Savage Interlude. Carole Mortimer

He took her elbow to guide her through the open front door of the mansion and into what seemed to be a lot of raised voices, chinking of glasses, and very loud music.

      Everywhere Kate looked there were people, most of them known to her vaguely from James’ parties. The laughter and chatter was overpowering and she felt sure that most of the people here were halfway to being drunk already.

      ‘Damien!’ They both turned at the sound of that husky voice. Diana Hall, the star of a popular television series, came over to greet him. ‘Damien, I’ve been waiting for you to call me,’ she pouted. ‘You said you would.’ Her short black curls bounced provocatively around her ears, her mouth was painted a vivid scarlet.

      Damien raised one dark eyebrow. ‘I did?’

      She giggled. ‘You know you did, the last time we were together. I remember we were—–’

      ‘Diana, do you know Kate Darwood?’ he interrupted her, frowning darkly.

      Blue eyes focused on Kate, darkening with recognition. ‘Is James here this evening?’

      Kate knew that this was a spiteful dig on the other girl’s part, and she knew by the scowl on Damien Savage’s face that the dig had gone home. ‘No,’ she replied softly.

      Those narrowed blue eyes turned on Damien. ‘Have you been doing a little kidnapping of your own, Damien?’ she taunted. ‘I always thought you despised James’ association with a girl young enough to be his daughter.’

      The glitter in those green eyes was the only sign that he was at all angered by the last remark. ‘I’m hardly old enough to be Kate’s father,’ he returned smoothly. ‘Her uncle perhaps, but as that isn’t the way I think of her I don’t think it applies.’

      Diana bit her bottom lip, the bright smile she gave in the next few seconds not quite reaching her narrowed blue eyes. She looked at Kate. ‘Do I take it that James is now a free agent again? Or are you going to hold on to two of the world’s most eligible men?’

      Kate could see by the brightness of her eyes that the other girl had had too much to drink, otherwise she might have lost her temper at her rudeness. As it was she thought Diana Hall would have much to regret in the morning; Damien wasn’t someone she herself would like to anger, and he was certainly angry.

      ‘I’ve never even held one, let alone two,’ she replied evenly.

      ‘Excuse us, Diana,’ Damien cut in abruptly. ‘We haven’t said hello to Matt yet.’

      ‘He’s outside somewhere. I can take you if—–’

      ‘That won’t be necessary,’ he said curtly. ‘We can find our own way.’

      Still guiding Kate by the elbow, he led her through two more rooms equally crowded with people and out on to the patio. It was much cooler out here after the oppression of the smoke inside and Kate heaved a sigh of relief at not being jostled about any more.

      Damien lit a cheroot. ‘I’m sorry about that,’ he said shortly. ‘Diana isn’t usually so bitchy.’

      Kate leant against the wall overlooking the garden, the illumination out here almost as bright as inside. ‘That’s all right. But I think you should just warn me in case any of your other girl-friends decides to throw a tantrum about my being here with you. The next one might get violent.’

      He gave a reluctant smile, his harsh features softening at her sarcasm. ‘She was that obvious?’

      ‘As one of your girl-friends?’ She saw him nod. ‘Very obvious. Do all your women get as possessive about you as she has?’ she asked tauntingly.

      ‘Apparently not, by your attitude towards me.’

      She blushed. ‘I’m not one of your women.’

      ‘Yet,’ he added softly.

      ‘I thought you despised men who chase young girls.’ He couldn’t mistake the contempt in her voice.

      Amazingly he wasn’t angered by her taunt, but laughed softly. ‘I’m thirty-three years of age, that makes me fifteen years older than you, and it doesn’t bother me in the slightest. All it means is that I have the experience to match your youth.’

      ‘Experience in bed, you mean!’ she snapped.

      He nodded. ‘If you like. Does my age bother you?’

      ‘Why should it? I’ve already told you, I’m not interested in you, sexually or otherwise.’

      ‘We’ll see.’ He seemed to lose interest in the subject, much to her chagrin; she would have liked to insult him some more. ‘Actually, talking to Diana gave me an idea. This thing between James and you—is he your father? Is that the link between the two of you?’ he pinpointed her with his eyes.

      Close, but not close enough. ‘No,’ she told him calmly, ‘James isn’t my father.’

      ‘Mm,’ he was broodingly thoughtful. ‘There’s some mystery here. Looking at the two of you together I would swear you’ve never belonged to James. Would I be right?’

      ‘Why should I tell you that?’

      ‘Why not?’ He wasn’t looking at her but searching the garden with narrowed eyes. He turned to face her, his eyes holding her immovable. ‘Your virginity doesn’t interest me,’ he said dryly. ‘I merely wondered how intimate your relationship with James had been.’

      Kate’s mouth twisted at the casualness of his tone. Damien seemed to find it easy to talk of such things, and although she lived in the midst of the permissive society, James protected her from any situation that could become in the least intimate. But he wasn’t here now, she was in this on her own! ‘I don’t really think that’s any of your business,’ she told him stiffly.

      His lean body so close to her was rather unnerving—and she thought him well aware of the fact. ‘Oh, I think it is,’ he returned mildly. ‘I want to know what limit of competition I have.’

      ‘Competition!’ she repeated scathingly. ‘With your conceit I’m surprised you allow for such things.’

      Damien quirked an eyebrow at her. ‘You think me conceited?’

      ‘I don’t think it at all—I know it. Dragging me off whether I wanted to come with you or not appears to me to be the height of conceit.’ She gave him a disgusted look.

      ‘But I already knew you had no intention of coming with me unless I made it impossible for you to refuse. Your affection for James gave me the leverage I needed.’ His eyes taunted her. ‘The first and only time I’ve ever used my supposed privileged position. Let me assure you, I’m not in the habit of using blackmail to get what I want,’ he shrugged. ‘In your case I’m afraid shortage of time made it impossible for me to do anything else.’

      ‘What do you mean?’

      ‘I have tomorrow and part of Monday left in England, then I return to my home in the States. That doesn’t give me a lot of time to get to know you.’

      Kate would have liked to have informed him that she had got to know him as well as she wanted to, but thought better of it. No doubt he would have given her an equally blistering reply. There didn’t seem to be much that would ruffle this cool self-assurance of his, and she felt certain she wouldn’t be able to do it.

      ‘Does it matter?’ she asked casually.

      ‘That I get to know you?’ His eyes deepened with an emotion she didn’t care to analyse but thought she recognised as desire, blatant unhidden desire. ‘Oh, I think so, don’t you?’

      ‘Not at all.’

      ‘Oh, Kate,’ he shook his head, a slight smile to his lips. ‘I’m not that frightening, am I?’ He stilled the nervous movement of her hands, gently lifting one to kiss her palm. ‘Am I?’ he watched her keenly.

      She