The Passionate Lover Read online

  'I may be your guest here, Kyle,' she answered him stiltedly. 'But I'll go to bed when I'm good and ready.'

  His mouth twisted at her stubbornness. 'I thought you might say that.'

  'Then why bother?'

  'Force of habit, I guess,' he shrugged. 'I'm not sure what time I'll be back, so I'll see you in the morning.'

  'Probably.'

  'Shelby, why are you being so difficult?' he sighed. 'I'm only going to see a friend.'

  'I'm not being difficult, Kyle,' her tone was scornful. 'It was just that you said you were tired.'

  'And now I have to go out and see Sylvia, all right!'

  'Fine,' she answered carelessly.

  'Oh hell!' he swore viciously before slamming out of the house, the truck roaring away from the house seconds later.

  Shelby's breath left her in a pent-up sigh. It promised to be a long night for her, too, if Kyle did but know it. When he had mentioned going to see the other woman she had wondered at her feelings of anger, but as they continued to talk the reason for her almost violent emotions had become clear to her. She had fallen in love with Kyle Whitney!

  And it wasn't the hesitant, unsure love she had thought she felt for Kenny, this was the sort of love she had never known before, not even for Gavin who she had cared about so much, the sort of love where she wouldn't hesitate to do anything Kyle asked of her, even become his mistress for the short time he wanted her if he asked her to.

  But he wouldn't ask her to, because no matter what he said to the contrary he already had a mistress in Sylvia Judd. As Shelby switched off the main light and made her way slowly up the stairs to her room she wondered if he would even come back to the ranch tonight or stay in town with the other woman.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Her head ached when she woke up the next morning, and she knew that part of the reason for that was that although she had tried to sleep she had stayed half-awake listening for the sound of Kyle's return. It had been after one when she heard the truck outside, and that didn't cheer her at all, Kyle having been with Sylvia Judd for over three hours.

  He was out on the ranch when she went down to breakfast, although Helen looked more cheerful this morning, her early night obviously having the desired effect.

  'I'm preparing a special dinner for tonight,' she confided in Shelby as they ate breakfast together. 'After all, Kenny and Wendy may not have done this the way we would have wished, but it's done now so we might all as well accept it as fact.'

  Shelby smiled, knowing the other woman was trying to probe her feelings about the unexpected marriage. 'I'll help you get the food ready, if you like,' she offered, knowing that it cost her nothing to do so and that it set this woman's mind at rest.

  'Would you?' Helen instantly brightened. 'When I mentioned it to Kyle earlier he didn't think it was a very good idea at all,' she added worriedly.

  'He'll be all right at the time.' Shelby's smile had faded just at the mention of his name.

  It was late afternoon when Kenny and Wendy arrived, Shelby in the lounge resting her ankle after helping Helen all morning, Kyle having been out checking on the ranch all day, not even returning for lunch.

  Shelby was far from looking forward to this meeting with the other couple, although she was grateful that no one was going to be a witness to it, and as it had to be faced she intended to be graceful about it.

  The young couple looked cold when they came in from the icy wind outside, Kenny not seeing Shelby as he moved to the drinks tray to pour a warming brandy for Wendy and himself. But Wendy saw Shelby almost instantly, freezing in the doorway, her pretty young face flushing guiltily. Although aged twenty the other woman always looked younger, small and delicate, her hair black and silky about her elfin features. She looked as flushed and beautiful as any new bride should at the moment, although the wary look persisted in her eyes, and she nodded her head in Shelby's direction as Kenny handed her the glass of brandy.

  He turned expectantly, his own expression becoming wary too now, his shoulders straightening defensively. And he had the blackest eye Shelby had ever seen! It ranged in colour from a sickly yellow, through to purple, and finally black. And it looked as if it had been very painful to suffer as well as to receive.

  Shelby was standing too now, slender and beautiful in fitted denims and a loose silk top. 'I believe congratulations are in order,' she drawled.

  Wendy looked more uncomfortable then ever, although Kenny seemed unperturbed by the situation. 'Thanks,' he accepted lightly. 'Can I get you a brandy too?'

