on Tuesday, but as the press had already announced it to the world you decided to go ahead with it now. These newspaper men can be so annoying at times,’ Sarah tutted.

  Her birthday on Tuesday! How on earth had Jarrod known about that? Of course, her file. And he had used that knowledge to his advantage. But then that was probably how he had got to be the successful businessman he was today, by remembering things and using them when the opportunity arose. Well, he was certainly using her
to his greatest advantage, hiding his affair with this phoney engagement.

  ‘Yes,’ she agreed quietly, helping herself to a slice of toast.

  ‘I want you to know that Clifford and I would like to arrange for the wedding to take place from here,’ Sarah told her. ‘I hope you’ll allow us that pleasure.’

  Brooke blushed once more. ‘I—well, I—We haven’t really—’

  Jarrod came in at that moment, tall, lithe and attractive in a black polo-necked jumper and fitted cream trousers. He bent to kiss his mother’s cheek. ‘Good morning, Mother.’ He grinned down mockingly at Brooke before kissing her too, on the lips. ‘Good morning again, my love,’ he drawled, sitting down next to her.

  ‘Good morning,’ she mumbled.

  His mother beamed at the two of them, unaware of the tension between them. ‘I was just explaining to Brooke that your father and I would like the wedding to take place from here, to arrange it all for you both.’

  Jarrod raised one dark eyebrow. ‘You’ve been discussing the wedding?’

  ‘No, I—’

  ‘Not Brooke, no,’ his mother laughed. ‘Just me. I’m so excited about having a wedding in the family at last that I can’t seem to stop talking about it. I wondered if you’d decided on a definite date yet.’

  ‘Not really,’ he sipped his coffee. ‘Next month has been mentioned, but we—’

  ‘Next month!’ his mother gasped. ‘But that’s much too soon. I couldn’t possibly get everything arranged in so short a time, and Brooke will have so much shopping to do. And you can’t possibly live in that apartment of yours, you’ll have to look for a suitable house.’

  ‘Calm down,’ Jarrod laughed. ‘I only said next month had been mentioned, not that it had been decided upon.’

  Brooke’s mouth tightened at the mockery in his eyes for her. Next month had been mentioned, by her to Selina Howard, and he wouldn’t let her forget it.

  Sarah Stone sighed her relief. ‘Stop teasing me, Jarrod. So you haven’t decided when the wedding is to be?’

  ‘Not really.’ He sat back in his chair. ‘We’ve only just got engaged, Mum, I think that’s enough commitment for the time being. Besides, Brooke needs time to adjust to having a family, time to adjust to me.’

  His mother stood up to leave the table. ‘I’ll just go and talk to Cook about dinner.’ She stopped next to Brooke’s chair. ‘I hope you don’t feel that I’m trying to rush you into anything. Jarrod’s right, you need time. I’m sorry.’

  Brook gave a shy smile. ‘You have nothing to apologise for.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  She turned on Jarrod once they were alone. ‘Did you have to do that, embarrass your mother in that way?’

  He looked at her calmly. ‘What would you have had me do, agree to everything she suggested? I thought you said you didn’t want to marry me.’

  ‘I don’t. I wouldn’t marry you under any circumstances.’

  ‘My, my, my,’ murmured Dave from behind them. ‘You’ve only been engaged two days, I think you ought to give Jarrod a little longer than that!’

  Brooke paled even more, the strain she had been living under the last two days coming to the fore. She stood up with a scraping of the chair. ‘Excuse me,’ she muttered before dashing out of the room.

  She didn’t care where she went, all she knew was that she had to get away from Jarrod and the way he kept taunting her. Was he going to punish her for ever?

  She rushed out of the house, answering Angie’s greeting as she came in, her smile vague, before running off in the direction of the woods to the right of the house.

  Finally she stopped running and dropped down into the undergrowth in utter exhaustion. What would Dave think of her statement? What could he think? She had made an absolute fool of herself. But Jarrod would keep goading her, taunting her until she had to retaliate.

  But at other times he could be quite thoughtful, helping her out of a situation when it became too complicated for her to handle. But he hadn’t helped her this time, he had just made things worse.

  She wasn’t really surprised when she heard someone else moving about in the denseness of the wood; obviously Jarrod’s family would pressurise him into coming to look for her. She made no attempt to move, not even looking up when she knew he was standing directly in front of her, his firm muscled thighs clearly outlined in the cream trousers.

  He sank down in the grass beside her. ‘That was a bit stupid, wasn’t it?’ he said softly.

  Brooke was clutching at the long grass as if for support, unnerved by his closeness. Her cheeks were still wet with tears. ‘I couldn’t—couldn’t think what to do. What did—did you tell Dave?’

  Jarrod lay back in the grass, his arms behind his head as he gazed up at the blue sky through the tree tops. ‘I just told him that you were still embarrassed about this morning, that you were so upset about it you refused to marry me.’

  ‘And did he believe you?’

  He turned to look at her. ‘Why shouldn’t he, you were embarrassed about it.’

  ‘But that wasn’t the reason I said I wouldn’t marry you.’

  ‘No,’ he agreed, sitting up to gently touch her cheek. ‘You did that because once again I pushed you too far. I’m sorry.’

  Her eyes widened, her senses reeling at the touch of his hand on her cheek. ‘You’re—you’re sorry?’

  His eyes deepened in colour as his gaze rested on her parted lips. ‘Yes. Brooke …’ he murmured throatily, bending his head to claim her lips. ‘Brooke!’ he gasped, gently lowering her back into the undergrowth, his body pressed urgently to her side.

  She hadn’t been expecting this onslaught, and responded without thought. His mouth was sure and experienced, reducing her to a quivering mass in his arms, his body firm and demanding on hers.

  His mouth left hers to travel down the column of her throat to the hollow between her breasts, her nipples clearly visible through the lime green vest-top she had chosen to wear with matching trousers. His lips evoked a response wherever they touched, soft and caressing and totally in control.

  Brooke’s fingers were entwined in the darkness of his hair, inciting him to further caresses. It was peaceful here, the only noises ones of the birds and the soft rustle of the leaves in the trees. They were in a world apart, a world without time or meaning. And Jarrod was kissing her as if he really enjoyed doing it, drawing a response from her but not demanding one.

  As his lips burnt across her throat she kissed the strong angle of his jawbone, aware of the tangy smell of his aftershave and the slight roughness of his skin. His hands moved with certainty across her waist to trail a path of fire up to her shoulders, smoothing the hollows of her throat with impatient fingers.

  Brooke was aflame with longing, longing for Jarrod’s possession of her. She had never felt this way in any other man’s arms, never responded so totally to the senses. If he chose to take her now she wouldn’t raise a single objection, would give herself up to just being made his.

  He drew back his head, his eyes a deep aroused grey, his own breathing as laboured as her own. ‘I want you—you know that, don’t you?’ His voice was husky, his tone one of passionate intensity.

  ‘Yes.’ She was mesmerised by the look in his eyes.

  ‘Do you mind?’

  ‘Do you?’

  He shook his head in the negative. ‘At the moment I don’t mind a thing, except perhaps that this isn’t exactly the ideal place for this sort of thing.’

  Brooke gave him a dreamy smile, caressing his furrowed brow with great daring. ‘I think it’s just perfect.’

  Jarrod gave a husky chuckle. ‘Someone may come along,’ he pointed out reasonably.

  Her hands were slowly pulling his head back down to her. ‘They won’t,’ she murmured against his lips. ‘They wouldn’t dare.’

  With a groan he took possession of her mouth once again, less gentle now and more demanding. Their hearts beat as one, the rest of their bodies crying out for the same thi
ng. They both knew what they wanted and there was no holding back, on either side.

  Brooke’s hands caressed and touched his muscled back beneath his sweater, his skin firm and smooth, all of him totally male. His lips played with hers until she rose up to meet him, lying on top of him now, she the one doing the kissing.

  Jarrod’s hands moved across her back to the waistband of her trousers, pulling her vest-top free so that he could touch the heated skin beneath. She shivered at his hands upon her body, lifting her head to look at him.

  Even lying beneath her like this he was still the master, arousing her with just the look in his eyes. ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked softly. ‘Changed your mind?’

  She shook her head wordlessly, knowing that she was irrevocably in love with this man. She had known it last night when she had woken up to scream his name. Always in the past she had called for her father, sobbing for him until she had almost made herself ill, but last night she had cried out for Jarrod, for the man who now meant everything to her.

  ‘Then come back here,’ he demanded throatily, once again bending over her to press upon her those soul-destroying kisses that made a mockery of will-power.

  She responded passionately, as she knew she always would in this man’s arms. One of his hands moved to cup her breast and she felt him shudder against her.

  ‘God, you’re naked underneath this top!’ he groaned against her lips.

  ‘I know,’ she answered happily.

  ‘Oh God, Brooke, how do you expect me to have any control with you dressed like this? I can’t—’

  ‘Ssh!’ she silenced him swiftly. ‘Someone’s coming through the woods towards us.’ She could hear the snapping of twigs as whoever it was came closer and closer to them.

  Jarrod swung away from her. ‘Oh, hell!’ he swore angrily, his expression grim. ‘It just has to be Angie or Dave, it just has to be! Only they would dare.’ He was proved correct when a few seconds later Dave emerged out of the trees. ‘What was that you were saying about they wouldn’t dare?’ Jarrod muttered, standing up to brush the leaves off his trousers. He turned to pull her to her feet. ‘My family dare anything, you’ll learn that in time.’