  'Why not?' she shrugged. 'We can drink a toast to your happiness then.'

  'Shelby—'

  'Don't worry,' she softly assured the younger woman at her pained cry. 'I'm not about to make a scene.'

  'Thank God for that,' Kenny handed her the brandy before slumping down into one of the armchairs. 'I think we have enough problems with Kyle and Wendy's father without having to worry about you too.' His handsome face twisted with displeasure at the difficulties he knew there were to come.

  Looking at him now Shelby wondered how she could possibly have been taken in by him, even despite the unfailing charm he had always shown her with his boyish good looks. Because beneath that, and now perfectly visible to her, was a young and selfish boy who cared about no one's feelings but his own.

  'I believe a father usually expects to be present at his daughter's wedding,' she reproved.

  Wendy moved to sit on the arm of her new husband's chair. 'Is Daddy very angry?'

  Shelby gave her a sympathetic smile. 'According to Kyle he's furious.'

  'Oh,' the other woman said weakly.

  'He'll be fine, don't worry,' Kenny assured her airily, drinking his brandy with quiet confidence.

  'And your mother?' Shelby reminded quietly. 'Will she also be fine?'

  He shot her a resentful glare, his eyes hard. 'My mother only wants me to be happy,' he told her arrogantly. 'And she knows I'll be that with Wendy,' he added callously.

  She refused to be hurt that he could dismiss their own expected wedding so easily, having learnt a lot of things about Kenny the last week that she didn't like, the least of which was his selfishness. 'I'm sure you will,' she agreed abruptly. 'Although I think your mother would like to see you now, she's been very worried.'

  'I suppose so,' he reluctantly unfolded his lean length and stood up.

  'And Kenny,' she waited until he turned back to her. 'I want to talk to you later—alone.'

  'What about?' he challenged.

  She met his insolent gaze unflinchingly. 'I believe you know what about.'

  'No,' he dismissed.

  'Kenny—'

  'Stay out of this, Wendy,' he ordered abruptly. 'This is between Shelby and me.'

  'But—'

  'And I don't think we have anything to talk about,' he deliberately interrupted his wife a second time as he spoke to Shelby.

  Her eyes had hardened to icy green chips. 'I said we could talk alone, Kenny,' she told him with soft determination. 'But I believe we can discuss this just as easily in front of Kyle and Wendy. It looks as if you've already talked several things over with your cousin already.' Her gaze lingered with deliberation on his black eye.

  His face flushed angrily. 'Okay, we'll talk later,' he snarled. 'Although it won't change a thing, I'm married to Wendy now,' he warned.

  His conceit—and insensitivity—in thinking that was what she wanted to talk to him about made her burn with anger. 'It might interest you to know that I wouldn't have you gift-wrapped now,' she snapped, angered further by his disbelieving expression at her claim. 'I find your cousin to be infinitely more charming and honest,' she bit out.

  Kenny looked startled. 'Kyle?' he looked at her dazedly. 'You mean you and he—'

  'I mean nothing of the sort,' she now regretted her angry outburst, knowing she had left herself and Kyle open to speculation. And he wasn't going to like that one bit! 'It's just that I found during our time at the cabin together that Kyle wasn't q
uite the despot I thought him to be.'

  Kenny's insolent gaze raked over her assessingly. 'I'll just bet you did.'

  Her face flushed at his sarcasm. 'And just what is that supposed to mean?'

  'Nothing,' his mouth was twisted with mockery. 'Although maybe I understand the reason I got this a little better now.' He touched his black eye ruefully.

  Shelby stiffened, wishing she hadn't even mentioned Kyle. 'I can assure you your cousin's actions had nothing to do with me.'

  'Didn't they?' Kenny challenged derisively. 'Come on, Wendy, we'll go and talk to my mother. I think I'm looking forward to our little chat now, Shelby,' he taunted before following his wife from the room.

  She sat down abruptly, wondering what she had done now. If only Kenny hadn't been so sure she still wanted to marry him none of this would have happened! But she doubted Kyle would accept that as a good excuse for needlessly involving him in her argument with Kenny.

  The newlyweds left to visit Wendy's father after speaking to Helen, not returning to the ranch for over an hour, although Wendy didn't look too happy when they did get back, Obviously Ben Seymore wasn't willing to forgive and forget just yet.

  For Shelby dinner was an ordeal, Helen making every effort to pretend that everything was normal, and Kyle glowering disapprovingly. Wendy was still very subdued, only Kenny seemed his usual effervescent self.

  'I take it Wendy and I can stay here until Ben cools down?' he prompted Kyle.

  Grey eyes hardened. 'If he ever does.'

  'Of course he will,' Kenny dismissed confidently. 'Wendy is his only child.'

  'Yes,' Kyle grated. 'It would seem you have married yourself an heiress.'

  Wendy giggled at the description. 'I would hardly describe myself as that, Kyle, Daddy's ranch isn't nearly as big as this one.'

  He smiled at her, a gentle smile he would normally reserve for a child. 'Nevertheless, it will all be yours one day,' he pointed out softly.

  She looked disconcerted. 'I suppose it will. How lucky that I'll have Kenny to run it.'

  'How lucky,' Kyle drawled, giving his cousin a hard-eyed stare.

  Shelby only half-listened to the conversation, finding none of it to be any of her business now that she was no longer going to marry Kenny. She just wanted to get through what time she had left here and then go. She almost fell off her chair when she heard Kenny's next words.

  'Just what did you do to Shelby during those two days at the cabin to get her to have such a change of opinion about you, Kyle?' he asked with feigned innocence.

  Guilty colour washed over her cheeks as Kyle gave her a narrow-eyed glare. 'I told you earlier, Kenny,' she said agitatedly. 'Kyle just took very good care of me.'

  'You didn't say that at all,' he mocked. 'As I remember it you said he was charming and honest.'

  'So?'

  'So I've never known Kyle to be charming to any woman unless he was after a conquest.' He looked challengingly at his cousin. 'How did you do, Kyle?'

  His mother gasped at his crudity. 'Kenny—'

  'Stay out of this, Helen,' Kyle bit out between clenched teeth, the icy control in his eyes a warning most people would be wise to heed. 'I did the job you should have been doing, Kenny, I looked after your fiancée.'

  'Ah, but how did you "look after" her?' the younger man persisted mockingly.

  Kyle drew in a controlling breath, his jaw tight. 'Unless you want your other eye blacked I would advise you to watch what you say or imply about either Shelby or myself.' , 'This gets more interesting by the moment,' Kenny was unperturbed by the fury he had aroused. 'After being alone together for only two days—and nights,' he added softly, 'you leap to each other's defence at the slightest provocation.'

  'Kenny, I think you've said enough,' his mother said firmly. 'If you would all like to go through to the lounge I'll bring through the coffee,' she bravely tried to change the subject to something less inflammatory.

  'Not for me, thanks,' Kyle stood up abruptly. 'I have some paperwork to catch up with in my study.'

  Shelby watched him go with dismay in her eyes. He was furious, and he had every right to be!

  'You'll push him too far one of these days, Kenny,' Helen was warning her son worriedly. 'And then what will we do?'

  'Do?' he drawled unconcernedly. 'Kyle doesn't own me any more, Mother,' he put his arm about Wendy's slender shoulders, his expression one of defiance.

  Shelby had the feeling it was time she and Kenny talked now, and then perhaps he could clear up all the things that seemed to be puzzling her. She certainly wanted some answers from someone. 'Could we have that talk now, Kenny?' she suggested stiltedly.

  'Why not?' he grinned. 'It promises to be more interesting than I could possibly have imagined. Stay and help Mother with the coffee, darling,' he instructed his wife. 'Shelby and I shouldn't be long.'

  'Do you always treat her so arrogantly?' Shelby snapped once they were alone in the lounge.

  He shrugged, sprawled in one of the armchairs. 'It doesn't hurt to have an obedient wife.'

  'I wouldn't have been one!'

  'Oh I know that,' he drawled. 'But the compensations made that unimportant.'

  'And we both know what compensations they were, don't we?' she bit out resentfully.

  Kenny gave a slow smile. 'Money,' he related without regret.

  'Exactly,' she looked at him with darkly accusing eyes. 'That was the reason you just went off and left me to my own devices in that blizzard, wasn't it?'

  'Well you have to admit that what you told me had to come as a shock.'

  'A surprise, perhaps,' she conceded. 'But I don't see why it should matter to you so much when you own half this ranch,' she gave him a puzzled look.

  Kenny looked at her incredulously for several minutes, and then he gave a shout of derisive laughter. 'You mean you still don't know the truth about that? I felt sure Kyle would have told you by now.'

  She frowned her puzzlement, thinking over the things Kyle had said about his cousin, none of them enlightening her about the reason for Kenny's behaviour. 'Told me what?' she prompted.

  'That the Double K belongs completely to Kyle, that my mother and I are just the poor relations he allows to live here,' he revealed hardly.

  Shelby swallowed hard, so many things being explained if that were true. 'But the name Double K…?'

  'Kyle's parents,' Kenny explained abruptly. 'The ranch was passed down from them to him.'

  'Oh God,' she suddenly felt sick. 'Your mother told me you were always looking for ways to escape from here, I was one of them, wasn't I?'

  His eyes narrowed to a stormy blue, his face hard with displeasure. 'Just what else has my mother told you while I've been away?' he rasped.

  'She talked to me about your father,' Shelby answered vaguely, still untangling the muddle in her own mind. 'About how you were still a baby when he ran off with Katherine.'

  'Really?' he grated, looking furiously angry. 'She had no right to tell you any of that.'

  'She's been worried—'

  'Because I did the same thing?' he scorned unpleasantly. 'There was no other way I could get Wendy's father to agree to our marriage.'

  'But I thought the two of you had been going out together for years before you came to London?'

  'We had,' he bit out. 'But suddenly Ben decided it would be better if Wendy finished her education before thinking of a serious relationship. And that could have taken anything up to another five years!'

  'And you couldn't wait that long!'

  'No,' he sat forward. 'I've lived and worked on this ranch all my life, knowing it was only so because of first Kyle's father's charity and then Kyle's himself,' his tone was vehement. 'I'm not afraid of hard work, and at least ranch work is something I know, but I don't intend to go on working here for ever, knowing that eventually it will be Kyle's offspring that inherit it all. In other words, I'm sick of their charity!'

  'I'm sure Kyle has never thought of it as such—'

  'There y
ou go again, defending him,' Kenny derided harshly. 'But you aren't the one who's had to live here all these years knowing you were just tolerated, a family obligation.'

  'I'm sure your mother never looked at it that way.'

  'My mother!' he rasped. 'She thinks that everything Kyle does is wonderful. I just want to get away.'

  'So you decided to marry me,' she said dully. 'The rich little widow.'

  His mouth twisted. 'Only you weren't so rich, were you?' he dismissed callously.

  'As a widow I am!'

  'But not as my wife!'

  How ironic that she had unwittingly fallen into the trap that she and Gavin had feared for her, that some man, after Gavin had died, would want to marry her for her money and not for herself at all. It had turned out to be just that way with Kenny.

  Two years after she and Gavin had been married they had been told that he had a terminal illness. It had been a terrible blow to them both. Gavin had only been forty-four then, far too young to die, and Shelby had been desolate at the thought of losing the man she loved so deeply. But once the initial shock had worn off they had begun to discuss and plan their future, what little there was of it.

  They had shocked London society when they first married, Gavin O'Neal the business tycoon marrying the young girl who had been his own sister's manicurist. She had been twenty-one to his forty-two then, and with both her parents dead and no money of her own everyone had believed her to be a fortune hunter. It hadn't been true, of course, she would have married Gavin if he didn't have a penny, had felt cherished and loved by him, a feeling she hadn't known since her happy childhood with her parents. But Gavin's family had gone along with the general opinion that she could only have married him for his money, and it was only Gavin's steely determination that his family and friends should accept her that had made her welcome in their homes.

  But the two of them hadn't cared or worried about other people's opinions of their marriage, had enjoyed a quietly ecstatic two years together before they were told of his illness, their time together after that becoming even more precious to them.